A More Diverse Cervical Microbiome Associates with Better Clinical Outcomes in Patients with Endometriosis: A Pilot Study

Infection-induced chronic inflammation is common in patients with endometriosis. Although microbial communities in the reproductive tracts of patients have been reported, little was known about their dynamic profiles during disease progression and complication development. Microbial communities in cervical mucus were collected by cervical swabs from 10 healthy women and 23 patients, and analyzed by 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing. The abundance, ecological relationships and functional networks of microbiota were characterized according to their prevalence, clinical stages, and clinical features including deeply infiltrating endometriosis (DIE), CA125, pain score and infertility. Cervical microbiome can be altered during endometriosis development and progression with a tendency of increased Firmicutes and decreased Actinobacteria and Bacteroidetes. Distinct from vaginal microbiome, upregulation of Lactobacillus, in combination with increased Streptococcus and decreased Dialister, was frequently associated with advanced endometriosis stages, DIE, higher CA125 levels, severe pain, and infertility. Significantly, reduced richness and diversity of cervical microbiome were detected in patients with more severe clinical symptoms. Clinical treatments against infertility can partially reverse the ecological balance of microbes through remodeling nutrition metabolism and transport and cell-cell/cell-matrix interaction. This study provides a new understanding on endometriosis development and a more diverse cervical microbiome may be beneficial for patients to have better clinical outcomes.

Mobile Genetic Elements Drive Antimicrobial Resistance Gene Spread in Pasteurellaceae Species

Mobile genetic elements (MGEs) and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) drive important ecological relationships in microbial communities and pathogen-host interaction. In this study, we investigated the resistome-associated mobilome in 345 publicly available Pasteurellaceae genomes, a large family of Gram-negative bacteria including major human and animal pathogens. We generated a comprehensive dataset of the mobilome integrated into genomes, including 10,820 insertion sequences, 2,939 prophages, and 43 integrative and conjugative elements. Also, we assessed plasmid sequences of Pasteurellaceae. Our findings greatly expand the diversity of MGEs for the family, including a description of novel elements. We discovered that MGEs are comparable and dispersed across species and that they also co-occur in genomes, contributing to the family’s ecology via gene transfer. In addition, we investigated the impact of these elements in the dissemination and shaping of AMR genes. A total of 55 different AMR genes were mapped to 721 locations in the dataset. MGEs are linked with 77.6% of AMR genes discovered, indicating their important involvement in the acquisition and transmission of such genes. This study provides an uncharted view of the Pasteurellaceae by demonstrating the global distribution of resistance genes linked with MGEs.

Talaromyces–Insect Relationships

Facing the urgent need to reduce the input of agrochemicals, in recent years, the ecological relationships between plants and their associated microorganisms have been increasingly considered as an essential tool for improving crop production. New findings and data have been accumulated showing that the application of fungi can go beyond the specific role that has been traditionally assigned to the species, employed in integrated pest management as entomopathogens or mycoparasites, and that strains combining both aptitudes can be identified and possibly used as multipurpose biocontrol agents. Mainly considered for their antagonistic relationships with plant pathogenic fungi, species in the genus Talaromyces have been more and more widely reported as insect associates in investigations carried out in various agricultural and non-agricultural contexts. Out of a total of over 170 species currently accepted in this genus, so far, 27 have been found to have an association with insects from 9 orders, with an evident increasing trend. The nature of their mutualistic and antagonistic relationships with insects, and their ability to synthesize bioactive compounds possibly involved in the expression of the latter kind of interactions, are analyzed in this paper with reference to the ecological impact and applicative perspectives in crop protection.

Characterization Of Interspecific Gene Flows at The Genome-wide Level in a Natural Ecosystem The Massane Forest Reveals New Insights Into Horizontal Transfer In plants.

Horizontal transfer (HT) refers to the exchange of genetic material between divergent species by mechanisms other than reproduction. In recent years, several studies have demonstrated HTs in plants, particularly in the context of parasitic relationships and in model species. However, very little is known about HT in natural ecosystems, especially those involving non-parasitic wild species, and the nature of the ecological relationships that promote these HTs. In this work, we conducted a pilot study investigating HTs by sequencing the genomes of 17 wild non-model species from a natural ecosystem, the Massane forest, located in southern France. To this end, we developed a new computational pipeline called INTERCHANGE that is able to characterize HTs at the whole genome level without prior annotation and directly in the raw sequencing reads. Using this pipeline, we identified 12 HT events, half of which occurred between lianas and trees. We found that only LTRs-retrotransposons and predominantly those from the Copia superfamily were transferred between these wild species. This study revealed a possible new route for HTs between non-parasitic plants and provides new insights into the genomic characteristics of horizontally transferred DNA in plant genomes.

Temporal and spatial isotopic variability of marine prey species in south-eastern Australia: Potential implications for predator diet studies

Stable isotope analyses, particularly of carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N), are used to investigate ecological relationships among species. For marine predators, research has shown the main factors influencing their intra-specific and intra-individual isotopic variation are geographical movements and changes in the composition of diet over time. However, as the differences seen may be the result of changes in the prey items consumed, a change in feeding location or the combination of both, knowledge of the temporal and spatial consistency in the isotopic values of prey becomes crucial for making accurate inferences about predator diets. This study used an abundant marine predator, the Australasian gannet (Morus serrator), as prey sampler to investigate the annual variation in fish and squid prey isotope values over a four-year period (2012–2015) and the geographic variation between two sites with contrasting oceanographic conditions. Significant inter-annual variation was observed in δ13C and/or δ15N values of five of the eight prey species analysed. The strongest inter-annual variation in both δ13C and δ15N values occurred in 2015, which coincided with a strong El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO). This may suggest a temporal fluctuation in the geographic source of prey or the origin of their nutrients. These results suggest that it is important to consider the potential significant differences in isotopic values within the prey assemblages that predators consume. This is important to improve the interpretation of marine predator isotope results when determining the influence of environmental variability on their diets.

