The chlorophyll seasonal dynamics in the Black Sea as inferred from Biogeochemical-Argo floats

Biogeochemical-Argo (BGC-Argo) floats offer the opportunity to investigate the spatial and temporal dynamics of chlorophyll a (Chla) profiles. In the Black Sea, the unusual abundance of colored dissolved organic matter (CDOM) and the absence of oxygen below ∼80-100m require a revision of the classic formulation used to link the fluorescence signal and the algal chlorophyll concentration (e.g. Xing et al., 2017). Indeed, the very high content of CDOM in the basin is thought to be responsible for the apparent increase of Chla concentrations at depth, where it should be zero due to the absence of light. Here, the classic formulation to link fluorescence and Chla is revised based on a reference Chla dataset sampled during a scientific cruise onboard RV Akademik and analysed with High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC). Then, using the established equation to remove the contribution of CDOM to the fluorescence signal, we estimated the Chla profiles from 4 BGC-Argo floats during the period 2014-2017. All Chla profiles were thus highly quality controlled by using the Argo documentation (Schmechtig et al., 2015). Especially, we removed bad data (e.g. spikes, outliers) and we corrected the Non-Photochemical Quenching effect, a photoprotective mechanism resulting in a decrease in the fluorescence signal at the surface. The Chla profiles are categorized based on fitting algorithms (e.g. sigmoid, exponential, gaussian) and empirical criteria. They display a large variety of shapes across the seasons (e.g. homogeneity in the mixed layer, subsurface maximum, double peaks below the surface, etc.) with roughly homogeneous profiles dominating between November and February while subsurface maxima are present during the rest of the year, with in summer a clearly-marked deep chlorophyll maximum (DCM). We then investigate the formation mechanism of DCMs based on the hysteresis hypothesis for the temperate ocean proposed by Navarro et al., (2013). For this, we looked at the correlation between the position of DCMs and the potential density anomaly of the mixed layer when it is maximum in winter, usually between February and March. We show that DCMs are highly correlated with the potential density anomaly of the previous winter mixed layer where a winter bloom initiated while the correlation with the 10% and 1% light levels is poor. This is in agreement with the hysteresis hypothesis that assumes that in regions where a bloom forms in late winter/early spring, this bloom remains established at a fixed density (i.e. the density of the mixed layer when it is maximum) until the end of summer acting as a barrier for the diffusion of nutrients from below and preventing the occurrence of deeper blooms due to a shading effect. This bloom is finally progressively eroded in autumn, when the depth of the mixed layer increases again

Effect of cyclosporine A on the response of pigs to experimental rotavirus and coronavirus T.G.E. infections

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INHIBITION OF mRNA export and dimerization of interferon regulatory factor 3 by Theiler's virus leader protein

Theiler's murine encephalomyelitis virus (TMEV or Theiler's virus) is a neurotropic picornavirus that can persist lifelong in the central nervous system of infected mice, causing a chronic inflammatory demyelinating disease. The leader (L) protein of the virus is an important determinant of viral persistence and has been shown to inhibit transcription of type I interferon (IFN) genes and to cause nucleocytoplasmic redistribution of host proteins. In this study, it was shown that expression of the L protein shuts off synthesis of the reporter proteins green fluorescent protein and firefly luciferase, suggesting that it induces a global shut-off of host protein expression. The L protein did not inhibit transcription or translation of the reporter genes, but blocked cellular mRNA export from the nucleus. This activity correlated with the phosphorylation of nucleoporin 98 (Nup98), an essential component of the nuclear pore complex. In contrast, the data confirmed that the L protein inhibited IFN expression at the transcriptional level, and showed that transcription of other chemokine or cytokine genes was affected by the L protein. This transcriptional inhibition correlated with inhibition of interferon regulatory factor 3 (IRF-3) dimerization. Whether inhibition of IRF-3 dimerization and dysfunction of the nuclear pore complex are related phenomena remains an open question. In vivo, IFN antagonism appears to be an important role of the L protein early in infection, as a virus bearing a mutation in the zinc finger of the L protein replicated as efficiently as the wild-type virus in type I IFN receptor-deficient mice, but had impaired fitness in IFN-competent mice