Uncultivated DPANN archaea are ubiquitous inhabitants of global oxygen-deficient zones with diverse metabolic potential.

Unlabelled: Archaea belonging to the DPANN (Diapherotrites, Parvarchaeota, Aenigmarchaeota, Nanoarchaeota, and Nanohaloarchaeota) superphylum have been found in an expanding number of environments and perform a variety of biogeochemical roles, including contributing to carbon, sulfur, and nitrogen cycling. Generally characterized by ultrasmall cell sizes and reduced genomes, DPANN archaea may form mutualistic, commensal, or parasitic interactions with various archaeal and bacterial hosts, influencing the ecology and functioning of microbial communities. While DPANN archaea reportedly comprise a sizeable fraction of the archaeal community within marine oxygen-deficient zone (ODZ) water columns, little is known about their metabolic capabilities in these ecosystems.

Uncultivated DPANN archaea are ubiquitous inhabitants of global oxygen deficient zones with diverse metabolic potential.

Archaea belonging to the DPANN superphylum have been found within an expanding number of environments and perform a variety of biogeochemical roles, including contributing to carbon, sulfur, and nitrogen cycling. Generally characterized by ultrasmall cell sizes and reduced genomes, DPANN archaea may form mutualistic, commensal, or parasitic interactions with various archaeal and bacterial hosts, influencing the ecology and functioning of microbial communities. While DPANN archaea reportedly comprise 15-26% of the archaeal community within marine oxygen deficient zone (ODZ) water columns, little is known about their metabolic capabilities in these ecosystems.

Widespread detoxifying NO reductases impart a distinct isotopic fingerprint on NO under anoxia.

Nitrous oxide (NO), a potent greenhouse gas, can be generated by compositionally complex microbial populations in diverse contexts. Accurately tracking the dominant biological sources of NO has the potential to improve our understanding of NO fluxes from soils as well as inform the diagnosis of human infections. Isotopic "Site Preference" (SP) values have been used towards this end, as bacterial and fungal nitric oxide reductases produce NO with different isotopic fingerprints.

The contrasting roles of nitric oxide drive microbial community organization as a function of oxygen presence.

Microbial assemblages are omnipresent in the biosphere, forming communities on the surfaces of roots and rocks and within living tissues. These communities can exhibit strikingly beautiful compositional structures, with certain members reproducibly occupying particular spatiotemporal microniches. Despite this reproducibility, we lack the ability to explain these spatial patterns.

Spatial Ecology of the Human Tongue Dorsum Microbiome.

A fundamental question in microbial ecology is how microbes are spatially organized with respect to each other and their host. A test bed for examining this question is the tongue dorsum, which harbors a complex and important microbial community. Here, we use multiplexed fluorescence spectral imaging to investigate the organization of the tongue microbiome at micron to hundred-micron scales.

Semi-blind sparse affine spectral unmixing of autofluorescence-contaminated micrographs.

Motivation: Spectral unmixing methods attempt to determine the concentrations of different fluorophores present at each pixel location in an image by analyzing a set of measured emission spectra. Unmixing algorithms have shown great promise for applications where samples contain many fluorescent labels; however, existing methods perform poorly when confronted with autofluorescence-contaminated images.

Results: We propose an unmixing algorithm designed to separate fluorophores with overlapping emission spectra from contamination by autofluorescence and background fluorescence.

Verification of γ-Amino-Butyric Acid (GABA) Signaling System Components in Periodontal Ligament Cells In Vivo and In Vitro.

CNS key neurotransmitter γ-amino-butyric acid (GABA) and its signaling components are likewise detectable in non-neuronal tissues displaying inter alia immunomodulatory functions. This study aimed at identifying potential glutamate decarboxylase (GAD)65 and GABA receptor expression in periodontal ligament (PDL) cells in vivo and in vitro, with particular regard to inflammation and mechanical loading. Gene expression was analyzed in human PDL cells at rest or in response to IL-1ß (5 ng/ml) or TNFα (5 ng/ml) challenge via qRT-PCR.

UV-Stressed Daphnia pulex Increase Fitness through Uptake of Vitamin D3.

Ultraviolet radiation is known to be highly variable in aquatic ecosystems. It has been suggested that UV-exposed organisms may demonstrate enough phenotypic plasticity to maintain the relative fitness of natural populations. Our long-term objective is to determine the potential photoprotective effect of vitamin D3 on Daphnia pulex exposed to acute or chronic UV radiation.