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The amount of ocean protected from fishing and other human impacts has often been used as a metric of conservation progress. However, protection efforts have highly variable outcomes that depend on local conditions, which makes it difficult to quantify what coral reef protection efforts to date have actually achieved at a global scale. Here, we develop a predictive model of how local conditions influence conservation outcomes on ~2,600 coral reef sites across 44 ecoregions, which we used to quantify how much more fish biomass there is on coral reefs compared to a modeled scenario with no protection. Under the assumptions of our model, our study reveals that without existing protection efforts there would be ~10% less fish biomass on coral reefs. Thus, we estimate that coral reef protection efforts have led to approximately 1 in every 10 kg of existing fish biomass., Competing Interests: Competing interests statement:The authors declare no competing interest.

Cellulose being the most abundant polysaccharide on earth, beta-glucosidases hydrolyzing cello-oligosaccharides are key enzymes to fuel glycolysis in microorganisms developing on plant material. In Streptomyces scabiei, the causative agent of common scab in root and tuber crops, a genetic compensation phenomenon safeguards the loss of the gene encoding the cello-oligosaccharide hydrolase BglC by awakening the expression of alternative beta-glucosidases. Here, we revealed that the BglC compensating enzyme BcpE2 was the GH3-family beta-glucosidase that displayed the highest reported substrate promiscuity and was able to release the glucose moiety of all tested types of plant-derived heterosides (aryl β-glucosides, monolignol glucosides, cyanogenic glucosides, anthocyanosides, and coumarin heterosides). BcpE2 structure analysis highlighted a large cavity in the PA14 domain that covered the active site, and the high flexibility of this domain would allow proper adjustment of this cavity for disparate heterosides. The exceptional substrate promiscuity of BcpE2 provides microorganisms a versatile tool for scavenging glucose from plant-derived nutrients that widely vary in size and structure. Importantly, scopolin was the only substrate commonly hydrolyzed by both BglC and BcpE2, thereby generating the potent virulence inhibitor scopoletin. Next to fueling glycolysis, both enzymes would also fine-tune the strength of virulence. IMPORTANCE Plant decaying biomass is the most abundant provider of carbon sources for soil-dwelling microorganisms. To optimally evolve in such environmental niches, microorganisms possess an arsenal of hydrolytic enzymatic complexes to feed on the various types of polysaccharides, oligosaccharides, and monosaccharides. In this work, structural, enzymatic, and expression studies revealed the existence of a "swiss-army knife" enzyme, BcpE2, that was able to retrieve the glucose moiety of a multitude of plant-derived substrates that vary in size, structure, and origin. This enzyme would provide the microorganisms with a tool that would allow them to find nutrients from any type of plant-derived material.

Transcriptional regulation is key in bacteria for providing an adequate response in time and space to changing environmental conditions. However, despite decades of research, the binding sites and therefore the target genes and the function of most transcription factors (TFs) remain unknown. Filling this gap in knowledge through conventional methods represents a colossal task which we demonstrate here can be significantly facilitated by a widespread feature in transcriptional control: the autoregulation of TFs implying that the yet unknown transcription factor binding site (TFBS) is neighboring the TF itself. In this work, we describe the "AURTHO" methodology (AUtoregulation of oRTHOlogous transcription factors), consisting of analyzing upstream regions of orthologous TFs in order to uncover their associated TFBSs. AURTHO enabled the de novo identification of novel TFBSs with an unprecedented improvement in terms of quantity and reliability. DNA-protein interaction studies on a selection of candidate cis-acting elements yielded an >90 % success rate, demonstrating the efficacy of AURTHO at highlighting true TF-TFBS couples and confirming the identification in a near future of a plethora of TFBSs across all bacterial species., (Copyright © 2022. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

