Genetic relationships among Italian and Mexican maize-rhizosphere Burkholderia cepacia complex (BCC) populations belonging to Burkholderia cenocepacia IIIB and BCC6 group

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>A close association between maize roots and <it>Burkholderia cepacia </it>complex (BCC) bacteria has been observed in different locations globally. In this study we investigated by MultiLocus Restriction Typing (MLRT) the genetic diversity and relationships among <it>Burkholderia cenocepacia </it>IIIB and BCC6 populations associated with roots of maize plants cultivated in geographically distant countries (Italy and Mexico), in order to provide new insights into their population structure, evolution and ecology.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The 31 <it>B. cenocepacia </it>IIIB and 65 BCC6 isolates gave rise to 29 and 39 different restriction types (RTs), respectively. Two pairs of isolates of <it>B. cenocepacia </it>IIIB and BCC6, recovered from both Italian and Mexican maize rhizospheres, were found to share the same RT. The eBURST (Based Upon Related Sequence Types) analysis of MLRT data grouped all the <it>B. cenocepacia </it>IIIB isolates into four clonal complexes, with the RT-4-complex including the 42% of them, while the majority of the BCC6 isolates (94%) were grouped into the RT-104-complex. These two main clonal complexes included RTs shared by both Italian and Mexican maize rhizospheres and a clear relationship between grouping and maize variety was also found. Grouping established by eBURST correlated well with the assessment using unweighted-pair group method with arithmetic mean (UPGMA). The standardized index of association values obtained in both <it>B. cenocepacia </it>IIIB and BCC6 suggests an epidemic population structure in which occasional clones emerge and spread.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Taken together our data demonstrate a wide dispersal of certain <it>B. cenocepacia </it>IIIB and BCC6 isolates in Mexican and Italian maize rhizospheres. Despite the clear relationship found between the geographic origin of isolates and grouping, identical RTs and closely related isolates were observed in geographically distant regions. Ecological factors and selective pressure may preferably promote some genotypes within each local microbial population, favouring the spread of a single clone above the rest of the recombinant population.</p

Challenges in Clinico-Genetic Correlations in Parkinson’s disease (PD): The Role of Copy Number Variants (CNV)

Parkinson’s disease (PD) represents the second most common neurodegenerative disease and remains incurable. Mutations in multiple genes have been linked to monogenic PD (gPD); these monogenic forms, however, represent a small number of cases while in most instances PD appears as idiopathic (iPD). These findings raise the question of whether genetic and idiopathic parkinsonisms constitute the same disease. Nevertheless, monogenic-PD phenotypes and iPD both fulfill MDS criteria for PD, and show evidence of alpha-synuclein aggregates in both conditions. Distinct genetic loci in rare Mendelian forms have been identified as causal mutations, others as possible disease-causing genes, and genome-wide association studies have reported several risk loci, many of them located in the genes associated with the dominant mutations. Not only single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), but other kinds of DNA molecular defects as well have been spotted as significant disease-causing mutations, including large chromosomal structural rearrangements and copy number variations (CNVs). As their size varies, and detection methodologies have different sensitivity and resolution, CNVs pose a special challenge in genetic studies, and there currently is a debate on the pathogenetic or susceptibility impact of specific CNVs on PD. In this review, through multiple instances of experimental evidence, we analyze the impact on histopathology of the different mutational mechanisms involved in the genesis and etiology of PD. We believe that increasing our knowledge about the changes and implications at tissue level produced by each of those mechanisms will allow to develop much more suitable and personalized potential therapeutic strategies, biomarker identification, as well as disease modeling, agreeing with the precision medicine concept.Fil: Gatto, Emilia Mabel. Instituto de Neurociencias Buenos Aires S. A.; ArgentinaFil: Radrizzani Helguera, Martin. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de San Martín; ArgentinaFil: González Rojas, Natalia. Instituto de Neurociencias Buenos Aires S. A.; ArgentinaFil: Cesarini, Martin Emiliano. Instituto de Neurociencias Buenos Aires S. A.; ArgentinaFil: Etcheverry, José Luis. Instituto de Neurociencias Buenos Aires S. A.; ArgentinaFil: Perandones, Claudia. Dirección Nacional de Instituto de Investigación.Administración Nacional de Laboratorios e Institutos de Salud "Dr. Carlos G. Malbrán"; Argentin

