Utilization of marine diatom Thalassiosira weissflogii as a feed additive in seawater-tolerant Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus, Linnaeus 1758) strain

The low omega-3 content of tilapia flesh, when compared to marine fish, affects its marketability. In marine animals, the highly unsaturated fatty acids (HUFAs) can be linked to the oil produced by marine diatoms. Among the marine diatoms, the genus Thalassiosira is known to exhibit high content of HUFAs such as eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). Thus, in this study, the use of marine diatom Thalassiosira weissflogii as a dietary additive in the seawater-tolerant Nile Tilapia strain was evaluated. One hundred ninety-two, 1.40 ± 0.05g seawater tilapia were randomly allocated into 4 treatment groups in 4 replicates. The first treatment group was fed with a control diet (D0), without the diatoms while treatments 1, 2, and 3 were each fed with diets supplemented with T. weissflogii paste at 2.55% (D1), 6% (D2), and 12% (D3), respectively for 60 days. The diets were isonitrogenous, isolipodic and the omega-3 and omega-6 requirements were satisfied. Results demonstrated that D1 had the highest percent weight gain among treatments. Although not significantly different, other parameters such as percent survival, specific growth rate (SGR), protein efficiency ratio (PER), feed conversion ratio (FCR), and feed intake had desirable results in D1. The proximate composition of seawater tilapia showed that % crude protein was highest in D0 but % crude lipid was highest in D1. The fatty acid composition of tilapia in D1 had the highest omega-3 content at 9.29 mg/g tissue and also had the highest n3:n6 at 2.19. Muscle growth-related genes (MyoD and MYG) were up-regulated while liver genes involved in long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acid synthesis (oni-fads2 and elvol5) were down-regulated in D1 as compared to D0. Feeding the diatom-supplemented diet to tilapia had no significant effects on hepatic cells and intestinal morphology. The results suggested that a 2.55% supplementation dose of T. weissflogii could promote growth and enhance the tissue content of omega-3 fatty acids of the seawater strain Oreochromis niloticus

CIBERER : Spanish national network for research on rare diseases: A highly productive collaborative initiative

Altres ajuts: Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII); Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación.CIBER (Center for Biomedical Network Research; Centro de Investigación Biomédica En Red) is a public national consortium created in 2006 under the umbrella of the Spanish National Institute of Health Carlos III (ISCIII). This innovative research structure comprises 11 different specific areas dedicated to the main public health priorities in the National Health System. CIBERER, the thematic area of CIBER focused on rare diseases (RDs) currently consists of 75 research groups belonging to universities, research centers, and hospitals of the entire country. CIBERER's mission is to be a center prioritizing and favoring collaboration and cooperation between biomedical and clinical research groups, with special emphasis on the aspects of genetic, molecular, biochemical, and cellular research of RDs. This research is the basis for providing new tools for the diagnosis and therapy of low-prevalence diseases, in line with the International Rare Diseases Research Consortium (IRDiRC) objectives, thus favoring translational research between the scientific environment of the laboratory and the clinical setting of health centers. In this article, we intend to review CIBERER's 15-year journey and summarize the main results obtained in terms of internationalization, scientific production, contributions toward the discovery of new therapies and novel genes associated to diseases, cooperation with patients' associations and many other topics related to RD research

Global disparities in surgeons’ workloads, academic engagement and rest periods: the on-calL shIft fOr geNEral SurgeonS (LIONESS) study

: The workload of general surgeons is multifaceted, encompassing not only surgical procedures but also a myriad of other responsibilities. From April to May 2023, we conducted a CHERRIES-compliant internet-based survey analyzing clinical practice, academic engagement, and post-on-call rest. The questionnaire featured six sections with 35 questions. Statistical analysis used Chi-square tests, ANOVA, and logistic regression (SPSS® v. 28). The survey received a total of 1.046 responses (65.4%). Over 78.0% of responders came from Europe, 65.1% came from a general surgery unit; 92.8% of European and 87.5% of North American respondents were involved in research, compared to 71.7% in Africa. Europe led in publishing research studies (6.6 ± 8.6 yearly). Teaching involvement was high in North America (100%) and Africa (91.7%). Surgeons reported an average of 6.7 ± 4.9 on-call shifts per month, with European and North American surgeons experiencing 6.5 ± 4.9 and 7.8 ± 4.1 on-calls monthly, respectively. African surgeons had the highest on-call frequency (8.7 ± 6.1). Post-on-call, only 35.1% of respondents received a day off. Europeans were most likely (40%) to have a day off, while African surgeons were least likely (6.7%). On the adjusted multivariable analysis HDI (Human Development Index) (aOR 1.993) hospital capacity > 400 beds (aOR 2.423), working in a specialty surgery unit (aOR 2.087), and making the on-call in-house (aOR 5.446), significantly predicted the likelihood of having a day off after an on-call shift. Our study revealed critical insights into the disparities in workload, access to research, and professional opportunities for surgeons across different continents, underscored by the HDI

