Project description:<p>Understanding biogeochemical conversions of dissolved organic matter (DOM) in aquifers is paramount for the effective management of groundwater supplies. On its passage through the critical zone, DOM is subject to biogeochemical conversions and therefore carries cross-habitat information useful for monitoring and predicting the stability of groundwater ecosystem services. Groundwater metabolomics assesses this information. However, challenges arise from insufficient knowledge on groundwater metabolite composition and dynamics, and the necessity to maintain analytical conditions for long-term monitoring. We explored fractured sedimentary bedrock by 5-year untargeted metabolomics monitoring for oxic perched and anoxic phreatic sites along a hillslope recharge area, to evaluate DOM as groundwater tracer. Dimension reduction by principal component analysis revealed that metabolome dissimilarities between distant wells coincide with transient cross-stratal flow indicated by groundwater levels and environmental tracers. The metabolome was highly variable lacking seasonal patterns, and did not segregate by geographic location of sampling wells thus ruling out surface vegetation or (agricultura) land use as driving factor. The metabolome time series provide detailed insights into subsurface responses to recharge dynamics. Metabolomics monitoring provides information on groundwater flows, and allows concluding about below ground ecology and water quality evolution, required to understand the impact of interannual wet-dry cycles.</p>
2022-03-21 | MTBLS3450 | MetaboLights
Project description:Marine Invasive Species Ireland
| PRJNA678844 | ENA
Project description:Amphibian rediscoveries provide insights into species persistence
Project description:Chemical signals are produced by aquatic organisms following predatory attacks or perturbations such as parasitic infection. Ectoparasites feeding on host fish are likely to cause release of similar alarm cues into the environment due to the stress, wounding and immune response stimulated upon infection. Alarm cues are often released in the form of proteins and peptides and provide important insights into bodily function and infection status. Here we outline a non-invasive method to identify potential chemical cues associated with infection in fish by extracting, purifying and characterizing proteins from water samples from cultured fish. Gel free proteomic methods were deemed the most suitable for protein detection in saline water samples. It was confirmed that proteins could be characterized from teleost water samples and that variation in protein profiles could be detected between infected and uninfected individuals and fish and parasite only water samples. Our novel assay provides a non-invasive method for assessing the health condition of both wild and farmed aquatic organisms. Similar to environmental DNA monitoring methods, these proteomic techniques could provide an important tool in applied biology and aquaculture biology
Project description:The invasive marine mussel Mytilus galloprovincialis has displaced the native congener Mytilus trossulus from central and southern California, but the native species remains dominant at more northerly sites that have high levels of freshwater input. To determine the extent to which interspecific differences in physiological tolerance to low salinity might explain limits to the invasive species’ biogeography, we used an oligonucleotide microarray to compare the transcriptional responses of these two species to an acute decrease in salinity. Among 6,777 genes on the microarray, 117 genes showed significant changes that were similar between species, and 12 genes showed significant species-specific responses to salinity stress. Osmoregulation and cell cycle control were important aspects of the shared transcriptomic response to salinity stress, whereas the genes with species-specific expression patterns were involved in mRNA splicing, polyamine synthesis, exocytosis, translation, cell adhesion, and cell signaling. Forty-five genes that changed expression significantly during salinity stress also changed expression during heat stress, but the direction of change in expression was typically opposite for the two forms of stress. These results (i) provide insights into the role of changes in gene expression in establishing physiological tolerance to acute decreases in salinity, and (ii) indicate that transcriptomic differences between M. galloprovincialis and M. trossulus in response to salinity stress are subtle and involve only a minor fraction of the overall suite of gene regulatory responses.
Project description:Plants dynamically regulate chromatin architecture, transcription and post-transcriptional processes in accordance with developmental programs and environmental cues. Isolated nuclei can provide access to early steps in gene regulation involving chromatin as well as transcript production and processing. Here we describe transfer of the Isolation of Nuclei from TAgged specific Cell Types (INTACT) to the monocot rice (Oryza sativa L.). The purification of biotinylated nuclei was redesigned by replacing the outer nuclear envelope-targeting domain with an outer nuclear envelope-anchored domain in the Nuclear Tagging Fusion protein and codon optimization of E. coli BirA, combined in a single T-DNA construct. We also developed an inexpensive methods for INTACT, T-DNA insertion mapping, and profiling of the complete nuclear transcriptome, including a rRNA degradation procedure that minimizes pre-rRNA transcripts. The comparison of nuclear and steady-state poly(A)+ transcript populations of seedling root tips confirmed the capture of pre-mRNA and exposed distinctions between the nuclear and total RNA pool. The improved INTACT plasmid configuration for monocots and accompanying methods provide access to chromatin and pre-mRNA, paving the way for monitoring nuclear transcriptome and epigenome dynamics of specific cell-types in rice and other crop species.
Project description:Monitoring microbial communities can aid in understanding the state of these habitats. Environmental DNA (eDNA) techniques provide efficient and comprehensive monitoring by capturing broader diversity. Besides structural profiling, eDNA methods allow the study of functional profiles, encompassing the genes within the microbial community. In this study, three methodologies were compared for functional profiling of microbial communities in estuarine and coastal sites in the Bay of Biscay. The methodologies included inference from 16S metabarcoding data using Tax4Fun, GeoChip microarrays, and shotgun metagenomics.