Relationships between heavy metal concentrations in three different body fluids and male reproductive parameters: a pilot study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Animal studies have shown the reproductive toxicity of a number of heavy metals. Very few human observational studies have analyzed the relationship between male reproductive function and heavy metal concentrations in diverse biological fluids.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The current study assessed the associations between seminal and hormonal parameters and the concentration of the 3 most frequent heavy metal toxicants (lead, cadmium and mercury) in three different body fluids. Sixty one men attending infertility clinics that participated in a case-control study to explore the role of environmental toxins and lifestyles on male infertility were analyzed. Concentration of lead, cadmium and mercury were measured in blood and seminal plasma and whole blood using anodic stripping voltammetry and atomic absorption spectrophotometry. Serum samples were analyzed for follicle-stimulating hormone, luteinizing hormone and testosterone. Semen analyses were performed according to World Health Organization criteria. Mann-Whitney test and Spearman's rank correlations were used for unadjusted analyses. Multiple linear regression models were performed controlling for age, body mass index and number of cigarettes per day.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>There were no significant differences between cases and controls in the concentrations of heavy metals in any of the three body fluids. In multivariate analyses using all subjects no significant associations were found between serum hormone levels and metal concentrations. However there was a significant positive association between the percentage of immotile sperms and seminal plasma levels of lead and cadmium.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our results suggest that the presence of lead and cadmium in the reproductive tract of men may be related to a moderate alteration of their seminal parameters.</p

A barrier to homologous recombination between sympatric strains of the cooperative soil bacterium Myxococcus xanthus

The bacterium Myxococcus xanthus glides through soil in search of prey microbes, but when food sources run out, cells cooperatively construct and sporulate within multicellular fruiting bodies. M. xanthus strains isolated from a 16 × 16-cm-scale patch of soil were previously shown to have diversified into many distinct compatibility types that are distinguished by the failure of swarming colonies to merge upon encounter. We sequenced the genomes of 22 isolates from this population belonging to the two most frequently occurring multilocus sequence type (MLST) clades to trace patterns of incipient genomic divergence, specifically related to social divergence. Although homologous recombination occurs frequently within the two MLST clades, we find an almost complete absence of recombination events between them. As the two clades are very closely related and live in sympatry, either ecological or genetic barriers must reduce genetic exchange between them. We find that the rate of change in the accessory genome is greater than the rate of amino-acid substitution in the core genome. We identify a large genomic tract that consistently differs between isolates that do not freely merge and therefore is a candidate region for harbouring gene(s) responsible for self/non-self discrimination

Disparate developmental patterns of immune responses to bacterial and viral infections in fish

We thank Dr J.-P. Levraud and S. Magadan for critical comments on the manuscript. This work was supported by the European Community’s Seventh Framework Program (FP7/2007-13) under Grant Agreements 222719 LIFECYCLE and 311993 TARGETFISH, and by institutional grants from the University of Aberdeen, and Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique. Corrigendum: Disparate developmental patterns of immune responses to bacterial and viral infections in fish Scientific Reports 6, Article number: 18524 (2016) doi:10.1038/srep18524 There is an error in the Materials and Methods section of this Article. “A rainbow trout double haploid clone, named B5731” should read: “Rainbow trout from the INRA ‘synthetic’ strain31”Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Metabolic and demographic feedbacks shape the emergent spatial structure and function of microbial communities

Microbes are predominantly found in surface-attached and spatially structured polymicrobial communities. Within these communities, microbial cells excrete a wide range of metabolites, setting the stage for interspecific metabolic interactions. The links, however, between metabolic and ecological interactions (functional relationships), and species spatial organization (structural relationships) are still poorly understood. Here, we use an individual-based modelling framework to simulate the growth of a two-species surface-attached community where food (resource) is traded for detoxification (service) and investigate how metabolic constraints of individual species shape the emergent structural and functional relationships of the community. We show that strong metabolic interdependence drives the emergence of mutualism, robust interspecific mixing, and increased community productivity. Specifically, we observed a striking and highly stable emergent lineage branching pattern, generating a persistent lineage mixing that was absent when the metabolic exchange was removed. These emergent community properties are driven by demographic feedbacks, such that aid from neighbouring cells directly enhances focal cell growth, which in turn feeds back to neighbour fecundity. In contrast, weak metabolic interdependence drives conflict (exploitation or competition), and in turn greater interspecific segregation. Together, these results support the idea that species structural and functional relationships represent the net balance of metabolic interdependencies

Killing by type VI secretion drives genetic phase separation and correlates with increased cooperation

By nature of their small size, dense growth and frequent need for extracellular metabolism, microbes face persistent public goods dilemmas. Genetic assortment is the only general solution stabilizing cooperation, but all known mechanisms structuring microbial populations depend on the availability of free space, an often unrealistic constraint. Here we describe a class of self-organization that operates within densely packed bacterial populations. Through mathematical modelling and experiments with Vibrio cholerae, we show how killing adjacent competitors via the Type VI secretion system (T6SS) precipitates phase separation via the ‘Model A' universality class of order-disorder transition mediated by killing. We mathematically demonstrate that T6SS-mediated killing should favour the evolution of public goods cooperation, and empirically support this prediction using a phylogenetic comparative analysis. This work illustrates the twin role played by the T6SS, dealing death to local competitors while simultaneously creating conditions potentially favouring the evolution of cooperation with kin

Rapid and widespread de novo evolution of kin discrimination

Diverse forms of kin discrimination, broadly defined as alteration of social behavior as a function of genetic relatedness among interactants, are common among social organisms from microbes to humans. However, the evolutionary origins and causes of kin-discriminatory behavior remain largely obscure. One form of kin discrimination observed in microbes is the failure of genetically distinct colonies to merge freely upon encounter. Here, we first use natural isolates of the highly social bacterium Myxococcus xanthus to show that colony-merger incompatibilities can be strong barriers to social interaction, particularly by reducing chimerism in multicellular fruiting bodies that develop near colony-territory borders. We then use experimental laboratory populations to test hypotheses regarding the evolutionary origins of kin discrimination. We show that the generic process of adaptation, irrespective of selective environment, is sufficient to repeatedly generate kin-discriminatory behaviors between evolved populations and their common ancestor. Further, we find that kin discrimination pervasively evolves indirectly between allopatric replicate populations that adapt to the same ecological habitat and that this occurs generically in many distinct habitats. Patterns of interpopulation discrimination imply that kin discrimination phenotypes evolved via many diverse genetic mechanisms and mutation-accumulation patterns support this inference. Strong incompatibility phenotypes emerged abruptly in some populations but strengthened gradually in others. The indirect evolution of kin discrimination in an asexual microbe is analogous to the indirect evolution of reproductive incompatibility in sexual eukaryotes and linguistic incompatibility among human cultures, the commonality being indirect, noncoordinated divergence of complex systems evolving in isolation

Mecanismos de transporte intraparticulares en la retencion de proteinas en adsorbentes hidroxiapatito

TOME LIIIInternational audienc