Effect of nutritional recovery with soybean flour diet on body composition, energy balance and serum leptin concentration in adult rats

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Malnutrition in early life is associated with obesity in adulthood and soybean products may have a beneficial effect on its prevention and treatment. This study evaluated body composition, serum leptin and energy balance in adult rats subjected to protein restriction during the intrauterine stage and lactation and recovering on a soybean flour diet.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Five groups of the Wistar strain of albino rats were used: CC, offspring born to and suckled by mothers fed a control diet and fed the same diet after weaning; CS, offspring born to and suckled by mothers fed a control diet and fed a soybean diet with 17% protein after weaning; LL, offspring of mothers fed a low protein diet and fed the same diet after weaning; LC, offspring of mothers fed a low protein diet, but fed a control diet after weaning; LS, offspring of mothers fed a low protein diet, but fed a soybean diet with 17% protein after weaning. Food intake, body, perirenal and retroperitoneal adipose tissue were measured in grams. Leptin was quantified using the Enzyme Linked Immuno Sorbent Assay (ELISA) and insulin by radioimmunoassay (RIA). Carcass composition was determined by chemical methods and energy expenditure was calculated by the difference between energy intake and carcass energy gain. Data were tested by analysis of variance (ANOVA).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The LC and LS groups had higher energetic intake concerning body weight, lower energy expenditure, proportion of fat carcass and fat pads than CC and CS groups. The LS group showed reduced body weight gain and lower energy efficiency, which was reflected in less energy gain as protein and the proportion of carcass protein, and lower energy gain as lipid than in the LC groups, although both groups had eaten the same amount of diet and showed equal energy expenditure. Serum leptin did not differ among groups and was unrelated to food or energy intake and energy expenditure. Serum insulin was higher in the LS than in the LC group.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Protein restriction during intrauterine life and lactation periods did not provoke obesity in adulthood. Nutritional recovery with soybean diet decreased the body weight at the expense of lower energy efficiency with repercussion on lean mass.</p

Genome of Herbaspirillum seropedicae Strain SmR1, a Specialized Diazotrophic Endophyte of Tropical Grasses

The molecular mechanisms of plant recognition, colonization, and nutrient exchange between diazotrophic endophytes and plants are scarcely known. Herbaspirillum seropedicae is an endophytic bacterium capable of colonizing intercellular spaces of grasses such as rice and sugar cane. The genome of H. seropedicae strain SmR1 was sequenced and annotated by The Paraná State Genome Programme—GENOPAR. The genome is composed of a circular chromosome of 5,513,887 bp and contains a total of 4,804 genes. The genome sequence revealed that H. seropedicae is a highly versatile microorganism with capacity to metabolize a wide range of carbon and nitrogen sources and with possession of four distinct terminal oxidases. The genome contains a multitude of protein secretion systems, including type I, type II, type III, type V, and type VI secretion systems, and type IV pili, suggesting a high potential to interact with host plants. H. seropedicae is able to synthesize indole acetic acid as reflected by the four IAA biosynthetic pathways present. A gene coding for ACC deaminase, which may be involved in modulating the associated plant ethylene-signaling pathway, is also present. Genes for hemagglutinins/hemolysins/adhesins were found and may play a role in plant cell surface adhesion. These features may endow H. seropedicae with the ability to establish an endophytic life-style in a large number of plant species

Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time,1,2 and attempts to address it require a clear un derstanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space.3,4 While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes,5–7 vast areas of the tropics remain understudied.8–11 In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world’s most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity,12 but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepre sented in biodiversity databases.13–15 To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications16,17 may elim inate pieces of the Amazon’s biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological com munities are responding. To increase generalization and applicability of biodiversity knowledge,18,19 it is thus crucial to reduce biases in ecological research, particularly in regions projected to face the most pronounced environmental changes. We integrate ecological community metadata of 7,694 sampling sites for multiple or ganism groups in a machine learning model framework to map the research probability across the Brazilian Amazonia, while identifying the region’s vulnerability to environmental change. 15%–18% of the most ne glected areas in ecological research are expected to experience severe climate or land use changes by 2050. This means that unless we take immediate action, we will not be able to establish their current status, much less monitor how it is changing and what is being lostinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time,1,2 and attempts to address it require a clear understanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space.3,4 While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes,5,6,7 vast areas of the tropics remain understudied.8,9,10,11 In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world's most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity,12 but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepresented in biodiversity databases.13,14,15 To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications16,17 may eliminate pieces of the Amazon's biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological communities are responding. To increase generalization and applicability of biodiversity knowledge,18,19 it is thus crucial to reduce biases in ecological research, particularly in regions projected to face the most pronounced environmental changes. We integrate ecological community metadata of 7,694 sampling sites for multiple organism groups in a machine learning model framework to map the research probability across the Brazilian Amazonia, while identifying the region's vulnerability to environmental change. 15%–18% of the most neglected areas in ecological research are expected to experience severe climate or land use changes by 2050. This means that unless we take immediate action, we will not be able to establish their current status, much less monitor how it is changing and what is being lost

Microhimenopterous parasitoids of flies collected in urban area and bush in Itumbiara, Goiás, Brazil

This work reports the occurrence of parasitoid attacks on pupae of flies in urban and woody areas of Itumbiara, Goiás, Brazil. From March 2001 through June 2002, 909 parasitoids were collected from 3,887 pupae of flies in the urban area and 684 were collected from 830 pupae of flies in the woody area in five different substratums: humans feces, fruit, chicken, fish and bovine kidney. The pupae were obtained by the flotation method. The prevalences of parasitoidism in the urban and woody areas were 23.6% e 82.4%, respectively