Variation for Composition and Quality in a Collection of the Resilient Mediterranean 'de penjar' Long Shelf-Life Tomato Under High and Low N Fertilization Levels

[EN] The 'de penjar' tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) is a group of local varieties from the Spanish Mediterranean region carrying the alc mutation, which provides long shelf-life. Their evolution under low-input management practices has led to the selection of resilient genotypes to adverse conditions. Here we present the first evaluation on nutritional fruit composition of a collection of 44 varieties of 'de penjar' tomato under two N fertilization levels, provided by doses of manure equivalent to 162 kg N ha(-1) in the high N treatment and 49 kg N ha(-1) in the low N treatment. Twenty-seven fruit composition and quality traits, as well as plant yield and SPAD value, were evaluated. A large variation was observed, with lycopene being the composition trait with the highest relative range of variation (over 4-fold) under both N treatments, and significant differences among varieties were detected for all traits. While yield and most quality traits were not affected by the reduction in N fertilization, fruits from the low N treatment had, on average, higher values for hue (5.9%) and lower for fructose (-11.5%), glucose (-15.8%), and total sweetness index (-12.9%). In addition, lycopene and beta-carotene presented a strongly significant genotype x N input interaction. Local varieties had higher values than commercial varieties for traits related to the ratio of sweetness to acidity and for vitamin C, which reinforces the appreciation for their organoleptic and nutritional quality. Highest-yielding varieties under both conditions displayed wide variation in the composition and quality profiles, which may allow the selection of specific ideotypes with high quality under low N conditions. These results revealed the potential of 'de penjar' varieties as a genetic resource in breeding for low N inputs and improving the organoleptic and nutritional tomato fruit quality.This work has been funded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under grant agreement no. 774244 (Breeding for resilient, efficient and sustainable organic vegetable production; BRESOV), by the Spanish Agencia Estatal de Investigacion under grant agreement no. PCI2019-103375 (project SOLNUE in the framework of the H2020 call SusCrop-ERA-Net; ID#47), and by Generalitat Valenciana (Conselleria d'Innovacio, Universitats, Ciencia I Societat Digital) under grant agreement no. AICO/2020/042. ER-M is grateful to the Spanish Ministerio de Economia, Industria y Competitividad for a pre-doctoral grant (BES-2016-077482).Rosa-Martínez, E.; Adalid-Martinez, AM.; Alvarado, LE.; Burguet-Belda, R.; García-Martínez, MD.; Pereira-Días, L.; Casanova-Calancha, C.... (2021). Variation for Composition and Quality in a Collection of the Resilient Mediterranean 'de penjar' Long Shelf-Life Tomato Under High and Low N Fertilization Levels. Frontiers in Plant Science. 12:1-19. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2021.6339571191

Epidemiology of invasive candidiasis in a surgical intensive care unit: an observational study

Background: Invasive candidiasis (IC) is a frequent and life-threatening infection in critically ill patients. The aim of this study was to evaluate the epidemiology of IC and the antifungal susceptibility of etiological agents in patients admitted to our surgical intensive care unit (SICU) in Spain. Methods: We designed a prospective, observational, single center, population-based study in a SICU. We included all consecutive adult patients (≥18 years old) who had documented IC, either on admission or during their stay, between January 2012 and December 2013. Results: There were a total of 22 episodes of IC in the 1149 patients admitted during the 24-month study. The overall IC incidence was 19.1 cases per 1000 admissions. Thirteen cases of IC (59.1 %) were intra-abdominal candidiasis (IAC) and 9 (40.9 %) were candidemias. All cases of IAC were patients with secondary peritonitis and severe sepsis or septic shock. The overall crude mortality rate was 13.6 %; while, it was 33 % in patients with candidemia. All patients with IAC survived, including one patient with concomitant candidemia. The most common species causing IC was Candida albicans (13; 59.1 %) followed by Candida parapsilosis (5; 22.7 %), and Candida glabrata (2; 9.1 %). There was also one case each (4.5 %) of Candida krusei and Candida tropicalis. Thus, the ratio of non-C. albicans (9) to C. albicans (13) was 1:1.4. There was resistance to fluconazole and itraconazole in 13.6 % of cases. Resistance to other antifungals was uncommon. Conclusions: Candida parapsilosis was the second most common species after C. albicans, indicating the high prevalence of non-C. albicans species in the SICU. Resistance to azoles, particularly fluconazole, should be considered when starting an empirical treatment. Although IAC is a very frequent form of IC in critically ill surgical patients, prompt antifungal therapy and adequate source control appears to lead to a good outcome. However, our results are closely related to our ICU and any generalization must be taken with caution. Therefore, further investigations are needed. Keywords: Intensive care unit, Invasive candidiasis, Candidemia, Antifungal susceptibilit

