Conservation and Diversity of Seed Associated Endophytes in Zea across Boundaries of Evolution, Ethnography and Ecology

Endophytes are non-pathogenic microbes living inside plants. We asked whether endophytic species were conserved in the agriculturally important plant genus Zea as it became domesticated from its wild ancestors (teosinte) to modern maize (corn) and moved from Mexico to Canada. Kernels from populations of four different teosintes and 10 different maize varieties were screened for endophytic bacteria by culturing, cloning and DNA fingerprinting using terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (TRFLP) of 16S rDNA. Principle component analysis of TRFLP data showed that seed endophyte community composition varied in relation to plant host phylogeny. However, there was a core microbiota of endophytes that was conserved in Zea seeds across boundaries of evolution, ethnography and ecology. The majority of seed endophytes in the wild ancestor persist today in domesticated maize, though ancient selection against the hard fruitcase surrounding seeds may have altered the abundance of endophytes. Four TRFLP signals including two predicted to represent Clostridium and Paenibacillus species were conserved across all Zea genotypes, while culturing showed that Enterobacter, Methylobacteria, Pantoea and Pseudomonas species were widespread, with γ-proteobacteria being the prevalent class. Twenty-six different genera were cultured, and these were evaluated for their ability to stimulate plant growth, grow on nitrogen-free media, solubilize phosphate, sequester iron, secrete RNAse, antagonize pathogens, catabolize the precursor of ethylene, produce auxin and acetoin/butanediol. Of these traits, phosphate solubilization and production of acetoin/butanediol were the most commonly observed. An isolate from the giant Mexican landrace Mixteco, with 100% identity to Burkholderia phytofirmans, significantly promoted shoot potato biomass. GFP tagging and maize stem injection confirmed that several seed endophytes could spread systemically through the plant. One seed isolate, Enterobacter asburiae, was able to exit the root and colonize the rhizosphere. Conservation and diversity in Zea-microbe relationships are discussed in the context of ecology, crop domestication, selection and migration

7th Drug hypersensitivity meeting: part two

No abstract availabl

Global, regional, and national under-5 mortality, adult mortality, age-specific mortality, and life expectancy, 1970–2016: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2016

BACKGROUND: Detailed assessments of mortality patterns, particularly age-specific mortality, represent a crucial input that enables health systems to target interventions to specific populations. Understanding how all-cause mortality has changed with respect to development status can identify exemplars for best practice. To accomplish this, the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2016 (GBD 2016) estimated age-specific and sex-specific all-cause mortality between 1970 and 2016 for 195 countries and territories and at the subnational level for the five countries with a population greater than 200 million in 2016. METHODS: We have evaluated how well civil registration systems captured deaths using a set of demographic methods called death distribution methods for adults and from consideration of survey and census data for children younger than 5 years. We generated an overall assessment of completeness of registration of deaths by dividing registered deaths in each location-year by our estimate of all-age deaths generated from our overall estimation process. For 163 locations, including subnational units in countries with a population greater than 200 million with complete vital registration (VR) systems, our estimates were largely driven by the observed data, with corrections for small fluctuations in numbers and estimation for recent years where there were lags in data reporting (lags were variable by location, generally between 1 year and 6 years). For other locations, we took advantage of different data sources available to measure under-5 mortality rates (U5MR) using complete birth histories, summary birth histories, and incomplete VR with adjustments; we measured adult mortality rate (the probability of death in individuals aged 15-60 years) using adjusted incomplete VR, sibling histories, and household death recall. We used the U5MR and adult mortality rate, together with crude death rate due to HIV in the GBD model life table system, to estimate age-specific and sex-specific death rates for each location-year. Using various international databases, we identified fatal discontinuities, which we defined as increases in the death rate of more than one death per million, resulting from conflict and terrorism, natural disasters, major transport or technological accidents, and a subset of epidemic infectious diseases; these were added to estimates in the relevant years. In 47 countries with an identified peak adult prevalence for HIV/AIDS of more than 0·5% and where VR systems were less than 65% complete, we informed our estimates of age-sex-specific mortality using the Estimation and Projection Package (EPP)-Spectrum model fitted to national HIV/AIDS prevalence surveys and antenatal clinic serosurveillance systems. We estimated stillbirths, early neonatal, late neonatal, and childhood mortality using both survey and VR data in spatiotemporal Gaussian process regression models. We estimated abridged life tables for all location-years using age-specific death rates. We grouped locations into development quintiles based on the Socio-demographic Index (SDI) and analysed mortality trends by quintile. Using spline regression, we estimated the expected mortality rate for each age-sex group as a function of SDI. We identified countries with higher life expectancy than expected by comparing observed life expectancy to anticipated life expectancy on the basis of development status alone. FINDINGS: Completeness in the registration of deaths increased from 28% in 1970 to a peak of 45% in 2013; completeness was lower after 2013 because of lags in reporting. Total deaths in children younger than 5 years decreased from 1970 to 2016, and slower decreases occurred at ages 5-24 years. By contrast, numbers of adult deaths increased in each 5-year age bracket above the age of 25 years. The distribution of annualised rates of change in age-specific mortality rate differed over the period 2000 to 2016 compared with earlier decades: increasing annualised rates of change were less frequent, although rising annualised rates of change still occurred in some locations, particularly for adolescent and younger adult age groups. Rates of stillbirths and under-5 mortality both decreased globally from 1970. Evidence for global convergence of death rates was mixed; although the absolute difference between age-standardised death rates narrowed between countries at the lowest and highest levels of SDI, the ratio of these death rates-a measure of relative inequality-increased slightly. There was a strong shift between 1970 and 2016 toward higher life expectancy, most noticeably at higher levels of SDI. Among countries with populations greater than 1 million in 2016, life expectancy at birth was highest for women in Japan, at 86·9 years (95% UI 86·7-87·2), and for men in Singapore, at 81·3 years (78·8-83·7) in 2016. Male life expectancy was generally lower than female life expectancy between 1970 and 2016, an

