A novel open-source cultivation system helps establish the first full cycle chemosynthetic symbiosis model system involving the giant ciliate .

Symbiotic interactions drive species evolution, with nutritional symbioses playing vital roles across ecosystems. Chemosynthetic symbioses are globally distributed and ecologically significant, yet the lack of model systems has hindered research progress. The giant ciliate and its sulfur-oxidizing symbionts represent the only known chemosynthetic symbiosis with a short life span that has been transiently cultivated in the laboratory.

Environmental Transmission of Symbionts in the Mangrove Crabs and : Acquisition of the Bacterial Community through Larval Development to Juvenile Stage.

and are two brachyuran crabs living with bacterial ectosymbionts located on gill lamellae. One previous study has shown that several rod-shaped bacterial morphotypes are present and the community is dominated by Alphaproteobacteria and Bacteroidota. This study aims to identify the mode of transmission of the symbionts to the new host generations and to identify the bacterial community colonizing the gills of juveniles.

The GALAD score and the BALAD-2 score correlate with transarterial and systemic treatment response and survival in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma.

Purpose: The GALAD score and the BALAD-2 score are biomarker-based scoring systems used to detect hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Both incorporate levels of alpha-fetoprotein (AFP), lens culinaris agglutinin-reactive AFP (AFP-L3), and des-gamma-carboxy prothrombin (DCP). Our objective was to examine the relationship between the GALAD score as well as the BALAD-2 score and treatment response to transarterial or systemic treatments in patients with HCC.

Genomes of nine biofilm-forming filamentous strains of Cyanobacteria (genera , and gen. nov.) isolated from mangrove habitats of Guadeloupe (Lesser Antilles).

Biofilm-forming cyanobacteria are abundant in mangrove ecosystems, colonizing various niches including sediment surface and periphyton where they can cover large areas, yet have received limited attention. Several filamentous isolates were recently isolated from Guadeloupe, illustrating the diversity and novelty present in these biofilms. In this study, nine strains belonging to three novel lineages found abundantly in Guadeloupe biofilms are characterized by genome sequencing, morphological and ultrastructural examination, metabolome fingerprinting and searched for secondary metabolites biosynthesis pathways.

Segmentation of germline nuclei.

Immunofluorescence microscopy is a widely adopted method for studying meiotic prophase in the nematode model organism, . An in-depth examination of specific meiotic processes requires the quantitative analysis of immunofluorescence images, which often involves the segmentation of individual cells or nuclei. Here, we introduce our image analysis pipeline to automate significant portions of this task.

Benthic nitrate removal capacity in marine mangroves of Guadeloupe, Lesser Antilles.

Mangrove sediments are known to be potentially active reducing zones for nitrogen removal. The goal of this work was to investigate the potential for nitrate reduction in marine mangrove sediments along a canal impacted by anthropogenic activity (Guadeloupe, Lesser Antilles). To this end, the effect of nitrate concentration, organic carbon load, and hydraulic retention time was assessed as factors affecting these nitrate reduction rates.

Cave Thiovulum (Candidatus Thiovulum stygium) differs metabolically and genomically from marine species.

Thiovulum spp. (Campylobacterota) are large sulfur bacteria that form veil-like structures in aquatic environments. The sulfidic Movile Cave (Romania), sealed from the atmosphere for ~5 million years, has several aqueous chambers, some with low atmospheric O (~7%).

Better tolerance to Huanglongbing is conferred by tetraploid Swingle citrumelo rootstock and is influenced by the ploidy of the scion.

Huanglongbing (HLB) is a disease that is responsible for the death of millions of trees worldwide. The bacterial causal agent belongs to Liberibacter spp., which is transmitted by psyllids.

Dickkopf-Related Protein 1 as Response Marker for Transarterial Chemoembolization of Hepatocellular Carcinomas.

Background and Aims: In the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), response prediction to transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) based on serum biomarkers is not established. We have studied the association of circulating Dickkopf-related protein 1 (DKK-1) with baseline characteristics and response to TACE in European HCC patients. Methods: Patients with HCC treated with TACE from 2010 to 2018 at a tertiary referral hospital were retrospectively enrolled.

Evidence of new strains of Wolbachia symbiont colonising semiaquatic bugs (Hemiptera: Gerroidea) in mangrove environment of the Lesser Antilles.

Wolbachia Hertig, 1936 is an intracellular bacterial symbiont colonizing many arthropods. Of the studies done on the bacteria present in the superfamily Gerroidea Leach, 1815, no report of Wolbachia infection had yet been made. Thus, we checked the presence of Wolbachia in six Gerroidea species which colonize tropical aquatic environments by PCR using wsp primer set before sequencing and phylogenetic analyses.

A centimeter-long bacterium with DNA contained in metabolically active, membrane-bound organelles.

Cells of most bacterial species are around 2 micrometers in length, with some of the largest specimens reaching 750 micrometers. Using fluorescence, x-ray, and electron microscopy in conjunction with genome sequencing, we characterized () Thiomargarita magnifica, a bacterium that has an average cell length greater than 9000 micrometers and is visible to the naked eye. These cells grow orders of magnitude over theoretical limits for bacterial cell size, display unprecedented polyploidy of more than half a million copies of a very large genome, and undergo a dimorphic life cycle with asymmetric segregation of chromosomes into daughter cells.

FtsZ-mediated fission of a cuboid bacterial symbiont.

