Use of commercial mycorrhizal fungi in stress-free growing conditions of potted olive cuttings

Biofertilizers of mycorrhizal fungi have been mainly tested in nutrient-limited soils or harsh environmental conditions, which have helped to highlight their beneficial role in plant growth. However, their benefits in stress-free growing conditions have not yet been properly proven. In this work, a commercial mycorrhizal fungi, composed of 18 ecto and endomycorrhizal fungi, was tested in a pot experiment with young olive cuttings, under an experimental apparatus allowing the evaluation of dry matter yield and plant nutritional status after one and two years of growth. The results highlighted the role of the mycorrhiza in increasing P bioavailability, either evaluated by soil P labile fraction or through tissue P concentration. The role of mycorrhiza in increasing soil organic C was also relevant (7% higher than the control). Mycorrhiza had little effect on the uptake of other nutrients and on the alleviation of excessive levels of metals, in particular Fe, in the shoots. Instead, olive showed its own exclusion mechanisms, registering root Fe levels 50 times higher than in shoots. Mycorrhiza did not improve plant growth compared to the other fertilized treatments. The increase in plant dry matter observed in the mycorrhiza treatment in comparison to the control was probably due to the initial content of the commercial product of N, P and K (3% N, 3% P2O5 and 3% K2O). Under the conditions of this experiment, the farmer would not benefit from the use of this mycorrhizal fungi, but it nevertheless proved its value for agriculture, suggesting that commercial products should be targeted more towards specific purposes, than for generalized uses.This research was funded by the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT, Portugal) and FEDER under Programme PT2020 for financial support to CIMO (UIDB/00690/2020) and CITAB (UIDB/04033/2020). The research was integrated in the activities of the Operational Group “Novas práticas em olivais de sequeiro: estratégias de mitigação e adaptação às alteraçõeses climáticas”, funded by PT2020 and EAFRD (European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Functional annotation and distribution overview of RNA families in 27 Streptococcus agalactiae genomes

Background: Streptococcus agalactiae, also known as Group B Streptococcus (GBS), is a Gram-positive bacterium that colonizes the gastrointestinal and genitourinary tract of humans. This bacterium has also been isolated from various animals, such as fish and cattle. Non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) can act as regulators of gene expression in bacteria, such as Streptococcus pneumoniae and Streptococcus pyogenes. However, little is known about the genomic distribution of ncRNAs and RNA families in S. agalactiae. Results: Comparative genome analysis of 27 S. agalactiae strains showed more than 5 thousand genomic regions identified and classified as Core, Exclusive, and Shared genome sequences. We identified 27 to 89 RNA families per genome distributed over these regions, from these, 25 were in Core regions while Shared and Exclusive regions showed variations amongst strains. We propose that the amount and type of ncRNA present in each genome can provide a pattern to contribute in the identification of the clonal types. Conclusions: The identification of RNA families provides an insight over ncRNAs, sRNAs and ribozymes function, that can be further explored as targets for antibiotic development or studied in gene regulation of cellular processes. RNA families could be considered as markers to determine infection capabilities of different strains. Lastly, pan-genome analysis of GBS including the full range of functional transcripts provides a broader approach in the understanding of this pathogen.Fil: Wolf, Ivan Rodrigo. Universidade Estadual de Londrina; BrasilFil: Paschoal, Alexandre Rossi. Universidade Federal do Paraná; BrasilFil: Quiroga, Cecilia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Investigaciones en Microbiología y Parasitología Médica. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Investigaciones en Microbiología y Parasitología Médica; ArgentinaFil: Domingues, Douglas Silva. Universidade Estadual Paulista Julio de Mesquita Filho; BrasilFil: de Souza, Rogério Fernandes. Universidade Estadual de Londrina; BrasilFil: Pretto Giordano, Lucienne Garcia. Universidade Estadual de Londrina; BrasilFil: Vilas Boas, Laurival Antonio. Universidade Estadual de Londrina; Brasi

Desenvolvimento de projetos: um trabalho para a integração universidade/escola técnica

