1. |
- Nilsson, R. Henrik, 1976, et al.
(author)
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Introducing guidelines for publishing DNA-derived occurrence data through biodiversity data platforms
- 2022
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In: Metabarcoding and Metagenomics. - : Pensoft Publishers. - 2534-9708. ; 6, s. 239-244
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- DNA sequencing efforts of environmental and other biological samples disclose unprecedented and largely untapped opportunities for advances in the taxonomy, ecology, and geographical distributions of our living world. To realise this potential, DNA-derived occurrence data (notably sequences with dates and coordinates) – much like traditional specimens and observations – need to be discoverable and interpretable through biodiversity data platforms. The Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) recently headed a community effort to assemble a set of guidelines for publishing DNA-derived data. These guidelines target the principles and approaches of exposing DNA-derived occurrence data in the context of broader biodiversity data. They cover a choice of terms using a controlled vocabulary, common pitfalls, and good practices, without going into platform-specific details. Our hope is that they will benefit anyone interested in better exposure of DNA-derived occurrence data through general biodiversity data platforms, including national biodiversity portals. This paper provides a brief rationale and an overview of the guidelines, an up-to-date version of which is maintained at https://doi.org/10.35035/doc-vf1a-nr22. User feedback and interaction are encouraged as new techniques and best practices emerge.
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2. |
- Kõljalg, Urmas, et al.
(author)
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A price tag on species
- 2022
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In: Research Ideas and Outcomes_RIO. - : Pensoft Publishers. - 2367-7163. ; 8, s. 1-7
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Species have intrinsic value but also partake in a long range of ecosystem services of major economic value to humans. These values have proved hard to quantify precisely, making it all too easy to dismiss them altogether. We outline the concept of the species stock market (SSM), a system to provide a unified basis for valuation of all living species. The SSM amalgamates digitized information from natural history collections, occurrence data, and molecular sequence databases to quantify our knowledge of each species from scientific, societal, and economic points of view. The conceptual trading system will necessarily be very unlike that of the regular stock market, but the looming biodiversity crisis implores us to finally put an open and transparent price tag on symbiosis, deforestation, and pollution
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3. |
- Nilsson, R. Henrik, 1976, et al.
(author)
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How, not if, is the question mycologists should be asking about DNA-based typification
- 2023
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In: MycoKeys. - : Pensoft Publishers. - 1314-4057 .- 1314-4049. ; :96, s. 143-157
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Fungal metabarcoding of substrates such as soil, wood, and water is uncovering an unprecedented number of fungal species that do not seem to produce tangible morphological structures and that defy our best attempts at cultivation, thus falling outside the scope of the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants. The present study uses the new, ninth release of the species hypotheses of the UNITE database to show that species discovery through environmental sequencing vastly outpaces traditional, Sanger sequencing-based efforts in a strongly increasing trend over the last five years. Our findings chal-lenge the present stance of some in the mycological community - that the current situation is satisfactory and that no change is needed to "the code" - and suggest that we should be discussing not whether to allow DNA-based descriptions (typifications) of species and by extension higher ranks of fungi, but what the precise requirements for such DNA-based typifications should be. We submit a tentative list of such criteria for further discussion. The present authors hope for a revitalized and deepened discussion on DNA-based typification, because to us it seems harmful and counter-productive to intentionally deny the overwhelming majority of extant fungi a formal standing under the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants.
