NOVAS OCORRÊNCIAS PARA O MARANHÃO DE ESPÉCIES DE PAPILIONOIDEAE, DEPOSITADAS NO HERBÁRIO HABIT, DO CENTRO DE ESTUDOS SUPERIORES DE CAXIAS, MARANHÃO

A survey conducted in the material deposited in the Herbarium Fabaceae, revealed the registration of three new occurrences of the subfamily Papilionoideae to the state of Maranhão. The presentation of the taxa follows a brief description based on the collected specimens, taxonomic comments, data on the occurrence environment and geographic distribution. The data here in this work could be used to update the Species List flora of Brazil, contributing to the dissemination of the new occurrences found in the collection of the HABIT Herbarium and mainly to Maranhão/Brazil.Keywords: Centrosema; Clitoria; Crotalaria; Fabaceae.Um levantamento realizado no material de Fabaceae depositado no Herbário, revelou o registro de três novas ocorrências da subfamília Papilionoideae para o estado do Maranhão. A apresentação dos táxons segue acompanhada de breve descrição baseada nos espécimes coletados, comentários taxonômicos, dados sobre o ambiente de ocorrência e distribuição geográfica. Os dados expostos no trabalho poderão ser utilizados para atualização da Lista de Espécies da Flora do Brasil, contribuindo para a divulgação das novas ocorrências encontradas no acervo do HABIT e principalmente para o Maranhão/Brasil.Palavras-chave: Centrosema, Clitoria, Crotalaria, Fabaceae

Bees from an Island in the Delta of the Americas (Maranhão state, Brazil) and their Floristic Interactions

Surveys of the bee fauna on islands are scarce due to the difficult access to the study area. Thus, the current study intended to establish the species of bees present in an island of the Delta of the Americas, called Grande do Paulino, Tutóia, Maranhão. Together with the bees, the plants visited by these insects were recorded, in order to document the relationships between these organisms. Between July 2017 and June 2018, once a month, 1,095 individuals, distributed in 16 tribes, 30 genera, and 48 species, were collected with active (entomological net) and passive (bowl traps) sampling methods. Data from plants and their visiting bees are presented in an interaction network in the form of a bipartite graph, showing Xylocopa cearensis as the most collected bee species, and Chamaecrista ramosa as the most visited plant by bees. In addition to providing information about the bee fauna of the state of Maranhão and, consequently, from the Brazilian northeast, this study explores the apifauna of a place never before explored and, because it is an island, of difficult access, also providing information about the floristic interactions of these insects

EXPANSION ON THE DISTRIBUTION OF Daustinia montana (MORIC.) BURIL & A. R. SIMÕES (CONVOLVULACEAE): THE FIRST OCCURRENCE FOR THE STATE OF MARANHÃO, BRAZIL

Durante coletas florísticas realizadas na restinga de Tutóia, a ocorrência de Daustinia montana Buril & A.R. Simões foi registrada. Endêmica do Brasil, a espécie tinha sua distribuição conhecida entre o estado do Piauí ao Rio de Janeiro. O presente estudo relata o novo registro da espécie para o estado do Maranhão e discute sobre sua distribuição geográfica.Palavras-chave: distribuição geográfica, endemismo, restinga, taxonomia.During floristic survey in the Tutóia restinga, the occurrence of Daustinia montana Buril & A.R. Simões was recorded. Endemic from Brazil, the species was known from Piauí to Rio de Janeiro. The present study reports the new record of the species to the state of Maranhão and discuss its expansion of the geographical distribution.Keywords: geographic distribution; endemism; restinga; taxonomy

Basin-wide variation in tree hydraulic safety margins predicts the carbon balance of Amazon forests