In this article we present a research work developed with the groups of the mechanics students of the High School to explore the projects pedagogical practices. For the technical students too It is necessary to give opportunities for qualifies them to create, to judge and to development any project, since your original idea, until the operation of the products. Thus, we worked the mechanics of the harmonic motions under the softened and forced oscillations conditions, and several technological applications. These problems are precariously explored in the didactic books and laboratories. Like this, we proposed to project and to make a prototype of an oscillator that allows to explorer all the relationship of the variables and the dynamic situations which the subject to can provide for understanding the sciences of the mechanical oscillations. The work was realized by including since its conception on the general plan, and the dimensional shipping of the parts, and drawings in Auto-CAD software, until the operation of the mechanisms. The work still included the making of the mechanical components. The oscillator constructed is a mass-spring system, with backup for the operation. It allows to study, since the simple harmonic motion until the effects of the external forces to the under-critical, the critical and the super-critical attenuation. The results allows to correlate the different variables and respective scientific-technological meanings, associating the physical parameters with the consensual mathematical models. The essence of this proposal was to present the challenge for learning sciences from the technological projects developments.No presente artigo, apresentamos resultados de pesquisa em extensão, desenvolvida com grupos de alunos de Mecânica de uma Escola Técnica Profissionalizante explorando a pedagogia de projetos. Ao técnico também é necessário dar-lhes oportunidades para obter um desenvolvimento profissional que os capacite a criar e a julgar um projeto, desde a sua idealização até a operação de um produto final. Com estes objetivos, propusemos um trabalho com abordagens teórica/experimental da mecânica de movimentos harmônicos. Este tema é precariamente apresentado em livros e em laboratórios didáticos. Assim, propusemos projetar e desenvolver um protótipo de um sistema que permita estudar as inúmeras variáveis e situações dinâmicas que o assunto pode oferecer a partir de registros de dados experimentais. Foram idealizados, dimensionados os componentes e os desenhos feitos em Auto-CAD, incluindo os detalhes técnicos para operação dos mecanismos e confecção dos componentes em oficinas. O sistema construído foi um oscilador mecânico tipo massa-mola, versátil, contando com opções para estudar, desde o MHS, algumas oscilações sob ação de uma força alternada externa, até investigar oscilações com amortecimentos crítico, sub-crítico e supercrítico, tópicos fundamentais em diversas aplicações tecnológicas. Os dados constituídos permitem correlacionar diferentes variáveis e seus respectivos significados científico-tecnológicos, contextualizando os parâmetros físicos envolvidos e associando-os aos modelos matemáticos consensuais, alcançando a essência da proposta e que representaram o grande desafio de aprender ciências a partir do desenvolvimento de projetos tecnológicos com conceitos da física e de engenharia

Desenvolvimento de projetos: um trabalho para a integração universidade/escola técnica

