Biology subjects

Janssens, I.

Publications and source records attributed to Janssens, I..

3 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2026

Who and how much? Quantifying the role of trophic guilds in soil organic carbon mineralization

Understanding the biotic processes that drive soil organic carbon (SOC) mineralization is essential for predicting the climate warming-carbon cycle feedback. Here, we combined Tree-of-life sequencing (TOLseq; cross-domain profiling using ribosomal RNA) with quantitative conversion factors linking rRNA transcript abundance to biomass, to understand how soil food web changes affect SOC mineralization in an in situ soil warming experiment. Field observations showed that warming reduced SOC stocks, but after decades of warming SOC mineralization had acclimated. An energetic soil food web model revealed both bottom-up and top-down controls in the trophic cascades, shifting C flows from fungal and plant-associated channels towards the bacterial channel. This caused an increase in SOC mineralization rate in warmed soils of 30% per-unit biomass across the year.

microbiology↗

bioRxiv2026

Beyond a binary view of cystic fibrosis: systemic immunity and inflammation across the spectrum of CFTR dysfunction

Cystic fibrosis is traditionally framed as a dichotomy between affected individuals and clinically unaffected carriers, yet the systemic immune consequences across the spectrum of CFTR functionality remain incompletely defined. The advent of highly effective CFTR modulators now provides a unique momentum to examine whether partial restoration of CFTR function can influence systemic immunity. Using multimodal immune profiling, we constructed a single-cell atlas of circulating immune cells in people with cystic fibrosis (pwCF), healthy F508del carriers and non-carriers. In pwCF, systemic immunity was markedly altered following in vivo CFTR modulation with elexacaftor-tezacaftor-ivacaftor, with broad reductions in pro-inflammatory cytokines linked to improved clinical outcomes. Notably, healthy F508del carriers exhibited a CF-like immune signature characterised by low-grade systemic inflammation, including elevated IL-6, reduced mucosal-associated invariant T cells, and inflammatory monocyte features overlapping with pwCF. Together, these findings show that CFTR-related immune dysregulation extends beyond classical cystic fibrosis, challenging a strict dichotomy between health and disease.

immunology↗

bioRxiv2022

Community adaptation to temperature explains abrupt soil bacterial community shift along a geothermal gradient on Iceland

Understanding how and why soil microbial communities respond to temperature changes is important for understanding the drivers of microbial distribution and abundance. A unique area in Iceland, where soil temperatures have increased due to geothermic activity four years prior to sampling, creating a stable gradient of ambient to +40{degrees}C, allowed us to investigate the shape of the response to warming of soil bacterial communities, and their associated community temperature adaptation. We used 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing to profile bacterial communities, and bacterial growth based assays (3H Leu-incorporation) to characterize community adaptation using a temperature sensitivity index (SI, log (growth at 40{degrees}C/4{degrees}C)). Samples were taken from [≥]9 levels of warming (covering almost up to +40{degrees}C above ambient soil temperature), under both grassland (Agrostis capillaris) and forest (Picea sitchensis) vegetation. The soils had very different community composition, but temperature adaptation was the same. Both diversity and community composition as well SI showed similar threshold dynamics along the soil temperature gradient. There were no significant changes up to soil warming of approx. 6-9 {degrees}C, beyond which all indices shifted in parallel. The consistency of these responses gives strong support for a decisive role for direct temperature effects in driving bacterial community shifts along soil temperature gradients.

ecology↗