Bacteria are abundant in marine environments. They play important roles in nutrient cycling and form symbiotic interactions with eukaryotes. However, the vast majority of bacterial taxa are difficult to maintain in laboratory cultures, meaning that most microbiological research of the past century has focused on a small subset of bacteria....
Hatcheries are often perceived as a source of pathogen amplification, potentially increasing disease risk to free-ranging populations; at the same time, free-ranging fishes may introduce pathogens into hatcheries through untreated water sources. Many pathogens exist naturally within the environment (with the exception of introduced pathogens) and the presence of a...
Investigations of 16S rRNA gene sequences hallmark modern microbiology. These sequences provide culture-independent insight into the abundance and distribution of microbiota and serve as a principle resource through which microbial community diversity is measured. Consequently, researchers rely on 16S gene sequences to test hypotheses rooted in ecology, evolution, and disease....
The advent of improved DNA sequencing technologies has allowed the analysis of various microbial communities. Bloom-forming freshwater cyanobacteria can produce toxins and taste-and-odor compounds that can negatively affect drinking water supplies. Here, I have employed second- and third-generation sequencing technologies to characterize bloom-forming freshwater cyanobacterial genomes and their associated heterotrophic...
Streptococcus pneumoniae and Influenza A Virus both primarily infect the upper respiratory tract, with more severe disease occurring during coinfection than would be caused by either pathogen independently. Until recently, characterization of the interactions between these two pathogens has occurred exclusively in the context of a host or using host-derived...
Over 100 monthly bacterioplankton DNA samples, from each of the surface and 200 m depths at the Bermuda Atlantic Time-series Study (BATS) site, were analyzed for community assembly processes. Correlation networks, filtered for potential autocorrelation artifacts, were constructed for each depth. Network characteristics for the two depths were remarkably similar...
Agricultural and companion animals are integral to our way of life as they provide us with nourishment, financial resources, transportation, and companionship. However, pets, managed animals in the agricultural industry, as well as wild populations of food animals are all subject to health and mortality risks. The gut microbiome is...
Seagrasses and coral reefs play important roles in nutrient cycling, coastal protection, and maintaining marine biodiversity. However, these coastal marine organisms are declining globally due to anthropogenic stressors, such as rising ocean temperatures, ocean acidification, and eutrophication. These organisms live in close association with their microbiomes, which can be beneficial...
Climate change and other anthropogenic impacts are threatening the existence of millions of species around the globe. On western continental boundaries, the large-scale secondary process of upwelling, which brings low pH, deoxygenated, high nutrient seawater to the surface, is compounded by climate change, that together could drive some species to...
The combined activities of diverse heterotrophic marine microorganisms significantly shape global biogeochemical cycles, but models of these activities are currently limited to aggregate microbial community processes, and it remains unclear how community structure and the functional roles of specific microbial taxa should be integrated into these models. Therefore, understanding the...