In this article we present a research work developed with the groups of the mechanics students of the High School to explore the projects pedagogical practices. For the technical students too It is necessary to give opportunities for qualifies them to create, to judge and to development any project, since your original idea, until the operation of the products. Thus, we worked the mechanics of the harmonic motions under the softened and forced oscillations conditions, and several technological applications. These problems are precariously explored in the didactic books and laboratories. Like this, we proposed to project and to make a prototype of an oscillator that allows to explorer all the relationship of the variables and the dynamic situations which the subject to can provide for understanding the sciences of the mechanical oscillations. The work was realized by including since its conception on the general plan, and the dimensional shipping of the parts, and drawings in Auto-CAD software, until the operation of the mechanisms. The work still included the making of the mechanical components. The oscillator constructed is a mass-spring system, with backup for the operation. It allows to study, since the simple harmonic motion until the effects of the external forces to the under-critical, the critical and the super-critical attenuation. The results allows to correlate the different variables and respective scientific-technological meanings, associating the physical parameters with the consensual mathematical models. The essence of this proposal was to present the challenge for learning sciences from the technological projects developments.No presente artigo, apresentamos resultados de pesquisa em extensão, desenvolvida com grupos de alunos de Mecânica de uma Escola Técnica Profissionalizante explorando a pedagogia de projetos. Ao técnico também é necessário dar-lhes oportunidades para obter um desenvolvimento profissional que os capacite a criar e a julgar um projeto, desde a sua idealização até a operação de um produto final. Com estes objetivos, propusemos um trabalho com abordagens teórica/experimental da mecânica de movimentos harmônicos. Este tema é precariamente apresentado em livros e em laboratórios didáticos. Assim, propusemos projetar e desenvolver um protótipo de um sistema que permita estudar as inúmeras variáveis e situações dinâmicas que o assunto pode oferecer a partir de registros de dados experimentais. Foram idealizados, dimensionados os componentes e os desenhos feitos em Auto-CAD, incluindo os detalhes técnicos para operação dos mecanismos e confecção dos componentes em oficinas. O sistema construído foi um oscilador mecânico tipo massa-mola, versátil, contando com opções para estudar, desde o MHS, algumas oscilações sob ação de uma força alternada externa, até investigar oscilações com amortecimentos crítico, sub-crítico e supercrítico, tópicos fundamentais em diversas aplicações tecnológicas. Os dados constituídos permitem correlacionar diferentes variáveis e seus respectivos significados científico-tecnológicos, contextualizando os parâmetros físicos envolvidos e associando-os aos modelos matemáticos consensuais, alcançando a essência da proposta e que representaram o grande desafio de aprender ciências a partir do desenvolvimento de projetos tecnológicos com conceitos da física e de engenharia

Diversidade nucleotídica de genes envolvidos na biossíntese de ácidos clorogênicos de cafeeiros

Chlorogenic acids (CGAs) are important chemical compounds of Coffea spp. related to beverage quality as they affect its astringency and can change its aroma and flavor. About 310,000 Coffea Expressed Sequence Tags (ESTs) are available and provide access to the nucleotide variability of the plant and to the development of molecular markers linked to beverage quality for the main enzymes involved in biosynthesis of the CGAs: PAL, C4H, 4CL, CQT and C3’H. In this study we identifiedSNP, INDELS and SSR polymorphisms within the nucleotide sequences available from the Brazilian Coffee Genome database and from the NCBI. The EST sequences for CGAs were trimmed and clustered by the program Codon Code Aligner, and polymorphisms and their validation detected (chromatogram quality). We identified six isoforms for PAL, one for C4H, six for 4CL, two for CQT and two for C3’H. The contigs formed exhibited a total of 248 polymorphisms (236 SNPs and 12 INDELs),with 201 in the coding region (127 non-synonymous and 74 synonymous). The frequency of polymorphisms was greater in the UTR regions (1pol/54pb) in relation to the coding region (1pol/81pb). The analysis of C. arabica sequences allowed identification of two different subgroups of sequences, related to their ancestral genomes (C. canephora and C. eugenioides). The presence of 67,4% of the polymorphisms between the ancestral groups and 32,6% within the groups were observed em C. arabica . The characterization of nucleotide diversity on those genes is essential for further studies on differential expression of their homeologs, as well as the use of CGAs as molecular markers related to genetic mapping.Os ácidos clorogênicos (CGAs) são compostos químicos importantes de Coffea spp. para a qualidade da bebida, pois eles interferem na adstringência e podem alterar o aroma e sabor da bebida. Aproximadamente 310.000 ESTs de Coffea estão disponíveis e possibilitam o acesso à variabilidade nucleotídica da planta e o desenvolvimento de marcadores moleculares ligados à qualidade da bebida para as principais enzimas da via de biossíntese dos CGAs: PAL, C4H, 4CL, CQT e C3’H. Neste trabalho foram detectados polimorfismos dos tipos SNP, INDEL ou SSR dentro das sequências nucleotídidicas disponíveis no Projeto Genoma Café e no NCBI. As sequências de ESTs de CGAs foram clusterizadas pelo programa Codon Code Aligner,assim como a detecção de polimorfismos e validação dos mesmos (qualidade de cromatograma). Foram identificadas seis isoformas para PAL, uma para C4H, seis para 4CL, duas para CQT e duas para C3’H. Os contigs formados apresentaram um total de 248 polimorfismos (236 SNPs e 12 INDELs), sendo 201 na região codante (127 não sinônimos e 74 sinônimos). A frequência dos polimorfismos foi maior nas regiões UTRs (1pol/54pb), em relação à codante (1pol/81pb). A análise dassequências de C. arabica permitiu a identificação de 2 subgrupos diferentes de sequências, referentes aos seus genomas ancestrais (C. canephora e C. eugenioides). Foi observada a presença de 67,4% dos polimorfismos entre os grupos ancestrais e 32,6% dentro dos grupos em C. arabica. Esses resultados vêm permitindo definir genes tanto para estudos de expressão de homeólogos de CGAs como para o desenvolvimento de marcadores moleculares para o mapeamento genético

