Surface Energy Budget over the Pantanal Wetland During the dry Season

In this work, the diurnal cycle of components of the surfaceenergy budget (SEB) are computed to the Brazilian Pantanal wetlandduring the dry season (September 1999). The analyzed data were collectedduring the Interdisciplinary Pantanal Experiment (IPE-2) realized by INPEand UFMS. A very defined diurnal cycle is observed, suggesting that theavailable energy at surface is mainly employed in the evapotranspirationeven during the dry season.Neste trabalho os componentes do balanço de radiação e energiaà superfície são investigados para o Pantanal Sul Mato-Grossense. Osdados experimentais foram coletados por uma torre meteorológica durantea Campanha Interdisciplinar do Pantanal (IPE-2) em setembro de1999 realizada pelo INPE e UFMS

Temporal patterns of picoplankton abundance and metabolism on the western coast of the equatorial Atlantic Ocean

Picoplankton are central global carbon (C) cycling players and often dominate the ocean plankton communities, especially in low latitudes. Therefore, evaluating picoplankton temporal dynamics is critical to understanding microbial stocks and C fluxes in tropical oceans. However, the lack of studies on low-latitude picoplankton communities translates into a common conception that there is an absence of seasonality. Herein, we studied the temporal variation in abundance (measured by flow cytometry), and carbon flux (taking bacterial production and respiration as proxies) of the picoplanktonic community for the first time, as well as their environmental drivers in a low-latitude (05° 59’ 20.7″S 035° 05’ 14.6″W) Atlantic coastal station. We performed monthly samplings between February 2013 and August 2016 in a novel microbial observatory – hereafter called the Equatorial Atlantic Microbial Observatory – established on the northeastern Brazilian Atlantic coast. Our results revealed stability in temporal dynamics of picoplankton, despite a considerable inter-annual variation, with some related to the El Niño (ENSO) event in 2015. However, weak environmental relationships found were not enough to explain the variation in picoplankton’s abundance, which suggests that other factors such as biological interactions may lead to picoplankton abundance variation over time. Heterotrophic bacteria dominated picoplankton during the entire study period and between photosynthetic counterparts, and Synechococcus showed greater relative importance than picoeukaryotes. These results bring a novel perspective that picoplankton may exhibit more pronounced fluctuations in the tropical region when considering inter-annual intervals, and is increasing prokaryotic contribution to carbon cycling towards the equator.Fil: Menezes, Maiara. Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte; BrasilFil: Junger, Pedro C.. Universidade Federal do São Carlos; BrasilFil: Kavagutti, Vinicius S.. Universidade Federal do São Carlos; BrasilFil: Wanderley, Bruno. Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte; BrasilFil: Cabral, Anderson de Souza. Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro; BrasilFil: Paranhos, Rodolfo. Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro; BrasilFil: Unrein, Fernando. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de San Martin. Instituto Tecnologico de Chascomus. - Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Tecnicas. Centro Cientifico Tecnologico Conicet - la Plata. Instituto Tecnologico de Chascomus.; ArgentinaFil: Amado, André M.. Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte; Brasil. Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora; BrasilFil: Sarmento, Hugo. Universidade Federal do São Carlos; Brasi

