Sesión de Proteómica microbiana y de parásitos S.O.S., ¿nos podéis ayudar?

Comunicaciones a congreso

Infancia, exilio y memoria. Tres relatos de una infancia transterrada tras la última dictadura argentina / Childhood, exile and memory. Three stories of a translanded childhood after the last dictatorship in Argentina

Este trabajo aborda la cuestión del exilio desde una figura en particular: la infancia. Cientos de miles de niños y adolescentes terminaron por convertirse en desterrados o expatriados, debido a la situación política que atravesaba el país. A través de tres relatos autobiográficos de infancia y adolescencia, exploramos lo que supuso el exilio desde la experiencia de esas edades. Los tres relatos, narrados en primera persona y desde voces femeninas, nos sumergen en tres historias distintas. Sus protagonistas, aunque poseen edades diferentes, aparecen unidas por un único hilo conductor: cierta resignificación del exilio, del regreso y del lenguaje, emerge como condición de posibilidad de supervivencia para estos sujetos transterrados. Palabras clave: Dictadura argentina, exilio, destierro, transterrados, infancia, autobiografía, Walter Benjamin.     This paper focuses the exile from a new point of view: childhood. Thousands of teenagers and children ended up exiled, due to the political situation the country was facing. Through three biographical stories of childhood and adolescence, it explores what the exile meant for them. These three stories will help us to understand what the exile meant for this age range. The three stories are narrated in the first person, by female voices. Their main characters are linked by a common thread: a certain redefinition of the exile, the return and the language emerge as a condition of possibility for their survival. Keywords: Argentinian Dictatorship, Exile, Translanded, Childhood, Autobiography, Walter Benjamin

Midgut proteome of an argasid tick, Ornithodoros erraticus: a comparison between unfed and engorged females

16 páginas, 5 figuras y 2 tablas. -- Agradecimientos: Asistencia técnica de Rocío Vizcaíno Marín y María González Sánchez, del Instituto de Recursos Naturales y Agrobiología de Salamanca (IRNASA-CSIC) y de la Dra. Luz Valero, de la Unidad Proteómica de la Universidad de Valencia. -- The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at: http://www.parasitesandvectors.com/content/8/1/525The argasid tick Ornithodoros erraticus is the vector of African swine fever virus and of several Borrelia species that cause human relapsing fever in the Iberian Peninsula. The tick midgut is part of the ectoparasite-host interface and expresses proteins that are vital for the survival of the tick. Midgut proteins are therefore potential targets for drug and/or vaccine design aimed at the development of new strategies for tick control. Thus, the aim of this work was the characterization of the proteome of the O. erraticus midgut before and after a blood meal trying to elucidate the induced changes upon blood feeding. Midgut tissues from unfed and engorged O. erraticus females were dissected and proteins were fractionated by centrifugation and SDS-PAGE, and the corresponding gel pieces analysed by LC–MS/MS. The identified proteins were classified according to their Protein Class and Molecular Function and the differences between fed and unfed specimens were analysed. Overall 555 tick proteins were identified: 414 in the midgut of the unfed specimens and 376 in the fed specimens, of which 235 were present in both groups. The proteins with catalytic, binding and structural functions were the most numerous and abundant, consistent with their role in the intracellular processing of the blood meal. The analysis of some groups of proteins putatively involved directly in blood meal digestion, including protein digestion (peptidase activity), iron metabolism, enzymes involved in oxidative stress and detoxification and membrane traffic and transport proteins, detected some differences between the fed and unfed ticks. This work reports for the first time the collection and analysis of the midgut proteome of an argasid tick species and provides molecular information about the argasid machinery involved in blood digestion. This information represents a starting point for the identification and selection of new targets for the development of alternative control strategies.This research was funded by project AGL2013-42745-P granted by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness.We acknowledge support of the publication fee by the CSIC Open Access Publication Support Initiative through its Unit of Information Resources for Research (URICI).Peer reviewe

Tick pathogenicity, thermal tolerance and virus infection in Tolypocladium cylindrosporum