NCED expression is related to increased ABA biosynthesis and stomatal closure under aluminum stress

Aluminum (Al)-induced decrease in leaf hydration has been associated with low gas exchange, especially stomatal conductance (gs). However, the mechanisms explaining these responses are unclear. Citrus limonia was exposed to 0 and 1480 μM Al in nutrient solution for 90 days to test whether the low gs and leaf hydration in plants exposed to Al is associated with increased 9-cis-epoxycarotenoid dioxygenase (NCED) gene expression and abscisic acid (ABA) biosynthesis. Relative leaf water content (RWC), water potential (Ψw) and gas exchange in the leaves, as well as leaf and root ClNCED3, ClNCED1 and ClNCED5 expression and accumulation of ABA and its metabolites (phaseic acid, dihydrophaseic acid, (+)-7′-hydroxy-ABA and ABA-β-d-glucosyl ester) were measured. Aluminum up-regulated ClNCED3 and induced ABA accumulation in the roots before impairments in leaf water status (low Ψw, RWC and gs) could be observed. Leaf ABA concentration increased from 7 to 90 days and this could be partially explained by the up-regulation of ClNCED3, ClNCED1 and ClNCED5 in this organ. Stomatal closure occurred concomitantly with the increase of ABA concentration, and this result provides further evidence of the role of ABA modulation of plant hydration under Al stress

Transcriptome analysis of leaves, flowers and fruits perisperm of Coffea arabica L. reveals the differential expression of genes involved in raffinose biosynthesis

Coffea arabica L. is an important crop in several developing countries. Despite its economic importance, minimal transcriptome data are available for fruit tissues, especially during fruit development where several compounds related to coffee quality are produced. To understand the molecular aspects related to coffee fruit and grain development, we report a large-scale transcriptome analysis of leaf, flower and perisperm fruit tissue development. Illumina sequencing yielded 41,881,572 high-quality filtered reads. De novo assembly generated 65,364 unigenes with an average length of 1,264 bp. A total of 24,548 unigenes were annotated as protein coding genes, including 12,560 full-length sequences. In the annotation process, we identified nine candidate genes related to the biosynthesis of raffinose family oligossacarides (RFOs). These sugars confer osmoprotection and are accumulated during initial fruit development. Four genes from this pathway had their transcriptional pattern validated by quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). Furthermore, we identified ~24,000 putative target sites for microRNAs (miRNAs) and 134 putative transcriptionally active transposable elements (TE) sequences in our dataset. This C. arabica transcriptomic atlas provides an important step for identifying candidate genes related to several coffee metabolic pathways, especially those related to fruit chemical composition and therefore beverage quality. Our results are the starting point for enhancing our knowledge about the coffee genes that are transcribed during the flowering and initial fruit development stages. (Résumé d'auteur

IDENTIFICATION OF RAPD AND SCAR MARKER RELATED TO EARLY FLOWERING IN Eucalyptus grandis

