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This work explored the formation mechanism of marine oil snow (MOS) and the associated transport of oil hydrocarbons in the presence of a stereotype oil dispersant, Corexit EC9500A. Roller table experiments were carried out to simulate natural marine processes that lead to formation of marine snow. We found that both oil and the dispersant greatly promoted the formation of MOS, and MOS floes as large as 1.6-2.1 mm (mean diameter) were developed within 3-6 days. Natural suspended solids and indigenous microorganisms play critical roles in the MOS formation. The addition of oil and the dispersant greatly enhanced the bacterial growth and extracellular polymeric substance (EPS) content, resulting in increased flocculation and formation of MOS. The dispersant not only enhanced dissolution of n-alkanes (C9-C40) from oil slicks into the aqueous phase, but facilitated sorption of more oil components onto MOS. The incorporation of oil droplets in MOS resulted in a two-way (rising and sinking) transport of the MOS particles. More lower-molecular-weight (LMW) n-alkanes (C9-C18) were partitioned in MOS than in the aqueous phase in the presence of the dispersant. The information can aid in our understanding of dispersant effects on MOS formation and oil transport following an oil spill event. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Iron sulfide (FeS) nanoparticles were prepared with sodium carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) as a stabilizer, and tested for enhanced removal of aqueous mercury (Hg2+). CMC at ⩾0.03 wt % fully stabilized 0.5 g/L of FeS (i.e., CMC-to-FeS molar ratio ⩾0.0006). FTIR spectra suggested that CMC molecules were attached to the nanoparticles through bidentate bridging and hydrogen bonding. Increasing the CMC-to-FeS molar ratio from 0 to 0.0006 enhanced mercury sorption capacity by 20%; yet, increasing the ratio from 0.0010 to 0.0025 diminished the sorption by 14%. FTIR and XRD analyses suggested that precipitation (formation of cinnabar and metacinnabar), ion exchange (formation of Hg0.89Fe0.11S), and surface complexation were important mechanisms for mercury removal. A pseudo-second-order kinetic model was able to interpret the sorption kinetics, whereas a dual-mode isotherm model was proposed to simulate the isotherms, which considers precipitation and adsorption. High mercury uptake was observed over the pH range of 6.5-10.5, whereas significant capacity loss was observed at pH < 6. High concentrations of Cl- (>106 mg/L) and organic matter (5 mg/L as TOC) modestly inhibited mercury uptake. The immobilized mercury remained stable when preserved for 2.5 years at pH above neutral. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many glycine-rich RNA-binding proteins (GR-RBPs) have critical functions in RNA processing and metabolism. Here, we describe a role for the tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) GR-RBP SlRBP1 in regulating mRNA translation. We found that SlRBP1 knockdown mutants (slrbp1) displayed reduced accumulation of total chlorophyll and impaired chloroplast ultrastructure. These phenotypes were accompanied by deregulation of the levels of numerous key transcripts associated with chloroplast functions in slrbp1. Furthermore, native RNA immunoprecipitation-sequencing (nRIP-seq) recovered 61 SlRBP1-associated RNAs, most of which are involved in photosynthesis. SlRBP1 binding to selected target RNAs was validated by nRIP-qPCR. Intriguingly, the accumulation of proteins encoded by SlRBP1-bound transcripts, but not the mRNAs themselves, was reduced in slrbp1 mutants. Polysome profiling followed by RT-qPCR assays indicated that the polysome occupancy of target RNAs was lower in slrbp1 plants than in wild-type. Furthermore, SlRBP1 interacted with the eukaryotic translation initiation factor SleIF4A2. Silencing of SlRBP1 significantly reduced SleIF4A2 binding to SlRBP1-target RNAs. Taking these observations together, we propose that SlRBP1 binds to and channels RNAs onto the SleIF4A2 translation initiation complex and promotes the translation of its target RNAs to regulate chloroplast functions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]