Ubiquitous filter feeders shape open ocean microbial community structure and function.

The mechanism of mortality plays a large role in how microorganisms in the open ocean contribute to global energy and nutrient cycling. Salps are ubiquitous pelagic tunicates that are a well-known mortality source for large phototrophic microorganisms in coastal and high-latitude systems, but their impact on the immense populations of smaller prokaryotes in the tropical and subtropical open ocean gyres is not well quantified. We used robustly quantitative techniques to measure salp clearance and enrichment of specific microbial functional groups in the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre, one of the largest ecosystems on Earth. We discovered that salps are a previously unknown predator of the globally abundant nitrogen fixer Crocosphaera; thus, salps restrain new nitrogen delivery to the marine ecosystem. We show that the ocean's two numerically dominant cells, Prochlorococcus and SAR11, are not consumed by salps, which offers a new explanation for the dominance of small cells in open ocean systems. We also identified a double bonus for Prochlorococcus, wherein it not only escapes salp predation but the salps also remove one of its major mixotrophic predators, the prymnesiophyte Chrysochromulina. When we modeled the interaction between salp mesh and particles, we found that cell size alone could not account for these prey selection patterns. Instead, the results suggest that alternative mechanisms, such as surface property, shape, nutritional quality, or even prey behavior, determine which microbial cells are consumed by salps. Together, these results identify salps as a major factor in shaping the structure, function, and ecology of open ocean microbial communities.

Calculator for predicting the probability of faculty promotion in an academic medical centre.

OBJECTIVE: The academic medical centre (AMC), with over 2200 faculty members, annually manages approximately 300 appointments and promotions. Considering these large numbers, we explored whether machine learning could predict the probability of obtaining promotional approvals. METHODS: We examined variables related to academic promotion using predictive analytical methods. The data included candidates' publications, the H-index, educational contributions and leadership or service within and outside the AMC. RESULTS: Of the five methods employed, the random forest algorithm was identified as the 'best' model through our leave-one-out cross-validation model evaluation process. CONCLUSIONS: To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study on the AMC. The developed model can be deployed as a 'calculator' to evaluate faculty performance and assist applicants in understanding their chances of promotion based on historical data. Furthermore, it can act as a guide for tenure and promotion committees in candidate review processes. This increases the transparency of the promotion process and aligns faculty aspirations with the AMC's mission and vision. It is possible for other researchers to adopt the algorithms from our analysis and apply them to their data.

Evaluation of the promotion criteria in an academic medical centre in Singapore.

INTRODUCTION: Academic medical centres (AMCs) have the tripartite mission of performing research to advance healthcare delivery, educating future clinicians and providing healthcare services. This study investigates the criteria associated with being promoted in a Singaporean AMC. METHODS: Using a dataset of 255 candidates for promotion at the studied AMC, we employ logistic regression to determine if these factors are associated with the likelihood of promotion. Further, we use interaction effects to test if the relationship between the H-index and likelihood of promotion differs across the academic levels of the candidates. RESULTS: The logistic regression results based on the best of our three tested models suggest that the H-index is positively associated with promotion for those applying to become clinical associate professors (OR=1.43, p=0.01). Moreover, candidates who provide well-developed education portfolios (OR=3.61, p=0.02) and who have held service/leadership roles (OR=6.72, p<0.001) are more likely to be promoted. CONCLUSIONS: This study affirms the correlation between promotion and the advancement criteria outlined by the AMC. This is important for transparency and trust between the AMC and its faculty in their applications for promotion and success in an academic career. Further, our study is one of the few empirical studies linking promotion criteria to promotion outcomes.

Selective and differential feeding on marine prokaryotes by mucous mesh feeders.

Microbial mortality impacts the structure of food webs, carbon flow, and the interactions that create dynamic patterns of abundance across gradients in space and time in diverse ecosystems. In the oceans, estimates of microbial mortality by viruses, protists, and small zooplankton do not account fully for observations of loss, suggesting the existence of underappreciated mortality sources. We examined how ubiquitous mucous mesh feeders (i.e. gelatinous zooplankton) could contribute to microbial mortality in the open ocean. We coupled capture of live animals by blue-water diving to sequence-based approaches to measure the enrichment and selectivity of feeding by two coexisting mucous grazer taxa (pteropods and salps) on numerically dominant marine prokaryotes. We show that mucous mesh grazers consume a variety of marine prokaryotes and select between coexisting lineages and similar cell sizes. We show that Prochlorococcus may evade filtration more than other cells and that planktonic archaea are consumed by macrozooplanktonic grazers. Discovery of these feeding relationships identifies a new source of mortality for Earth's dominant marine microbes and alters our understanding of how top-down processes shape microbial community and function.

