'Tannat' (Vitis vinifera L.) as a model of responses to climate variability

Climate variability influence on the vine is widely studied for its impact on grape final composition and quality. During 1994-2016, thermal and water regimes and their influence on grapevine yield, sanitary status and berry composition were analyzed for 'Tannat' grown in commercial vineyards in the south of Uruguay (Lat 34° 37' S; 56° 17' W). Statistical analysis showed that the principal component analysis (PCA) separated years in three groups: Group 1: rainfall over the growing season higher than the average, limited sanitary status, acidity and yield higher than average, lower sugar content, late harvest. Group 2: greater thermal conditions and water component lower than average, better sanitary status, sugar contents and acidity lower than average, early harvest. Group 3: thermal conditions lower than average, rainfall higher during budbreak-fruitset period and lower than average in the month before harvest, berry size and sugar contents greater than average. Correlations between climate, yield and berry quality variables were established and stages of greater sensitivity to these climate elements were determined. In the studied years, climate variability within the region was high and 'Tannat' showed to be strongly influenced by such variability

Effect of methyl jasmonate in gene expression, and in hormonal and phenolic profiles of holm oak embryogenic lines before and after infection with Phytophthora Cinnamomi

The dieback syndrome affecting Quercus ilex and other oak species impels the search for tolerant plant genotypes, as well as methods of plant immunization against such infections. Elicitation treatments can be an effective strategy to activate plant defense response and embryogenic lines represent a promising tool to generate new tolerant genotypes and also to study early markers involved in defense response. The aim of the presented work was to investigate changes in gene expression, and in hormonal and phenolic profiles induced in three holm oak embryogenic lines (ELs) elicited with methyl jasmonate (MeJA) before and after infection with the oomycete Phytophthora cinnamomi, which is the main biotic agent involved in this pathogenic process. The three ELs, derived from three genotypes, showed different basal profiles in all tested parameters, noting that the VA5 naïve genotype from a scape tree was characterized by a basal higher expression in NADPH-dependent cinnamyl alcohol dehydrogenase (CAD) and chalcone synthase (CHS) genes and also by higher caffeic acid content. Our work also identifies changes triggered by MeJA elicitation in holm oak embryogenic lines, such as increases in ABA and JA contents, as well as in levels of most of the determined phenolic compounds, especially in caffeic acid in Q8 and E00 ELs, but not in their biosynthesis genes. Irrespective of the EL, the response to oomycete infection in holm oak elicited plant material was characterized by a further increase in JA. Since JA and phenols have been described as a part of the Q. ilex defense response against P. cinnamomi, we propose that MeJA may act as an induced resistance (IR) stimulus and that in our embryogenic material induced both direct (detected prior to any challenge) and primed (detected after subsequent challenge) defense responses. Copyright © 2022 Morcillo, Sales, Corredoira, Martínez, Segura and Arrillaga

Effect of elicitors on holm oak somatic embryo development and efficacy inducing tolerance to Phytophthora cinnamomi

Holm oak trees (Quercus ilex L.) mortality is increasing worryingly in the Mediterranean area in the last years. To a large degree this mortality is caused by the oomycete Phytophthora spp., which is responsible for forest decline and dieback in evergreen oak forest areas of the southwestern Iberian Peninsula. This study is based on the possibility of applying chemical elicitors or filtered oomycete extracts to holm oak somatic embryos (SE) in order to induce epigenetic memory, priming, that may increase tolerance to the pathogen in future infections. To this end, we first examined the effect of priming treatments on SE development and its oxidative stress state, to avoid elicitors that may cause damage to embryogenic tissues. Both, the sterile oomycete extracts and the chemical elicitor methyl jasmonate (MeJA) did not produce any detrimental effect on SE growth and development, unlike the elicitors benzothiadiazole (BTH) and p-aminobenzoic acid (PABA) that reduced the relative weight gain and resulted in necrotic and deformed SE when were applied at high concentrations (25 µM BTH or 50 µM PABA) in accordance with their high malondialdehyde content. No significant differences among elicitation treatments were found in dual culture bioassays,  although those SEs elicited with 50 µM MeJA increased H2O2 production after challenged against active oomycete indicating the activation of stress response. Since this elicitation treatment did not produce any adverse effect in the embryogenic process we suggest that could be used in further priming experiments to produce holm oak plants adapted to biotic stress

