Culture of Gracilaria gracilis and Chondracanthus teedei from Vegetative Fragments in the Field and Carpospores in Laboratory

Gracilarioids and Gigartinales are of great economic importance due to the phycocolloids they contain in their cell wall and are used in different industries worldwide. Field and laboratory cultures of two species of red seaweeds (Gracilaria gracilis and Chondracanthus teedei), confirmed after DNA analysis, were carried out to foster the increasing use of this species in Spain as a food source. Vegetative cultures carried out in an open-lock gate within a traditional salina in the ay of Cadiz (Southern Spain) rendered maximum growth rates in April (3.64% day(-1)) for G. gracilis and in November (4.68% day(-1)) for C. teedei, the latter showing significant differences between the months of the year. For laboratory cultures, samples of the two species used for sporulation were obtained from tidal creeks in several nearby locations of the Bay. In order to grow fertile carposporophytes from spores, Provasoli enriched seawater medium (ES medium), Miquel A + B and f/2 were used as culture medium at a temperature of 18 degrees C and irradiance of 30 mu mol m(-2) s(-1) in 12:12 h photoperiod. Both species developed a basal disc after 12-15 days in ES medium and Miquel A + B, and new microscopic seedlings were observed at 20-25 days in ES medium. With f/2 medium, no growth was observed after sporulation. The life cycle of G. gracilis was completed in ES medium over a period of 11 months with a mean growth rate of 3.28% day(-1). The present study is an important step towards the development of seaweed cultivation in the Bay of Cadiz, especially in integrated multi-trophic cultivation in salinas as part of the more sustainable use of the marine resources in coastal communities

Natural-cycle in vitro fertilization (IVF) combined with in vitro maturation in infertile patients with polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) requiring IVF

REPA is supported by CONACYT (329705) Mexico and Elphinstone scholarships and a fellowship from IBSA Foundation.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Chia (Salvia hispanica L.) products as ingredients for reformulating frankfurters: Effects on quality properties and shelf-life

Several strategies were examined for incorporating chia products (seeds, flour and a coproduct from cold-press oil extraction) in frankfurters. The nutritional composition, technological properties and sensory attributes of the resulting products were studied in relation to the formulation used and, lipid oxidation, pH, residual nitrite level and microbiological properties were evaluated during chilled storage. Application of these chia products (3%) was seen to enhance the nutritional composition of frankfurters, without adversely affecting the technological properties of the final product. In general, although differences were detected in the sensory attributes of the frankfurters reformulated with chia products (most of them when chia coproduct was added), all of them were judged acceptable. Besides the quality aspects, these reformulation strategies had beneficial effects on some technological properties during chilled storage: better resistance to oxidation (controlling the TBARS increase during storage) and lower residual nitrite levels than control (both effects presumably because the chia polyphenols content) and no effect on microbiological safet

Anomalías morfológicas en los dientes del cibario de Lutzomyia evansi (Diptera: Psychodidae) en el estado Trujillo, Venezuela

Introduction: Lutzomyia evansi is a recognized vector of Leishmania infantum in Colombia and Venezuela.Objective: To describe and illustrate the morphological abnormalities in Lu. evansi females captured in a rural focus of visceral leishmaniasis in Trujillo, Venezuela.Materials and methods: Phlebotomine sand flies were collected using CDC light traps, Shannon traps and aspiration in resting places. The identification was performed according to Young & Duncan (1994) and drawings were made using a microscope with camara lucida.Results: Abnormalities in the cibarium of Lu. evansi were detected in 4 (0.12%) females of the 3,477 adults that were studied.Conclusion: Lutzomyia evansi can have uncommon morphological variants associated with an increase in the number of teeth in the cibarium and their arrangement, which may lead to errors in the taxonomic identification of anomalous specimens. The study of such deformities can serve to avoid taxonomic identification errors.Introducción. Lutzomyia evansi es un reconocido vector de Leishmania infantum en Colombia y Venezuela.Objetivo. Describir e ilustrar las anomalías morfológicas presentes en el cibario de hembras de Lu. evansi capturadas en un foco rural de leishmaniasis visceral en Trujillo, Venezuela.Materiales y métodos. Para la captura de los flebótomos se utilizaron tres diferentes métodos (trampa Shannon, trampas de luz del tipo CDC y capturas en reposo). En la identificación taxonómica se siguió la clave de Young & Duncan (1994) y los diseños biológicos se hicieron utilizando un microscopio óptico con cámara clara.Resultados. En 3.477 especímenes de Lu. evansi se detectaron cuatro (0,12 %) hembras con diferentes anomalías en el cibario.Conclusión. Algunos especímenes de Lu. evansi pueden presentar anomalías morfológicas relacionadas con aumento del número de los dientes en el cibario y con su disposición. La detección de estas anomalías en poblaciones naturales de Lu. evansi puede evitar dificultades y confusiones en el momento de la identificación taxonómica de los especímenes teratomorfos, reduciendo así el riesgo de incurrir en errores taxonómicos

