Dispersion of the RmInt1 group II intron in the Sinorhizobium meliloti genome upon acquisition by conjugative transfer

RmInt1 is a self-splicing and mobile group II intron initially identified in the bacterium Sinorhizobium meliloti, which encodes a reverse transcriptase–maturase (Intron Encoded Protein, IEP) lacking the C-terminal DNA binding (D) and DNA endonuclease domains (En). RmInt1 invades cognate intronless homing sites (ISRm2011-2) by a mechanism known as retrohoming. This work describes how the RmInt1 intron spreads in the S.meliloti genome upon acquisition by conjugation. This process was revealed by using the wild-type intron RmInt1 and engineered intron-donor constructs based on ribozyme coding sequence (ΔORF)-derivatives with higher homing efficiency than the wild-type intron. The data demonstrate that RmInt1 propagates into the S.meliloti genome primarily by retrohoming with a strand bias related to replication of the chromosome and symbiotic megaplasmids. Moreover, we show that when expressed in trans from a separate plasmid, the IEP is able to mobilize genomic ΔORF ribozymes that afterward displayed wild-type levels of retrohoming. Our results contribute to get further understanding of how group II introns spread into bacterial genomes in nature

Complete Genome Sequence of the Alfalfa Symbiont Sinorhizobium/ Ensifer meliloti Strain GR4

We present the complete nucleotide sequence of the multipartite genome of Sinorhizobium/Ensifer meliloti GR4, a predominant rhizobial strain in an agricultural field site. The genome (total size, 7.14 Mb) consists of five replicons: one chromosome, two expected symbiotic megaplasmids (pRmeGR4c and pRmeGR4d), and two accessory plasmids (pRmeGR4a and pRmeGR4b).This work was supported by research grants BIO2011-24401 from the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación and CSD 2009-0006 of Programme Consolider-Ingenio, both including ERDF (European Regional Development Funds). L.M.-R. and J.A.L.-C. were supported by predoctoral fellowships (Programs JAE-Predoc and I3P from Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, respectively). We are particularly grateful to M. G. Claros and R. Bautista from Plataforma Andaluza de Bioinformática (Universidad de Málaga) Spain, to A. J. Fernández-González for bioinformatics support, and to the Estación Experimental del Zaidín—CSIC for DNA sequencing services.Peer reviewe

Integration of business and manufacturing processes through industrial machinery as a service approach

In manufacturing organizations is difficult to reach the requirements of the new business models (agile and dynamic adaptation to changes) due to technological and conceptual constraints between elements located at different levels of the organization, which prevents the integration of business and manufacturing processes. In this paper, a new industrial machinery model that achieves this integration has been proposed. This model, named IMaaS, shows the industrial machinery as a set of business processes, removing the conceptual constraints, and exposed as services, removing technology constraints.This work was supported in part by the Vicerrectorado de Investigación, Desarrollo e Innovación, University of Alicante (Proyectos de investigación emergentes 2010: Sistema de gestión de procesos integral en entornos manufactureros. Aplicación a la fabricación ágil)

Network service providing by means of embedded systems

In this paper we present an embedded device able to manage the remote boot of network nodes by means of Wake on LAN (WoL) through Internet and wide area network, presenting it as a Web service. The service is known as WoLI and comprises a network device, a group of embedded software applications in that device and an application protocol known as WoLIP. This device is small and requires only minimal maintenance, and is able to communicate via Wide Area Networks through embedded applications, using the WoLIP application protocol defined on SOAP massages and defined by means of WSDL documents. The mechanism used for booting up the devices is compatible with WoL technology. The service can be perfectly integrated with remote management systems based on SO A. The management and control of the device and the service may be carried out via Internet, using a standard Web browser. This approach is an example of the application of a more general proposal for managing network services, based on the use of small embedded network devices which provide specific functionalities for common use, and which are as autonomous and self sufficient as possible

Método para la detección de intrusos mediante redes neuronales basado en la reducción de características

La aplicación de técnicas basadas en Inteligencia Artificial para la detección de intrusos (IDS), fundamentalmente las redes neuronales artificiales (ANN), están demostrando ser un enfoque muy adecuado para paliar muchos de los problemas abiertos en esta área. Sin embargo, el gran volumen de información que se requiere cada día para entrenar estos sistemas, junto con la necesidad exponencial de tiempo que requieren para asimilarlos, dificulta enormemente su puesta en marcha en escenarios reales. En este trabajo se propone un método basado en la aplicación de una técnica para la reducción de características, denominada Análisis de Componentes Principales (PCA). El PCA permite obtener un modelo para la reducción del tamaño de los vectores de entrada a la ANN, asegurando que la pérdida de información sea mínima y, en consecuencia, disminuyendo la complejidad del clasificador neuronal y manteniendo estables los tiempos de entrenamiento. Para validar la propuesta se ha diseñado un escenario de prueba mediante un IDS basado en ANN. Los resultados obtenidos a partir de las pruebas realizadas demuestran la validez de la propuesta y acreditan las líneas futuras de trabajo.Este trabajo ha sido financiado por el Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia de España bajo el proyecto de investigación TIN2006-04081 y por la Generalitat Valenciana bajo el proyecto de investigación GV/2007175

La importancia del Investigador Profesional en la enseñanza contextualizada de las Ciencias

