Diversidade e distribuição espacial de bromeliáceas epifíticas do Altíssimo Rio Tibagi - Paraná - Brasil.

O presente estudo teve como objetivo caracterizar a diversidade e a distribuição espacial das bromeliáceas epifíticas na região do altíssimo rio Tibagi, considerando os fatores geomorfológicos, pedológicos, climáticos e vegetacionais. A avaliação fitossociológica das bromeliáceas foi realizada mediante instalação de parcelas em número variável nas três áreas de estudo. O levantamento florístico foi complementado por observações nas áreas adjacentes às parcelas, respeitando a compartimentação geomorfológica, pedológica e vegetacional. Foram registradas onze espécies de bromeliáceas no total, tendo sido sete delas observadas na área da cabeceira do rio Tibagi, oito no cânion e nove na floresta da foz do rio Bugio. A riqueza foi relacionada, principalmente, com as condições macro e microclimáticas. A umidade fornecida pelas nuvens e chuvas formadas na cuesta do segundo planalto, assim como, em microescala, a umidade atmosférica gerada pelas cachoeiras existentes no cânion e originada da evaporação da água dos Organossolos, é o fator climático fundamental na definição dos padrões encontrados. Considerando a distribuição horizontal das espécies, a diminuição de bromeliáceas da porção mais próxima ao canal para a mais distante está atrelada ao gradiente microclimático, formado pela redução em umidade relativa associada à diminuição em luminosidade

Vascular grassland plants of Tibagi River Spring, Ponta Grossa, Brazil.

A systematic survey was carried out on wet grasslands found over Histosols at Upper Tibagi River basin, between Ponta Grossa and Palmeira municipalities, in the state of Paraná, Brazil, place of high importance because of soil water retention capability and soil carbon pool composition. We provide a checklist containing 146 species, 96 genera and 42 plant families for the area. Families with higher species richness were Asteraceae (27 species; 21 genera), Poaceae (24; 16) and Cyperaceae (18; 6). Four species were classified as endangered or rare, and one as exotic. The specific richness in wet grassland environments at the state of Paraná underlines the need for conservation efforts encompassing these formations

Florística do banco de sementes do solo em ambiente ripário da floresta ombrófila mista.

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Tackling the translational challenges of multi-omics research in the realm of European personalised medicine : A workshop report

Personalised medicine (PM) presents a great opportunity to improve the future of individualised healthcare. Recent advances in -omics technologies have led to unprecedented efforts characterising the biology and molecular mechanisms that underlie the development and progression of a wide array of complex human diseases, supporting further development of PM. This article reflects the outcome of the 2021 EATRIS-Plus Multi-omics Stakeholder Group workshop organised to 1) outline a global overview of common promises and challenges that key European stakeholders are facing in the field of multi-omics research, 2) assess the potential of new technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI), and 3) establish an initial dialogue between key initiatives in this space. Our focus is on the alignment of agendas of European initiatives in multi-omics research and the centrality of patients in designing solutions that have the potential to advance PM in long-term healthcare strategies.Peer reviewe

Solving Uncalibrated Photometric Stereo using Total Variation

International audienceEstimating the shape and appearance of an object, given one or several images, is still an open and challenging research problem called 3D-reconstruction. Among the different techniques available, photometric stereo (PS) produces highly accurate results when the lighting conditions have been identified. When these conditions are unknown, the problem becomes the so-called uncalibrated PS problem, which is ill-posed. In this paper, we will show how total variation can be used to reduce the ambiguities of uncalibrated PS, and we will study two methods for estimating the parameters of the generalized bas-relief ambiguity. These methods will be evaluated through the 3D-reconstruction of real-world objects

Amyloid precursor protein drives down-regulation of mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation independent of amyloid beta

Amyloid precursor protein (APP) and its extracellular domain, soluble APP alpha (sAPPα) play important physiological and neuroprotective roles. However, rare forms of familial Alzheimer’s disease are associated with mutations in APP that increase toxic amyloidogenic cleavage of APP and produce amyloid beta (Aβ) at the expense of sAPPα and other non-amyloidogenic fragments. Although mitochondrial dysfunction has become an established hallmark of neurotoxicity, the link between Aβ and mitochondrial function is unclear. In this study we investigated the effects of increased levels of neuronal APP or Aβ on mitochondrial metabolism and gene expression, in human SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cells. Increased non-amyloidogenic processing of APP, but not Aβ, profoundly decreased respiration and enhanced glycolysis, while mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) transcripts were decreased, without detrimental effects to cell growth. These effects cannot be ascribed to Aβ toxicity, since higher levels of endogenous Aβ in our models do not cause oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) perturbations. Similarly, chemical inhibition of β-secretase decreased mitochondrial respiration, suggesting that non-amyloidogenic processing of APP may be responsible for mitochondrial changes. Our results have two important implications, the need for caution in the interpretation of mitochondrial perturbations in models where APP is overexpressed, and a potential role of sAPPα or other non-amyloid APP fragments as acute modulators of mitochondrial metabolism

Caveolae in Rabbit Ventricular Myocytes: Distribution and Dynamic Diminution after Cell Isolation

Caveolae are signal transduction centers, yet their subcellular distribution and preservation in cardiac myocytes after cell isolation are not well documented. Here, we quantify caveolae located within 100 nm of the outer cell surface membrane in rabbit single-ventricular cardiomyocytes over 8 h post-isolation and relate this to the presence of caveolae in intact tissue. Hearts from New Zealand white rabbits were either chemically fixed by coronary perfusion or enzymatically digested to isolate ventricular myocytes, which were subsequently fixed at 0, 3, and 8 h post-isolation. In live cells, the patch-clamp technique was used to measure whole-cell plasma membrane capacitance, and in fixed cells, caveolae were quantified by transmission electron microscopy. Changes in cell-surface topology were assessed using scanning electron microscopy. In fixed ventricular myocardium, dual-axis electron tomography was used for three-dimensional reconstruction and analysis of caveolae in situ. The presence and distribution of surface-sarcolemmal caveolae in freshly isolated cells matches that of intact myocardium. With time, the number of surface-sarcolemmal caveolae decreases in isolated cardiomyocytes. This is associated with a gradual increase in whole-cell membrane capacitance. Concurrently, there is a significant increase in area, diameter, and circularity of sub-sarcolemmal mitochondria, indicative of swelling. In addition, electron tomography data from intact heart illustrate the regular presence of caveolae not only at the surface sarcolemma, but also on transverse-tubular membranes in ventricular myocardium. Thus, caveolae are dynamic structures, present both at surface-sarcolemmal and transverse-tubular membranes. After cell isolation, the number of surface-sarcolemmal caveolae decreases significantly within a time frame relevant for single-cell research. The concurrent increase in cell capacitance suggests that membrane incorporation of surface-sarcolemmal caveolae underlies this, but internalization and/or micro-vesicle loss to the extracellular space may also contribute. Given that much of the research into cardiac caveolae-dependent signaling utilizes isolated cells, and since caveolae-dependent pathways matter for a wide range of other study targets, analysis of isolated cell data should take the time post-isolation into account