Exploring protandry and pupal size selection for Aedes albopictus sex separation

Background: We explored the possibility to improve male/female separation (sexing) in Aedes albopictus by selection of two strains, one toward increasing sex dimorphism and another toward increasing protandry. In the laboratory we selected and crossed small males with large females to exploit dimorphism, and early pupating males with late pupating females to exploit protandry. Results: While selection for enhanced dimorphism was not a profitable character, the selection for enhanced protandry up to F10 produced significant improvement in the time interval between male and female pupation. By collecting the pupae at 24 h from the beginning of pupation, without any sieving operation, we obtained about 28.50% of pupae (calculated in relation to the estimated initial number of first instar larvae used), vs 26.49% we had in the control strain, and, more interestingly, when checking the sex ratio of these pupae we observed a presence of females of 0.92% vs 23.02% in the control strain. We also modified our egg hatching protocol from the previous standard procedure that required keeping the eggs in the glass hatching container overnight (for about 14-16 h) to a new protocol where eggs are kept in the hatching container for 4 h in order to obtain more synchronized larvae. This was possible without any reduction in the egg hatching rate. Conclusions: In Aedes albopictus it is possible to develop hyper-protandric strains useful to produce male pupae without applying other sexing systems. This represents a considerable achievement assisting the Sterile Insect Technique application, allowing improvement of the current sexing method based on mechanical separation. More investigations are under way in order to further enhance the male productivity capacity of the strain and to determine whether the selection has any impact on the male fitness parameters

Serafino Zappacosta: An Enlightened Mentor and Educator.

With this article, the authors aim to honor the memory of Serafino Zappacosta, who had been their mentor during the early years of their career in science. The authors discuss how the combination of Serafino Zappacosta's extraordinary commitment to teaching and passion for science created a fostering educational environment that led to the creation of the "Ruggero Ceppellini Advanced School of Immunology." The review also illustrates how the research on the MHC and the inspirational scientific context in the Zappacosta's laboratory influenced the authors' early scientific interests, and subsequent professional work as immunologists

Control sustentable poscosecha: extractos de Larrea cuneifolia mediados por nades frente a Botrytis cinerea

Botrytis cinerea es un hongo ubicuo que ocasiona la podredumbre gris, una de las principales enfermedades de fruta en poscosecha, siendo responsable de pérdidas económicas. Debido a la creciente preocupación por los efectos adversos del uso de pesticidas, la búsqueda de alternativas se presenta como una meta prioritaria. En este contexto, los extractos de plantas representan una rica fuente de biocompuestos con atractivas propiedades antimicrobianas. Recientemente, los solventes eutécticos naturales (NADES) se han propuesto como agentes extractantes sustentables de compuestos bioactivos a partir de plantas. En el presente estudio, se evaluó un bioextracto de L. cuneifolia basado en NADES hacia B. cinerea. Para este propósito, se usó un NADES compuesto por ácido láctico, glucosa y agua (LGH) como agente de extracción y se comparó con solventes tradicionales en términos de capacidad antioxidante y contenido fenólico total. Además, la actividad antimicrobiana del bioextracto se evaluó in vitro e in vivo en uvas inoculadas artificialmente. A una concentración del 2% el bioextracto fue capaz de inhibir el crecimiento miceliar de B. cinerea en un 92%. Interesantemente, L. cuneifolia mostró un excelente rendimiento para el control de la podredumbre gris en uvas, demostrando su potencial como alternativa sustentable a los fungicidas sintéticos.Botrytis cinerea is a ubiquitous fungus causing gray mold, the main postharvest disease in fruit, which implies important economic losses in agriculture. With growing concern over health and environmental effects of pesticides, the search for eco-friendly alternatives is a clear priority. Plant extracts represent a rich source of biocompounds with attractive antimicrobial properties. In the last decade, Natural Deep Eutectic Solvents (NADES) has emerged as an auspicious green extraction media to achieve bioextract for a sustainable postharvest control. In the present study, a novel L. cuneifolia NADES-based bioextract was evaluated against B. cinerea. To this purpose, a NADES composed by lactic acid, glucose and water (LGH) was used as extracting agent and compared with traditional solvents in terms of antioxidant capacity and total phenolic content. Furthermore, the bioextract antifungal activity was tested in vitro and also in vivo on artificially inoculated grapes, in order to obtain preliminary data about the efficacy on gray mold development. The antimicrobial activity of the bioextract was assessed using agar diffusion method against B. cinerea, inhibition of 92% was achieved with the bioextract at 2%. Notably, L. cuneifolia bioextract showed an excellent performance for gray mold control on grapes, supporting their potential as alter-native green fungicide.Fil: Boiteux, Joana Jaqueline. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mendoza. Instituto de Biología Agrícola de Mendoza. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias. Instituto de Biología Agrícola de Mendoza; ArgentinaFil: Espino, Magdalena Belén. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mendoza. Instituto de Biología Agrícola de Mendoza. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias. Instituto de Biología Agrícola de Mendoza; ArgentinaFil: Fernández, María de Los Ángeles. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mendoza. Instituto de Biología Agrícola de Mendoza. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias. Instituto de Biología Agrícola de Mendoza; ArgentinaFil: Pizzuolo, Pablo Humberto. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mendoza. Instituto de Biología Agrícola de Mendoza. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias. Instituto de Biología Agrícola de Mendoza; ArgentinaFil: Silva, María Fernanda. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mendoza. Instituto de Biología Agrícola de Mendoza. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias. Instituto de Biología Agrícola de Mendoza; Argentin

Metabolic syndrome and the immunological affair with the blood-brain barrier

Copyright © 2015 Mauro, De Rosa, Marelli-Berg and Solito. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms

Mitochondrial DNA involvement in human longevity

AbstractThe main message of this review can be summarized as follows: aging and longevity, as complex traits having a significant genetic component, likely depend on a number of nuclear gene variants interacting with mtDNA variability both inherited and somatic. We reviewed the data available in the literature with particular attention to human longevity, and argued that what we hypothesize for aging and longevity could have a more general relevance and be extended to other age-related complex traits such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases. The genetics which emerges for complex traits, including aging and longevity, is thus even more complicated than previously thought, as epistatic interactions between nuclear gene polymorphisms and mtDNA variability (both somatic and inherited) as well as between mtDNA somatic mutations (tissue specific) and mtDNA inherited variants (haplogroups and sub-haplogroups) must be considered as additional players capable of explaining a part of the aging and longevity phenotype. To test this hypothesis is one of the main challenge in the genetics of aging and longevity in the next future

Longevity-associated NADH Dehydrogenase Subunit-2 237 Leu/Met Polymorphism Modulates the Effects of Daily Alcohol Drinking on Yearly Changes in Serum Total and LDL Cholesterol in Japanese Men

Reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH) dehydrogenase subunit 2 237 leucine/methionine (ND2-237 Leu/Met) polymorphism, is reportedly associated with longevity in the Japanese population. The ND2-237Met genotype may exert resistance to atherogenic diseases, such as myocardial infarction or cerebrovascular disorders. To investigate whether ND2-237 Leu/Met polymorphism is associated with yearly changes in serum lipid levels, we conducted a longitudinal study of 107 healthy Japanese male subjects. Analysis of covariance revealed that the interaction between the ND2-237 Leu/Met genotypes and habitual drinking was significantly associated with yearly changes in serum total cholesterol (TC) and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDLC) levels (p0.036 and p0.006, respectively). In multiple regression analysis, daily drinking was significantly and positively associated with yearly changes in serum LDLC levels in men with ND2-237Met (p0.026). After adjusting for covariates, yearly changes in serum LDLC levels were significantly lower in non-daily drinkers with ND2-237Met than in those with ND2-237Leu (p0.047). These results suggest that ND2-237Met has a beneficial impact on yearly changes in serum LDLC in non-daily drinkers but not in daily drinkers.</p

Evidence for Sub-Haplogroup H5 of Mitochondrial DNA as a Risk Factor for Late Onset Alzheimer's Disease

BACKGROUND: Alzheimer's Disease (AD) is the most common neurodegenerative disease and the leading cause of dementia among senile subjects. It has been proposed that AD can be caused by defects in mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation. Given the fundamental contribution of the mitochondrial genome (mtDNA) for the respiratory chain, there have been a number of studies investigating the association between mtDNA inherited variants and multifactorial diseases, however no general consensus has been reached yet on the correlation between mtDNA haplogroups and AD. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We applied for the first time a high resolution analysis (sequencing of displacement loop and restriction analysis of specific markers in the coding region of mtDNA) to investigate the possible association between mtDNA-inherited sequence variation and AD in 936 AD patients and 776 cognitively assessed normal controls from central and northern Italy. Among over 40 mtDNA sub-haplogroups analysed, we found that sub-haplogroup H5 is a risk factor for AD (OR=1.85, 95% CI:1.04-3.23) in particular for females (OR=2.19, 95% CI:1.06-4.51) and independently from the APOE genotype. Multivariate logistic regression revealed an interaction between H5 and age. When the whole sample is considered, the H5a subgroup of molecules, harboring the 4336 transition in the tRNAGln gene, already associated to AD in early studies, was about threefold more represented in AD patients than in controls (2.0% vs 0.8%; p=0.031), and it might account for the increased frequency of H5 in AD patients (4.2% vs 2.3%). The complete re-sequencing of the 56 mtDNAs belonging to H5 revealed that AD patients showed a trend towards a higher number (p=0.052) of sporadic mutations in tRNA and rRNA genes when compared with controls. CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicate that high resolution analysis of inherited mtDNA sequence variation can help in identifying both ancient polymorphisms defining sub-haplogroups and the accumulation of sporadic mutations associated with complex traits such as AD

Adherence to antiretroviral therapy in patients enrolled in a comprehensive care program in Cambodia: a 24-month follow-up assessment

BACKGROUND: The long-term maintenance of antiretroviral therapy (ART) remains an important issue, especially in limited-resource settings where additional barriers exist. A cross-sectional study was performed 24 months after ART initiation for patients treated in Cambodia in order to estimate the prevalence and identify determinants of non-adherence. METHODS: Adults receiving ART for 24 +/- 2 months were considered eligible for the study. Self-reported non-adherence was defined according to an algorithm based on six items. The questionnaire also assessed ART-related side effects and HIV disclosure. HIV-1 RNA plasma viral load was measured using real-time PCR. Multivariate rare events logistic regression analysis was used to identify independent factors associated with non-adherence. RESULTS: A total of 346 patients participated in the study. At 24 months, 95% of patients were adherent, 80% had HIV RNA <40 copies/ml and 75% had CD4+ T-cell counts >200 cells/mm3. Virological success was significantly higher in adherent patients than in non-adherent patients (81% versus 56%, P=0.021). Living in a rural area, limited HIV disclosure and perceived lipodystrophy were independently associated with non-adherence. CONCLUSIONS: At 24 months, adherence to ART was high and explained positive virological outcomes. In order to maintain adherence and long-term virological benefits, special attention should be given to patients living in rural areas, those with lipodystrophy-related symptoms and others who express difficulties disclosing their condition to close family members