Cashew nut allergy: clinical relevance and allergen characterisation

Cashew plant (Anacardium occidentale L.) is the most relevant species of the Anacardium genus. It presents high economic value since it is widely used in human nutrition and in several industrial applications. Cashew nut is a well-appreciated food (belongs to the tree nut group), being widely consumed as snacks and in processed foods by the majority of world's population. However, cashew nut is also classified as a potent allergenic food known to be responsible for triggering severe and systemic immune reactions (e.g. anaphylaxis) in sensitised/allergic individuals that often demand epinephrine treatment and hospitalisation. So far, three groups of allergenic proteins have been identified and characterised in cashew nut: Ana o 1 and Ana o 2 (cupin superfamily) and Ana o 3 (prolamin superfamily), which are all classified as major allergens. The prevalence of cashew nut allergy seems to be rising in industrialised countries with the increasing consumption of this nut. There is still no cure for cashew nut allergy, as well as for other food allergies; thus, the allergic patients are advised to eliminate it from their diets. Accordingly, when carefully choosing processed foods that are commercially available, the allergic consumers have to rely on proper food labelling. In this sense, the control of labelling compliance is much needed, which has prompted the development of proficient analytical methods for allergen analysis. In the recent years, significant research advances in cashew nut allergy have been accomplished, which are highlighted and discussed in this review.This work was supported by FCT/MEC through national funds and co-financed by FEDER, under the Partnership Agreement PT2020 with grant no. UID/QUI/50006/2013–POCI/01/ 0145/FEDER/007265. Joana Costa is grateful to FCT post-doctoral grant (SFRH/BPD/102404/2014) financed by POPH-QREN (subsidised by FSE and MCTES).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Variation of interspecific interactions at different ecological levels within an assemblage of Arctic marine predators

International audienceHow interspecific interactions change across scales is poorly known. Such knowledge might help us understand how species interact within communities and highlight scale-dependent ecological processes in play among species. Here, I propose to analyze the inter-annual variation of a species assemblage at different ecological levels. For this, I joined a two-stage modeling approach and a spatially explicit multivariate model to analyze the interspecies relationships among six species of pelagic seabirds from 2004 to 2015 in the Barents Sea. The large-scale (~400 km) pattern of interactions revealed by the analyses suggests a change in the composition of the seabird community along the climatic gradient from south to north. At medium-scale (~300 km), the community was split into two areas (i.e., Arctic and sub-Arctic areas) suggesting niche differentiation of Arctic and sub-Arctic species driven by resource partitioning and interference competition. At a small-scale (~40 km), species with different body sizes were positively associated suggesting facilitation for accessing food although the species with the smallest body size was negatively associated with the species involved in the facilitation process suggesting interspecific interference competition. Over the years, the large-scale patterns were persistent, suggesting niche establishment, while small-scale patterns were highly variable suggesting only ephemeral interactions among species. My study demonstrates that interspecific relationships are scale-dependent and play major roles in structuring community. Untangling how species are associated with different ecological levels over time is indispensable to better understand how community structure contributes to ecological system dynamics