The present study investigated accumulation of petrogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (∑ 39 PAHs) in the livers and muscles of three coral-reef fish (50 specimens) from the Persian Gulf, Kharg Island (Iran), specifically Lethrinus microdon (n = 18), Lutjanus argentimaculatus (n = 17), and Scomberomorus guttatus (n = 15). For all fish, PAHs originated mostly from petroleum and combustion sources. Concentrations of ∑ 39 PAHs were 1004 ngg -1 freeze-dried weight (fdw) and 1390 ngg -1 fdw for liver and muscle, respectively. The biota-sediment accumulation factor of 20,181 and equivalent concentrations of ∑PAHs (liver) were highest for L. argentimaculatus. Most of the abundant PAHs identified were low molecular weight (LMW-PAH) (liver > muscle) with 2-3 aromatic ring. Results for the human health risk assessment concluded the probability of PAHs intake via fish consumption was considerable in this area (lifetime cancer risk (ILCR) > 1 × 10 -5 ; hazard quotients (HQ s ) > 1; hazard index (HI) ≈6; the excess cancer risk (ECR) > 1 × 10 -6 ) and, therefore, comprehensive management and long-term monitoring is needed., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are persistent organic pollutants that, due to their high toxicity, lipophilic property and widespread dispersal in the global environment, present a danger for human health and ecological systems. Although the inventory and use of PCBs are extensively reported worldwide, the status of PCBs in Iran is still unknown. In this study, the concentrations of PCBs were determined in the environmental matrices and in five commercially important fish species from Larak coral Island, Persian Gulf, Iran, in winter and summer 2015. A positive correlation was found among PCBs levels and congeners profiles in seawater (0.97-3.10 ng L -1 ), surface sediments (2.95-7.95 ng g -1 dw) and fish samples (7.20-90.19 ng g -1 dw), indicating fish as suitable bioindicator of environmental PCBs contamination. In all matrices, a high contribution of light and medium chlorinated congeners was detected in both seasons. In fish, the higher PCBs levels were found for both sexes in both seasons in liver and kidney than other tissues (skin, gonad, muscle) due to their high lipid content and PCBs lipophilicity. More importantly, the risks for human health associated with fish consumption were also evaluated, and it was found that all the toxicity indices measured for PCBs were within the World Health Organization (WHO) permissible limit of food consumption. However, it is highly recommended to inform the local population about potential risks attributable to dietary incorporation of locally caught fish, and establish a surveillance monitoring programme on PCBs in this region., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Concentrations of 13 heavy metals (Al, Fe, Mn, Zn, Cu, Cr, Co, Ni, V, As, Cd, Hg, Pb) in 360 reef surface sediments (0-5 cm) and coastal seawater samples from ten coral Islands in the Persian Gulf were analyzed to determine their spatial distribution and potential ecological risks. Different sediment quality indices were applied to assess the surface sediment quality. The mean concentrations of metals in studied sediments followed the order: Al > Fe > Ni > V > Mn > Zn > Cu > Cr > Co > As > Cd > Pb > As. Average Cd and Hg exceeded coastal background levels at most sampling sites. With the exception of As, concentrations of heavy metals decreased progressively from the west to the east of the Persian Gulf. Based on the Enrichment Factor (EF) and Potential Ecological Risk Index (RI), concentrations of V, Ni, Hg and Cd indicated moderate contamination and is of some concern. The mean values of heavy metals Toxic Units (TUs) were calculated in the following order: Hg (0.75)> Cr (0.41)> Cd (0.27)> As (0.23)> Cu (0.12)> Zn (0.05)> Pb (0.009). Furthermore, the mean contributing ratios of six heavy metals to Toxic Risk Index (TRI) values were 79% for Hg, 11.48% for Cd, 6.16% for Cr, 3.27% for Cu, 0.07% for Zn and 0.01% for Pb. Calculated values of potential ecological risk factor, revealed that the risk of the heavy metals followed the order Cd > Pb > Ni > Cr > V > Cu > Zn. The results reflected that the level of heavy metals, especially Hg and Cd, are on rise due to emerging oil exploration, industrial development, and oil refineries along the entire Gulf. Fe, Mn, Cu, Zn, V and Ni concentrations in seawater were significantly higher (p < 0.05) than the other detected dissolved heavy metals in the sampling sites. A health risk assessment using the hazard quotient index (HQ) recommended by the USEPA suggests that there is no adverse health effect through dermal exposure, and there is no carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic harm to human health., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Various epidemiological studies show that sleep disturbances are very frequent. The clinician often treats these disturbances in a non specific way with hypnotic medication. He by-passes the diagnostic steps by doing this. Recently our knowledge on normal and pathological sleep has much increased. The aim of this article is to show that it is now possible to define a rational diagnostic approach having therapeutic implications.

The therapeutic effects of haemodialysis were evaluated in schizophrenic patients using a double blind procedure. Twelve patients were diagnosed as acute schizophrenics according to Feighner's criteria for psychopathology. After obtaining informed consent, the patients were randomly assigned to active haemodialysis (AD) or sham dialysis (SD). An 8 days "drug washout period" was followed by AD or SD treatment of 4 weeks (two 5 hours sessions per week) and psychopathological evaluations were performed regularly in a blind fashion using the Brief Psychiatry Rating Scale (BPRS) and the Comprehensive Psychopathological Rating Scale (CPRS). Nine of the 12 patients were improved by both extracorporeal procedures with or without active dialysis. No significant difference appeared however between both groups in the rate and degree of improvement of nuclear symptoms of schizophrenia. Nevertheless, AD was significantly more efficient in relieving affective symptomatology, suggesting the potential involvement of some endogenous dialysable substance (s) in the pathogenesis of mood disturbances in schizophrenia.

The authors briefly remind us of physiological characteristics of normal sleep and its modifications in psychiatric disorders. They draw attention to the numerous possibilities in the clinic of using electrophysiological sleep research. This is of importance in an area where few biological markers are available for the diagnosis and the treatment. Furthermore, sleep studies support the hypothesis of disturbances in circadian rhythms in affective disorders.