Implicaciones evolutivas en un banco aéreo de semillas de un pino mediterráneo

Tesis inédita de la Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas, leída el 07-04-2022Forests provide fundamental ecosystem services, including an important role as carbon sinks and maintaining genetic diversity. However, forest ecosystems are at risk under future climatic scenarios due to extreme climatic events including severe droughts, wildfires and pest and disease outbreaks. Facing these pressures, tree populations can persist through phenotypic plasticity, local adaptation or migration. Understanding the adaptive potential of forest species is of high relevance to predict the evolutionary responses of entire terrestrial ecosystems under a changing climate. The Mediterranean region is one of the most prominent biodiversity and climate change hotspots. Mediterranean vegetation is well adapted to stress and disturbances, displaying different strategies to cope with environmental changes. Fire is the most important disturbance in the Mediterranean basin and plays a key role in the ecology and evolution of species. To cope with recurrent wildfires, pine species in the Mediterranean region have developed different fire-trait syndromes related to resistance and resilience, targeting individual survival and/or enhancing post-fire recruitment...Los bosques brindan múltiples servicios ecosistémicos fundamentales, destacando su papel clave como sumideros de carbono y el mantenimiento de la diversidad genética. Sin embargo, los ecosistemas forestales están en riesgo en los escenarios climáticos futuros debido a los eventos climáticos extremos asociados, tales como sequías severas, incendios forestales y brotes de enfermedades. Frente a estas presiones, las poblaciones de árboles pueden persistir a través de la plasticidad fenotípica, la adaptación local o la migración. Comprender el potencial adaptativo de las especies forestales es de gran importancia para predecir las respuestas evolutivas de los ecosistemas terrestres bajo un clima cambiante La región mediterránea es uno de los ‘puntos calientes’ o ‘hotspots’ de biodiversidad y cambio climático más destacados. La vegetación mediterránea está adaptada al estrés y a las perturbaciones, mostrando diferentes estrategias para hacer frente a los cambios ambientales. El fuego es la perturbación más importante de la cuenca mediterránea, desempeñando un papel clave en la ecología y evolución de las especies. Para hacer frente a los incendios forestales recurrentes, los bosques de pinos en la región mediterránea pueden mostrar diferentes síndromes de adaptación al fuego relacionados con la resistencia y la resiliencia, referidos a la supervivencia individual y/o la regeneración post-incendio...Fac. de Ciencias BiológicasTRUEunpu

Impact of interstitial lung disease on the survival of systemic sclerosis with pulmonary arterial hypertension

To assess severity markers and outcomes of patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc) with or without pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH-SSc/non-PAH-SSc), and the impact of interstitial lung disease (ILD) on PAH-SSc. Non-PAH-SSc patients from the Spanish SSc registry and PAH-SSc patients from the Spanish PAH registry were included. A total of 364 PAH-SSc and 1589 non-PAH-SSc patients were included. PAH-SSc patients had worse NYHA-functional class (NYHA-FC), worse forced vital capacity (FVC) (81.2 +/- 20.6% vs 93.6 +/- 20.6%, P < 0.001), worse tricuspid annular plane systolic excursion (TAPSE) (17.4 +/- 5.2 mm vs 19.9 +/- 6.7 mm, P < 0.001), higher incidence of pericardial effusion (30% vs 5.2%, P < 0.001) and similar prevalence of ILD (41.8% vs. 44.9%). In individuals with PAH-SSc, ILD was associated with worse hemodynamics and pulmonary function tests (PFT). Up-front combination therapy was used in 59.8% and 61.7% of patients with and without ILD, respectively. Five-year transplant-free survival rate was 41.1% in PAH-SSc patients and 93.9% in non-PAH-SSc patients (P < 0.001). Global survival of PAH-SSc patients was not affected by ILD regardless its severity. The multivariate survival analysis in PAH-SSc patients confirmed age at diagnosis, worse NYHA-FC, increased PVR, reduced DLCO, and lower management with up-front combination therapy as major risk factors. In conclusion, in PAH-SSc cohort risk of death was greatly increased by clinical, PFT, and hemodynamic factors, whereas it was decreased by up-front combination therapy. Concomitant ILD worsened hemodynamics and PFT in PAH-SSc but not survival regardless of FVC impairment

Complement component C4 structural variation and quantitative traits contribute to sex-biased vulnerability in systemic sclerosis

Altres ajuts: Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER), "A way of making Europe".Copy number (CN) polymorphisms of complement C4 play distinct roles in many conditions, including immune-mediated diseases. We investigated the association of C4 CN with systemic sclerosis (SSc) risk. Imputed total C4, C4A, C4B, and HERV-K CN were analyzed in 26,633 individuals and validated in an independent cohort. Our results showed that higher C4 CN confers protection to SSc, and deviations from CN parity of C4A and C4B augmented risk. The protection contributed per copy of C4A and C4B differed by sex. Stronger protection was afforded by C4A in men and by C4B in women. C4 CN correlated well with its gene expression and serum protein levels, and less C4 was detected for both in SSc patients. Conditioned analysis suggests that C4 genetics strongly contributes to the SSc association within the major histocompatibility complex locus and highlights classical alleles and amino acid variants of HLA-DRB1 and HLA-DPB1 as C4-independent signals

