How Climate Shapes the Functioning of Tropical Montane Cloud Forests

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Springer via the DOI in this recordPurpose of Review: Tropical Montane Cloud Forest (TMCF) is a highly vulnerable ecosystem, which occurs at higher elevations in tropical mountains. Many aspects of TMCF vegetation functioning are poorly understood, making it difficult to quantify and project TMCF vulnerability to global change. We compile functional traits data to provide an overview of TMCF functional ecology. We use numerical models to understand the consequences of TMCF functional composition with respect to its responses to climate and link the traits of TMCF to its environmental conditions. Recent Findings: TMCF leaves are small and have low SLA but high Rubisco content per leaf area. This implies that TMCF maximum net leaf carbon assimilation (An) is high but often limited by low temperature and leaf wetting. Cloud immersion provides important water and potentially nutrient inputs to TMCF plants. TMCF species possess low sapwood specific conductivity, which is compensated with a lower tree height and higher sapwood to leaf area ratio. These traits associated with a more conservative stomatal regulation results in a higher hydraulic safety margin than nearby forests not affected by clouds. The architecture of TMCF trees including its proportionally thicker trunks and large root systems increases tree mechanical stability. Summary: The TMCF functional traits can be conceptually linked to its colder and cloudy environment limiting An, growth, water transport and nutrient availability. A hotter climate would drastically affect the abiotic filters shaping TMCF communities and potentially facilitate the invasion of TMCF by more productive lowland species.Newton FundNatural Environment Research Council (NERC)FAPES

Small molecules, big targets: drug discovery faces the protein-protein interaction challenge.

Protein-protein interactions (PPIs) are of pivotal importance in the regulation of biological systems and are consequently implicated in the development of disease states. Recent work has begun to show that, with the right tools, certain classes of PPI can yield to the efforts of medicinal chemists to develop inhibitors, and the first PPI inhibitors have reached clinical development. In this Review, we describe the research leading to these breakthroughs and highlight the existence of groups of structurally related PPIs within the PPI target class. For each of these groups, we use examples of successful discovery efforts to illustrate the research strategies that have proved most useful.JS, DES and ARB thank the Wellcome Trust for funding.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Nature Publishing Group via http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nrd.2016.2

The V471A polymorphism in autophagy-related gene ATG7 modifies age at onset specifically in Italian Huntington disease patients

The cause of Huntington disease (HD) is a polyglutamine repeat expansion of more than 36 units in the huntingtin protein, which is inversely correlated with the age at onset of the disease. However, additional genetic factors are believed to modify the course and the age at onset of HD. Recently, we identified the V471A polymorphism in the autophagy-related gene ATG7, a key component of the autophagy pathway that plays an important role in HD pathogenesis, to be associated with the age at onset in a large group of European Huntington disease patients. To confirm this association in a second independent patient cohort, we analysed the ATG7 V471A polymorphism in additional 1,464 European HD patients of the “REGISTRY” cohort from the European Huntington Disease Network (EHDN). In the entire REGISTRY cohort we could not confirm a modifying effect of the ATG7 V471A polymorphism. However, analysing a modifying effect of ATG7 in these REGISTRY patients and in patients of our previous HD cohort according to their ethnic origin, we identified a significant effect of the ATG7 V471A polymorphism on the HD age at onset only in the Italian population (327 patients). In these Italian patients, the polymorphism is associated with a 6-years earlier disease onset and thus seems to have an aggravating effect. We could specify the role of ATG7 as a genetic modifier for HD particularly in the Italian population. This result affirms the modifying influence of the autophagic pathway on the course of HD, but also suggests population-specific modifying mechanisms in HD pathogenesis

Body appreciation around the world: Measurement invariance of the Body Appreciation Scale-2 (BAS-2) across 65 nations, 40 languages, gender identities, and age

The Body Appreciation Scale-2 (BAS-2) is a widely used measure of a core facet of the positive body image construct. However, extant research concerning measurement invariance of the BAS-2 across a large number of nations remains limited. Here, we utilised the Body Image in Nature (BINS) dataset - with data collected between 2020 and 2022 - to assess measurement invariance of the BAS-2 across 65 nations, 40 languages, gender identities, and age groups. Multi-group confirmatory factor analysis indicated that full scalar invariance was upheld across all nations, languages, gender identities, and age groups, suggesting that the unidimensional BAS-2 model has widespread applicability. There were large differences across nations and languages in latent body appreciation, while differences across gender identities and age groups were negligible-to-small. Additionally, greater body appreciation was significantly associated with higher life satisfaction, being single (versus being married or in a committed relationship), and greater rurality (versus urbanicity). Across a subset of nations where nation-level data were available, greater body appreciation was also significantly associated with greater cultural distance from the United States and greater relative income inequality. These findings suggest that the BAS-2 likely captures a near-universal conceptualisation of the body appreciation construct, which should facilitate further cross-cultural research

