Transposition of EU food safety directives

Session 1: Governance in the European Unio

Selectivity and functional diversity in arbuscular mycorrhizas of co-occurring fungi and plants from a temperate deciduous woodland

1 The arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi colonizing plants at a woodland site in North Yorkshire (UK) have been characterized from the roots of five plant species (Rubus fruticosus agg. L., Epilobium angustifolium L., Acer pseudoplatanus L., Ajuga reptans L. and Glechoma hederacea L.), and identified using small-subunit rRNA (SSUrRNA) gene amplification and sequencing. 2 Interactions between five plant species from the site and four co-occurring glomalean fungi were investigated in artificial one-to-one AM symbioses. Three of the fungi were isolated from the site; the fourth was a culture genetically similar to a taxon found at the site. Phosphorus uptake and growth responses were compared with non-mycorrhizal controls. 3 Individual fungi colonized each plant with different spatial distribution and intensity. Some did not colonize at all, indicating incompatibility under the conditions used in the experiments. 4 Glomus hoi consistently occupied a large proportion of root systems and outperformed the other fungi, improving P uptake and enhancing the growth of four out of the five plant species. Only G. hoi colonized and increased P uptake in Acer pseudoplatanus, the host plant with which it associates almost exclusively under field conditions. Colonization of all plant species by Scutellospora dipurpurescens was sparse, and beneficial to only one of the host plants (Teucrium scorodonia). Archaeospora trappei and Glomus sp. UY1225 had variable effects on the host plants, conferring a range of P uptake and growth benefits on Lysimachia nummularia and T. scorodonia, increasing P uptake whilst not affecting biomass in Ajuga reptans and Glechoma hederacea, and failing to form mycorrhizas with A. pseudoplatanus. 5 These experimental mycorrhizas show that root colonization, symbiont compatibility and plant performance vary with each fungus-plant combination, even when the plants and fungi naturally co-exist. 6 We provide evidence of physical and functional selectivity in AM. The small number of described AM fungal species (154) has been ascribed to their supposed lack of host specificity, but if the selectivity we have observed is the general rule, then we may predict that many more, probably hard-to-culture glomalean species await discovery, or that members of species as currently perceived may be physiologically or functionally distinct

Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi and Plant Chemical Defence : Effects of Colonisation on Aboveground and Belowground Metabolomes

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal (AMF) colonisation of plant roots is one of the most ancient and widespread interactions in ecology, yet the systemic consequences for plant secondary chemistry remain unclear. We performed the first metabolomic investigation into the impact of AMF colonisation by Rhizophagus irregularis on the chemical defences, spanning above- and below-ground tissues, in its host-plant ragwort (Senecio jacobaea). We used a non-targeted metabolomics approach to profile, and where possible identify, compounds induced by AMF colonisation in both roots and shoots. Metabolomics analyses revealed that 33 compounds were significantly increased in the root tissue of AMF colonised plants, including seven blumenols, plant-derived compounds known to be associated with AMF colonisation. One of these was a novel structure conjugated with a malonyl-sugar and uronic acid moiety, hitherto an unreported combination. Such structural modifications of blumenols could be significant for their previously reported functional roles associated with the establishment and maintenance of AM colonisation. Pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PAs), key anti-herbivore defence compounds in ragwort, dominated the metabolomic profiles of root and shoot extracts. Analyses of the metabolomic profiles revealed an increase in four PAs in roots (but not shoots) of AMF colonised plants, with the potential to protect colonised plants from below-ground organisms

Cohort profile: The women’s interagency HIV study (WIHS)

Why was the cohort set up? The National Institutes of Health established the Women’s Interagency HIV Study (WIHS) in 1993 to study the impact and progression of HIV infection among women in response to the rising number of AIDS cases and the relative paucity of clinical, behavioural and epidemiological data in this population. Women now comprise more than 50% of people with HIV (PWH) worldwide.1 The WIHS is the largest and oldest ongoing prospective cohort study of women with and at risk for HIV infection in the world, and remains the leading study to document the experience of women with HIV (WWH) in the United States

Examining the Relationships between Experienced and Anticipated Stigma in Health Care Settings, Patient-Provider Race Concordance, and Trust in Providers among Women Living with HIV

