Genes from the TAS1R and TAS2R families of taste receptors: Looking for signatures of their adaptive role in human evolution

Taste perception is crucial in monitoring food intake and, hence, is thought to play a significant role in human evolution. To gain insights into possible adaptive signatures in genes encoding bitter, sweet, and umami taste receptors, we surveyed the available sequence variation data from the 1000 Genomes Project Phase 3 for TAS1R (TAS1R1-3) and TAS2R (TAS2R16 and TAS2R38) families. Our study demonstrated that genes from these two families have experienced contrasting evolutionary histories: While TAS1R1 and TAS1R3 showed worldwide evidence of positive selection, probably correlated with improved umami and sweet perception, the patterns of variation displayed by TAS2R16 and TAS2R38 were more consistent with scenarios of balancing selection that possibly conferred a heterozygous advantage associated with better capacity to perceive a wide range of bitter compounds. In TAS2R16, such adaptive events appear to have occurred restrictively in mainland Africa, whereas the strongest evidence in TAS2R38 was detected in Europe. Despite plausible associations between taste perception and the TAS1R and TAS2R selective signatures, we cannot discount other biological mechanisms as driving the evolutionary trajectories of those TAS1R and TAS2R members, especially given recent findings of taste receptors behaving as the products of pleiotropic genes involved in many functions outside the gustatory system.IPATIMUP is included in the i3S Consortium, which is partially supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT). This work is also funded by FEDER funds through the Operational Programme Competitiveness Factors (COMPETE) and National Funds through the FCT (projects PEst-C/SAU/LA0003/2013 and POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007274, fellowships SFRH/BD/63343/2009 to C.V., SFRH/ BPD/65000/2009 to L.A., and SFRH/BPD/120777/2016 to P.I.M.), and by Programa Operacional Regional do Norte (Norte 2020), through FEDER funds under the Quadro de Referência Estratégico Nacional (QREN; NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000029). We thank Jacquelyn Beals for the careful editing of the work. We also thank Sònia Casillas for the helpful instructions about the tracks from the PopHuman browser, and Miguel Arenas and Eduardo Conde Sousa for the aid in extracting data from those tracks

Etnocultivo do jambu para abastecimento da cidade de Belém, estado do Pará.

O jambu que faz parte da gastronomia cultural dos paraenses como componente do pato-notucupi e tacacá vem sofrendo grandes transformações com relação a sua utilização. É cultivado por produtores periurbanos em pequenas áreas, em conjunto com outras hortaliças, sobretudo para atender o consumo da cidade de Belém e dos principais núcleos urbanos da mesorregião do Nordeste Paraense. Foi efetuado um levantamento histórico da utilização do jambu, das mudanças com relação e seu emprego na culinária, para indústria de cosméticos e fármacos e nas práticas usadas pelos agricultores periurbanos dos municípios de Ananindeua, Benevides, Santa Izabel do Pará e Santo Antônio de Tauá. A urbanização e a especulação de terras nas áreas próximas de Belém, o surgimento de polos de produção em outros estados e países, o processo de patenteamento para novos produtos no exterior e uso na gastronomia nacional e internacional estão transformando o jambu em uma nova hortaliça dos trópicos

Critical exponents of the disorder-driven superfluid-insulator transition in one-dimensional Bose-Einstein condensates

We investigate the nature of the superfluid-insulator quantum phase transition driven by disorder for non-interacting ultracold atoms on one-dimensional lattices. We consider two different cases: Anderson-type disorder, with local energies randomly distributed, and pseudo-disorder due to a potential incommensurate with the lattice, which is usually called the Aubry-Andr\'e model. A scaling analysis of numerical data for the superfluid fraction for different lattice sizes allows us to determine quantum critical exponents characterizing the disorder-driven superfluid-insulator transition. We also briefly discuss the effect of interactions close to the non-interacting quantum critical point of the Aubry-Andr\'e model.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

As inovações de Rosa e Tião para uma boa produção em pequenas áreas: Centro dos Passarinhos, Lago dos Rodrigues, MA.

