Project description:Despite the increasing recognition and importance surrounding bacterial and fungal interactions, and their critical contributions to ecosystem functioning and host fitness, studies examining their co-occurrence remain in their infancy. Similarly, studies have yet to characterise the bacterial and fungal communities associated with nudibranchs or their core microbial members. Doing this can advance our understanding of how the microbiome helps a host adapt and persist in its environment. In this study, we characterised the bacterial and fungal communities associated with 46 Pteraeolidia semperi nudibranch individuals collected from four offshore islands in Singapore. We found no distinct spatial structuring of microbial community, richness, or diversity across sampling locations. The bacterial genera Mycoplasma and Endozoicomonas were found across all samples and islands. The fungal genus Leucoagaricus was found with the highest occurrence, but was not found everywhere, and this is the first record of its reported presence in marine environments. The co-occurrence network suggests that bacterial and fungal interactions are limited, but we identified the bacterial family Colwelliaceae as a potential keystone taxon with its disproportionately high number of edges. Furthermore, Colwelliaceae clusters together with other bacterial families such as Pseudoalteromonadaceae and Alteromonadaceae, all of which have possible roles in the digestion of food.
Project description:The intricate coexistence of Symbiodiniacean algae with a diverse range of marine invertebrates underpins the flourishing biodiversity observed within coral reef ecosystems. However, the breakdown of Symbiodiniaceae-host symbiosis endangers these ecosystems, necessitating urgent study of the symbiotic mechanisms. The symbiosis between nudibranchs and Symbiodiniaceae has been identified as an efficacious model for examining these mechanisms, yet a comprehensive understanding of their histological structures and cellular processes remains elusive. A meticulous histological exploration of the nudibranch Pteraeolidia semperi, employing optical, fluorescence, and electron microscopy, has revealed fine tubules extending to the body surface, with associated epithelial cells having been shown to adeptly encapsulate Symbiodiniaceae intracellularly. By tracing the stages of the "bleaching" in nudibranchs, it was inferred that algal cells, translocated via the digestive gland, are directly phagocytosed and expelled by these epithelial cells. Collectively, these insights contribute substantially to the scholarly discourse on critical marine symbiotic associations.
Project description:Co-expression networks and gene regulatory networks (GRNs) are emerging as important tools for predicting the functional roles of individual genes at a system-wide scale. To enable network reconstructions we built a large-scale gene expression atlas comprised of 62,547 mRNAs, 17,862 non-modified proteins, and 6,227 phosphoproteins harboring 31,595 phosphorylation sites quantified across maize development. There was little edge conservation in co-expression and GRNs reconstructed using transcriptome versus proteome data yet networks from either data type were enriched in ontological categories and effective in predicting known regulatory relationships. This integrated gene expression atlas provides a valuable community resource. The networks should facilitate plant biology research and they provide a conceptual framework for future systems biology studies highlighting the importance of studying gene regulation at several levels.
Project description:Co-expression networks and gene regulatory networks (GRNs) are emerging as important tools for predicting the functional roles of individual genes at a system-wide scale. To enable network reconstructions we built a large-scale gene expression atlas comprised of 62,547 mRNAs, 17,862 non-modified proteins, and 6,227 phosphoproteins harboring 31,595 phosphorylation sites quantified across maize development. There was little edge conservation in co-expression and GRNs reconstructed using transcriptome versus proteome data yet networks from either data type were enriched in ontological categories and effective in predicting known regulatory relationships. This integrated gene expression atlas provides a valuable community resource. The networks should facilitate plant biology research and they provide a conceptual framework for future systems biology studies highlighting the importance of studying gene regulation at several levels.