Reseñas

  TOM MÜLLER / MATTHIAS VOLLET (eds), Die Modernitäten des Nikolaus von Kues. Debatten und Rezeptionen. NATALIA JAKUBECKI / MARCELA BORELLI. Cartas de Abelardo y Eloísa. MICHAEL ECKHERT / HARALD SCHWAETZER (eds), Cusanus: Ästhetik und Theologie. AELREDI RIEVALLENSIS, Sermones LXXXV-CLXXXII, ed. GAETANO RACITI. GREGORIO PIAIA, Huellas de los filósofos. La comprensión medieval de la historia de la filosofía, trad. V. Cricco y J. M. Machetta. P. P. O’NÉILL (ed), Psalterium Suthantoniense. CATALINA MARÍA CUBILLOS MUÑOZ, Los múltiples nombres del Dios innombrable. Una aproximación a la metafísica de Nicolás de Cusa desde la perspectiva de los nombres divinos. RAIMUNDUS LULLOS. Arbor philosophiae. De levitate et ponderositate elementorum. Desolatio Raimundi [Opera Latina XXXIV]. CCCM 246 // RAIMUNDUS LULLOS, Ha-Melacha hs. Ketzara. A Hebrew Translation of Ramon Lull’s Ars Brevis CCCM 247, ed. HARVEY J. JAMES. IOHANNIS ALPHONSI DE SEGOVIA, Liber de substancia ecclesie, ed. JOSÉ LUIS NARVAJA SJ. FRANCISCO SUÁREZ, De pace – De bello. Über den Frieden – Über den Krieg, ed. MARKUS KREMER. OLVIER BACH / NORBERT BRIESKORN / GIDEON STIENING (eds), “Auctoritas omnium legum”: Francisco Suárez’ De legibuszwischen Theologie, Philosophie und Jurisprudenz. JOACHIM VON FIORE, Psalterium decem cordarum, ed. KURT VICTOR SELGE. KATHRIN UTZ TREM, Von der Häresie zur Hexerei. “Wirkliche” und imaginäre Sekten im Spätmittelalter

Lead Optimization of 3,5-Disubstituted-7-Azaindoles for the Treatment of Human African Trypanosomiasis.

Neglected tropical diseases such as human African trypanosomiasis (HAT) are prevalent primarily in tropical climates and among populations living in poverty. Historically, the lack of economic incentive to develop new treatments for these diseases has meant that existing therapeutics have serious shortcomings in terms of safety, efficacy, and administration, and better therapeutics are needed. We now report a series of 3,5-disubstituted-7-azaindoles identified as growth inhibitors of Trypanosoma brucei, the parasite that causes HAT, through a high-throughput screen. We describe the hit-to-lead optimization of this series and the development and preclinical investigation of 29d, a potent antitrypanosomal compound with promising pharmacokinetic (PK) parameters. This compound was ultimately not progressed beyond in vivo PK studies due to its inability to penetrate the blood-brain barrier (BBB), critical for stage 2 HAT treatments.The authors acknowledge funding from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (M.P.P. and M.N., R01AI114685; M.P.P., 1R21AI127594, R01AI124046; C.R.C., R21AI126296; https://www.niaid.nih.gov/), the Spanish Ministerio de Economí a, Industria y Competitividad (M.N., SAF2015-71444-P; D.G.-P., SAF2016-79957-R; http://www.mineco.gob.es), Subdireccion General de Redes ́ y Centros de Investigacion Cooperativa (RICET, https://www.ricet.es/) (M.N., RD16/0027/0019; D.G.P., RD16/ 0027/0014), and RTI2018-097210-B-I00 (MINCIU-FEDER) to F.G. An ACS MEDI Predoctoral Fellowship for D.M.K. is gratefully acknowledged, as is support from the National Science Foundation for K.F. (CHE-1262734). We thank AstraZeneca, Charles River Laboratories, and GlaxoSmithKline for the provision of the in vitro ADME and physicochemical properties data. The use of JChem/ChemAxon software is acknowledged

