Potential natural biocontrol agents of Aphrophoridae eggs

Xylella fastidiosa is a phytopathogenic bacterium detected recently in Europe. It causes important economical losses in different crops, mainly in olive, almond and vineyard. Up to now the Aphrophoridae Philaenus spumarius L. (1758) is the main identified vector in Europe. The information about Aphrophoridae biology is insufficient and the knowledge about its natural enemies reduced. Nymphs excrete spumes remaining protected from natural enemies. Therefore, eggs are likely the most vulnerable stage to the natural enemies action. In this work, the potential action of parasitoids, predators and fungi against eggs of Aphrophoridae was studied. For that, at the end of the winter and before the egg hatching, rests of the remaining vegetation in the ground cover, mainly Poaceae, were collected. In the laboratory leaves, particularly the interior part of the blade which is a common oviposition location for spittlebugs, were observed under binocular stereoscope. Viable eggs were introduced in petri dishes until hatching. A total number of eggs of 3841 in 322 eggs laying and with a mean of 12 eggs per egg laying was recorded. From them, 603 eggs were intact and 3238 had sings of natural control agent action. A potential action of predators (in 183 eggs laying), parasitoid (in 198 eggs laying) and entomopathogenic fungi (in 48 eggs laying) was observed. Additionally, 321 parasitoids emerged from 43 of the eggs laying. These results indicate that the eggs mortality due to beneficial organisms, particularly parasitoids, may have a high importance for the control of X. fastidiosa vectorsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Saúde Consumo e Ambiente: Práticas e Valores das Grávidas

Dissertação em ecologia humana e problemas sociais contemporâneos.Da complexidade do ser humano, emergem as suas crenças e valores, numa sociedade sustentada num modelo económico centrado no consumo, mas também com preocupações com o bem-estar. Antigamente a grávida vivia com a família de origem e em comunidade fazia as suas aprendizagens. Neste terceiro milénio caracterizado pela grande mobilidade, as grávidas vivem a maiores distâncias da sua família de origem, vivenciando de forma diferente a maternidade. A grávida actual não se encontra isolada socialmente, possui características próprias enraizadas na sua cultura e valores. As suas atitudes e acções são traduzidas por comportamentos ditados por novos paradigmas. As atitudes face ao consumo alteram-se durante a gravidez? A grávida consome mais moderadamente? A preocupase com o possível impacto de alguns consumos na sua saúde? A alterar os seus hábitos? Sente o ambiente de forma diferente? Estas foram muitas das questões que levaram à elaboração do presente estudo de cariz exploratório, que teve como principal objectivo identificar quais as práticas e valores das grávidas no que diz respeito à saúde, consumo e ambiente. Tentou-se identificar as práticas e valores sobre o consumo, saúde e ambiente, recolhendo as respostas de 102 grávidas utilizadoras dos serviços da Enfermeira Especialista de Saúde Materna e Obstetrícia da USF Tílias as quais responderam a um questionário construído para o efeito. A análise dos dados revelou algumas práticas de saúde inadequadas, com base nos valores das inquiridas, revelou também que o valor emergente do consumo para estas mulheres é a qualidade. Relativamente aos factores ambientais as grávidas demonstram algumas preocupações, a este nível o que se surge como positivo é a maioria da amostra querer amamentar o que denota não só preocupações com a saúde do seu bebé, mas também benefícios em termos ambientais

Characterization of the endophytic fungal communities associated to Coleostephus myconis: looking for potential repellent/attractant compounds towards Philaenus spumarius

