Enhanced identification of familial hypercholesterolemia using central laboratory algorithms.

Background And Aims: Familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) is a highly prevalent genetic disorder resulting in markedly elevated LDL cholesterol levels and premature coronary artery disease. FH underdiagnosis and undertreatment require novel detection methods. This study evaluated the effectiveness of using an LDL cholesterol cut-off ≥99.

Nocturnal dissolved organic matter release by turf algae and its role in the microbialization of reefs.

The increased release of dissolved organic matter (DOM) by algae has been associated with the fast but inefficient growth of opportunistic microbial pathogens and the ongoing degradation of coral reefs. Turf algae (consortia of microalgae and macroalgae commonly including cyanobacteria) dominate benthic communities on many reefs worldwide. Opposite to other reef algae that predominantly release DOM during the day, turf algae containing cyanobacteria may additionally release large amounts of DOM at night.

Meta-transcriptomic comparison of two sponge holobionts feeding on coral- and macroalgal-dissolved organic matter.

Background: Sponge holobionts (i.e., the host and its associated microbiota) play a key role in the cycling of dissolved organic matter (DOM) in marine ecosystems.

Sponge holobionts shift their prokaryotic communities and antimicrobial activity from shallow to lower mesophotic depths.

In this study, we used 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing to investigate prokaryotic community composition of the Caribbean sponges Xestospongia muta and Agelas sventres from three depth ranges: < 30 m (shallow), 30-60 m (upper mesophotic), and 60-90 m (lower mesophotic). The prokaryotic community in shallow samples of X. muta was enriched in Cyanobacteria, Chloroflexota, and Crenarchaeota compared to samples from mesophotic depths, while mesophotic samples of X.

Sponges sneeze mucus to shed particulate waste from their seawater inlet pores.

Sponges, among the oldest extant multicellular organisms on Earth, play a key role in the cycling of nutrients in many aquatic ecosystems. They need to employ strategies to prevent clogging of their internal filter system by solid wastes, but self-cleaning mechanisms are largely unknown. It is commonly assumed that sponges remove solid waste with the outflowing water through distinct outflow openings (oscula).

Harnessing solar power: photoautotrophy supplements the diet of a low-light dwelling sponge.

The ability of organisms to combine autotrophy and heterotrophy gives rise to one of the most successful nutritional strategies on Earth: mixotrophy. Sponges are integral members of shallow-water ecosystems and many host photosynthetic symbionts, but studies on mixotrophic sponges have focused primarily on species residing in high-light environments. Here, we quantify the contribution of photoautotrophy to the respiratory demand and total carbon diet of the sponge Chondrilla caribensis, which hosts symbiotic cyanobacteria and lives in low-light environments.

Coral reef benthic community changes in the Anthropocene: Biogeographic heterogeneity, overlooked configurations, and methodology.

Non-random community changes are becoming more frequent in many ecosystems. In coral reefs, changes towards communities dominated by other than hard corals are increasing in frequency, with severe impacts on ecosystem functioning and provision of ecosystem services. Although new research suggests that a variety of alternative communities (i.

Implications of 2D versus 3D surveys to measure the abundance and composition of benthic coral reef communities.

Unlabelled: A paramount challenge in coral reef ecology is to estimate the abundance and composition of the communities residing in such complex ecosystems. Traditional 2D projected surface cover estimates neglect the 3D structure of reefs and reef organisms, overlook communities residing in cryptic reef habitats (e.g.

Marine sponges maintain stable bacterial communities between reef sites with different coral to algae cover ratios.

Marine sponges play a major ecological role in recycling resources on coral reef ecosystems. The cycling of resources may largely depend on the stability of the host-microbiome interactions and their susceptibility to altered environmental conditions. Given the current coral to algal phase shift on coral reefs, we investigated whether the sponge-associated bacterial communities of four sponge species, with either high or low microbial abundances (HMA and LMA), remain stable at two reefs sites with different coral to algae cover ratios.

DNA-stable isotope probing (DNA-SIP) identifies marine sponge-associated bacteria actively utilizing dissolved organic matter (DOM).

Sponges possess exceptionally diverse associated microbial communities and play a major role in (re)cycling of dissolved organic matter (DOM) in marine ecosystems. Linking sponge-associated community structure with DOM utilization is essential to understand host-microbe interactions in the uptake, processing, and exchange of resources. We coupled, for the first time, DNA-stable isotope probing (DNA-SIP) with 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing in a sponge holobiont to identify which symbiotic bacterial taxa are metabolically active in DOM uptake.

Subcellular view of host-microbiome nutrient exchange in sponges: insights into the ecological success of an early metazoan-microbe symbiosis.

Background: Sponges are increasingly recognised as key ecosystem engineers in many aquatic habitats. They play an important role in nutrient cycling due to their unrivalled capacity for processing both dissolved and particulate organic matter (DOM and POM) and the exceptional metabolic repertoire of their diverse and abundant microbial communities. Functional studies determining the role of host and microbiome in organic nutrient uptake and exchange, however, are limited.

Bacterial precursors and unsaturated long-chain fatty acids are biomarkers of North-Atlantic deep-sea demosponges.