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4. |
- Pontiller, Benjamin, MSc, 1985-
(author)
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Molecular mechanisms involved in prokaryotic cycling of labile dissolved organic matter in the sea
- 2021
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Roughly half of the global primary production originates from microscopic phytoplankton in marine ecosystems, converting carbon dioxide into organic matter. This organic matter pool consists of a myriad of compounds that fuel heterotrophic bacterioplankton. However, knowledge of the molecular mechanisms – particularly the metabolic pathways involved in the degradation and utilization of dissolved organic matter (DOM) – and transcriptional dynamics over spatiotemporal gradients are still scarce. Therefore, we studied the molecular mechanisms of bacterioplankton communities, including archaea, involved in the cycling of DOM, over different spatiotemporal scales in experiments and through field observations.In seawater experiments, we found a divergence of bacterioplankton transcriptional responses to different organic matter compound classes (carbohydrates, nucleic acids, and proteins) and condensation states (monomers or polymers). These responses were associated with distinct bacterial taxa, suggesting pronounced functional partitioning of these compounds in the Sea. Baltic Proper mesocosms amended with two different river loadings (forest versus agriculture river water) revealed a divergence in gene expression patterns between treatments during bloom decay. This was particularly true for genes in phosphorus and nitrogen metabolism, highlighting the importance and sensitivity of interaction effects between river- and phytoplankton-derived DOM in regulating bacterial activity responses to changes in precipitation-induced riverine runoff.In shipboard mesocosms in an Atlantic coastal upwelling system, we found significant changes in bacterioplankton transcription of hydrolyzing enzymes and membrane transporters from phytoplankton bloom development to senescence, primarily driven by phytoplankton-derived DOM and dissolved organic carbon dynamics. These responses differed substantially between bacterial orders, suggesting that functional resource partitioning is dynamically structured by temporal changes in DOM quantity and quality. Further analysis of these gene systems in a stratified fjord revealed pronounced divergence in transcription with depth and between bacterial taxa; moreover, transcription was more variable in the surface waters. This highlights the interplay between functional and physical partitioning of biogeochemical cycles. Collectively, the findings in this thesis contribute novel insights into the interdependency between prokaryotes and DOM by shedding light on the mechanisms involved in DOM cycling over ecologically relevant spatiotemporal scales.
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5. |
- Zanne, Amy E, et al.
(author)
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Fungal functional ecology: bringing a trait-based approach to plant-associated fungi.
- 2020
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In: Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society. - : Wiley. - 1469-185X .- 1464-7931. ; 95:2, s. 409-433
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Fungi play many essential roles in ecosystems. They facilitate plant access to nutrients and water, serve as decay agents that cycle carbon and nutrients through the soil, water and atmosphere, and are major regulators of macro-organismal populations. Although technological advances are improving the detection and identification of fungi, there still exist key gaps in our ecological knowledge of this kingdom, especially related to function. Trait-based approaches have been instrumental in strengthening our understanding of plant functional ecology and, as such, provide excellent models for deepening our understanding of fungal functional ecology in ways that complement insights gained from traditional and -omics-based techniques. In this review, we synthesize current knowledge of fungal functional ecology, taxonomy and systematics and introduce a novel database of fungal functional traits (FunFun ). FunFun is built to interface with other databases to explore and predict how fungal functional diversity varies by taxonomy, guild, and other evolutionary or ecological grouping variables. To highlight how a quantitative trait-based approach can provide new insights, we describe multiple targeted examples and end by suggesting next steps in the rapidly growing field of fungal functional ecology.
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6. |
- Borchert, Erik, et al.
(author)
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Deciphering a Marine Bone-Degrading Microbiome Reveals a Complex Community Effort
- 2021
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In: mSystems. - 2379-5077 .- 2379-5077. ; 6:1
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The marine bone biome is a complex assemblage of macro- and microor- ganisms; however, the enzymatic repertoire to access bone-derived nutrients remains unknown. The bone matrix is a composite material made up mainly of organic colla- gen and inorganic hydroxyapatite. We conducted field experiments to study microbial assemblages that can use organic bone components as nutrient source. Bovine and turkey bones were deposited at 69 m depth in a Norwegian fjord (Byfjorden, Bergen). Metagenomic sequence analysis was used to assess the functional potential of micro- bial assemblages from bone surface and the bone-eating worm Osedax mucofloris, which is a frequent colonizer of whale falls and known to degrade bone. The bone microbiome displayed a surprising taxonomic diversity revealed by the examination of 59 high-quality metagenome-assembled genomes from at least 23 bacterial families. Over 700 genes encoding enzymes from 12 relevant enzymatic families pertaining to collagenases, peptidases, and glycosidases putatively involved in bone degradation were identified. Metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs) of the class Bacteroidia con- tained the most diverse gene repertoires. We postulate that demineralization of inor- ganic bone components is achieved by a timely succession of a closed sulfur biogeo- chemical cycle between sulfur-oxidizing and sulfur-reducing bacteria, causing a drop in pH and subsequent enzymatic processing of organic components in the bone sur- face communities. An unusually large and novel collagen utilization gene cluster was retrieved from one genome belonging to the gammaproteobacterial genus Colwellia. IMPORTANCE Bones are an underexploited, yet potentially profitable feedstock for biotechnological advances and value chains, due to the sheer amounts of residues produced by the modern meat and poultry processing industry. In this metagenomic study, we decipher the microbial pathways and enzymes that we postulate to be involved in bone degradation in the marine environment. We here demonstrate the interplay between different bacterial community members, each supplying different enzymatic functions with the potential to cover an array of reactions relating to the degradation of bone matrix components. We identify and describe a novel gene cluster for collagen utilization, which is a key function in this unique environment. We propose that the interplay between the different microbial taxa is necessary to achieve the complex task of bone degradation in the marine environment.
