Morphometry and growth of sea pen species from dense habitats in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, eastern Canada

We examined four species of sea pen (Anthoptilum grandiflorum, Halipteris finmarchica, Pennatula aculeata and Pennatula grandis) collected from the Gulf of St. Lawrence and mouth of the Laurentian Channel, eastern Canada. An exponential length–weight relationship was found for all four species, where growth in weight was progressively greater than growth in length with increasing colony size. Halipteris finmarchica, P. grandis and P. aculeata presented the better allometric fits, explaining over 80% of the variance. In addition, a count of growth increments visible in transverse sections in 86 A. grandiflorum and 80 P. aculeata samples was made. Presumed ages ranged between 5 and 28 years for A. grandiflorum and 2 and 21 years for P. aculeata. Radiocarbon assays were inconclusive and could not be used to confirm these ages; further age validation is required. Radial growth of the rod is slow during the first years, increasing at intermediate sizes of the colony and slowing down again for large colonies. Similar results were obtained from the relationship between colony length and number of growth increments where a logistic model was the best fit to the data. On average Spearman’s rank correlations showed 11% of shared variance between sea pen length or weight and environmental variables. Bottom temperature and salinity, depth and summer primary production were significantly correlated to sea pen size for most species.En prensa1,48

Revealing the Appetite of the Marine Aquarium Fish Trade: The Volume and Biodiversity of Fish Imported into the United States

The aquarium trade and other wildlife consumers are at a crossroads forced by threats from global climate change and other anthropogenic stressors that have weakened coastal ecosystems. While the wildlife trade may put additional stress on coral reefs, it brings income into impoverished parts of the world and may stimulate interest in marine conservation. To better understand the influence of the trade, we must first be able to quantify coral reef fauna moving through it. Herein, we discuss the lack of a data system for monitoring the wildlife aquarium trade and analyze problems that arise when trying to monitor the trade using a system not specifically designed for this purpose. To do this, we examined an entire year of import records of marine tropical fish entering the United States in detail, and discuss the relationship between trade volume, biodiversity and introduction of non-native marine fishes. Our analyses showed that biodiversity levels are higher than previous estimates. Additionally, more than half of government importation forms have numerical or other reporting discrepancies resulting in the overestimation of trade volumes by 27%. While some commonly imported species have been introduced into the coastal waters of the USA (as expected), we also found that some uncommon species in the trade have also been introduced. This is the first study of aquarium trade imports to compare commercial invoices to government forms and provides a means to, routinely and in real time, examine the biodiversity of the trade in coral reef wildlife species

Coxiella burnetii, the Agent of Q Fever, Replicates within Trophoblasts and Induces a Unique Transcriptional Response

Q fever is a zoonosis caused by Coxiella burnetii, an obligate intracellular bacterium typically found in myeloid cells. The infection is a source of severe obstetrical complications in humans and cattle and can undergo chronic evolution in a minority of pregnant women. Because C. burnetii is found in the placentas of aborted fetuses, we investigated the possibility that it could infect trophoblasts. Here, we show that C. burnetii infected and replicated in BeWo trophoblasts within phagolysosomes. Using pangenomic microarrays, we found that C. burnetii induced a specific transcriptomic program. This program was associated with the modulation of inflammatory responses that were shared with inflammatory agonists, such as TNF, and more specific responses involving genes related to pregnancy development, including EGR-1 and NDGR1. In addition, C. burnetii stimulated gene networks organized around the IL-6 and IL-13 pathways, which both modulate STAT3. Taken together, these results revealed that trophoblasts represent a protective niche for C. burnetii. The activation program induced by C. burnetii in trophoblasts may allow bacterial replication but seems unable to interfere with the development of normal pregnancy. Such pathophysiologocal processes should require the activation of immune placental cells associated with trophoblasts