Molecular richness and biotechnological potential of bacteria cultured from Irciniidae sponges in the north-east Atlantic

Several bioactive compounds originally isolated from marine sponges have been later ascribed or suggested to be synthesized by their symbionts. The cultivation of sponge-associated bacteria provides one possible route to the discovery of these metabolites. Here, we determine the bacterial richness cultured from two irciniid sponge species, Sarcotragus spinosulus and Ircinia variabilis, and ascertain their biotechnological potential. A total of 279 isolates were identified from 13 sponge specimens. These were classified into 17 genera - with Pseudovibrio, Ruegeria and Vibrio as the most dominant - and 3 to 10 putatively new bacterial species. While 16S rRNA gene sequencing identified 29 bacterial phylotypes at the 'species' level (97% sequence similarity), whole-genome BOX-PCR fingerprinting uncovered 155 genotypes, unveiling patterns of specimen-dependent occurrence of prevailing bacterial genomes across sponge individuals. Among the BOX-PCR genotypes recovered, 34% were active against clinically relevant strains, with Vibrio isolates producing the most active antagonistic effect. Several Pseudovibrio genotypes showed the presence of polyketide synthase (PKS) genes, and these were for the first time detected in isolates of the genus Aquimarina (Bacteroidetes). Our results highlight great biotechnological potential and interest for the Irciniidae sponge family and their diversified bacterial genomes.Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) [PTDC/MAR/101431/2008]; FCT [SFRH/BD/60873/2009, SFRH/BPD/62946/2009

Journeys from quantum optics to quantum technology

Sir Peter Knight is a pioneer in quantum optics which has now grown to an important branch of modern physics to study the foundations and applications of quantum physics. He is leading an effort to develop new technologies from quantum mechanics. In this collection of essays, we recall the time we were working with him as a postdoc or a PhD student and look at how the time with him has influenced our research

Towards a decade of synergising corpus linguistics and critical discourse analysis: A meta-analysis

The incorporation of corpus linguistics (CL) methods within critical discourse analysis (CDA) has increasingly gathered momentum over the last decade. This paper surveys studies using this triangulated framework, drawing on a database of 121 studies collected from three citation indexes: Social Sciences Citation Index, Arts and Humanities Citation Index, and Scopus. It presents a meta-analysis of these studies focussing on four variables, namely their chronological development, the domains of engagement, the issues that have been topicalised, and the area/regional coverage of the studies. In particular, the paper accounts for the factors that have contributed to the popularity of corpus-based CDA in the last decade as an approach to discourse analysis, provides insights into the evolution of this eclectic approach, and anticipates the future of the framework by offering suggestions. The paper concludes that corpus-based CDA presents both discourse analysts and corpus linguists with a robust methodology to tackle research questions bordering on discursive reflections of social issues and to identify new sites of public discourse for systematic analysis

The Herschel Multi-Tiered Extragalactic Survey: source extraction and cross-identifications in confusion-dominated SPIRE images

We present the cross-identification and source photometry techniques used to process Herschel SPIRE imaging taken as part of the Herschel Multi-Tiered Extragalactic Survey (HerMES). Cross-identifications are performed in map-space so as to minimize source-blending effects. We make use of a combination of linear inversion and model selection techniques to produce reliable cross-identification catalogues based on Spitzer MIPS 24-μm source positions. Testing on simulations and real Herschel observations shows that this approach gives robust results for even the faintest sources (S250∼ 10 mJy). We apply our new technique to HerMES SPIRE observations taken as part of the science demonstration phase of Herschel. For our real SPIRE observations, we show that, for bright unconfused sources, our flux density estimates are in good agreement with those produced via more traditional point source detection methods (SUSSEXtractor) by Smith et al. When compared to the measured number density of sources in the SPIRE bands, we show that our method allows the recovery of a larger fraction of faint sources than these traditional methods. However, this completeness is heavily dependent on the relative depth of the existing 24-μm catalogues and SPIRE imaging. Using our deepest multiwavelength data set in the GOODS-N, we estimate that the use of shallow 24-μm catalogues in our other fields introduces an incompleteness at faint levels of between 20–40 per cent at 250 μm.Peer reviewedSubmitted Versio