First in vivo MRI study on theranostic dendrimersomes

Amphiphilic Janus-dendrimers are able to self-assemble into nanosized vesicles named dendrimersomes.We recently synthesized the 3,5-C12-EG-(OH)4 dendrimer that generates dendrimersomes with very promising safety and stability profiles, that can be loaded with different contrast agents for in vivo imaging. In this contribution, nanovesicles were loaded with both the Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) reporter GdDOTAGA(C18)2 and the glucocorticoid drug Prednisolone Phosphate (PLP), in order to test their effective potential as theranostic nanocarriers on murine melanoma tumour models. The incorporation of GdDOTAGA(C18)2 into the membrane resulted in dendrimersomes with a high longitudinal relaxivity (r1 = 39.1 mM−1 s−1, at 310 K and 40 MHz) so that, after intravenous administration, T1-weighted MRI showed a consistent contrast enhancement in the tumour area. Furthermore, the nanovesicles encapsulated PLP with good efficiency and displayed anti-tumour activity both in vitro and in vivo, thus enabling their practical use for biomedical theranostic applications

Is it possible to study paleoenvironmental changes in Alpine spring habitats? A few examples from the south-eastern Alps (NE Italy)

Palaeolimnological techniques were applied to spring habitats in the Trentino Region (NE Italy) as a test in order to reconstruct past environmental changes in these crucial and fragile milieus. Three different sites were selected from a database of more than one hundred on the basis of morphological, geological, and biological factors, including human impact evaluation: Nambrone, Paul and Madonnina Val Lomasona. Sampling was performed by adapting standard lake-sediment coring methods, and the retrieved sediment was described and subsampled following standard "lake" procedures. Field work and sedimentological analyses revealed clear influence from nearby fluvial environment for the Nambrone site, whereas Paul and Madonnina Val Lomasona were selected for further analyses (e.g., dating, diatoms, chironomids). Lead-210 and Caesium-137 dating methods were used to obtain a chronological framework, in addition to historical information on land use and other events in the area. The upper part of the Paul sequence presented organic rich sediment compatible with spring environments, but the lower and essentially detrital part appeared to record alluvial deposition, probably linked to extraordinary flood events (1882, 1966). This interpretation is indirectly confirmed by the records of the fallout nuclides Caesium-137 and Lead-210, that were both unfortunately concentrated in the topmost 1 cm, making it impossible to construct a normal age-depth profile. Madonnina Val Lomasona sedimentological and biological indicators point to a marked change around ca 5 cm, dividing the sequence in two units, corresponding to different environmental conditions. Although the interpretation of the dating results is not completely straightforward, the assembled data suggest that the upper 5 cm of the record represents ca the last 50 years. During this period we found typical limnocrenic, clear-water spring conditions, while before 1960s the coexistence of lotic and lentic chironomid species including several opportunistic ones and the low richness, emphasized the presence of a disturbance (e.g., highly variable flow and/or trophic conditions), as confirmed also by diatom assemblages and sedimentological features. The recorded disturbance is probably linked to a water-level change due to the local land use, as also testified by historical data. The results of this study support the idea that carefully selected spring sites might be approached with adapted palaeolimnological techniques to extract valuable palaeoenvironmental information. However, it also highlighted the low percentage of "good sites" (1%) and considerable difficulties in coring and sampling without disturbing the sediment

Fine-tuning the performance of ddRAD-seq in the peach genome

The advance of Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) technologies allows high-throughput genotyping at a reasonable cost, although, in the case of peach, this technology has been scarcely developed. To date, only a standard Genotyping by Sequencing approach (GBS), based on a single restriction with ApeKI to reduce genome complexity, has been applied in peach. In this work, we assessed the performance of the double-digest RADseq approach (ddRADseq), by testing 6 double restrictions with the restriction profile generated with ApeKI. The enzyme pair PstI/MboI retained the highest number of loci in concordance with the in silico analysis. Under this condition, the analysis of a diverse germplasm collection (191 peach genotypes) yielded 200,759,000 paired-end (2 × 250 bp) reads that allowed the identification of 113,411 SNP, 13,661 InDel and 2133 SSR. We take advantage of a wide sample set to describe technical scope of the platform. The novel platform presented here represents a useful tool for genomic-based breeding for peach.EEA San PedroFil: Aballay, Maximiliano Martín. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria San Pedro; Argentina.Fil: Aballay, Maximiliano Martín. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científica y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Aguirre, Natalia Cristina. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Instituto de Biotecnología; Argentina.Fil: Aguirre, Natalia Cristina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Agrobiotecnología y Biología Molecular; Argentina.Fil: Filippi, Carla Valeria. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Instituto de Biotecnología; ArgentinaFil: Filippi, Carla Valeria. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Agrobiotecnología y Biología Molecular; ArgentinaFil: Valentini, Gabriel Hugo. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria San Pedro; ArgentinaFil: Sánchez, Gerardo. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria San Pedro; Argentin

