Geogenic factors as drivers of microbial community diversity in soils overlying polymetallic deposits

This study shows that the geogenic factors landform, lithology, and underlying mineral deposits (expressed by elevated metal concentrations in overlying soils) are key drivers of microbial community diversity in naturally metal-rich Australian soils with different land uses, i.e., agriculture versus natural bushland. One hundred sixty-eight soil samples were obtained from two metal-rich provinces in Australia, i.e., the Fifield Au-Pt field (New South Wales) and the Hillside Cu-Au-U rare-earth-element (REE) deposit (South Australia). Soils were analyzed using three-domain multiplex terminal-restriction-fragment-length-polymorphism (M-TRFLP) and PhyloChip microarrays. Geogenic factors were determined using field-mapping techniques and analyses of >50 geochemical parameters. At Fifield, microbial communities differed significantly with geogenic factors and equally with land use (P 0.2 m) differed significantly with lithology and mineral deposit (P < 0.05). Across both sites, elevated metal contents in soils overlying mineral deposits were selective for a range of bacterial taxa, most importantly Acidobacteria, Bacilli, Betaproteobacteria, and Epsilonproteobacteria. In conclusion, long-term geogenic factors can be just as important as land use in determining soil microbial community diversity

The impact of traditional use on vultures in South Africa

Use of vultures is an important component of traditional medicine, particularly in South Africa and there is evidence to suggest that traditional use is at least partly responsible for the rapid decline of vulture populations in this country. Until very recently, little information on the extent of the trade in animal parts, particularly vultures, for traditional medicine was available. The secretive and illegal nature of vulture use makes it extremely difficult to obtain reliable data on amounts and turnovers of species traded, which is essential to assess potential impacts on species populations.Research confirms that vultures are used in the traditional medicine industry for a range of purposes, but are believed to be most effective for providing clairvoyant powers, foresight and increased intelligence. The main drivers of demand for these uses are betting and gambling, for improved business success, and intelligence in school children. Vulture is also prescribed by traditional healers for various ailments, including headaches.It is estimated that 160 vultures are sold per annum in eastern South Africa, with some 59,000 consumption events of vulture pieces. The total annual value of sales of vultures to end consumers in eastern South Africa (excluding the costs of vultures as input costs) is estimated at R1,2 million ($US 120k). Various species of vulture are used for traditional medicine; there is no distinct species preference. Vultures traded in the eastern South African markets are harvested by vulture hunters from a range of formally protected and unprotected natural areas in KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape, Lesotho and southern Mozambique. They are killed using shotguns, poisons or traps. Poisoning is the most destructive and widely used method of harvesting as large numbers of vultures are usually killed in one poisoning event. An estimated 1,250 vulture traders, hunters and traditional healers in eastern South Africa are involved in the vulture trade.With small vulture populations and poor breeding success, the current trade in vultures is not sustainable at the present harvest levels. The implication for people using or trading in vultures is that the benefits currently enjoyed will not be available in 15 to 30 years time

Consensus guidelines for the use and interpretation of angiogenesis assays

The formation of new blood vessels, or angiogenesis, is a complex process that plays important roles in growth and development, tissue and organ regeneration, as well as numerous pathological conditions. Angiogenesis undergoes multiple discrete steps that can be individually evaluated and quantified by a large number of bioassays. These independent assessments hold advantages but also have limitations. This article describes in vivo, ex vivo, and in vitro bioassays that are available for the evaluation of angiogenesis and highlights critical aspects that are relevant for their execution and proper interpretation. As such, this collaborative work is the first edition of consensus guidelines on angiogenesis bioassays to serve for current and future reference

Large expert-curated database for benchmarking document similarity detection in biomedical literature search