Mejorar la formación científica del alumnado y favorecer vocaciones científicas en las aulas de secundaria son procesos de mejora a promover en la educación científica que desarrollamos en los centros. La realización de proyectos escolares asociados a líneas de investigación reales se muestra como una estrategia didáctica favorecedora de un aprendizaje significativo de los alumnos y promotor de sus competencias clave. En este contexto, el programa SCIENCE-IES (anteriormente PIIISA; Pérez-Cáceres, 2014) es un modelo colaborativo entre estudiantes-científicos-profesores que permite al alumnado descubrir, en los propios Centros de Investigación, qué es la investigación científica y cómo se lleva a cabo. Para acompañar a los estudiantes y tutorizarles, se requieren una serie de capacidades y competencias a desarrollar por los investigadores y docentes participantes. En esta comunicación se destaca la importancia de la participación del investigador en esta propuesta didáctica

Complete Genome Sequence of Sinorhizobium meliloti Strain AK21, a Salt-Tolerant Isolate from the Aral Sea Region

[EN] We report here the complete genome sequence of the salt-tolerant Sinorhizobium meliloti strain AK21, isolated from nodules of Medicago sativa L. subsp. ambigua inhabiting the northern Aral Sea Region. This genome (7.36 Mb) consists of a chromosome and four accessory plasmids, two of which are the symbiotic megaplasmids pSymA and pSymBSIThis work was funded by European Regional Development Fund (ERDF)-cofinanced grants from the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (grant CSD2009-00006 to N.T. and grants AGL2009-07925 and BFU2017-82645-P to J.I.J.-Z.

LA EMIGRACIÓN INTERNACIONAL, LAS REMESAS Y EL DESARROLLO ECONÓMICO EN MÉXICO

LAS REMESAS FAMILIARES CONSTITUYEN UNO DE LOS GRANDES BENEFICIOS QUE DEJA LA MIGRACIÓN INTERNACIONAL DE LOS INDIVIDUOS DE LOS DIFERENTES PAÍSES FUNDAMENTALMENTE DE AQUELLOS CONSIDERADOS EN VÍAS DE DESARROLLO Y SE CONSIDERA A AMÉRICA LATINA LA REGIÓN DE MAYOR IMPORTANCIA CON RELACIÓN A LOS MAYORES FLUJOS DE ESTAS DIVISAS. DEBIDO A LA GRAN TRASCENDENCIA QUE HA VENIDO TENIENDO PARA LAS NACIONES CONSIDERADAS EN VÍAS DE DESARROLLO, EL FONDO MULTILATERAL DE INVERSIONES (FOMIN) DEL BANCO INTERAMERICANO DE DESARROLLO (BID), EN EL AÑO 2000, SE HA DADO A LA TAREA DE RECOPILAR LA INFORMACIÓN ESTADÍSTICA CON RESPECTO A ESTE RUBRO, ASÍ COMO DE LOS COSTOS DE TRANSACCIÓN EN QUE SE INCURREN, LOS PROVEEDORES DE SERVICIOS Y EL POSIBLE IMPACTO DE ESTAS EN EL DESARROLLO DE LA ECONOMÍAS DE LOS PAÍSES QUE TIENEN POBLACIÓN MIGRANT

Systematic prediction of genes functionally associated with bacterial retrons and classification of the encoded tripartite systems

We thank all members of the NTG laboratory for helpful discussions during the development of this project. We acknowledge support of the publication fee by the CSIC Open Access Publication Support Initiative through its Unit of Information Resources for Research (URICI).Supplementary Data are available at NAR Online: https://academic.oup.com/nar/article-lookup/doi/10.1093/nar/gkaa1149#supplementary-dataBacterial retrons consist of a reverse transcriptase (RT) and a contiguous non-coding RNA (ncRNA) gene. One third of annotated retrons carry additional open reading frames (ORFs), the contribution and significance of which in retron biology remains to be determined. In this study we developed a computational pipeline for the systematic prediction of genes specifically associated with retron RTs based on a previously reported large dataset representative of the diversity of prokaryotic RTs. We found that retrons generally comprise a tripartite system composed of the ncRNA, the RT and an additional protein or RT-fused domain with diverse enzymatic functions. These retron systems are highly modular, and their components have coevolved to different extents. Based on the additional module, we classified retrons into 13 types, some of which include additional variants. Our findings provide a basis for future studies on the biological function of retrons and for expanding their biotechnological applications.Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovacion y UniversidadesEuropean Commission BIO2017-82244-PFPU predoctoral fellowship grant from the Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad FPU15/02714FPU predoctoral fellowship grant from the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovacion y Universidades FPU17/0508

Has cupper ion any effect on Sinorhizobium Melitoili bacteria?

Proceedings of the I Congress PIIISA celebrado en la Estación Experimental del Zaidín, Granada, el 26 de abril de 2012.Sinorhizobium meliloti is a soil bacterium that in symbiosis with Alfalfa leguminous plants fixes N2 to ammonia. This process occurs after an intimate communication between host and microsimbiont in the rhizosphere niche. This soil bacterium may suffer biotic and abiotic stresses in this complex environment. Resistance to any of this stresses can be an advantage for this type of bacteria. In this work we test the effects of Cupper ion in the bacterium Sinorhizobium meliloti. We found an effect on pigmentation and this effect is specific of each isolate (i.e. it is very pronounced for the isolate AK83 from Aral sea in Russia). On the other hand, comparison of Cupper ion resistance phenotype between isolates 1021 and GR4 suggests that the resistance of GR4 could be due to a set of 10 genes found in the cryptic plasmid pRmeGR4a of this strain. However, this resistance phenotype also appears in other isolates, and it could be explained by an alternative phenotype as Exopolysaccaride production (EPS+).It was supported mainly by research project MICINN Consolider‐Ingenio 2010. CSD2009‐00006; Scientific research by Young Students in Science (PIIISA2012; http://emc2astronomy.blogspot.com/).Peer reviewe