Biodiversität

Mitochondria are specialized eukaryotic organelles that have a dedicated function in oxygen respiration and energy production. They evolved about 2 billion years ago from a free-living bacterial ancestor (probably an alphaproteobacterium), in a process known as endosymbiosis^1,2. Many unicellular eukaryotes have since adapted to life in anoxic habitats and their mitochondria have undergone further reductive evolution³. As a result, obligate anaerobic eukaryotes with mitochondrial remnants derive their energy mostly from fermentation⁴. Here we describe 'Candidatus Azoamicus ciliaticola', which is an obligate endosymbiont of an anaerobic ciliate and has a dedicated role in respiration and providing energy for its eukaryotic host. 'Candidatus A. ciliaticola' contains a highly reduced 0.29-Mb genome that encodes core genes for central information processing, the electron transport chain, a truncated tricarboxylic acid cycle, ATP generation and iron–sulfur cluster biosynthesis. The genome encodes a respiratory denitrification pathway instead of aerobic terminal oxidases, which enables its host to breathe nitrate instead of oxygen. 'Candidatus A. ciliaticola' and its ciliate host represent an example of a symbiosis that is based on the transfer of energy in the form of ATP, rather than nutrition. This discovery raises the possibility that eukaryotes with mitochondrial remnants may secondarily acquire energy-providing endosymbionts to complement or replace functions of their mitochondria.

In marine and freshwater oxygen-deficient zones, the remineralization of sinking organic matter from the photic zone is central to driving nitrogen loss. Deep blooms of photosynthetic bacteria, which form the suboxic/anoxic chlorophyll maximum (ACM), widespread in aquatic ecosystems, may also contribute to the local input of organic matter. Yet, the influence of the ACM on nitrogen and carbon cycling remains poorly understood. Using a suite of stable isotope tracer experiments, we examined the transformation of nitrogen and carbon under an ACM (comprising of Chlorobiaceae and Synechococcales) and a non-ACM scenario in the anoxic zone of Lake Tanganyika. We find that the ACM hosts a tight coupling of photo/litho-autotrophic and heterotrophic processes. In particular, the ACM was a hotspot of organic matter remineralization that controlled an important supply of ammonium driving a nitrification-anammox coupling, and thereby played a key role in regulating nitrogen loss in the oxygen-deficient zone.

Technological advances in DNA sequencing over the last decade now permit the production and curation of large genomic datasets in an increasing number of non‐model species. Additionally, this new data provides the opportunity for combining datasets, resulting in larger studies with a broader taxonomic range. Whilst the development of new sequencing platforms has been beneficial, resulting in a higher throughput of data at a lower per‐base cost, shifts in sequencing technology can also pose challenges for those wishing to combine new sequencing data with data sequenced on older platforms. Here, we outline the types of studies where the use of curated data might be beneficial, and highlight potential biases that might be introduced by combining data from different sequencing platforms. As an example of the challenges associated with combining data across sequencing platforms, we focus on the impact of the shift in Illumina's base calling technology from a four‐channel to a two‐channel system. We caution that when data is combined from these two systems, erroneous guanine base calls that result from the two‐channel chemistry can make their way through a bioinformatic pipeline, eventually leading to inaccurate and potentially misleading conclusions. We also suggest solutions for dealing with such potential artifacts, which make samples sequenced on different sequencing platforms appear more differentiated from one another than they really are. Finally, we stress the importance of archiving tissue samples and the associated sequences for the continued reproducibility and reusability of sequencing data in the face of ever‐changing sequencing platform technology.

