Detection and genome characterization of iPotato virus/i Y isolates infecting potato (iSolanum tuberosum/i L.) in La Union (Antioquia, Colombia)

Potato virus Y (PVY) is one of the most severe viruses affecting the production of potato (Solanum tuberosum) in the world. This study presents a detailed molecular analysis using nextgeneration sequencing (NGS), IC-RT-qPCR and RT-PCR on the PVY isolates infecting seed-tubers and foliage of potato plants cv. Diacol-Capiro in La Union (Antioquia, Colombia). Analysis of incidence by IC-RT-qPCR in 15 random leaf samples of three cultivation plots and fifteen sprouting tuber eye-buds reveal infection levels between 13.4 and 80%; a higher incidence of 86.7% was observed in seed-tuber samples with threshold cycle (Ct) values as low as 24.3. Genome assembly from a bulk of foliage samples resulted in a consensus PVY genome (PVY_LaUnionF) of 9,702 nt and 399 polymorphic sites within the polyprotein ORF; while the assembled genome from sprouts of tubers has 9,704 nt (PVY_LaUnionT) and contained only six polymorphic nucleotide sites. Phylogenetic analysis demonstrates that the PVY isolates from leaf samples are in the recombinant PVYNTN group (sequence identity 99%); while those from tuber sprouts are in the PVYN/NTN group with identities above 95%. Sanger sequencing of viral capsid suggests the presence of a third variant related to PVYO, a prevalent strain reported in potato fields worldwide

Parkinson disease: pathophysiology, diagnosis and treatment

La enfermedad de Parkinson es la segunda causa de enfermedad neurodegenerativa crónica progresiva, tiene una alta prevalencia e incidencia, genera un alto impacto en la calidad de vida de los pacientes e importantes costos en su atención. La enfermedad de Parkinson se desarrolla por la degeneración de las neuronas dopaminérgicas en la sustancia nigra pars compacta, lo que se manifiesta en la aparición de síntomas motores como la bradicinesia, temblor de reposo, rigidez e inestabilidad postural; así como también de síntomas no motores como alteraciones gastrointestinales, del sueño, autonómicas, cognitivas, entre otras, que reflejan el compromiso de diferentes vías no dopaminérgicas. El diagnóstico se apoya en sus manifestaciones clínicas más características y excluye otras causas de parkinsonismo. El tratamiento farmacológico busca controlar los síntomas motores y no motores, los cuales empeoran por la historia natural de la enfermedad o se acompañan de complicaciones debidas a la terapia, haciendo necesarias otras intervenciones como la estimulación cerebral profunda.Parkinson’s disease is the second cause of progressive chronic neurodegenerative disease, it has a high prevalence and incidence, generates a high impact on the quality of life of patients and significant costs due to its healthcare. Parkinson’s disease is developed due to the degeneration of dopaminergic neurons in the substance nigra pars compacta, which is manifested in the appearance of motor symptoms such as bradykinesia, rest tremor, rigidity and postural instability; as well as non-motor symptoms such as gastrointestinal, sleep, autonomic, cognitive alterations, among others, reflecting the impairment of different non-dopaminergic pathways. The diagnosis is based on its most frequent clinical manifestations and the exclusion of other causes of parkinsonism. The pharmacological treatment seeks to control motor and non-motor symptoms, which are worsened by the natural history of the disease or are accompanied by side effects induced by pharmacotherapy, making necessary other approaches such as deep brain stimulation

An Efficient Green Photo-Fenton System for the Degradation of Organic Pollutants. Kinetics of Propranolol Removal From Different Water Matrices