Less than a handful of cuboid and squared cells have been described in nature, which makes them a rarity. Here, we show how Thiosymbion cuboideus, a cube-like gammaproteobacterium, reproduces on the surface of marine free-living nematodes. Immunostaining of symbiont cells with an anti-fimbriae antibody revealed that they are host-polarized, as these appendages exclusively localized at the host-proximal (animal-attached) pole.

Specific Physiological and Anatomical Traits Associated With Polyploidy and Better Detoxification Processes Contribute to Improved Huanglongbing Tolerance of the Persian Lime Compared With the Mexican Lime.

Huanglongbing (HLB) is presently a major threat to the citrus industry. Because of this disease, millions of trees are currently dying worldwide. The putative causal agent is a motile bacteria belonging to Liberibacter spp.

Thiovulum sp. strain imperiosus: the largest free-living Epsilonproteobacteraeota strain lives in a marine mangrove environment.

A large (47.75 ± 3.56 µm in diameter) bacterial strain forming white veils is described from a marine mangrove ecosystem.

Global biogeography of chemosynthetic symbionts reveals both localized and globally distributed symbiont groups.

In the ocean, most hosts acquire their symbionts from the environment. Due to the immense spatial scales involved, our understanding of the biogeography of hosts and symbionts in marine systems is patchy, although this knowledge is essential for understanding fundamental aspects of symbiosis such as host-symbiont specificity and evolution. Lucinidae is the most species-rich and widely distributed family of marine bivalves hosting autotrophic bacterial endosymbionts.

Dynein self-organizes while translocating the centrosome in T-cells.

T-cells massively restructure their internal architecture upon reaching an antigen-presenting cell (APC) to form the immunological synapse (IS), a cell-cell interface necessary for efficient elimination of the APC. This reorganization occurs through tight coordination of cytoskeletal processes: actin forms a peripheral ring, and dynein motors translocate the centrosome toward the IS. A recent study proposed that centrosome translocation involves a microtubule (MT) bundle that connects the centrosome perpendicularly to dynein at the synapse center: the "stalk.

Kinesin-4 KIF21B limits microtubule growth to allow rapid centrosome polarization in T cells.

When a T cell and an antigen-presenting cell form an immunological synapse, rapid dynein-driven translocation of the centrosome toward the contact site leads to reorganization of microtubules and associated organelles. Currently, little is known about how the regulation of microtubule dynamics contributes to this process. Here, we show that the knockout of KIF21B, a kinesin-4 linked to autoimmune disorders, causes microtubule overgrowth and perturbs centrosome translocation.

Physical properties of epilithic river biofilm as a new lead to perform pollution bioassessments in overseas territories.

Chlordecone (CLD) levels measured in the rivers of the French West Indies were among the highest values detected worldwide in freshwater ecosystems, and its contamination is recognised as a severe health, environmental, agricultural, economic, and social issue. In these tropical volcanic islands, rivers show strong originalities as simplified food webs, or numerous amphidromous migrating species, making the bioindication of contaminations a difficult issue. The objective of this study was to search for biological responses to CLD pollution in a spatially fixed and long-lasting component of the rivers in the West Indies: the epilithic biofilm.

New Benthic Cyanobacteria from Guadeloupe Mangroves as Producers of Antimicrobials.

Benthic cyanobacteria strains from Guadeloupe have been investigated for the first time by combining phylogenetic, chemical and biological studies in order to better understand the taxonomic and chemical diversity as well as the biological activities of these cyanobacteria through the effect of their specialized metabolites. Therefore, in addition to the construction of the phylogenetic tree, indicating the presence of 12 potentially new species, an LC-MS/MS data analysis workflow was applied to provide an overview on chemical diversity of 20 cyanobacterial extracts, which was linked to antimicrobial activities evaluation against human pathogenic and ichtyopathogenic environmental strains.

First description of a new uncultured purple sulfur bacterium colonizing marine mangrove sediment in the Caribbean: Halochromatium-like PSB from Guadeloupe.

Here, we report the first description of a marine purple sulfur bacterium (PSB) from sulfide-rich sediments of a marine mangrove in the Caribbean. TEM shows that this new isolate contains intracytoplasmic vesicular membrane systems (containing bacteriochlorophyll a) and larger internal sulfur granules, confirmed by EDXS analyses performed using ESEM. The sulfur distribution and mapping obtained for this PSB strain has allowed us to conclude that elemental sulfur is formed as an intermediate oxidation product and stored intracellularly.

The potential role of spherocrystals in the detoxification of essential trace metals following exposure to Cu and Zn in the fighting conch Strombus (Lobatus) pugilis.

Crypt cells-one of the three cell types composing Strombidae digestive tubules-are characterized by the presence of numerous metal-containing phosphate granules termed spherocrystals. We explored the bioaccumulation and detoxification of metals in Strombidae by exposing wild fighting conch Strombus pugilis for 9 days to waterborne CuSO and ZnSO. The total amount of Cu and Zn was determined in the digestive gland and in the rest of the body by Inductively Coupled Plasma (ICP) analyses.

Thioautotrophic ectosymbiosis in Pseudovorticella sp., a peritrich ciliate species colonizing wood falls in marine mangrove.

Ciliates represent a diversified group of protists known to establish symbioses with prokaryotic micro-organisms. They are mainly phagotrophs and symbiotic relationships with bacteria can give them an important advantage in chemosynthetic environments. The aim of this study is to describe the thiotrophic association that occurs between the peritrich ciliate Pseudovorticella sp.