No melhoramento gen\ue9tico de eucalipto, existem ainda poucos instrumentos dispon\uedveis para acelerar a sele\ue7\ue3o de gen\uf3tipos superiores, e uma das principais estrat\ue9gias sugeridas para se acelerar este processo \ue9 a identifica\ue7\ue3o de marcadores moleculares ligados a caracteres de interesse. Foram avaliados 81 marcadores RAPD em uma prog\ue9nie F1 de Eucalyptus grandis W. Hill ex Maiden segregante para o caractere florescimento precoce utilizando-se a t\ue9cnica de Bulked Segregant Analysis (BSA). Dentre esses marcadores, um se mostrou relacionado ao caractere, sendo ent\ue3o convertido em Sequence Characterized Amplified Region (SCAR), avaliado em cada indiv\uedduo da prog\ue9nie e validado em outras prog\ue9nies que apresentam o caractere. O SCAR mostrou-se informativo na prog\ue9nie que apresenta um dos parentais como doador do fragmento polim\uf3rfico, com efici\ue9ncia de 60%. Esses resultados descrevem o primeiro marcador SCAR desenvolvido para eucalipto e confirmam a utilidade da t\ue9cnica de BSA como ferramenta molecular no melhoramento gen\ue9tico florestal e que poderia ser empregada para localiza\ue7\ue3o de marcadores ligados a diferentes caracteres silviculturais.There are few available tools in eucalyptus breeding to accelerate the selection of superior genotypes, and one of the main tools to improve this process is the use of molecular markers linked to traits of interest. Using \u201cBulked Segregant Analysis\u201d, we evaluated 81 RAPD molecular markers in a Eucalyptus grandis W. Hill ex Maiden progeny that segregates for early flowering, and one marker was identified as related to this trait. This RAPD marker was converted into a Sequence-Characterized Amplified Region (SCAR), which was then evaluated in a F1 progeny, and validated in other progenies that presents this trait. The SCAR marker was informative in the progeny in which one of the parental was the donor of the band, with an efficiency of 60%. These results describe the first SCAR marker developed for eucalypt and confirm this technique as a useful molecular tool for forestry breeding which could be employed to locate markers linked to other silvicultural traits

CRESCIMENTO E DESENVOLVIMENTO DE AVEIA PRETA EM RESPOSTA À INOCULAÇÃO COM Azospirillum brasilense E ADUBAÇÃO NITROGENADA

A bactéria Azospirillum brasilense vem ganhando destaque quando inoculadas em sementes, resultando em incrementos no sistema radicular, produção de massa seca e produtividade das culturas. Objetivou-se com esse trabalho avaliar o efeito da inoculação de A. brasilense e a aplicação de diferentes doses de nitrogênio sob a produção da aveia preta. O experimento foi realizado nas dependências do campo experimental pertencente à Faculdade de Tecnologia Paulista, Lupércio-SP, cujas coordenadas geográficas de referência são: latitude: 22º24'59'' S, longitude 49°48'56'' W e altitude 669 m. O delineamento experimental foi em blocos casualizados com cinco tratamentos (T1= testemunha, aveia preta não inoculada com A. brasilense e sem aplicação de N; T2= A. brasilense na dose de 0,25 mL/ 14 g de semente, no momento da semeadura; T3= N 50% na dose de 19 g/ 2 m², 30 dias após a germinação; T4= N 100% na dose de 38 g/ 2 m² e T5= N 150% na dose de 57 g/ 2 m², 30 dias após a germinação) e quatro repetições. A semeadura foi realizada manualmente e em linhas, sendo semeadas 292 sementes por metro linear. Aos 90 dias após a semeadura avaliou-se a altura das plantas e em seguida, as plantas foram colhidas e avaliada a massa fresca da parte aérea e das sementes e, após secas em estufa, avaliou-se a massa seca da parte aérea e sementes. Houve efeito significativo da aplicação de A. brasilense e nitrogênio em plantas de aveia preta para todos os parâmetros avaliados, exceto altura, massa seca da parte aérea e massa fresca da semente