The diversity of parasitoids in the Alentejo olive grove ecosystem and its potential contribution to the limitation of olive tree pests

A oliveira é uma cultura afectada por diversos insectos. Os organismos auxiliares naturais têm acção limitante sobre as espécies fitófagas e nesse grupo, a ordem Hymenoptera destaca-se por estar associada a muitos insetos parasitóides de fitófagos. Para melhor se conhecer a sua abundância e diversidade no olival, procedeu-se uma amostragem no Alentejo, em olivais não intervencionados quimicamente. Em cada local, insectos associados a oliveiras e plantas espontâneas foram amostrados. Diferenças significativas na sua abundância e diversidade, em função de várias variáveis ecológicas foram avaliadas (Kruskal-Wallis). Os resultados indicam uma maior abundância e diversidade de parasitoides na vegetação espontânea do solo, e as características da paisagem e a interação da precipitação e temperaturas parecem afetar a comunidade de parasitoides. Os parasitoides foram identificados morfologicamente e utilizando uma abordagem de „DNA barcode‟, sendo composta principalmente por espécies amplamente generalistas, destacando-se algumas espécies por estarem referenciadas como parasitoides de pragas do olival; The diversity of parasitoids in the Alentejo olive grove ecosystem and its potential contribution to the limitation of olive tree pests Abstract: The olive crop is affected by several insects. The indigenous arthropod fauna have a limiting action on phytophagous species and in this group, the order Hymenoptera stands out for being associated with many phytophagous parasitoid insects. To better understand its abundance and diversity in the olive grove, a sampling was carried out in olive groves with no chemical load. Insects associated with olive trees and cover crops were sampled throughout Alentejo. Significant differences in parasitoids abundance and diversity, due to several ecological variables, was accessed (Kruskal-Wallis). Parasitoids abundance and diversity were higher in ground cover vegetation and the characteristics of the landscape and the interaction of rainfall and temperatures seem to affect parasitoid community. The parasitoids were identified morphologically and using a 'DNA barcode' approach and was composed mainly by broadly-generalist species, with some species previously referred as associated to the main olive pests

Negative Multiplicity: Forecasting the Future Impact of Emerging Technologies on International Stability and Human Security

We asked 30 experts to forecast the developmental trajectories of twelve emerging technologies in the United States, Russia, and China until 2040 and to score their possible future impact on arms race stability, crisis stability, and humanitarian principles. The results reveal that, on average, their impact is expected to be negative, with some technologies negatively affecting all three dependent variables. We used a machine learning algorithm to cluster the technologies according to their anticipated impact. This process identified technology clusters comprised of diverse high-impact technologies that share key impact characteristics but do not necessarily share technical characteristics. We refer to these combined effects as ‘negative multiplicity’, reflecting the predominantly negative, concurrent, and in some cases similar, first- and second-order effects that emerging technologies are expected to have on international stability and human security. The expected alignment of the technology development trajectories of the United States, Russia, and China by 2040, in combination with the negative environment created by geopolitical competition, points to a nascent technological arms race that threatens to seriously impede international arms control efforts to regulate emerging technologies

Innately robust yeast strains isolated from grape marc have a great potential for lignocellulosic ethanol production

Bioethanol from lignocellulose is an attractive alternative to fossil fuels, and Saccharomyces cerevisiae is the most important ethanol producer. However, yeast cells are challenged by various environmental stresses during ethanol production on an industrial scale, and robust strains with a high tolerance to inhibitors, temperature and osmolality are needed for the effective feasibility of lignocellulosic ethanol. To search for such innately more resistant yeast, we selected grape marc as an extreme environment due to limited nutrients, exposure to solar radiation, temperature fluctuations, weak acids and ethanol. Using a temperature of 40 A degrees C as the key selection criterion, we isolated 120 novel S. cerevisiae strains from grape marc and found high ethanol yields (up to 92 % of the theoretical maximum) when inoculated at 40 A degrees C in minimal media with a high sugar concentration. For the first time, this work assessed yeast tolerance to inhibitors at 40 A degrees C, and the newly isolated yeast strains displayed interesting abilities to withstand increasing levels of single inhibitors or cocktails containing a mixture of inhibitory compounds. The newly isolated strains showed significantly higher fermentative abilities and tolerance to inhibitors than the industrial and commercial benchmark S. cerevisiae strains. The strong physiological robustness and fitness of a few of these S. cerevisiae yeast strains support their potential industrial application and encourage further studies in genetic engineering to enhance their ethanol performance in terms of rate and yield through the co-fermentation of all available carbon sources

