Cutting out the middle clam: lucinid endosymbiotic bacteria are also associated with seagrass roots worldwide

Seagrasses and lucinid bivalves inhabit highly reduced sediments with elevated sulphide concentrations. Lucinids house symbiotic bacteria (Ca. Thiodiazotropha) capable of oxidising sediment sulphide, and their presence in sediments has been proposed to promote seagrass growth by decreasing otherwise phytotoxic sulphide levels. However, vast and productive seagrass meadows are present in ecosystems where lucinids do not occur. Hence, we hypothesised that seagrasses themselves host these sulphur-oxidising Ca. Thiodiazotropha that could aid their survival when lucinids are absent. We analysed newly generated and publicly available 16S rRNA gene sequences from seagrass roots and sediments across 14 seagrass species and 10 countries and found that persistent and colonising seagrasses across the world harbour sulphur-oxidising Ca. Thiodiazotropha, regardless of the presence of lucinids. We used fluorescence in situ hybridisation to visually confirm the presence of Ca. Thiodiazotropha on roots of Halophila ovalis, a colonising seagrass species with wide geographical, water depth range, and sedimentary sulphide concentrations. We provide the first evidence that Ca. Thiodiazotropha are commonly present on seagrass roots, providing another mechanism for seagrasses to alleviate sulphide stress globally.Subject terms: Microbial ecology, Plant ecology, Soil microbiology     

Functional significance of genetic variation underlying limb bone diaphyseal structure

Limb bone diaphyseal structure is frequently used to infer hominin activity levels from skeletal remains, an approach based on the well‐documented ability of bone to adjust to its loading environment during life. However, diaphyseal structure is also determined in part by genetic factors. This study investigates the possibility that genetic variation underlying diaphyseal structure is influenced by the activity levels of ancestral populations and might also have functional significance in an evolutionary context. We adopted an experimental evolution approach and tested for differences in femoral diaphyseal structure in 1‐week‐old mice from a line that had been artificially selected (45 generations) for high voluntary wheel running and non‐selected controls. As adults, selected mice are significantly more active on wheels and in home cages, and have thicker diaphyses. Structural differences at 1 week can be assumed to primarily reflect the effects of selective breeding rather than direct mechanical stimuli, given that the onset of locomotion in mice is shortly after Day 7. We hypothesized that if genetically determined diaphyseal structure reflects the activity patterns of members of a lineage, then selected animals will have relatively larger diaphyseal dimensions at 1 week compared to controls. The results provide strong support for this hypothesis and suggest that limb bone cross sections may not always only reflect the activity levels of particular fossil individuals, but also convey an evolutionary signal providing information about hominin activity in the past. Am J Phys Anthropol 143:21–30, 2010. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Surface aeration in a small,agitated, and sparged vessel

In a recent publication, a technique was outlined for measuring surface aeration rates in an agitated vessels while sparging, and it was shown that surface aeration rates fall rapidly with increasing sparge rates. That work was conducted in a 0.61 m diam vessels. The work reported here was done in a small vessel (0.22 m diam) where surface aeration has been reported to be of particular significance. In general, the results obtained in the small vessel confirmed those in the large one and in addition were generally in good agreement with those recently published elsewhere for an almost identical geometry. For typical practical power inputs and sparge rates, the rate of surface aeration was never more than 20% of the sparge rate and generally less than 5%. These results indicate that surface aeration is of considerably less importance than has generally been believed following the findings of workers who estimated its effect by comparing KL a values under unsparged conditions with those when sparging.