Caracterización de cepas de Bacillus thuringiensis berliner y actividad biológica hacia Spodoptera frugiperda (J. E. Smith) (Lepidoptera: noctuidae) y Anticarsia gemmatalis hübner (Lepidoptera: noctuidae).

RESUMEN: Se realizó la caracterización de nueve cepas cubanas de Bacillus thuringiensis según la morfología del cristal, la determinación del patrón de proteínas Cry y la actividad biológica frente a los insectos lepidópteros Spodoptera frugiperda y Anticarsia gemmatalis. Se observó la típica morfología bipiramidal en todas las cepas, y además la presencia de inclusiones cúbicas. El patrón de proteínas Cry obtenido correspondió con el de la cepa estándar internacional de B. thuringiensis var. kurstaki cepa HD1, en el que se observan dos bandas bien definidas correspondientes a la proteína Cry 1 (130 kDa) y Cry 2 (70 kDa). En la evaluación de la actividad biológica las cepas LBT 4 y LBT 7 causaron el 100% de mortalidad frente a S. frugiperda, mientras que las LBT 4, LBT 7, LBT 13 y LBT 47 provocaron el 100% de mortalidad para A. gemmatalis. abstract: This study describes the characterization of nine Cuban Bacillus thuringiensis strains based on crystal morphology, SDS polyacrylamide electrophoresis (PAGE) and insecticidal activity against Spodoptera frugiperda and Anticarsia gemmatalis. Ultrastructural analysis of parasporal bodies of the nine strains showed the typical bipyramidal crystal and cubic inclusion partially embedded in the middle of the bipyramidal crystal. The PAGE analysis showed two bands of 130 kDa and 70 kDa belongs to Cry 1 and Cry 2 protein present to HD1 standard strains B. thuringiensis var. kurstaki. The strains LBT 4 and LBT 7 analyzed in this report showed potential as biological insecticide against S. frugiperda and LBT 4, LBT 7, LBT13 and LBT47 strains showed 100% of mortality to Anticarsia gemmatalis

Regional effects of atmospheric aerosols on temperature: An evaluation of an ensemble of online coupled models

The climate effect of atmospheric aerosols is associated with their influence on the radiative budget of the Earth due to the direct aerosol–radiation interactions (ARIs) and indirect effects, resulting from aerosol–cloud–radiation interactions (ACIs). Online coupled meteorology–chemistry models permit the description of these effects on the basis of simulated atmospheric aerosol concentrations, although there is still some uncertainty associated with the use of these models. Thus, the objective of this work is to assess whether the inclusion of atmospheric aerosol radiative feedbacks of an ensemble of online coupled models improves the simulation results for maximum, mean and minimum temperature at 2 m over Europe. The evaluated models outputs originate from EuMetChem COST Action ES1004 simulations for Europe, differing in the inclusion (or omission) of ARI and ACI in the various models. The cases studies cover two important atmospheric aerosol episodes over Europe in the year 2010: (i) a heat wave event and a forest fire episode (July–August 2010) and (ii) a more humid episode including a Saharan desert dust outbreak in October 2010. The simulation results are evaluated against observational data from the E-OBS gridded database. The results indicate that, although there is only a slight improvement in the bias of the simulation results when including the radiative feedbacks, the spatiotemporal variability and correlation coefficients are improved for the cases under study when atmospheric aerosol radiative effects are included

Quality of two table grape guard cultivars treated with single or dual-phase release SO2 generators

Berries of seeded table grapes (cultivars Napoleón and Aledo) were trimmed in commercial packing houses, inoculated with Botrytis cinerea, packed with single and dual-phase release SO2 pads, and stored for up to four months at 0 ºC and 85±5 % relative humidity. Control grapes with or without inoculation, but without SO2 pads, were stored for up to 2 months. Botrytis cinerea rot (grey mould) limited the shelf-life of Aledo grapes to one month, while a two month shelf-life was established for Napoleón grapes, which suffered from berry splitting, Cladosporium herbarum and Botrytis cinerea rots. Yeasts of the Candida genera and secondary fungi were also identified in fruit suffering sour rot after 2 months at 0oC. No differences in grey mould development in the treatments without SO2 pads with or without inoculation. The native grey mould of these grapes was purified and included as the B. cinerea strain 20248 in the Spanish Type Culture Collection. Storage time, but not SO2 pads, slightly affected fruit quality. During the first month at 0oC, total soluble solids decreased by 1oBrix in 'Áledo' and berry hardness temporarily increased by around 30% in both cultivars. The pads provoked an SO2 taste acceptable for consumption, which was slightly higher in Napoleón than in Aledo grapes. The dual-phase release SO2 pads showed better performance for the long-term storage of grapes than single-release pads (both as regards berry sensory attributes and stem appearance, with lower stem browning). The dual-phase release SO2 pads extended the shelf-life of grapes by around 1 month, depending on the cultivar. Napoleón grapes showed a better potential for longterm storage than Aledo grapes due to thicker and more compact epidermis, thicker cell walls, and different epidermal microstructure including the transition cells between epidermis and the parenchyma

