Climate change is causing extreme short-term warming with greater intensity and more frequent occurrence. Reproduction and subsequent recruitment of coastal ecosystem engineers, such as the blue mussel, may be impacted by the extreme temperatures because these vital functions are sensitive to the timing of short-term changes in abiotic factors. We exposed intertidal blue mussels, Mytilus edulis, to a thermal challenge from 10 to 29 °C using an ecologically relevant heating rate of 4 °C/h.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMarine and coastal environments are constantly subjected to increasing pressures associated with population growth, industrialization development, pollution and higher demand feeding society's consumerism. Among these pressures, there has been an increasing concern towards UV filters occurrence in aquatic ecosystems due to a greater use of personal care products (PCPs). 2-ethylhexyl-4-methoxycinnamate (EHMC) is one of the most used UV filters in sunscreen formulations, yet few reports address its effects in biota.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFToxicity testing is an important tool for risk assessment of sediment contamination in estuaries. However, there has been a predominant focus on fitness parameters as toxic endpoints and on crustaceans as test organisms, while effects at the sub-organismal level and on other benthic taxa have received less attention. Also, interactions between sediment contamination and natural stressors such as oxygen are often neglected in traditional toxicity tests.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFClostridioides difficile causes a large proportion of nosocomial colon infections by producing toxins TcdA and TcdB as key virulence factors. TcdA and TcdB have analogous domain structures with a receptor-binding domain containing C-terminal combined repetitive oligopeptides (CROPs), an attractive target for the development of therapeutic antibodies. Here, we identify and characterize two potent neutralizing single-domain camelid anti-CROPsA antibodies, C4.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe study provides nomenclatural history, morphological characteristics and taxonomy of and described by B.V. Skvortzov from Lake Baikal.
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