Stigma in health care settings can have negative consequences on women living with HIV, such as increasing the likelihood of missed visits and reducing trust in their clinical providers. Informed by prior stigma research and considering knowledge gaps related to the effect of patient-provider race concordance, we conducted this study to assess if patient-provider race concordance moderates the expected association between HIV-related stigma in health care settings and patients' trust in their providers. Moderation analyses were conducted using Women's Interagency HIV Study data (N = 931). We found significant main effects for patient-provider race concordance. Higher experienced stigma was associated with lower trust in providers in all patient-provider race combinations [White-White: B =-0.89, standard error (SE) = 0.14, p = 0.000, 95% confidence interval, CI (-1.161 to-0.624); Black patient-White provider: B =-0.19, SE = 0.06, p = 0.003, 95% CI (-0.309 to-0.062); and Black-Black: B =-0.30, SE = 0.14, p = 0.037, 95% CI (-0.575 to-0.017)]. Higher anticipated stigma was also associated with lower trust in providers [White-White: B =-0.42, SE = 0.07, p = 0.000, 95% CI (-0.552 to-0.289); Black patient-White provider: B =-0.17, SE = 0.03, p = 0.000, 95% CI (-0.232 to-0.106); and Black-Black: B =-0.18, SE = 0.06, p = 0.002, 95% CI (-0.293 to-0.066)]. Significant interaction effects indicated that the negative associations between experienced and anticipated HIV-related stigma and trust in providers were stronger for the White-White combination compared with the others. Thus, we found that significant relationships between HIV-related experienced and anticipated stigma in health care settings and trust in providers exist and that these associations vary across different patient-provider race combinations. Given that reduced trust in providers is associated with antiretroviral medication nonadherence and higher rates of missed clinical visits, interventions to address HIV-related stigma in health care settings may improve continuum of care outcomes

Impacts of climate change on plant diseases – opinions and trends

There has been a remarkable scientific output on the topic of how climate change is likely to affect plant diseases in the coming decades. This review addresses the need for review of this burgeoning literature by summarizing opinions of previous reviews and trends in recent studies on the impacts of climate change on plant health. Sudden Oak Death is used as an introductory case study: Californian forests could become even more susceptible to this emerging plant disease, if spring precipitations will be accompanied by warmer temperatures, although climate shifts may also affect the current synchronicity between host cambium activity and pathogen colonization rate. A summary of observed and predicted climate changes, as well as of direct effects of climate change on pathosystems, is provided. Prediction and management of climate change effects on plant health are complicated by indirect effects and the interactions with global change drivers. Uncertainty in models of plant disease development under climate change calls for a diversity of management strategies, from more participatory approaches to interdisciplinary science. Involvement of stakeholders and scientists from outside plant pathology shows the importance of trade-offs, for example in the land-sharing vs. sparing debate. Further research is needed on climate change and plant health in mountain, boreal, Mediterranean and tropical regions, with multiple climate change factors and scenarios (including our responses to it, e.g. the assisted migration of plants), in relation to endophytes, viruses and mycorrhiza, using long-term and large-scale datasets and considering various plant disease control methods

Resilience and Optimism as Moderators of the Negative Effects of Stigma on Women Living with HIV

Resilience and optimism may not only have main effects on health outcomes, but may also moderate and buffer negative effects of stressors. We examined whether dispositional resilience and optimism moderate the associations between HIV-related stigma in health care settings and health-related outcomes (trust in HIV health care providers and depression symptoms) among women living with HIV (WLHIV). One thousand four hundred five WLHIV in nine US cities completed validated questionnaires for cross-sectional analyses. Higher self-reported experienced and anticipated stigma and lower resilience and optimism were associated with higher depression symptoms and with lower trust in HIV providers. Importantly, resilience moderated the effects of experienced stigma (but not of anticipated stigma): When resilience was high, the association of experienced stigma with higher depression symptoms and lower trust in HIV providers was weaker compared with when resilience was low. Further, significant moderation effects suggested that when optimism was high, experienced and anticipated stigma was both less strongly associated with depression symptoms and with lower trust in one's HIV care providers compared with when optimism was low. Thus, the effects of experienced stigma on depression symptoms and provider trust were moderated by both resilience and optimism, but the effects of anticipated stigma were moderated only by optimism. Our findings suggest that in addition to their main effects, resilience and optimism may function as buffers against the harmful effects of stigma in health care settings. Therefore, optimism and resilience may be valuable intervention targets to reduce depression symptoms or improve trust in providers among populations that experience or anticipate stigma, such as WLHIV

Root Herbivore Effects on Aboveground Multitrophic Interactions: Patterns, Processes and Mechanisms

