Variability Characterization of the Olive Species Regarding Virgin Olive Oil Aroma Compounds by Multivariate Analysis of GC Data

Virgin olive oil is characterized by its unique aroma, which is synthesized when olive fruits are crushed during the industrial process used for oil production. The genetic variability of the major volatile compounds comprising the oil aroma was studied in a representative sample of olive cultivars from the World Olive Germplasm Collection (IFAPA, Cordoba, Spain). The analytical data demonstrated that a high degree of variability for the content of volatile compounds is found in the olive species and that most of the volatile compounds found in the oils were synthetized by the enzymes included in the so-called lipoxygenase pathway. The use of multivariate analysis to identify cultivars is particularly interesting in terms of volatile composition and deduced organoleptic quality. It can be used for identification of old olive cultivars that give rise to oils with a high organoleptic quality and in parent selection for olive breeding programs

Evaluation of cell culture in microfluidic chips for application in monoclonal antibody production

Microfluidic chips are useful devices for cell culture that allow cell growth under highly controlled conditions, as is required for production of therapeutic recombinant proteins. To understand the optimal conditions for growth of cells amenable of recombinant protein expression in these devices,we culturedHEK-293T cells under different microfluidic experimental conditions. The cells were cultured in polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) and polydi-methylsiloxane (PDMS)microdevices, in the absence or presence of the cell adhesion agent poly-D-lysine. Different microchannel geometries and thicknesses, as well as the influence of the flow rate have also been tested, showing their great influence in cell adhesion and growth. Results show that the presence of poly-D-lysine improves the adhesion and viability of the cells in continuous or discontinuous flow. Moreover, the optimal adhesion of cells was observed in the corners of themicrochannels, as well as in wide channels possibly due to the decrease in the flow rate in these areas. These studies provide insight into the optimal architecture of microchannels for long-term culture of adherent cells in order to use microfluidics devices as bioreactors for monoclonal antibodies production.Fil: Peñaherrera Pazmiño, Ana Belén. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Payés, Cristian. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental. Fundación de Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental. Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental; ArgentinaFil: Sierra Rodero, Marina. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Vega, M.. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional; ArgentinaFil: Rosero, G.. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: Lerner, Betiana. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: Helguera, Gustavo Fernando. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental. Fundación de Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental. Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental; ArgentinaFil: Pérez, M. S.. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires; Argentin

Habitat Constraints in Epikarstic Waters of an Iberian Peninsula Cave System

14 páginas, 6 figuras, 11 tables et al..The epikarstic waters of a restricted sector of the Ojo Guareña cave (north Iberian Peninsula) were investigated to characterize the physico-chemical variation in an annual cycle, to improve the scarce knowledge of the aquatic cave fauna on the Iberian Peninsula, to look for distribution patterns of species per habitat along the annual cycle, and to search for the environmental basis (either physico- or hydro-geochemical) that could explain species distribution in the epikarst. The habitats studied included all puddles and gours present in the sector selected making a total of 51 chemical and 42 biological samples for the entire cycle. The waters show no appreciable contaminationand exhibit small chemical variations throughout the year which are patently affected by external weather conditions. The 53 taxa found belong to ten higher taxonomic groups (Oligochaeta, Turbellaria, Mollusca, Copepoda, Ostracoda, Isopoda, Bathynellacea, Tardigrada, Acarina and Cnidaria), and consist mainly of crustacea with a total of 27 species. Fourteen species were stygobionts (belonging to ten genera), nine of which are new to science and ten of which are endemic. Cave pools that appeared to be more stable in terms of water volume and mineralization, had a lower pCO2 and were carbonate oversaturated, harboured the greatest number of taxa. It is these pools that can maintain strictly cave dwelling species. Pools with lower levels of mineralization and greater water volume fluctuations had a lower diversity of fauna and in general lacked stygobiotic species.Projects PASCALIS EVK2-CT-2001-00121; Convenio Junta de Castilla y León-CSIC (2002-2004) and BTE2002-04492-C02-02.Peer reviewe

Multiple Independent Retroelement Insertions in the Promoter of a Stress Response Gene Have Variable Molecular and Functional Effects in Drosophila

