The recA gene of newly discovered Thermus thermophilus MAT72 phage Tt72 (Myoviridae) was cloned and overexpressed in Escherichia coli. The 1020-bp gene codes for a 339-amino-acid polypeptide with an Mr of 38,155 which shows 38.7% positional identity to the E. coli RecA protein. When expressed in E. coli, the Tt72 recA gene did not confer the ability to complement the ultraviolet light (254 nm) sensitivity of an E. coli recA mutant. Tt72 RecA protein has been purified with good yield to catalytic and electrophoretic homogeneity using a three-step chromatography procedure. Biochemical characterization indicated that the protein can pair and promote ATP-dependent strand exchange reaction resulting in formation of a heteroduplex DNA at 60 ° C under conditions otherwise optimal for E. coli RecA. When the Tt72 RecA protein was included in a standard PCR-based DNA amplification reaction, the specificity of the PCR assays was significantly improved by eliminating non-specific products.
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The main objective of natural resource management is tocreate social and economic value while maintaining sustainability. In this paper, we introduce an enhanced method for simulating high-dimensionaltime series and apply it to Icelandic resource management data. Themethodology can be used in many contexts, but is particularly appropriate for simulating the many complex interactions involved in natural resource management. The simulations can be used to explore the sensitivity of re-source management policies to future changes using an a ffi nity parameter.A ffi nity, qualitatively similar to correlation, is an ordinal measure between –1and +1 that models one's belief how much the future might behave like , ordi ff erent from, the past. The main appeal of the method is its reliance ondata and relative independence from assumptions about that data. In the paper, we apply it on data on Icelandic cod with encouraging results.
Most of the Icelandic cod is caught in bottom trawlers or longliners. These two fishing methods are fundamentally different and have different economic, environmental, and even social effects. In this paper we present a hybrid-simulation framework to assess the impact of changing the ratio between cod quota allocated to vessels with longlines and vessels with bottom trawls. It makes use of conventional bioeconomic models and discrete event modeling and provides a framework for simulating life cycle assessment (LCA) for a cod fishery. The model consists of two submodels, a system dynamics model describing the biological aspect of the fishery and a discrete event model for fishing activities. The model was run multiple times for different quota allocation scenarios and results are presented where different scenarios are presented in the three dimensions of sustainability: environmental, social, and economic. The optimal allocation strategy depends on weighing the three different factors. The results were encouraging first-steps towards a useful modeling method but the study would benefit greatly from better data on fishing activities.
The development of vaccines has proven essential for the development of a successful finfish aquaculture industry by preventing the occurrence of
diseases like furunculosis and vibriosis in industrialized finfish farming. Further developments, like DNA vaccines, will aid in controlling even more diseases in the future. There are however many diseases where it
is difficult to produce effective vaccines. Furthermore, many disease outbreaks may occur due to impaired animal welfare. Identifying factors associated with disease and optimizing health and welfare through
biotechnological developments is likely to be an important research area in the future. The fact that dietary manipulation can affect fish gut microbiota thus improving disease resistance is well known from
mammalian science, and is slowly gaining ground in finfish research. Both prebiotic and probiotic approaches have been used in fish, with particular
focus on lactic acid bacteria. Positive effects include enhanced growth and feed efficiency, improved immunity and disease resistance. The synbiotic concept (using a combination of probiotics and prebiotics) is particularly promising and is gaining increased interest within the research community. Immunostimulants may also improve disease resistance via increasing humoral and cellular immune responses. The most promising immunostimulants at present are b-glucans, alginate and Ergosan. Additionally, medical plant extracts and their products are receiving increased attention as immune modulators, but further studies are needed. There are also great expectations or the future usage of microalgae to control microbiota and optimize fish health.
In this study, we present the discovery and characterization of a highly thermostable endolysin from bacteriophage Ph2119 infecting Thermus strain MAT2119 isolated from geothermal areas in Iceland. Nucleotide sequence analysis of the 16S rRNA gene affiliated the strain with the species Thermus scotoductus. Bioinformatics analysis has allowed identification in the genome of phage 2119 of an open reading frame (468 bp in length) coding for a 155-amino-acid basic protein with an Mr or 17,555. Ph2119 endolysin does not resemble any known thermophilic phage lytic enzymes. Instead, it has conserved amino acid residues (His30, Tyr58, His132, and Cys140) that form a Zn2+ binding site characteristic of T3 and T7 lysozymes, as well as eukaryotic peptidoglycan recognition proteins, which directly bind to, but also may destroy, bacterial peptidoglycan. The purified enzyme shows high lytic activity toward thermophiles, ie, T. scotoductus (100%), Thermus thermophilus (100%), and Thermus flavus (99%), and also, to a lesser extent, toward mesophilic Gram-negative bacteria, ie, Escherichia coli (34%), Serratia marcescens (28%), Pseudomonas fluorescens (13%), and Salmonella enterica serovar Panama (10%). The enzyme has shown no activity against a number of Gram-positive bacteria analyzed, with the exception of Deinococcus radiodurans (25%) and Bacillus cereus (15%). Ph2119 endolysin was found to be highly thermostable: it retains approximately 87% of its lytic activity after 6 h of incubation at 95 ° C. The optimum temperature range for the enzyme activity is 50 ° C to 78 ° C. The enzyme exhibits lytic activity in the pH range of 6 to 10 (maximum at pH 7.5 to 8.0) and is also active in the presence of up to 500 mM NaCl.
