The antisense leitmoitf: A prelude

Communicated by Prof. J.M. ClarkPeer Reviewe

El montaje en un documental musical. Un proyecto audiovisual multidisciplinar: "Music: Research as Experience"

Documental musical que se articula a través de las entrevistas a cinco músicos profesionales de distintos estilos y disciplinas que toman la música como objeto de estudio en sus propias tesis doctorales. El documental nos lleva desde sus momentos de estudio a interpretaciones y exposiciones de sus investigaciones. Musical documentary that is articulated through interviews with five professional musicians from different styles and disciplines that make music as a subject of study in their own theses. The documentary takes us from moments of studio performances and exhibitions of his research.Mas Garcillán, M. (2011). El montaje en un documental musical. Un proyecto audiovisual multidisciplinar: "Music: Research as Experience". Universitat Politècnica de València. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/14729Archivo delegad

Estado del arte de los acumuladores cinéticos de energía

Currently, there is a great diversity of energy generation and storage methods, but not all of them meet the environmental needs of today's society. The evolution of the multiple ways of renewable energy generation brings along the evolution of respectful environmental means of energy storage, among which are the kinetic accumulators. As their own name reveals, kinetic accumulators store energy in their kinetic form, in other words, by the movement of a mass. In addition to storing energy without causing damage to the environment, kinetic accumulators provide other additional advantages such as power regulation, versatility when combined with a variety of power generation systems present in the current technological landscape and a wide range of possibilities in terms of size and storage capacity. The latest advances have allowed kinetic accumulators to replace or combine with other means of energy accumulation and generation, resulting in systems more favorable for the environment and more efficient. In this document a revision of the kinetic accumulators is performed, as well as of the systems that recover the kinetic energy that is normally wasted. It also contains a historical framework of the mentioned technology and a comparison with the most common energy accumulation related systems in the present.Actualmente, existe mucha diversidad de métodos de generación y almacenamiento de energía, pero no todos ellos cumplen con las necesidades ambientales de la sociedad de hoy. La evolución de las formas de generación de energía renovable trae consigo la evolución de los medios ambientalmente respetuosos de almacenamiento de energía, entre los cuales se encuentran los acumuladores cinéticos. Como su propio nombre indica, los acumuladores cinéticos almacenan energía en su forma cinética, es decir, mediante el movimiento de una masa. Además de almacenar energía sin producir daños en el medio ambiente, los acumuladores cinéticos aportan una serie de ventajas como la regulación de la potencia, versatilidad a la hora de combinarlos con una gran variedad de sistemas de generación de energía presentes en el panorama tecnológico actual y un amplio abanico de posibilidades en cuanto a tamaño y capacidad de almacenamiento. Los últimos avances han permitido que los acumuladores cinéticos sustituyan o se combinen con baterías y otros medios de acumulación de energía, resultando en sistemas más favorables para el medio ambiente y más eficientes. En este documento se realiza una revisión de los acumuladores cinéticos, así como de los sistemas que recuperan la energía cinética que normalmente se desaprovecha. También se expone el marco histórico de la tecnología y una comparativa con los sistemas de acumulación de energía relacionados y más comunes en el presente.Ingeniería Mecánic

Blueprint for a minimal photoautotrophic cell: conserved and variable genes in Synechococcus elongatus PCC 7942

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.-- et al.Abstract Background Simpler biological systems should be easier to understand and to engineer towards pre-defined goals. One way to achieve biological simplicity is through genome minimization. Here we looked for genomic islands in the fresh water cyanobacteria Synechococcus elongatus PCC 7942 (genome size 2.7 Mb) that could be used as targets for deletion. We also looked for conserved genes that might be essential for cell survival. Results By using a combination of methods we identified 170 xenologs, 136 ORFans and 1401 core genes in the genome of S. elongatus PCC 7942. These represent 6.5%, 5.2% and 53.6% of the annotated genes respectively. We considered that genes in genomic islands could be found if they showed a combination of: a) unusual G+C content; b) unusual phylogenetic similarity; and/or c) a small number of the highly iterated palindrome 1 (HIP1) motif plus an unusual codon usage. The origin of the largest genomic island by horizontal gene transfer (HGT) could be corroborated by lack of coverage among metagenomic sequences from a fresh water microbialite. Evidence is also presented that xenologous genes tend to cluster in operons. Interestingly, most genes coding for proteins with a diguanylate cyclase domain are predicted to be xenologs, suggesting a role for horizontal gene transfer in the evolution of Synechococcus sensory systems. Conclusions Our estimates of genomic islands in PCC 7942 are larger than those predicted by other published methods like SIGI-HMM. Our results set a guide to non-essential genes in S. elongatus PCC 7942 indicating a path towards the engineering of a model photoautotrophic bacterial cell.Financial support was provided by grants BFU2009-12895-C02-01/BMC (Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, Spain), the European Community’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement number 212894 and Prometeo/2009/092 (Conselleria d’Educació, Generalitat Valenciana, Spain) to A. Moya. Work in the FdlC laboratory was supported by grants BFU2008-00995/BMC (Spanish Ministry of Education), RD06/0008/1012 (RETICS research network, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Spanish Ministry of Health) and LSHM-CT-2005_019023 (European VI Framework Program). Dr. González-Domenech was supported by grant from the University of Granada. LD, thanks to financial support from Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.Peer Reviewe

