Removal of dietary proteins and oils on salmon performance

Atlantic salmon post-smolts of an average of 940g were fed six diets including two marine-based commercial diets one with partial inclusion of vegetable proteins (VPs) and oils (VOs) (2011/12 EU standards) (MB) and a second with partial inclusion of VPs, land animal-by-product (ABP) proteins and VOs (non-EU standards) (MBABP), a fully vegetable protein (VP) diet; a fully algal and VOs (VO) diet; a fishery-free vegetable-based (VP/VO) diet; and a fishery-free diet with a mix of VPs and ABP proteins and a mix of algal and vegetable oils (MFABP). Growth was assessed at Days 104 and 175, whereas fillet proximate composition, haematology and innate immune responses were assessed upon termination. Overall, MB salmon was the best performing group for the full period in terms of feed intake and overall weight gain. MB and VP salmon exhibited the highest FCRs compared to the other groups, while VP salmon exhibited the highest condition factor (K) and VO salmon the lowestKcompared to the other groups. Fillet proximate composition did not present differences among the six groups. MB salmon demonstrated the highest plasma lysozyme activity compared to the other groups while MFABP, VP and VP/VO salmon demonstrated higher plasma anti-protease activity in contrast to MB salmon. The dietary groups did not present differences in plasma protein, total IgM or natural haemolytic activity while unaltered head kidney macrophage respiratory burst activity was also observed. Overall, diets free from marine proteins or oils and/or both were satisfactorily utilized by salmon without compromising their immune capacity, although longer adaptation periods are required

A Relationship between Supermassive Black Hole Mass and the Total Gravitational Mass of the Host Galaxy

We investigate the correlation between the mass of a central supermassive black hole and the total gravitational mass of the host galaxy (M_tot). The results are based on 43 galaxy-scale strong gravitational lenses from the Sloan Lens ACS (SLACS) Survey whose black hole masses were estimated through two scaling relations: the relation between black hole mass and Sersic index (M_bh - n) and the relation between black hole mass and stellar velocity dispersion (M_bh - sigma). We use the enclosed mass within R_200, the radius within which the density profile of the early type galaxy exceeds the critical density of the Universe by a factor of 200, determined by gravitational lens models fitted to HST imaging data, as a tracer of the total gravitational mass. The best fit correlation, where M_bh is determined from M_bh - sigma relation, is log(M_bh) = (8.18 +/- 0.11) + (1.55 +/- 0.31) (log(M_tot) - 13.0) over 2 orders of magnitude in M_bh. From a variety of tests, we find that we cannot reliably infer a connection between M_bh and M_tot from the M_bh - n relation. The M_bh - M_tot relation provides some of the first, direct observational evidence to test the prediction that supermassive black hole properties are determined by the halo properties of the host galaxy.Comment: 29 pages, 10 figures, Accepted for publication in Ap

Effects of weekly feeding frequency and previous ration restriction on the compensatory growth and body composition of Nile tilapia fingerlings

[EN] The effect of different weekly feeding frequencies on Nile tilapia fingerlings of 2.02 g, was determined during 12 weeks. This was done by feeding the fish 7 days/week, 6 days/week or 5 days/week. After this restriction feeding period, all fish were fed as the control group (7 days/week) during 26 days to study the capability of the fish to compensate the growth during this re-feeding period. At the end of the feeding restriction period, there were significant differences in weights among the different treatments, although the significance was detected only at 7 days/week level, which presented the highest final body weight compared with the other 2 treatments. The daily feed intake and the feed conversion and protein efficiency ratios did not present significant differences. Crude protein efficiency (CPE) and gross energy efficiency (GEE) were affected by the feeding frequency, presenting high values in fish fed 7 days/week. Growth results obtained during this re-feeding period indicate that weight gain (WG) and specific growth rate (SGR) presented a linear increase from 7 to 5 days/week, i.e. with increasing feed deprivation period the fish could compensate the growth effectively, trying to reach to the weight as those of the control group.El Sayed Aly Hassan, T.; Martínez Llorens, S.; Moñino López, AV.; Jover Cerdá, M.; Tomás Vidal, A. (2016). Effects of weekly feeding frequency and previous ration restriction on the compensatory growth and body composition of Nile tilapia fingerlings. Egyptian Journal of Aquatic Research. 42:357-363. doi:10.1016/j.ejar.2016.06.004S3573634

