RICORS2040 : The need for collaborative research in chronic kidney disease

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a silent and poorly known killer. The current concept of CKD is relatively young and uptake by the public, physicians and health authorities is not widespread. Physicians still confuse CKD with chronic kidney insufficiency or failure. For the wider public and health authorities, CKD evokes kidney replacement therapy (KRT). In Spain, the prevalence of KRT is 0.13%. Thus health authorities may consider CKD a non-issue: very few persons eventually need KRT and, for those in whom kidneys fail, the problem is 'solved' by dialysis or kidney transplantation. However, KRT is the tip of the iceberg in the burden of CKD. The main burden of CKD is accelerated ageing and premature death. The cut-off points for kidney function and kidney damage indexes that define CKD also mark an increased risk for all-cause premature death. CKD is the most prevalent risk factor for lethal coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and the factor that most increases the risk of death in COVID-19, after old age. Men and women undergoing KRT still have an annual mortality that is 10- to 100-fold higher than similar-age peers, and life expectancy is shortened by ~40 years for young persons on dialysis and by 15 years for young persons with a functioning kidney graft. CKD is expected to become the fifth greatest global cause of death by 2040 and the second greatest cause of death in Spain before the end of the century, a time when one in four Spaniards will have CKD. However, by 2022, CKD will become the only top-15 global predicted cause of death that is not supported by a dedicated well-funded Centres for Biomedical Research (CIBER) network structure in Spain. Realizing the underestimation of the CKD burden of disease by health authorities, the Decade of the Kidney initiative for 2020-2030 was launched by the American Association of Kidney Patients and the European Kidney Health Alliance. Leading Spanish kidney researchers grouped in the kidney collaborative research network Red de Investigación Renal have now applied for the Redes de Investigación Cooperativa Orientadas a Resultados en Salud (RICORS) call for collaborative research in Spain with the support of the Spanish Society of Nephrology, Federación Nacional de Asociaciones para la Lucha Contra las Enfermedades del Riñón and ONT: RICORS2040 aims to prevent the dire predictions for the global 2040 burden of CKD from becoming true

Fusarium: more than a node or a foot-shaped basal cell

Recent publications have argued that there are potentially serious consequences for researchers in recognising distinct genera in the terminal fusarioid clade of the family Nectriaceae. Thus, an alternate hypothesis, namely a very broad concept of the genus Fusarium was proposed. In doing so, however, a significant body of data that supports distinct genera in Nectriaceae based on morphology, biology, and phylogeny is disregarded. A DNA phylogeny based on 19 orthologous protein-coding genes was presented to support a very broad concept of Fusarium at the F1 node in Nectriaceae. Here, we demonstrate that re-analyses of this dataset show that all 19 genes support the F3 node that represents Fusarium sensu stricto as defined by F. sambucinum (sexual morph synonym Gibberella pulicaris). The backbone of the phylogeny is resolved by the concatenated alignment, but only six of the 19 genes fully support the F1 node, representing the broad circumscription of Fusarium. Furthermore, a re-analysis of the concatenated dataset revealed alternate topologies in different phylogenetic algorithms, highlighting the deep divergence and unresolved placement of various Nectriaceae lineages proposed as members of Fusarium. Species of Fusarium s. str. are characterised by Gibberella sexual morphs, asexual morphs with thin- or thick-walled macroconidia that have variously shaped apical and basal cells, and trichothecene mycotoxin production, which separates them from other fusarioid genera. Here we show that the Wollenweber concept of Fusarium presently accounts for 20 segregate genera with clear-cut synapomorphic traits, and that fusarioid macroconidia represent a character that has been gained or lost multiple times throughout Nectriaceae. Thus, the very broad circumscription of Fusarium is blurry and without apparent synapomorphies, and does not include all genera with fusarium-like macroconidia, which are spread throughout Nectriaceae (e.g., Cosmosporella, Macroconia, Microcera). In this study four new genera are introduced, along with 18 new species and 16 new combinations. These names convey information about relationships, morphology, and ecological preference that would otherwise be lost in a broader definition of Fusarium. To assist users to correctly identify fusarioid genera and species, we introduce a new online identification database, Fusarioid-ID, accessible at www.fusarium.org. The database comprises partial sequences from multiple genes commonly used to identify fusarioid taxa (act1, CaM, his3, rpb1, rpb2, tef1, tub2, ITS, and LSU). In this paper, we also present a nomenclator of names that have been introduced in Fusarium up to January 2021 as well as their current status, types, and diagnostic DNA barcode data. In this study, researchers from 46 countries, representing taxonomists, plant pathologists, medical mycologists, quarantine officials, regulatory agencies, and students, strongly support the application and use of a more precisely delimited Fusarium (= Gibberella) concept to accommodate taxa from the robust monophyletic node F3 on the basis of a well-defined and unique combination of morphological and biochemical features. This F3 node includes, among others, species of the F. fujikuroi, F. incarnatum-equiseti, F. oxysporum, and F. sambucinum species complexes, but not species of Bisifusarium [F. dimerum species complex (SC)], Cyanonectria (F. buxicola SC), Geejayessia (F. staphyleae SC), Neocosmospora (F. solani SC) or Rectifusarium (F. ventricosum SC). The present study represents the first step to generating a new online monograph of Fusarium and allied fusarioid genera (www.fusarium.org)

