Phage-induced disturbance of a marine sponge microbiome.

Background: Bacteriophages are known modulators of community composition and activity in environmental and host-associated microbiomes. However, the impact single phages have on bacterial community dynamics under viral predation, the extent and duration of their effect, are not completely understood. In this study, we combine morphological and genomic characterization of a novel marine phage, isolated from the Baltic sponge Halichondria panicea, and report on first attempts of controlled phage-manipulation of natural sponge-associated microbiomes.

Microbiome diversity protects against pathogens by nutrient blocking.

The human gut microbiome plays an important role in resisting colonization of the host by pathogens, but we lack the ability to predict which communities will be protective. We studied how human gut bacteria influence colonization of two major bacterial pathogens, both in vitro and in gnotobiotic mice. Whereas single species alone had negligible effects, colonization resistance greatly increased with community diversity.

Organochlorine contamination enriches virus-encoded metabolism and pesticide degradation associated auxiliary genes in soil microbiomes.

Viruses significantly influence local and global biogeochemical cycles and help bacteria to survive in different environments by encoding various auxiliary metabolic genes (AMGs) associated with energy acquisition, stress tolerance and degradation of xenobiotics. Here we studied whether bacterial (dsDNA) virus encoded AMGs are enriched in organochlorine pesticide (OCP) contaminated soil in China and if viral AMGs include genes linked to OCP biodegradation. Using metagenomics, we found that OCP-contaminated soils displayed a lower bacterial, but higher diversity of viruses that harbored a higher relative abundance of AMGs linked to pesticide degradation and metabolism.

Activating Transcription Factor 6 Mediates Inflammatory Signals in Intestinal Epithelial Cells Upon Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress.

Background & Aims: Excess and unresolved endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress in intestinal epithelial cells (IECs) promotes intestinal inflammation. Activating transcription factor 6 (ATF6) is one of the signaling mediators of ER stress. We studied the pathways that regulate ATF6 and its role for inflammation in IECs.

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.

[Pain asymbolia-discovered around 1930 by Paul F. Schilder, almost forgotten today?].

Paul Ferdinand Schilder was born in Vienna in 1886 and died in New York in 1940. Today he is remembered particularly as a psychoanalyst and a psychotherapist. His research in neuroscience, however, was also both comprehensive and innovative.

A Phage Protein Aids Bacterial Symbionts in Eukaryote Immune Evasion.

Phages are increasingly recognized as important members of host-associated microbiomes, with a vast genomic diversity. The new frontier is to understand how phages may affect higher order processes, such as in the context of host-microbe interactions. Here, we use marine sponges as a model to investigate the interplay between phages, bacterial symbionts, and eukaryotic hosts.

Nonresonant Raman spectroscopy of isolated human retina samples complying with laser safety regulations for measurements.

Retinal diseases, such as age-related macular degeneration, are leading causes of vision impairment, increasing in incidence worldwide due to an aging society. If diagnosed early, most cases could be prevented. In contrast to standard ophthalmic diagnostic tools, Raman spectroscopy can provide a comprehensive overview of the biochemical composition of the retina in a label-free manner.

Antibiotics-induced monodominance of a novel gut bacterial order.

Objective: The composition of the healthy human adult gut microbiome is relatively stable over prolonged periods, and representatives of the most highly abundant and prevalent species have been cultured and described. However, microbial abundances can change on perturbations, such as antibiotics intake, enabling the identification and characterisation of otherwise low abundant species.

Design: Analysing gut microbial time-series data, we used shotgun metagenomics to create strain level taxonomic and functional profiles.

Marine Sponges as Hot Spots: Genomic Insights and High-Resolution Visualization of an Abundant and Diverse Symbiotic Clade.

Members of the widespread bacterial phylum can dominate high-microbial-abundance (HMA) sponge microbiomes. In the Sponge Microbiome Project, sequences amounted to 20 to 30% of the total microbiome of certain HMA sponge genera with the classes/clades SAR202, , and being the most prominent. We performed metagenomic and single-cell genomic analyses to elucidate the functional gene repertoire of symbionts of Aplysina aerophoba.