Application of a methodology with georeferencing in the biological study of fish in the area of influence of a dam in the amazon region

The continuous interference of human activities in continental aquatic systems results in direct and indirect impacts, with consequences for water quality, aquatic biota and the dynamics of water resources. In this context, the Tucuruí Hydroelectric Power Plant (HPP) acquired relatively importance, as it was the first large dam carried out in the Amazon, in the 1980s, presenting important technical/economic results to justify the environmental costs associated with the project. The objective of this study was to apply a new methodology to represent through maps georeferencing biological information and evaluate the impact of the dam on the following fish species, which have different physiologies and taxonomies, in addition to not having much biological information about the species: Botinho (Hassar wilderi, Doradidae), Mandubé (Ageneiosus ucayalensis, Auchenipteridae), Sardinha Papuda (Triportheus trifurcatus, Characidae) and Uéua Cachorrinho (Acestrorhynchus falcirostris, Acestrorhynchidae). The condition factor related to the relationship between the individual's weight and body length, which derives from an expansion of the cubic law of living beings, being very important in ecological studies, even though they depend on simple to the most complex scientific methods, to estimate this bodily condition. Furthermore, this biological parameter influenced by environmental conditions and characteristics, due to food availability and ecological relationships in the environment. This information can support an adequate fisheries management, as there is an integration of fisheries biology and the characteristics of the environment in which they live. Thus, the methodology applied in this study was successful in its application proposal.

Resilience

This chapter extends the concept of resilience past its popular use and abuse to consider the deeper set of concepts that shape understandings of stability and instability in ecological relationships. Here, bundles of supporting concepts, each carrying implicit values, threaten to turn a multitude of useful ideas into a mess of conflicting frameworks. While resilience is a concept that developed out of the empirical grounds of ecology, it becomes, for sustainability science, a ‘term of art’ that expands to encompass the qualitative discourses of the humanistic sciences.

Intraspecific ecological relationships harmonious and inharmonious of parasitoids Class Insect Order Hymenoptera and a review

The aim of this study was to perform a bibliographic summary on the harmonic and disharmonious intraspecific ecological relationships of parasitoids (Insect: Hymenoptera). The mini review consists of bibliographical research on the parasitoids of the Hymenoptera Parasitic group. The research was conducted in studies related to quantitative aspects of the Superfamily, Family, Genus and Species (taxonomic groups) and in conceptual aspects such as: parasitism, parasitoidism, mutualism, spider parasitoids, "cockroaches karate kick parasitoid wasps to avoid becoming zombies", kicking defense by the cockroach, Wasp 'walking' a roach and ant parasitoids. A literature search was carried out containing articles published from 1982 to 2021. The mini review was carried out in Goiânia, Goiás, from August to September 2021, through the Online Scientific Library (Scielo) and internet.

Governing river rehabilitation projects for transformative capacity development

River rehabilitation projects are framed as water security interventions in South Africa. They aim to address water quality and water quantity issues, as well as to improve socio-ecological relationships. These projects acknowledge the value of capacity building and social learning in enhancing water security. However, they adopt different governance approaches and hence have different knowledge construction and capacity building outcomes. This paper employs a ‘governmentality’ framework to analyse the capacity development processes within three river rehabilitation projects in Durban, South Africa. The analysis revealed that the three projects with their different governmentalities produced different capacity development modalities which are utilised to sustain ‘the object of intervention’ in each river rehabilitation project. However, despite these differences, information as the currency of action; the context or site of learning; the importance of building state–citizen relationships; and the need for bridges or intermediaries, emerged as common elements which support capacity building and knowledge sharing across all three projects.

Biotic Relations Between Pathogenic Leptospires And Green Algae

Leptospira interrogans spirochetes belong to a group of pathogens of particularly dangerous infections that cause leptospirosis in many species of wild, farm and domestic animals, as well as humans. Significant economic damage caused by this disease to livestock around the world, numerous cases of death from leptospirosis, and mainly waterborne transmission of the infection determine the topicality of studying all the aspects of the existence of L. interrogans in freshwater ecosystems. The objective of our study was to determine the nature of ecological relationships between L. interrogans and green algae. We used green algae of the Desmodesmus brasiliensis species as a model object. In the experiments, sterile algae culture filtrates were added to L. interrogans containers grown at 27–28 °C. Comparison of the content of spirochete cells in the experiment and control samples, conducted 24 hours after exposure, showed that the reproduction of L. interrogans is markedly inhibited in the samples containing algae secretions at the dilutions of 1:10 and 1:100. In order to reduce resistance to the allelopathic influence of D. brasiliensis algae, leptospira strains were located as follows: Pomona, Australis, Hebdomadis, Canicola, Sejroe, Icterohaemorrhagiae, Grippotyphosa, Tarassovi. The obtained results indicate a complex intraspecific structure of L. interrogans and their high ecological plasticity. In addition, experimental data indicate that, due to the release of biologically active substances into the aquatic environment, green algae have the potential to affect the dynamics of a number of leptospirosis pathogens in situ. Given the important epidemiological and epizootic significance of pathogenic leptospira, further research is necessary to determine the patterns of their interactions and existence in the environment.