Status of Biodiversity in the Baltic Sea

The brackish Baltic Sea hosts species of various origins and environmental tolerances. These immigrated to the sea 10,000 to 15,000 years ago or have been introduced to the area over the relatively recent history of the system. The Baltic Sea has only one known endemic species. While information on some abiotic parameters extends back as long as five centuries and first quantitative snapshot data on biota (on exploited fish populations) originate generally from the same time, international coordination of research began in the early twentieth century. Continuous, annual Baltic Sea-wide long-term datasets on several organism groups (plankton, benthos, fish) are generally available since the mid-1950s. Based on a variety of available data sources (published papers, reports, grey literature, unpublished data), the Baltic Sea, incl. Kattegat, hosts altogether at least 6,065 species, including at least 1,700 phytoplankton, 442 phytobenthos, at least 1,199 zooplankton, at least 569 meiozoobenthos, 1,476 macrozoobenthos, at least 380 vertebrate parasites, about 200 fish, 3 seal, and 83 bird species. In general, but not in all organism groups, high sub-regional total species richness is associated with elevated salinity. Although in comparison with fully marine areas the Baltic Sea supports fewer species, several facets of the system''s diversity remain underexplored to this day, such as micro-organisms, foraminiferans, meiobenthos and parasites. In the future, climate change and its interactions with multiple anthropogenic forcings are likely to have major impacts on the Baltic biodiversity.     

Effects in vitro of nine fungicides on growth of entomopathogenic fungi

The effects of nine fungicides were evaluated in vitro on the entomopathogenic fungi Beauveria bassiana, Conidiobolus coronatus, C. thromboides, Metarhizium anisopliae, Paecilomyces farinosus, P. fumosoroseus, Scopulariopsis brevicaulis and Verticillium lecanii. The susceptibility of the fungi to the fungicides varied. The dithiocarbamate derivations zineb + copper oxychloride, and mancozeb completely inhibited germination of C. coronatus, C. thromboides, B. bassiana, P. farinosus, M. anisopliae and V. lecanii. The fungicides triadimefon, copper oxychloride, metalaxyl, sulfur, sulfur + nitrothal‐isopropyl and hymexazol exhibited various effects on the fungi. Usually, fungistasis was more pronounced at 15°C than at 25°C and the inhibitory effects were in direct proportion to the dosage of active ingredient (recommended field rate, 10‐fold higher and 10‐fold lower). In a few combinations, fungi partially overcame or even recovered from the initial inhibition of growth which might have resulted from delayed germination. In other cases, inhibition of growth occurred only after a delay and its intensity increased with time. Stimulation of fungal growth when it occurred was rarely permanent. Generally, adverse effects were much greater against the entomophthoraleans C. coronatus and C. thromboides than against the Hyphomycetes. Extrapolation of the results to practice and to the field situation is difficult. Nevertheless, the data presented give an idea of possible side‐effects in nature.     

Detection and quantification of probiotic strain Lactobacillus gasseri K7 in faecal samples by targeting bacteriocin genes

Lactobacillus gasseri K7 is a probiotic strain that produces bacteriocins gassericin K7 A and K7 B. In order to develop a real-time quantitative PCR assay for the detection of L. gasseri K7, 18 reference strains of the Lactobacillus acidophilus group and 45 faecal samples of adults who have never consumed strain K7 were tested with PCR using 14 pairs of primers specific for gassericin K7 A and K7 B gene determinants. Incomplete gassericin K7 A or K7 B gene clusters were found to be dispersed in different lactobacilli strains as well as in faecal microbiota. One pair of primers was found to be specific for the total gene cluster of gassericin K7A and one for gassericin K7B. The real-time PCR analysis of faecal samples spiked with K7 strain revealed that primers specific for the gene cluster of the gassericin K7 A were more suitable for quantitative determination than those for gassericin K7 B, due to the lower detection level. Targeting of the gassericin K7 A or K7 B gene cluster with specific primers could be used for detection and quantification of L. gasseri K7 in human faecal samples without prior cultivation. The results of this study also present new insights into the prevalence of bacteriocin-encoding genes in gastrointestinal tract.     

Identification and localization of S100A6 in human umbilical cord

S100A6, a calcium-binding protein also known as calcyclin, was detected in human umbilical cord by immunoblotting. Immunohistochemical studies showed an intensive reaction for S100A6 in the walls of vessels and Wharton's jelly. In the latter, S100A6 was found not only in the myofibroblasts but also in the ECM (extracellular matrix) surrounding these cells. Affinity chromatography of S100A6 resin indicated that Wharton's jelly contains some proteins that could bind to S100A6. Thus these novel results show the presence of S100A6 in umbilical cord and suggest the involvement of this protein in intra- and extra-cellular signalling pathways in this tissue.     