Reduction of Antibiotic-Resistant Bacterial Counts in a Mangrove-Riverine System in Capiz, Philippines - Preliminary Data

The anthropogenic impact of effluents and indiscriminate use of antibiotics in aquaculture promotes the emergence and proliferation of antibiotic resistant (ABR) bacteria. Comparative total bacterial and ABR counts were determined from 3 locations of the Cadimahan river of Capiz province, Philippines. The upstream station showed lower total bacterial but higher ABR counts, which is the inverse of the downstream station which showed higher total bacterial but lower ABR counts. The ABR counts accounted for 0.0173%, 0.0043% and 0.0002% of the total bacterial counts for upstream, midstream, and downstream, respectively, showing a strong inverse correlation of -0.84 in the Pearson correlation coefficient. This result suggests a remediating effect potentially mediated by microbial dynamics in the Mangrove-riverine system

RNA-Seq-Based Metatranscriptomic and Microscopic Investigation Reveals Novel Metalloproteases of <em>Neobodo</em> sp. as Potential Virulence Factors for Soft Tunic Syndrome in <em>Halocynthia roretzi</em>

<div><p>Bodonids and trypanosomatids are derived from a common ancestor with the bodonids being a more primitive lineage. The Neobodonida, one of the three clades of bodonids, can be free-living, commensal or parasitic. Despite the ecological and evolutionary significance of these organisms, however, many of their biological and pathological features are currently unknown. Here, we employed metatranscriptomics using RNA-seq technology combined with field-emission microscopy to reveal the virulence factors of a recently described genus of Neobodonida that is considered to be responsible for ascidian soft tunic syndrome (AsSTS), but whose pathogenesis is unclear. Our microscopic observation of infected tunic tissues suggested putative virulence factors, enabling us to extract novel candidate transcripts; these included cysteine proteases of the families C1 and C2, serine proteases of S51 and S9 families, and metalloproteases grouped into families M1, M3, M8, M14, M16, M17, M24, M41, and M49. Protease activity/inhibition assays and the estimation of expression levels within gene clusters allowed us to identify metalloprotease-like enzymes as potential virulence attributes for AsSTS. Furthermore, a multimarker-based phylogenetic analysis using 1,184 concatenated amino acid sequences clarified the order <em>Neobodo</em> sp. In sum, we herein used metatranscriptomics to elucidate the <em>in situ</em> expression profiles of uncharacterized putative transcripts of <em>Neobodo</em> sp., combined these results with microscopic observation to select candidate genes relevant to pathogenesis, and used empirical screening to define important virulence factors.</p> </div

Putative transcripts encoding cysteine- or serine proteases of the Kinetoplastida.

<p>The respective sequencing reads have been deposited in GenBank (Accession number JU062332 through JU062360) and are also available in the NCBI short read archive (SRA050244.1).</p>a<p>Names of obtained isotigs and singletons. All listed isotigs consisted of one contig.</p>b<p>Nucleotide length of respective reads.</p>c<p>All E-values and identities (%) were obtained from best BLASTX matches (<10⁻³).</p>d<p>Amino acid identity.</p>e<p>Functional categories were assigned using KOG. Except for <i>Trypanoplasma borreli</i> (marked with “<b>*</b>”), the identified organisms consisted of <i>Leishmania</i> spp. (L) or <i>Trypanosoma</i> (T) spp.</p

Summary of pyrosequencing results.

a<p>Contigs not assembled into isotigs.</p>b<p>Singletons after trimming by Lucy cleaning.</p

Multimarker-based phylogenetic analysis of the pathogenic flagellate.

<p>(A) A MEGAN tree, based on the output of BLASTX against the NCBI-nr database (E-value <10⁻³), is shown. Transcripts lacking BLAST matches are assigned to the special node “no hits,” and those not assigned for reasons associated with the algorithm are denoted as “unassigned.” Bacteria are presented to the superkingdom level and Eukaryota are aligned at the kingdom to class level, except for Kinetoplastida, where the highest matching at the subclass level is shown. (B) Phylogenetic tree constructed upon a concatenation of three conserved proteins (α-tubulin, heat shock protein 70 and heat shock protein 90) consisting of 1,184 amino acids using the BEAST software. Elongation factor-1 (EF-1) was excluded due to its partial nature. The distance scale is given under the tree. (C) List of putative proteins with regions conserved across species. The respective sequencing reads have been deposited in GenBank (Accession numbers JU062373 through JU062376).</p