Philaenus spumarius is a xylem feeding insect identified so far as the only vector involved in the first European outbreak of the phytobacterium Xylella fastidiosa, affecting and devastating olive groves in Italy. One approach to reduce X. fastidiosa transmission could rely in the vector control through the use of baits to attract and/or repel de insect. Fungal endophytes inhabiting plants provide a source of candidate repellent/attractant compounds. In this work, the endophytic fungi community associated to the weed Coleostephus myconis, was studied in order to identified potential fungi that can be used as attractants or repellents of P. spumarius. Coleostephus myconis is common in olive groves and preferentially used by P. spumarius for the nymph development. Fungi were isolated from the stems, leaves and inflorescences from plants with three levels of P. spumarius infestation (i.e. no infestation, moderate and high infestation). The fungal isolates obtained were identified by sequencing the ITS region of rDNA and the partial tef1. Overall, was obtained 138 taxa belonging to 37 different genera. The endophytic community composition differs between infested and non-infested plants, solely at stems level, where the P. spumarius foam nests are present. The fungal genera, Cytospora, Diaporthe and Penicillium, which are well-known with producers of volatiles compounds repellent activity against insect, were found only on non-infested plants. Botrytis was restricted to infested plants. The behavioral responses and preferences of P. spumarius for C. myconis plants colonized by these endophytes should be investigated in the future.This work is funded by national funds through the Foundation for Science and Technology - FCT - in the scope of the project PTDC/AGR-PRO/0856/2014 XF-FREEOLIVE: Multifunctional study of xylem-sap of Portuguese olive cultivars and its relation with susceptibility to infection by Xylella fastidiosa, and by European fund in the scope of the project H2020-SFS-2016-3 XF-ACTORS - Xylella fastidiosa active containment through a multidisciplinary-oriented research strategyinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Endophytic fungal community succession in reproductive organs of two olive tree cultivars with contrasting anthracnose susceptibilities

The factors shaping endophytic fungal assemblages in reproductive organs have been less evaluated than in vegetative organs. Here, the temporal dynamics of fungal endophytes in inflorescences and fruits of olive tree cultivars with contrasting anthracnose susceptibilities was assessed, starting before flowers open until fruit ripening. Fungal diversity assessed by rRNA sequencing of cultivable isolates revealed a higher richness and abundance of endophytes in inflorescences than in fruits. Endophytes from Sordariomycetes were dominant in inflorescences, while in fruits they were from Dothideomycetes. The overall assemblages of inflorescences and fruits were shaped mainly by the plant organ, followed by the phenological stage and lastly, by the plant cultivar. The importance of cultivar as a shaping factor varied according to the plant organ, being only significant in inflorescence-associated endophytes. A set of fungal taxa were positively associated with a particular cultivar and phenological stage, likely contributing to the plant anthracnose resistance.This work is supported by FEDER funds through the COMPETE (Operational Programme for Competitiveness Factors) and by the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT, Portugal) within the POCI-01-0145-FEDER-031133 (MicOlives) project and FCT/MCTES to CIMO (UIDB/00690/2020). F. Martins thanks the award of a PhD scholarship (ref. SFRH/BD/112234/2015) by FCT.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

A new method for testing antimicrobial activity of filamentous fungi

Tbls work was supporled by a FCT projecl (PTDC/AGR-AAM/099556/2008)

A Participação em Programas de Intercâmbio como Alternativa Complementar de Formação: Contribuições do Programa Escala ao Curso de Graduação em Administração da Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina.

Considerando a perspectiva atual de mundo globalizado, as organizações e as pessoas passam por uma fase de adaptação. Os acadêmicos necessitam ampliar sua formação, nos âmbitos acadêmico, profissional e pessoal. A universidade exerce importante papel nesta formação e, portanto, deve oferecer meios, através de oportunidades para que isto aconteça de fato. Diante desta problemática surge a pergunta de pesquisa: o Programa Escala Estudantil contribui para a expansão da formação dos acadêmicos do Curso de Administração da UFSC? Visando responder a esta questão, foi delineado o objetivo geral deste artigo que é analisar através do estudo de caso de que forma a participação no Programa Escala contribuiu para a expansão da formação acadêmica, profissional e pessoal. Para o desenvolvimento desta pesquisa foi feito um estudo de caso, de natureza predominantemente qualitativa e descritivo. O estudo foi realizado com dois acadêmicos do curso de Ciências da Administração da UFSC de um total de sete, que participaram do Programa Escala no segundo semestre de 2004 e primeiro semestre de 2005. A escolha dos alunos se deu de forma aleatória pelo critério da acessibilidade e disponibilidade. A UFSC e o CAD oferecem algumas modalidades de intercâmbio através dos convênios de cooperação entre universidades. O ESAI é responsável por gerir este processo, que apresenta deficiências como a falta de recursos, de programas estruturados e de conhecimento. Contudo, a percebeu-se com este estudo que os programas de intercâmbio contribuem de maneira relevante para a expansão da formação dos estudantes, seja no âmbito acadêmico com o desenvolvimento de competências e compartilhando conhecimento, no âmbito profissional, forjando um profissional globalizado, diferenciado ou na maturidade e crescimento obtidos no âmbito pessoal. Recomenda-se que o estudo seja estendido aos demais participantes do Programa Escala para comprovar os resultados obtidos. Também é recomendado que a Universidade dedique maior atenção a esta ferramenta tão importante para o alcance da sua missão de aprofundar e ampliar a formação do ser humano