Perioperative oxygen fraction – effect on surgical site infection and pulmonary complications after abdominal surgery: a randomized clinical trial. Rationale and design of the PROXI-Trial

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>A high perioperative inspiratory oxygen fraction may reduce the risk of surgical site infections, as bacterial eradication by neutrophils depends on wound oxygen tension. Two trials have shown that a high perioperative inspiratory oxygen fraction (Fi<smcaps>O</smcaps>₂= 0.80) significantly reduced risk of surgical site infections after elective colorectal surgery, but a third trial was stopped early because the frequency of surgical site infections was more than doubled in the group receiving Fi<smcaps>O</smcaps>₂= 0.80. It has not been settled if a high inspiratory oxygen fraction increases the risk of pulmonary complications, such as atelectasis, pneumonia and respiratory failure. The aim of our trial is to assess the potential benefits and harms of a high perioperative oxygen fraction in patients undergoing abdominal surgery.</p> <p>Methods and design</p> <p>The PROXI-Trial is a randomized, patient- and assessor blinded trial of perioperative supplemental oxygen in 1400 patients undergoing acute or elective laparotomy in 14 Danish hospitals. Patients are randomized to receive either 80% oxygen (Fi<smcaps>O</smcaps>₂= 0.80) or 30% oxygen (Fi<smcaps>O</smcaps>₂= 0.30) during surgery and for the first 2 postoperative hours. The primary outcome is surgical site infection within 14 days. The secondary outcomes are: atelectasis, pneumonia, respiratory failure, re-operation, mortality, duration of postoperative hospitalization, and admission to intensive care unit. The sample size allows detection of a 33% relative risk reduction in the primary outcome with 80% power.</p> <p>Discussion</p> <p>This trial assesses benefits and harms of a high inspiratory oxygen fraction, and the trial may be generalizable to a general surgical population undergoing laparotomy.</p> <p>Trial registration</p> <p>ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT00364741.</p

The CanOE Strategy: Integrating Genomic and Metabolic Contexts across Multiple Prokaryote Genomes to Find Candidate Genes for Orphan Enzymes

Of all biochemically characterized metabolic reactions formalized by the IUBMB, over one out of four have yet to be associated with a nucleic or protein sequence, i.e. are sequence-orphan enzymatic activities. Few bioinformatics annotation tools are able to propose candidate genes for such activities by exploiting context-dependent rather than sequence-dependent data, and none are readily accessible and propose result integration across multiple genomes. Here, we present CanOE (Candidate genes for Orphan Enzymes), a four-step bioinformatics strategy that proposes ranked candidate genes for sequence-orphan enzymatic activities (or orphan enzymes for short). The first step locates “genomic metabolons”, i.e. groups of co-localized genes coding proteins catalyzing reactions linked by shared metabolites, in one genome at a time. These metabolons can be particularly helpful for aiding bioanalysts to visualize relevant metabolic data. In the second step, they are used to generate candidate associations between un-annotated genes and gene-less reactions. The third step integrates these gene-reaction associations over several genomes using gene families, and summarizes the strength of family-reaction associations by several scores. In the final step, these scores are used to rank members of gene families which are proposed for metabolic reactions. These associations are of particular interest when the metabolic reaction is a sequence-orphan enzymatic activity. Our strategy found over 60,000 genomic metabolons in more than 1,000 prokaryote organisms from the MicroScope platform, generating candidate genes for many metabolic reactions, of which more than 70 distinct orphan reactions. A computational validation of the approach is discussed. Finally, we present a case study on the anaerobic allantoin degradation pathway in Escherichia coli K-12

Bacterial community development in experimental gingivitis.