Document recommendation systems for locating relevant literature have mostly relied on methods developed a decade ago. This is largely due to the lack of a large offline gold-standard benchmark of relevant documents that cover a variety of research fields such that newly developed literature search techniques can be compared, improved and translated into practice. To overcome this bottleneck, we have established the RElevant LIterature SearcH consortium consisting of more than 1500 scientists from 84 countries, who have collectively annotated the relevance of over 180 000 PubMed-listed articles with regard to their respective seed (input) article/s. The majority of annotations were contributed by highly experienced, original authors of the seed articles. The collected data cover 76% of all unique PubMed Medical Subject Headings descriptors. No systematic biases were observed across different experience levels, research fields or time spent on annotations. More importantly, annotations of the same document pairs contributed by different scientists were highly concordant. We further show that the three representative baseline methods used to generate recommended articles for evaluation (Okapi Best Matching 25, Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency and PubMed Related Articles) had similar overall performances. Additionally, we found that these methods each tend to produce distinct collections of recommended articles, suggesting that a hybrid method may be required to completely capture all relevant articles. The established database server located at https://relishdb.ict.griffith.edu.au is freely available for the downloading of annotation data and the blind testing of new methods. We expect that this benchmark will be useful for stimulating the development of new powerful techniques for title and title/abstract-based search engines for relevant articles in biomedical research.Peer reviewe

The effect of bacteria on the sensitivity of microalgae to copper in laboratory bioassays

Although single-species laboratory toxicity tests with microalgae are sensitive and highly reproducible, they lack environmental realism. Interactions between algae and their associated bacteria, either in the plankton or in biofilms, may alter algal sensitivity to contaminants, which are not mimicked in laboratory toxicity tests. This study investigated the effects of simple algal-bacterial relationships on the sensitivity of laboratory-cultured algae to copper using 72-h algal growth-rate inhibition bioassays. Four species of microalgae were used, two isolates of each; a strain of algae with no microscopically visible and no culturable bacteria present (operationally defined as axenic) and a non-axenic strain. The four algae used were the marine diatom Nitzschia closterium, the freshwater green alga Pseudokirchneriella subcapitata and two tropical Chlorella spp. Under control conditions (no copper), N. closterium and P. subcapitata grew better in the presence of the bacterial community. Sensitivity to copper (assessed as the concentration to inhibit the growth rate by 50% after 72-h (IC50)) was not significantly different for the axenic and non-axenic strains of N. closterium, P. subcapitata or for Chlorella sp. (PNG isolate). At pH 5.7, the axenic Chlorella sp. (NT isolate) had a 72-h IC50 of 46 μg Cu L−1, while in the presence of bacteria the IC50 increased (i.e., sensitivity decreased) to 208 μg Cu L−1. However, when the bacterial status of both the operationally defined axenic and non-axenic cultures of N. closterium and Chlorella sp. (NT isolate) was investigated using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification of 16S rRNA followed by DNA fingerprinting using denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE), it was found that bacteria were actually present in all the algal cultures, i.e. the axenic cultures were not truly bacteria-free. Based on sequence information, the bacteria present were nearly all identified as alphaproteobacteria, and a number of isolates had high similarity to bacteria previously identified as symbionts or species endophytically associated with marine organisms. The “axenic” cultures contained less bacterial phylotypes than the non-axenic cultures, and based on band-intensity, also contained less bacterial DNA. This supported the findings of few differences in copper sensitivity between strains, and suggests that standard microalgal toxicity tests probably inadvertently use non-axenic cultures in metal assessment

The effect of field-collected biofilms on the toxicity of copper to a marine microalga (Tetraselmis sp.) in laboratory bioassays

Standard algal growth rate inhibition bioassays can lack environmental realism and may over- or underestimate metal bioavailability in natural systems. In aquatic environments, algal species interact with other biota, including other algae, bacteria and biofilms. In this work, the feasibility of incorporating marine biofilms into 72h algal growth inhibition toxicity tests was explored. The effects of copper on Tetraselmis sp. were tested in the absence and presence of characterised field-collected biofilms. We hypothesised that the addition of biofilm would prevent copper toxicity to the alga primarily through interactions of the metal with other cells and biofilm exudates. The sensitivity of Tetraselmis sp. to copper (based on 72h IC50 values; the copper concentration to inhibit population growth by 50%) in the presence of a blended biofilm inoculum varied 2-fold and was independent of the amount of biofilm added. However, increases in IC10 and IC20 values indicated some amelioration of copper toxicity. When intact biofilms were added to the bioassays, amelioration of toxicity was more consistent, probably due to increased binding of copper to cell surfaces or exudates. Difficulties in characterising biofilms and distinguishing that material from the test alga need to be overcome before biofilms can be routinely incorporated into laboratory bioassays

