Three methods were examined to cultivate bacteria associated with the marine sponge Haliclona (gellius) sp.: agar plate cultures, liquid cultures, and floating filter cultures. A variety of oligotrophic media were employed, including media with aqueous and organic sponge extracts, bacterial signal molecules, and siderophores. More than 3,900 isolates were analyzed, and 205 operational taxonomic...

Spongy graphene is a newly developed adsorbent of high performance for water treatment. Proper functionalization is an efficient approach to improve the adsorption capacity of graphene adsorbents. In this study, we prepared graphene oxide (GO), functionalized it with carboxyl groups to produce carboxylated GO (GO-COOH) dispersion, and lyophilized the GO-COOH dispersion to obtain the GO-COOH spo...

MicroRNA (miRNA) sponges are RNA transcripts containing multiple high-affinity binding sites that associate with and sequester specific miRNAs to prevent them from interacting with their target messenger (m)RNAs. Due to the high specificity of miRNA sponges and strong inhibition of target miRNAs, these molecules have become increasingly applied in miRNA loss-of-function studies. However, improp...

Chitin and sepia ink hybrid hemostatic sponge (CTSH sponge), a new biomedical material, was extensively studied for its beneficial biological properties of hemostasis and stimulation of healing. However, studies examining the safety of CTSH sponge in the blood system are lacking. This experiment aimed to examine whether CTSH sponge has negative effect on blood systems of mice, which were treated...

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) requires beef abattoir operators to periodically analyze beef carcass sponge samples for levels of Escherichia coli. Additional beef carcass sponge sampling is commonly used by processors to evaluate the efficacy of beef abattoir antimicrobial intervention systems. The USDA sample preparation procedure requires that beef carcass sponge samples be mechan...

Marine sponges are a rich source of bioactive metabolites that can potentially be used as lead compounds to treat various human diseases. Due to the difficulty in obtaining a steady supply of such metabolites, few of these compounds have reached the clinical trials stage. Sponge sea ranching is one of the most promising methods to overcome this bsupply problemQ. The Red Sea sponge Negombata mag...

Erd˝ os conjectured that, given an infinite graph G and vertex sets A, B ⊆ V (G), there exist a set P of disjoint A–B paths in G and an A–B separator X 'on' P, in the sense that X consists of a choice of one vertex from each path in P. We prove, for countable graphs G, the extension of this conjecture in which A, B and X are allowed to contain ends as well as vertices, and where the closure of ...

Dickinsonia is one of the most recognizable forms in the Ediacaran fauna, but its phylogenetic position has been contentious, and it has been placed in almost every kingdom of life. Here, it is hypothesized that the affinities of Dickinsonia lie with the Placozoa (Metazoa), an understudied phylum that is widespread in tropical seas worldwide. Modern placozoans show obvious differences in size a...

the objective of this study was to evaluate three methods of estrous synchronization, viz. controlled internal drug releasing device (cidr), intravaginal sponges impregnated with fluogestone acetate (fga), and cloprostenol (estrumate; an analogue of prostaglandin f2α) in nadooshani goats of yazd province, iran.the estrous synchronized does (n = 30 to 33 per treatment), after heat detection, wer...

To date, only one marine sponge pathogen (Pseudoalteromonas sp. strain NW 4327) has fulfilled Koch's postulates. We report the 4.48-Mbp draft genome sequence of this strain, which is pathogenic to the Great Barrier Reef sponge Rhopaloeides odorabile. The sequence provides valuable information on sponge-pathogen interactions, including the mode of transmission and associated virulence factors.