A genomic catalog of Earth’s microbiomes

The reconstruction of bacterial and archaeal genomes from shotgun metagenomes has enabled insights into the ecology and evolution of environmental and host-associated microbiomes. Here we applied this approach to >10,000 metagenomes collected from diverse habitats covering all of Earth’s continents and oceans, including metagenomes from human and animal hosts, engineered environments, and natural and agricultural soils, to capture extant microbial, metabolic and functional potential. This comprehensive catalog includes 52,515 metagenome-assembled genomes representing 12,556 novel candidate species-level operational taxonomic units spanning 135 phyla. The catalog expands the known phylogenetic diversity of bacteria and archaea by 44% and is broadly available for streamlined comparative analyses, interactive exploration, metabolic modeling and bulk download. We demonstrate the utility of this collection for understanding secondary-metabolite biosynthetic potential and for resolving thousands of new host linkages to uncultivated viruses. This resource underscores the value of genome-centric approaches for revealing genomic properties of uncultivated microorganisms that affect ecosystem processes

Denomi/Nation: Envisioning Possibilities of Reconstructing an Alternative Zimbabwe in Muzorewa’s Rise Up and Walk

Political developments in Zimbabwe in the new millennium have per force called for a re-look at the very concepts that inform the bedrock of nationhood and belonging to the nation state. They call for questions that interrogate the ways in which certain memories and processes have been privileged as constitutive of the elements that gave birth to the Zimbabwean nation. The political whirlwind that became acutely defined between 1997 and 2009 demands that several modes of remembering Zimbabwean nationhood be allowed to contest and be interpreted in different ways in an effort to envisiona better Zimbabwe. The point of departure in such a project is to view nations as products of collective memory that come into being through narrative

Effect of growth substrate, method of fermentation, and nitrogen source on lignocellulose-degrading enzymes production by white-rot basidiomycetes.

The exploration of seven physiologically different white rot fungi potential to produce cellulase, xylanase, laccase, and manganese peroxidase (MnP) showed that the enzyme yield and their ratio in enzyme preparations significantly depends on the fungus species, lignocellulosic growth substrate, and cultivation method. The fruit residues were appropriate growth substrates for the production of hydrolytic enzymes and laccase. The highest endoglucanase (111 U ml(-1)) and xylanase (135 U ml(-1)) activities were revealed in submerged fermentation (SF) of banana peels by Pycnoporus coccineus. In the same cultivation conditions Cerrena maxima accumulated the highest level of laccase activity (7,620 U l(-1)). The lignified materials (wheat straw and tree leaves) appeared to be appropriate for the MnP secretion by majority basidiomycetes. With few exceptions, SF favored to hydrolases and laccase production by fungi tested whereas SSF was appropriate for the MnP accumulation. Thus, the Coriolopsis polyzona hydrolases activity increased more than threefold, while laccase yield increased 15-fold when tree leaves were undergone to SF instead SSF. The supplementation of nitrogen to the control medium seemed to have a negative effect on all enzyme production in SSF of wheat straw and tree leaves by Pleurotus ostreatus. In SF peptone and ammonium containing salts significantly increased C. polyzona and Trametes versicolor hydrolases and laccase yields. However, in most cases the supplementation of media with additional nitrogen lowered the fungi specific enzyme activities. Especially strong repression of T. versicolor MnP production was revealed.Comparative StudyJournal ArticleResearch Support, Non-U.S. Gov'tinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Masculinities and femininities in Zimbabwean autobiographies of political struggle: the case of Edgar Tekere and Fay Chung

Because masculinities and femininities are socially and culturally constructed, they often play significant roles in constructing identities and distinguishing one another. Femininities and masculinities therefore play a key role in nation-building and in the sustenance of national identities. In this article I explore, through the autobiographies of two luminaries of Zimbabwe’s liberation war, how individual politicians configure their own gender identities and consequently the masculine and feminine identities of others. I posit that the autobiographical mode allows for intimate gendering of the liberation discourse. I also argue that Tekere celebrates the heroic masculine self, preferring military femininities to domestic ones. He privileges his own masculinity while “feminising†Robert Mugabe. Chung debunks the perceived manliness of political struggle and its representations by hailing the participation of women in the struggle for liberation. Her narration of their femininity is in relation to the nation and is structured around the struggle for national liberation, female emancipation and nation-building. Typical of female life-writing, Chung exhibits a relational sense of identity in which the autonomous self is subordinate to or subsumed in the collective. Hers becomes a projection and celebration of heroic femininities. I conclude this article by asserting that masculine and feminine identities in Zimbabwe’s political discourse remain bound up with the historical processes of colonial and nationalist liberation struggles