Antioxidant potential of fungi and seedlings during mycorrhizal induction

Mycorrhizal associations implicate a chemical recognizing process being the establishment of the symbiosis triggered by signals produced by both partners. We evaluated the establishment of mycorrhizal symbiosis between two ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fungi species, Paxillus involutus and Pisolithus arhizus, and two different symbionts, Pinus pinaster and Castanea sativa. ln a first step, we monitored the growth of the two ECM species in the presence and absence of the symbiont P. pinaster. Then we evaluated the antioxidant properties of fungi and seedlings, in response to the symbiotic process, under different contact periods. After, we tested the mycorrhization process between the two fungi species and C. sativa seedlings, assessing the production of tocopherols and sugars produced by both partners during the earlier steps of symbiosis. The antioxidant properties were assessed through four in vitro assays: Folin-Ciocalteu assay (total phenolics), Ferricyanide/Prussian blue assay, 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging activity and Beta-carotene/linoleate system assay. Tocopherols and sugars were analysed by HPLC-fluorescence and HPLC-RI, respectively. ECM fungi grew less in the presence of P. pinaster, with P. arhizus being less affected (in growth) and thus being more adapted to this association. Regarding the mechanisms of oxidative stress in ectomycorrhizal associations, t he response of the fungi and plants to the contact with the host is somehow specific, revealing different forms of mutual recognition. Considering bioactive compounds production, P. involutus revea led a maximal value of phenolics after 6h in co-culture with P. pinaster and P. arhizus revealed increased contents of sugars and tocopherols when in contact with C. sativa

Estilos de Liderança e Motivação: Estudo em IPSS’s de V. N. Famalicão

A liderança e a motivação são aspetos essenciais para que uma organização tenha sucesso. O estudo da aplicação destes conceitos em Instituições Particulares de Solidariedade Social (IPSS) não tem sido muito frequente. Este estudo pretende contribuir para o conhecimento das caraterísticas de liderança dos presidentes das IPSS, e saber o que motiva os colaboradores destas instituições, na perceção do colaborador e na perceção do líder. Pretendeu-se, ainda, perceber se o estilo de liderança exercido nas instituições com base na perceção dos colaboradores influencia a sua motivação. Aplicaram-se questionários a 189 colaboradores e a cinco presidentes, para avaliar as suas caraterísticas, o tipo de liderança (Questionário Multifatorial da Liderança de Bass e Avolio, 2004), e os fatores que influenciam a motivação dos colaboradores (Escala Multi-Factorial de Motivação adaptada de Ferreira et al., 2006). Os resultados sugerem que, na perceção dos colaboradores, os comportamentos de liderança são maioritariamente de estilo transformacional, embora alguns dos presidentes apresentem também comportamentos do estilo transacional. Os líderes consideram que têm comportamentos maioritariamente do estilo transformacional. Quanto aos fatores que contribuem para a motivação no trabalho dos colaboradores, os mais importantes parecem ser os consignados na organização no trabalho e na realização e poder, ambos relacionados com as tarefas que realizam. Verificou-se que o estilo de liderança não influencia decisivamente a motivação, nem se demonstrou associação entre a motivação dos colaboradores as suas habilitações literárias, idade, sexo e tempo de trabalho, ao contrário do que acontece em relação ao tipo de contrato de trabalho, o qual apresenta uma influência estatisticamente significativa nessa motivação.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Development of stacked porous tantalum oxide layers by anodization

Interest in nanoporous tantalum oxide (Ta2O5) has been increasing due to its high variety of applications, from protective coatings, photocatalysts to biomedical devices. Anodization is a surface modification technique, which is inexpensive, versatile, easily scalable and widely used to produce these nanostructures. In this study, Ta2O5 nanoporous surfaces were produced by anodization in HF-free electrolyte composed of ethylene glycol, water and ammonium fluoride (NH4F) with different anodization parameters (electrolyte concentration, applied potential and time). The surface morphology of each sample was investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and the sample with the more uniform porous nanostructure was characterized in terms of cross-section morphology, chemical composition and crystalline structure. The concentration of NH4F and applied potential demonstrated a significant impact on current-density-time curve, and thereafter in surface morphology. Multiple thin porous nanolayers were formed under strong electrochemical conditions (very high current density and electrolyte temperature). Through chemical analysis, it was possible to detect the presence of fluoride, which is consistent with an amorphous Ta2O5 layer with fluoride ions incorporation. Thereby, managing the electrochemical conditions is crucial to control the morphology of an anodic Ta2O5 layer.This research was supported by Norte2020, through European Social Fund (FSE), under the National Doctoral Program in “Surfaces Engineering and Protection”, NORTE-08-5369-FSE-000047. The authors also thank the financial support by Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) in the framework of the HEALTHYDENT (co-financed via FEDER (PT2020) POCI-01-0145-FEDER-030708 and FCT (PIDDAC)), On-Surf (co-financed via FEDER (PT2020) POCI-01-0247-FEDER-024521) and Strategic Funding (co-financed via UID/FIS/04650/2019 and FCT) projects

