Contemporary challenges to iodine status and nutrition: the role of foods, dietary recommendations, fortification and supplementation

Iodine deficiency (ID) in women of childbearing age remains a global public health concern, mainly through its impact on fetal and infant neurodevelopment. While iodine status is improving globally, ID is still prevalent in pregnancy, when requirements increase. More than 120 countries have implemented salt iodisation and food fortification, strategies that have been partially successful. Supplementation during pregnancy is recommended in some countries and supported by the WHO when mandatory salt iodisation is not present. The UK is listed as one of the ten countries with the lowest iodine status globally, with approximately 60 % of pregnant women not meeting the WHO recommended intake. Without mandatory iodine fortification or recommendation for supplementation in pregnancy, the UK population depends on dietary sources of iodine. Both women and healthcare professionals have low knowledge and awareness of iodine, its sources or its role for health. Dairy and seafood products are the richest sources of iodine and their consumption is essential to support adequate iodine status. Increasing iodine through the diet might be possible if iodine-rich foods get repositioned in the diet, as they now contribute towards only about 13 % of the average energy intake of adult women. This review examines the use of iodine-rich foods in parallel with other public health strategies, to increase iodine intake and highlights the rare opportunity in the UK for randomised trials, due to the lack of mandatory fortification programmes

Iodine and pregnancy – a UK cross-sectional survey of dietary intake, knowledge and awareness

Iodine is a key component of the thyroid hormones, which are critical for healthy growth, development and metabolism. The UK population is now classified as mildly iodine-insufficient. Adequate levels of iodine during pregnancy are essential for fetal neurodevelopment, and mild iodine deficiency is linked to developmental impairments. In the absence of prophylaxis in the UK, awareness of nutritional recommendations during pregnancy would empower mothers to make the right dietary choices leading to adequate iodine intake. The present study aimed to: estimate mothers' dietary iodine intake in pregnancy (using a FFQ); assess awareness of the importance of iodine in pregnancy with an understanding of existing pregnancy dietary and lifestyle recommendations with relevance for iodine; examine the level of confidence in meeting adequate iodine intake. A cross-sectional survey was conducted and questionnaires were distributed between August 2011 and February 2012 on local (Glasgow) and national levels (online electronic questionnaire); 1026 women, UK-resident and pregnant or mother to a child aged up to 36 months participated in the study. While self-reported awareness about general nutritional recommendations during pregnancy was high (96 %), awareness of iodine-specific recommendations was very low (12 %), as well as the level of confidence of how to achieve adequate iodine intake (28 %). Median pregnancy iodine intake, without supplements, calculated from the FFQ, was 190 μg/d (interquartile range 144–256μg/d), which was lower than that of the WHO's recommended intake for pregnant women (250 μg/d). Current dietary recommendations in pregnancy, and their dissemination, are found not to equip women to meet the requirements for iodine intake

Bal Arılarının Genetik Değişkenliği Üzerine Çalışmalarda Bir Araç Olarak Morfometri

This study was conducted to determine whether the classical morphometric method is a good tool for investigating biodiversity of honey bee or not. The research material was consisted of the worker bee samples collected from 55 apiaries in different locations in Turkey. They were surveyed for only two morphometric characters. Due to common characters exit in all morphometric studies of honey bee, the wing length and the cubital index were chosen. In our study, phylogenetic tree obtained and the results given in graphics showed that morphometric method was a good tool for studying of morphological genetic variability. But it may be better if it should be replaced by modern geometrik morphometric method. A review concerning the concept of classical and modern morphometric methods were also been emphesized.Bu çalışma yalnızca iki morfometrik karekter aracılığıyla Türkiye bal arısı biyoçeşitliliğini belirlemek, elde edilen sonuçları benzer çalışmaların verileriyle karşılaştırmak ve böylece klasik morfometrik methodun bu tür çalışmalardaki etkinliğini irdelemek amacıyla düzenlenmiştir. Çalışma için Türkiye?nin farklı yerlerindeki 55 arılıktan işçi arı örnekleri toplanmıştır. Örnekler şimdiye kadar yapılan çalışmaların çoğunda ele alındığı gibi, kubital index ve ön kanat uzunluğu bakımından incelenmiştir. Elde edilen verilerin istatistiki analiz sonuçları klasik morfometrik methodun çeşitli yerel sonuçları karşılaştırmak konusundaki etkinliği bakımından hala geçerli bir araç olduğunu, fakat modern geometrik morfometrik method ile değiştirilirse çok daha etkin bir araç olabileceğini göstermiştir. Eserde klasik ve modern morfometrik metodlara ilişkin genel bir değerlendirme de yapılmıştır