The fate of glyphosate and AMPA in a freshwater endorheic basin: An ecotoxicological risk assessment

Glyphosate is themostwidely used herbicideworldwide. However, there are some uncertain aspects with respect to its environmental fate. To evaluate the existence and distribution of this pesticide and its metabolite, aminomethylphosphonic acid (AMPA), their presence in fresh water, sediment, and suspended particulate matter (SPM) was measured in samples collected in a river running across a large city and through areas with intensive and extensive agriculture. The aquatic risk associated to the occurrence of these compounds was estimated using the hazard quotient (HQ) calculation for water and sediment. From the analyzed samples, overall 35% contained glyphosate, AMPA, or both compounds. Concentrations of the analytes were spread in different percentages depending on the environmentalmatrices considered,with levels ranging from12 to 20 times higher for glyphosate and AMPA in sediment and SPM, as compared with the levels found in water. The most polluted area was situated within a green belt zone of the city; while in second place were sites located in areas of extensive agriculture. Aquatic organisms inhabiting areas both inside and outside agricultural areas are threatened by water glyphosate concentrations. Benthic organisms inside the greenbelt zone and inside the lower basin are threatened by the concentrations of glyphosate in sediment. Even when the concentrations measured in water were below the levels of concern for wildlife, results showed the risk of agricultural practices to aquatic biota. An update of the limits established for freshwater biota protection is needed.Facultad de Ciencias ExactasCentro de Investigaciones del Medio Ambient

Monitoring of a micro-smart grid: Power consumption data of some machineries of an agro-industrial test site

For the management of a (micro)-smart grid it is important to know the patters of the load profiles and of the generators. In this article the power consumption data obtained through a monitoring activity developed on a micro-smart grid in an agro-industrial test-site are presented. In particular, this reports the synthesis of the monitoring results of 5 loads (5 industrial machineries for crop micronization, corncob crashing and other similar processes). How these data were used within a monitoring and managing scheme of a micro-smart grid can be found in (E. Fabrizio, V. Branciforti, A. Costantino, M. Filippi, S. Barbero, G. Tecco, P. Mollo, A. Molino, 2017) [1]. The data can be useful for other researchers in order to create benchmarks of energy use input appropriate energy demand values in optimization tools for the industrial sector

K-mer counting and curated libraries drive efficient annotation of repeats in plant genomes

The annotation of repetitive sequences within plant genomes can help in the interpretation of observed phenotypes. Moreover, repeat masking is required for tasks such as whole-genome alignment, promoter analysis, or pangenome exploration. Although homology-based annotation methods are computationally expensive, k-mer strategies for masking are orders of magnitude faster. Here, we benchmarked a two-step approach, where repeats were first called by k-mer counting and then annotated by comparison to curated libraries. This hybrid protocol was tested on 20 plant genomes from Ensembl, with the k-mer-based Repeat Detector (Red) and two repeat libraries (REdat, last updated in 2013, and nrTEplants, curated for this work). Custom libraries produced by RepeatModeler were also tested. We obtained repeated genome fractions that matched those reported in the literature but with shorter repeated elements than those produced directly by sequence homology. Inspection of the masked regions that overlapped genes revealed no preference for specific protein domains. Most Red-masked sequences could be successfully classified by sequence similarity, with the complete protocol taking less than 2 h on a desktop Linux box. A guide to curating your own repeat libraries and the scripts for masking and annotating plant genomes can be obtained at https://github.com/Ensembl/plant-scripts.Instituto de BiotecnologíaFil: Contreras-Moreira, Bruno. European Bioinformatics Institute. European Molecular Biology Laboratory; Reino UnidoFil: Filippi, Carla Valeria. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Instituto de Agrobiotecnología y Biología Molecular (IABIMO); ArgentinaFil: Filippi, Carla Valeria. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Filippi, Carla Valeria. European Bioinformatics Institute. European Molecular Biology Laboratory; Reino UnidoFil: Naamati, Guy. European Bioinformatics Institute. European Molecular Biology Laboratory; Reino UnidoFil: García Girón, Carlos. European Bioinformatics Institute. European Molecular Biology Laboratory; Reino UnidoFil: Allen, James E. European Bioinformatics Institute. European Molecular Biology Laboratory; Reino UnidoFil: Flicek, Paul. European Bioinformatics Institute. European Molecular Biology Laboratory; Reino Unid

Novel NGS-Based genomic platform reveals unexploited variability of Prunus persica (L. Batch) for future genetic breeding of peach

