Building consensus around the assessment and interpretation of Symbiodiniaceae diversity.

Within microeukaryotes, genetic variation and functional variation sometimes accumulate more quickly than morphological differences. To understand the evolutionary history and ecology of such lineages, it is key to examine diversity at multiple levels of organization. In the dinoflagellate family Symbiodiniaceae, which can form endosymbioses with cnidarians (e.g., corals, octocorals, sea anemones, jellyfish), other marine invertebrates (e.g., sponges, molluscs, flatworms), and protists (e.g., foraminifera), molecular data have been used extensively over the past three decades to describe phenotypes and to make evolutionary and ecological inferences. Despite advances in Symbiodiniaceae genomics, a lack of consensus among researchers with respect to interpreting genetic data has slowed progress in the field and acted as a barrier to reconciling observations. Here, we identify key challenges regarding the assessment and interpretation of Symbiodiniaceae genetic diversity across three levels: species, populations, and communities. We summarize areas of agreement and highlight techniques and approaches that are broadly accepted. In areas where debate remains, we identify unresolved issues and discuss technologies and approaches that can help to fill knowledge gaps related to genetic and phenotypic diversity. We also discuss ways to stimulate progress, in particular by fostering a more inclusive and collaborative research community. We hope that this perspective will inspire and accelerate coral reef science by serving as a resource to those designing experiments, publishing research, and applying for funding related to Symbiodiniaceae and their symbiotic partnerships.

Economic performance and cost-effectiveness of using a DEC-salt social enterprise for eliminating the major neglected tropical disease, lymphatic filariasis.

BACKGROUND: Salt fortified with the drug, diethylcarbamazine (DEC), and introduced into a competitive market has the potential to overcome the obstacles associated with tablet-based Lymphatic Filariasis (LF) elimination programs. Questions remain, however, regarding the economic viability, production capacity, and effectiveness of this strategy as a sustainable means to bring about LF elimination in resource poor settings. METHODOLOGY AND PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We evaluated the performance and effectiveness of a novel social enterprise-based approach developed and tested in Léogâne, Haiti, as a strategy to sustainably and cost-efficiently distribute DEC-medicated salt into a competitive market at quantities sufficient to bring about the elimination of LF. We undertook a cost-revenue analysis to evaluate the production capability and financial feasibility of the developed DEC salt social enterprise, and a modeling study centered on applying a dynamic mathematical model localized to reflect local LF transmission dynamics to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of using this intervention versus standard annual Mass Drug Administration (MDA) for eliminating LF in Léogâne. We show that the salt enterprise because of its mixed product business strategy may have already reached the production capacity for delivering sufficient quantities of edible DEC-medicated salt to bring about LF transmission in the Léogâne study setting. Due to increasing revenues obtained from the sale of DEC salt over time, expansion of its delivery in the population, and greater cumulative impact on the survival of worms leading to shorter timelines to extinction, this strategy could also represent a significantly more cost-effective option than annual DEC tablet-based MDA for accomplishing LF elimination. SIGNIFICANCE: A social enterprise approach can offer an innovative market-based strategy by which edible salt fortified with DEC could be distributed to communities both on a financially sustainable basis and at sufficient quantity to eliminate LF. Deployment of similarly fashioned intervention strategies would improve current efforts to successfully accomplish the goal of LF elimination, particularly in difficult-to-control settings.

Using hydrofluoric acid for morphological investigations of Zoanthids (Cnidaria: Anthozoa): a critical assessment of methodology and necessity.

Zoanthids comprise an order of benthic, generally colonial cnidarians, which can usually be distinguished from other hexacorallians by embedded sand and detritus in their mesoglea to help strengthen their structure. These animals are becoming increasingly important research subjects in biochemistry and other research fields. Their inclusion of both calcium and silica results in the need for both decalcification and desilification for internal morphological examinations. Since the methodology of hydrofluoric acid (HF) desilification has rarely been documented in zoanthids, histological surveys for zoanthid taxonomy have often been abandoned and their taxonomy is often problematic. Recent investigations utilizing molecular methods have brought a clearer understanding of zoanthid diversity, but standardization of HF treatments are still needed to provide a link between molecular and more traditional techniques, and to properly examine specimens for which molecular methods may not be an option (e.g., formalin-preserved specimens, etc.). Here, we use both "straight" HF and, for the first time with zoanthids, buffered HF (BHF) treatments at different treatment lengths (1-48 h) on polyps from three different species of zoanthids for histological examination. Section conditions were judged based on the presence/absence of embedded detritus, drag marks, and tissue condition. Results show that the BHF treatment resulted in slightly better tissue conditions for all specimens, and suggest that desilification works well regardless of treatment time for species with smaller (polyp diameter <0.5 cm), less heavily encrusted polyps. Desilification of heavily encrusted Palythoa mutuki polyps were still problematic, with at least 24 h treatment needed. To aid future research, we provide guidelines for HF treatments of zoanthid specimens.