Report AtlantOS fitness to Oil spill products

Assessment of the observing system fitness for purpose for the hazard mappin

European Radiometry Buoy and Infrastructure (EURYBIA): A Contribution to the Design of the European Copernicus Infrastructure for Ocean Colour System Vicarious Calibration

In the context of the Copernicus Program, EUMETSAT prioritizes the creation of an ocean color infrastructure for system vicarious calibration (OC-SVC). This work aims to reply to this need by proposing the European Radiometry Buoy and Infrastructure (EURYBIA). EURYBIA is designed as an autonomous European infrastructure operating within the Marine Optical Network (MarONet) established by University of Miami (Miami, FL, USA) based on the Marine Optical Buoy (MOBY) experience and NASA support. MarONet addresses SVC requirements in different sites, consistently and in a traceable way. The selected EURYBIA installation is close to the Lampedusa Island in the central Mediterranean Sea. This area is widely studied and hosts an Atmospheric and Oceanographic Observatory for long-term climate monitoring. The EURYBIA field segment comprises off-shore and on-shore infrastructures to manage the observation system and perform routine sensors calibrations. The ground segment includes the telemetry center for data communication and the processing center to compute data products and uncertainty budgets. The study shows that the overall uncertainty of EURYBIA SVC gains computed for the Sentinel-3 OLCI mission under EUMETSAT protocols is of about 0.05% in the blue-green wavelengths after a decade of measurements, similar to that of the reference site in Hawaii and in compliance with requirements for climate studies

European radiometry buoy and infrastructure (EURYBIA): A contribution to the design of the European copernicus infrastructure for ocean colour system vicarious calibration

In the context of the Copernicus Program, EUMETSAT prioritizes the creation of an ocean color infrastructure for system vicarious calibration (OC-SVC). This work aims to reply to this need by proposing the European Radiometry Buoy and Infrastructure (EURYBIA). EURYBIA is designed as an autonomous European infrastructure operating within the Marine Optical Network (MarONet) established by University of Miami (Miami, FL, USA) based on the Marine Optical Buoy (MOBY) experience and NASA support. MarONet addresses SVC requirements in different sites, consistently and in a traceable way. The selected EURYBIA installation is close to the Lampedusa Island in the central Mediterranean Sea. This area is widely studied and hosts an Atmospheric and Oceanographic Observatory for long-term climate monitoring. The EURYBIA field segment comprises off-shore and on-shore infrastructures to manage the observation system and perform routine sensors calibrations. The ground segment includes the telemetry center for data communication and the processing center to compute data products and uncertainty budgets. The study shows that the overall uncertainty of EURYBIA SVC gains computed for the Sentinel-3 OLCI mission under EUMETSAT protocols is of about 0.05% in the blue-green wavelengths after a decade of measurements, similar to that of the reference site in Hawaii and in compliance with requirements for climate studies

Sirtinol Treatment Reduces Inflammation in Human Dermal Microvascular Endothelial Cells

Histone deacetylases (HDAC) are key enzymes in the epigenetic control of gene expression. Recently, inhibitors of class I and class II HDAC have been successfully employed for the treatment of different inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, colitis, airway inflammation and asthma. So far, little is known so far about a similar therapeutic effect of inhibitors specifically directed against sirtuins, the class III HDAC. In this study, we investigated the expression and localization of endogenous sirtuins in primary human dermal microvascular endothelial cells (HDMEC), a cell type playing a key role in the development and maintenance of skin inflammation. We then examined the biological activity of sirtinol, a specific sirtuin inhibitor, in HDMEC response to pro-inflammatory cytokines. We found that, even though sirtinol treatment alone affected only long-term cell proliferation, it diminishes HDMEC inflammatory responses to tumor necrosis factor (TNF)α and interleukin (IL)-1β. In fact, sirtinol significantly reduced membrane expression of adhesion molecules in TNFã- or IL-1β-stimulated cells, as well as the amount of CXCL10 and CCL2 released by HDMEC following TNFα treatment. Notably, sirtinol drastically decreased monocyte adhesion on activated HDMEC. Using selective inhibitors for Sirt1 and Sirt2, we showed a predominant involvement of Sirt1 inhibition in the modulation of adhesion molecule expression and monocyte adhesion on activated HDMEC. Finally, we demonstrated the in vivo expression of Sirt1 in the dermal vessels of normal and psoriatic skin. Altogether, these findings indicated that sirtuins may represent a promising therapeutic target for the treatment of inflammatory skin diseases characterized by a prominent microvessel involvement