Landscape structure affects the prevalence and distribution of a tick-borne zoonotic pathogen.

Background: Landscape structure can affect pathogen prevalence and persistence with consequences for human and animal health. Few studies have examined how reservoir host species traits may interact with landscape structure to alter pathogen communities and dynamics. Using a landscape of islands and mainland sites we investigated how natural landscape fragmentation affects the prevalence and persistence of the zoonotic tick-borne pathogen complex Borrelia burgdorferi (sensu lato), which causes Lyme borreliosis.

Integrated metabolism in sponge-microbe symbiosis revealed by genome-centered metatranscriptomics.

Despite an increased understanding of functions in sponge microbiomes, the interactions among the symbionts and between symbionts and host are not well characterized. Here we reconstructed the metabolic interactions within the sponge Cymbastela concentrica microbiome in the context of functional features of symbiotic diatoms and the host. Three genome bins (CcPhy, CcNi and CcThau) were recovered from metagenomic data of C.

An Enrichment of CRISPR and Other Defense-Related Features in Marine Sponge-Associated Microbial Metagenomes.

Many marine sponges are populated by dense and taxonomically diverse microbial consortia. We employed a metagenomics approach to unravel the differences in the functional gene repertoire among three Mediterranean sponge species, and seawater. Different signatures were observed between sponge and seawater metagenomes with regard to microbial community composition, GC content, and estimated bacterial genome size.

Shedding light on cell compartmentation in the candidate phylum Poribacteria by high resolution visualisation and transcriptional profiling.

Assigning functions to uncultivated environmental microorganisms continues to be a challenging endeavour. Here, we present a new microscopy protocol for fluorescence in situ hybridisation-correlative light and electron microscopy (FISH-CLEM) that enabled, to our knowledge for the first time, the identification of single cells within their complex microenvironment at electron microscopy resolution. Members of the candidate phylum Poribacteria, common and uncultivated symbionts of marine sponges, were used towards this goal.

Lab-on-a-Chip-Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering Combined with the Standard Addition Method: Toward the Quantification of Nitroxoline in Spiked Human Urine Samples.

The emergence of antibacterial resistance and the development of new drugs lead to a continuous change of guidelines for medical treatments. Hence, new analytical tools are required for the detection of drugs in biological fluids. In this study, the first surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) detection of nitroxoline (NTX) in purified water and in spiked human urine samples is reported.

Plasmonic nanostructures for surface enhanced spectroscopic methods.

A comprehensive review of theoretical approaches to simulate plasmonic-active metallic nano-arrangements is given. Further, various fabrication methods based on bottom-up, self-organization and top-down techniques are introduced. Here, analytical approaches are discussed to investigate the optical properties of isotropic and non-magnetic spherical or spheroidal particles.

Towards SERS based applications in food analytics: lipophilic sensor layers for the detection of Sudan III in food matrices.

Food safety is a topic of great importance for our society which places high demands on analytical methods. Surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) meets the requirements for a rapid, sensitive and specific detection technique. The fact that metallic colloids, one of the most often used SERS substrates, are usually prepared in aqueous solution makes the detection of water-insoluble substances challenging.

Quantitative SERS analysis of azorubine (E 122) in sweet drinks.

Considering both the potential effects on human health and the need for knowledge of food composition, quantitative detection of synthetic dyes in foodstuffs and beverages is an important issue. For the first time, we report a fast quantitative analysis of the food and drink colorant azorubine (E 122) in different types of beverages using surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) without any sample preparation. Seven commercially available sweet drinks (including two negative controls) with high levels of complexity (sugar/artificial sweetener, ethanol content, etc.

A novel cost effective and high-throughput isolation and identification method for marine microalgae.

Background: Marine microalgae are of major ecologic and emerging economic importance. Biotechnological screening schemes of microalgae for specific traits and laboratory experiments to advance our knowledge on algal biology and evolution strongly benefit from culture collections reflecting a maximum of the natural inter- and intraspecific diversity. However, standard procedures for strain isolation and identification, namely DNA extraction, purification, amplification, sequencing and taxonomic identification still include considerable constraints increasing the time required to establish new cultures.