Proteomic traits vary across taxa in a coastal Antarctic phytoplankton bloom

Production and use of proteins is under strong selection in microbes, but it is unclear how proteome-level traits relate to ecological strategies. We identified and quantified proteomic traits of eukaryotic microbes and bacteria through an Antarctic phytoplankton bloom using in situ metaproteomics. Different taxa, rather than different environmental conditions, formed distinct clusters based on their ribosomal and photosynthetic proteomic proportions, and we propose that these characteristics relate to ecological differences. We defined and used a proteomic proxy for regulatory cost, which showed that SAR11 had the lowest regulatory cost of any taxa we observed at our summertime Southern Ocean study site. Haptophytes had lower regulatory cost than diatoms, which may underpin haptophyte-to-diatom bloom progression in the Ross Sea. We were able to make these proteomic trait inferences by assessing various sources of bias in metaproteomics, providing practical recommendations for researchers in the field. We have quantified several proteomic traits (ribosomal and photosynthetic proteomic proportions, regulatory cost) in eukaryotic and bacterial taxa, which can then be incorporated into trait-based models of microbial communities that reflect resource allocation strategies.

Ice multiplication from ice–ice collisions in the high Arctic: sensitivity to ice habit, rimed fraction, ice type and uncertainties in the numerical description of the process

Atmospheric models often fail to correctly reproduce the microphysical structure of Arctic mixed-phase clouds and underpredict ice water content even when the simulations are constrained by observed levels of ice nucleating particles. In this study we investigate whether ice multiplication from breakup upon ice–ice collisions, a process missing in most models, can account for the observed cloud ice in a stratocumulus cloud observed during the Arctic Summer Cloud Ocean Study (ASCOS) campaign. Our results indicate that the efficiency of this process in these conditions is weak; increases in fragment generation are compensated for by subsequent enhancement of precipitation and subcloud sublimation. Activation of collisional breakup improves the representation of cloud ice content, but cloud liquid remains overestimated. In most sensitivity simulations, variations in ice habit and prescribed rimed fraction have little effect on the results. A few simulations result in explosive multiplication and cloud dissipation; however, in most setups, the overall multiplication effects become substantially weaker if the precipitation sink is enhanced through cloud-ice-to-snow autoconversion. The largest uncertainty stems from the correction factor for ice enhancement due to sublimation included in the breakup parameterization; excluding this correction results in rapid glaciation, especially in simulations with plates. Our results indicate that the lack of a detailed treatment of ice habit and rimed fraction in most bulk microphysics schemes is not detrimental for the description of the collisional breakup process in the examined conditions as long as cloud-ice-to-snow autoconversion is considered.

Streptomyces bathyalis sp. nov., an actinobacterium isolated from the sponge in a deep sea

A novel actinobacterium, designated ASO4wetT, was isolated from the unidentified sponge (SO4) in the deep sea collected of the North Atlantic Ocean. Study of 16S rRNA gene sequences indicated that strain ASO4wetT is a member of the genus Streptomyces and showed the closest similarities to Streptomyces karpasiensis K413T (98.87 %), Streptomyces glycovorans YIM M 10366T (98.38 %), and Streptomyces abyssalis YIM M 10400T (97.53 %). Strain ASO4wetT contained MK-9(H8) as the predominant menaquinone and the major fatty acids are iso-C16:0, anteiso-C15:0, and iso-C15:0. Polyphasic taxonomy was carried out between strain ASO4wetT and its phylogenetically closely related Streptomyces strains, which further elucidated their relatedness and revealed that strain ASO4wetT could be distinguished from currently known Streptomyces species. Strain ASO4wetT clearly represents a novel species in genus Streptomyces. We propose the name Streptomyces bathyalis sp. nov., with the type strain ASO4wetT (= DSM 106605T = NCCB 100657T). Analysis of the whole-genome sequence of S. bathyalis revealed that genome size is 7,377,472 bp with 6332 coding sequences.

Reporting of Safety Events during Anti-VEGF Treatment: Pharmacovigilance in a Noninterventional Trial

Aim. The prospective, noninterventional OCEAN study assessed the safety of intravitreal ranibizumab injections for treatment of neovascular age-related macular degeneration, diabetic macular edema, and retinal vein occlusion under real-world conditions in Germany. Methods. Adults receiving ≥1 ranibizumab (0.5 mg) injections were recruited by 369 ophthalmologists and followed for 24 months. Information on adverse events (AEs) was reported by the treating physician or detected by the data management team. Collected information included observed AE, AE start and end date, intensity, causal relationship, outcome, severity, suspected drug, and actions taken. Results. 2,687 AEs were reported for 1,176 of the 5,781 patients who had received a total of 32,621 injections: 27.4% nonserious AEs, 30.3% serious AEs, 27.3% nonserious adverse drug reactions (ADRs), and 15.0% serious ADRs. Most patients reported no AEs (79.7%) or only 1 AE (10.3%). AEs were most commonly reported in the Medical Dictionary for Regulatory Activities (MedDRA) System Organ Class (SOC) Eye disorders (9.4% of patients) and General disorders and administration site conditions (5.8%). The most frequent AEs by MedDRA preferred term (PT) were visual acuity reduced (3.5% of patients), intraocular pressure increased (2.5%), and drug ineffective (2.1%). AEs occurred most frequently after 3 or 4 injections (1,129 of 2,687 AEs). The proportion of AEs in the SOC Eye disorders decreased slightly with increasing number of injections, from 39.8% of events after 1 or 2 injections to 29.1% after 5 or more injections. Rates of the most frequently reported PTs did not show any consistent increase with increasing number of injections. A decrease in overall AE rates was observed over the study course. Conclusions. The results did not raise any new safety concerns for ranibizumab. The findings allow conclusions to be drawn on how pharmacovigilance data can be collected even more effectively in real-world studies to facilitate discussion on benefit-risk ratio.