Evolutionary Dynamics of Clustered Irregularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeat Systems in the Ocean Metagenome

Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPRs) form a recently characterized type of prokaryotic antiphage defense system. The phage-host interactions involving CRISPRs have been studied in experiments with selected bacterial or archaeal species and, computationally, in completely sequenced genomes. However, these studies do not allow one to take prokaryotic population diversity and phage-host interaction dynamics into account. This gap can be filled by using metagenomic data: in particular, the largest existing data set, generated from the Sorcerer II Global Ocean Sampling expedition. The application of three publicly available CRISPR recognition programs to the Global Ocean metagenome produced a large proportion of false-positive results. To address this problem, a filtering procedure was designed. It resulted in about 200 reliable CRISPR cassettes, which were then studied in detail. The repeat consensuses were clustered into several stable classes that differed from the existing classification. Short fragments of DNA similar to the cassette spacers were more frequently present in the same geographical location than in other locations (P, <0.0001). We developed a catalogue of elementary CRISPR-forming events and reconstructed the likely evolutionary history of cassettes that had common spacers. Metagenomic collections allow for relatively unbiased analysis of phage-host interactions and CRISPR evolution. The results of this study demonstrate that CRISPR cassettes retain the memory of the local virus population at a particular ocean location. CRISPR evolution may be described using a limited vocabulary of elementary events that have a natural biological interpretation.Prokaryotes are highly diverse (33). One of the explanations of this diversity is the high extinction rate, due to genetic aggression, which leads to the clearance of ecological niches and, as a result, may allow new prokaryotic species to emerge. In the absence of host defense, viral infection of prokaryotic colonies results in colony extinction or the fixation of a fraction of the invader''s genetic material in the host genome, profoundly affecting the life cycle of the host (32). Thus, bacteria and archaea have developed various kinds of defense mechanisms to resist this pressure; the best studied of these mechanisms is restriction-modification systems (4).Along with well-known prokaryotic defense mechanisms, such as rapid evolution of cell receptors or the use of restriction-modification or toxin-antitoxin systems (see, e.g., references 6, 21, and 25), newly discovered clustered regularly interspaced palindromic repeat (CRISPR) systems seem to play an important role in protecting the cell from archaeal virus or bacteriophage assaults (reviewed in reference 36). A typical CRISPR system is a genetic locus comprising CRISPR-associated (cas) genes coding for proteins of several distinct functional classes (8, 19, 29) and a CRISPR cassette. A CRISPR cassette is formed by almost identical direct repeats with an average length of 32 nucleotides (nt), which are separated by similarly sized, unique spacers. A considerable proportion of spacers is similar to known phage or virus sequences, suggesting that the system is involved in antivirus defense (8, 29, 31). This involvement was experimentally demonstrated when a CRISPR system was shown to be essential for cell survival after invasion by foreign DNA (5). The mechanism is thought to be analogous to eukaryotic RNA interference (29), but it has not been characterized in detail yet.CRISPR cassettes retain information that could be used to reveal the evolutionary history of individual systems. First, it has been shown that CRISPR-associated genes could be divided into eight subtypes according to operon organization and gene phylogeny (19). Second, the repeats of different CRISPR cassettes may be similar, which might indicate a common origin of such cassettes. The first attempt to cluster CRISPR cassettes by the similarity of repeat sequences resulted in 12 clusters (27). In that study, the cassettes were obtained by the application of PILER-CR to completely sequenced genomes. Third, pairwise comparison of spacers could also reveal the specific evolutionary history of individual CRISPR cassettes.So far, most large-scale studies of CRISPR systems have been restricted to well-studied organisms with completely sequenced genomes (5, 9, 20, 28, 30). However, the dynamic interaction between viruses or phages and microorganisms in natural environments is of particular interest (2, 10, 15, 23, 35, 38, 40-42). It may be studied using CRISPRs in a metagenome, that is, sequenced DNA fragments collected in one geographical location and therefore representing one ecological niche with all its inhabitants. This approach is interesting for two reasons. First, metagenomic samples provide a common census of coexisting organisms, i.e., in many cases, both the infecting viruses and phages and their victims. Second, most bacteria and archaea from metagenomic samples cannot be cultivated, and hence little is known about their CRISPR systems.To date, three studies have considered host-virus interactions in metagenomes. One study used two thermophilic Synechococcus isolates from microbial mats in hot springs at Yellowstone National Park to demonstrate fast coevolution of the host and phage genomes (22). Two studies described archaeal and bacterial interactions with viruses and phages, respectively, in acidophilic biofilms (2, 39). All environmental communities analyzed so far are extreme and are dominated by few species. Natural samples containing many diverse coexisting organisms may arguably be more interesting.The largest available metagenome, produced by the Sorcerer II Global Ocean Sampling (GOS) expedition, comprises samples of genetic material collected from more than 50 geographical locations of the Pacific and Atlantic oceans (34). This variety provides an opportunity to study the evolution of phage-host interactions reflected in CRISPRs.Three algorithms, PILER-CR (14), the CRISPR recognition tool (CRT) (7), and CRISPRFinder (18), have been developed as tools for the discovery of new CRISPR cassettes. All these algorithms define candidate CRISPR cassette sequences as short direct repeats separated by short unique spacers; they then use a variety of standard repeat-finding techniques. However, the implementation of specific details is different.PILER-CR constructs local alignments of the input sequence to itself; each hit between two close regions is a candidate for an alignment of a repeat with its neighbor copy. In terms of dynamic programming, taking into account the repeat structure of a CRISPR cassette implies looking for hits only within a relatively narrow band around the main diagonal of the dot plot. This process is followed by several refinement steps.CRT does not use alignments to identify candidate repeats; rather, it derives them directly from the analysis of an input sequence. It is based on finding series of short repeats of a specified length (searching for exact k-mer matches) and then extending these repeats (increasing k-mer length) while allowing for a certain level of mismatches.Finally, CRISPRFinder is based on a suffix-tree-based algorithm for repeat discovery, again with additional refinement.All three algorithms were used for the CRISPR cassette search in this study.     