Genomic analysis of diet composition finds novel loci and associations with health and lifestyle

We conducted genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of relative intake from the macronutrients fat, protein, carbohydrates, and sugar in over 235,000 individuals of European ancestries. We identified 21 unique, approximately independent lead SNPs. Fourteen lead SNPs are uniquely associated with one macronutrient at genome-wide significance (P < 5 × 10−8), while five of the 21 lead SNPs reach suggestive significance (P < 1 × 10−5) for at least one other macronutrient. While the phenotypes are genetically correlated, each phenotype carries a partially unique genetic architecture. Relative protein intake exhibits the strongest relationships with poor health, including positive genetic associations with obesity, type 2 diabetes, and heart disease (rg ≈ 0.15–0.5). In contrast, relative carbohydrate and sugar intake have negative genetic correlations with waist circumference, waist-hip ratio, and neighborhood deprivation (|rg| ≈ 0.1–0.3) and positive genetic correlations with physical activity (rg ≈ 0.1 and 0.2). Relative fat intake has no consistent pattern of genetic correlations with poor health but has a negative genetic correlation with educational attainment (rg ≈−0.1). Although our analyses do not allow us to draw causal conclusions, we find no evidence of negative health consequences associated with relative carbohydrate, sugar, or fat intake. However, our results are consistent with the hypothesis that relative protein intake plays a role in the etiology of metabolic dysfunction

Genome-wide analysis identifies genetic effects on reproductive success and ongoing natural selection at the FADS locus

: Identifying genetic determinants of reproductive success may highlight mechanisms underlying fertility and identify alleles under present-day selection. Using data in 785,604 individuals of European ancestry, we identified 43 genomic loci associated with either number of children ever born (NEB) or childlessness. These loci span diverse aspects of reproductive biology, including puberty timing, age at first birth, sex hormone regulation, endometriosis and age at menopause. Missense variants in ARHGAP27 were associated with higher NEB but shorter reproductive lifespan, suggesting a trade-off at this locus between reproductive ageing and intensity. Other genes implicated by coding variants include PIK3IP1, ZFP82 and LRP4, and our results suggest a new role for the melanocortin 1 receptor (MC1R) in reproductive biology. As NEB is one component of evolutionary fitness, our identified associations indicate loci under present-day natural selection. Integration with data from historical selection scans highlighted an allele in the FADS1/2 gene locus that has been under selection for thousands of years and remains so today. Collectively, our findings demonstrate that a broad range of biological mechanisms contribute to reproductive success

Towards a muon collider

A muon collider would enable the big jump ahead in energy reach that is needed for a fruitful exploration of fundamental interactions. The challenges of producing muon collisions at high luminosity and 10 TeV centre of mass energy are being investigated by the recently-formed International Muon Collider Collaboration. This Review summarises the status and the recent advances on muon colliders design, physics and detector studies. The aim is to provide a global perspective of the field and to outline directions for future work

Towards a Muon Collider

A muon collider would enable the big jump ahead in energy reach that is needed for a fruitful exploration of fundamental interactions. The challenges of producing muon collisions at high luminosity and 10 TeV centre of mass energy are being investigated by the recently-formed International Muon Collider Collaboration. This Review summarises the status and the recent advances on muon colliders design, physics and detector studies. The aim is to provide a global perspective of the field and to outline directions for future work.Comment: 118 pages, 103 figure