Late Holocene Aleppo pine (Pinus halepensis Miller) woodlands in Mallorca (Balearic Islands, Western Mediterranean): Investigation of their distribution and the role of human management based on anthracological, dendro-anthracological and archaeopalynological data

The pioneering nature of Mediterranean pines and their phytosociological role have been largely discussed in relation to different agents (e.g., edaphic, climatic or anthropogenic). In this context, Aleppo pine is one of the most widespread pine species in the Mediterranean basin, as it is especially adapted to climatic constraints, such as drought and high seasonality, and has a high tolerance for salinity and strong coastal winds. It is also well adapted to regeneration after anthropogenic landscape disturbances, highlighting its important after-fire regeneration rates. In this sense, phytosociological studies conducted in Mediterranean landscapes have found that this species'' wide distribution is mostly due to its rapid regeneration after human landscape transformation, including fire, and the abandonment of agricultural lands. Aleppo pine is considered to broadly develop after human action in sclerophyllous formation, in which it would be scarce or absent without human intervention. Parallel, paleoenvironmental and archaeobotanical studies have attempted to trace these trends back to prehistoric times to investigate this species'' role in Late Pleistocene and Holocene vegetation and evaluate the role of climate and human action in its diachronic dynamics. In this study, we present a compendium of anthracological, dendro-anthracological and archaeopalyonological data with the objective of (i) investigating the nature and distribution of Aleppo pine on the island of Mallorca and (ii) evaluating the possibility that human action could have resulted in the spread of this pine species during the first two millennia of permanent human occupation of the island (c. 2300 cal. BCE–1st-century ACE). Investigating these archaeobotanical datasets, as well as making comparisons with anthracological and paleoenvironmental studies in neighbouring Mediterranean zones (Iberia), allowed us to attest that Aleppo pine is a natural, pre-human component of the Holocene vegetation of the island, and it is especially well-adapted to coastal environments. Moreover, we describe the trends and characteristics of the human management of pine woodlands through anthracology and dendro-anthracology, suggesting that human action did not provoke widespread growth of Aleppo pine in Mallorca at the expense of other vegetation types during prehistory. Such processes, well-documented by current phytosociological studies, probably began at some unknown point after the Romanisation of the island

Induction of radiata pine somatic embryogenesis at high temperatures provokes a long-term decrease in dna methylation/hydroxymethylation and differential expression of stress-related genes

Based on the hypothesis that embryo development is a crucial stage for the formation of stable epigenetic marks that could modulate the behaviour of the resulting plants, in this study, radiata pine somatic embryogenesis was induced at high temperatures (23¿ C, eight weeks, control; 40¿ C, 4 h; 60¿ C, 5 min) and the global methylation and hydroxymethylation levels of emerging embryonal masses and somatic plants were analysed using LC-ESI-MS/ MS-MRM. In this context, the expression pattern of six genes previously described as stress-mediators was studied throughout the embryogenic process until plant level to assess whether the observed epigenetic changes could have provoked a sustained alteration of the transcriptome. Results indicated that the highest temperatures led to hypomethylation of both embryonal masses and somatic plants. Moreover, we detected for the first time in a pine species the presence of 5-hydroxymethylcytosine, and revealed its tissue specificity and potential involvement in heat-stress responses. Additionally, a heat shock protein-coding gene showed a down-regulation tendency along the process, with a special emphasis given to embryonal masses at first subculture and ex vitro somatic plants. Likewise, the transcripts of several proteins related with translation, oxidative stress response, and drought resilience were differentially expressed

MEGARA focal plane subsystems

MEGARA (Multi-Espectrografo en GTC de Alta Resolucion para Astronomia) is the future optical Integral-Field Unit (IFU) and Multi-Object Spectrograph (MOS) for GTC. The Fiber Units are placed at one Folded Cassegrain focus and feed the spectrograph located on a Nasmyth-type platform. This paper summarizes the status of the design of the MEGARA Folded Cassegrain Subsystems after the PDR (held on March 2012), as well as the prototyping that has been carried out during this phase. The MEGARA Fiber Unit has two IFUs: a Large Compact Bundle covering 12.5 arcsec x 11.3 arcsec on sky (100 microns fiber-core), and a Small Compact Bundle, of 8.5 arcsec x 6.7 arcsec (70 microns fiber-core), plus a Fiber MOS positioner, able to place up to 100 mini-bundles 7 fibers each (100 microns fiber-core) in MOS configuration within a 3.5arcmin x 3.5arcmin FOV. A field lens provides a telecentric focal plane where the fibers are located. Microlens arrays couple the telescope beam to the collimator focal ratio at the entrance of the fibers (providing the f/17 to f/3 focal ratio reduction to enter into the fibers). Finally, the fibers, organized in bundles, end in the pseudo-slit plate, which will be placed at the entrance focal plane of the MEGARA spectrographs

