2D-electrophoresis and multiplex immunoassay proteomic analysis of different body fluids and cellular components reveal known and novel markers for extended fasting

Proteomic technologies applied for profiling human biofluids and blood cells are considered to reveal new biomarkers of exposure or provide insights into novel mechanisms of adaptation

Cultivation and sequencing of rumen microbiome members from the Hungate1000 Collection

Productivity of ruminant livestock depends on the rumen microbiota, which ferment indigestible plant polysaccharides into nutrients used for growth. Understanding the functions carried out by the rumen microbiota is important for reducing greenhouse gas production by ruminants and for developing biofuels from lignocellulose. We present 410 cultured bacteria and archaea, together with their reference genomes, representing every cultivated rumen-associated archaeal and bacterial family. We evaluate polysaccharide degradation, short-chain fatty acid production and methanogenesis pathways, and assign specific taxa to functions. A total of 336 organisms were present in available rumen metagenomic data sets, and 134 were present in human gut microbiome data sets. Comparison with the human microbiome revealed rumen-specific enrichment for genes encoding de novo synthesis of vitamin B12, ongoing evolution by gene loss and potential vertical inheritance of the rumen microbiome based on underrepresentation of markers of environmental stress. We estimate that our Hungate genome resource represents ?75% of the genus-level bacterial and archaeal taxa present in the rumen.publishersversionPeer reviewe

The Frontiers of Environmental Education: Understanding the Role of Community-Based Organizations in the Socio-Ecological Learning of Urban Youth

Contemporary environmental education in the U.S. seeks to help learners understand, negotiate, and advance solutions for complex socio-ecological issues. However, there has been growing evidence over the past 30 years that environmental education is not achieving this goal. Further, environmental education research has highlighted gaps in knowledge, theory, and methodology that have made understanding how environmental education impacts learners and learning in a variety of contexts difficult to grasp. To address these gaps, I engaged in an interdisciplinary mixed-method case-study, guided by civic ecology (Tidball & Krasny, 2010), of community-based organizations implementing environmental education programs for youth in Miami, FL. These programs operated at the intersection of emerging urban agriculture, food justice, and environmental movements in Miami, utilizing educational programs and farmer’s markets as key learning environments for youth. Within this case-study I investigated socio-ecological learning processes and outcomes across three scales – urban socio-political, organization, and individual youth learners – to understand the particular features and broader context of this emerging informal environmental education sector. I conducted: (a) pre-, post-, and delayed-post surveys of learning outcomes using the New Ecological Paradigm (Manoli, Johnson, & Dunlap, 2007) and co-created questions, (b) semi-structured interviews with youth, their parents, community-based organizations, and key social network players, and (c) participant-observation of all community-based organization activities. For the analysis, I used both quantitative and qualitative techniques including nonparametric statistics, social network analysis, and theme-coding. The case-study specific results indicate that: (a) youth learners developed an increased sense of environmental crisis from their experience, but little else changed in their socio-ecological worldview, (b) youth learners felt the programs gave them an open-mind and made them more willing to try new things, (c) parents felt the programs gave their youth valuable life experience, (d) the community-based organizations had disjoints between their expectations and reality that made implementing their programs difficult, and (e) the urban socio-political level, including social networks and urban policies, presented substantial barriers to program implementation. These results shed light on the emerging forms of civic ecology in Miami and provide broader insights into how informal environmental education theory and practice can be improved

Metabolomics of prolonged fasting in humans reveals new catabolic markers

Fasting is one of the simplest metabolic challenges that can be performed in humans. We here report for the first time a comprehensive analysis of the human "fasting metabolome" obtained from analysis of plasma and urine samples in a small cohort of healthy volunteers, using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), gas chromatography- and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS and LC-MS). Intra- and inter-individual variation of metabolites was on measurement of four overnight fasting samples collected from each volunteer over a four week period. One additional sample per volunteer was collected following a prolonged fasting period of 36 h. Amongst a total of 377 quantified entities in plasma around 44% were shown to change significantly in concentration when volunteers extended fasting from 12 to 36 h. In addition to known markers (plasma free fatty acids, glycerol, ketone bodies) that reflect changes in the body's fuel management under fasting conditions a wide range of "new" entities such as α-aminobutyrate as well as other amino and keto acids were identified as fasting markers. Based on multiple correlations amongst the metabolites and selected hormones in plasma such as leptin or insulin-like-growth-factor-1 (IGF-1), a robust metabolic network with coherent regulation of a wide range of metabolites could be identified. The metabolomics approach described here demonstrates the plasticity of human metabolism and identifies new and robust markers of the fasting state