(Press-News.org) A landmark single-cell genomic study of microorgansims from sites across the globe is highlighting British Columbia's role as an 'oasis' of biodiversity. The findings, to be published Sunday in Nature, could also prompt scientists to redefine how the tree of life represents relationships among and between life's three domains.
"British Columbia has long been recognized for its biological diversity in flora and fauna," says University of British Columbia microbiologist Steven Hallam, Canada Research Chair in Environmental Genomics and one of the study's authors. "What we're discovering now is that our province is also an oasis for the vital biological diversity we can't see—diversity encoded in the genomes of uncultivated, or wild, microorganisms."
Representatives from about a third of the uncultivated microbial groups described by the survey were culled from samples taken from British Columbia's pristine Sakinaw Lake, situated on the Sunshine Coast. It's one of nine sites around the world targeted in the survey by an international team of researchers. Hallam's laboratory also provided data sets from Saanich Inlet and two sites along the Department of Fisheries and Ocean's Line P transect in the northeast subarctic Pacific Ocean.
"The study remaps our understanding of life's unseen majority, and going forward should help us to better recognize and interpret microbial community interactions that drive essential ecosystem functions and services in the world around us."
Study in brief
The study's single-cell genome data provide 11% greater coverage of known genetic diversity than currently available genome libraries.
The study could require the reorganization of the Archaea domain, which categorizes single cell organisms. The authors are proposing two new superphyla and four new phyla within the Archaea domain.
The Nature paper details the collection and single-cell sequencing of 200 archaeal bacteria cells in 29 major uncharted branches of the tree of life from nine diverse habitats across the globe. Samples and data from hydrothermal vets, fresh and seawater, soil and other habitats were used from sites in Africa, Europe, the Americas, the Antarctic and Australia.
The team of 22 researchers from 11 institutions around the world was led by the US Department of Energy's Joint Genome Institute in California. Hallam's research is supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the Tula Foundation and the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research.
INFORMATION:
Caption: University of British Columbia researchers led by Steven Hallam collecting microbial samples at Sakinaw Lake, British Columbia.
Global survey of microbial 'dark matter' sheds light on British Columbia's unseen biodiversity
A landmark single-cell genomic study of microorgansims from sites across the globe is highlighting British Columbia's role as an 'oasis' of biodiversity
2013-07-16
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Annals of Internal Medicine tip sheet for July 16, 2013
2013-07-16
1. An aspirin every other day may keep colon cancer away for healthy women
Long-term use of alternate-day, low-dose aspirin may reduce risk for colorectal cancer in healthy women. Evidence has recently emerged that daily aspirin may help to prevent several types of cancer, including colorectal, but there is little evidence for an alternate-day dosing strategy. Between 1994 and 1996 researchers randomly assigned 38,876 women aged 45 years or older to take either 100 mg of aspirin or placebo every other day. Participants were sent annual supplies of monthly calendar packs ...
Chinese people may be at higher risk for stroke than Caucasians
2013-07-16
MINNEAPOLIS – A new study suggests that Chinese people may be at higher risk for stroke than Caucasians. The research is published in the July 16, 2013, print issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
"While stroke is the second most-common cause of death worldwide, in China it is the leading cause of death and adult disability," said study author Chung-Fen Tsai, MD, with the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. "The global impact of stroke in the decades ahead is predicted to be greatest in middle income countries, including China. ...
Extend HPV jab to young gay men, say sexual health experts
2013-07-16
The vaccination programme against HPV infection began in 2008 in the UK, but only among girls, on the grounds that this would curb the spread of the infection to boys as well.
But, say the authors, from the Royal Liverpool University Hospital, Homerton University Hospital, and Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, gay men are more than 15 times as likely to develop genital cancer, particularly anal cancer, as a result of becoming infected with HPV, as are straight men.
While rates of anal cancers are higher among men who are also HIV positive - despite antiretroviral treatment ...
Researchers generate long-lasting blood vessels from reprogrammed human cells
2013-07-16
Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) researchers have used vascular precursor cells derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) to generate, in an animal model, functional blood vessels that lasted as long as nine months. In their report being published in PNAS Early Edition, the investigators describe using iPSCs – reprogrammed adult cells that have many of the characteristics of embryonic stem cells – from both healthy adults and from individuals with type 1 diabetes to generate blood vessels on the outer surface of the brain or under the skin of mice. ...
In children with fever, researchers distinguish bacterial from viral infections
2013-07-16
In children with fever but no other symptoms of illness, it is difficult to know whether a child has a viral infection that will resolve on its own or a potentially serious bacterial infection that requires antibiotics.
Now, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis report that they can distinguish between viral and bacterial infections in children with fever by profiling the activity of genes in a blood sample. In a small study, analyzing genes in white blood cells was more than 90 percent accurate, far better than the standard diagnostic test, ...