Aerosol optical properties over Europe: an evaluation of the AQMEII Phase 3 simulations against satellite observations

Abstract. The main uncertainties regarding the estimation of changes in the Earth's energy budget are related to the role of atmospheric aerosols. These changes are caused by aerosol–radiation (ARIs) and aerosol–cloud interactions (ACIs), which heavily depend on aerosol properties. Since the 1980s, many international modeling initiatives have studied atmospheric aerosols and their climate effects. Phase 3 of the Air Quality Modelling Evaluation International Initiative (AQMEII) focuses on evaluating and intercomparing regional and linked global/regional modeling systems by collaborating with the Task Force on the Hemispheric Transport of Air Pollution Phase 2 (HTAP2) initiative. Within this framework, the main aim of this work is the assessment of the representation of aerosol optical depth (AOD) and the Ångström exponent (AE) in AQMEII Phase 3 simulations over Europe. The evaluation was made using remote-sensing data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) sensors aboard the Terra and Aqua platforms, and the instruments belonging to the ground-based Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) and the Maritime Aerosol Network (MAN). Overall, the skills of AQMEII simulations when representing AOD (mean absolute errors from 0.05 to 0.30) produced lower errors than for the AE (mean absolute errors from 0.30 to 1). Regardless of the models or the emissions used, models were skillful at representing the low and mean AOD values observed (below 0.5). However, high values (around 1.0) were overpredicted for biomass burning episodes, due to an underestimation in the common fires' emissions, and were overestimated for coarse particles – principally desert dust – related to the boundary conditions. Despite this behavior, the spatial and temporal variability of AOD was better represented by all the models than AE variability, which was strongly underestimated in all the simulations. Noticeably, the impact of the model selection when representing aerosol optical properties is higher than the use of different emission inventories. On the other hand, the influence of ARIs and ACIs has a little visible impact compared to the impact of the model used

Enthalpies of formation of L12 intermetallics derived from heats of reordering

A new method is proposed for estimating the enthalpies of formation of L12 (fcc-ordered) intermetallics from the heat release measured during ordering of their disordered polymorphs. The method is applied to Cu3Au, Ni3Al, and Ni3Si. The resulting estimates of enthalpies of formation are close to values obtained by high temperature dissolution calorimetry. They also appear to be more precise than estimates based on Miedema's correlations provided that care is taken to account properly for the magnetic and lattice stability contributions to the formation enthalpies in the ordered and disordered states

An assessment of aerosol optical properties from remote-sensing observations and regional chemistry–climate coupled models over Europe

Atmospheric aerosols modify the radiative budget of the Earth due to their optical, microphysical and chemical properties, and are considered one of the most uncertain climate forcing agents. In order to characterise the uncertainties associated with satellite and modelling approaches to represent aerosol optical properties, mainly aerosol optical depth (AOD) and Ångström exponent (AE), their representation by different remote-sensing sensors and regional online coupled chemistry–climate models over Europe are evaluated. This work also characterises whether the inclusion of aerosol–radiation (ARI) or/and aerosol–cloud interactions (ACI) help improve the skills of modelling outputs.Two case studies were selected within the EuMetChem COST Action ES1004 framework when important aerosol episodes in 2010 all over Europe took place: a Russian wildfire episode and a Saharan desert dust outbreak that covered most of the Mediterranean Sea. The model data came from different regional air-quality–climate simulations performed by working group 2 of EuMetChem, which differed according to whether ARI or ACI was included or not. The remote-sensing data came from three different sensors: MODIS, OMI and SeaWIFS. The evaluation used classical statistical metrics to first compare satellite data versus the ground-based instrument network (AERONET) and then to evaluate model versus the observational data (both satellite and ground-based data).Regarding the uncertainty in the satellite representation of AOD, MODIS presented the best agreement with the AERONET observations compared to other satellite AOD observations. The differences found between remote-sensing sensors highlighted the uncertainty in the observations, which have to be taken into account when evaluating models. When modelling results were considered, a common trend for underestimating high AOD levels was observed. For the AE, models tended to underestimate its variability, except when considering a sectional approach in the aerosol representation. The modelling results showed better skills when ARI+ACI interactions were included; hence this improvement in the representation of AOD (above 30 % in the model error) and AE (between 20 and 75 %) is important to provide a better description of aerosol–radiation–cloud interactions in regional climate models

Impacts of urbanization around Mediterranean cities : changes in ecosystem service supply