Ultra-processed foods and type-2 diabetes risk in the sun project: A prospective cohort study

The association between ultra-processed foods (UPF) consumption and the risk of type 2 diabetes (T2D) has not been much explored. We aimed to evaluate the association between consumption of UPF and the incidence of T2D

Forecasting levels of serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D based on dietary intake, lifestyle and personal determinants in a sample of Southern Europeans

Vitamin D is an essential nutrient to be consumed in the habitual dietary intake, whose deficiency is associated with various disturbances. This study represents a validation of vitamin D status estimation using a semi-quantitative FFQ, together with data from additional physical activity and lifestyle questionnaires. This information was combined to forecast the serum vitamin D status. Different statistical methods were applied to estimate the vitamin D status using predictors based on diet and lifestyle. Serum vitamin D was predicted using linear regression (with leave-one-out cross-validation) and random forest models. Intraclass correlation coefficients, Lin’s agreement coefficients, Bland–Altman plots and other methods were used to assess the accuracy of the predicted v. observed serum values. Data were collected in Spain. A total of 220 healthy volunteers aged between 18 and 78 years were included in this study. They completed validated questionnaires and agreed to provide blood samples to measure serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) levels. The common final predictors in both models were age, sex, sunlight exposure, vitamin D dietary intake (as assessed by the FFQ), BMI, time spent walking, physical activity and skin reaction after sun exposure. The intraclass correlation coefficient for the prediction was 0·60 (95 % CI: 0·52, 0·67; P < 0·001) using the random forest model. The magnitude of the correlation was moderate, which means that our estimation could be useful in future epidemiological studies to establish a link between the predicted 25(OH)D values and the occurrence of several clinical outcomes in larger cohorts

Neoadjuvant anti-PD-1 immunotherapy promotes a survival benefit with intratumoral and systemic immune responses in recurrent glioblastoma.

Glioblastoma is the most common primary malignant brain tumor in adults and is associated with poor survival. The Ivy Foundation Early Phase Clinical Trials Consortium conducted a randomized, multi-institution clinical trial to evaluate immune responses and survival following neoadjuvant and/or adjuvant therapy with pembrolizumab in 35 patients with recurrent, surgically resectable glioblastoma. Patients who were randomized to receive neoadjuvant pembrolizumab, with continued adjuvant therapy following surgery, had significantly extended overall survival compared to patients that were randomized to receive adjuvant, post-surgical programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) blockade alone. Neoadjuvant PD-1 blockade was associated with upregulation of T cell- and interferon-γ-related gene expression, but downregulation of cell-cycle-related gene expression within the tumor, which was not seen in patients that received adjuvant therapy alone. Focal induction of programmed death-ligand 1 in the tumor microenvironment, enhanced clonal expansion of T cells, decreased PD-1 expression on peripheral blood T cells and a decreasing monocytic population was observed more frequently in the neoadjuvant group than in patients treated only in the adjuvant setting. These findings suggest that the neoadjuvant administration of PD-1 blockade enhances both the local and systemic antitumor immune response and may represent a more efficacious approach to the treatment of this uniformly lethal brain tumor

Impact of a training project for primary health-care providers (FOCO project) in the HIV screening and HIV late diagnosis

Poster [P043] OBJECTIVE Reducing HIV late diagnosis remains an epidemiological challenge . The objective of this project was to promote early HIV diagnosis through the training of primary health - care providers (PHCP) . METHODS HIV specialists conducted training sessions in 108 primary care centers (PCC) from six Spanish regions during 2016 and 2017 , and with 1804 PHCP involved . The intervention was evaluated using a pre - experimental design collecting the dependent variables both in the six months before and after the intervention . Number of requests for HIV tests from the PCC trained and clinical data of new HIV diagnosed patients were collected . Parametric and non - parametric tests were used to assess differences between pre and post - intervention data . RESULTS 3. Differences in clinical variables in pre and post intervention period