Species and population specific gene expression in blood transcriptomes of marine turtles

Background: Transcriptomic data has demonstrated utility to advance the study of physiological diversity and organisms’ responses to environmental stressors. However, a lack of genomic resources and challenges associated with collecting high-quality RNA can limit its application for many wild populations. Minimally invasive blood sampling combined with de novo transcriptomic approaches has great potential to alleviate these barriers. Here, we advance these goals for marine turtles by generating high quality de novo blood transcriptome assemblies to characterize functional diversity and compare global transcriptional profiles between tissues, species, and foraging aggregations. Results: We generated high quality blood transcriptome assemblies for hawksbill (Eretmochelys imbricata), loggerhead (Caretta caretta), green (Chelonia mydas), and leatherback (Dermochelys coriacea) turtles. The functional diversity in assembled blood transcriptomes was comparable to those from more traditionally sampled tissues. A total of 31.3% of orthogroups identified were present in all four species, representing a core set of conserved genes expressed in blood and shared across marine turtle species. We observed strong species-specific expression of these genes, as well as distinct transcriptomic profiles between green turtle foraging aggregations that inhabit areas of greater or lesser anthropogenic disturbance. Conclusions: Obtaining global gene expression data through non-lethal, minimally invasive sampling can greatly expand the applications of RNA-sequencing in protected long-lived species such as marine turtles. The distinct differences in gene expression signatures between species and foraging aggregations provide insight into the functional genomics underlying the diversity in this ancient vertebrate lineage. The transcriptomic resources generated here can be used in further studies examining the evolutionary ecology and anthropogenic impacts on marine turtles

Report on Underground Solutions for Urban Problems

World wide, we see developing nations building new infrastructure as well as developed cities rehabilitating and expanding their infrastructure to meet the demands of increased population, energy efficiency, and environmental awareness of the public. Ten years ago ITA issued its special edition of the Tribune entitled “Why Go Underground, Contribution of the use of Underground space to Sustainable Development.” Working Group N° 20 of the ITA, focused on Urban Problems and Underground Solutions, has continued examining the use of underground space in the urban environment as it evolves with expanding cities and urban densification. This report present examples of the uses of underground space in cities, trends in Metro and roadway planning, and gives an overview of aspects to be considered during the decision making process, in order to optimally include underground solutions.Geoscience & EngineeringCivil Engineering and Geoscience