Contribution of Flooded Soils to Sediment and Nutrient Fluxes in a Hydropower Reservoir (Sarrans,Central France)

Ecosystems - When a water reservoir is created, the pre-existing soils and vegetation are flooded. Here, we took advantage of the complete emptying of the Sarrans Reservoir, which was flooded...     

Characterisation and Validation of Insertions and Deletions in 173 Patient Exomes

Recent advances in genomics technologies have spurred unprecedented efforts in genome and exome re-sequencing aiming to unravel the genetic component of rare and complex disorders. While in rare disorders this allowed the identification of novel causal genes, the missing heritability paradox in complex diseases remains so far elusive. Despite rapid advances of next-generation sequencing, both the technology and the analysis of the data it produces are in its infancy. At present there is abundant knowledge pertaining to the role of rare single nucleotide variants (SNVs) in rare disorders and of common SNVs in common disorders. Although the 1,000 genome project has clearly highlighted the prevalence of rare variants and more complex variants (e.g. insertions, deletions), their role in disease is as yet far from elucidated.We set out to analyse the properties of sequence variants identified in a comprehensive collection of exome re-sequencing studies performed on samples from patients affected by a broad range of complex and rare diseases (N = 173). Given the known potential for Loss of Function (LoF) variants to be false positive, we performed an extensive validation of the common, rare and private LoF variants identified, which indicated that most of the private and rare variants identified were indeed true, while common novel variants had a significantly higher false positive rate. Our results indicated a strong enrichment of very low-frequency insertion/deletion variants, so far under-investigated, which might be difficult to capture with low coverage and imputation approaches and for which most of study designs would be under-powered. These insertions and deletions might play a significant role in disease genetics, contributing specifically to the underlining rare and private variation predicted to be discovered through next generation sequencing.     

Length–weight relationships of eight Asian freshwater fish species in Nam Theun 2 Reservoir (Laos PDR)

Length–weight relationships (LWRs) were determined for eight Asian freshwater fish species that were not yet recorded in any peer‐reviewed journal indexed in the Web of Science or the FishBase database. Fish specimens from Nam Theun 2 reservoir in Lao PDR, were collected from April 2012 to August 2016 using several methods to cover a large size‐spectrum for each species. For LWRs using the general equation from Beckman (1948), the parameter b (slope value on the growth pattern) ranges from 2.908 (Puntius brevis) to 3.429 (Rasbora paviana). This study provides an update in maximum lengths for two species and first LWRs for eight common freshwater species found mainly in reservoirs, and thus represents a means for further population dynamic evolution analyses and local fisheries management.     

Low input of offshore areas to fisheries in a large tropical reservoir in Lao PDR

Limnology - Nam Theun 2 is the largest neo-reservoir in Lao PDR that was impounded to produce electricity. The objective of this study was to assess the input of the offshore zone to the total fish...