Exploiting Genetic and Genomic Resources to Enhance Heat-Tolerance in Tomatoes

High temperature is one of the most detrimental abiotic stresses in tomatoes. Many studies highlighted that even small increases in temperature can alter the plant reproductive system, causing a significant reduction in tomato yield. The aim of this study was to exploit the phenotypic and genomic variations of a tomato landrace collection grown at high temperatures. Fifteen genotypes were selected as the best performing in two experimental fields. The selection was based on six yield-related traits, including flower earliness, number of flowers per inflorescence, fruit set, number of fruit per plant, fruit weight and yield per plant. In order to identify markers targeting traits that could be highly influenced by adverse climate conditions, such as flowering and fruit setting, an association mapping approach was undertaken exploiting a tomato high-throughput genomic array. The phenotypic variability observed allowed us to identify a total of 15 common markers associated with the studied traits. In particular, the most relevant associations co-localized with genes involved in the floral structure development, such as the style2.1 gene, or with genes directly involved in the response to abiotic stresses. These promising candidate genes will be functionally validated and transferred to a cultivated tomato to improve its performance under high temperatures

Urothelial bladder carcinoma metastasizing to the eye: a systematic review and case report

The eye is a rare site for disseminated malignancies; nevertheless, several tumors may metastasize to ocular structures. Few cases of urothelial and bladder cancer with eye involvement have been described in the literature thus far. The rarity of metastatic ocular localization implies an accurate differential diagnosis among the possible primary tumor sites. However, a specific diagnostic algorithm is not currently available, nor a defined therapeutic approach. Eye metastases are associated with advanced disease and poor prognosis. Physicians should be made aware of the possibility of eye involvement in patients with a past medical history of urothelial bladder cancer associated with ocular symptoms. The present case reports discusses the first documented case, to the best of our knowledge, of an urothelial bladder cancer metastasizing to the retro bulbar region that infiltrates the lacrimal gland. Furthermore, the report provides a systematic qualitative review of the current literature on eye metastases from urothelial bladder cancer using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta Analyses

The Multifaceted Origin of Taurine Cattle Reflected by the Mitochondrial Genome

A Neolithic domestication of taurine cattle in the Fertile Crescent from local aurochsen (Bos primigenius) is generally accepted, but a genetic contribution from European aurochsen has been proposed. Here we performed a survey of a large number of taurine cattle mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) control regions from numerous European breeds confirming the overall clustering within haplogroups (T1, T2 and T3) of Near Eastern ancestry, but also identifying eight mtDNAs (1.3%) that did not fit in haplogroup T. Sequencing of the entire mitochondrial genome showed that four mtDNAs formed a novel branch (haplogroup R) which, after the deep bifurcation that gave rise to the taurine and zebuine lineages, constitutes the earliest known split in the mtDNA phylogeny of B. primigenius. The remaining four mtDNAs were members of the recently discovered haplogroup Q. Phylogeographic data indicate that R mtDNAs were derived from female European aurochsen, possibly in the Italian Peninsula, and sporadically included in domestic herds. In contrast, the available data suggest that Q mtDNAs and T subclades were involved in the same Neolithic event of domestication in the Near East. Thus, the existence of novel (and rare) taurine haplogroups highlights a multifaceted genetic legacy from distinct B. primigenius populations. Taking into account that the maternally transmitted mtDNA tends to underestimate the extent of gene flow from European aurochsen, the detection of the R mtDNAs in autochthonous breeds, some of which are endangered, identifies an unexpected reservoir of genetic variation that should be carefully preserved

O-ZONE: affordable stratospheric air dynamic sampling device

The current situation regarding air pollution, global warming and the world approaching the point of no return have led the United Nations to focus on improving the environmental situation through the SDGs [1]. In line with these ambitions, O-ZONE team, was born in 2019 with the clear objective of taking concrete action against climate change [2]. The team's goal is to build a compact, low-cost, and reusable device to sample stratospheric pollutants, at various altitudes and thus provide air quality indications in mid-range areas for monitoring, prevention, and rapid intervention in case of unpredictable events. The O-ZONE team was therefore born as an idea of some students from the Aerospace Engineering course at the same University. The students took part in the REXUS/BEXUS project by Swedish National Space Agency (SNSA), Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR) and European Space Agency (ESA) [3]. As in each of these projects, the team tackled the various steps of space missions but, in this case, with extra constraints. They had to work during the lockdown with various complications due to the pandemic. Although the launch was delayed, the students carried on with their motivation and then launched their device on board the BEXUS 30. The prototype launched in Kiruna - Sweden (at the Esrange base), and which reached an altitude of 27.8 km, is a sampling system for Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs), such as NOX and SOX, Particulate Matter (PM) and Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) responsible for the depletion of the Ozone layer [4]. These types of samplers [2] fill the technological gap in atmospheric analysis; the current state of the art allows air to be monitored only statically from ground stations or by satellite analysis [5], while O-ZONE presents an accessible, easy-to-use and rapid in situ sampling method. This paper describes the technical specifications and design aspects of the device and the experience that has allowed the students to grow as a team, especially in terms of personal skills and the ability to work with concurrent engineering and interdisciplinarity. Finally, the experiment results will be shown