Combining the amplification refractory mutation system and high-resolution melting analysis for KRAS mutation detection in clinical samples

© The Author(s) 2023. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.The success of personalized medicine depends on the discovery of biomarkers that allow oncologists to identify patients that will benefit from a particular targeted drug. Molecular tests are mostly performed using tumor samples, which may not be representative of the tumor's temporal and spatial heterogeneity. Liquid biopsies, and particularly the analysis of circulating tumor DNA, are emerging as an interesting means for diagnosis, prognosis, and predictive biomarker discovery. In this study, the amplification refractory mutation system (ARMS) coupled with high-resolution melting analysis (HRMA) was developed for detecting two of the most relevant KRAS mutations in codon 12. After optimization with commercial cancer cell lines, KRAS mutation screening was validated in tumor and plasma samples collected from patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), and the results were compared to those obtained by Sanger sequencing (SS) and droplet digital polymerase chain reaction (ddPCR). The developed ARMS-HRMA methodology stands out for its simplicity and reduced time to result when compared to both SS and ddPCR but showing high sensitivity and specificity for the detection of mutations in tumor and plasma samples. In fact, ARMS-HRMA scored 3 more mutations compared to SS (tumor samples T6, T7, and T12) and one more compared to ddPCR (tumor sample T7) in DNA extracted from tumors. For ctDNA from plasma samples, insufficient genetic material prevented the screening of all samples. Still, ARMS-HRMA allowed for scoring more mutations in comparison to SS and 1 more mutation in comparison to ddPCR (plasma sample P7). We propose that ARMS-HRMA might be used as a sensitive, specific, and simple method for the screening of low-level mutations in liquid biopsies, suitable for improving diagnosis and prognosis schemes.This work is financed by national funds from FCT—Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P., in the scope of the project UIDP/04378/2020 and UIDB/04378/2020 of the Research Unit on Applied Molecular Biosciences—UCIBIO and the project LA/P/0140/2020 of the Associate Laboratory Institute for Health and Bioeconomy—i4HB. FCT-MCTES is also acknowledged for 2020.07660.BD for BBO. Open access funding provided by FCT|FCCN (b-on).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Differences in the endophytic microbiome of olive cultivars infected by xylella fastidiosa across seasons

The dynamics of Xylella fastidiosa infections in the context of the endophytic microbiome was studied in field-grown plants of the susceptible and resistant olive cultivars Kalamata and FS17. Whole metagenome shotgun sequencing (WMSS) coupled with 16S/ITS rRNA gene sequencing was carried out on the same trees at two different stages of the infections: In Spring 2017 when plants were almost symptomless and in Autumn 2018 when the trees of the susceptible cultivar clearly showed desiccations. The progression of the infections detected in both cultivars clearly unraveled that Xylella tends to occupy the whole ecological niche and suppresses the diversity of the endophytic microbiome. However, this trend was mitigated in the resistant cultivar FS17, harboring lower population sizes and therefore lower Xylella average abundance ratio over total bacteria, and a higher α-diversity. Host cultivar had a negligible effect on the community composition and no clear associations of a single taxon or microbial consortia with the resistance cultivar were found with both sequencing approaches, suggesting that the mechanisms of resistance likely reside on factors that are independent of the microbiome structure. Overall, Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, Firmicutes, and Bacteriodetes dominated the bacterial microbiome while Ascomycota and Basidiomycota those of Fungi.CIMO -Kansainvälisen Liikkuvuuden ja Yhteistyön Keskus(UIDB/04046/2020

How do students perceive their Learning Assessment?

The present work was developed considering the learning assessment vector and linking it to students’ general satisfaction with the engineering course. The key findings show a positive association between students’ general satisfaction and the learning assessment, specifically with the assessment methodologies effectiveness regarding the different subjects taught. Globally,studentsconsidered the assessment methodologies effective and appropriate to the different subjects taught however, they do not feel encouraged to be part of the process of monitoring his/her performance, and to thetime allocated to the assessment testsas it wasnot considered appropriateto the volume of subjects taught.The authors would like to express their acknowledgments to all students who accepted to collaborate in this study. The authors also thank the Research Centre CIETI and FCT, for all the support provided in the scope of the projects COMPETE: POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007043, UID/CEC/00319-2019 and UID-EQU-04730-2013.N/