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7. |
- Crous, P. W., et al.
(author)
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Fusarium : more than a node or a foot-shaped basal cell
- 2021
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In: Studies in mycology. - : CENTRAALBUREAU SCHIMMELCULTURE. - 0166-0616 .- 1872-9797. ; :98
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Recent publications have argued that there are potentially serious consequences for researchers in recognising distinct genera in the terminal fusarioid clade of the family Nectriaceae. Thus, an alternate hypothesis, namely a very broad concept of the genus Fusarium was proposed. In doing so, however, a significant body of data that supports distinct genera in Nectriaceae based on morphology, biology, and phylogeny is disregarded. A DNA phylogeny based on 19 orthologous protein-coding genes was presented to support a very broad concept of Fusarium at the F1 node in Nectriaceae. Here, we demonstrate that re-analyses of this dataset show that all 19 genes support the F3 node that represents Fusarium sensu stricto as defined by F. sambucinum (sexual morph synonym Gibberella pulicaris). The backbone of the phylogeny is resolved by the concatenated alignment, but only six of the 19 genes fully support the F1 node, representing the broad circumscription of Fusarium. Furthermore, a re-analysis of the concatenated dataset revealed alternate topologies in different phylogenetic algorithms, highlighting the deep divergence and unresolved placement of various Nectriaceae lineages proposed as members of Fusarium. Species of Fusarium s. str. are characterised by Gibberella sexual morphs, asexual morphs with thin- or thick-walled macroconidia that have variously shaped apical and basal cells, and trichothecene mycotoxin production, which separates them from other fusarioid genera. Here we show that the Wollenweber concept of Fusarium presently accounts for 20 segregate genera with clear-cut synapomorphic traits, and that fusarioid macroconidia represent a character that has been gained or lost multiple times throughout Nectriaceae. Thus, the very broad circumscription of Fusarium is blurry and without apparent synapomorphies, and does not include all genera with fusarium-like macroconidia, which are spread throughout Nectriaceae (e.g., Cosmosporella, Macroconia, Microcera). In this study four new genera are introduced, along with 18 new species and 16 new combinations. These names convey information about relationships, morphology, and ecological preference that would otherwise be lost in a broader definition of Fusarium. To assist users to correctly identify fusarioid genera and species, we introduce a new online identification database, Fusarioid-ID, accessible at www.fusarium.org. The database comprises partial sequences from multiple genes commonly used to identify fusarioid taxa (act1, CaM, his3, rpb1, rpb2, tef1, tub2, ITS, and LSU). In this paper, we also present a nomenclator of names that have been introduced in Fusarium up to January 2021 as well as their current status, types, and diagnostic DNA barcode data. In this study, researchers from 46 countries, representing taxonomists, plant pathologists, medical mycologists, quarantine officials, regulatory agencies, and students, strongly support the application and use of a more precisely delimited Fusarium (= Gibberella) concept to accommodate taxa from the robust monophyletic node F3 on the basis of a well-defined and unique combination of morphological and biochemical features. This F3 node includes, among others, species of the F. fujikuroi, F. incarnatum-equiseti, F. oxysporum, and F. sambucinum species complexes, but not species of Bisifusarium [F. dimerum species complex (SC)], Cyanonectria (F. buxicola SC), Geejayessia (F. staphyleae SC), Neocosmospora (F. solani SC) or Rectifusarium (F. ventricosum SC). The present study represents the first step to generating a new online monograph of Fusarium and allied fusarioid genera (www.fusarium.org).
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8. |
- De Chiara, Matteo, et al.