Studies on the progenies of hybrids from theArabis hirsuta complex

Progenies of triploid and diploid hybrids of tetraploidArabis hirsuta (L.)Scop. s. str. and diploidA. sagittata (Bertol.) DC. andA. planisiliqua (Pers.) Reichenb. were studied. The observations concerned morphology, cytology, sterility degree of plants and embryological backgrounds. The evolutionary consequences of breakage of the sterility barriers within the complex connected with well pronouced morphological and karyological variability of hybrids are discussed.     

Stand microclimate and physiological activity of tree leaves in an oak-hornbeam forest

Summary In an uneven-aged, multi-species oak-hornbeam forest at Báb, SW Slovakia (former IBP Forest Research Site), a series of micrometeorological and ecophysiological measurements started in 1985. The aims of the work are to improve understanding of physiological processes (photosynthesis, respiration, and transpiration) of adult trees and stand microclimate, to collect data for simulation of the canopy (stand) photosynthesis and for ecological synthesis of the functioning of the forest ecosystem. In this paper, photosynthetically active radiation (PAR), air temperature (AT) and relative humidity (RH), wind speed (WS), and CO₂ concentration ([CO₂]) in and above the forest are characterized for the fully leaved season, using diurnal courses, vertical profiles and isodiagrams (isopleths). Approximately 50% of incident PAR was absorbed by the upper 4–5 m layer of leaves and only approximately 5% or less penetrated to the forest floor. Vertical gradients of AT and RH were generally low, but large differences in diurnal ranges of AT and RH were observed between vertical levels. The upper leaf canopy greatly reduced WS, and at a height of about 14 m above the ground it was close to zero. The highest diurnal [CO₂] maximum and variations occurred at 1 m above the ground, and the lowest above the forest. In good light conditions in the forest, the entire leaf canopy (overstorey and understorey canopy) is a large sink of CO₂. At night the forest stand is a source of CO₂, the largest internal source being the soil and forest floor.     

Evaluation of DNA damage and mutagenicity induced by lead in tobacco plants

Tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L. var. xanthi) seedlings were treated with aqueous solutions of lead nitrate (Pb²⁺) at concentrations ranging from 0.4 mM to 2.4 mM for 24 h and from 25 μM to 200 μM for 7 days. The DNA damage measured by the comet assay was high in the root nuclei, but in the leaf nuclei a slight but significant increase in DNA damage could be demonstrated only after a 7-day treatment with 200 μM Pb²⁺. In tobacco plants growing for 6 weeks in soil polluted with Pb²⁺ severe toxic effects, expressed by the decrease in leaf area, and a slight but significant increase in DNA damage were observed. The tobacco plants with increased levels of DNA damage were severely injured and showed stunted growth, distorted leaves and brown root tips. The frequency of somatic mutations in tobacco plants growing in the Pb²⁺-polluted soil did not significantly increase. Analytical studies by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry demonstrate that after a 24-h treatment of tobacco with 2.4 mM Pb²⁺, the accumulation of the heavy metal is 40-fold higher in the roots than in the above-ground biomass. Low Pb²⁺ accumulation in the above-ground parts may explain the lower levels or the absence of Pb²⁺-induced DNA damage in leaves.