Spread of blaCTX-M-14 is driven mainly by IncK plasmids disseminated among Escherichia coli phylogroups A, B1, and D in Spain

et al.Since its first description in 2000, CTX-M-14 has become one of the most widespread extended-spectrum β-lactamases in Spain. In the present Escherichia coli multilevel population genetic study involving the characterization of phylogroups, clones, plasmids, and genetic platforms, 61 isolates from 16 hospitalized patients and 40 outpatients and healthy volunteers recovered from 2000 to 2005 were analyzed. Clonal relatedness (XbaI pulsed-field gel electrophoresis [PFGE] type, phylogenetic group, multilocus sequence type [MLST]) was established by standard methods. Analysis of transferred plasmids (I-CeuI; S1 nuclease; restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis; and analysis of RNA interference, replicase, and relaxase) was performed by PCR, sequencing, and hybridization. The genetic environment of blaCTX-M-14 was characterized by PCR on the basis of known associated structures (ISEcp1, IS903, ISCR1). The isolates were mainly recovered from patients in the community (73.8%; 45/61) with urinary tract infections (62.2%; 28/45). They were clonally unrelated by PFGE and corresponded to phylogenetic groups A (36.1%), D (34.4%), and B1 (29.5%). MLST revealed a high degree of sequence type (ST) diversity among phylogroup D isolates and the overrepresentation of the ST10 complex among phylogroup A isolates and ST359/ST155 among phylogroup B1 isolates. Two variants of blaCTX-M-14 previously designated blaCTX-M-14a (n = 59/61) and bla CTX-M-14b (n = 2/61) were detected. blaCTX-M-14a was associated with either ISEcp1 within IncK plasmids (n = 27), ISCR1 linked to an IncHI2 plasmid (n = 1), or ISCR1 linked to IncI-like plasmids (n = 3). The blaCTX-M-14b identified was associated with an ISCR1 element located in an IncHI2 plasmid (n = 1) or with ISEcp1 located in IncK (n = 1). The CTX-M-14-producing E. coli isolates in our geographic area are frequent causes of community-acquired urinary tract infections. The increase in the incidence of such isolates is mostly due to the dissemination of IncK plasmids among E. coli isolates of phylogroups A, B1, and D. Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.A.V. is supported by CIBERESP Network for Biomedical Research in Epidemiology and Public Health (Instituto Carlos III, Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation). Work by the HRYC group was funded by research grants from the European Commission (grants LSHM-CT-2005-018705, LSHM-CT-2009-223031, and KBBE-2008-2B-227258) and the Spanish Ministry of Health and Innovation (CB06/ 02/0053 and FIS 08/624). Work in the FdlC laboratory was supported by grants from the European Commission (grant LSHM-CT-2005_019023); the Spanish Ministry of Education (grant BFU2008- 00995/BMC); and the RETICS Research Network, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Spanish Ministry of Health (grant RD06/0008/1012).Peer Reviewe

Cis-Acting Relaxases Guarantee Independent Mobilization of MOBQ4 Plasmids

Plasmids are key vehicles of horizontal gene transfer and contribute greatly to bacterial genome plasticity. In this work, we studied a group of plasmids from enterobacteria that encode phylogenetically related mobilization functions that populate the previously non-described MOBQ4 relaxase family. These plasmids encode two transfer genes: mobA coding for the MOBQ4 relaxase; and mobC, which is non-essential but enhances the plasmid mobilization frequency. The origin of transfer is located between these two divergently transcribed mob genes. We found that MPFI conjugative plasmids were the most efficient helpers for MOBQ4 conjugative dissemination among clinically relevant enterobacteria. While highly similar in their mobilization module, two sub-groups with unrelated replicons (Rep_3 and ColE2) can be distinguished in this plasmid family. These subgroups can stably coexist (are compatible) and transfer independently, despite origin-of-transfer cross-recognition by their relaxases. Specific discrimination among their highly similar oriT sequences is guaranteed by the preferential cis activity of the MOBQ4 relaxases. Such a strategy would be biologically relevant in a scenario of co-residence of non-divergent elements to favor self-dissemination.Funding: This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (BFU2017-86378-P, AEI/FEDER, UE, to FC) and Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (201820I143 to MG-B). We acknowledge support of the publication fee by the CSIC Open Access Publication Support Initiative through its Unit of Information Resources for Research (URICI)

