On the origins of American Criollo pigs: A common genetic background with a lasting Iberian signature

American Criollo pigs are thought to descend mainly from those imported from the Iberian Peninsula starting in the late 15th century. Criollo pigs subsequently expanded throughout the Americas, adapting to very diverse environments, and possibly receiving influences from other origins. With the intensification of agriculture in the mid-20th century, cosmopolitan breeds largely replaced Criollo pigs, and the few remaining are mostly maintained by rural communities in marginal areas where they still play an important socio-economic and cultural role. In this study, we used 24 microsatellite markers in samples from 1715 pigs representing 46 breeds with worldwide distribution, including 17 American Criollo breeds, with the major focus of investigating their genetic diversity, structure and breed relationships. We also included representatives of the Iberian, Local British, Hungarian, Chinese and Commercial breeds, as well as Wild Boar, in order to investigate their possible influence in the genetic composition of Criollos. Our results show that, when compared with the other breeds, Criollo pigs present higher levels of genetic diversity, both in terms of allelic diversity and expected heterozygosity. The various analyses indicate that breed differentiation overall explains nearly 21% of the total genetic diversity. Criollo breeds showed their own identity and shared a common genetic background, tending to cluster together in various analyses, even though they differ from each other. A close relationship of Criollos with Iberian breeds was revealed by all the different analyses, and the contribution of Iberian breeds, particularly of the Celtic breeds, is still present in various Criollo breeds. No influence of Chinese breeds was detected on Criollos, but a few were influenced by Commercial breeds or by wild pigs. Our results confirm the uniqueness of American Criollo pigs and the role that Iberian breeds have played in their development. © 2021 Revidatti et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited

The CARMENES search for exoplanets around M dwarfs. First visual-channel radial-velocity measurements and orbital parameter updates of seven M-dwarf planetary systems

Stars and planetary system

Erosión y desertificación.-Impact of land-use change on soil degradation by establishment of terraces with subtropical orchards in sloping areas (Granada, SE Spain)

ABSTRACT In the coast of Granada, an intensive irrigated agriculture based on subtropical crops has been established. These trees have been planted in highly sloped areas, by the construction of terraces. In this fragile Mediterranean agroecosystem, the removal of native spontaneous vegetation cover and substitution by orchards, increase the susceptibility to soil degradation and eventually brings up the destruction of these structures by rainfall events. To study this net change, we monitored the soil loss and runoff over a two-year period in the taluses of terraces with a mature mango (Mangifera indica L.) orchard. The studied treatments were bare soil (BS) and spontaneous vegetation (NSV), each twice replicated. The erosion plots were 4 m x 4 m in area and were located in the taluses of orchard terraces (65� slope). The average annual soil loss by erosion for BS and NSV was 2.5 and 0.3 Mg ha-1 yr-1, and for runoff 34.1 and 6.8 mm yr-1, respectively. Therefore, soil erosion and runoff from BS plot were 8- and 5-times higher than in NSV, showing the importance of plant covers in the taluses of terraces in reducing this impact. Thus, the removal of plant cover from the taluses under these conditions, represent a high risk of slump and collapse, causing serious environmental and economic problems for farmers of subtropical crops.etadata.js

Restoration of soils contaminated by heavy metals: a strategy based on waste recycling and bioremediation by symbiotic and saprobic microorganisms

Resumen del poster presentado en: I Jornada de Juventud Investigadora Estación Experimental del Zaidín. EEZ Granada; 20 noviembre (2022)This work was supported by the Research Project RTI 2018-094327-B-I00 (Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities)]

Soil remediation approach and bacterial community structure in a long-term contaminated soil by a mining spill (Aznalcóllar, Spain)

