Ocean-wide comparisons of mesopelagic planktonic community structures.

For decades, marine plankton have been investigated for their capacity to modulate biogeochemical cycles and provide fishery resources. Between the sunlit (epipelagic) layer and the deep dark waters, lies a vast and heterogeneous part of the ocean: the mesopelagic zone. How plankton composition is shaped by environment has been well-explored in the epipelagic but much less in the mesopelagic ocean.

The cyanobacterium has divergent light-harvesting antennae and may have evolved in a low-oxygen ocean.

Marine picocyanobacteria of the genus are the most abundant photosynthetic organisms in the modern ocean, where they exert a profound influence on elemental cycling and energy flow. The use of transmembrane chlorophyll complexes instead of phycobilisomes as light-harvesting antennae is considered a defining attribute of Its ecology and evolution are understood in terms of light, temperature, and nutrients. Here, we report single-cell genomic information on previously uncharacterized phylogenetic lineages of this genus from nutrient-rich anoxic waters of the eastern tropical North and South Pacific Ocean.

Reassessment of the toxin profile of Cylindrospermopsis raciborskii T3 and function of putative sulfotransferases in synthesis of sulfated and sulfonated PSP toxins.

The toxigenic freshwater cyanobacterium Cylindrospermopsis raciborskii T3 has been used as a model to study and elucidate the biosynthetic pathway of tetrahydropurine neurotoxins associated with paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP). There are nevertheless several inconsistencies and contradictions in the toxin profile of this strain as published by different research groups, and claimed to include carbamoyl (STX, NEO, GTX2/3), decarbamoyl (dcSTX), and N-sulfocarbamoyl (C1/2, B1) derivatives. Our analysis of the complete genome of another PSP toxin-producing cyanobacterium, Raphidiopsis brookii D9, which is closely related to C.

Toxicity phenotype does not correlate with phylogeny of Cylindrospermopsis raciborskii strains.

Cylindrospermopsis raciborskii is a species of freshwater, bloom-forming cyanobacterium. C. raciborskii produces toxins, including cylindrospermopsin (hepatotoxin) and saxitoxin (neurotoxin), although non toxin-producing strains are also observed.

Precise excision of the large pathogenicity island, SPI7, in Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi.

The large pathogenicity island (SPI7) of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi is a 133,477-bp segment of DNA flanked by two 52-bp direct repeats overlapping the pheU (phenylalanyl-tRNA) gene, contains 151 potential open reading frames, and includes the viaB operon involved in the synthesis of Vi antigen. Some clinical isolates of S. enterica serovar Typhi are missing the entire SPI7, due to its precise excision; these strains have lost the ability to produce Vi antigen, are resistant to phage Vi-II, and invade a human epithelial cell line more rapidly.