The impact of deep-sea fisheries and implementation of the UNGA Resolutions 61/105 and 64/72. Report of an international scientific workshop

The scientific workshop to review fisheries management, held in Lisbon in May 2011, brought together 22 scientists and fisheries experts from around the world to consider the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) resolutions on high seas bottom fisheries: what progress has been made and what the outstanding issues are. This report summarises the workshop conclusions, identifying examples of good practice and making recommendations in areas where it was agreed that the current management measures fall short of their target

Carbapenem-resistant Citrobacter spp. isolated in Spain from 2013 to 2015 produced a variety of carbapenemases including VIM-1, OXA-48, KPC-2, NDM-1 and VIM-2

Objectives: There is little information about carbapenemase-producing (CP) Citrobacter spp.We studied the molecular epidemiology and microbiological features of CP Citrobacter spp. isolates collected in Spain (2013-15). Methods: In total, 119 isolates suspected of being CP by the EUCAST screening cut-off values were analysed. Carbapenemases and ESBLs were characterized using PCR and sequencing. The genetic relationship among Citrobacter freundii isolates was studied by PFGE. Results: Of the 119 isolates, 63 (52.9%) produced carbapenemases, of which 37 (58.7%) produced VIM-1, 20 (31.7%) produced OXA-48, 12 (19%) produced KPC-2, 2 (3.2%) produced NDM-1 and 1 (1.6%) produced VIM- 2; 9 C. freundii isolates co-produced VIM-1 plus OXA-48. Fourteen isolates (22.2%) also carried ESBLs: 8 CTX-M-9 plus SHV-12, 2 CTX-M-9, 2 SHV-12 and 2 CTX-M-15. Fifty-seven isolates (90.5%) were C. freundii, 4 (6.3%) were Citrobacter koseri, 1 (1.6%) was Citrobacter amalonaticus and 1 (1.6%) was Citrobacter braakii. By EUCAST breakpoints, eight (12.7%) of the CP isolates were susceptible to the four carbapenems tested. In the 53 CP C. freundii analysed by PFGE, a total of 44 different band patterns were observed. Four PFGE clusters were identified: cluster 1 included eight isolates co-producing VIM-1 and OXA-48; blaVIM-1 was carried in a class 1 integron (intI-blaVIM-1 - aacA4-dfrB1-aadA1-catB2-qacE¿1/sul1) and blaOXA-48 was carried in a Tn1999.2 transposon. Conclusions: We observed the clonal and polyclonal spread of CP Citrobacter spp. across several Spanish geographical areas. Four species of Citrobacter spp. produced up to five carbapenemase types, including coproduction of VIM-1 plus OXA-48. Some CP Citrobacter spp. isolates were susceptible to the four carbapenems tested, a finding with potential clinical implications

The impact of deep-sea fisheries and implementation of the UNGA Resolutions 61/105 and 64/72. Report of an international scientific workshop, National Oceanography Centre, Southampton

The scientific workshop to review fisheries management, held in Lisbon in May 2011, brought together 22 scientists and fisheries experts from around the world to consider the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) resolutions on high seas bottom fisheries: what progress has been made and what the outstanding issues are. This report summarises the workshop conclusions, identifying examples of good practice and making recommendations in areas where it was agreed that the current management measures fall short of their target.Peer reviewe

Fungi sensing environmental stress

AbstractCells need to adapt to the external environment in order to survive. Signal transduction pathways are crucial mechanisms that allow cells to sense and respond to extracellular stimuli. Among the signal transduction pathways, we point out the cascades mediated by mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs). The MAPKs are conserved from yeast to human and play relevant roles in the physiology of the cell. In pathogenic fungi these MAPK pathways control virulence factors. This review describes the MAPK cascades described in Candida albicans, the most frequently isolated fungus, from fungal systemic infections among individuals in developed countries

Inferring dispersal: a Bayesian approach to phylogeny-based island biogeography, with special reference to the Canary Islands

Aim Oceanic islands represent a special challenge to historical biogeographers because dispersal is typically the dominant process while most existing methods are based on vicariance. Here, we describe a new Bayesian approach to island biogeography that estimates island carrying capacities and dispersal rates based on simple Markov models of biogeographical processes. This is done in the context of simultaneous analysis of phylogenetic and distributional data across groups, accommodating phylogenetic uncertainty and making parameter estimates more robust. We test our models on an empirical data set of published phylogenies of Canary Island organisms to examine overall dispersal rates and correlation of rates with explanatory factors such as geographic proximity and area size. Location Oceanic archipelagos with special reference to the Atlantic Canary Islands. Methods The Canary Islands were divided into three island-groups, corresponding to the main magmatism periods in the formation of the archipelago, while non-Canarian distributions were grouped into a fourth 'mainland-island'. Dispersal between island groups, which were assumed constant through time, was modelled as a homogeneous, time-reversible Markov process, analogous to the standard models of DNA evolution. The stationary state frequencies in these models reflect the relative carrying capacity of the islands, while the exchangeability (rate) parameters reflect the relative dispersal rates between islands. We examined models of increasing complexity: Jukes–Cantor (JC), Equal-in, and General Time Reversible (GTR), with or without the assumption of stepping-stone dispersal. The data consisted of 13 Canarian phylogenies: 954 individuals representing 393 taxonomic (morphological) entities. Each group was allowed to evolve under its own DNA model, with the island-model shared across groups. Posterior distributions on island model parameters were estimated using Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) sampling, as implemented in MrBayes 4.0, and Bayes Factors were used to compare models. Results The Equal-in step, the GTR, and the GTR step dispersal models showed the best fit to the data. In the Equal-in and GTR models, the largest carrying capacity was estimated for the mainland, followed by the central islands and the western islands, with the eastern islands having the smallest carrying capacity. The relative dispersal rate was highest between the central and eastern islands, and between the central and western islands. The exchange with the mainland was rare in comparison. Main conclusions Our results confirm those of earlier studies suggesting that inter-island dispersal within the Canary Island archipelago has been more important in explaining diversification within lineages than dispersal between the continent and the islands, despite the close proximity to North Africa. The low carrying capacity of the eastern islands, uncorrelated with their size or age, fits well with the idea of a historically depauperate biota in these islands but more sophisticated models are needed to address the possible influence of major recent extinction events. The island models explored here can easily be extended to address other problems in historical biogeography, such as dispersal among areas in continental settings or reticulate area relationships.I.S. has been funded by the Swedish Research Council through Grant (621-2003-021). F.R. and P.V.D.M were funded by R01 GM-069801 (NIH). I.S. and F.R. were also funded by the NSF through the NESCent 'Biogeography Working Group'.Peer reviewe

The impact of deep-sea fisheries and implementation of the UNGA Resolutions 61/105 and 64/72. Report of an international scientific workshop, National Oceanography Centre, Southampton

The scientific workshop to review fisheries management, held in Lisbon in May 2011, brought together 22 scientists and fisheries experts from around the world to consider the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) resolutions on high seas bottom fisheries: what progress has been made and what the outstanding issues are. This report summarises the workshop conclusions, identifying examples of good practice and making recommendations in areas where it was agreed that the current management measures fall short of their target.Versión de edito