Financiado para publicación en acceso aberto: Universidade da Coruña/CISUG[Abstract] We report on the degradation of aqueous propranolol (PRO) in a heterogeneous system with natural iron oxide (N.I.O.) and oxalic acid (OAA) under near UV–Vis irradiation. Photolysis experiments showed ca. 65% degradation of PRO after 2 h irradiation, and a similar degradation in the presence of N.I.O. A more efficient PRO removal was obtained upon irradiation within a mixture of N.I.O. and OAA. Under the best conditions considered, complete degradation (> 95%) was observed in less than 10 min, and TOC decreased by 60% after 3 h irradiation. The observed processes were adequately fitted by pseudo-first-order kinetics, the corresponding rate constants were determined, and the effect of different variables analyzed. Photodegradation of PRO is accelerated under acidic conditions, and neutralization takes place along the reaction. Hydroxyl radicals play a predominant role in the photodegradation reaction, as shown by the dramatic inhibition observed upon t-butanol addition. Furthermore, HOradical dot formation is strongly dependent on the pH of the medium. LC-MS identification of ten different intermediates leads to the proposal of a degradation mechanism. This photocatalytic system has also proven effective, for the first time, in different real aqueous matrices (river water > distilled water > sewage ≫ > seawater, revealing quite efficient in the former) and also employing sunlight, where PRO photodegradation was slower. The results obtained show that N.I.O.-oxalate complexes are a green, cheap choice for removing organic pollutants in aqueous solution.The authors acknowledge the financial support of the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research of Algeria (Project B00L01UN250120210003) and for research visits of WR and HB to UDC. This research was partially supported by the React! Group at UDC, and funded by the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad through project CTQ2015-71238-R (MINECO/FEDER), and the Xunta de Galicia (Project GPC ED431B 2020/52), respectively. Funding for open access publication was provided by Universidade da Coruña/CISUGArgelia. Ministre de l'Enseignement Supérieur et de la Recherche Scientifique; B00L01UN250120210003Xunta de Galicia; ED431B 2020/5

A priori control of zeolite phase competition and intergrowth with high-throughput simulations

Zeolites are versatile catalysts and molecular sieves with large topological diversity, but managing phase competition in zeolite synthesis is an empirical, labor-intensive task. In this work, we controlled phase selectivity in templated zeolite synthesis from first principles by combining high-throughput atomistic simulations, literature mining, human-computer interaction, synthesis, and characterization. Proposed binding metrics distilled from more than 586,000 zeolite-molecule simulations reproduced the extracted literature and rationalized framework competition in the design of organic structure-directing agents. Energetic, geometric, and electrostatic descriptors of template molecules were found to regulate synthetic accessibility windows and aluminum distributions in pure-phase zeolites. Furthermore, these parameters allowed us to realize an intergrowth zeolite through a single bi-selective template. The computation-first approach enables control of both zeolite synthesis and structure composition using a priori theoretical descriptors.D.S.-K. and R.G.-B. acknowledge the Energy Initiative (MITEI) and MIT International Science and Technology Initiatives (MISTI) Seed Funds. D.S.-K. was also funded by the MIT Energy Fellowship. C.P., E.B.-J., M.M., and A.C. acknowledge financial support by the Spanish government through the “Severo Ochoa” program (SEV-2016-0683, MINECO) and grant RTI2018-101033-B-I00 (MCIU/AEI/FEDER, UE). E.B.-J. acknowledges the Spanish government for an FPI scholarship (PRE2019-088360). Z.J., E.O., S.K., and Y.R.-L. acknowledge partial funding from Designing Materials to Revolutionize and Engineer our Future (DMREF) from the National Science Foundation (NSF); awards 1922311, 1922372, and 1922090; and the Office of Naval Research (ONR) under contract N00014-20-1-2280. S.K. was additionally funded by the Kwanjeong Educational Fellowship. Z.J. was also supported by the Department of Defense (DoD) through the National Defense Science Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) fellowship program. T.W. acknowledges financial support by the Swedish Research Council (grant no. 2019-05465). Computer calculations were executed at the Massachusetts Green High-Performance Computing Center with support from MIT Research Computing and at the Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment (XSEDE) (53) Expanse through allocation TG-DMR200068

Larval Development in Tropical Gar (Atractosteus tropicus) Is Dependent on the Embryonic Thermal Regime: Ecological Implications under a Climate Change Context