Biological significance of monoallelic and biallelic BIRC3 loss in del(11q) chronic lymphocytic leukemia progression

© The Author(s) 2021.BIRC3 is monoallelically deleted in up to 80% of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) cases harboring del(11q). In addition, truncating mutations in the remaining allele of this gene can lead to BIRC3 biallelic inactivation, which has been shown to be a marker for reduced survival in CLL. Nevertheless, the biological mechanisms by which these lesions could contribute to del(11q) CLL pathogenesis and progression are partially unexplored. We implemented the CRISPR/Cas9-editing system to generate isogenic CLL cell lines harboring del(11q) and/or BIRC3 mutations, modeling monoallelic and biallelic BIRC3 loss. Our results reveal that monoallelic BIRC3 deletion in del(11q) cells promotes non-canonical NF-κB signaling activation via RelB-p52 nuclear translocation, being these effects allelic dose-dependent and therefore further enhanced in del(11q) cells with biallelic BIRC3 loss. Moreover, we demonstrate ex vivo in primary cells that del(11q) cases including BIRC3 within their deleted region show evidence of non-canonical NF-κB activation which correlates with high BCL2 levels and enhanced sensitivity to venetoclax. Furthermore, our results show that BIRC3 mutations in del(11q) cells promote clonal advantage in vitro and accelerate leukemic progression in an in vivo xenograft model. Altogether, this work highlights the biological bases underlying disease progression of del(11q) CLL patients harboring BIRC3 deletion and mutation.This work was supported by grants from the Spanish Fondo de Investigaciones Sanitarias PI15/01471, PI18/01500, Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII), European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) “Una manera de hacer Europa”, “Consejería de Educación, Junta de Castilla y León” (SA271P18), “Proyectos de Investigación del SACYL”, Spain GRS 2062/A/19, GRS 1847/A/18, GRS1653/A17,“Fundación Memoria Don Samuel Solórzano Barruso” (FS/23-2018), by grants (RD12/0036/0069) from Red Temática de Investigación Cooperativa en Cáncer (RTICC), Universidad de Salamanca (Programa XIII), Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Cáncer (CIBERONC CB16/12/00233) and SYNtherapy “Synthetic Lethality for Personalized Therapy-based Stratification In Acute Leukemia” (ERAPERMED2018-275); ISCIII (AC18/00093), co-funded by ERDF/ESF, “Investing in your future”. M.Q.Á. and A.E.R.V. are supported with a research grant by FEHH (“Fundación Española de Hematología y Hemoterapia”); M.H.S. holds a Sara Borrell postdoctoral contract (CD19/00222) from the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII). C.P.C. was supported by an “Ayuda predoctoral en Oncología” (AECC) and is a recipient of a PFIS grant (FI19/00191) from Instituto de Salud Carlos III; PFIS grant and Sara Borrell postdoctoral contrat are co-founded by Fondo Social Europeo (FSE) “El Fondo Social Europeo invierte en tu futuro”; J.L.O. and R.B.S. are supported by a grant from the University of Salamanca (“Contrato postdoctoral programa II”)

Transcriptome profiling of grapevine seedless segregants during berry development reveals candidate genes associated with berry weight