Alexithymia, responsibility attitudes and suicide ideation among outpatients with obsessive-compulsive disorder: An exploratory study

Abstract Aims Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is psychiatric disorder with a significant suicide risk, and the presence of alexithymia may increase this risk. As several studies attribute an important role, in OCD, to responsibility, the aims of this study were to evaluate possible clinical differences between patients positive or not for alexithymia concerning disorder severity, responsibility attitudes and suicide ideation and investigate which variables were associated with increased suicide ideation. Methods 104 adult outpatients with OCD were recruited. Alexithymia was measured with Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20), attitude about responsibility was tested with Responsibility Attitude Scale (RAS), suicide ideation was assessed with Scale of Suicide Ideation (SSI) and depressive symptoms were evaluated with Montgomery Asberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS). Score of item #11 on the Y-BOCS was considered as a measure of insight. Results Patients positive for alexithymia showed higher responsibility attitudes and more severe suicide ideation. In a blockwise regression model, the presence of lower insight, higher RAS scores and difficulty in identifying feelings dimension of TAS-20 were associated with higher SSI scores. Conclusions OCD patients with alexithymia may show higher disorder severity, lower insight and inflated responsibility, all related to suicide ideation, independently from depressive symptoms. Implications were discussed and study limitations considered and reported

Benda-BEAM High-Dose Therapy Prior to Auto-SCT is Effective in Resistant/Relapsed DLBCL

Abstract Background: The most important drawback of clinical trials of high-dose therapy (HDT) followed by autologous stem cell transplant (ASCT) in lymphomas is the high heterogeneity of histological entities. Therefore, the statistical power is reduced, and data are not conclusive. We previously demonstrated the safety of a new conditioning regimen with bendamustine, etoposide, cytarabine, and melphalan (BeEAM) prior to ASCT in resistant/relapsed lymphoma patients. This combination of drugs was able to induce a high CR rate in a population that did not have an opportunity of being cured with other therapies. However, that study enrolled both Hodgkin and non-Hodgkin lymphoma patients. Aims: We designed a phase II study to evaluate the efficacy of the BeEAM conditioning in resistant/relapsed diffuse large B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma (DLBCL) patients. Patients and methods: The study was registered at European Union Drug Regulating Authorities Clinical Trials (EudraCT) N. 2011-001246-14. Until now, 61 patients (median age 54 years, range 19-69) with resistant/relapsed DLBCL were enrolled. The primary end-point of the study is to evaluate the 1-year complete remission rate. Results: Briefly, 46/61 patients had advanced stage disease (III-IV); 20 were primary refractory and 41 had relapsed after a median number of 2 lines of therapy (range: 1-3). Twenty-one patients had 1 or more relevant comorbidities (range: 1- 5). 30 patients were in II or subsequent CR after salvage therapy, whereas 27 were in PR and 4 had stable or progressive disease. A median number of 5.72x106 CD34+/kg cells (range 2.21-10.60) collected from peripheral blood was reinfused to patients. All patients engrafted, with a median time to ANC>0.5x109/l of 10 days. Median times to achieve a platelet count >20x109/l and >50x109/l were 12 and 17 days respectively. Twenty-two out of 61 patients presented a fever of unknown origin (36%), whereas 24 patients (39%) presented a clinically documented infection. All patients received G-CSF after transplant for a median time of 8 days (range: 8-13). One patient died due to an incomplete hematological recovery after transplant, producing an overall transplant related mortality of 2.7%. Fifty-seven patients are evaluable for response: 48/57 (84%) obtained a CR, 3/57 (5%) a PR, whereas 6/57 (11%) did not respond to therapy. After a median follow-up of 10.5 months after transplant (range 3-37), 6/57 (11%) patients were refractory, 12/57 (21%) relapsed and 39/57 (68%) are still alive, in continuous CR. Conclusion: Our clinical trial was designed to closely resemble real-world treatment for these patients. During the study, we transplanted a similar proportion of the patients that would have received ASCT in a real-world scenario. While we cannot make sound comparisons without head-to-head trials, results from previous studies using HDT regimens in DLCBL have not been as encouraging as ours. Accordingly, our data preliminary provide the evidence that the Benda-BEAM regimen is safe and has promising high efficacy in resistant-relapsed aggressive DLBCL patients. Acknowledgments: The study was supported in part by AIL Pesaro Onlus. Mundipharma Italy is grateful acknowledged for providing Bendamustine free of charge. Disclosures Patriarca: Janssen-Cilag, Celgene, Merck Sharp & Dohme: Honoraria. Zinzani:Gilead: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Takeda: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Celgene: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; J&J: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Pfizer: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees

Response-Adapted Postinduction Strategy in Patients With Advanced-Stage Follicular Lymphoma: The FOLL12 Study

Purpose: We compared 2 years of rituximab maintenance (RM) with a response-adapted postinduction approach in patients with follicular lymphoma who responded to induction immunochemotherapy. Methods: We randomly assigned treatment-naïve, advanced-stage, high-tumor burden follicular lymphoma patients to receive standard RM or a response-adapted postinduction approach on the basis of metabolic response and molecular assessment of minimal residual disease (MRD). The experimental arm used three types of postinduction therapies: for complete metabolic response (CMR) and MRD-negative patients, observation; for CMR and MRD-positive (end of induction or follow-up) patients, four doses of rituximab (one per week, maximum three courses) until MRD-negative; and for non-CMR patients, one dose of ibritumomab tiuxetan followed by standard RM. The study was designed as noninferiority trial with progression-free survival (PFS) as the primary end point. Results: Overall, 807 patients were randomly assigned. After a median follow-up of 53 months (range 1-92 months), patients in the standard arm had a significantly better PFS than those in the experimental arm (3-year PFS 86% v 72%; P < .001). The better PFS of the standard vs experimental arm was confirmed in all the study subgroups except non-CMR patients (n = 65; P = .274). The 3-year overall survival was 98% (95% CI, 96 to 99) and 97% (95% CI, 95 to 99) in the reference and experimental arms, respectively (P = .238). Conclusion: A metabolic and molecular response-adapted therapy as assessed in the FOLL12 study was associated with significantly inferior PFS compared with 2-year RM. The better efficacy of standard RM was confirmed in the subgroup analysis and particularly for patients achieving both CMR and MRD-negative

Notulae to the Italian native vascular flora: 5.

In this contribution, new data concerning the distribution of native vascular flora in Italy are presented. It includes new records and confirmations to the Italian administrative regions for taxa in the genera Allium, Arabis, Campanula, Centaurea, Chaerophyllum, Crocus, Dactylis, Dianthus, Festuca, Galanthus, Helianthemum, Lysimachia, Milium, Pteris, and Quercus. Nomenclature and distribution updates, published elsewhere, and corrections are provided as supplementary material

Outcomes of COVID-19 patients treated with continuous positive airway pressure outside ICU

Aim We aim at characterizing a large population of Coronavirus 19 (COVID-19) patients with moderate-to-severe hypoxemic acute respiratory failure (ARF) receiving CPAP outside intensive care unit (ICU), and ascertaining whether the duration of CPAP application increased the risk of mortality for patients requiring intubation. Methods In this retrospective, multicentre cohort study, we included COVID-19 adult patients, treated with CPAP outside ICU for hypoxemic ARF from March 1 st to April 15th, 2020. We collected demographic and clinical data, including CPAP therapeutic goal, hospital length of stay (LOS), and 60- day in-hospital mortality. Results The study includes 537 patients with a median age of 69 (IQR, 60-76) years. Males were 391 (73%). According to predefined CPAP therapeutic goal, 397 (74%) patients were included in full treatment subgroup, and 140 (26%) in the do-not intubate (DNI) subgroup. Median CPAP duration was 4 (IQR, 1-8) days, while hospital LOS 16 (IQR, 9-27) days. Sixty-day in-hospital mortality was overall 34% (95%CI, 0.304-0.384), and 21% (95%CI, 0.169-0.249) and 73% (95%CI, 0.648-0.787) for full treatment and DNI subgroups, respectively. In the full treatment subgroup, in-hospital mortality was 42% (95%CI, 0.345-0.488) for 180 (45%) CPAP failures requiring intubation, while 2% (95%CI, 0.008- 0.035) for the remaining 217 (55%) patients who succeeded. Delaying intubation was associated with increased mortality [HR, 1.093 (95%CI, 1.010-1.184)]. Conclusions We described a large population of COVID-19 patients treated with CPAP outside ICU. Intubation delay represents a risk factor for mortality. Further investigation is needed for early identification of CPAP failures