In ectotherm species, environmental temperature plays a key role in development, growth, and survival. Thus, determining how temperature affects fish populations is of utmost importance to accurately predict the risk of climate change over fisheries and aquaculture, critical to warrant nutrition and food security in the coming years. Here, the potential effects of abnormal thermal regimes (24, 28 and 32 C; TR24, TR28, and TR32, respectively) exclusively applied during embryogenesis in tropical gar (Atractosteus tropicus) has been explored to decipher the potential consequences on hatching and growth from fertilization to 16 days post-fertilization (dpf), while effects on skeletal development and body morphology were explored at fertilization and 16 dpf. Egg incubation at higher temperatures induced an early hatching and mouth opening. A higher hatching rate was obtained in eggs incubated at 28 C when compared to those at 24 C. No differences were found in fish survival at 16 dpf, with values ranging from 84.89 to 88.86%, but increased wet body weight and standard length were found in larvae from TR24 and TR32 groups. Thermal regime during embryogenesis also altered the rate at which the skeletal development occurs. Larvae from the TR32 group showed an advanced skeletal development, with a higher development of cartilaginous structures at hatching but reduced at 16 dpf when compared with the TR24 and TR28 groups. Furthermore, this advanced skeletal development seemed to determine the fish body morphology. Based on biometric measures, a principal component analysis showed how along development, larvae from each thermal regime were clustered together, but with each population remaining clearly separated from each other. The current study shows how changes in temperature may induce craniofacial and morphological alterations in fish during early stages and contribute to understanding the possible effects of global warming in early development of fish and its ecological implications.Versión del edito

Effect of β-Glucans in Diets on Growth, Survival, Digestive Enzyme Activity, and Immune System and Intestinal Barrier Gene Expression for Tropical Gar (Atractosteus tropicus) Juveniles

The application of β-1,3/1,6-glucan derived from yeast at five concentrations (0%, 0.5%, 1.0%, 1.5%, and 2.0%) in formulated diets was evaluated in juveniles for its effects on the growth, survival, digestive enzymatic activity, and expression of genes associated with the immune system (interlukin-10 (IL-10), transforming growth factor (TGF), occludin (OCC), mucin2 (MUC2), lysozyme (LYS), and nucleotide-binding and oligomerization domain 2 (NOD2)) in tropical gar (Atractosteus tropicus). For the experiment, three replicates of 30 fish per experimental unit (70 L) were cultivated for 62 days. The growth results showed no statistically significant differences in relation to weight and total length between treatments. The activity of digestive enzymes (alkaline proteases, trypsin, leucine aminopeptidase, and amylase) did not show significant differences between treatments, except for chymotrypsin activity, where fish fed 1.0% and 1.5% of β-glucans showed higher activities compared with the rest of the treatments. On the other hand, the analysis of gene expression did not show significant differences between treatments, although a tendency of increase in the expression of IL-10, TGF, MUC2, and OCC was observed with an addition of 1.5% of the prebiotic, but there was a decrease in the fish fed with 2% of the prebiotic. It is possible to include concentrations of between 0.5% and 1.5% of β-glucans in the diets for A. tropicus, with no detectable adverse effects on growth, survival, digestive enzyme activity, or specific gene expression. β-glucan 1,3/1,6 added at 1.0% and 1.5% in the diet significantly increases chymotrypsin activity.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The clustering of galaxies in the SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey : Baryon Acoustic Oscillations in the correlation function of LOWZ and CMASS galaxies in Data Release 12

AJC and LV are supported by supported by the European Research Council under the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme FP7-IDEAS-Phys.LSS 240117. Funding for this work was partially provided by the Spanish MINECO under projects AYA2014-58747-P and MDM-2014-0369 of ICCUB (Unidad de Excelencia ‘María de Maeztu’). The Science, Technology and Facilities Council is acknowledged for support through the Survey Cosmology and Astrophysics consolidated grant, ST/I001204/1.We present distance scale measurements from the baryon acoustic oscillation signal in the CMASS and LOWZ samples from the Data Release 12 of the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS). The total volume probed is 14.5 Gpc$^3$, a 10% increment from Data Release 11. From an analysis of the spherically averaged correlation function, we infer a distance to $z=0.57$ of $D_V(z)r^{\rm fid}_{\rm d}/r_ {\rm d}=2028\pm19$ Mpc and a distance to $z=0.32$ of $D_V(z)r^{\rm fid}_{\rm d}/r_{\rm d}=1263\pm21$ Mpc assuming a cosmology in which $r^{\rm fid}_{\rm d}=147.10$ Mpc. From the anisotropic analysis, we find an angular diameter distance to $z=0.57$ of $D_{\rm A}(z)r^{\rm fid}_{\rm d}/r_{\rm d}=1401\pm19$ Mpc and a distance to $z=0.32$ of $981\pm20$ Mpc, a 1.4% and 2.0% measurement respectively. The Hubble parameter at $z=0.57$ is $H(z)r_{\rm d}/r^{\rm fid}_{\rm d}=100.3\pm3.4$ km s$^{-1}$ Mpc$^{-1}$ and its value at $z=0.32$ is $79.2\pm5.5$ km s$^{-1}$ Mpc$^{-1}$, a 3.4% and 6.9% measurement respectively. These cosmic distance scale constraints are in excellent agreement with a $\Lambda$CDM model with cosmological parameters released by the recent Planck 2015 results.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Caracterización inmunológica de un grupo familiar colombiano con infección por SARS-CoV-2

