Environmental and Taxonomic Drivers of Bacterial Extracellular Vesicle Production in Marine Ecosystems.

Extracellular vesicles are small (approximately 50 to 250 nm in diameter), membrane-bound structures that are released by cells into their surrounding environment. Heterogeneous populations of vesicles are abundant in the global oceans, and they likely play a number of ecological roles in these microbially dominated ecosystems. Here, we examine how vesicle production and size vary among different strains of cultivated marine microbes as well as explore the degree to which this is influenced by key environmental variables.

Mitogenomic phylogenetic analyses of and (Anthozoa: Octocorallia) from the Gulf of Mexico provides insight on Gorgoniidae divergence between Pacific and Atlantic lineages.

The use of genetics in recent years has brought to light the need to reevaluate the classification of many gorgonian octocorals. This study focuses on two species- and -from the northwestern Gulf of Mexico (GOM). We target complete mitochondrial genomes and sequences, and integrate this data with previous genetic research of gorgonian corals to resolve phylogenetic relationships and estimate divergence times.