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Spatial distribution of arthropods on Acacia mangium (Fabales: Fabaceae) trees as windbreaks in the cerrado

Acacia mangium (Fabales: Fabaceae) is broadly used in restoration process of degraded lands in tropical and subtropical regions. Thus, our aim was to assess the spatial distribution of arthropods on tree crown (vertical- upper, median and lower canopy and horizontal north, south, east and west) and leaf surfaces (adaxial and abaxial) of A. mangium trees. Phytophagous arthropods and natural enemies were quantified biweekly in 20 trees during three years. The Shannon index (H’) of phytophagous insects were higher on the abaxial surface of leaves on branches facing the west side and basal thirds, while the lowest index was found on the adaxial surface of leaves on branches facing north and on trunk of A. mangium. The natural enemies and pollinators presented the highest H’ indexes on the abaxial surface of leaves on branches facing north on basal thirds of A. mangium, while the lowest index values were found on the adaxial surface of leaves on branches facing the other sides. Trigona spinipes Fabricius (Hymenoptera: Apidae, Meliponinae), Aethalion reticulatum (Hemiptera: Aetalionidae) and Pentatomidae sp.1 (Hemiptera) were the most abundant and with the lowest k-dominance on different parts of A. mangium trees. Camponotus sp.2 (Hymenoptera: Formicidae), Tetragonisca angustula (Latreille) (Hymenoptera: Apidae) and Polistes sp. (Hymenoptera: Vespidae) had higher abundance and lower k-dominance. These results may be a support for programs of pest control and maintenance of natural enemies and pollinators in future plantations of A. mangium. For instance, application of biopesticides may reach better results if aimed directly to the preferred sites of target organisms, beyond minimizing possible negative effects on non-target ones.Acacia mangium (Fabales: Fabaceae) es ampliamente utilizado en el proceso de restauración de las tierras degradadas en las regiones tropicales y subtropicales. Por lo tanto, nuestro objetivo fue evaluar la distribución espacial de los artrópodos en la copa del árbol (verticaldosel superior, medio e inferior y horizontal - norte, sur, este y oeste) y las superficies de las hojas (adaxial y abaxial) de A. mangium. Artrópodos fitófagos y enemigos naturales fueron cuantificados quincenalmente en 20 árboles durante tres años. El índice de Shannon (H’) de los insectos fitófagos fueron más altos en la superficie abaxial de las hojas en las ramas que se enfrenta el lado oeste y tercios basales, mientras que se encontró el índice más bajo en la superficie adaxial de las hojas en las ramas que dan al norte y en el tronco de A. mangium. Los enemigos naturales y polinizadores presentan los más altos índices H’ en la superficie abaxial de las hojas en las ramas que dan al norte en tercios basales de A. mangium, mientras que se encontraron los valores de los índices más bajos en la superficie adaxial de las ho- jas en las ramas que se enfrentan los otros lados. Trigona spinipes Fabricius (Hymenoptera: Apidae), Aethalion reticulatum (Hemiptera: Aetalionidae) y Pentatomidae sp.1 (Hemiptera) fueron las más abundantes y con el más bajo k-dominación en diferentes partes de A. mangium. Camponotus sp. 2 (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) , Tetragonisca angustula (Latreille) (Hymenoptera: Apidae) y Polistes sp. (Hymenoptera: Vespidae) presentó mayor abundancia y más bajo k-dominación. Estos resultados pueden ser un apoyo para los programas de con- trol de plagas y el mantenimiento de los enemigos naturales y polinizadores en las futuras plantaciones de A. mangium. Por ejemplo, la aplicación de biopesticidas puede alcanzar mejores resultados si dirigido directamente a los sitios preferidos de los organismos objetivo, más allá de minimizar los posibles efectos negativos en los que no va destinado

As vivências da família Martins na produção agroecológica: Povoado Nova Olinda, Lima Campos, MA.

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A produção artesanal de azeite de babaçu da família Santos: Serra Quebrada, Poção de Pedras, MA.

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As boas práticas de dona Alódia na produção do sabonete de babaçu da AMTR: Comunidade Ludovico, Lago do Junco, MA.

bitstream/item/213600/1/Mearim-Vol-27.pdfEditores técnico da coleção: Roberto Porro e Anderson Cássio Sevilha