Dairying, diseases and the evolution of lactase persistence in Europe

Update notice Author Correction: Dairying, diseases and the evolution of lactase persistence in Europe (Nature, (2022), 608, 7922, (336-345), 10.1038/s41586-022-05010-7) Nature, Volume 609, Issue 7927, Pages E9, 15 September 2022In European and many African, Middle Eastern and southern Asian populations, lactase persistence (LP) is the most strongly selected monogenic trait to have evolved over the past 10,000 years(1). Although the selection of LP and the consumption of prehistoric milk must be linked, considerable uncertainty remains concerning their spatiotemporal configuration and specific interactions(2,3). Here we provide detailed distributions of milk exploitation across Europe over the past 9,000 years using around 7,000 pottery fat residues from more than 550 archaeological sites. European milk use was widespread from the Neolithic period onwards but varied spatially and temporally in intensity. Notably, LP selection varying with levels of prehistoric milk exploitation is no better at explaining LP allele frequency trajectoriesthan uniform selection since the Neolithic period. In the UK Biobank(4,5) cohort of 500,000 contemporary Europeans, LP genotype was only weakly associated with milk consumption and did not show consistent associations with improved fitness or health indicators. This suggests that other reasons for the beneficial effects of LP should be considered for its rapid frequency increase. We propose that lactase non-persistent individuals consumed milk when it became available but, under conditions of famine and/or increased pathogen exposure, this was disadvantageous, driving LP selection in prehistoric Europe. Comparison of model likelihoods indicates that population fluctuations, settlement density and wild animal exploitation-proxies for these drivers-provide better explanations of LP selection than the extent of milk exploitation. These findings offer new perspectives on prehistoric milk exploitation and LP evolution.Peer reviewe

Fifth European Dirofilaria and Angiostrongylus Days (FiEDAD) 2016

Peer reviewe

Taxonomy of the family Arenaviridae and the order Bunyavirales : update 2018

In 2018, the family Arenaviridae was expanded by inclusion of 1 new genus and 5 novel species. At the same time, the recently established order Bunyavirales was expanded by 3 species. This article presents the updated taxonomy of the family Arenaviridae and the order Bunyavirales as now accepted by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) and summarizes additional taxonomic proposals that may affect the order in the near future.Peer reviewe

Detection and differentiation of microbial siderophores by isoelectric focusing and chrome azurol S overlay

Siderophores are microbial, low molecular weight iron-chelating compounds. Fluorescent Pseudomonads produce different, strain-specific fluorescent siderophores (pyoverdines) as well as non-fluorescent siderophores in response to low iron conditions. We present an isoelectric focusing method applicable to unpurified as well as to purified pyoverdine samples where the fluorescent siderophores are visualized under UV illumination. Siderophores from different Pseudomonas sp., amongst which are P. aeruginosa, P. fluorescens and P. putida, including egg yolk, rhizospheric and clinical isolates as well as some derived Tn5 mutants were separated by this technique. Different patterns could be observed for strains known to produce different siderophores. The application of the chrome azurol S assay as a gel overlay further allows immediate detection of non-fluorescent siderophores or possibly degradation products with residual siderophore activity. The method was also applied to other microbial siderophores such as deferrioxamine B

Motor deficits in aged <i>HdhQ111</i>/+ mice.

<p><i>HdhQ111</i>/+ and Hdh+/+ mice at 46 weeks of age were tested on an automated CatWalk system (A-D) and for their ability to descend a vertical pole (E,F). <i>HdhQ111</i>/+ mice showed reduced Right by Left hindlimb stride length (A,B), a decreased cruciate step pattern frequency of pattern left front-right front-left hind-right hind (C,D) and an increased time to descend a vertical pole (total duration being the time taken to turn at the top of the pole and descend to the bottom). . For the CatWalk N=10 per sex and genotype; for the pole descent, males N=8 Hdh+/+, N=9 <i>HdhQ111</i>/+, females N=10 per genotype. Plotted are Tukey box-whisker graphs. All tests showed a significant genotype p value in a 2-way ANOVA. * Adjusted p value (p<0.05) following multiple testing correction.</p

Performance on the accelerating rotarod.

<p><i>HdhQ111</i>/+ and wild-type littermates were tested at 12 weeks (A, C, E) and 24 weeks (B, D, F) on an accelerating rotarod over three consecutive days and latency to fall (seconds, s) was recorded on each day (A-D). Improvement (E, F) was measured as the difference in latency to fall on day 3 compared to day 1, with positive values indicating improvement and negative values indicating a worsening performance. 12 weeks: N=20 <i>HdhQ111</i>/+ mice (10 males, 10 females and 21 Hdh+/+ mice (11 males, 10 females); 24 weeks: N= 20 <i>HdhQ111</i>/+ mice (10 males, 10 females) and 20 Hdh+/+ mice (10 males, 10 females). Bars show mean±SEM. * Adjusted p value (p<0.05) following multiple testing correction. </p

Free fed glucose levels in <i>HdhQ111</i>/+ and Hdh+/+ mice.

<div><p>Glucose levels were measured in free-fed mice at 16 weeks of age (A) (N=10 for each sex and genotype) and again at 19 weeks (B) in the same cohort of mice (N=10 males for each genotype, N=9 Hdh+/+ females and N=7 <i>HdhQ111</i>/+ females). </p> <p>* p<0.05 (2-tailed unpaired Student’s t-test). Plotted are Tukey box-whisker graphs. </p></div