[Abstract] Promoters are structurally and functionally diverse gene regulatory regions. The presence or absence of sequence motifs and the spacing between the motifs defines the properties of promoters. Recent alternative promoter usage analyses in Drosophila melanogaster revealed that transposable elements significantly contribute to promote diversity. In this work, we analyzed in detail one of the transposable element insertions, named FBti0019985, that has been co-opted to drive expression of CG18446, a candidate stress response gene. We analyzed strains from different natural populations and we found that besides FBti0019985, there are another eight independent transposable elements inserted in the proximal promoter region of CG18446. All nine insertions are solo-LTRs that belong to the roo family. We analyzed the sequence of the nine roo insertions and we investigated whether the different insertions were functionally equivalent by performing 5’-RACE, gene expression, and cold-stress survival experiments. We found that different insertions have different molecular and functional consequences. The exact position where the transposable elements are inserted matters, as they all showed highly conserved sequences but only two of the analyzed insertions provided alternative transcription start sites, and only the FBti0019985 insertion consistently affects CG18446 expression. The phenotypic consequences of the different insertions also vary: only FBti0019985 was associated with cold-stress tolerance. Interestingly, the only previous report of transposable elements inserting repeatedly and independently in a promoter region in D. melanogaster, were also located upstream of a stress response gene. Our results suggest that functional validation of individual structural variants is needed to resolve the complexity of insertion clusters.[Author Summary] The presence of several transposable element insertions in the promoter region of a Drosophila melanogaster gene has only been described in heat shock protein genes. In this work, we have discovered and characterized in detail several naturally occurring independent transposable element insertions in the promoter region of a cold-stress response gene in the fruitfly Drosophila melanogaster. The nine transposable element insertions described are clustered in a small 368 bp region and all belong to the same family of transposable elements: the roo family. Each individual insertion is present at relatively low population frequencies, ranging from 1% to 17%. However, the majority of strains analyzed contain one of these nine roo insertions suggesting that this region might be evolving under positive selection. Although the sequence of these insertions is highly similar, their molecular and functional consequences are different. Only one of them, FBti0019985, is associated with increased viability in nonstress and in cold-stress conditions.This work was supported by the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (MINECO: http://www.idi.mineco.gob.es) BFU-2011-24397 and RYC-2010-07306 to JG, and BES-2012-052999 to AU, Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad and Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (MINECO/FEDER:http://www.idi.mineco.gob.es) BFU2014-57779-P, the European Commission (https://ec.europa.eu) FP7-PEOPLE-2011-CIG-293860, the Secretaria d’Universitats i Recerca del Departament d’Economia i Coneixement de la Generalitat de Catalunya (http://agaur.gencat.cat) 2014-SGR-201 to JG, and by the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (http://www.agence-nationale-recherche.fr) ANR-14-CE02-0003 to MARdC.USD 2250 APC fee funded by the EC FP7 Post-Grant Open Access PilotPeer reviewe

Evaluation of toxic effect of monoterpene compounds on anaerobic digestion

Monoterpenes are antimicrobial compounds widely distributed in vegetable biomass, whose inhibitory potential for anaerobic digestion is underestimated. In this research, the toxic effect of limonene and fenchone, two of the main monoterpenes present in vegetable biomasses, and those of 4-terpineol, α-terpineol, and p-cymene, compounds described as main metabolites of limonene degradation, have been assessed. Methane production was totally inhibited at dosed of 1000 mg L-1 of fenchone and limonene and at 600 mg L-1 of p-cymene and 4-terpineol. Based on the methane production rate, the inhibition followed the next trend: α-terpineol 85%), except p-cymene at 600 mg L-1. Therefore, monoterpenes could entail a high risk of inhibition that can be aggravated by the difficulty to accurately follow their concentration and by the scarce information on their effect on anaerobic process.Pablo de Olavide University and the Santander Bank for mobility grantNext Generation European Funds and the Ministry of Universities of Spain for funding the Recualificaci´on del Profesorado Universitario systemEconomic Transformation, Industry, Knowledge, and Universities Department of the Andalucia Autonomous Government for Emergia fellowship (EMERGIA20_00114)CRHIAM centre (ANID/FONDAP/15130015)Funding for open access charge: Universidad de Granada / CBUA

A Sensor-Based Methodology to Differentiate Pure and Mixed White Tequilas Based on Fused Infrared Spectra and Multivariate Data Treatment

[Abstract]: Mexican Tequila is one of the most demanded import spirits in Europe. Its fast-raising worldwide request makes counterfeiting a profitable activity affecting both consumers and legal distillers. In this paper, a sensor-based methodology based on a combination of infrared measurements (IR) and multivariate data analysis (MVA) is presented. The case study is about differentiating two categories of white Tequila: pure Tequila (or ‘100% agave’) and mixed Tequila (or simply, Tequila). The IR spectra were treated and fused with a low-level approach. Exploratory data analysis was performed using PCA and partial least squares (PLS), whilst the authentication analyses were carried out with PLS-discriminant analysis (DA) and soft independent modeling for class analogy (SIMCA) models. Results demonstrated that data fusion of IR spectra enhanced the outcomes of the authentication models capable of differentiating pure from mixed Tequilas. In fact, PLS-DA presented the best results which correctly classified all fifteen commercial validation samples. The methodology thus presented is fast, cheap, and of simple application in the Tequila industry.Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México; PIAPI 2042Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México; PAPIIT IT20091

