Notulae to the Italian alien vascular flora: 11

In this contribution, new data concerning the distribution of vascular flora alien to Italy are presented. It includes new records, confirmations, exclusions, and status changes for Italy or for Italian administrative regions. Nomenclatural and distribution updates published elsewhere are provided as Suppl. material 1

A first update on mapping the human genetic architecture of COVID-19

peer reviewe

Novelties and clarifications about the occurrence of Amaranthus hypochondriacus (Amaranthaceae) in some European countries with notes on climatic features

The occurrence and invasion status of Amaranthus hypochondriacus in Belarus, Estonia, Italy, the Netherlands, and the North Caucasus were discussed. For Italy, we change the status from casual to naturalized based on living populations which are able to sustain themselves for 5 and over 20 years. Concerning the other countries, we clarified the invasion status of the species (inconsistently reported in literature) indicating it as a casual alien in Belarus, Estonia, and the North Caucasus and naturalized in the Netherlands. Climatic data of the European stations in which Amaranthus hypochondriacus was found were compared with those referring to the native distribution area (Mexico and southeastern regions of the US). The occurrence of the species in Europe appears to be facilitated by the temperate climate (Dutch and Italian localities), which also characterizes the native distribution area (N-America). The occurrence of the species in Estonia, the Netherlands, and the North Caucasus is interesting. In fact, although the types of climates (“Cold, Dfb” and “Temperate, Cfb”) occur in America (northeastern US and central Mexico), there are some differences in precipitation and temperature values, i.e. lower mean precipitation [644.1 mm (Estonia) vs. 1119 mm (N-America); climate Dfb] and lower mean temperature [9.7-11.1 °C (Netherlands and North Caucasus) vs. 15.3 °C (Mexico); climate Cfb]

Characterization of Seed Oil from Six In Situ Collected Wild <i>Amaranthus</i> Species

Six Amaranthus species (A. cruentus, A. hybridus, A. hypochondriacus, A. muricatus, A. tuberculatus, and A. viridis) were collected in Italy (wild habitats) from crops and roadsides. Amaranth seed oil was extracted to obtain fractions rich in squalene. Squalene, free fatty acid, tocopherol, and sterol composition and content were investigated in detail. An analysis of variance and principal components was performed. The oil content in the seed ranged from 5.17% (A. muricatus) to 12.20% (A. tuberculatus). The quantity of squalene in the oil varied from 3.43% (A. muricatus) to 6.09% (A. hypochondriacus). The primary sterols were beta-sitosterol, brassicasterol, campesterol, and stigmasterol. The main tocopherols in all the samples were alfa-tocopherol, beta-tocopherol, and delta-tocopherol. Our results exhibited that the smallest seeds (A. tuberculatus) have the highest percentages of oil and squalene, whereas the largest seeds size (A. muricatus) show the lowest percentages. There is also evidence that the samples growing at lower altitudes show the highest concentration of fatty acids. According to our results, the six wild Amaranthus species exhibited similar characteristics to commercial species. This study confirms that the site of the collection has an impact on the oil and squalene content of the Amaranthus species

Trying to Understand the Complicated Taxonomy in Amaranthus (Amaranthaceae): Insights on Seeds Micromorphology

Amaranthus is a genus taxonomically complex because of its high morphological variability, which led to nomenclatural disorders, misapplication of names, and misidentifications. Floristic and taxonomic studies on this genus are still incomplete, and many questions remain open. Seed micromorphology has been shown to play an important role in the taxonomy of plants. Regarding Amaranthaceae and Amaranthus, investigations are rare, and they refer to one or a few species. With the primary aim to test if seed features are helpful in the taxonomy of Amaranthus, we here present a detailed SEM study on seed micromorphology in 25 Amaranthus taxa using morphometric methods. Seeds were collected from field surveys and herbarium specimens; 14 seed coat features (7 qualitative and 7 quantitative) were measured on 111 samples (up to 5 seeds per sample). The results obtained revealed that seeds micromorphology provides interesting new taxonomic data concerning some taxa (species and below ranks). In fact, we were able to distinguish a few seed types, including one or more taxa, i.e., blitum-type, crassipes-type, deflexus-type, tuberculatus-type, and viridis-type. On the other hand, seed features are not useful for other species, for example, those included in the deflexus-type (A. deflexus, A. vulgatissimus, A. cacciatoi, A. spinosus, A. dubius, and A. stadleyanus). A diagnostic key of the studied taxa is proposed. Subgenera cannot be distinguished using seed features, thus confirming the published molecular data. All these facts reveal, once again, the taxonomic complexity of the genus Amaranthus since, e.g., just a few seed types can be defined

COVID-19 Host Genetics Initiative. A first update on mapping the human genetic architecture of COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to pose a major public health threat, especially in countries with low vaccination rates. To better understand the biological underpinnings of SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 severity, we formed the COVID-19 Host Genetics Initiative1. Here we present a genome-wide association study meta-analysis of up to 125,584 cases and over 2.5 million control individuals across 60 studies from 25 countries, adding 11 genome-wide significant loci compared with those previously identified2. Genes at new loci, including SFTPD, MUC5B and ACE2, reveal compelling insights regarding disease susceptibility and severity.</p