Knowledge about COVID-19 and pandemic impact on Madrid dental students (Spain)

COVID-19 has had a major impact on dental activity, with implications on dental education. The aim of this study was to assess the knowledge about it and the pandemic impact on Spanish dental students. An observational and cross-sectional study with a 1

Structural representations of DNA regulatory substrates can enhance sequence-based algorithms by associating functional sequence variants

The nucleotide sequence representation of DNA can be inadequate for resolving protein-DNA binding sites and regulatory substrates, such as those involved in gene expression and horizontal gene transfer. Considering that sequence-like representations are algorithmically very useful, here we fused over 60 currently available DNA physicochemical and conformational variables into compact structural representations that can encode single DNA binding sites to whole regulatory regions. We find that the main structural components reflect key properties of protein-DNA interactions and can be condensed to the amount of information found in a single nucleotide position. The most accurate structural representations compress functional DNA sequence variants by 30% to 50%, as each instance encodes from tens to thousands of sequences. We show that a structural distance function discriminates among groups of DNA substrates more accurately than nucleotide sequence-based metrics. As this opens up a variety of implementation possibilities, we develop and test a distance-based alignment algorithm, demonstrating the potential of using the structural representations to enhance sequence-based algorithms. Due to the bias of most current bioinformatic methods to nucleotide sequence representations, it is possible that considerable performance increases might still be achievable with such solutions.Comment: 20 pages, 8 figures, 3 tables, conferenc

THE BRAHEA EDULIS PALM FOREST: A FOG OASIS? REVISTA CHILENA DE HISTORIA NATURAL

ABSTRACT Fog is a factor that affects deeply the structure of vegetation of coastal deserts. Guadalupe is an oceanic island located 260 km off the coast of Baja California, and is one of the few places of the Sonoran Desert coasts with scarped coastal topography and frequent fog. With the aim to identify the effect of fog on the community of the palm forest (palmar) of Brahea edulis located in the northern tip of the island: (1) we analyzed the richness and composition of vascular plants in the palmar compared to the remainder of the island, and (2) we analyzed the altitudinal variation of the abundance of palms, herbs and mosses to identify if there is altitudinal variation of the vegetation. Although species composition was not different between palmar and the rest of island, species richness and vascular plant cover were greater in the palmar. On the other hand, we found a clear altitudinal zonation of the vegetation in the palmar that is similar to that found in South American fog-driven plant communities such as the lomas. Thus, the palmar community of Guadalupe Island may be considered as a fog oasis, one of the very few that occur in North America. Key words: altitudinal gradient, coastal desert, fog effect, Sonoran Desert, vegetation. RESUMEN La niebla es un factor que afecta profundamente la estructura de la vegetación de los desiertos costeros. Guadalupe es una isla oceánica a 260 km de la costa de Baja California y constituye uno de los pocos lugares de la costa del Desierto Sonorense donde se reúnen una topografía escarpada próxima a la costa y una alta frecuencia de nieblas. Con el objeto de identifi car el efecto de la niebla sobre la comunidad del palmar de Brahea edulis presente en la ladera norte de la isla: (1) analizamos la diferencia de la riqueza y la composición de plantas vasculares del palmar respecto del resto de la isla, y (2) analizamos la variación altitudinal de la abundancia de palmas, plantas acompañantes y musgo para determinar si existe variación altitudinal de la vegetación. Encontramos que, aunque la composición de plantas del palmar no fue diferente del resto de la isla, la riqueza de especies y la cobertura fueron claramente superiores en el palmar. Finalmente, constatamos una clara zonación altitudinal de la vegetación en el palmar semejante a la encontrada en las comunidades dependientes de la niebla en Sudamérica, tales como las lomas. Por tanto, la comunidad del palmar de Isla Guadalupe puede considerarse como un oasis de niebla, uno de los pocos existentes en Norteamérica. Palabras clave: desierto costero, Desierto Sonorense, efecto de niebla, gradiente altitudinal, vegetación