Funding: Data collection was largely funded by the UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) project TREMOR (NE/N004655/1) to D.G., E.G. and O.P., with further funds from Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior—Brasil (CAPES, finance code 001) to J.V.T. and a University of Leeds Climate Research Bursary Fund to J.V.T. D.G., E.G. and O.P. acknowledge further support from a NERC-funded consortium award (ARBOLES, NE/S011811/1). This paper is an outcome of J.V.T.’s doctoral thesis, which was sponsored by CAPES (GDE 99999.001293/2015-00). J.V.T. was previously supported by the NERC-funded ARBOLES project (NE/S011811/1) and is supported at present by the Swedish Research Council Vetenskapsrådet (grant no. 2019-03758 to R.M.). E.G., O.P. and D.G. acknowledge support from NERC-funded BIORED grant (NE/N012542/1). O.P. acknowledges support from an ERC Advanced Grant and a Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award. R.S.O. was supported by a CNPq productivity scholarship, the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP-Microsoft 11/52072-0) and the US Department of Energy, project GoAmazon (FAPESP 2013/50531-2). M.M. acknowledges support from MINECO FUN2FUN (CGL2013-46808-R) and DRESS (CGL2017-89149-C2-1-R). C.S.-M., F.B.V. and P.R.L.B. were financed by Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior—Brasil (CAPES, finance code 001). C.S.-M. received a scholarship from the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq 140353/2017-8) and CAPES (science without borders 88881.135316/2016-01). Y.M. acknowledges the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and ERC Advanced Investigator Grant (GEM-TRAITS, 321131) for supporting the Global Ecosystems Monitoring (GEM) network (gem.tropicalforests.ox.ac.uk), within which some of the field sites (KEN, TAM and ALP) are nested. The authors thank Brazil–USA Collaborative Research GoAmazon DOE-FAPESP-FAPEAM (FAPESP 2013/50533-5 to L.A.) and National Science Foundation (award DEB-1753973 to L. Alves). They thank Serrapilheira Serra-1709-18983 (to M.H.) and CNPq-PELD/POPA-441443/2016-8 (to L.G.) (P.I. Albertina Lima). They thank all the colleagues and grants mentioned elsewhere [8,36] that established, identified and measured the Amazon forest plots in the RAINFOR network analysed here. The authors particularly thank J. Lyod, S. Almeida, F. Brown, B. Vicenti, N. Silva and L. Alves. This work is an outcome approved Research Project no. 19 from ForestPlots.net, a collaborative initiative developed at the University of Leeds that unites researchers and the monitoring of their permanent plots from the world’s tropical forests [61]. The authros thank A. Levesley, K. Melgaço Ladvocat and G. Pickavance for ForestPlots.net management. They thank Y. Wang and J. Baker, respectively, for their help with the map and with the climatic data. The authors acknowledge the invaluable help of M. Brum for kindly providing the comparison of vulnerability curves based on PAD and on PLC shown in this manuscript. They thank J. Martinez-Vilalta for his comments on an early version of this manuscript. The authors also thank V. Hilares and the Asociación para la Investigación y Desarrollo Integral (AIDER, Puerto Maldonado, Peru); V. Saldaña and Instituto de Investigaciones de la Amazonía Peruana (IIAP) for local field campaign support in Peru; E. Chavez and Noel Kempff Natural History Museum for local field campaign support in Bolivia; ICMBio, INPA/NAPPA/LBA COOMFLONA (Cooperativa mista da Flona Tapajós) and T. I. Bragança-Marituba for the research support.Tropical forests face increasing climate risk1,2, yet our ability to predict their response to climate change is limited by poor understanding of their resistance to water stress. Although xylem embolism resistance thresholds (for example, Ψ50) and hydraulic safety margins (for example, HSM50) are important predictors of drought-induced mortality risk3-5, little is known about how these vary across Earth's largest tropical forest. Here, we present a pan-Amazon, fully standardized hydraulic traits dataset and use it to assess regional variation in drought sensitivity and hydraulic trait ability to predict species distributions and long-term forest biomass accumulation. Parameters Ψ50 and HSM50 vary markedly across the Amazon and are related to average long-term rainfall characteristics. Both Ψ50 and HSM50 influence the biogeographical distribution of Amazon tree species. However, HSM50 was the only significant predictor of observed decadal-scale changes in forest biomass. Old-growth forests with wide HSM50 are gaining more biomass than are low HSM50 forests. We propose that this may be associated with a growth-mortality trade-off whereby trees in forests consisting of fast-growing species take greater hydraulic risks and face greater mortality risk. Moreover, in regions of more pronounced climatic change, we find evidence that forests are losing biomass, suggesting that species in these regions may be operating beyond their hydraulic limits. Continued climate change is likely to further reduce HSM50 in the Amazon6,7, with strong implications for the Amazon carbon sink.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

SISTEMAS DE INFORMAÇÃO COMO FERRAMENTA DE DIVULGAÇÃO E GESTÃO DE DADOS DOS ACERVOS BOTÂNICOS: UM RELATO SOBRE O HERBÁRIO MAR

O presente estudo tem como objetivo descrever as melhorias alcançadas a partir do uso das plataformas “Specieslink” e “Flora e Funga do Brasil” para o Herbário do Maranhão (MAR). Atualmente o número total de registros no Herbário MAR é de 13.335, indicando um acréscimo de cerca de 12% quanto a inclusão de dados e documentação de espécimes. Esse aumento é relevante pois as identificações taxonômicas realizadas em herbários servem de base para aprimoramento das ciências básica e aplicada. Os resultados obtidos revelaram a existência de erros e falhas nos registros do Herbário MAR. Essas falhas podem comprometer a precisão e confiabilidade dos dados, podendo prejudicar a utilização dos registros do herbário como fonte de informações científicas. A correção e atualização dos dados são fundamentais para garantir a qualidade das informações contidas no acervo do Herbário MAR. Ao corrigir os registros e manter o sistema atualizado, é possível melhorar a precisão taxonômica e facilitar o acesso a dados confiáveis sobre a flora da região. Para isso é necessário o investimento em recursos humanos especializados, uma vez que, esses podem colaborar de forma concreta e eficiente com o manuseio desses sistemas de informação

IL-17 and related cytokines involved in systemic sclerosis: Perspectives

Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is a multisystemic, complex, and rare disease of connective tissue, with high morbidity and mortality, and without specific treatment. The disease is characterized by three main principles: vascular disease, autoantibody production and inflammation, and fibrosis. Since it is well defined that SSc is characterized by elevated production of TGF-β, IL-6, and IL-1, all of them cytokines related to Th17 differentiation, the hypothesis is that this disease may be strongly related to a polarization of the immune response towards the Th17 pathway. Considering the importance of a better understanding of the pathophysiology of Th17 pathway in SSc, this article aims to propose an update for a better understanding of current knowledge on main cytokines secreted by the Th17 cells (IL-17 A, IL-21, and IL-22) and the future prospects in the current disease

Reassessing the Role of the Active TGF-β1 as a Biomarker in Systemic Sclerosis: Association of Serum Levels with Clinical Manifestations

Objective. To determine active TGF-β1 (aTGF-β1) levels in serum, skin, and peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) culture supernatants and to understand their associations with clinical parameters in systemic sclerosis (SSc) patients. Methods. We evaluated serum samples from 56 SSc patients and 24 healthy controls (HC). In 20 SSc patients, we quantified spontaneous or anti-CD3/CD28 stimulated production of aTGF-β1 by PBMC. The aTGF-β1 levels were measured by ELISA. Skin biopsies were obtained from 13 SSc patients and six HC, and TGFB1 expression was analyzed by RT-PCR. Results. TGF-β1 serum levels were significantly higher in SSc patients than in HC (p < 0.0001). Patients with increased TGF-β1 serum levels were more likely to have diffuse subset (p = 0.02), digital ulcers (p = 0.02), lung fibrosis (p < 0.0001), positive antitopoisomerase I (p = 0.03), and higher modified Rodnan score (p = 0.046). Most of our culture supernatant samples had undetectable levels of TGF-β1. No significant difference in TGFB1 expression was observed in the SSc skin compared with HC skin. Conclusion. Raised active TGF-β1 serum levels and their association with clinical manifestations in scleroderma patients suggest that this cytokine could be a marker of fibrotic and vascular involvement in SSc