The Journal of Apicultural Research welcomes the publication of research findings from around the globe

The Journal of Apicultural Research (JAR) is a peer-reviewed, scientific journal dedicated to examining and publishing the latest research on bees from around the world. JAR publishes many different types of articles to reach different international audiences, from career scientists to students and well-informed beekeepers. These comprise original, theoretical, and experimental research papers, as well as authoritative notes, comments, and reviews on scientific aspects of all types of bees (superfamily Apoidea). As of 2021, JAR has an Impact Factor of 2.407 and is ranked 33rd out of 100 in the Entomology category (© InCites Journal Citation Reports®, Clarivate Analytics, 2022). Five regular issues are published per year and special issues are added when timely topics arise, the latest being a special issue on stingless bees (2022) and review papers (2023). In the last decade, COLOSS BEEBOOK chapters are published in JAR. These open-access chapters are a collection of the Standard Methods used in honey bee research, including the study of parasites, pests, and hive products. They are a primary reference resource for bee researchers across the globe and facilitate new projects that might not otherwise be undertaken by laboratories that are new to apidology (236,516 downloads - Taylor & Francis 3,028 citations - Web of Science, 2022). The Journal of Apicultural Research was founded by the International Bee Research Association (IBRA) in 1962. The very first issue included a Note from the first Editors, Dr. Eva Crane & Dr. James Simpson, who introduced JAR as a new opportunity for publication: “The journal will cover all aspects of bees, Apis and non-Apis, and substances used or produced by them, their pollinating activities, and organisms causing diseases or injuries to them.” Since the first issue, this legacy has been maintained in more than 2,800 scientific articles, co-authored by some 1,900 researchers, published so far in JAR, making our journal a key forum for the international exchange of scientific data in apidology. We encourage colleagues from around the globe to continue to participate in sharing their research with the scientific community by publishing in JAR.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

High sample throughput genotyping for estimating C-lineage introgression in the dark honeybee: an accurate and cost-effective SNP-based tool

The natural distribution of the honeybee (Apis mellifera L.) has been changed by humans in recent decades to such an extent that the formerly widest-spread European subspecies, Apis mellifera mellifera, is threatened by extinction through introgression from highly divergent commercial strains in large tracts of its range. Conservation efforts for A. m. mellifera are underway in multiple European countries requiring reliable and cost-efficient molecular tools to identify purebred colonies. Here, we developed four ancestry-informative SNP assays for high sample throughput genotyping using the iPLEX Mass Array system. Our customized assays were tested on DNA from individual and pooled, haploid and diploid honeybee samples extracted from different tissues using a diverse range of protocols. The assays had a high genotyping success rate and yielded accurate genotypes. Performance assessed against whole-genome data showed that individual assays behaved well, although the most accurate introgression estimates were obtained for the four assays combined (117 SNPs). The best compromise between accuracy and genotyping costs was achieved when combining two assays (62 SNPs). We provide a ready-to-use cost-effective tool for accurate molecular identification and estimation oinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons bioaccessibility in seafood: Culinary practices effects on dietary exposure

This work aimed to determine the effect of culinary practices on the contamination level and bioaccessibility of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in seafood. The selected farmed seafood species (marine shrimp, clams and seaweed) were commercially available in Portugal. The mean concentrations of PAHs varied between 0.23 and 51.8 µg kg-1, with the lowest value being observed in raw shrimp and the highest in dried seaweed. The number of compounds detected in seaweed and clams (naphthalene, acenaphthene, fluorene, phenanthrene, benzo(b)fluoranthene and benzo(j)fluoranthene) were higher than in shrimp (fluorene and pyrene). Among the PAHs measured, fluorene was the predominant one. There was a significant interaction effect between species and culinary treatment (p < 0.05), thus boiled and dried seaweed samples presented the lowest and the highest levels of fluorene (0.13 and 1.8 µg kg-1), respectively. The daily intake of PAHs decreased with bioaccessibility, varying from 22% for benzo(k)fluoranthene (in raw clam) to 84% for phenanthrene (in steamed clam). According to the potency equivalent concentrations, screening values and bioaccessibility of PAHs, the consumption of marine shrimp, clam and seaweed is considered as safe for consumers.This work received financial support from European (FEDER funds through COMPETE) and Portuguese funds (Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia Project UID/QUI/50006/2013). The Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology supported the Ph.D. Grant of ALM (SFRH/BD/103569/2014) as well as the post-doc Grant of P.A. (SFRH/BPD/100728/2014) and the IF2014 contract of AM.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Authoritative subspecies diagnosis tool for European honey bees based on ancestryinformative SNPs