Unidad de excelencia María de Maeztu MdM-2015-0552Urbanization is an important driver of changes in land cover in the Mediterranean Basin and it is likely to impact the supply and demand of ecosystem services (ES). The most significant land cover changes occur in the peri-urban zone, but little is known about how these changes affect the ES supply. For eight European and four North African cities, we have quantified changes in peri-urban land cover, for periods of sixteen years (1990-2006) in the Northern African, and twenty-two years (1990-2012) in the European cities, respectively. Using an expert-based method, we derived quantitative estimates of the dynamics in the supply of twenty-seven ES. The nature of land cover changes slightly differed between European and North African Mediterranean cities, but overall it increased in urban areas and decreased in agricultural land. The capacity of the peri-urban areas of Mediterranean cities to supply ES generally reduced over the last 20-30 years. For nine ES the potential supply actually increased for all four North African cities and three out of the eight European cities. Across all cities, the ES timber, wood fuel and religious and spiritual experience increased. Given the expected increase of urban population in the Mediterranean Basin and the current knowledge of ES deficits in urban areas, the overall decrease in ES supply capacity of peri-urban areas is a risk for human well-being in the Mediterranean and poses a serious challenge for the Sustainable Development Goals in the Mediterranean basin

Pectin methyl esterases and rhamnogalacturonan hydrolases: weapons for successful Monilinia laxa infection in stone fruit?

The secretion of cell wall‐degrading enzymes is one of the mechanisms used by necrotrophic fungi to colonize host tissues. However, information about virulence factors of Monilinia spp., the causal agents of brown rot in stone fruit, is scarce. Plant cell walls have three main components that are broken down by fungal enzymes: cellulose, hemicellulose and pectin. In order to identify Monilinia laxa candidate proteins involved in pectin hydrolysis, two in vitro approaches were conducted: (i) phenotypic and ecophysiological characterization of growth of the pathogen at different pHs, in glucose‐ and pectin‐containing solid media for 7 days' incubation; and (ii) expression analysis of genes encoding M. laxa pectin methyl esterases (MlPMEs) and rhamnogalacturonan hydrolases (MlRG‐HYDs) after incubation for 0.5, 2, 6, 24 and 48 h in glucose‐ and pectin‐containing liquid media. Phenotypic tests showed the role of carbon source on M. laxa growth rate and aggressiveness, and indicated that pectinases were greatly affected by pH. Gene expression analyses uncovered differences among members of each family of pectinases and between the two families, defining sets of genes expressed at earlier (0.5–6 h) and later (48 h) phases. Notably, the up‐ or down‐regulation of these target genes was carbon source‐dependent. Finally, an in vivo study confirmed the synergistic and complementary role that these genes play in the M. laxa–stone fruit pathosystem. Based on these results, it is hypothesized that MlPME2, MlRG‐HYD1 and MlRG‐HYD2 may be potential virulence factors of M. laxa in the process from infection to colonization.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Structure, tautomerism, spectroscopic and DFT study of o-vanillin derived Schiff bases containing thiophene ring

Two Schiff bases derived from o-vanillin (o-HVA), a well-known antioxidant hydroxo aldehyde, have been obtained from condensation with 2-thiophenecarboxilic acid hydrazide (TPNNH) and 2-thiophenemethylamine (TPNH2), respectively. The inclusion of thiophene is based on its significance in the development of effective therapeutic agents. The study of the compounds oVATPNNH and oVATPNH2 includes solid state structural and spectroscopic analysis by single-crystal X-ray diffraction and vibrational spectroscopy (FTIR and Raman). The crystal structure of oVATPNH2 shows a peculiar rotational disorder in the heterocycle. Tautomeric equilibria in solution, which depends on the molecule structure and the nature of the solvent, were analysed by means of 1H and 13C{1H} NMR along with electronic spectroscopy. Tautomerism plays an important role not only in the molecular interactions but also in the behaviour of the Schiff base when acting as a ligand in coordination compounds. Results obtained from DFT calculations were used in the interpretation of the experimental data and in the spectral assignments.CONICET and UNLP, Argentina and by Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad Español (CTQ2014-58812-C2-1-R, CTQ2015-70371-REDT

Regulation of Triglyceride Metabolism II. Function of mitochondrial GPAT1 in the regulation of triacylglycerol biosynthesis and insulin action

GPAT1, one of four known glycerol-3-phosphate acyltransferase isoforms, is located on the mitochondrial outer membrane, allowing reciprocal regulation with carnitine palmitoyltransferase-1. GPAT1 is upregulated transcriptionally by insulin and SREBP-1c and downregulated acutely by AMP-activated protein kinase, consistent with a role in triacylglycerol synthesis. Knockout and overexpression studies suggest that GPAT1 is critical for the development of hepatic steatosis and that steatosis initiated by overexpression of GPAT1 causes hepatic, and perhaps also peripheral, insulin resistance. Future questions include the function of GPAT1 in relation to the other GPAT isoforms and whether the lipid intermediates synthesized by GPAT and downstream enzymes in the pathway of glycerolipid biosynthesis participate in intracellular signaling pathways