Anti-FST monoclonal antibody, clone FQS21014

In addition to inhabiting extreme territories, Archaea are widely distributed in common environments spanning from terrestrial to aquatic environments. This study investigated and compared archaeal community structures from three different habitats (representing distinct environments): agriculture soils (from farming system trials FST, PA, United States), freshwater biofilms (from White Clay Creek, PA, United States), and estuary water (Chesapeake Bay, United States). High-throughput sequencing of 16S rRNA genes indicated that Thaumarchaeota, Euryarchaeota, Nanoarchaeota, Crenarchaeota, and Diapherotrites were the commonly found dominant phyla across these three environments. Similar to Bacteria, distinct community structure and distribution patterns for Archaea were observed in soils vs. freshwater vs. estuary. However, the abundance, richness, evenness, and diversity of archaeal communities were significantly greater in soils than it was in freshwater and estuarine environments. Indicator species (or amplicon sequence variants, ASVs) were identified from different nitrogen and carbon cycling archaeal groups in soils (Nitrososphaerales, Nitrosotaleales, Nitrosopumilales, Methanomassiliicoccales, Lainarchaeales), freshwater biofilms (Methanobacteria, Nitrososphaerales) and Chesapeake Bay (Marine Group II, Nitrosopumilales), suggesting the habitat-specificity of their biogeochemical contributions to different environments. Distinct functional aspects of Archaea were also confirmed by functional predictions (PICRUSt2 analysis). Further, co-occurrence network analysis indicated that only soil Archaea formed stable modules. Keystone species (ASVs) were identified mainly from Methanomassiliicoccales, Nitrososphaerales, Nitrosopumilales. Overall, these results indicate a strong habitat-dependent distribution of Archaea and their functional partitions within the local environments.

Camels are considered as integral and notable components of the heritage of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Genetic variabilities within and among four camel populations in Saudi Arabia were evaluated using 21 simple sequence repeat (SSR) loci of 122 unrelated individuals, including three indigenous breeds [Humur (HA), Zurg ( ZR), Shuguh (SG)] and one exotic breed [Sudanese (SN)]. Nineteen SSR markers generated multilocus fingerprints with a total of 225 alleles, a range of 4-23 alleles per locus, and an average of 9, 7, 7, and 6 alleles per locus in HA, ZR, SG, and SN populations, respectively. The mean multilocus FST value (0.034 +/- 0.005) showed nonsignificant population differentiation. Mean observed heterozygosity values were 0.908 for HA, 0.860 for ZR, 0.919 for SG, and 0.887 for SN, which were higher than the expected heterozygosity. An excess of heterozygotes was observed, suggesting the presence of overdominant selection or the occurrence of outbreeding. Pairwise genetic distances indicated that the three indigenous camel breeds were genetically close to each other and genetically distant to the SN population. This genetic variability assessment by microsatellite analysis is important and useful for the conservation of local camel genetic resources as well as the future development of breeding programs.