In terrestrial food webs, the study of multitrophic interactions traditionally has focused on organisms that share a common domain, mainly above ground. In the last two decades, it has become clear that to further understand multitrophic interactions, the barrier between the belowground and aboveground domains has to be crossed. Belowground organisms that are intimately associated with the roots of terrestrial plants can influence the levels of primary and secondary chemistry and biomass of aboveground plant parts. These changes, in turn, influence the growth, development, and survival of aboveground insect herbivores. The discovery that soil organisms, which are usually out of sight and out of mind, can affect plant-herbivore interactions aboveground raised the question if and how higher trophic level organisms, such as carnivores, could be influenced. At present, the study of above-belowground interactions is evolving from interactions between organisms directly associated with the plant roots and shoots (e.g., root feeders - plant - foliar herbivores) to interactions involving members of higher trophic levels (e.g., parasitoids), as well as non-herbivorous organisms (e.g., decomposers, symbiotic plant mutualists, and pollinators). This multitrophic approach linking above- and belowground food webs aims at addressing interactions between plants, herbivores, and carnivores in a more realistic community setting. The ultimate goal is to understand the ecology and evolution of species in communities and, ultimately how community interactions contribute to the functioning of terrestrial ecosystems. Here, we summarize studies on the effects of root feeders on aboveground insect herbivores and parasitoids and discuss if there are common trends. We discuss the mechanisms that have been reported to mediate these effects, from changes in concentrations of plant nutritional quality and secondary chemistry to defense signaling. Finally, we discuss how the traditional framework of fixed paired combinations of root- and shoot-related organisms feeding on a common plant can be transformed into a more dynamic and realistic framework that incorporates community variation in species, densities, space and time, in order to gain further insight in this exciting and rapidly developing field

Mortality under plausible interventions on antiretroviral treatment and depression in HIV-infected women: an application of the parametric g-formula

Purpose Among HIV-infected persons, antiretroviral therapy (ART) and depression are strongly associated with mortality. We estimated reductions in 5-year mortality in Women's Interagency HIV Study participants under plausible hypothetical increases in ART initiation and reductions in depression (CES-D score≥16). Methods We followed 885 ART-naïve Women's Interagency HIV Study participants for 5 years from their first study visit after April 1998 to death or censoring. We used the parametric extended g-formula to estimate cumulative mortality under the natural course (NC) and alternative exposure distributions. Results Baseline prevalence of depression was 52% and 62% initiated ART by 5 years. Compared with mortality under NC (13.2%), immediate ART and elimination of 36% or 67% of depressive episodes were associated with risk differences (RDs) of −5.2% (95% CI: −7.7%, −2.6%) and −5.7 (95% CI: −8.7, −2.7). Compared with immediate ART and NC for depression, additionally eliminating 67% of the depressive episodes was associated with RD = −1.6 (95% CI: −3.9, 0.8). Compared with 5-year mortality under NC for ART and elimination of 67% of depression, also initiating ART immediately was associated with RD = -2.6 (95% CI: -5.0, -0.3). Conclusions Increasing ART initiation and reducing depression were associated with moderate reductions in 5-year mortality among HIV-infected women

Factors associated with syphilis seroprevalence in women with and at-risk for HIV infection in the Women's Interagency HIV Study (1994-2015)

Objective Syphilis rates among women in the USA more than doubled between 2014 and 2018. We sought to identify correlates of syphilis among women enrolled in the Women's Interagency HIV Study (WIHS) to inform targeted interventions. Methods The retrospective cross-sectional analysis of secondary data included women with HIV or at-risk of HIV who enrolled in the multisite US WIHS cohort between 1994 and 2015. Syphilis screening was performed at baseline. Infection was defined serologically by a positive rapid plasma reagin test with confirmatory treponemal antibodies. Sociodemographic and behavioural characteristics stratified by baseline syphilis status were compared for women enrolled during early (1994-2002) and recent (2011-2015) years. Multivariable binomial modelling with backward selection (p>0.2 for removal) was used to model correlates of syphilis. Results The study included 3692 women in the early cohort and 1182 women in the recent cohort. Syphilis prevalence at enrolment was 7.5% and 3.7% in each cohort, respectively (p100 lifetime sex partners (all p<0.05). In the recent cohort, age (adjusted prevalence OR (aPOR) 0.2, 95% CI 0.1 to 0.6 for 30-39 years; aPOR 0.5, 95% CI 0.2 to 1.0 for 40-49 years vs ≥50 years), hepatitis C seropositivity (aPOR 2.1, 95% CI 1.0 to 4.1) and problem alcohol use (aPOR 2.2, 95% CI 1.1 to 4.4) were associated with infection. Conclusions Syphilis screening is critical for women with HIV and at-risk of HIV. Targeted prevention efforts should focus on women with hepatitis C and problem alcohol use