Impact of interstitial lung disease on the survival of systemic sclerosis with pulmonary arterial hypertension

To assess severity markers and outcomes of patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc) with or without pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH-SSc/non-PAH-SSc), and the impact of interstitial lung disease (ILD) on PAH-SSc. Non-PAH-SSc patients from the Spanish SSc registry and PAH-SSc patients from the Spanish PAH registry were included. A total of 364 PAH-SSc and 1589 non-PAH-SSc patients were included. PAH-SSc patients had worse NYHA-functional class (NYHA-FC), worse forced vital capacity (FVC) (81.2 ± 20.6% vs 93.6 ± 20.6%, P &lt; 0.001), worse tricuspid annular plane systolic excursion (TAPSE) (17.4 ± 5.2 mm vs 19.9 ± 6.7 mm, P &lt; 0.001), higher incidence of pericardial effusion (30% vs 5.2%, P &lt; 0.001) and similar prevalence of ILD (41.8% vs. 44.9%). In individuals with PAH-SSc, ILD was associated with worse hemodynamics and pulmonary function tests (PFT). Up-front combination therapy was used in 59.8% and 61.7% of patients with and without ILD, respectively. Five-year transplant-free survival rate was 41.1% in PAH-SSc patients and 93.9% in non-PAH-SSc patients (P &lt; 0.001). Global survival of PAH-SSc patients was not affected by ILD regardless its severity. The multivariate survival analysis in PAH-SSc patients confirmed age at diagnosis, worse NYHA-FC, increased PVR, reduced DLCO, and lower management with up-front combination therapy as major risk factors. In conclusion, in PAH-SSc cohort risk of death was greatly increased by clinical, PFT, and hemodynamic factors, whereas it was decreased by up-front combination therapy. Concomitant ILD worsened hemodynamics and PFT in PAH-SSc but not survival regardless of FVC impairment

R Code_Callejas-Díaz_etal_2021_AJB

R code to allow reproducibilit

The role of maternal age, growth and environment in shaping offspring performance in an aerial conifer seed bank

Data (.csv) to allow reproducibility of our work

Data (.csv) to allow reproducibility of our work.

 R data (genotypes) to allow reproducibility of our analyses. </p

Expression of cyclooxygenase-2 in foetal rat hepatocytes stimulated with lipopolysaccharide and pro-inflammatory cytokines

1 Cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) is involved in the biosynthesis of prostanoids in the course of inflammatory reactions. This isoenzyme is regulated at the transcription level and many cells express COX-2 upon challenge with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) or pro-inflammatory cytokines. 2 Since hepatocytes respond to LPS and pro-inflammatory stimuli, we investigated the expression of COX-2 in foetal and adult hepatocytes upon challenge with these substances. 3 COX-2 was expressed in foetal hepatocytes incubated with LPS, tumour necrosis factor-α and interleukin-1β. This response rapidly decreased after birth and was absent in hepatocytes from animals aged 2 days or more and treated under identical conditions. The expression of COX-2 was determined at the mRNA, protein and enzyme activity levels using Northern and Western blot, and following the synthesis of prostaglandin E2, respectively. The use of NS 398, a specific pharmacological inhibitor of COX-2, confirmed the expression of this isoenzyme in activated foetal hepatocytes. 4 Synergism in COX-2 expression was observed between LPS, tumour necrosis factor-α and interleukin-1β. Interleukin-6 and permeant analogues of cyclic AMP failed to induce COX-2 or to synergize with LPS. Also, transforming growth factor-β inhibited the LPS- and pro-inflammatory cytokines-dependent expression of COX-2. 5 These results indicate that foetal hepatocytes are competent to express COX-2 upon challenge with pro-inflammatory stimuli, a process lost completely in hepatocytes isolated from animals aged 2 days.This work was supported by grants FIS92/0267 and PM95-007 from CICYT (Spain).Peer Reviewe

Expression of cyclooxygenase-2 promotes the release of matrix metalloproteinase-2 and -9 in fetal rat hepatocytes

Treatment of primary cultures of fetal hepatocytes with proinflammatory cytokines, lipopolysaccharide (LPS), and hepatocyte growth factor promoted the expression of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) and the synthesis of high amounts of prostaglandins (PGs). Under these conditions, the active forms of the matrix metalloproteinases-2 and -9 (MMPs) were released to the extracellular medium. This process was inhibited when the synthesis of PGs was suppressed pharmacologically with COX-2 inhibitors. Addition to the cell cultures of PGE2 promoted the release of MMPs through a mechanism that involved the expression of COX-2 and the synthesis of additional PGs. Kinetic analysis of the secretion of MMPs in response to LPS and PGE2 showed a similar time course, with a lag period of 6 hours, which suggests that PGE2 does not act directly on the mechanism of MMP processing and release. Inhibitors of protein kinase A, p38 MAP kinase, phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase, and nuclear factor κB (NF-κB) activation impaired the release of MMPs in response to PGE2 challenge, indicating the involvement of multiple steps in the process. The ability of fetal hepatocytes to release MMPs in response to growth factors and inflammatory stimuli constitutes a model for the study of the extracellular matrix remodeling that accompanies most liver diseases.Supported by grants 98/0220 and 2FD-1997-1432 from Fondo de Investigaciones Sanitarias and Plan Nacional de I1D, respectively.Peer Reviewe