As COVID-19 continues to spread across the world, it is increasingly important understand factors that influence its transmission. Seasonal variation driven by responses changing environment has been shown affect transmission intensity of several coronaviruses. However, impact on severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) remains largely unknown, and thus seasonal a source uncertainty in forecasts SARS-CoV-2 Here we address this issue assessing association temperature,...

Although prevalent in prokaryotes, horizontal gene transfer (HGT) is rarer multicellular eukaryotes. Bdelloid rotifers are microscopic animals that contain a higher proportion of horizontally transferred, non-metazoan genes their genomes than typical animals. It has been hypothesized bdelloids incorporate foreign DNA when they repair chromosomes following double-strand breaks caused by desiccation. HGT might thereby contribute to species divergence and adaptation, as prokaryotes. If so, we...

Bdelloid rotifers are a class of microscopic invertebrates that have existed for millions years apparently without sex or meiosis. They inhabit variety temporary and permanent freshwater habitats globally, many species remarkably tolerant desiccation. Bdelloids offer an opportunity to better understand the evolution recombination, but previous work has emphasised desiccation as cause several unusual genomic features in this group. Here, we present high-quality whole-genome sequences 3...

Abstract Understanding how the metabolic rates of prokaryotes respond to temperature is fundamental our understanding ecosystem functioning will be altered by climate change, as these micro-organisms are major contributors global carbon efflux. Ecological theory suggests that species living at higher temperatures evolve growth than those in cooler niches due thermodynamic constraints. Here, using a prokaryotic dataset, we find maximal rate thermal optimum increases with for mesophiles...

Abstract Our understanding of how microbes respond to micropollutants, such as pesticides, is almost wholly based on single-species responses individual chemicals. However, in natural environments, experience multiple pollutants simultaneously. Here we perform a matrix multi-stressor experiments by assaying the growth model and non-model strains bacteria all 255 combinations 8 chemical stressors (antibiotics, herbicides, fungicides pesticides). We found that bacterial responded different...

Abstract Carbon use efficiency (CUE) is a key characteristic of microbial physiology and underlies community‐level responses to changing environments. Yet, we currently lack general empirical insights into variation in CUE at the level individual taxa. Here, through experiments with 29 strains environmentally isolated bacteria, find that bacterial typically responds either positively temperature, or has no discernible response, within biologically meaningful temperature ranges. Using global...

Abstract The threat of climate change has renewed interest in the responses communities and ecosystems to warming, with changes size spectra expected signify fundamental shifts structure dynamics these multispecies systems. While substantial empirical evidence accumulated recent years on such changes, we still lack general insights due a limited coverage warming scenarios that span spatial temporal scales relevance natural We addressed this gap by conducting an extensive freshwater mesocosm...

New microbial communities often arise through the mixing of two or more separately assembled parent communities, a phenomenon that has been termed “community coalescence”. Understanding how interaction structures complex determine outcomes coalescence events is an important challenge. While recent work begun to elucidate role competition in coalescence, cooperation, key type commonly seen still largely unknown. Here, using general consumer-resource model, we study combined effects...

Haematopoiesis in adult animals is maintained by haematopoietic stem cells (HSCs), which self-renew and can give rise to all blood cell lineages. The AGM region an important intra-embryonic site of HSC development a wealth evidence indicates that HSCs emerge from the endothelium embryonic dorsal aorta extra-embryonic large arteries. This, however, stepwise process occurs through sequential upregulation CD41 CD45 followed emergence fully functional definitive HSCs. Although largely...

Developing a thorough understanding of how ectotherm physiology adapts to different thermal environments is crucial importance, especially in the face global climate change. A key aspect an organism's performance curve (TPC)-the relationship between fitness-related trait and temperature-is its sensitivity, i.e., rate at which values increase with temperature within typically experienced range. For given trait, distribution sensitivities across species, often quantified as "activation energy"...

How complex microbial communities respond to climatic fluctuations remains an open question. Due their relatively short generation times and high functional diversity, populations harbor great potential as a community through combination of strain-level phenotypic plasticity, adaptation, species sorting. However, the relative importance these mechanisms unclear. We conducted laboratory experiment investigate degree which bacterial can changes in environmental temperature plasticity sorting...