Análises citogenéticas em Paspalum L. revelam novas espécies e acessos diplóides

Se contaron los números de cromosomas en 126 nuevas accesiones de 50 especies de Paspalum de Brasil, Argentina, Paraguay y Bolivia. Se confirmaron los números de cromosomas 2n = 12, 20, 24, 30, 40, 50, 60, 80. Números de cromosomas para P. arenarium (2n = 20), P. barretoi (2n = 20), P. aff. ceresia (2n = 40), P. corcovadense (2n = 20), P. crispulum (2n = 20), P. flaccidum (2n = 40), P. nummularium (2n = 20), P. scalare (2n = 20) ), P. vescum (2n = 20) y P. rectum (2n = 20) y un citotipo diploide de P. malacophyllumse informan por primera vez. Se confirmó el predominio de accesiones tetraploides (43,6%), pero se encontró un número inusualmente alto de especies diploides (44%) y accesiones (35,7%). Estos resultados abren nuevas perspectivas para programas de mejoramiento, estudios filogenéticos y para la investigación sobre el control de la apomixis, ya que los diploides de Paspalum son típicamente sexuales.O número cromossômico foi determinado para 126 novos acessos de 50 espécies de Paspalum do Brasil, Argentina, Paraguai e Bolívia. Foram verificados os números somáticos 2n = 12, 20, 24, 30, 40, 50, 60 e 80. Estas são as primeiras contagens para P. arenarium (2n = 20), P. barretoi (2n = 20), P. aff . ceresia (2n = 40), P. corcovadense (2n = 20), P. crispulum (2n = 20), P. flaccidum (2n = 40), P. nummularium (2n = 20), P. scalare (2n = 20) ), P. vescum (2n = 20) y P. recto (2n = 20). O nível diplóide (2n = 20) é reportado pela primeira vez para P. malacophyllum. Os dados confirmam a predominância de acessos tetraplóides (43,6%) no gênero e mostram um número incomumente elevado de espécies (44%) e acessos diplóides (35,7%). Estes resultados trazem novas perspectivas para programas de melhoramento, para estudos filogenéticos e para pesquisa orientada ao controle da apomixia, já que em Paspalum as plantas diplóides são tipicamente sexuais.Fil: Pozzobon, Marisa Toniolo. Parque Estação Biológica; BrasilFil: Carvalho, Ana Caroline Machado De. Universidade do Brasília; BrasilFil: Vaio, Magdalena. Universidad de la República; UruguayFil: Valls, José Francisco M.. Parque Estação Biológica; BrasilFil: Peñaloza, Andréa Del Pilar De Souza. Parque Estação Biológica; BrasilFil: Santos, Sileuza Dos. Parque Estação Biológica; BrasilFil: Côrtes, Ana Luiza. Centro Universitário de Brasília; BrasilFil: Rua, Gabriel Hugo. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Agronomía. Departamento de Recursos Naturales y Ambiente. Cátedra de Botánica Agrícola; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentin

GWAS in Breast Cancer

Breast cancer is the most diagnosed cancer in women, and the second cause of cancer-related deaths among women worldwide. It is expected that more than 240,000 new cases and 40,450 deaths related to the disease will occur in 2016. It is well known that inherited genetic variants are drivers for breast cancer development. There are many mechanisms through which germline genetic variation affects prognosis, such as BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, which account for approximately 20% of the increased hereditary risks. Therefore, it is evident that the genetic pathways that underlie cancer development are complex in which networks of multiple alleles confer disease susceptibility and risks. Global analyses through genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have revealed several loci across the genome are associated with the breast cancer. This chapter compiles all breast GWAS released since 2007, year of the first article published in this area, and discuss the future directions of this field. Currently, hundreds of genetic markers are linked to breast cancer, and understanding the underlying mechanisms of these variants might lead to the discover of biomarkers and targets for therapy in patients

Rarity of monodominance in hyperdiverse Amazonian forests.

Tropical forests are known for their high diversity. Yet, forest patches do occur in the tropics where a single tree species is dominant. Such "monodominant" forests are known from all of the main tropical regions. For Amazonia, we sampled the occurrence of monodominance in a massive, basin-wide database of forest-inventory plots from the Amazon Tree Diversity Network (ATDN). Utilizing a simple defining metric of at least half of the trees ≥ 10 cm diameter belonging to one species, we found only a few occurrences of monodominance in Amazonia, and the phenomenon was not significantly linked to previously hypothesized life history traits such wood density, seed mass, ectomycorrhizal associations, or Rhizobium nodulation. In our analysis, coppicing (the formation of sprouts at the base of the tree or on roots) was the only trait significantly linked to monodominance. While at specific locales coppicing or ectomycorrhizal associations may confer a considerable advantage to a tree species and lead to its monodominance, very few species have these traits. Mining of the ATDN dataset suggests that monodominance is quite rare in Amazonia, and may be linked primarily to edaphic factors