We investigate the group-scale environment of 15 luminous quasars (luminosity L-3000 > 10(46) erg s(-1)) from the Cosmic Ultraviolet Baryon Survey (CUBS) at redshift z approximate to 1. Using the Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer integral field spectrograph on the Very Large Telescope, we conduct a deep galaxy redshift survey in the CUBS quasar fields to identify group members and measure the physical properties of individual galaxies and galaxy groups. We find that the CUBS quasars reside in diverse environments. The majority (11 out of 15) of the CUBS quasars reside in overdense environments with typical halo masses exceeding 10(13 )M(circle dot), while the remaining quasars reside in moderate-size galaxy groups. No correlation is observed between overdensity and redshift, black hole (BH) mass, or luminosity. Radio-loud quasars (5 out of 15 CUBS quasars) are more likely to be in overdense environments than their radio-quiet counterparts in the sample, consistent with the mean trends from previous statistical observations and clustering analyses. Nonetheless, we also observe radio-loud quasars in moderate groups and radio-quiet quasars in overdense environments, indicating a large scatter in the connection between radio properties and environment. We find that the most UV luminous quasars might be outliers in the stellar mass-to-halo mass relations or may represent departures from the standard single-epoch BH relations.

Mass coral bleaching is one of the clearest threats of climate change to the persistence of marine biodiversity. Despite the negative impacts of bleaching on coral health and survival, some corals may be able to rapidly adapt to warming ocean temperatures. Thus, a significant focus in coral research is identifying the genes and pathways underlying coral heat adaptation. Here, we review state-of-the-art methods that may enable the discovery of heat -adaptive loci in corals and identify four main knowledge gaps. To fill these gaps, we describe an experimental approach combining seascape genomics with CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing to discover and validate heat -adaptive loci. Finally, we discuss how information on adaptive genotypes could be used in coral reef conservation and management strategies.

There is increasing evidence that interactions between microbes and their hosts not only play a role in determining health and disease but also in emotions, thought, and behavior. Built environments greatly influence microbiome exposures because of their built-in highly specific microbiomes coproduced with myriad metaorganisms including humans, pets, plants, rodents, and insects. Seemingly static built structures host complex ecologies of microorganisms that are only starting to be mapped. These microbial ecologies of built environments are directly and interdependently affected by social, spatial, and technological norms. Advances in technology have made these organisms visible and forced the scientific community and architects to rethink gene-environment and microbe interactions respectively. Thus, built environment design must consider the microbiome, and research involving host-microbiome interaction must consider the built-environment. This paradigm shift becomes increasingly important as evidence grows that contemporary built environments are steadily reducing the microbial diversity essential for human health, well-being, and resilience while accelerating the symptoms of human chronic diseases including environmental allergies, and other more life-altering diseases. New models of design are required to balance maximizing exposure to microbial diversity while minimizing exposure to human-associated diseases. Sustained trans-disciplinary research across time (evolutionary, historical, and generational) and space (cultural and geographical) is needed to develop experimental design protocols that address multigenerational multispecies health and health equity in built environments.

Diagnosing land-atmosphere fluxes of carbon-dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) is essential for evaluating carbon-climate feedbacks. Greenhouse gas satellite missions aim to fill data gaps in regions like the humid tropics but obtain very few valid measurements due to cloud contamination. We examined data yields from the Orbiting Carbon Observatory alongside Sentinel-2 cloud statistics. We find that the main contribution to low data yields are frequent shallow cumulus clouds. In the Amazon, the success rate in obtaining valid measurements vary from 0.1% to 1.0%. By far the lowest yields occur in the wet season, consistent with Sentinel-2 cloud patterns. We find that increasing the spatial resolution of observations to similar to 200 m would increase yields by 2-3 orders of magnitude and allow regular measurements in the wet season. Thus, the key to effective tropical greenhouse gas observations lies in regularly acquiring high-spatial resolution data.

The animal foregut is the first tissue to encounter ingested food, bacteria, and viruses. We characterized the adult Drosophila foregut using transcriptomics to better understand how it triages consumed items for digestion or immune response and manages resources. Cell types were assigned and validated using GFP- tagged and Gal4 reporter lines. Foregut- associated neuroendocrine cells play a major integrative role by coordinating gut activity with nutrition, the microbiome, and circadian cycles; some express clock genes. Multiple epithelial cell types comprise the proventriculus, the central foregut organ that secretes the peritrophic matrix (PM) lining the gut. Analyzing cell types synthesizing individual PM layers revealed abundant mucin production close to enterocytes, similar to the mammalian intestinal mucosa. The esophagus and salivary gland express secreted proteins likely to line the esophageal surface, some of which may generate a foregut commensal niche housing specific gut microbiome species. Overall, our results imply that the foregut coordinates dietary sensing, hormonal regulation, and immunity in a manner that has been conserved during animal evolution.

We present a morphological study of the 17 lensed Ly alpha emitter (LAE) galaxies of the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey Emission-Line Lens Survey (BELLS) for the GALaxy-Ly alpha EmitteR sYstems (BELLS GALLERY) sample. This analysis combines the magnification effect of strong galaxy-galaxy lensing with the high resolution of the Hubble Space Telescope to achieve a physical resolution of similar to 80 pc for this 2 < z < 3 LAE sample, allowing a detailed characterization of the LAE rest-frame ultraviolet continuum surface brightness profiles and substructure. We use lens-model reconstructions of the LAEs to identify and model individual clumps, which we subsequently use to constrain the parameters of a generative statistical model of the LAE population. Since the BELLS GALLERY sample is selected primarily on the basis of Ly alpha emission, the LAEs that we study here are likely to be directly comparable to those selected in wide-field, narrowband LAE surveys, in contrast with the lensed LAEs identified in cluster-lensing fields. We find an LAE clumpiness fraction of approximately 88%, which is significantly higher than that found in previous (non-lensing) studies. We find a well-resolved characteristic clump half-light radii of similar to 350 pc, a scale comparable to the largest H II regions seen in the local universe. This statistical characterization of LAE surface-brightness profiles will be incorporated into future lensing analyses using the BELLS GALLERY sample to constrain the incidence of dark-matter substructure in the foreground lensing galaxies.

Chloroflexus sp. MS-CIW-1 was isolated from a phototrophic mat in Mushroom Spring, an alkaline hot spring in Yellowstone National Park, WY, USA. We report the draft genome of 4.8 Mb consisting of 6 contigs with 3755 protein-coding genes and a GC content of 54.45%.