Stochasticity Shapes Microbial Communities in High-Altitude Lakes, Whereas Species Selection and Homogenization Dispersal Are More Important in Lowland Lakes: Case of Benthic Diatoms in Alpine Lakes.

Lakes are fundamental ecosystems for human well-being, and understanding the ecological processes shaping their biological communities is of prime importance. Among microalgae, diatoms are often dominating the biomass of their benthic habitats, especially in European alpine lakes. We hypothesized that, because of their contrasted hydro-morphometric characteristics, high-altitude and lowland lake communities may have contrasted diversities and may be shaped differently by ecological processes.

Omics to Study and Manage Aquatic Environments: A Snapshot From the AquaEcOmics Meeting (Evian-les-Bains, 2025).

The AquaEcOmics meeting brought together 280 scientists applying omics tools to aquatic research in March 2025 (Evian-les-Bains, France). We synthesised here the main outcomes from the 167 presentations which were given. A similar number of presentations were about micro- and macroorganisms.

Intraluminal pressure triggers a rapid and persistent reinforcement of endothelial barriers.

In response to mechanical cues, endothelial cells elicit highly sensitive cellular response pathways that contribute to the regulation of the physiology and disorders of the vascular system. However, it remains relatively unexplored how endothelial tissues process and integrate the intraluminal pressure, and in turn regulate the permeation flow across the vessel wall. Leveraging a tissue engineering approach to create microvessels (MVs), we measured real-time permeation flow induced by intraluminal pressures ranging from 0.

Intracellular dry mass density increases under growth-induced pressure.

Cells that proliferate in confined environments develop mechanical compressive stress, referred to as growth-induced pressure, which inhibits growth and division across various organisms. Recent studies have shown that in these confined spaces, the diffusivity of intracellular nanoparticles decreases. However, the physical mechanisms behind this reduction remain unclear.

Laminin and hyaluronan supplementation of collagen hydrogels enhances endothelial function and tight junction expression on three-dimensional cylindrical microvessel-on-a-chip.

Vasculature-on-chip (VoC) models have become a prominent tool in the study of microvasculature functions because of their cost-effective and ethical production process. These models typically use a hydrogel in which the three-dimensional (3D) microvascular structure is embedded. Thus, VoCs are directly impacted by the physical and chemical cues of the supporting hydrogel.