Effectiveness of electronic learning for continuing interprofessional education on behavior change of healthcare professionals: A scoping review.

Electronic learning (e-learning) for continuing professional education (CPE) in healthcare has been shown to improve learners' satisfaction, attitudes, and performance. E-learning outcomes for continuing interprofessional education (CIPE) are less known, and the features of electronic CIPE programs that promote behavior change are unclear. In this scoping review, we sought to identify the program features and areas of behavior change in healthcare professionals using e-learning for CIPE. PubMed, CINAHL, ERIC, PsycINFO, Cochrane Library databases, and Google/Google Scholar were searched for all English articles published in the last 10 years. From the 32 studies included in our review, eight types of e-learning methods were identified. More than 35,542 healthcare professionals of different professions had participated in the programs. Thirty studies demonstrated positive behavior changes, with four areas of behavior changes identified. The most common area of change was in patient care practices. Five common program features facilitating behavior change were also identified. Most successful programs provided interactive and authentic learning experiences, which promoted direct clinical application. Future researche should include monitoring of sustained behavior changes at work, linked to patient outcomes.

The silence of the clams: Forestry registered pesticides as multiple stressors on soft-shell clams.

Contaminants are ubiquitous in the environment, often reaching aquatic systems. Combinations of forestry use pesticides have been detected in both water and aquatic organism tissue samples in coastal systems. Yet, most toxicological studies focus on the effects of these pesticides individually, at high doses, and over acute time periods, which, while key for establishing toxicity and safe limits, are rarely environmentally realistic. We examined chronic (90 days) exposure by the soft-shell clam, Mya arenaria, to environmentally relevant concentrations of four pesticides registered for use in forestry (atrazine, 5 µg/L; hexazinone, 0.3 µg/L; indaziflam, 5 µg/L; and bifenthrin, 1.5 µg/g organic carbon (OC)). Pesticides were tested individually and in combination, except bifenthrin, which was tested only in combination with the other three. We measured shell growth and condition index every 30 days, as well as feeding rates, mortality, and chemical concentrations in tissue from a subset of clams at the end of the experiment to measure contaminant uptake. Indaziflam caused a high mortality rate (max. 36%), followed by atrazine (max. 27%), both individually as well as in combination with other pesticides. Additionally, indaziflam concentrations in tissue (61.70-152.56 ng/g) were higher than those of atrazine (26.48-48.56 ng/g), despite equal dosing concentrations, indicating higher tissue accumulation. Furthermore, clams exposed to indaziflam and hexazinone experienced reduced condition index and clearance rates individually and in combination with other compounds; however, the two combined did not result in significant mortality. These two compounds, even at environmentally relevant concentrations, affected a non-target organism and, in the case of the herbicide indaziflam, accumulated in clam tissue and appeared more toxic than other tested pesticides. These findings underscore the need for more comprehensive studies combining multiple compounds at relevant concentrations to understand their impacts on aquatic ecosystems.

Synergistic epistasis enhances the co-operativity of mutualistic interspecies interactions.

Early evolution of mutualism is characterized by big and predictable adaptive changes, including the specialization of interacting partners, such as through deleterious mutations in genes not required for metabolic cross-feeding. We sought to investigate whether these early mutations improve cooperativity by manifesting in synergistic epistasis between genomes of the mutually interacting species. Specifically, we have characterized evolutionary trajectories of syntrophic interactions of Desulfovibrio vulgaris (Dv) with Methanococcus maripaludis (Mm) by longitudinally monitoring mutations accumulated over 1000 generations of nine independently evolved communities with analysis of the genotypic structure of one community down to the single-cell level. We discovered extensive parallelism across communities despite considerable variance in their evolutionary trajectories and the perseverance within many evolution lines of a rare lineage of Dv that retained sulfate-respiration (SR+) capability, which is not required for metabolic cross-feeding. An in-depth investigation revealed that synergistic epistasis across pairings of Dv and Mm genotypes had enhanced cooperativity within SR- and SR+ assemblages, enabling their coexistence within the same community. Thus, our findings demonstrate that cooperativity of a mutualism can improve through synergistic epistasis between genomes of the interacting species, enabling the coexistence of mutualistic assemblages of generalists and their specialized variants.

Host-specific symbioses and the microbial prey of a pelagic tunicate (Pyrosoma atlanticum).

Pyrosomes are widely distributed pelagic tunicates that have the potential to reshape marine food webs when they bloom. However, their grazing preferences and interactions with the background microbial community are poorly understood. This is the first study of the marine microorganisms associated with pyrosomes undertaken to improve the understanding of pyrosome biology, the impact of pyrosome blooms on marine microbial systems, and microbial symbioses with marine animals. The diversity, relative abundance, and taxonomy of pyrosome-associated microorganisms were compared to seawater during a Pyrosoma atlanticum bloom in the Northern California Current System using high-throughput sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene, microscopy, and flow cytometry. We found that pyrosomes harbor a microbiome distinct from the surrounding seawater, which was dominated by a few novel taxa. In addition to the dominant taxa, numerous more rare pyrosome-specific microbial taxa were recovered. Multiple bioluminescent taxa were present in pyrosomes, which may be a source of the iconic pyrosome luminescence. We also discovered free-living marine microorganisms in association with pyrosomes, suggesting that pyrosome feeding impacts all microbial size classes but preferentially removes larger eukaryotic taxa. This study demonstrates that microbial symbionts and microbial prey are central to pyrosome biology. In addition to pyrosome impacts on higher trophic level marine food webs, the work suggests that pyrosomes also alter marine food webs at the microbial level through feeding and seeding of the marine microbial communities with their symbionts. Future efforts to predict pyrosome blooms, and account for their ecosystem impacts, should consider pyrosome interactions with marine microbial communities.

Robustness of a model microbial community emerges from population structure among single cells of a clonal population.

Microbial populations can withstand, overcome and persist in the face of environmental fluctuation. Previously, we demonstrated how conditional gene regulation in a fluctuating environment drives dilution of condition-specific transcripts, causing a population of Desulfovibrio vulgaris Hildenborough (DvH) to collapse after repeatedly transitioning from sulfate respiration to syntrophic conditions with the methanogen Methanococcus maripaludis. Failure of the DvH to successfully transition contributed to the collapse of this model community. We investigated the mechanistic basis for loss of robustness by examining whether conditional gene regulation altered heterogeneity in gene expression across individual DvH cells. We discovered that robustness of a microbial population across environmental transitions was attributable to the retention of cells in two states that exhibited different condition-specific gene expression patterns. In our experiments, a population with disrupted conditional regulation successfully alternated between cell states. Meanwhile, a population with intact conditional regulation successfully switched between cell states initially, but collapsed after repeated transitions, possibly due to the high energy requirements of regulation. These results demonstrate that the survival of this entire model microbial community is dependent on the regulatory system's influence on the distribution of distinct cell states among individual cells within a clonal population.

Mechanism for microbial population collapse in a fluctuating resource environment.

Managing trade-offs through gene regulation is believed to confer resilience to a microbial community in a fluctuating resource environment. To investigate this hypothesis, we imposed a fluctuating environment that required the sulfate-reducer Desulfovibrio vulgaris to undergo repeated ecologically relevant shifts between retaining metabolic independence (active capacity for sulfate respiration) and becoming metabolically specialized to a mutualistic association with the hydrogen-consuming Methanococcus maripaludis Strikingly, the microbial community became progressively less proficient at restoring the environmentally relevant physiological state after each perturbation and most cultures collapsed within 3-7 shifts. Counterintuitively, the collapse phenomenon was prevented by a single regulatory mutation. We have characterized the mechanism for collapse by conducting RNA-seq analysis, proteomics, microcalorimetry, and single-cell transcriptome analysis. We demonstrate that the collapse was caused by conditional gene regulation, which drove precipitous decline in intracellular abundance of essential transcripts and proteins, imposing greater energetic burden of regulation to restore function in a fluctuating environment.

Effective Learning of Interprofessional Teamwork.

Educators are actively identifying optimal teaching-learning strategies that afford future health care professionals opportunities to acquire skills necessary to function as a member of an interprofessional team. This article describes the development of an interprofessional team learning experience consisting of students from 6 health professions programs within 1 college of health professions. Student achievement of interprofessional team competencies were evaluated in a pretest-posttest format. Essential components of a 7-week program, teaching methodologies, and course evaluations are presented.

A method to analyze, sort, and retain viability of obligate anaerobic microorganisms from complex microbial communities.

A high speed flow cytometric cell sorter was modified to maintain a controlled anaerobic environment. This technology enabled coupling of the precise high-throughput analytical and cell separation capabilities of flow cytometry to the assessment of cell viability of evolved lineages of obligate anaerobic organisms from cocultures.

A microarray for assessing transcription from pelagic marine microbial taxa.

Metagenomic approaches have revealed unprecedented genetic diversity within microbial communities across vast expanses of the world's oceans. Linking this genetic diversity with key metabolic and cellular activities of microbial assemblages is a fundamental challenge. Here we report on a collaborative effort to design MicroTOOLs (Microbiological Targets for Ocean Observing Laboratories), a high-density oligonucleotide microarray that targets functional genes of diverse taxa in pelagic and coastal marine microbial communities. MicroTOOLs integrates nucleotide sequence information from disparate data types: genomes, PCR-amplicons, metagenomes, and metatranscriptomes. It targets 19 400 unique sequences over 145 different genes that are relevant to stress responses and microbial metabolism across the three domains of life and viruses. MicroTOOLs was used in a proof-of-concept experiment that compared the functional responses of microbial communities following Fe and P enrichments of surface water samples from the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre. We detected transcription of 68% of the gene targets across major taxonomic groups, and the pattern of transcription indicated relief from Fe limitation and transition to N limitation in some taxa. Prochlorococcus (eHLI), Synechococcus (sub-cluster 5.3) and Alphaproteobacteria SAR11 clade (HIMB59) showed the strongest responses to the Fe enrichment. In addition, members of uncharacterized lineages also responded. The MicroTOOLs microarray provides a robust tool for comprehensive characterization of major functional groups of microbes in the open ocean, and the design can be easily amended for specific environments and research questions.

Bacterial vesicles in marine ecosystems.

Many heterotrophic bacteria are known to release extracellular vesicles, facilitating interactions between cells and their environment from a distance. Vesicle production has not been described in photoautotrophs, however, and the prevalence and characteristics of vesicles in natural ecosystems is unknown. Here, we report that cultures of Prochlorococcus, a numerically dominant marine cyanobacterium, continuously release lipid vesicles containing proteins, DNA, and RNA. We also show that vesicles carrying DNA from diverse bacteria are abundant in coastal and open-ocean seawater samples. Prochlorococcus vesicles can support the growth of heterotrophic bacterial cultures, which implicates these structures in marine carbon flux. The ability of vesicles to deliver diverse compounds in discrete packages adds another layer of complexity to the flow of information, energy, and biomolecules in marine microbial communities.

Cellular interactions: lessons from the nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria.

Marine nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria play a central role in the open-ocean microbial community by providing fixed nitrogen (N) to the ocean from atmospheric dinitrogen (N2 ) gas. Once thought to be dominated by one genus of cyanobacteria, Trichodesmium, it is now clear that marine N2 -fixing cyanobacteria in the open ocean are more diverse, include several previously unknown symbionts, and are geographically more widespread than expected. The next challenge is to understand the ecological implications of this genetic and phenotypic diversity for global oceanic N cycling. One intriguing aspect of the cyanobacterial N2 fixers ecology is the range of cellular interactions they engage in, either with cells of their own species or with photosynthetic protists. From organelle-like integration with the host cell to a free-living existence, N2 -fixing cyanobacteria represent the range of types of interactions that occur among microbes in the open ocean. Here, we review what is known about the cellular interactions carried out by marine N2 -fixing cyanobacteria and where future work can help. Discoveries related to the functional roles of these specialized cells in food webs and the microbial community will improve how we interpret their distribution and abundance patterns and contributions to global N and carbon (C) cycles.

Unicellular cyanobacterium symbiotic with a single-celled eukaryotic alga.

Symbioses between nitrogen (N)(2)-fixing prokaryotes and photosynthetic eukaryotes are important for nitrogen acquisition in N-limited environments. Recently, a widely distributed planktonic uncultured nitrogen-fixing cyanobacterium (UCYN-A) was found to have unprecedented genome reduction, including the lack of oxygen-evolving photosystem II and the tricarboxylic acid cycle, which suggested partnership in a symbiosis. We showed that UCYN-A has a symbiotic association with a unicellular prymnesiophyte, closely related to calcifying taxa present in the fossil record. The partnership is mutualistic, because the prymnesiophyte receives fixed N in exchange for transferring fixed carbon to UCYN-A. This unusual partnership between a cyanobacterium and a unicellular alga is a model for symbiosis and is analogous to plastid and organismal evolution, and if calcifying, may have important implications for past and present oceanic N(2) fixation.

Transcriptome response of high- and low-light-adapted Prochlorococcus strains to changing iron availability.

Prochlorococcus contributes significantly to ocean primary productivity. The link between primary productivity and iron in specific ocean regions is well established and iron limitation of Prochlorococcus cell division rates in these regions has been shown. However, the extent of ecotypic variation in iron metabolism among Prochlorococcus and the molecular basis for differences is not understood. Here, we examine the growth and transcriptional response of Prochlorococcus strains, MED4 and MIT9313, to changing iron concentrations. During steady state, MIT9313 sustains growth at an order-of-magnitude lower iron concentration than MED4. To explore this difference, we measured the whole-genome transcriptional response of each strain to abrupt iron starvation and rescue. Only four of the 1159 orthologs of MED4 and MIT9313 were differentially expressed in response to iron in both strains. However, in each strain, the expression of over a hundred additional genes changed, many of which are in labile genomic regions, suggesting a role for lateral gene transfer in establishing diversity of iron metabolism among Prochlorococcus. Furthermore, we found that MED4 lacks three genes near the iron-deficiency-induced gene (idiA) that are present and induced by iron stress in MIT9313. These genes are interesting targets for studying the adaptation of natural Prochlorococcus assemblages to local iron conditions as they show more diversity than other genomic regions in environmental metagenomic databases.

Caring for the orthopaedic patient who is obese.

Obesity is a major health problem in the United States, and it is occurring at an increasing rate. When an orthopaedic patient is obese, the care plan and interventions must be adjusted for the specific patient needs. This article explores the multidimensional challenges and suggests strategies to provide safe care for the patient who is obese.

Hepatic microenvironment affects oval cell localization in albumin-urokinase-type plasminogen activator transgenic mice.

Mice carrying an albumin-urokinase type plasminogen activator transgene (AL-uPA) develop liver disease secondary to uPA expression in hepatocytes. Transgene-expressing parenchyma is replaced gradually by clones of cells that have deleted transgene DNA and therefore are not subject to uPA-mediated damage. Diseased liver displays several abnormalities, including hepatocyte vacuolation and changes in nonparenchymal tissue. The latter includes increases in laminin protein within parenchyma and the appearance of cytokeratin 19-positive bile ductule-like cells (oval cells) both in portal regions and extending into the hepatic parenchyma. In this study, we subjected AL-uPA mice to two-thirds partial hepatectomy to identify the response of these livers to additional growth stimulation. We observed several changes in hepatic morphology. First, the oval cells increased in number and often formed ductules in the parenchyma. Second, this cellular change was accompanied by a further increase in laminin associated with single or clusters of oval cells. Third, desmin-positive Ito cells increased in number and maintained close association with oval cells. Fourth, these changes were localized precisely to uPA-expressing areas of liver. Regenerating clones of uPA-deficient cells appeared to be unaffected both by stromal and cellular alterations. Thus, additional growth stimulation of diseased uPA-expressing liver induces an oval cell-like response, as observed in other models of severe hepatic injury, but the localization of this response seems to be highly regulated by the hepatic microenvironment.