Introduction: Immunological markers have been described during COVID-19 and persist after recovery. These immune markers are associated with clinical features among SARSCoV-2 infected individuals. Nevertheless, studies reporting a comprehensive analysis of the immune changes occurring during SARS-CoV-2 infection are still limited.Objective: To evaluate the production of proinflammatory cytokines, the antibody response, and the phenotype and function of NK cells and T cells in a Colombian family cluster with SARS-CoV-2 infection.Materials and methods: Proinflammatory cytokines were evaluated by RT-PCR and ELISA. The frequency, phenotype, and function of NK cells (cocultures with K562 cells) and T-cells (stimulated with spike/RdRp peptides) were assessed by flow cytometry. Anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies were determined using indirect immunofluorescence and plaque reduction neutralization assay.Results: During COVID-19, we observed a high proinflammatory-cytokine production and a reduced CD56bright-NK cell and cytotoxic response. Compared with healthy controls, infected individuals had a higher frequency of dysfunctional CD8+ T cells CD38+HLA-DR-. During the acute phase, CD8+ T cells stimulated with viral peptides exhibited a monofunctional response characterized by high IL-10 production. However, during recovery, we observed a bifunctional response characterized by the co-expression of CD107a and granzyme B or perforin.Conclusion: Although the proinflammatory response is a hallmark of SARS-CoV-2 infection, other phenotypic and functional alterations in NK cells and CD8+ T cells couldbe associated with the outcome of COVID-19. However, additional studies are required to understand these alterations and to guide future immunotherapy strategies.Introducción. Se han descrito diferentes marcadores inmunológicos durante la COVID-19, los cuales persisten incluso después de la convalecencia y se asocian con los estadios clínicos de la infección. Sin embargo, aún son pocos los estudios orientados al análisis exhaustivo de las alteraciones del sistema inmunológico en el curso de la infección.Objetivo. Evaluar la producción de citocinas proinflamatorias, la reacción de anticuerpos, y el fenotipo y la función de las células NK y los linfocitos T en una familia colombiana con infección por SARS-CoV-2.Materiales y métodos. Se evaluaron las citocinas proinflamatorias mediante RT-PCR y ELISA; la frecuencia, el fenotipo y la función de las células NK (en cocultivos con células K562) y linfocitos T CD8+ (estimulados con péptidos spike/RdRp) mediante citometría de flujo, y los anticuerpos anti-SARS-CoV-2, mediante inmunofluorescencia indirecta y prueba de neutralización por reducción de placa.Resultados. Durante la COVID-19 hubo una producción elevada de citocinas proinflamatorias, con disminución de las células NK CD56bright y reacción citotóxica. Comparados con los controles sanos, los individuos infectados presentaron con gran frecuencia linfocitos T CD8+ disfuncionales CD38+HLA-DR-. Además, en los linfocitos T CD8+ estimulados con péptidos virales, predominó una reacción monofuncional con gran producción de IL-10 durante la fase aguda y una reacción bifuncional caracterizada por la coexpresión de CD107a y granzima B o perforina durante la convalecencia.Conclusión. Aunque la reacción inflamatoria caracteriza la infección por SARS-CoV-2, hay otras alteraciones fenotípicas y funcionales en células NK y linfocitos T CD8+ que podrían asociarse con la progresión de la infección. Se requieren estudios adicionales para entender estas alteraciones y guiar futuras estrategias de inmunoterapia

The ecology of peace : preparing Colombia for new political and planetary climates

ABSTRACT: Colombia, one of the world’s most species-rich nations, is currently undergoing a profound social transition: the end of a decadeslong conflict with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as FARC. The peace agreement process will likely transform the country’s physical and socioeconomic landscapes at a time when humans are altering Earth’s atmosphere and climate in unprecedented ways. We discuss ways in which these transformative events will act in combination to shape the ecological and environmental future of Colombia. We also highlight the risks of creating perverse development incentives in these critical times, along with the potential benefits – for the country and the world – if Colombia can navigate through the peace process in a way that protects its own environment and ecosystems