Numerical study of the unsteady flow in simplified and realistic iliac bifurcation models

Cardiovascular diseases are a major cause of death and disability worldwide and they are commonly associated with the occurrence of atherosclerotic plaque deposition in the vessel walls, a process denoted as atherosclerosis. This is a chronic and progressive inflammatory disease of large-/medium-sized blood vessels that affects blood flow profiles, with the abdominal aorta and its branches being one of the locations prone to the development of this pathology, due to their curvatures and bifurcations. In this regard, the effect of flow patterns was studied and compared for both a simplified three-dimensional model of aorta bifurcation on the iliac arteries and a realistic model of iliac bifurcation, which was constructed from a computational tomography medical image. The flow patterns were analyzed in terms of velocity and wall shear stress distribution, but a special focus was given to the size and location of the recirculation zone. The simulations were performed using the Computational Fluid Dynamics software, FLUENT, taking into account the cardiac cycle profile at the infrarenal aorta. The shear stress and the velocity distribution observed for both models indicated that higher shear stress occurred along the flow divider wall (inner wall) and low shear stress occurred along the outer walls. In addition, the results demonstrated that the wall shear stress profiles were deeply affected by the transient profile of the cardiac cycle, with the deceleration phase being the most critical phase to the occurrence of backflow.This work was supported by FCT—Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia through the R&D Units Project Scope: UIDB/00319/2020, UIDB/04077/2020, and NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-030171, funded by COMPETE2020, NORTE 2020, PORTUGAL 2020, and FEDER

The structure of a Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron carbohydrate-binding module provides new insight into the recognition of complex pectic polysaccharides by the human microbiome

Funding Information: We thank Prof. Carlos Fontes and Dr Joana Bras (NZYTech, Portugal) for their assistance in obtaining the initial BT0996-C clone. We are grateful to Prof Ten Feizi, Dr Yan Liu and Dr Lisete Silva from the Glycosciences Laboratory (Imperial College London, UK) for their support and assistance on robotic microarray printing. This work was supported by the FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P., through the DL-57/2016 Program Contract (BP). This work is financed by national funds from FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P., in the scope of the project LA/P/0140/2020 of the Associate Laboratory Institute for Health and Bioeconomy - i4HB. The authors acknowledge the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (Grenoble, France) and ALBA (Barcelona, Spain) for access to beamlines ID30B and BL-13 XALOC, respectively. Publisher Copyright: © 2022The Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron has developed a consortium of enzymes capable of overcoming steric constraints and degrading, in a sequential manner, the complex rhamnogalacturonan II (RG-II) polysaccharide. BT0996 protein acts in the initial stages of the RG-II depolymerisation, where its two catalytic modules remove the terminal monosaccharides from RG-II side chains A and B. BT0996 is modular and has three putative carbohydrate-binding modules (CBMs) for which the roles in the RG-II degradation are unknown. Here, we present the characterisation of the module at the C-terminal domain, which we designated BT0996-C. The high-resolution structure obtained by X-ray crystallography reveals that the protein displays a typical β-sandwich fold with structural similarity to CBMs assigned to families 6 and 35. The distinctive features are: 1) the presence of several charged residues at the BT0996-C surface creating a large, broad positive lysine-rich patch that encompasses the putative binding site; and 2) the absence of the highly conserved binding-site signatures observed in CBMs from families 6 and 35, such as region A tryptophan and region C asparagine. These findings hint at a binding mode of BT0996-C not yet observed in its homologues. In line with this, carbohydrate microarrays and microscale thermophoresis show the ability of BT0996-C to bind α1-4-linked polygalacturonic acid, and that electrostatic interactions are essential for the recognition of the anionic polysaccharide. The results support the hypothesis that BT0996-C may have evolved to potentiate the action of BT0996 catalytic modules on the complex structure of RG-II by binding to the polygalacturonic acid backbone sequence.publishersversionpublishe

Plastin and spectrin cooperate to stabilize the actomyosin cortex during cytokinesis