Background With numerous endemic subspecies representing four of its five evolutionary lineages, Europe holds a large fraction of Apis mellifera genetic diversity. This diversity and the natural distribution range have been altered by anthropogenic factors. The conservation of this natural heritage relies on the availability of accurate tools for subspecies diagnosis. Based on pool-sequence data from 2145 worker bees representing 22 populations sampled across Europe, we employed two highly discriminative approaches (PCA and F-ST) to select the most informative SNPs for ancestry inference. Results Using a supervised machine learning (ML) approach and a set of 3896 genotyped individuals, we could show that the 4094 selected single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) provide an accurate prediction of ancestry inference in European honey bees. The best ML model was Linear Support Vector Classifier (Linear SVC) which correctly assigned most individuals to one of the 14 subspecies or different genetic origins with a mean accuracy of 96.2% +/- 0.8 SD. A total of 3.8% of test individuals were misclassified, most probably due to limited differentiation between the subspecies caused by close geographical proximity, or human interference of genetic integrity of reference subspecies, or a combination thereof. Conclusions The diagnostic tool presented here will contribute to a sustainable conservation and support breeding activities in order to preserve the genetic heritage of European honey bees.The SmartBees project was funded by the European Commission under its FP7 KBBE programme (2013.1.3-02, SmartBees Grant Agreement number 613960) https://ec.europa.eu/research/fp7.MP was supported by a Basque Government grant (IT1233-19). The funders provided the financial support to the research, but had no role in the design of the study, analysis, interpretations of data and in writing the manuscript

Ecological Adaptation of Diverse Honey Bee (Apis mellifera) Populations

BACKGROUND: Honey bees are complex eusocial insects that provide a critical contribution to human agricultural food production. Their natural migration has selected for traits that increase fitness within geographical areas, but in parallel their domestication has selected for traits that enhance productivity and survival under local conditions. Elucidating the biochemical mechanisms of these local adaptive processes is a key goal of evolutionary biology. Proteomics provides tools unique among the major 'omics disciplines for identifying the mechanisms employed by an organism in adapting to environmental challenges. RESULTS: Through proteome profiling of adult honey bee midgut from geographically dispersed, domesticated populations combined with multiple parallel statistical treatments, the data presented here suggest some of the major cellular processes involved in adapting to different climates. These findings provide insight into the molecular underpinnings that may confer an advantage to honey bee populations. Significantly, the major energy-producing pathways of the mitochondria, the organelle most closely involved in heat production, were consistently higher in bees that had adapted to colder climates. In opposition, up-regulation of protein metabolism capacity, from biosynthesis to degradation, had been selected for in bees from warmer climates. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, our results present a proteomic interpretation of expression polymorphisms between honey bee ecotypes and provide insight into molecular aspects of local adaptation or selection with consequences for honey bee management and breeding. The implications of our findings extend beyond apiculture as they underscore the need to consider the interdependence of animal populations and their agro-ecological context

Is Malaysia’s banded langur, Presbytis femoralis femoralis, actually Presbytis neglectus neglectus? Taxonomic revision with new insights on the radiation history of the Presbytis species group in Southeast Asia

The disjunct distribution of Presbytis femoralis subspecies across Sumatra (P. f. percura), southern (P. f. femoralis) and northern (P. f. robinsoni) Peninsular Malaysia marks the unique vicariance events in the Sunda Shelf. However, the taxonomic positions and evolutionary history of P. f. femoralis are unresolved after decades of research. To elucidate this evolutionary history, we analyzed 501 base pairs of the mitochondrial HVSI gene from 25 individuals representing Malaysia’s banded langur, with the addition of 29 sequences of Asian Presbytis from Genbank. Our results revealed closer affinity of P. f. femoralis to P. m. mitrata and P. m. sumatrana while maintaining the monophyletic state of P. f. femoralis as compared to P. f. robinsoni. Two central theses were inferred from the results; (1) P. f. femoralis does not belong in the same species classification as P. f. robinsoni, and (2) P. f. femoralis is the basal lineage of the Presbytis in Peninsular Malaysia. Proving the first hypothesis through genetic analysis, we reassigned P. f. femoralis of Malaysia to Presbytis neglectus (Schlegel’s banded langur) (Schlegel in Revue Methodique, Museum d’Histoire Naturelle des Pays-Bas 7:1, 1876) following the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (article 23.3). The ancestors of P. neglectus are hypothesized to have reached southern Peninsular Malaysia during the Pleistocene and survived in refugium along the western coast. Consequently, they radiated upward, forming P. f. robinsoni and P. siamensis resulting in the highly allopatric distribution in Peninsular Malaysia. This study has successfully resolved the taxonomic position of P. neglectus in Peninsular Malaysia while providing an alternative biogeographic theory for the Asian Presbytis