Current knowledge of the microbial composition of dental plaque in early gingivitis is based largely on microscopy and cultural methods, which do not provide a comprehensive description of oral microbial communities. This study used 454-pyrosequencing of the V1-V3 region of 16S rRNA genes (approximately 500 bp), and bacterial culture, to characterize the composition of plaque during the transition from periodontal health to gingivitis. A total of 20 healthy volunteers abstained from oral hygiene for two weeks, allowing plaque to accumulate and gingivitis to develop. Plaque samples were analyzed at baseline, and after one and two weeks. In addition, plaque samples from 20 chronic periodontitis patients were analyzed for cross-sectional comparison to the experimental gingivitis cohort. All of the healthy volunteers developed gingivitis after two weeks. Pyrosequencing yielded a final total of 344,267 sequences after filtering, with a mean length of 354 bases, that were clustered into an average of 299 species-level Operational Taxonomic Units (OTUs) per sample. Principal coordinates analysis (PCoA) plots revealed significant shifts in the bacterial community structure of plaque as gingivitis was induced, and community diversity increased significantly after two weeks. Changes in the relative abundance of OTUs during the transition from health to gingivitis were correlated to bleeding on probing (BoP) scores and resulted in the identification of new health- and gingivitis-associated taxa. Comparison of the healthy volunteers to the periodontitis patients also confirmed the association of a number of putative periodontal pathogens with chronic periodontitis. Taxa associated with gingivitis included Fusobacterium nucleatum subsp. polymorphum, Lachnospiraceae [G-2] sp. HOT100, Lautropia sp. HOTA94, and Prevotella oulorum, whilst Rothia dentocariosa was associated with periodontal health. Further study of these taxa is warranted and may lead to new therapeutic approaches to prevent periodontal disease.BBSRC Industrial Case Studentship ref no. BB/G01714X/1 in collaboration with GlaxoSmithKline

Selected Schizosaccharomyces pombe Strains Have Characteristics That Are Beneficial for Winemaking

At present, wine is generally produced using Saccharomyces yeast followed by Oenococus bacteria to complete malolactic fermentation. This method has some unsolved problems, such as the management of highly acidic musts and the production of potentially toxic products including biogenic amines and ethyl carbamate. Here we explore the potential of the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe to solve these problems. We characterise an extensive worldwide collection of S. pombe strains according to classic biochemical parameters of oenological interest. We identify three genetically different S. pombe strains that appear suitable for winemaking. These strains compare favourably to standard Saccharomyces cerevisiae winemaking strains, in that they perform effective malic acid deacidification and significantly reduce levels of biogenic amines and ethyl carbamate precursors without the need for any secondary bacterial malolactic fermentation. These findings indicate that the use of certain S. pombe strains could be advantageous for winemaking in regions where malic acid is problematic, and these strains also show superior performance with respect to food safety

Challenges for Implementing an Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries Management

The ecosystem approach is being promoted as the foundation of solutions to the unsustainability of fisheries. However, because the ecosystem approach is broadly inclusive, the science for its implementation is often considered to be overly complex and difficult. When the science needed for an ecosystem approach to fisheries is perceived this way, science products cannot keep pace with fisheries critics, thus encouraging partisan political interference in fisheries management and proliferation of “faith-based solutions. In this paper we argue that one way to effectively counter politicization of fisheries decision-making is to ensure that new ecosystem-based approaches in fisheries are viewed only as an emergent property of innovation in science and policy. We organize our essay using three major themes to focus the discussion: empirical, jurisdictional, and societal challenges. We undertake at least partial answers to the following questions: (1) has conventional fisheries management really failed?; (2) can short-comings in conventional fisheries management be augmented with new tools, such as allocation of rights?; (3) is the Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries (EAF) equivalent to Ecosystem-Based Management?; and (4) is restoration of degraded ecosystems a necessary component of an EAF

Challenging the Moral Status of Blood Donation

The World Health Organisation encourages that blood donation becomes voluntary and unremunerated, a system already operated in the UK. Drawing on public documents and videos, this paper argues that blood donation is regarded and presented as altruistic and supererogatory. In advertisements, donation is presented as something undertaken for the benefit of others, a matter attracting considerable gratitude from recipients and the collecting organisation. It is argued that regarding blood donation as an act of supererogation is wrongheaded, and an alternative account of blood donation as moral obligation is presented. Two arguments are offered in support of this position. First, the principle of beneficence, understood in a broad consequentialist framework obliges donation where the benefit to the recipient is large and the cost to the donor relatively small. This argument can be applied, with differing levels of normativity, to various acts of donation. Second, the wrongness of free riding requires individuals to contribute to collective systems from which they benefit. Alone and in combination these arguments present moral reasons for donation, recognised in communication strategies elsewhere. Research is required to evaluate the potential effects on donation of a campaign which presents blood donation as moral obligation, but of wider importance is the recognition that other-regarding considerations in relation to our own as well as others’ health result in a range not only of choices but also of obligations