Production of bioethanol from multiple waste streams of rice milling

This work describes the feasibility of using rice milling by-products as feedstock for bioethanol. Starch-rich residues (rice bran, broken, unripe and discolored rice) were individually fermented (20% w/v) through Consolidated Bioprocessing by two industrial engineered yeast secreting fungal amylases. Rice husk (20% w/v), mainly composed by lignocellulose, was pre-treated at 55 degrees C with alkaline peroxide, saccharified through optimized dosages of commercial enzymes (Cellic (R) CTec2) and fermented by the recombinant strains. Finally, a blend of all the rice by-products, formulated as a mixture (20% w/v) according to their proportions at milling plants, were co-processed to ethanol by optimized pre-treatment, saccharification and fermentation by amylolytic strains. Fermenting efficiency for each by-product was high (above 88% of the theoretical) and further confirmed on the blend of residues (nearly 52 g/L ethanol). These results demonstrated for the first time that the co-conversion of multiple waste streams is a promising option for second generation ethanol production

Utilisation of wheat bran as a substrate for bioethanol production using recombinant cellulases and amylolytic yeast

Wheat bran, generated from the milling of wheat, represents a promising feedstock for the production of bioethanol. This substrate consists of three main components: starch, hemicellulose and cellulose. The optimal conditions for wheat bran hydrolysis have been determined using a recombinant cellulase cocktail (RCC), which contains two cellobiohydrolases, an endoglucanase and a beta-glucosidase. The 10% (w/v, expressed in terms of dry matter) substrate loading yielded the most glucose, while the 2% loading gave the best hydrolysis efficiency (degree of saccharification) using unmilled wheat bran. The ethanol production of two industrial amylolytic Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains, MEL2[TLG1-SFA1] and M2n [TLG1-SFA1], were compared in a simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF) for 10% wheat bran loading with or without the supplementation of optimised RCC. The recombinant yeasts. cerevisiae MEL2[TLG1-SFA1] and M2n[TLG1-SFA1] completely hydrolysed wheat bran's starch producing similar amounts of ethanol (5.3 +/- 0.14 g/L and 5.0 +/- 0.09 g/L, respectively). Supplementing SSF with RCC resulted in additional ethanol production of about 2.0 g/L. Scanning electron microscopy confirmed the effectiveness of both RCC and engineered amylolytic strains in terms of cellulose and starch depolymerisatio

Bacterial Production of PHAs from Lipid-Rich by-Products

Background and Objective: Due to oil shortage and environmental problems, synthetic plastics will surely be replaced by alternative, biodegradable materials. A possible good example could be polyhydroxyalkanoates, and the inexpensive agricultural fatty byproducts could be usefully converted to polyhydroxyalkanoates by properly selected and/or developed microbes.Material and Methods: Among the more common by-products available, a variety of lipid-rich residues have been explored as substrate, such as crude glycerol from biodiesel, biodiesel obtained from fatty residues, and, from slaughterhouse, bacon rind, udder and tallow. In this paper, several new isolates and collection PHA-producing microbes have been screened for both lipolytic activities and polyhydroxyalkanoates production. The soil proved to be the most promising mining place to find new interesting microbial species, even better than more specific and selective environments such as slaughterhouses.Results and Conclusion: Remarkably, two of the collection strains used here, known to be polyhydroxyalkanoates producers, resulted as really promising, being able to grow directly on all the substrates tested and to produce variable amounts of the polymer, including the co-polymers P (3HB-co-3HV).Conflict of interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest

MICROBIAL PROCESSING OF ORGANIC WASTE STREAMS INTO PHAs AND OTHER HIGH VALUE BIO-PRODUCTS

In the last years, economic and environmental concerns arose for oil shortage and climate change; for these reasons the scientific community focused on possible oil substitutes. In this perspectives, the production of new energy, materials and chemicals of non-fossil origin, could be based on biological resources such as biomasses. The efforts of the microbiology group of DAFNAE are mainly devoted to the exploitation of waste and residual biomasses for the production of high value bio-products such as polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs), bioethanol and biohydrogen. PHAs are today considered among the most promising substitutes for petrol-based plastics nevertheless their substitution over the conventional plastics is limited by their expensive manufacturing because of the costly raw materials used as carbon sources and the complex downstream phase of PHAs recovery from bacterial cells. Possible solutions could be i) the utilization of cheap wastes of agro-food origin as carbon sources and ii) the simplification of downstream purification processes. To these aims, Cupriavidus necator DSM545, a well-known PHAs accumulator, has been genetically modified in order to acquire the ability of metabolizing lactose from whey (dairy industry) or lipids (from slaughterhouse) and the capacity to produce nuclease to facilitate downstream processes. In the first case, the modified strains resulted able to grow using whey or lipids as carbon sources, accumulating up to 30 and 60% of PHAs, respectively. In the second case, the recombinant C. necator DSM 545 resulted in an effective decrease of viscosity of bacterial cells lysates, thus avoiding the use of costly commercial nucleases for an efficient downstream. Bioethanol is a fuel obtained from renewable resources and it could be a promising alternative to petrol fuels. First generation bioethanol is mainly produced from corn and sugarcane, thus conflicting with food and feed production . On the contrary, bioethanol from residual and lignocellulosic biomass has environmental impact lower than fossil fuels and would not threaten food supplies. Unfortunately, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the yeast used for industrial bioethanol production, is not equipped with suitable hydrolytic activities and thus cannot directly utilize starchy and lignocellulosic wastes as feedstock without the use of commercial enzymes. Recent studies were focused to develop a \u201cConsolidated bioprocessing\u201d (CBP), approach where a single yeast is able to hydrolyse starch and lignocellulose and ferment the resulting sugars into ethanol. . With this purpose, novel and robust S. cerevisiae strains were recently engineered at DAFNAE to secrete efficient cellulases and amylases for the efficient saccharification and fermentation of starchy and cellulosic by-products up to 65 g/L ethanol

Association of Autoimmunity to Autonomic Nervous Structures With Nerve Function in Patients With Type 1 Diabetes: A 16-Year Prospective Study

OBJECTIVE We prospectively evaluate the association between autoimmunity to autonomic nervous structures and autonomic neuropathy in type 1 diabetes in relation to clinical variables. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS A cohort of 112 patients with type 1 diabetes was prospectively followed from adolescence (T0) to approximately 4 (T4) and 16 (T16) years later. Standard cardiovascular (CV) tests and neurological examination were performed and related to the presence of circulating antibodies (Ab) to autonomic nervous structures detected at T0 and T4. Quality of life was assessed by a diabetes-specific questionnaire. RESULTS Sixty-six patients (59% of the cohort) were re-examined at T16 (age 31.4 ± 2 years; disease duration 23.4 ± 3.7 years). Nineteen had circulating Ab to autonomic structures. Prevalence of abnormal tests and autonomic symptoms were higher in Ab-positive (68 and 26%, respectively) than Ab-negative (32 and 4%) patients ( P 1c increase). Presence of Ab carried over a 68% probability of developing an altered CV test; absence of Ab carried a 91% probability of not having an altered DB test and an 89% probability of not having an altered Valsalva ratio. Autonomic neuropathy was independently associated with worse quality of life. CONCLUSIONS Circulating Ab to autonomic structures are associated with the development of autonomic dysfunction in young diabetic patients independent of glycemic control

a wooded riparian strip set up for nitrogen removal can affect the water flux microbial composition

This research is part of a project aimed at verifying the potential of a specifically assessed wooded riparian zone in removing excess of combined nitrogen from the Zero river flow for the reduction of nutrient input into Venice Lagoon. Specific objectives were pursued to determine seasonal fluctuations of the microbial populations from the input water to a drainage ditch, conveying back the flux into the river after passing through the soil of the wooded riparian strip. The bacterial communities were determined by combined approaches involving cultivation, microscopic methods and DNA based techniques to determine both culturable and total microbial community in water. The results indicate that the size of the bacterial population, including the culturable fraction, increases from the river to the drainage ditch especially on the warm season. The multiple approach here adopted enabled also to demonstrate that the special condition created in the buffer strip supports the development and the metabolism of the microbial community. The nature of the bacterial population, in terms of phylotypes distribution, was investigated by 16S rDNA analysis indicating that the most represented genera belong to Gamma-proteobacteria, which is known to include an exceeding number of important pathogens. In spring, the effect of the buffer strip seems to significantly reduce such a sub-population. The changes observed for the total bacterial community composition become much evident in summer, as revealed by both denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis cluster analysis and by the diversity index calculation. The hydraulic management coupled to the suspension of farming practices and the development of the woody and herbaceous vegetation resulted in a condition suitable for the containment of undesired microbiota (mainly during the spring season) while continuing to support denitrification activity (especially throughout the summer) as verified by the total nitrogen removal