The Aznalcóllar accident, which occurred in 1998, spilled 36 × 10 m of pyritic sludge and 9 × 10 m of acidic water around an area of 43 km in the south of Spain. This spill is considered one of the most important metal-mining associated accidents worldwide. In this study, two soil remediation techniques were evaluated: the addition of marble sludge (liming treatment, LS) and the mixing of recovered soils (RC) with contaminated soils (CT) (biopile treatment, BS). Both LS and BS significantly reduce the solubility of Cu, Zn, As, and Pb mainly due to the increase in pH and organic matter content, respectively. Soil basal respiration rate and the seed germination and root elongation bioassay with Lactuca sativa were used to evaluate the toxicity of the potential pollution in the sampled soils. Both bioassays showed that the CT soils exhibited the highest toxicity with a significant reduction in the toxicity of the amended soils (LS and BS). The abundance and structure of microbial communities in the soils were determined by qPCR and Illumina 16S rRNA sequencing, respectively. The absolute abundances of total bacterial and archaeal populations, ammonium oxidising bacteria, and denitrifiers in the CT soils were statistically lower than these found in the other three soils. Similarly, the structure of the bacterial community was highly different in the CT soils. Our results underline the persistence of the detrimental effect of pollutants in CT soils compared to the recuperated (RC) and amended soils (LS and BS). We also highlight the uses of liming or biopile as remediation techniques as satisfactory tools to reduce the impact of heavy metals in the contaminated Aznalcóllar soils.This work was supported by the Research Project RTI 2018-094327-B-I00 (Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities)

A review of the world's soil museums and exhibitions

The soil science community needs to communicate about soils and the use of soil information to various audiences, especially to the general public and public authorities. In this global review article, we synthesis information pertaining to museums solely dedicated to soils or which contain a permanent exhibition on soils. We identified 38 soil museums specifically dedicated to soils, 34 permanent soil exhibitions, and 32 collections about soils that are accessible by appointment. We evaluate the growth of the number of museums since the early 1900s, their geographical distribution, their contents, and their attendance. The number of museums has been continuously growing since the early 1900s. A noticeable increase was observed from 2015 to 2019. Europe (in a geographical sense), Eastern and South-East Asia have the highest concentration of soil museums and permanent exhibitions related to soils. Most of the museums' attendance ranged from 1000 to 10,000 visitors per year. Russia has the largest number of soil monoliths exhibited across the world's museums, whereas the ISRIC-World Soil Museum has the richest and the most diverse collection of soil monoliths. Museums, collections, and exhibitions of soil play an important role in educating the population about this finite natural resource that maintains life on the planet, and for this reason, they must be increasingly supported, extended, and protected. © 2021 Elsevier Inc

Body mass index and complications following major gastrointestinal surgery: A prospective, international cohort study and meta-analysis

Aim Previous studies reported conflicting evidence on the effects of obesity on outcomes after gastrointestinal surgery. The aims of this study were to explore the relationship of obesity with major postoperative complications in an international cohort and to present a metaanalysis of all available prospective data. Methods This prospective, multicentre study included adults undergoing both elective and emergency gastrointestinal resection, reversal of stoma or formation of stoma. The primary end-point was 30-day major complications (Clavien–Dindo Grades III–V). A systematic search was undertaken for studies assessing the relationship between obesity and major complications after gastrointestinal surgery. Individual patient meta-analysis was used to analyse pooled results. Results This study included 2519 patients across 127 centres, of whom 560 (22.2%) were obese. Unadjusted major complication rates were lower in obese vs normal weight patients (13.0% vs 16.2%, respectively), but this did not reach statistical significance (P = 0.863) on multivariate analysis for patients having surgery for either malignant or benign conditions. Individual patient meta-analysis demonstrated that obese patients undergoing surgery formalignancy were at increased risk of major complications (OR 2.10, 95% CI 1.49–2.96, P < 0.001), whereas obese patients undergoing surgery for benign indications were at decreased risk (OR 0.59, 95% CI 0.46–0.75, P < 0.001) compared to normal weight patients. Conclusions In our international data, obesity was not found to be associated with major complications following gastrointestinal surgery. Meta-analysis of available prospective data made a novel finding of obesity being associated with different outcomes depending on whether patients were undergoing surgery for benign or malignant disease