Cytokinesis, the process that partitions the mother cell into two daughter cells, requires the assembly and constriction of an equatorial actomyosin network. Different types of non-motor F-actin crosslinkers localize to the network, but their functional contribution remains poorly understood. Here, we describe a synergy between the small rigid crosslinker plastin and the large flexible crosslinker spectrin in the C. elegans one-cell embryo. In contrast to single inhibitions, co-inhibition of plastin and the βH-spectrin (SMA-1) results in cytokinesis failure due to progressive disorganization and eventual collapse of the equatorial actomyosin network. Cortical localization dynamics of non-muscle myosin II in co-inhibited embryos mimic those observed after drug-induced F-actin depolymerization, suggesting that the combined action of plastin and spectrin stabilizes F-actin in the contractile ring. An in silico model predicts that spectrin is more efficient than plastin at stabilizing the ring and that ring formation is relatively insensitive to βH-spectrin length, which is confirmed in vivo with a sma-1 mutant that lacks 11 of its 29 spectrin repeats. Our findings provide the first evidence that spectrin contributes to cytokinesis and highlight the importance of crosslinker interplay for actomyosin network integrity

Mapping Molecular Recognition of β1,3-1,4-Glucans by a Surface Glycan-Binding Protein from the Human Gut Symbiont Bacteroides ovatus

This work was supported by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT-MCTES), Portugal, through project grant PTDC/BIA-MIB/31730/2017 (to A.S.P.), fellowships PD/BD/105727/2014 (to V.G.C.) and SFRH/BD/143494/2019 (to F.T.), and program contract DL-57/2016 (to B.A.P. and C.N.) and by Wellcome Trust Biomedical Resource grants number WT108430/Z/15/Z and WT218304/Z/19/Z, a March of Dimes (Arlington, VA, USA) Prematurity Research Center grant (number 22-FY18-821) for the funding to the Carbohydrate Microarray Facility, Associate Laboratory projects LAQV-REQUIMTE (UIDB/50006/2020) and CICECO-Aveiro Institute of Materials (UIDB/50011/2020 & UIDP/50011/2020), and by the Applied Molecular Biosciences Unit (UCIBIO), which is financed by Portuguese national funds from FCT-MCTES (UIDP/04378/2020 and UIDB/04378/2020).A multigene polysaccharide utilization locus (PUL) encoding enzymes and surface carbohydrate (glycan)-binding proteins (SGBPs) was recently identified in prominent members of Bacteroidetes in the human gut and characterized in Bacteroides ovatus. This PUL-encoded system specifically targets mixed-linkage β1,3-1,4-glucans, a group of diet-derived carbohydrates that promote a healthy microbiota and have potential as prebiotics. The BoSGBPMLG-A protein encoded by the BACOVA_2743 gene is a SusD-like protein that plays a key role in the PUL's specificity and functionality. Here, we perform a detailed analysis of the molecular determinants underlying carbohydrate binding by BoSGBPMLG-A, combining carbohydrate microarray technology with quantitative affinity studies and a high-resolution X-ray crystallography structure of the complex of BoSGBPMLG-A with a β1,3-1,4-nonasaccharide. We demonstrate its unique binding specificity toward β1,3-1,4-gluco-oligosaccharides, with increasing binding affinities up to the octasaccharide and dependency on the number and position of β1,3 linkages. The interaction is defined by a 41-Å-long extended binding site that accommodates the oligosaccharide in a mode distinct from that of previously described bacterial β1,3-1,4-glucan-binding proteins. In addition to the shape complementarity mediated by CH-π interactions, a complex hydrogen bonding network complemented by a high number of key ordered water molecules establishes additional specific interactions with the oligosaccharide. These support the twisted conformation of the β-glucan backbone imposed by the β1,3 linkages and explain the dependency on the oligosaccharide chain length. We propose that the specificity of the PUL conferred by BoSGBPMLG-A to import long β1,3-1,4-glucan oligosaccharides to the bacterial periplasm allows Bacteroidetes to outcompete bacteria that lack this PUL for utilization of β1,3-1,4-glucans. IMPORTANCE With the knowledge of bacterial gene systems encoding proteins that target dietary carbohydrates as a source of nutrients and their importance for human health, major efforts are being made to understand carbohydrate recognition by various commensal bacteria. Here, we describe an integrative strategy that combines carbohydrate microarray technology with structural studies to further elucidate the molecular determinants of carbohydrate recognition by BoSGBPMLG-A, a key protein expressed at the surface of Bacteroides ovatus for utilization of mixed-linkage β1,3-1,4-glucans. We have mapped at high resolution interactions that occur at the binding site of BoSGBPMLG-A and provide evidence for the role of key water-mediated interactions for fine specificity and affinity. Understanding at the molecular level how commensal bacteria, such as prominent members of Bacteroidetes, can differentially utilize dietary carbohydrates with potential prebiotic activities will shed light on possible ways to modulate the microbiome to promote human health.publishersversionpublishe

