Egg-Laying in the Cuttlefish Sepia officinalis

This chapter reviews studies about egg-laying in the cuttlefish Sepia officinalis. Egg masses are spawned in specific mating and spawning coastal areas where mates aggregate between April and June in the English Channel and all year long in the Mediterranean Sea. Environmental cues are clearly involved in the aggregation process, but chemical communication also plays a determining role in these complex mechanisms. The successive steps of egg-laying are orchestrated by three classes of regulatory peptides: (1) neuropeptides that integrate environmental cues, (2) ovarian regulatory peptides that modulate the activity of the genital tract, and (3) sex pheromones expressed and released by the oviduct gland. After egg-laying, embryo protection is ensured for 8-10 weeks by a multilayer capsule secreted by the accessory sex glands. The oviduct gland secretes the inner layer of the egg case. The main nidamental gland secretes the main polysaccharides and glycoproteins, such as Sepia Egg Case Proteins, involved in capsule formation and in embryo protection. The accessory nidamental gland expresses specific proteins inherent in the structural organization of the gland, and hosts symbiotic bacteria. Similarly to salivary glands, this gland secretes immune factors possibly associated with gamete and/or embryo protection

AgroFIMS v.1.0 - User manual

The Agronomy Field Information Management System (AgroFIMS) has been developed on CGIAR’s HIDAP (Highly Interactive Data Analysis Platform) created by CGIAR’s International Potato Center, CIP. AgroFIMS draws fully on ontologies, particularly the Agronomy Ontology (AgrO)1. It consists of modules that represent the typical cycle of operations in agronomic trial management (seeding, weeding, fertilization, harvest, and more) and enables the creation of data collection sheets using the same ontology-based set of variables, terminology, units and protocols. AgroFIMS therefore enables a priori harmonization with metadata and data interoperability standards and adherence to the FAIR Data Principles essential for data reuse and increasingly, for compliance with funder mandates - without any extra work for researchers. AgroFIMS is therefore of value to anyone (scientist, researcher, agronomist, etc.) who wishes to easily design a standards-compliant agronomic research fieldbook following the FAIR Data Principles. AgroFIMS also allows users to collect data electronically in the field, thereby reducing errors. Currently this is restricted to the KDSmart Android platform, but we expect to enable this capability with other platforms such as the Open Data Kit (ODK) and Field Book in v.2.0. Once data is collected using KDSmart, the data can be uploaded back to AgroFIMS for data validation, statistical analysis, and the generation of statistical analysis reports. V.2.0 will allow easy upload of the data from AgroFIMS to an institutional or compliant repository of the user’s choice

Pathologies porcines au Nord Vietnam : évaluation d'un réseau d'épidémiosurveillance

Au Vietnam, les services de santé animale manquent de moyens et d'organisation pour décrire de manière fiable la situation sanitaire des élevages. A l'échelle d'un district, le réseau de surveillance des maladies porcines, expérience pilote, organise la remontée d'informations depuis les agents vétérinaires privés, proches des éleveurs, vers les services vétérinaires publics, grâce à la mise en oeuvre d'outils et d'activités spécifiques. L'évaluation externe du réseau, un an après sa mise en service, suit une méthode à la fois qualitative et quantitative qui a permis de montrer que le système était perfectible. Enfin, des mesures correctives, centrées sur les points faibles du réseau, sont proposées pour en améliorer le fonctionnement

Le corps photographié se souvient du futur

A l’ère du post-humain, le corps s’exhibe à nouveau sur la scène artistique et éprouve ses capacités plastiques. De l’art corporel des années soixante à l’art post-humain, les enjeux diffèrent en même temps que les outils de monstration du corps évoluent. La photographie s’hybride au même titre que le corps, en s’alliant aux technologies informatiques.Ce faisant, elle révèle des tensions au sein de ces hybridations : l’intérieur s’extériorise, la nudité dévoile l’asexualité, le corps obsolète devient matière première. Ces tensions soulèvent la question de l’origine et de la disparition, non plus du corps, mais de l’humain.En jouant de ses capacités analogiques tout en s’ouvrant au virtuel, la photographie oscille entre documentaire et fiction ; elle témoigne d’un devenir, d’une possibilité. Alors qu’elle était trace, relique, elle se porte au-devant du corps, l’anticipe et le distancie. Il est donc toujours question d’écart dans la relation entre le corps voyant et son image. Comment l’artiste répond à cet écart 

CodY Regulates the Activity of the Virulence Quorum Sensor PlcR by Controlling the Import of the Signaling Peptide PapR in Bacillus thuringiensis

In Gram-positive bacteria, cell–cell communication mainly relies on cytoplasmic sensors of the RNPP family. Activity of these regulators depends on their binding to secreted signaling peptides that are imported into the cell. These quorum sensing regulators control important biological functions in bacteria of the Bacillus cereus group, such as virulence and necrotrophism. The RNPP quorum sensor PlcR, in complex with its cognate signaling peptide PapR, is the main regulator of virulence in B. cereus and Bacillus thuringiensis(Bt). Recent reports have shown that the global stationary phase regulator CodY, involved in adaptation to nutritional limitation, is required for the expression of virulence genes belonging to the PlcR regulon. However, the mechanism underlying this regulation was not described. Using genetics and proteomics approaches, we showed that CodY regulates the expression of the virulence genes through the import of PapR. We report that CodY positively controls the production of the proteins that compose the oligopeptide permease OppABCDF, and of several other Opp-like proteins. It was previously shown that the pore components of this oligopeptide permease, OppBCDF, were required for the import of PapR. However, the role of OppA, the substrate-binding protein (SBP), was not investigated. Here, we demonstrated that OppA is not the only SBP involved in the recognition of PapR, and that several other OppA-like proteins can allow the import of this peptide. Altogether, these data complete our model of quorum sensing during the lifecycle of Bt and indicate that RNPPs integrate environmental conditions, as well as cell density, to coordinate the behavior of the bacteria throughout growt

Top-Down proteomics based on LC-MS combined with cDNA sequencing to characterize multiple proteoforms of Amiata donkey milk proteins

An in-depth molecular characterization of the main milk proteins, caseins (CNs) and whey proteins, from Amiata donkey combining top-down proteomic analysis (LC-MS) and cDNA sequencing, revealed multiple proteoforms arising from complex splicing patterns, including cryptic splice site usage and exon skipping events. Posttranslational modifications, in particular phosphorylation, increased the variety and complexity of proteoforms. αs2-CN perfectly exemplifies such a complexity. With 2 functional genes, CSN1S2 I and CSN1S2 II, made of 20 and 16 exons respectively, nearly 30 different molecules of this CN were detected in the milk of one Amiata donkey. A cryptic splice site usage, leading to a singular shift of the open reading frame and generating two αs2-CN I isoforms with different C-terminal sequences, was brought to light. Twenty different αs1-CN molecules with different phosphorylation levels ranging between 4 and 9P were identified in a single milk sample, most of them resulting from exon skipping events and cryptic splice site usage. Novel genetic polymorphisms were detected for CNs (β- and αs-CN) as well as for whey proteins (lysozyme C and β-LG I). The probable new β-LG I variant, with a significantly higher mass than known variants, appears to display an N-terminal extension possibly related to the signal peptide sequence. This represents the most comprehensive report to date detailing the complexity of donkey milk protein micro-heterogeneity, a prerequisite for discovering new elements to objectify the original properties of donkey’s milk