Hydrophobicity of soils affected by fires: An assessment using molecular markers from ultra-high resolution mass spectrometry

Soil water repellency (SWR) is a physical property due to a complex interaction of factors (e.g., fire, soil organic matter, soil texture) that reduces the soil water infiltration capacity. Traditionally, SWR is attributed to the accumulation and redistribution of hydrophobic compounds within soil profile. To obtain further insight into chemical compounds, which could be associated with SWR, a study was done on coarse (1–2 mm) and fine (< 0.05 mm) granulometric fractions of burned and unburned sandy soils under two Mediterranean vegetation biomes from Doñana National Park (Spain). The water drop penetration time (WDPT) test was used to assess the SWR. The molecular composition of extracted humic substances from the soil organic matter (SOM) was determined by Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (FT-ICR/MS). Partial least squares (PLS) regressions showed that the SWR can be predicted (P = 0.006) solely based on the abundances of approximately 1200 common compounds determined by FT-ICR/MS. This model confirmed the significant correlation between a specific SOM molecular composition and the SWR. The comparative analysis revealed that the SWR in the burned samples was significantly (P < 0.05) related to the abundance of aromatic and condensed compounds, while in the unburned samples there was a significant influence of aromatic hydrocarbons and lignin compounds. In the fine fraction, lipid compounds were significantly associated with the SWR. Contrastingly, the coarse fraction did not show any correlation. Alternatively, soils with a high SWR were significantly related to the presence of lipids and lignin. This analysis showed that combining FT-ICR/MS molecular characterizations with statistical treatments is a powerful approach for exploratory analysis suggesting that the structural features associated with SWR in the studied soils are different depending on the types of vegetation or the soil physical fractions with different particle size

Measuring online teaching service quality in higher education in the COVID-19 environment

The use of the Internet to develop new technologies has generated a considerable change in teaching and student learning in higher education. The pandemic caused by COVID-19 has forced universities to switch from face-to-face to online instruction. Furthermore, this transfer process was planned and executed quickly, with urgent redesigns of courses originally conceived for live teaching. The aim of this work is to measure the service quality of online teaching delivered during the COVID- 19 period. The methodology was based on an importance-performance analysis using a structural equations model. The data were obtained from a sample of 467 students attending a university in southern Spain. The results reveal five priority attributes of online teaching that need to be improved in order to enhance the service quality of the virtual instruction provided to students. Universities need to redefine their online format by integrating methodological and technological decisions and involving collaboration between teachers, students and administration staff and services. The results do not apply to educational institutions that exclusively teach courses online, but to those institutions that had to rapidly adapt, and shift course material originally designed for face-to-face training

Characterization of Pediococcus ethanolidurans CUPV141: A b-D-glucan- and Heteropolysaccharide-Producing Bacterium

Pediococcus ethanolidurans CUPV141 is an exopolysaccharide (EPS)-producing lactic acid bacterium, first isolated from Basque Country cider (Spain). Physicochemical analysis of the EPS synthesized by the bacterium revealed that CUPV141 produces mostly a homopolysaccharide (HoPS), characterized as a 2-substituted (1,3)-beta-D-glucan, together with a small quantity of a heteropolysaccharide (HePS) composed of glucose, galactose, glucosamine, and glycerol-3-phosphate, this being the first Pediococcus strain described to produce this kind of polymer. On the contrary, an isogenic strain CUPV141NR, generated by chemical mutagenesis of CUPV141, produced the HePS as the main extracellular polysaccharide and a barely detectable amount of 2-substituted (1,3)-beta-D-glucan. This HoPS is synthesized by the transmembrane GTF glycosyltransferase (GTF), encoded by the gtf gene, which has been previously reported to be located in the pPP2 plasmid of the Pediococcus parvulus 2.6 strain. Southern blot hybridization revealed that in CUPV141 the gtf gene is located in a plasmid designated as pPE3, whose molecular mass (34.4 kbp) is different from that of pPP2 (24.5 kbp). Analysis of the influence of the EPS on the ability of the producing bacteria to adhere to the eukaryotic Caco-2 cells revealed higher affinity for the human enterocytes of CUPV141NR compared to that of CUPV141. This result indicates that, in contrast to the 2.6 strain, the presence of the HoPS does not potentiate the binding ability of P. ethanolidurans. Moreover, it supports that the phosphate-containing bacterial HePS improved the interaction between P. ethanolidurans and the eukaryotic cells.This work was supported by a grant from the Department of Environment, Territorial Planification, Agriculture and Fishing and the project no. IT 866-13 from the Basque Government and by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (AGL 2015-65010-C3-1-R)