Lumpfish, or lumpsucker, Cyclopterus lumpus (Linnaeus, 1758) is widely distributed in the North Atlantic Ocean. It has a considerable economic value and substantial fisheries occur in several North Atlantic regions owing to the use of its fully ripe internal egg masses in the ovaries as an alternative to sturgeon caviar. Despite being intensively fished in several locations, biological knowledge is limited and no genetic structure information is available. In this study, the stock structure of C. lumpus was investigated across the North Atlantic using ten microsatellite loci. Out of ten loci, two exhibited higher level of differentiation but their inclusion / exclusion from the analyzes did not drastically change the observed genetic pattern. A total of three distinct genetic groups were detected: Maine – Canada – Greenland, Iceland – Norway and Baltic Sea. These results, discussed in terms of origin of differentiation, gene flow, and selection, showed that gene flow was rather limited among the detected groups, and also between Greenland and Maine – Canada.
The appeal of genetic inference methods to assess population genetic structure and guide management efforts is grounded in the correlation between the genetic similarity and gene flow among populations. Effects of such gene flow are typically genomewide; however, some loci may appear as outliers, displaying above or below average genetic divergence relative to the genomewide level. Above average population, genetic divergence may be due to divergent selection as a result of local adaptation. Consequently, substantial efforts have been directed toward such outlying loci in order to identify traits subject to local adaptation. Here, we report the results of an investigation into the molecular basis of the substantial degree of genetic divergence previously reported at allozyme loci among North Atlantic fin whale (Balaenoptera physalus) populations. We sequenced the exons encoding for the two most divergent allozyme loci (MDH-1 and MPI) and failed to detect any nonsynonymous substitutions. Following extensive error checking and analysis of additional bioinformatic and morphological data, we hypothesize that the observed allozyme polymorphisms may reflect phenotypic plasticity at the cellular level, perhaps as a response to nutritional stress. While such plasticity is intriguing in itself, and of fundamental evolutionary interest, our key finding is that the observed allozyme variation does not appear to be a result of genetic drift, migration, or selection on the MDH-1 and MPI exons themselves, stressing the importance of interpreting allozyme data with caution. As for North Atlantic fin whale population structure, our findings support the low levels of differentiation found in previous analyzes of DNA nucleotide loci.
Due to an improved understanding of past climatological conditions, it has now become possible to study the potential concordance between former climatological models and present-day genetic structure. Genetic variability was assessed in 26 samples from different rivers of Atlantic salmon in Iceland (total of 2,352 individuals), using 15 microsatellite loci. F-statistics revealed significant differences between the majority of the populations that were sampled. Bayesian cluster analyzes using both prior information and no prior information on sampling location revealed the presence of two distinguishable genetic pools - namely, the Northern (Group 1) and Southern (Group 2) regions of Iceland. Furthermore, the random permutation of different allele sizes among allelic states revealed a significant mutational component to the genetic differentiation at four microsatellite loci (SsaD144, Ssa171, SSsp2201 and SsaF3), and supported the proposition of a historical origin behind the observed variation. The estimated time of divergence, using two different ABC methods, suggested that the observed genetic pattern originated from between the Last Glacial Maximum to the Younger Dryas, which serves as additional evidence of the relative immaturity of Icelandic fish populations, on account of the re- colonization of this young environment following the Last Glacial Maximum. Additional analyzes suggested the presence of several genetic entities which were likely to originate from the original groups detected.
Shallow population structure is generally reported for most marine fish and explained as a consequence of high dispersal, connectivity and large population size. Targeted gene analyzes and more recent genome-wide studies have challenged such view, suggesting that adaptive divergence might occur even when neutral markers provide genetic homogeneity across populations. Here, 381 SNPs located in transcribed regions were used to assess large- and fine-scale population structure in the European hake (Merluccius merluccius), a widely distributed demersal species of high priority for the European fishery. Analysis of 850 individuals from 19 locations across the entire distribution range showed evidence for several outlier loci, with significantly higher resolving power. While 299 putatively neutral SNPs confirmed the genetic break between basins (FCT = 0.016) and weak differentiation within basins, outlier loci revealed a dramatic divergence between Atlantic and Mediterranean populations (FCT range 0.275–0.705) and fine-scale significant population structure. Outlier loci separated North Sea and Northern Portugal populations from all other Atlantic samples and revealed a strong differentiation among Western, Central and Eastern Mediterranean geographical samples. Significant correlation of allele frequencies at outlier loci with seawater surface temperature and salinity supported the hypothesis that populations might be adapted to local conditions. Such evidence highlights the importance of integrating information from neutral and adaptive evolutionary patterns towards a better assessment of genetic diversity. Accordingly, the generated outlier SNP data could be used for tackling illegal practices in hake fishing and commercialization as well as to develop explicit spatial models for defining management units and stock boundaries.
Perfluorinatedalkyl acids (PFAAs) are of growing concern due to possible health effects on humans. Exposure assessments indicate that fish consumption is one of the major sources of perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) exposure to humans, one of the major PFASs, whereas concerns of overestimation of this exposure source have been raised. Therefore, PFAAs concentrations in fish from the North Atlantic (Icelandic fishing grounds) in the flesh of different fish species were investigated along with more detailed analyzes of tissue concentrations in cod (Gadus morhua) and lumpfish (Cyclopterus lumpus). Further, fish feed was investigated as a possible source of PFAAs in aquaculture by examining fish meal as feed ingredient. No PFAAs were detected in the edible part of all fish samples, except for PFOS in pollock (Pollachius virens, 0.05 ng / g wet weight). PFOS was the only PFAA detected in the fish meal samples with the exception of PFOSA in blue whiting (Micromesistius poutassou) meal (0,45 ng / g dry weight (dw)), where the PFOS concentration was 1,3–13 ng / g dw in the capelin (Mallotus villosus) and mackerel (Scomber scombrus) meal samples. The conclusions of the study are that fish commonly consumed from the Icelandic fishing grounds are unlikely to be an important source of PFAAs exposure.