Impact of TGF-β family-related growth factors on chondrogenic differentiation of adipose-derived stem cells isolated from lipoaspirates and infrapatellar fat pads of osteoarthritic patients

The success of cell-based approachesfor the treatment of cartilage defects requires an optimal autologous cell source with chondrogenic differentiation ability that maintains its differentiated properties and stability following implantation. The objective of this study was to compare the chondrogenic capacity of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) isolated from lipoaspirates (ASCs) and infrapatellar fat pads (IFPSCs) of osteoarthritic patients and treated with transforming growth factor (TGF)-β family-related growth factors. Cells were cultured for 6 weeks in a 3D pellet culture system with the chimeric activin A/bone morphogenic protein (BMP)-2 ligand (AB235), the chimeric nodal/BMP-2 ligand (NB260) or BMP-2. To investigate the stability of the new cartilage, ASCs-treated pellets were transplanted subcutaneously into severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) mice.Histological and immunohistochemical assessment confirmed that the growth factors induced cartilage differentiation in both isolated cell types. However, reverse transcription-quantitative PCR results showed that ASCs presented a higher chondrogenic potential than IFPSCs. In vivo results revealed that AB235-treated ASCs pellets were larger in size and could form stable cartilage-like tissue as compared to NB260-treated pellets, while BMP-2-treated pellets underwent calcification. The chondrogenic induction of ASCs by AB235 treatment was mediated by SMAD2/3 activation, as proved by immunofluorescence analysis. The results of this study indicated that the combination of ASCs and AB235 might lead to a cell-based cartilage regeneration treatment.ISSN:1473-226

Activin A/BMP2 chimera AB235 drives efficient redifferentiation of long term cultured autologous chondrocytes.

Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't;Autologous chondrocyte implantation (ACI) depends on the quality and quantity of implanted cells and is hindered by the fact that chondrocytes cultured for long periods of time undergo dedifferentiation. Here we have developed a reproducible and efficient chondrogenic protocol to redifferentiate chondrocytes isolated from osteoarthritis (OA) patients. We used morphological, histological and immunological analysis together with a RT-PCR detection of collagen I and collagen II gene expression to show that chondrocytes isolated from articular cartilage biopsies of patients and subjected to long-term culture undergo dedifferentiation and that these cells can be redifferentiated following treatment with the chimeric Activin A/BMP2 ligand AB235. Examination of AB235-treated cell pellets in both in vitro and in vivo experiments revealed that redifferentiated chondrocytes synthesized a cartilage-specific extracellular matrix (ECM), primarily consisting of vertically-orientated collagen fibres and cartilage-specific proteoglycans. AB235-treated cell pellets also integrated into the surrounding subcutaneous tissue following transplantation in mice as demonstrated by their dramatic increase in size while non-treated control pellets disintegrated upon transplantation. Thus, our findings describe an effective protocol for the promotion of redifferentiation of autologous chondrocytes obtained from OA patients and the formation of a cartilage-like ECM that can integrate into the surrounding tissue in vivo.This work was supported by the Consejería de Economía, Innovación y Ciencia (Junta de Andalucía, excellence project number CTS-6568).Ye

A 2-year follow-up of a novel Fracture Liaison Service: can we reduce the mortality in elderly hip fracture patients? A prospective cohort study.

Osteoporosis is an underdiagnosed disease that results in bone fragility and risk of fractures. Fracture Liaison Service (FLS) is a secondary prevention model which identifies patients at risk for fragility fractures. The introduction of a FLS protocol showed an increase of anti-osteoporotic drug prescription and significant reduction of all-cause mortality. Hip fractures are the most severe osteoporotic fracture due to their associated disability and elevated risk of mortality. FLS programs have enhanced the management of osteoporosis-related fractures. Our objective is to analyze the effect of the FLS model over survival and 2-year mortality rate following a hip fracture. We conducted a prospective cohort study on patients over 60 years of age who suffered a hip fracture during 3 consecutive years, before and after the implementation of the FLS in our center (i.e., between January 2016 and December 2018). Patients' information was withdrawn from our local computerized database. Patients were followed for 2 years after the hip fracture. Mortality and re-fracture rates were compared between the two groups using a multivariate Cox proportional hazard model. A total of 1101 patients were included in this study (i.e., 357 before FLS implementation and 744 after FLS implementation). Anti-osteoporotic drugs were more frequently prescribed after FLS implementation (583 (78.4%) vs 44 (12.3%); p  The implementation of a FLS protocol was associated with an increase of anti-osteoporotic treatment, higher adherence, and greater survival in elderly hip fracture patients. There was a significant reduction of all-cause mortality in the FLS patients treated with anti-osteoporotic. However, the application of the FLS did not affect the risk of suffering a second fragility fracture