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The Oceans Are A Melting Pot Of Microbes

https://sciencespies.com/news/the-oceans-are-a-melting-pot-of-microbes/

The Oceans Are A Melting Pot Of Microbes

Diatoms are photosynthesising algae, they have a siliceous skeleton (frustule) and are found in … [+] almost every aquatic environment including fresh and marine waters, soils, in fact almost anywhere moist.

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Within every drop of seawater lives a mixture of teeny-tiny organisms, like bacteria and viruses, collectively known as ‘microbes’.

According to new research published in Cell by scientists at Maine’s Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, the degree of microbial diversity within the ocean is perhaps more staggering than originally thought. In the largest study ever conducted on individual cells, over 12,000 microbial genomes were analyzed to build a massive database, dubbed the Global Ocean Reference Genomes Tropics (GORG-Tropics).

The samples were collected from the tropics and subtropics, representing about two-thirds of the world’s ocean. To the researcher’s surprise, every one of the 12,000 cells they analyzed had a unique genome – no two cells were identical. What’s more, most of the microbes were so dissimilar from all the other microbes analyzed that they were considered to be different species altogether.

A summary of the new study published in Cell by researchers from the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean … [+] Sciences.

Pachiadaki et al., Cell

The researchers also analyzed the microbial diversity within a single teaspoon of water from the Sargasso Sea. An astonishing 6,000 cells were captured, analyzed, and added to the growing database.

Of all the genes discovered within the Sargasso Sea sample, at least one-fifth were genes also found in the tropics and subtropics. According to these microbial experts, these large portion of shared genes between the Sargasso Sea and the tropics despite immense microbial diversity indicates how effective ocean currents are at mixing microbial life around the globe.

“In the same way that we think of New York City as a melting pot, every teaspoon of the ocean is a microbial melting pot,” said Ramunas Stepanauskas, Senior Research Scientist at Bigelow. “The ocean is huge, and it’s amazing how complex ecological and evolutionary processes take place in each tiny drop.”

Map of the Sargasso Sea.

Staysail, Dreamstime.com

With the help of cutting-edge genome analysis technology, this study sequenced more microbes than all studies prior to 2013, combined. With an abundance of information, new discoveries have followed. For example, Stepanauskas’ team discovered a group of bacteria, known as proteobacteria, previously not known to have photosynthetic, or light harnessing, capabilities.

“Genetic information can teach us a lot about ecology, and these may be photosynthetic organisms that were unnoticed before,” said Maria Pachiadaki, a former Bigelow Laboratory postdoctoral researcher and lead author of this study. “If experiments confirm what the genes suggest, this is an important microbial group to consider in ocean carbon studies.”

With less than 1% of marine microorganisms proving possible to grow and study in a laboratory setting, databases like GORG-Tropics are essential for advancing our understanding of microbial capabilities.

Senior Research Scientist Ramunas Stepanauskas holds a sample of Sargasso Sea water before analysis … [+] in Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences’ Single Cell Genomics Center.

Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences

In collaboration with researchers at the University of California San Diego, this research team also identified microbes that could fuel novel biotechnology applications. By tracking which microbes are able to produce certain chemicals, the GORG-Tropics database may help fast-track future discoveries of new antibiotics or cancer-fighting medicines.

With a database of this size, the potential for discovery continues. Stepanauskas and his team of researchers will continue to search for more discoveries to further reveal the hidden microbial diversity of the ocean, and in turn, the intricacies of how the ocean functions.

“One of our main goals with the GORG initiative was to produce a powerful resource for the marine microbiology research community,” said Julia Brown, a bioinformatician at Bigelow Laboratory and a study author. “We hope that scientists will be able to use this dataset in follow-up studies to answer questions no one has even thought of yet.”

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Paleontologists Find New Fossils of Gigantic Freshwater Turtle

http://www.sci-news.com/paleontology/stupendemys-geographicus-shells-08131.html

Vintage book covers I found on pinterest!

Scientists Created Bacteria With a Synthetic Genome. Is This Artificial Life?

In a milestone for synthetic biology, colonies of E. coli thrive with DNA constructed from scratch by humans, not nature.

Scientists have created a living organism whose DNA is entirely human-made — perhaps a new form of life, experts said, and a milestone in the field of synthetic biology.

Researchers at the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Britain reported on Wednesday that they had rewritten the DNA of the bacteria Escherichia coli, fashioning a synthetic genome four times larger and far more complex than any previously created.

The bacteria are alive, though unusually shaped and reproducing slowly. But their cells operate according to a new set of biological rules, producing familiar proteins with a reconstructed genetic code.

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can't wait to become an ancient witch that resides in the deep wilderness, feeding myself on berries, wine and the tales the village people tell of me

Cute? Yesssss

Witch Meme!

I was tagged by @illegalcerebral​ @zugzwangxo​ and @waitingfortheendtocome​!

- rules: go here and make yourself a witch! (You don’t have to draw, don’t worry!)

It’s so cute! 

I’m not gonna tag anyone, just do it if you want to it’s adorable. :D

I need them all.

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wholesome student life things that we should collectively start romancizing

waking up and being genuinely thrilled to go to class because today is THAT CLASS you love so much you’d like it to never end

coffee breaks with friends, chatting and joking about this particularly hard essay and the prof’s mannerism

coffee breaks on your own, as you absent-mindedly watch the people around you, while thinking about what you’re working on

finding this book you’ve been dying to read for so long, and borrowing it from the library

the feeling of excitement that goes through you whenever you remember The Book is in your backpack

understanding everything during demanding classes and being genuinely interested in the subject

buying a New Special Pen and taking colorful notes that look super pretty

not being able to shut up about your school projects (no your friends dont really care about the intricate details of what you’re working on, they don’t even have the same major as you, but they’re happy to hear you rant with such a burning passion)

actually doing the extra reading and having your curiosity so piqued by what you’re reading that you go on and on and suddenly its 1am and what happened

printing the project you’ve spent so much time and energy on and feeling the paper’s warmth

actually submitting that project without feeling awful about it because you know you did your best and aren’t responsible for what happens next

when you finally finish this Super Hard And Important Essay at like 3am, open the window and feel the cold night air on your burning cheeks and everything is dark and quiet and you can see the moon and you’re at peace with everything for a few minutes

when this professor you admire says you did a great job and/or that you’re talented!!!!

realizing two concepts that seemed so far away from each other and that you discovered in wildly different contexts are actually interlinked, then Realizing™ things and linking concepts/works/articles to each other at the speed of light & being super excited about it

being so deeply immersed in your work that you didn’t realize two hours have passed

finding the Perfect Spot at the library

that Pure Joy moment when you FINALLY understand that super obscure sentence/text

when you feel anxious because you’re not done with your homework & the deadline is super tight & your friend tells you they aren’t done yet either

same but with an even more intense relief feeling when you realize you both haven’t even started yet

when the professor starts a new reasoning and you can predict what the next idea/the final conclusion will be

when the professor mention your favorite novel/author/fictional character in class and you feel like your internal screech of joy could shatter glass

the Academic Salt™ that has you like 👀👀

when the professor tears apart an author or scholar you hate and you’re like YES I WANT BLOOD GIVE ME BLOOD

when you learn that Cool New Fact that makes you reconsider your whole life

leaving the library after a long productive day and feeling like nothing is real but experiencing everything more intensely

leaving the library at night after a long study session and everybody has left already and its just you and the long neon-lit corridors then stepping outside and smelling the crisp night wind

feel free to add your own!!!

Oh worm.

deep sea bioluminescent worm