Allam Bassem

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Allam
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Bassem
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  • Article
    The Marine Microbial Eukaryote Transcriptome Sequencing Project (MMETSP) : illuminating the functional diversity of eukaryotic life in the oceans through transcriptome sequencing
    (Public Library of Science, 2014-06-24) Keeling, Patrick J. ; Burki, Fabien ; Wilcox, Heather M. ; Allam, Bassem ; Allen, Eric E. ; Amaral-Zettler, Linda A. ; Armbrust, E. Virginia ; Archibald, John M. ; Bharti, Arvind K. ; Bell, Callum J. ; Beszteri, Bank ; Bidle, Kay D. ; Cameron, Connor T. ; Campbell, Lisa ; Caron, David A. ; Cattolico, Rose Ann ; Collier, Jackie L. ; Coyne, Kathryn J. ; Davy, Simon K. ; Deschamps, Phillipe ; Dyhrman, Sonya T. ; Edvardsen, Bente ; Gates, Ruth D. ; Gobler, Christopher J. ; Greenwood, Spencer J. ; Guida, Stephanie M. ; Jacobi, Jennifer L. ; Jakobsen, Kjetill S. ; James, Erick R. ; Jenkins, Bethany D. ; John, Uwe ; Johnson, Matthew D. ; Juhl, Andrew R. ; Kamp, Anja ; Katz, Laura A. ; Kiene, Ronald P. ; Kudryavtsev, Alexander N. ; Leander, Brian S. ; Lin, Senjie ; Lovejoy, Connie ; Lynn, Denis ; Marchetti, Adrian ; McManus, George ; Nedelcu, Aurora M. ; Menden-Deuer, Susanne ; Miceli, Cristina ; Mock, Thomas ; Montresor, Marina ; Moran, Mary Ann ; Murray, Shauna A. ; Nadathur, Govind ; Nagai, Satoshi ; Ngam, Peter B. ; Palenik, Brian ; Pawlowski, Jan ; Petroni, Giulio ; Piganeau, Gwenael ; Posewitz, Matthew C. ; Rengefors, Karin ; Romano, Giovanna ; Rumpho, Mary E. ; Rynearson, Tatiana A. ; Schilling, Kelly B. ; Schroeder, Declan C. ; Simpson, Alastair G. B. ; Slamovits, Claudio H. ; Smith, David R. ; Smith, G. Jason ; Smith, Sarah R. ; Sosik, Heidi M. ; Stief, Peter ; Theriot, Edward ; Twary, Scott N. ; Umale, Pooja E. ; Vaulot, Daniel ; Wawrik, Boris ; Wheeler, Glen L. ; Wilson, William H. ; Xu, Yan ; Zingone, Adriana ; Worden, Alexandra Z.
    Microbial ecology is plagued by problems of an abstract nature. Cell sizes are so small and population sizes so large that both are virtually incomprehensible. Niches are so far from our everyday experience as to make their very definition elusive. Organisms that may be abundant and critical to our survival are little understood, seldom described and/or cultured, and sometimes yet to be even seen. One way to confront these problems is to use data of an even more abstract nature: molecular sequence data. Massive environmental nucleic acid sequencing, such as metagenomics or metatranscriptomics, promises functional analysis of microbial communities as a whole, without prior knowledge of which organisms are in the environment or exactly how they are interacting. But sequence-based ecological studies nearly always use a comparative approach, and that requires relevant reference sequences, which are an extremely limited resource when it comes to microbial eukaryotes. In practice, this means sequence databases need to be populated with enormous quantities of data for which we have some certainties about the source. Most important is the taxonomic identity of the organism from which a sequence is derived and as much functional identification of the encoded proteins as possible. In an ideal world, such information would be available as a large set of complete, well-curated, and annotated genomes for all the major organisms from the environment in question. Reality substantially diverges from this ideal, but at least for bacterial molecular ecology, there is a database consisting of thousands of complete genomes from a wide range of taxa, supplemented by a phylogeny-driven approach to diversifying genomics. For eukaryotes, the number of available genomes is far, far fewer, and we have relied much more heavily on random growth of sequence databases, raising the question as to whether this is fit for purpose.
  • Article
    Climate change, precipitation and impacts on an estuarine refuge from disease
    (Public Library of Science, 2011-04-28) Levinton, Jeffrey ; Doall, Michael ; Ralston, David K. ; Starke, Adam ; Allam, Bassem
    Oysters play important roles in estuarine ecosystems but have suffered recently due to overfishing, pollution, and habitat loss. A tradeoff between growth rate and disease prevalence as a function of salinity makes the estuarine salinity transition of special concern for oyster survival and restoration. Estuarine salinity varies with discharge, so increases or decreases in precipitation with climate change may shift regions of low salinity and disease refuge away from optimal oyster bottom habitat, negatively impacting reproduction and survival. Temperature is an additional factor for oyster survival, and recent temperature increases have increased vulnerability to disease in higher salinity regions. We examined growth, reproduction, and survival of oysters in the New York Harbor-Hudson River region, focusing on a low-salinity refuge in the estuary. Observations were during two years when rainfall was above average and comparable to projected future increases in precipitation in the region and a past period of about 15 years with high precipitation. We found a clear tradeoff between oyster growth and vulnerability to disease. Oysters survived well when exposed to intermediate salinities during two summers (2008, 2010) with moderate discharge conditions. However, increased precipitation and discharge in 2009 reduced salinities in the region with suitable benthic habitat, greatly increasing oyster mortality. To evaluate the estuarine conditions over longer periods, we applied a numerical model of the Hudson to simulate salinities over the past century. Model results suggest that much of the region with suitable benthic habitat that historically had been a low salinity refuge region may be vulnerable to higher mortality under projected increases in precipitation and discharge. Predicted increases in precipitation in the northeastern United States due to climate change may lower salinities past important thresholds for oyster survival in estuarine regions with appropriate substrate, potentially disrupting metapopulation dynamics and impeding oyster restoration efforts, especially in the Hudson estuary where a large basin constitutes an excellent refuge from disease.