Bulbocatenospora, a new hyphomycete genus from Venezuela

Bulbocatenospora complanata gen, et sp, nov. is described and illustrated. The fungus is characterized by the production of inconspicuous, brown conidiophores, usually reduced to the conidiogenous cells, which are monotretic, ventricose, dark brown, with a well-defined pore. The conidia are muriform, broadly ovoid to irregular, complanate, brown, forming short, acropetal chains. The fungus was found on rotten leaves of Bactris setulosa in an undisturbed rainforest in Venezuela. Comparisons are made with some morphologically similar genera, Piricauda, Chuppia and Janetia

How important are conidial appendages?

The genus The genus Dinemasporium is used as a case study to evaluate the importance of conidial appendages for generic level classification of coelomycetous fungi. Based on morphology and sequence data of the large subunit nuclear ribosomal RNA gene (LSU, 28S) and the internal transcribed spacers and 5.8S rRNA gene of the nrDNA operon, the genus Dinemasporium is circumscribed, and an epitype designated for D. strigosum, the type of the genus. A further five species are introduced in Dinemasporium, namely D. pseudostrigosum (isolated from Triticum aestivum, Germany and Stigmaphyllon sagraeanum, Cuba), D. americana (soil, USA), D. polygonum (Polygonum sachalinense, Netherlands), D. pseudoindicum (soil, USA), and D. morbidum (human sputum, Netherlands and hare dung, New Zealand). Brunneodinemasporium, based on B. brasiliense, is introduced to accommodate Dinemasporium-like species with tightly aggregated brown conidiogenous cells, and pale brown conidia. Dendrophoma (= Amphitiarospora) is reinstated as distinct from Dinemasporium, and an epitype designated for D. cytisporoides, characterised by its superficial, stipitate to cupulate conidiomata, and small conidia with two polar, tubular, exogenous appendages. The genus Stauronema is reduced to synonymy under Dinemasporium. Pseudolachnea (1-septate conidia) is supported as distinct from Dinemasporium (aseptate conidia), and P. fraxini introduced as a novel species. Taxa in this generic complex differ by combination of morphological characters of conidiomata, setae, conidia and appendages. Appendage morphology alone is rejected as informative at the generic level

How important are conidial appendages?

The genus Dinemasporium is used as a case study to evaluate the importance of conidial appendages for generic level classification of coelomycetous fungi. Based on morphology and sequence data of the large subunit nuclear ribosomal RNA gene (LSU, 28S) and the internal transcribed spacers and 5.8S rRNA gene of the nr DNA operon, the genus Dinemasporium is circumscribed, and an epitype designated for D. strigosum, the type of the genus. A further five species are introduced in Dinemasporium, namely D. pseudostrigosum (isolated from Triticum aestivum, Germany and Stigmaphyllon sagraeanum, Cuba), D. americana (soil, USA), D. polygonum (Polygonum sachalinense, Netherlands), D. pseudoindicum (soil, USA), and D. morbidum (human sputum, Netherlands and hare dung, New Zealand). Brunneodinemasporium, based on B. brasiliense, is introduced to accommodate Dinemasporiumlike species with tightly aggregated brown conidiogenous cells, and pale brown conidia. Dendrophoma (= Amphitiarospora) is reinstated as distinct from Dinemasporium, and an epitype designated for D. cytisporoides, characterised by its superficial, stipitate to cupulate conidiomata, and small conidia with two polar, tubular, exogenous appendages. The genus Stauronema is reduced to synonymy under Dinemasporium. Pseudolachnea (1-septate conidia) is supported as distinct from Dinemasporium (aseptate conidia), and P. fraxini introduced as a novel species. Taxa in this generic complex differ by combination of morphological characters of conidiomata, setae, conidia and appendages. Appendage morphology alone is rejected as informative at the generic level