(author)
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Domestication reprogrammed the budding yeast life cycle
- 2022
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In: Nature Ecology & Evolution. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2397-334X .- 2397-334X. ; 6
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Domestication of plants and animals is the foundation for feeding the world human population but can profoundly alter the biology of the domesticated species. Here we investigated the effect of domestication on one of our prime model organisms, the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, at a species-wide level. We tracked the capacity for sexual and asexual reproduction and the chronological life span across a global collection of 1,011 genome-sequenced yeast isolates and found a remarkable dichotomy between domesticated and wild strains. Domestication had systematically enhanced fermentative and reduced respiratory asexual growth, altered the tolerance to many stresses and abolished or impaired the sexual life cycle. The chronological life span remained largely unaffected by domestication and was instead dictated by clade-specific evolution. We traced the genetic origins of the yeast domestication syndrome using genome-wide association analysis and genetic engineering and disclosed causative effects of aneuploidy, gene presence/absence variations, copy number variations and single-nucleotide polymorphisms. Overall, we propose domestication to be the most dramatic event in budding yeast evolution, raising questions about how much domestication has distorted our understanding of the natural biology of this key model species.
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9. |
- Izabel-Shen, Dandan, et al.
(author)
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Quality of phytoplankton deposition structures bacterial communities at the water-sediment interface
- 2021
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In: Molecular Ecology. - : John Wiley & Sons. - 0962-1083 .- 1365-294X. ; 30:14, s. 3515-3529
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Phytoplankton comprises a large fraction of the vertical carbon flux to deep water via the sinking of particulate organic matter (POM). However, despite the importance of phytoplankton in the coupling of benthic-pelagic productivity, the extent to which its deposition in the sediment affects bacterial dynamics at the water-sediment interface is poorly understood. Here, we conducted a microcosm experiment in which varying mixtures of diatom and cyanobacteria, representing phytoplankton-derived POM of differing quality, served as inputs to sediment cores. Characterization of 16S rRNA gene of the bacterial communities at the water-sediment interface showed that bacterial alpha-diversity was not affected by POM addition, while bacterial beta-diversity changed significantly along the POM quality gradient, with the variation driven by changes in relative abundance rather than in taxon replacement. Analysing individual taxa abundances across the POM gradient revealed two distinct bacterial responses, in which taxa within either diatom- or cyanobacteria-favoured groups were more phylogenetically closely related to one another than other taxa found in the water. Moreover, there was little overlap in taxon identity between sediment and water communities, suggesting the minor role played by sediment bacteria in influencing the observed changes in bacterial communities in the overlying water. Together, these results showed that variability in phytoplankton-originated POM can impact bacterial dynamics at the water-sediment interface. Our findings highlight the importance of considering the potential interactions between phytoplankton and bacteria in benthic-pelagic coupling in efforts to understand the structure and function of bacterial communities under a changing climate.
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10. |
- Eriksson, Martin, 1970, et al.
(author)
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Triclosan changes community composition and selects for specific bacterial taxa in marine periphyton biofilms in low nanomolar concentrations
- 2020
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In: Ecotoxicology. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0963-9292 .- 1573-3017. ; 29:7, s. 1083-1094
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The antibacterial agent Triclosan (TCS) is a ubiquitous environmental contaminant due to its widespread use. Sensitivity to TCS varies substantially among eu- and pro-karyotic species and its risk for the marine environment remains to be better elucidated. In particular, the effects that TCS causes on marine microbial communities are largely unknown. In this study we therefore used 16S amplicon rDNA sequencing to investigate TCS effects on the bacterial composition in marine periphyton communities that developed under long-term exposure to different TCS concentrations. Exposure to TCS resulted in clear changes in bacterial composition already at concentrations of 1 to 3.16 nM. We conclude that TCS affects the structure of the bacterial part of periphyton communities at concentrations that actually occur in the marine environment. Sensitive taxa, whose abundance decreased significantly with increasing TCS concentrations, include the Rhodobiaceae and Rhodobacteraceae families of Alphaproteobacteria, and unidentified members of the Candidate division Parcubacteria. Tolerant taxa, whose abundance increased significantly with higher TCS concentrations, include the families Erythrobacteraceae (Alphaproteobacteria), Flavobacteriaceae (Bacteroidetes), Bdellovibrionaceae (Deltaproteobacteria), several families of Gammaproteobacteria, and members of the Candidate phylum Gracilibacteria. Our results demonstrate the variability of TCS sensitivity among bacteria, and that TCS can change marine bacterial composition at concentrations that have been detected in the marine environment.
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