Elevated blood pressure increasing among children, adolescents
2013-07-16
The risk of elevated blood pressure among children and adolescents rose 27 percent during a thirteen-year period, according to new research in the American Heart Association journal Hypertension.
Higher body mass, larger waistlines and eating excess sodium may be the reasons for the elevated blood pressure readings, researchers said.
High blood pressure is a risk factor for stroke, heart disease and kidney failure — accounting for about 350,000 preventable deaths a year in the United States.
"High blood pressure is dangerous in part because many people don't know they ...
1-year mortality remains high in patients with prosthetic valve endocarditis
2013-07-16
Prosthetic valve endocarditis (inflammation and infection involving the heart valves and lining of the heart chambers) remains associated with a high one-year mortality rate and early valve replacement does not appear to be associated with lower mortality compared with medical therapy according to a study by Tahaniyat Lalani, M.D., M.H.S., of the Naval Medical Center, Portsmouth, Virginia, and colleagues.
PVE occurs in approximately 3 percent to 6 percent of patients within five years of valve implantation and is associated with significant morbidity and mortality, according ...
Electronic health records slow the rise of healthcare costs
2013-07-16
ANN ARBOR – Use of electronic health records can reduce the costs of outpatient care by roughly 3 percent, compared to relying on traditional paper records.
That's according to a new study from the University of Michigan that examined more than four years of healthcare cost data in nine communities. The "outpatient care" category in the study included the costs of doctor's visits as well as services typically ordered during those visits in laboratory, pharmacy and radiology.
The study is groundbreaking in its breadth. It compares the healthcare costs of 179,000 patients ...
Ethnic inequalities in mental health care prompt call for review
2013-07-16
Individual ethnic groups use psychiatric and mental health services in Scotland very differently, a study suggests.
Researchers have found that there is a significant difference in the rates of hospitalisations for mental health problems according to ethnic group.
The study also revealed that there are widely differing patterns of hospitalisation for mental health problems among non-White groups. It is the first study of its kind to be carried out in Scotland.
Researchers say that psychiatric and mental health services should be reviewed and monitored to ensure ...
Robotic frogs help turn a boring mating call into a serenade
2013-07-16
VIDEO:
When choosing a potential mate, female túngara frogs listen to the sounds of the male calls, which are based on a pattern of "whines " and "chucks. " If visible, the sight...
Click here for more information.
With the help of a robotic frog, biologists at The University of Texas at Austin and Salisbury University have discovered that two wrong mating calls can make a right for female túngara frogs.
The "rather bizarre" result may be evidence ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
Will the U.S. have enough pain specialists?
Stronger stress response in monkeys helps them survive
Using infrared heat transfer to modify chemical reactions
Being a ladies' man comes at a price for alpha male baboons
Study shows anti-clotting drug reduced bleeding events in patients with atrial fibrillation
UMaine-led team develops more holistic way to monitor lobster industry
Antiviral protein causes genetic changes implicated in Huntington’s disease progression
SwRI-led PUNCH spacecraft make final pit stop before launch
Claims for the world’s deepest earthquake challenged by new analysis
MSU study finds children of color experience more variability in sleep times
Pregnancy may increase risk of mental illness in people with MS
Multiple sclerosis linked to higher risk of mental illness during and after pregnancy
Beyond ChatGPT: WVU researchers to study use and ethics of artificial intelligence across disciplines
Ultrasensitive test detects, serially monitors intact virus levels in patients with COVID-19
mRNA-activated blood clots could cushion the blow of osteoarthritis
Three rockets will ignite Poker Flat’s 2025 launch season
Jared M. Kutzin, DNP, MS, MPH, RN, named President of the Society for Simulation in Healthcare
PET probe images inflammation with high sensitivity and selectivity
Epilepsy patient samples offer unprecedented insights on brain ‘brakes’ linked to disorders
Your stroke risk might be higher if your parents divorced during your childhood
Life satisfaction measurement tool provides robust information across nations, genders, ages, languages
Adult children of divorced parents at higher risk of stroke
Anti-climate action groups tend to arise in countries with stronger climate change efforts
Some coral "walk" towards blue or white light, using rolling, sliding or pulsing movements to migrate, per experiments with free-living mushroom coral Cycloseris cyclolites
Discovery of the significance of birth in the maintenance of quiescent neural stem cells
Severe weather and major power outages increasingly coincide across the US
Bioluminescent cell imaging gets a glow-up
Float like a jellyfish: New coral mobility mechanisms uncovered
Severe weather and major power outages increasingly coincide across the U.S.
Who to vaccinate first? Penn engineers answer a life-or-death question with network theory
[Press-News.org] Global survey of microbial 'dark matter' sheds light on British Columbia's unseen biodiversityA landmark single-cell genomic study of microorgansims from sites across the globe is highlighting British Columbia's role as an 'oasis' of biodiversity