Sponges produce distinct fatty acids (FAs) that (potentially) can be used as chemotaxonomic and ecological biomarkers to study endosymbiont-host interactions and the functional ecology of sponges. Here, we present FA profiles of five common habitat-building deep-sea sponges (class Demospongiae, order Tetractinellida), which are classified as high microbial abundance (HMA) species. Geodia hentscheli, G.

Differential processing of dissolved and particulate organic matter by deep-sea sponges and their microbial symbionts.

Deep-sea sponges create hotspots of biodiversity and biological activity in the otherwise barren deep-sea. However, it remains elusive how sponge hosts and their microbial symbionts acquire and process food in these food-limited environments. Therefore, we traced the processing (i.

Heterotrophy in the earliest gut: a single-cell view of heterotrophic carbon and nitrogen assimilation in sponge-microbe symbioses.

Sponges are the oldest known extant animal-microbe symbiosis. These ubiquitous benthic animals play an important role in marine ecosystems in the cycling of dissolved organic matter (DOM), the largest source of organic matter on Earth. The conventional view on DOM cycling through microbial processing has been challenged by the interaction between this efficient filter-feeding host and its diverse and abundant microbiome.

Characterization of a sponge microbiome using an integrative genome-centric approach.

Marine sponges often host diverse and species-specific communities of microorganisms that are critical for host health. Previous functional genomic investigations of the sponge microbiome have focused primarily on specific symbiont lineages, which frequently make up only a small fraction of the overall community. Here, we undertook genome-centric analysis of the symbiont community in the model species Ircinia ramosa and analyzed 259 unique, high-quality metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs) that comprised 74% of the I.

Single-cell visualization indicates direct role of sponge host in uptake of dissolved organic matter.

Marine sponges are set to become more abundant in many near-future oligotrophic environments, where they play crucial roles in nutrient cycling. Of high importance is their mass turnover of dissolved organic matter (DOM), a heterogeneous mixture that constitutes the largest fraction of organic matter in the ocean and is recycled primarily by bacterial mediation. Little is known, however, about the mechanism that enables sponges to incorporate large quantities of DOM in their nutrition, unlike most other invertebrates.

Spiculous skeleton formation in the freshwater sponge under hypergravity conditions.

Successful dispersal of freshwater sponges depends on the formation of dormant sponge bodies (gemmules) under adverse conditions. Gemmule formation allows the sponge to overcome critical environmental conditions, for example, desiccation or freezing, and to re-establish as a fully developed sponge when conditions are more favorable. A key process in sponge development from hatched gemmules is the construction of the silica skeleton.

Development of an Integrated Mariculture for the Collagen-Rich Sponge .

In this study, novel methods were tested to culture the collagen-rich sponge Nardo, 1847 (Demospongiae, Chondrosiida, Chondrosiidae) in the proximity of floating fish cages. In a trial series, survival and growth of cultured explants were monitored near a polluted fish farm and a pristine control site. Attachment methods, plate materials, and plate orientation were compared.

Niche overlap between a cold-water coral and an associated sponge for isotopically-enriched particulate food sources.

The cold-water coral Lophelia pertusa is an ecosystem engineer that builds reef structures on the seafloor. The interaction of the reef topography with hydrodynamics is known to enhance the supply of suspended food sources to the reef communities. However, the reef framework is also a substrate for other organisms that may compete for the very same suspended food sources.

Towards the identification of ancestrally shared regenerative mechanisms across the Metazoa: A Transcriptomic case study in the Demosponge Halisarca caerulea.

Regeneration is an essential process for all multicellular organisms, allowing them to recover effectively from internal and external injury. This process has been studied extensively in a medical context in vertebrates, with pathways often investigated mechanistically, both to derive increased understanding and as potential drug targets for therapy. Several species from other parts of the metazoan tree of life, including Hydra, planarians and echinoderms, noted for their regenerative capabilities, have previously been targeted for study.

Coral mucus fuels the sponge loop in warm- and cold-water coral reef ecosystems.

Shallow warm-water and deep-sea cold-water corals engineer the coral reef framework and fertilize reef communities by releasing coral mucus, a source of reef dissolved organic matter (DOM). By transforming DOM into particulate detritus, sponges play a key role in transferring the energy and nutrients in DOM to higher trophic levels on Caribbean reefs via the so-called sponge loop. Coral mucus may be a major DOM source for the sponge loop, but mucus uptake by sponges has not been demonstrated.

Biofouling of inlet pipes affects water quality in running seawater aquaria and compromises sponge cell proliferation.

Marine organism are often kept, cultured, and experimented on in running seawater aquaria. However, surprisingly little attention is given to the nutrient composition of the water flowing through these systems, which is generally assumed to equal in situ conditions, but may change due to the presence of biofouling organisms. Significantly lower bacterial abundances and higher inorganic nitrogen species (nitrate, nitrite, and ammonium) were measured in aquarium water when biofouling organisms were present within a 7-year old inlet pipe feeding a tropical reef running seawater aquaria system, compared with aquarium water fed by a new, biofouling-free inlet pipe.

Cell kinetics during regeneration in the sponge Halisarca caerulea: how local is the response to tissue damage?

Sponges have a remarkable capacity to rapidly regenerate in response to wound infliction. In addition, sponges rapidly renew their filter systems (choanocytes) to maintain a healthy population of cells. This study describes the cell kinetics of choanocytes in the encrusting reef sponge Halisarca caerulea during early regeneration (0-8 h) following experimental wound infliction.