CASCADE: Dataset of extant coccolithophore size, carbon content and global distribution.

Coccolithophores are marine calcifying phytoplankton important to the carbon cycle and a model organism for studying diversity. Here, we present CASCADE (Coccolithophore Abundance, Size, Carbon And Distribution Estimates), a new global dataset for 139 extant coccolithophore taxonomic units. CASCADE includes a trait database (size and cellular organic and inorganic carbon contents) and taxonomic-unit-specific global spatiotemporal distributions (Latitude/Longitude/Depth/Month/Year) of coccolithophore abundance and organic and inorganic carbon stocks.

Phagotrophy in the nitrogen-fixing haptophyte Braarudosphaera bigelowii.

Biological nitrogen fixation provides fixed nitrogen for microbes living in the oligotrophic open ocean. UCYN-A2, the previously known symbiont of Braarudosphaera bigelowii, now believed to be an early-stage B. bigelowii organelle that exchanges fixed nitrogen for fixed carbon, is globally distributed.

Nitrogen-fixing organelle in a marine alga.

Symbiotic interactions were key to the evolution of chloroplast and mitochondria organelles, which mediate carbon and energy metabolism in eukaryotes. Biological nitrogen fixation, the reduction of abundant atmospheric nitrogen gas (N) to biologically available ammonia, is a key metabolic process performed exclusively by prokaryotes. Atelocyanobacterium thalassa, or UCYN-A, is a metabolically streamlined N-fixing cyanobacterium previously reported to be an endosymbiont of a marine unicellular alga.

Unstable Relationship Between (= ) and Its Nitrogen-Fixing Endosymbiont.

Marine phytoplankton are major primary producers, and their growth is primarily limited by nitrogen in the oligotrophic ocean environment. The haptophyte possesses a cyanobacterial endosymbiont (UCYN-A), which plays a major role in nitrogen fixation in the ocean. However, host-symbiont interactions are poorly understood because was unculturable.

The mode of speciation during a recent radiation in open-ocean phytoplankton.

Despite the enormous ecological importance of marine phytoplankton, surprisingly little is known about how new phytoplankton species originate and evolve in the open ocean, in the absence of apparent geographic barriers that typically act as isolation mechanisms in speciation. To investigate the mechanism of open-ocean speciation, we combined fossil and climatic records from the late Quaternary with genome-wide evolutionary genetic analyses of speciation in the ubiquitous and abundant pelagic coccolithophore genus Gephyrocapsa (including G. huxleyi, formerly known as Emiliania huxleyi).

Abundance of the benthic dinoflagellate Prorocentrum and the diversity, distribution, and diarrhetic shellfish toxin production of Prorocentrum lima complex and P. caipirignum in Japan.

In the present study, the abundance of Prorocentrum and the molecular phylogeny, distribution, and DST production of P. lima complex and P. caipirignum in Japan were investigated.

Repeated species radiations in the recent evolution of the key marine phytoplankton lineage Gephyrocapsa.

Phytoplankton account for nearly half of global primary productivity and strongly affect the global carbon cycle, yet little is known about the forces that drive the evolution of these keystone microscopic organisms. Here we combine morphometric data from the fossil record of the ubiquitous coccolithophore genus Gephyrocapsa with genomic analyses of extant species to assess the genetic processes underlying Pleistocene palaeontological patterns. We demonstrate that all modern diversity in Gephyrocapsa (including Emiliania huxleyi) originated in a rapid species radiation during the last 0.

Genetic delineation between and within the widespread coccolithophore morpho-species Emiliania huxleyi and Gephyrocapsa oceanica (Haptophyta).

Emiliania huxleyi and Gephyrocapsa oceanica are abundant coccolithophore morpho-species that play key roles in ocean carbon cycling due to their importance as both primary producers and cal-cifiers. Global change processes such as ocean acidification impact these key calcifying species. The physiology of E.

Discovery of an endosymbiotic nitrogen-fixing cyanobacterium UCYN-A in Braarudosphaera bigelowii (Prymnesiophyceae).

Braarudosphaera bigelowii (Prymnesiophyceae) is a coastal coccolithophore with a long fossil record, extending back to the late Cretaceous (ca. 100 Ma). A recent study revealed close phylogenetic relationships between B.

Tritium in Japanese precipitation following the March 2011 Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant accident.

Tritium concentrations in Japanese precipitation samples collected after the March 2011 accident at the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant (FNPP1) were measured. Values exceeding the pre-accident background were detected at three out of seven localities (Tsukuba, Kashiwa and Hongo) southwest of the FNPP1 at distances varying between 170 and 220 km from the source. The highest tritium content was found in the first rainfall in Tsukuba after the accident; however concentrations were 500 times less than the regulatory limit for tritium in drinking water.

NEW EVIDENCE FOR MORPHOLOGICAL AND GENETIC VARIATION IN THE COSMOPOLITAN COCCOLITHOPHORE EMILIANIA HUXLEYI (PRYMNESIOPHYCEAE) FROM THE COX1b-ATP4 GENES(1).

Emiliania huxleyi (Lohmann) W. W. Hay et H.

Accumulation of radium in ferruginous protein bodies formed in lung tissue: association of resulting radiation hotspots with malignant mesothelioma and other malignancies.

While exposure to fibers and particles has been proposed to be associated with several different lung malignancies including mesothelioma, the mechanism for the carcinogenesis is not fully understood. Along with mineralogical observation, we have analyzed forty-four major and trace elements in extracted asbestos bodies (fibers and proteins attached to them) with coexisting fiber-free ferruginous protein bodies from extirpative lungs of individuals with malignant mesothelioma. These observations together with patients' characteristics suggest that inhaled iron-rich asbestos fibers and dust particles, and excess iron deposited by continuous cigarette smoking would induce ferruginous protein body formation resulting in ferritin aggregates in lung tissue.