What matters most? Assessment of within-canopy factors influencing the needle microbiome of the model conifer, Pinus radiata

Abstract The assembly and function of the phyllosphere microbiome is important to the overall fitness of plants and, thereby, the ecosystems they inhabit. Presently, model systems for tree phyllosphere microbiome studies are lacking, yet forests resilient to pests, diseases, and climate change are important to support a myriad of ecosystem services impacting from local to global levels. In this study, we extend the development of model microbiome systems for trees species, particularly coniferous gymnosperms, by undertaking a structured approach assessing the phyllosphere microbiome of Pinus radiata. Canopy sampling height was the single most important factor influencing both alpha- and beta-diversity of bacterial and fungal communities (p < 0.005). Bacterial and fungal phyllosphere microbiome richness was lowest in samples from the top of the canopy, subsequently increasing in the middle and then bottom canopy samples. These differences maybe driven by either by (1) exchange of microbiomes with the forest floor and soil with the lower foliage, (2) strong ecological filtering in the upper canopy via environmental exposure (e.g., UV), (3) canopy density, (4) or combinations of factors. Most taxa present in the top canopy were also present lower in tree; as such, sampling strategies focussing on lower canopy sampling should provide good overall phyllosphere microbiome coverage for the tree. The dominant phyllosphere bacteria were Alpha-proteobacteria (Rhizobiales and Sphingomonas) along with Acidobacteria Gp1. However, the P. radiata phyllosphere microbiome samples were fungal dominated. From the top canopy samples, Arthoniomycetes and Dothideomycetes were highly represented, with abundances of Arthoniomycetes then reducing in lower canopy samples whilst abundances of Ascomycota increased. The most abundant fungal taxa were Phaeococcomyces (14.4% of total reads) and Phaeotheca spp. (10.38%). A second-order effect of canopy sampling direction was evident in bacterial community composition (p = 0.01); these directional influences were not evident for fungal communities. However, sterilisation of needles did impact fungal community composition (p = 0.025), indicating potential for community differences in the endosphere versus leaf surface compartments. Needle age was only important in relation to bacterial communities, but was canopy height dependant (interaction p = 0.008). By building an understanding of the primary and secondary factors related to intra-canopy phyllosphere microbiome variation, we provide a sampling framework to either explicitly minimise or capture variation in needle collection to enable ongoing ecological studies targeted at inter-canopy or other experimental levels

Effect of Wastewater Treatment Plant Effluent on Microbial Function and Community Structure in the Sediment of a Freshwater Stream with Variable Seasonal Flow▿

We investigated the effects of wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) discharge on the ecology of bacterial communities in the sediment of a small, low-gradient stream in South Australia. The quantification of genes involved in the biogeochemical cycling of carbon and nitrogen was used to assess potential impacts on ecosystem functions. The effects of disturbance on bacterial community structure were assessed by PCR-denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis of 16S rRNA genes, and clone library analysis was used to phylogenetically characterize significant shifts. Significant (P < 0.05) shifts in bacterial community structures were associated with alteration of the sediment's physicochemical properties, particularly nutrient loading from the WWTP discharge. The effects were greatest at the sampling location 400 m downstream of the outfall where the stream flow is reduced. This highly affected stretch of sediment contained representatives of the gammaproteobacteria that were absent from less-disturbed sites, including Oceanospirillales and Methylococcaceae. 16S rRNA gene sequences from less-disturbed sites had representatives of the Caulobacteraceae, Sphingomonadaceae, and Nitrospirae which were not represented in samples from disturbed sediment. The diversity was lowest at the reference site; it increased with proximity to the WWTP outfall and declined toward highly disturbed (400 m downstream) sites (P < 0.05). The potential for biological transformations of N varied significantly with the stream sediment location (P < 0.05). The abundance of amoA, narG, and nifH genes increased with the distance downstream of the outfall. These processes are driven by N and C availability, as well as redox conditions. Together these data suggest cause and effect between nutrient loading into the creek, shift in bacterial communities through habitat change, and alteration of capacity for biogeochemical cycling of N