A922 Sequential measurement of 1 hour creatinine clearance (1-CRCL) in critically ill patients at risk of acute kidney injury (AKI)

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Ancient origin of the biosynthesis of lignin precursors

BACKGROUND: Lignin plays an important role in plant structural support and water transport, and is considered one of the hallmarks of land plants. The recent discovery of lignin or its precursors in various algae has raised questions on the evolution of its biosynthetic pathway, which could be much more ancient than previously thought. To determine the taxonomic distribution of the lignin biosynthesis genes, we screened all publicly available genomes of algae and their closest non-photosynthetic relatives, as well as representative land plants. We also performed phylogenetic analysis of these genes to decipher the evolution and origin(s) of lignin biosynthesis. RESULTS: Enzymes involved in making p-coumaryl alcohol, the simplest lignin monomer, are found in a variety of photosynthetic eukaryotes, including diatoms, dinoflagellates, haptophytes, cryptophytes as well as green and red algae. Phylogenetic analysis of these enzymes suggests that they are ancient and spread to some secondarily photosynthetic lineages when they acquired red and/or green algal endosymbionts. In some cases, one or more of these enzymes was likely acquired through lateral gene transfer (LGT) from bacteria. CONCLUSIONS: Genes associated with p-coumaryl alcohol biosynthesis are likely to have evolved long before the transition of photosynthetic eukaryotes to land. The original function of this lignin precursor is therefore unlikely to have been related to water transport. We suggest that it participates in the biological defense of some unicellular and multicellular algae. REVIEWERS: This article was reviewed by Mark Ragan, Uri Gophna, Philippe Deschamps

Novel energy crops for Mediterranean contaminated lands: Valorization of Dittrichia viscosa and Silybum marianum biomass by pyrolysis

9 páginas.-- 4 figuras.-- 3 tablas.-- 5 referencias.-- Supplementary data related to this article can be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2017.08.063Establishing energy crops could be a cost-efficient alternative towards the valorization of the plant biomass produced in contaminated lands, where they would not compete with food production for land use. Dittrichia viscosa and Silybum marianum are two native Mediterranean species recently identified as potential energy crops for degraded lands. Here, we present the first characterization of the decomposition of the biomass of these species during thermo-chemical conversion (pyrolysis). Using a greenhouse study we evaluated whether the quality of D. viscosa and S. marianum biomass for energy production through pyrolysis could be substantially influenced by the presence of high concentrations of soluble trace element concentrations in the growing substrate. For each species, biomass produced in two different soil types (with contrasted trace element concentrations and pH) had similar elemental composition. Behavior during thermal decomposition, activation energies and concentrations of pyrolysis gases were also similar between both types of soils. Average activation energy values were 295 and 300 kJ mol−1 (for a conversion value of α = 0.5) for S. marianum and D. viscosa, respectively. Results suggest that there were no major effects of soil growing conditions on the properties of the biomass as raw material for pyrolysis, and confirm the interest of these species as energy crops for Mediterranean contaminated lands.This work was supported by the Iberdrola Foundation (Young Researchers Program) and the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (AGL2014-55717-R project and CTQ2013-46804-C2-1-R projects). We are grateful to Patricia Puente and Cristina García for their help at different stages of the study. MTD was supported by a Juan de la Cierva Postdoctoral fellowship from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, and a postdoctoral fellowship from University of Seville (V Plan Propio).Peer reviewe