Peach is a diploid (2n=2x=16) specie with a small genome (265Mb), compared to other economically important crops. Due to its self-compatibility and long generation periods, modern peach cultivars have a narrow genetic variability. Therefore novel germoplasms are continuously pursued for breeding purposes. The advance of Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) technologies allows high-throughput genotyping at a reasonable cost but in the case of peach, were scarcely developed. At present, a standard Genotyping By Sequencing (GBS), based in a single restriction with ApekI to reduce genome complexity, was applied in peach. We compared 6 double restrictions with the restriction generated with ApeKI to find that the combination of PstI/MboI retained the highest number of loci in concordance with in silico analysis. With this novel GBS platform, a diverse peach germoplasm collection composed of 190 genotypes was analysed. The libraries were sequenced (HiSeq 1500 Illumina) to obtain a total of 207052814 of paired-end (2x250bp) reads. The mapping against peach genome allowed the identification of 107760 SNP. Phylogenetic and population structure analyses sugested that a group of Bolivian traditional peaches and feral germoplasms of Argentine shares a common origin that probably goes back from the colony period where this specie was introduced in the American continent by the Spanish. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) from genomic data showed that these ancestral germoplasms differ largely from modern peach cultivars. Our results in combination with some outstanding trait of these genotypes (high yield/vigour, pathogen resistance, thermal requirements, etc.) encourage their use in peach breeding programs.EEA San PedroFil: Aballay, Maximiliano Martín. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria San Pedro; ArgentinaFil: Valentini, Gabriel Hugo. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria San Pedro; ArgentinaFil: Aguirre, Natalia Cristina. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Instituto de Biotecnología; ArgentinaFil: Filippi, Carla Valeria. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Instituto de Biotecnología; ArgentinaFil: Daorden, María Elena. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria San Pedro; ArgentinaFil: Sánchez, Gerardo. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria San Pedro; Argentin

Imaging of Inflammation in Spinal Cord Injury: Novel Insights on the Usage of PFC-Based Contrast Agents

Labeling of macrophages with perfluorocarbon (PFC)-based compounds allows the visualization of inflammatory processes by 19F-magnetic resonance imaging (19F-MRI), due to the absence of endogenous background. Even if PFC-labeling of monocytes/macrophages has been largely investigated and used, information is lacking about the impact of these agents over the polarization towards one of their cell subsets and on the best way to image them. In the present work, a PFC-based nanoemulsion was developed to monitor the course of inflammation in a model of spinal cord injury (SCI), a pathology in which the understanding of immunological events is of utmost importance to select the optimal therapeutic strategies. The effects of PFC over macrophage polarization were studied in vitro, on cultured macrophages, and in vivo, in a mouse SCI model, by testing and comparing various cell tracking protocols, including single and multiple administrations, the use of MRI or Point Resolved Spectroscopy (PRESS), and application of pre-saturation of Kupffer cells. The blood half-life of nanoemulsion was also investigated by 19F Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (MRS). In vitro and in vivo results indicate the occurrence of a switch towards the M2 (anti-inflammatory) phenotype, suggesting a possible theranostic function of these nanoparticles. The comparative work presented here allows the reader to select the most appropriate protocol according to the research objectives (quantitative data acquisition, visual monitoring of macrophage recruitment, theranostic purpose, rapid MRI acquisition, etc.). Finally, the method developed here to determine the blood half-life of the PFC nanoemulsion can be extended to other fluorinated compounds

Guavirá, una nueva localidad con maderas fósiles de la Formación Tacuary (Pérmico Superior) de Paraguay

The article describes gymnospermous fossil woods from Guavirá, a new locality exposing rocks from the Upper Permian Tacuary Formation in Paraguay. The identified taxa include the conifers Agathoxylon semibiseriatum (Pant & Singh) Leiva Verón & Crisafulli comb. nov. and Kaokoxylon rioclarense ex Mussa in Crisafulli & Leiva Verón (this paper), Polysolenoxylon whitei (Maniero) Kräusel & Dolianiti, Chapmanoxylon jamuriense Pant & Singh, and Baieroxylon cicatricum, Prasad & Lele, a species frequently associated with the Ginkgoales. The discovery of this new assemblage has paleoenvironmental and paleobiogeographic significance because this is the first record of a species with a solenoid pith in the Permian of Paraguay. Thus, it allies the Tacuary Formation to other gondwanic sequences of South America and helps to establish comparisons between their xylotaphofloras.Keywords: wood anatomy, Upper Permian, Tacuary Formation, Paraguay.Se describen maderas silicificadas provenientes de Guavirá, una nueva localidad de la Formación Tacuary, del Pérmico Superior de Paraguay. Los taxones identificados incluyen: Coniferales Agathoxylon semibiseriatum (Pant & Singh) Leiva Verón & Crisafulli comb. nov. y Kaokoxylon rioclarense ex Mussa, in Crisafulli & Leiva Verón (este trabajo); Polysolenoxylon whitei (Maniero) Kräusel & Dolianiti, Chapmanoxylon jamuriense Pant & Singh, y Baieroxylon cicatricum, Prasad & Lele, que se asocia generalmente a las Ginkgoales. El hallazgo de esta nueva asociación tiene interés paleoambiental y paleogeográfico ya que permite asociar por primera vez a la Formación Tacuary con otras de las secuencias gondwánicas coetáneas de Sud América portadoras de maderas con médulas solenoide, y realizar así comparaciones más precisas.Palabras clave: anatomía, maderas, Pérmico Superior, Formación Tacuary, Paraguay