Deep Subseafloor Biogeochemical Processes and Microbial Populations Potentially Associated with the 2011 Tohoku-oki Earthquake at the Japan Trench Accretionary Wedge (IODP Expedition 343).

Post-mega-earthquake geochemical and microbiological properties in subseafloor sediments of the Japan Trench accretionary wedge were investigated using core samples from Hole C0019E, which was drilled down to 851‍ ‍m below seafloor (mbsf) at a water depth of 6,890 m. Methane was abundant throughout accretionary prism sediments; however, its concentration decreased close to the plate boundary decollement. Methane isotope systematics indicated a biogenic origin.

Lipopolysaccharide-induced innate immune factors in the bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) detected in expression sequence tag analysis.

EST analysis based on the megaclone-megasorting method was performed using leukocytes from the bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) with or without LPS stimulation. A total of 849 upregulated and 384 downregulated EST clones were sequenced, annotated, and functionally classified. Ferritin heavy peptide I was the most abundant upregulated transcript, suggesting that LPS stimulation induced high production of reactive oxygen species, which were sequestered in ferritin.

Rapid sea-level change in the Late Guadalupian (Permian) on the Tethyan side of South China: litho- and biostratigraphy of the Chaotian section in Sichuan.

The Capitanian (Late Guadalupian) Maokou Formation at Chaotian in northern Sichuan, South China, is composed mainly of shallow marine shelf carbonates deposited on the Tethyan side of South China. By detailed field mapping and scientific drilling, we newly found out unique fossil assemblages and a sharp lithologic change in the upper part of the Maokou Formation. The main part of the Maokou Formation (over 130 m thick) is composed of algal packstone with Wordian-Capitanian large-tested fusulines, rugose corals and other sessile benthos, whereas the Uppermost Member (13 m thick) is composed of black limy mudstone/chert with Capitanian offshore biota (ammonoids, radiolarians, and conodonts).