Extraction of Biomolecules Using Phosphonium-Based Ionic Liquids + K3PO4 Aqueous Biphasic Systems

Aqueous biphasic systems (ABS) provide an alternative and efficient approach for the extraction, recovery and purification of biomolecules through their partitioning between two liquid aqueous phases. In this work, the ability of hydrophilic phosphonium-based ionic liquids (ILs) to form ABS with aqueous K3PO4 solutions was evaluated for the first time. Ternary phase diagrams, and respective tie-lines and tie-lines length, formed by distinct phosphonium-based ILs, water, and K3PO4 at 298 K, were measured and are reported. The studied phosphonium-based ILs have shown to be more effective in promoting ABS compared to the imidazolium-based counterparts with similar anions. Moreover, the extractive capability of such systems was assessed for distinct biomolecules (including amino acids, food colourants and alkaloids). Densities and viscosities of both aqueous phases, at the mass fraction compositions used for the biomolecules extraction, were also determined. The evaluated IL-based ABS have been shown to be prospective extraction media, particularly for hydrophobic biomolecules, with several advantages over conventional polymer-inorganic salt ABS

Human spermatogenic failure purges deleterious mutation load from the autosomes and both sex chromosomes, including the gene DMRT1

Gonadal failure, along with early pregnancy loss and perinatal death, may be an important filter that limits the propagation of harmful mutations in the human population. We hypothesized that men with spermatogenic impairment, a disease with unknown genetic architecture and a common cause of male infertility, are enriched for rare deleterious mutations compared to men with normal spermatogenesis. After assaying genomewide SNPs and CNVs in 323 Caucasian men with idiopathic spermatogenic impairment and more than 1,100 controls, we estimate that each rare autosomal deletion detected in our study multiplicatively changes a man’s risk of disease by 10% (OR 1.10 [1.04–1.16], p,261023), rare X-linked CNVs by 29%, (OR 1.29 [1.11–1.50], p,161023), and rare Y-linked duplications by 88% (OR 1.88 [1.13–3.13], p,0.03). By contrasting the properties of our case-specific CNVs with those of CNV callsets from cases of autism, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and intellectual disability, we propose that the CNV burden in spermatogenic impairment is distinct from the burden of large, dominant mutations described for neurodevelopmental disorders. We identified two patients with deletions of DMRT1, a gene on chromosome 9p24.3 orthologous to the putative sex determination locus of the avian ZW chromosome system. In an independent sample of Han Chinese men, we identified 3 more DMRT1 deletions in 979 cases of idiopathic azoospermia and none in 1,734 controls, and found none in an additional 4,519 controls from public databases. The combined results indicate that DMRT1 loss-of-function mutations are a risk factor and potential genetic cause of human spermatogenic failure (frequency of 0.38% in 1306 cases and 0% in 7,754 controls, p = 6.261025). Our study identifies other recurrent CNVs as potential causes of idiopathic azoospermia and generates hypotheses for directing future studies on the genetic basis of male infertility and IVF outcomes.This work was partially funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology FCT/MCTES (PIDDAC) and co-financed by European funds (FEDER) through the COMPETE program, research grant PTDC/SAU-GMG/101229/2008. IPATIMUP is an Associate Laboratory of the Portuguese Ministry of Science, Technology, and Higher Education and is partially supported by FCT. AML is the recipient of a postdoctoral fellowship from FCT (SFRH/BPD/73366/2010). CO is supported by a grant from the United States National Institutes of Health (R01 HD21244), JDS is supported by Damon Runyon Clinical Investigator Award, Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation Epidemiology Award, and the Eunice Kennedy Shriver Children's Health Research Career Development Award NICHD 5K12HD001410. Support for humans studies and specimens were provided by the NIH/NIDDK George M. O'Brien Center for Kidney Disease Kidney Translational Research Core (P30DK079333) grant to Washington University. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript

Dor e trabalho nas enfermeiras

Ap?s revis?o da literatura, verificamos necessidade de evid?ncia referente ? dor em Enfermeiros de Cuidados de Sa?de Prim?rios (CSP). A amostra constitu?da por 7 Enfermeiras dos CSP da regi?o Norte. Foi aplicado, sob forma de entrevista semi-dirigida, o inqu?rito INSAT 2010 e realizada a an?lise de conte?do. Os dados evidenciaram que as Enfermeiras apresentam qualidade de vida e sa?de afetadas, devido a constrangimentos f?sicos, organizacionais e relacionais no ambiente de trabalho que podem, eventualmente, causar stresse, fadiga, sofrimento e dor.B910-DDDF-6BB2 | Lu?s Carlos Carvalho da Gra?ainfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio