Superior fruit total soluble solid content of red x pink F1 hybrids over nearly-isogenic parental lines

Comunicación realizada en el congresoPink-coloured tomatoes are reputed as good flavoured and are very popular in local markets. Pink tomatoes show a transparent, colourless fruit cuticle in contrast to the naringenin-chalcone flavonoid-rich, orange-yellow cuticle of normal, red tomatoes due to the y (colourless epidermis) recessive mutation in MYB12 gene located in chromosome 1. In order to investigate the basis of the alleged higher quality of pink vs. red tomatoes and, especially, our previous observations of good flavour in hybrids between red and pink tomato varieties, two red x pink F1 crosses between pairs of tomato near-isogenic lines were obtained, namely ‘Ailsa Craig’ wt/wt x ‘Ailsa Craig’ y/y and ‘Ponderosa Red’ wt/wt x ‘Ponderosa Red’ y/y, being the latter a pink tomato line in which y allele was introgressed from its closely related ‘Ponderosa Pink’ cultivar. The parental lines and the two F1 hybrids were grown to harvest in a greenhouse and total soluble solids (°Brix) and titratable acidity (TA) were measured in red ripe fruits. While no differences for °Brix were observed between the parents of each cross, significantly higher °Brix was measured in the two red x pink F1’s compared to their corresponding parental lines. No clear differences between parental lines and F1 crosses were shown for TA. The experiment was repeated but including also the pink x red, reciprocal F1 crosses. The overdominance for °Brix but not for TA was confirmed in the red x pink hybrids while the pink x red hybrids produced °Brix values similar to those of their parents.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Análisis de expresión de genes potencialmente implicados en la deposición de la cutícula del fruto en líneas de introgresión de tomate

La cutícula vegetal es la capa más externa que cubre los órganos aéreos de las plantas y los protege de la pérdida de agua y del ataque de patógenos, además de determinar rasgos de calidad de fruto como el agrietado o la vida post cosecha. Recientemente identificamos dos regiones QTL en el cromosoma 3 asociadas a la cantidad de cutícula del fruto (cm3.1 y cm3.2) en una población RIL de un cruzamiento de la especie cultivada con el silvestre Solanum pimpinellifolium acc. TO-937. Además, una IL con una introgresión de TO-937 que contiene cm3.1 y cm3.2 (sp3-3) presentaba menor cantidad de cutícula que la línea parental de tomate cultivado ‘Moneymaker’ (MM). Con el objetivo de identificar genes candidatos para estos QTLs, la expresión de genes situados en las regiones próximas a los picos de los QTLs fue analizada mediante RT-qPCR a partir de extracciones de ARN de piel de frutos en cuatro estadios de desarrollo en las líneas sp3-3 y en MM. Se estudió la anotación de los genes en las regiones genómicas de ambos QTLs y se analizó la expresión de 42 de ellos. Los genes que presentaban mayores diferencias en sus perfiles de expresión entre las líneas sp3-3 y MM fueron analizados de nuevo empleando dos subILs obtenidas por selección asistida por marcadores que presentaban introgresiones acortadas de cm3.1 y cm3.2 e individualizadas, permitiendo así aislar los efectos de los dos QTLs y evitando posibles interferencias para la deposición de cutícula de otros QTLs conocidos que se sitúan en una región próxima a cm3.2 que también está presente en sp3-3. Los resultados obtenidos de este segundo análisis fueron consistentes con los anteriores y permitieron plantear 2-3 genes candidatos para cada uno de los dos QTLs, que serán estudiados próximamente mediante análisis funcional y que arrojarán luz sobre los mecanismos genéticos que subyacen a las diferencias observadas en la deposición de cutícula en diferentes cultivares de tomate.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Evaluation of Nutritional Practices in the Critical Care patient (The ENPIC study) : Does nutrition really affect ICU mortality?

The importance of artificial nutritional therapy is underrecognized, typically being considered an adjunctive rather than a primary therapy. We aimed to evaluate the influence of nutritional therapy on mortality in critically ill patients. Methods: This multicenter prospective observational study included adult patients needing artificial nutritional therapy for >48 h if they stayed in one of 38 participating intensive care units for ≥72 h between April and July 2018. Demographic data, comorbidities, diagnoses, nutritional status and therapy (type and details for ≤14 days), and outcomes were registered in a database. Confounders such as disease severity, patient type (e.g., medical, surgical or trauma), and type and duration of nutritional therapy were also included in a multivariate analysis, and hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (95%CIs) were reported. We included 639 patients among whom 448 (70.1%) and 191 (29.9%) received enteral and parenteral nutrition, respectively. Mortality was 25.6%, with non-survivors having the following characteristics: older age; more comorbidities; higher Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) scores (6.6 ± 3.3 vs 8.4 ± 3.7; P < 0.001); greater nutritional risk (Nutrition Risk in the Critically Ill [NUTRIC] score: 3.8 ± 2.1 vs 5.2 ± 1.7; P < 0.001); more vasopressor requirements (70.4% vs 83.5%; P=0.001); and more renal replacement therapy (12.2% vs 23.2%; P=0.001). Multivariate analysis showed that older age (HR: 1.023; 95% CI: 1.008-1.038; P=0.003), higher SOFA score (HR: 1.096; 95% CI: 1.036-1.160; P=0.001), higher NUTRIC score (HR: 1.136; 95% CI: 1.025-1.259; P=0.015), requiring parenteral nutrition after starting enteral nutrition (HR: 2.368; 95% CI: 1.168-4.798; P=0.017), and a higher mean Kcal/Kg/day intake (HR: 1.057; 95% CI: 1.015-1.101; P=0.008) were associated with mortality. By contrast, a higher mean protein intake protected against mortality (HR: 0.507; 95% CI: 0.263-0.977; P=0.042). Old age, higher organ failure scores, and greater nutritional risk appear to be associated with higher mortality. Patients who need parenteral nutrition after starting enteral nutrition may represent a high-risk subgroup for mortality due to illness severity and problems receiving appropriate nutritional therapy. Mean calorie and protein delivery also appeared to influence outcomes. ClinicaTrials.gov NCT: 03634943

Delayed colorectal cancer care during covid-19 pandemic (decor-19). Global perspective from an international survey

Background The widespread nature of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been unprecedented. We sought to analyze its global impact with a survey on colorectal cancer (CRC) care during the pandemic. Methods The impact of COVID-19 on preoperative assessment, elective surgery, and postoperative management of CRC patients was explored by a 35-item survey, which was distributed worldwide to members of surgical societies with an interest in CRC care. Respondents were divided into two comparator groups: 1) ‘delay’ group: CRC care affected by the pandemic; 2) ‘no delay’ group: unaltered CRC practice. Results A total of 1,051 respondents from 84 countries completed the survey. No substantial differences in demographics were found between the ‘delay’ (745, 70.9%) and ‘no delay’ (306, 29.1%) groups. Suspension of multidisciplinary team meetings, staff members quarantined or relocated to COVID-19 units, units fully dedicated to COVID-19 care, personal protective equipment not readily available were factors significantly associated to delays in endoscopy, radiology, surgery, histopathology and prolonged chemoradiation therapy-to-surgery intervals. In the ‘delay’ group, 48.9% of respondents reported a change in the initial surgical plan and 26.3% reported a shift from elective to urgent operations. Recovery of CRC care was associated with the status of the outbreak. Practicing in COVID-free units, no change in operative slots and staff members not relocated to COVID-19 units were statistically associated with unaltered CRC care in the ‘no delay’ group, while the geographical distribution was not. Conclusions Global changes in diagnostic and therapeutic CRC practices were evident. Changes were associated with differences in health-care delivery systems, hospital’s preparedness, resources availability, and local COVID-19 prevalence rather than geographical factors. Strategic planning is required to optimize CRC care