Duguetia leucotricha (Annonaceae), a new species from the Atlantic Coastal Forest of Brazil

Abstract A new species of Annonaceae, Duguetia leucotricha M.L.Bazante & Maas, from lowland to submontane forests of southern Bahia, Brazil, is described. It differs from other species of the genus mainly by the dense greyish white stellate hairs on vegetative and reproductive structures, rather widely-spaced flowers, the large bract in the upper part of the well-developed pedicel, sepals and petals almost equal in length, and the few-carpellate fruits with rounded apex of the areoles. Commentaries concerning its morphological aspects and relationships of affinity, geographic distribution, conservation status and photos are provided, as well as a key to all Atlantic Coastal Forest species of Duguetia

Genetic analysis of plasmid-encoded mcr-1 resistance in Enterobacteriaceae derived from poultry meat in the Netherlands

BACKGROUND: Colistin is classified as the highest priority and critically important antimicrobial for human medicine by WHO as it is the last resort agent for treatment of carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae in humans. Additional research is necessary to elucidate the genetic structure of mcr-1 resistance genes, commonly found on plasmids, using WGS. OBJECTIVES: To map and compare the genetic characteristics of 35 mcr-1-mediated colistin-resistant Enterobacteriaceae isolated from chicken meat to highlight the genetic variation of the mcr-1-containing plasmids. METHODS: Sequencing was performed using Illumina HiSeq2500, Novaseq6000 and ONT’s GridION. GridION data was locally basecalled and demultiplexed using ONT’s Albacore 2.3.4 followed by Porechop 2.3. Quality filtering was performed using Filtlong 2.0. Hybrid Assembly was performed using Unicycler 4.7. Plasmids were compared with reference sequences in plasmid-RefSeq and pATLAS. RESULTS: A total of 35 mcr-1 positive Enterobacteriaceae were investigated, which resulted in 34 qualitatively robust hybrid assemblies of 2 Klebsiella pneumoniae and 32 Escherichia coli. mcr-1.1 was present in 33/34 isolates. One isolate contained an mcr-1.1-like resistance gene, due to a deletion of one codon. Two mcr-1.1 genes were located on the chromosome, while the majority of the mcr-1 genes were found on IncX4 type plasmids (n = 19). Almost all plasmids identified in this study were highly similar to plasmids found in human-derived strains. CONCLUSIONS: The mcr-1.1-containing plasmids from retail chicken show high sequence similarity to human mcr-1.1 plasmids, suggesting that this may be a contributor to the presence of colistin resistance in humans

Integrated Ecological Modeling and Decision Analysis Within the Everglades Landscape

Planning for complex ecosystem restoration projects involves integrating ecological modeling with analysis of performance trade-offs among restoration alternatives. The authors used the Everglades Landscape Model and Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis to explore the effect of simulated ecosystem performance, risk preferences, and criteria weights on the ranking of three alternatives to restoring overland sheet flow in the Everglades. The ecological model outputs included both hydrologic and water quality criteria. Results were scored in the decision analysis framework, highlighting the trade-offs between hydrologic restoration and water quality constraints. Given equal weighting of performance measures, the alternative with more homogenous sheet flow was preferred over other alternatives, despite evidence of some localized eutrophication risk