Estuaries channel large amounts of anthropogenic nitrogen (N) from continents to the offshore where productivity is widely limited by N and phosphorus. Ammonium and urea, two reduced forms of anthropogenic N commonly observed, are the preferred substrates for various microorganisms (e.g., uptake by phytoplankton or bacteria and oxidation by nitrifier). Yet, it remains underexplored how they transform and their concentrations v...

Marine aquaculture has been expanded into more remote areas due to the increasing demand for high value-added fish products, bringing more challenges in fuel supply and mooring safety to open ocean aquaculture farms. Therefore, the idea of integrating aquaculture farms with offshore renewable energy has attracted tremendous interest. This study proposes a novel open ocean aquaculture ship integrated with a NREL 5 MW wind turbi...

The critical factors regulating stem cell endothelial commitment and renewal remain not well understood. Here, using loss- and gain-of-function assays together with bioinformatic analysis and multiple model systems, we show that PDGFD is an essential factor that switches on endothelial commitment of embryonic stem cells (ESCs). PDGFD genetic deletion or knockdown inhibits ESC differentiation into EC lineage and increases ESC s...

Clams, Meretrix meretrix, were one of the favorite aquatic products in Taiwan and the world. It was reported that the water pollutants such as heavy metals and chemicals might accumulate in the clam body and shell through filter-feeding behavior. Thus, the bivalves could be used as bioindicators in the aquatic environment. The present study analyzed 20 trace elements, Mg, Sr, Li, Cd, Ba, Mn, Al, U, Ti, Pb, Nd, B, S, Zn, Fe, P,...

Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a common severe acute syndrome caused by multiple factors and is characterized by a rapid decline in renal function during a short period. Bone marrow mesenchymal stromal cells (BMSCs) are effective in treating AKI. However, the mechanism of their beneficial effects remains unclear. PTEN-induced kinase 1 (PINK1) may play an important role in kidney tissue repair. In this study, we explored the effe...

Nitrogen metabolism is the most basic process of material and energy metabolism in living organisms, and processes involving the uptake and use of different nitrogen sources are usually tightly regulated at the transcriptional and post-transcriptional levels. Bacterial regulatory noncoding RNAs are novel post-transcriptional regulators that repress or activate the expression of target genes through complementarily pairing with...

The milkfish, Chanos chanos , is an important aquaculture species that can be cultured in freshwater (FW) and seawater (SW) ponds because of its high euryhalinity. In winter, cold snap leading to high mortality of this tropical species is a critical issue for the aquaculture industry in Taiwan. Under hypothermal stress, however, changes in energy supply for osmoregulation of this euryhaline species is intriguing. In this study...

Herbivorous fishes play an important role in preventing the overabundance of macroalgae on coral reefs. Understanding the feeding selectivity and consumption of macroalgae by herbivorous fishes can be challenging in studies of their ecological role in the preservation and recovery of coral reefs. Coral reef decline, macroalgal overgrowth and overfishing are clearly visible in the Xisha Islands, China. However, there are seldom...