Rapid, metal-free and aqueous synthesis of imidazo[1,2-a]pyridine under ambient conditions

A novel, rapid and efficient route to imidazo[1,2-a]pyridines under ambient, aqueous and metal-free conditions is reported. The NaOH-promoted cycloisomerisations of N-propargylpyridiniums give quantitative yield in a few minutes (10 g scale). A comparison of common green metrics to current routes showed clear improvements, with at least a one order of magnitude increase in space-time-yield

Determinants of R-loop formation at convergent bidirectionally transcribed trinucleotide repeats

R-loops have been described at immunoglobulin class switch sequences, prokaryotic and mitochondrial replication origins, and disease-associated (CAG)n and (GAA)n trinucleotide repeats. The determinants of trinucleotide R-loop formation are unclear. Trinucleotide repeat expansions cause diseases including DM1 (CTG)n, SCA1 (CAG)n, FRAXA (CGG)n, FRAXE (CCG)n and FRDA (GAA)n. Bidirectional convergent transcription across these disease repeats can occur. We find R-loops formed when CTG or CGG and their complementary strands CAG or CCG were transcribed; GAA transcription, but not TTC, yielded R-loops. R-loop formation was sensitive to DNA supercoiling, repeat length, insensitive to repeat interruptions, and formed by extension of RNA:DNA hybrids in the RNA polymerase. R-loops arose by transcription in one direction followed by transcription in the opposite direction, and during simultaneous convergent bidirectional transcription of the same repeat forming double R-loop structures. Since each transcribed disease repeat formed R-loops suggests they may have biological functions

Uncovering trophic interactions in arthropod predators through DNA shotgun-sequencing of gut contents

Characterizing trophic networks is fundamental to many questions in ecology, but this typically requires painstaking efforts, especially to identify the diet of small generalist predators. Several attempts have been devoted to develop suitable molecular tools to determine predatory trophic interactions through gut content analysis, and the challenge has been to achieve simultaneously high taxonomic breadth and resolution. General and practical methods are still needed, preferably independent of PCR amplification of barcodes, to recover a broader range of interactions. Here we applied shotgun-sequencing of the DNA from arthropod predator gut contents, extracted from four common coccinellid and dermapteran predators co-occurring in an agroecosystem in Brazil. By matching unassembled reads against six DNA reference databases obtained from public databases and newly assembled mitogenomes, and filtering for high overlap length and identity, we identified prey and other foreign DNA in the predator guts. Good taxonomic breadth and resolution was achieved (93% of prey identified to species or genus), but with low recovery of matching reads. Two to nine trophic interactions were found for these predators, some of which were only inferred by the presence of parasitoids and components of the microbiome known to be associated with aphid prey. Intraguild predation was also found, including among closely related ladybird species. Uncertainty arises from the lack of comprehensive reference databases and reliance on low numbers of matching reads accentuating the risk of false positives. We discuss caveats and some future prospects that could improve the use of direct DNA shotgun-sequencing to characterize arthropod trophic networks

Molecular control of HIV-1 postintegration latency: implications for the development of new therapeutic strategies

The persistence of HIV-1 latent reservoirs represents a major barrier to virus eradication in infected patients under HAART since interruption of the treatment inevitably leads to a rebound of plasma viremia. Latency establishes early after infection notably (but not only) in resting memory CD4+ T cells and involves numerous host and viral trans-acting proteins, as well as processes such as transcriptional interference, RNA silencing, epigenetic modifications and chromatin organization. In order to eliminate latent reservoirs, new strategies are envisaged and consist of reactivating HIV-1 transcription in latently-infected cells, while maintaining HAART in order to prevent de novo infection. The difficulty lies in the fact that a single residual latently-infected cell can in theory rekindle the infection. Here, we review our current understanding of the molecular mechanisms involved in the establishment and maintenance of HIV-1 latency and in the transcriptional reactivation from latency. We highlight the potential of new therapeutic strategies based on this understanding of latency. Combinations of various compounds used simultaneously allow for the targeting of transcriptional repression at multiple levels and can facilitate the escape from latency and the clearance of viral reservoirs. We describe the current advantages and limitations of immune T-cell activators, inducers of the NF-κB signaling pathway, and inhibitors of deacetylases and histone- and DNA- methyltransferases, used alone or in combinations. While a solution will not be achieved by tomorrow, the battle against HIV-1 latent reservoirs is well- underway