Background: Bloom-forming cyanobacteria occur globally in aquatic environments. They produce diverse bioactive metabolites, some of which are known to be toxic. The most studied cyanobacterial toxins are microcystins, anatoxin, and cylindrospermopsin, yet more than 2000 bioactive metabolites have been identified to date. Data on the occurrence of cyanopeptides other than microcystins in surface waters are sparse.
Results: We used a high-performance liquid chromatography–high-resolution tandem mass spectrometry/tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC–HRMS/MS) method to analyse cyanotoxin and cyanopeptide profiles in raw drinking water collected from three freshwater reservoirs in the United Kingdom. A total of 8 cyanopeptides were identified and quantified using reference standards. A further 20 cyanopeptides were identified based on a suspect-screening procedure, with class-equivalent quantification. Samples from Ingbirchworth reservoir showed the highest total cyanopeptide concentrations, reaching 5.8, 61, and 0.8 µg/L in August, September, and October, respectively. Several classes of cyanopeptides were identified with anabaenopeptins, cyanopeptolins, and microcystins dominating in September with 37%, 36%, and 26%, respectively. Samples from Tophill Low reservoir reached 2.4 µg/L in September, but remained below 0.2 µg/L in other months. Samples from Embsay reservoir did not exceed 0.1 µg/L. At Ingbirchworth and Tophill Low, the maximum chlorophyll-a concentrations of 37 µg/L and 22 µg/L, respectively, and cyanobacterial count of 6 × 10⁴ cells/mL were observed at, or a few days after, peak cyanopeptide concentrations. These values exceed the World Health Organization’s guideline levels for relatively low probability of adverse health effects, which are defined as 10 µg/L chlorophyll-a and 2 × 10⁴ cells/mL.
Conclusions: This data is the first to present concentrations of anabaenopeptins, cyanopeptolins, aeruginosins, and microginins, along  with microcystins, in U.K. reservoirs. A better understanding of those cyanopeptides that are abundant in drinking water reservoirs can inform future monitoring and studies on abatement efficiency during water treatment.

Alpine streams are particularly valuable for downstream water resources and of high ecological relevance; however, a detailed understanding of water storage and release in such heterogeneous environments is often still lacking. Observations of naturally occurring tracers, such as stable isotopes of water or electrical conductivity, are frequently used to track and explain hydrologic patterns and processes. Importantly, some of these hydrologic processes also create microhabitat variations in Alpine aquatic systems, each inhabited by characteristic organismal communities. The inclusion of such ecological diversity in a hydrologic assessment of an Alpine system may improve our understanding of hydrologic flows while also delivering biological information. Recently, the application of environmental DNA (eDNA) to assess biological diversity in water and connected habitats has gained popularity in the field of aquatic ecology. A few of these studies have started to link aquatic diversity with hydrologic processes but hitherto never in an Alpine system. Here, we collected water from an Alpine catchment in Switzerland and compared the genetic information of eukaryotic organisms conveyed by eDNA with the hydrologic information conveyed by naturally occurring hydrologic tracers. Between March and September 2017, we sampled water at multiple time points at 10 sites distributed over the 13.4 km² Vallon de Nant catchment (Switzerland). The sites corresponded to three different water types and habitats, namely low-flow or ephemeral tributaries, groundwater-fed springs, and the main channel receiving water from both previous mentioned water types.
Accompanying observations of typical physicochemical hydrologic characteristics with eDNA revealed that in the main channel and in the tributaries, the biological richness increases according to the change in streamflow, dq/dt, whereas, in contrast, the richness in springs increased in correlation with electrical conductivity. At the catchment scale, our results suggest that transport of additional, and probably terrestrial, DNA into water storage or flow compartments occurs with increasing streamflow. Such processes include overbank flow, stream network expansion, and hyporheic exchange. In general, our results highlight the importance of considering the at-site sampling habitat in combination with upstream connected habitats to understand how streams integrate eDNA over a catchment and to interpret spatially distributed eDNA samples, both for hydrologic and biodiversity assessments. At the intersection of two disciplines, our study provides complementary knowledge gains and identifies the next steps to be addressed for using eDNA to achieve complementary insights into Alpine water sources. Finally, we provide recommendations for future observation of eDNA in Alpine stream ecosystems.