Indexación: Web of Science; PubMedBackground Berry size is considered as one of the main selection criteria in table grape breeding programs. However, this is a quantitative and polygenic trait, and its genetic determination is still poorly understood. Considering its economic importance, it is relevant to determine its genetic architecture and elucidate the mechanisms involved in its expression. To approach this issue, an RNA-Seq experiment based on Illumina platform was performed (14 libraries), including seedless segregants with contrasting phenotypes for berry weight at fruit setting (FST) and 6–8 mm berries (B68) phenological stages. Results A group of 526 differentially expressed (DE) genes were identified, by comparing seedless segregants with contrasting phenotypes for berry weight: 101 genes from the FST stage and 463 from the B68 stage. Also, we integrated differential expression, principal components analysis (PCA), correlations and network co-expression analyses to characterize the transcriptome profiling observed in segregants with contrasting phenotypes for berry weight. After this, 68 DE genes were selected as candidate genes, and seven candidate genes were validated by real time-PCR, confirming their expression profiles. Conclusions We have carried out the first transcriptome analysis focused on table grape seedless segregants with contrasting phenotypes for berry weight. Our findings contributed to the understanding of the mechanisms involved in berry weight determination. Also, this comparative transcriptome profiling revealed candidate genes for berry weight which could be evaluated as selection tools in table grape breeding programs.http://bmcplantbiol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12870-016-0789-

A novel prohibitin-binding compound induces the mitochondrial apoptotic pathway through NOXA and BIM upregulation

We previously described diaryl trifluorothiazoline compound 1a (hereafter referred to as fluorizoline) as a first-in-class small molecule that induces p53-independent apoptosis in a wide range of tumor cell lines. Fluorizoline directly binds to prohibitin 1 and 2 (PHBs), two proteins involved in the regulation of several cellular processes, including apoptosis. Here we demonstrate that fluorizoline-induced apoptosis is mediated by PHBs, as cells depleted of these proteins are highly resistant to fluorizoline treatment. In addition, BAX and BAK are necessary for fluorizoline-induced cytotoxic effects, thereby proving that apoptosis occurs through the intrinsic pathway. Expression analysis revealed that fluorizoline induced the upregulation of Noxa and Bim mRNA levels, which was not observed in PHB-depleted MEFs. Finally, Noxa-/-/Bim-/- MEFs and NOXA-downregulated HeLa cells were resistant to fluorizoline-induced apoptosis. All together, these findings show that fluorizoline requires PHBs to execute the mitochondrial apoptotic pathway

Dissecting the role of TP53 alterations in del(11q) chronic lymphocytic leukemia

© 2021 The Authors.[Background]: Several genetic alterations have been identified as driver events in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) pathogenesis and oncogenic evolution. Concurrent driver alterations usually coexist within the same tumoral clone, but how the cooperation of multiple genomic abnormalities contributes to disease progression remains poorly understood. Specifically, the biological and clinical consequences of concurrent high-risk alterations such as del(11q)/ATM-mutations and del(17p)/TP53-mutations have not been established.[Methods]: We integrated next-generation sequencing (NGS) and clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/Cas9 techniques to characterize the in vitro and in vivo effects of concurrent monoallelic or biallelic ATM and/or TP53 alterations in CLL prognosis, clonal evolution, and therapy response.[Results]: Targeted sequencing analysis of the co-occurrence of high-risk alterations in 271 CLLs revealed that biallelic inactivation of both ATM and TP53 was mutually exclusive, whereas monoallelic del(11q) and TP53 alterations significantly co-occurred in a subset of CLL patients with a highly adverse clinical outcome. We determined the biological effects of combined del(11q), ATM and/or TP53 mutations in CRISPR/Cas9-edited CLL cell lines. Our results showed that the combination of monoallelic del(11q) and TP53 mutations in CLL cells led to a clonal advantage in vitro and in in vivo clonal competition experiments, whereas CLL cells harboring biallelic ATM and TP53 loss failed to compete in in vivo xenotransplants. Furthermore, we demonstrated that CLL cell lines harboring del(11q) and TP53 mutations show only partial responses to B cell receptor signaling inhibitors, but may potentially benefit from ATR inhibition.[Conclusions]: Our work highlights that combined monoallelic del(11q) and TP53 alterations coordinately contribute to clonal advantage and shorter overall survival in CLL.Spanish Fondo de Investigaciones Sanitarias, Grant/Award Numbers: PI15/01471, PI18/01500); Fundación Memoria Don Samuel Solórzano Barruso, Grant/Award Number: RD12/0036/006