10 páginas, 5 tablas, 5 figurasTolypocladium cylindrosporum is a fungus which has been isolated from soil, from asymptomatic plants as an endophyte, and has been shown to be pathogenic to several species of arthropods. The objective of the present work was to study a collection of T. cylindrosporum strains in order to evaluate the characteristics of this fungus as a bioacaricide. The pathogenicity of five different strains of T. cylindrosporum was tested against two tick species, Ornithodoros erraticus and Ornithodoros moubata. Both tick species were susceptible to all the fungal strains. Mortality was greater for O. erraticus, and differed among the five developmental stages of the ticks tested, and among the fungal treatments. Mean mortality rates were close to 60% for O. erraticus, similar to those reported for other entomopathogenic fungi used for this purpose. The responses of eleven different strains of the fungus to 22ºC and 30ºC were also studied. Significant differences in temperature tolerance occurred among the strains, and growth inhibition was observed at 30ºC. Several mycoviruses were found infecting five of the eleven strains. However, no clear relationship was found between the presence of viruses and fungal growth or pathogenicity.This work was financed with research grants AGL2008-01159AGR, awarded by the Spanish Government,and CSI07A08, awarded by the Regional Government of Castilla y León (Spain).Peer reviewe

Proteoma de la saliva de Ornithodoros moubata: comparativa entre machos y hembras

Comunicaciones a congreso

Construcción de microarrays de proteínas a partir de genotecas de expresión para el estudio de la interfase molecular garrapata-hospedador

Comunicaciones a congreso

African swine fever virus transmission cycles in Central Europe: evaluation of wild boar-soft tick contacts through detection of antibodies against Ornithodoros erraticus saliva antigen.

BACKGROUND African swine fever (ASF) is one of the most complex viral diseases affecting both domestic and wild pigs. It is caused by ASF virus (ASFV), the only DNA virus which can be efficiently transmitted by an arthropod vector, soft ticks of the genus Ornithodoros. These ticks can be part of ASFV-transmission cycles, and in Europe, O. erraticus was shown to be responsible for long-term maintenance of ASFV in Spain and Portugal. In 2014, the disease has been reintroduced into the European Union, affecting domestic pigs and, importantly, also the Eurasian wild boar population. In a first attempt to assess the risk of a tick-wild boar transmission cycle in Central Europe that would further complicate eradication of the disease, over 700 pre-existing serum samples from wild boar hunted in four representative German Federal States were investigated for the presence of antibodies directed against salivary antigen of Ornithodoros erraticus ticks using an indirect ELISA format. RESULTS Out of these samples, 16 reacted with moderate to high optical densities that could be indicative of tick bites in sampled wild boar. However, these samples did not show a spatial clustering (they were collected from distant geographical regions) and were of bad quality (hemolysis/impurities). Furthermore, all positive samples came from areas with suboptimal climate for soft ticks. For this reason, false positive reactions are likely. CONCLUSION In conclusion, the study did not provide stringent evidence for soft tick-wild boar contact in the investigated German Federal States and thus, a relevant involvement in the epidemiology of ASF in German wild boar is unlikely. This fact would facilitate the eradication of ASF in the area, although other complex relations (wild boar biology and interactions with domestic pigs) need to be considered

First data on Ornithodoros moubata Aquaporins: structural, phylogenetic and immunogenic characterisation as vaccine targets