There is currently unprecedented interest in quantifying variation thermal physiology among organisms, especially order to understand and predict the biological impacts of climate change. A key parameter this quantification performance or value a rate, across individuals species, at common temperature (temperature normalisation). An increasingly popular model for fitting curves data-the Sharpe-Schoolfield equation-can yield strongly inflated estimates temperature-normalised rate values....

Microbial communities play a critical role in ecosystem functioning and offer promising potential as bioindicators of chemical pollution aquatic environments. Here we examine the responses both bacterial isolates microbial to range pollutants, focusing on phylogenetic predictability their responses. We found that exhibited strong signal growth responses, with closely related taxa responding similarly stress. In communities, pollutants significantly impacted also reduced community diversity...

A general mechanistic understanding of the impacts temperature on resource-mediated interactions between microbial species is currently lacking. Here, we develop a trait-based mathematical framework to derive temperature-dependence effective pairwise within community that accounts for higher-order interactions. Parameterising this using bacterial metabolic traits leads three key predictions. First, species' respond unimodally environmental and are typically more thermally sensitive than...

Abstract Microbial communities play a critical role in ecosystem functioning and offer promising potential as bioindicators of chemical pollution aquatic environments. Here we examine the responses both bacterial isolates microbial to range pollutants, focusing on phylogenetic predictability their responses. We tested growth inhibition environmental by 168 agricultural pollutants recently shown have off-purpose antimicrobial activity human gut bacteria. also whole same quantified changes...

Mass spectrometry shows insulin oligomers [I] n where ranges from 1-12, and ion mobility analysis reveals ∼60 structurally distinct species across this oligomer distribution. Experimental data trains MD simulations to characterize a persistent prefibrillar protein that is dimer enriched in β sheets.

The idea that populations must be geographically isolated (allopatric) to evolve into separate species has persisted for a long time. It is now clear new can also diverge despite ongoing genetic exchange, but few accepted cases of speciation in sympatry have held up when scrutinized using modern approaches. Here, we examined evidence the Howea palms Lord Howe Island, Australia, light genomic data. We used coalescence-based demographic models combined with double digest restriction site...

Abstract By conservative estimates, microbes make up about 17% of the world’s biomass and are essential for most ecosystem functions. However, mechanisms driving variation in microbial species diversity response to both natural anthropogenic temperature gradients remain unclear. In this study, we integrate ecological metabolic theory with a community assembly model predict that generally follows unimodal pattern temperature. The position magnitude peak determined by interaction-driven...

Abstract Previous work has shown that environment affects SARS-CoV-2 transmission, but it is unclear whether emerging strains show similar responses. Here we that, like other strains, lineage B.1.1.7 spread with greater transmission in colder and more densely populated parts of England. However, also find evidence having a advantage at warmer temperatures compared to strains. This implies spring summer conditions are unlikely slow B.1.1.7’s invasion Europe across the Northern hemisphere - an...

Abstract Our understanding of how microbes respond to pollutants is almost wholly based on single-species responses individual chemicals. However, in natural environments, experience the effects multiple simultaneously, and their these mixtures chemicals may not be readily predictable each pollutant isolation. Here we extended scope complexity previous multi-stressor experiments by assaying growth model non-model strains bacteria all 255 combinations 8 chemical stressors. This approach...

Abstract New microbial communities often arise through the mixing of two or more separately assembled parent communities, a phenomenon that has been termed “community coalescence”. Understanding how interaction structures complex determine outcomes coalescence events is an important challenge. While recent work begun to elucidate role competition in coalescence, cooperation, key type commonly seen still largely unknown. Here, using general consumer-resource model, we study combined effects...

Abstract As COVID-19 continues to spread across the world, it is increasingly important understand factors that influence its transmission. Seasonal variation driven by responses changing environment has been shown affect transmission intensity of several coronaviruses. However, impact on SARS-CoV-2 remains largely unknown, and thus seasonal a source uncertainty in forecasts Here we address this issue assessing association temperature, humidity, UV radiation, population density with...

Restoring biological diversity and ecosystem function requires understanding how introduced species interact with one another their environments. The most prevalent challenging scenarios involve multiple invasive whose traits feedback through processes. However, research into these systems often focuses on either community dynamics or properties, rather than interactions, limiting of what causes biodiversity changes before after restoration. Leveraging insights from theory management...