A new species of Senecio (Asteraceae: Senecionae) from southeastern Brazil

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)Senecio altimontanus, a new species from the states of Minas Gerais and So Paulo, Brazil, is described and illustrated. Senecio altimontanus appears to be restricted to high-elevation grasslands (campos de altitude). This new species is characterized by its usually simple stems that are densely leafy apically, coriaceous leaves, and 1-5 corymbiform capitulescences. It is closely related to Senecio apensis from which it differs by the size, shape, and margins of the leaves, the number of phyllaries, and pubescence of the cypselae.622178182Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)FAPESP [04/10110-9, 05/60862-0

A phytogeographic analysis of cloud forests and other forest subtypes amidst the Atlantic forests in south and southeast Brazil

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)In a previous study near the summit of Mt. Cuscuzeiro (Ubatuba, SP) (820-1270 m), on the SE Brazilian coast, we found two floristically different forests, one above 1120 m, that appears to have a number of features typical of cloud forests, and another on the lower altitude slopes below. Taking these two forests as reference points, we addressed two questions: (1) What are their floristic relationships with other Atlantic forest subtypes in S-SE Brazil?; (2) Do the cloud forests in this region constitute a particular floristic-phytogeographic formation or are they a subset of their surrounding community? Species from 109 surveys (including Mount Cuscuzeiro) of 83 locations in S-SE Brazil were compiled into a binary (presence-absence) floristic matrix. Analyses of similarity among these samples using clustering (UPGMA, TWINSPAN) and ordination (DCA, PCO and CA) methods were performed. The surveys were divided into six main groups: (1) Cloud Forests; (2) 'Salespolis' group (3) Coastal Forests, subdivided between (a) Slope Forests and (b) Coastal Plain ('Restinga') Forests and Mountaintop Forests (not included in the Cloud Forests group); (4) Araucaria Forests; (5) Inland Seasonal Forests (from below ca. 700 m); and (6) Inland Montane Forests (from above ca. 700 m). The preferential and indicator species of the Cloud Forest group produced by TWINSPAN are presented. The Mount Cuscuzeiro forests from above and from below 1120 m were clustered with the Cloud Forests and the coastal Slope Forests groups, respectively. We concluded that Cloud forests comprise a distinct phytogeographic formation in Brazilian S-SE region.201434133433Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)Idea Wild and Jasmine Alimentos SaudaveisFundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)[05/60862-0]Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)FAPESP [04/10110-9][05/60862-0

A new species of Symplocos (Symplocaceae) from the Itatiaia Plateau of Brazil

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)Symplocos minima, a new species of Symplocos section Hopea from the Itatiaia Plateau in the Atlantic Rain Forest biome of southeastern Brazil, is described and illustrated. This species is distinguished by its densely compact shrubby habit, ascending leaves, fasciculate inflorescences with several persistent bracts, corolla with five to six erect lobes, pistillate flowers with the disc not thickened along the margin, fruiting calyx lobes obscuring the disc, and seeds sub-orbicular in cross section. The new species is morphologically related to S. itatiaiae and S. pentandra, but can be differenciated from them mainly due to the tree habit and fruiting calyx lobes not obscuring the disc in S. itatiaiae and the pistillate flowers with a disc that is thickened along the margin in S. pentandra.643252256Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)Lakeside Foundation at the California Academy of SciencesFundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)Instituto Chico Mendes de Conservacao da Biodiversidade (ICMBio)Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)FAPESP [04/10110-9, 05/60862-0

20-years cumulative impact from shrimp farming on mangroves of northeast brazil

Brazilian mangroves cover about 11,100 km2 and provide a wide range of ecosystem services. Despite their importance, they are one of the most impacted ecosystems because of combined influences of climate change, pollution, and direct conversion and loss. A major driver of environmental impacts is shrimp farming and this is particularly acute in the semi-arid northeast of Brazil, where mangroves are constrained in a narrow band along ephemeral estuaries that are often impacted by multi-year droughts. Recent changes to Brazilian law, in particular the Forest Code, have weakened protection for mangroves and associated “apicum” (salt pan) ecosystems. In NE Brazil, most shrimp ponds are converted from mangrove-adjacent “apicuns” rather than the mangroves themselves with periodic hydrological connectivity through dammed channels, allowing the flushing of effluents. As a result, the main impacts on mangroves are typically indirect, because of pollution inputs from shrimp pond effluents and associated loss of ecosystem services including reductions in primary productivity, carbon storage capacity, resilience to other environmental stressors, their efficiency as estuarine filters, and biodiversity and abundance of subsistence use of marine species. Soil damage and infrastructure remaining after shrimp pond deactivation impairs mangrove recovery. This extends the duration of the damage and allows the occupation of degraded areas by other activities that can permanently impair ecosystem function. In this review, we address several aspects of the shrimp culture boom in NE Brazilian, their features and consequences, and the future of mangroves in the region considering climate change and rising poverty. Our conclusions on the practices and outcomes of shrimp farming in mangroves are likely to apply to areas with similar environmental settings, e.g., semiarid regions worldwide, and particularly in the Latin America and Caribbean region, and our findings can be taken into account to improve conservation and management of these forests at the least to a regional scale