21 páginas, 4 tablas, 4 figuras,11 figuras suplementarias, 11 tablas suplementariasOrnithodoros moubata transmits African swine fever and human relapsing fever in Africa. The elimination of O. moubata populations from anthropic environments is expected to improve the prevention and control of these diseases. Tick vaccines have emerged as a sustainable method for tick control, and tick aquaporins (AQPs) are promising targets for tick vaccines due to their vital functions, immunogenicity and ease of access by neutralising host antibodies. This study aimed at the systematic identification of the AQPs expressed by O. moubata (OmAQPs) and their characterisation as vaccine targets. Therefore, AQP coding sequences were recovered from available transcriptomic datasets, followed by PCR amplification, cloning, sequence verification and the analysis of the AQP protein structure and epitope exposure. Seven OmAQPs were identified and characterised: six were aquaglyceroporins, and one was a water-specific aquaporin. All of these were expressed in the salivary glands and midgut and only three in the coxal glands. Epitope exposure analysis identified three extracellular domains in each AQP, which concentrate overlapping B and T cell epitopes, making them interesting vaccine targets. Based on these domain sequences, a set of ten antigenic peptides was designed, which showed adequate properties to be produced and tested in pilot vaccine trialsThis research was funded by the project “RTI2018-098297-B-I00” (MCIU/AEI/FEDER, UE), granted by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, the State Research Agency (AEI) and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF); and project “CLU-2019-05-IRNASA/CSIC Unit of Excellence”, granted by the Junta de Castilla y León and co-financed by the European Union (ERDF “Europe drives our growth”).Peer reviewe

One Health Approach: An Overview of Q Fever in Livestock, Wildlife and Humans in Asturias (Northwestern Spain)

This study aimed to investigate the seroprevalence of C. burnetii in domestic ruminants, wild ungulates, as well as the current situation of Q fever in humans in a small region in northwestern Spain where a close contact at the wildlife–livestock–human interface exists, and information on C. burnetii infection is scarce. Seroprevalence of C. burnetii was 8.4% in sheep, 18.4% in cattle, and 24.4% in goats. Real-time PCR analysis of environmental samples collected in 25 livestock farms detected Coxiella DNA in dust and/or aerosols collected in 20 of them. Analysis of sera from 327 wild ungulates revealed lower seroprevalence than that found in domestic ruminants, with 8.4% of Iberian red deer, 7.3% chamois, 6.9% fallow deer, 5.5% European wild boar and 3.5% of roe deer harboring antibodies to C. burnetii. Exposure to the pathogen in humans was determined by IFAT analysis of 1312 blood samples collected from patients admitted at healthcare centers with Q fever compatible symptoms, such as fever and/or pneumonia. Results showed that 15.9% of the patients had IFAT titers ≥ 1/128 suggestive of probable acute infection. This study is an example of a One Health approach with medical and veterinary institutions involved in investigating zoonotic diseasesThis work was funded by INIA—Spanish National Institute for Agricultural and Food Research and Technology (RTA2017-00055-C02-02), the European Regional Development Funds (ERDF), and PCTI 2018–2020 (GRUPIN: IDI2018-000237)S

Cardiopulmonary nematode infections in wild canids: Does the key lie on host-prey-parasite evolution?

©2019. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ This document is the Accepted, version of a Published Work that appeared in final form in Research in Veterinary Science. To access the final edited and published work see https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rvsc.2019.08.008Cardiopulmonary nematodes are among the most pathogenic parasites of domestic and wild canids. The aim of this study was to describe the species diversity, prevalence and infection intensity of these parasites in the Iberian wolf (Canis lupus signatus) and the red fox (Vulpes vulpes) in the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula. 257 foxes and 74 wolves were necropsied between 2008 and 2014. Four nematode species were identified: Angiostrongylus vasorum, Eucoleus aerophilus, Crenosoma vulpis and Filaroides hirthi. This last species was only found in wolves, being the first time that is cited worldwide in this wild canid. The overall parasite prevalence was significantly higher in foxes (70%) than in wolves (28%). Specifically, prevalences in foxes and wolves were, respectively, 43% and 22% for A. vasorum, 33% and 5% for E. aerophilus, and 30% and 9% for C. vulpis. The prevalence of F. hirthi was 16%. The A. vasorum intensity was significantly higher in foxes than in wolves. Differences between host species in the risk of infection would be associated to diverging feeding behavior, and possibly reflects a parasite-host adaptation related to host's hunting strategies and cardiorespiratory requirements. This study revealed an association between infection and environmental factors, and highlighted a wide variation in the spatial distribution of A. vasorum. Our results indicate that cardiopulmonary parasites are widespread in wild canids in northwest Spain, and further agrees with other studies indicating the expansion of A. vasorum in Europe and, therefore, the urgent need to investigate infection in dogs in sympatric areas