Biologia y perspectiva de microorganismos endófitos asociados a plantas

The endophyte bacteria inhabit plant tissues mainly in intercellular spaces, rarely in intracellular spaces and inside vascular tissues without causing symptoms of disease in plants. Debates on the origin of the endophyte bacteria and the form of penetration, besides the colonization mechanisms, consider the hypothesis that they were originated from seeds, microflora rizosphere of“phylloplane” or material used for plant propagation. The penetration in the plant might take place by stomas, wounds, emergence areas in lateral roots, allowing these bacteria to produce hydrolytic enzymes able to degrade the vegetables cell wall. Recent molecular studies on the diversity of endophyte bacteria have revealed a high affluence of phylotypes promoting the plant growth, suppressing phytopathogens, helping to remove contaminants, dissolving phosphate and contributing to the biological nitrogen assimilation. The objective of this review is to show the evolution, ecology, diversity, function and physiological and molecular techniques for the isolation of endophyte bacteria associated with plant tissuesLas bacterias endófitas residen en tejidos de las plantas, principalmente espacios intercelulares, raramente en espacios intracelulares y dentro de tejidos vasculares sin causar síntomas de enfermedad en la planta. Las discusiones sobre el origen de las bacterias endófitas y la forma de penetración, además de los mecanismos de colonización, consideran la hipótesis de que se originaron desde semillas, de la rizosfera, de microflora de filoplano o de material utilizado para la propagación vegetativa. La penetración en la planta puede ocurrir por estomas, heridas, áreas de emergencia de raíces laterales, siendo que estas bacterias pueden producir enzimas hidrolíticas capaces de degradar la pared celular de los vegetales. Estudios moleculares reciente sobre diversidad de bacterias endófitas han revelado una alta riqueza de filotipos, que promueven el crecimiento de las planta, suprimen fitopatógenos, ayudan a remover contaminantes, solubilizan fosfato y contribuyen a la asimilación biológica de nitrógeno. El objetivo de esta revisión es dar a conocer la evolución, ecología, diversidad, funcionalidad y técnicas fisiológicas y moleculares para el aislamiento de bacterias endófitas asociadas a tejidos de plantas

Methodological concepts for integrated assessment of agricultural and environmental policies in SEAMLESS-IF

Agricultural and Food Policy, Environmental Economics and Policy, Farm Management, Land Economics/Use,

Paternal inflammatory arthritis is associated with a higher risk of miscarriage:results of a large multicentre study (iFAME-Fertility)

OBJECTIVES: Paternal preconception health is recognized as an important contributor to pregnancy outcomes. Nonetheless, pregnancy outcomes of partners of men with inflammatory arthritis (IA) have never been studied. Our objective was to describe the pregnancy outcomes of partners of men diagnosed with IA.METHODS: We performed a multicentre cross-sectional retrospective study conducted in the Netherlands. Men with IA who were over 40 years old that reported at least one positive pregnancy test were included. To analyse the impact of IA on pregnancy outcomes, pregnancies were classified into two groups: pregnancies conceived after the diagnosis of IA and before the diagnosis of IA.RESULTS: In total, 408 male participants diagnosed with IA reported 897 singleton pregnancies that resulted in 794 live births. Pregnancies conceived after the diagnosis of IA had higher rate of miscarriage (12.27 vs 7.53%, P = &lt;0.05). This increased risk was still present after adjusting for confounders [OR 2.03 (95% CI 1.12, 3.69) P = 0.015].CONCLUSIONS: This is the largest study to describe the pregnancy outcomes of partners of men diagnosed with IA and the first to demonstrate that paternal IA is associated with a higher risk of miscarriage. Notwithstanding, the overall rate of miscarriage reported in our study could be comparable to previously reported population estimates.</p

Shift toward prior knowledge confers a perceptual advantage in early psychosis and psychosis-prone healthy individuals

Many neuropsychiatric illnesses are associated with psychosis, i.e., hallucinations (perceptions in the absence of causative stimuli) and delusions (irrational, often bizarre beliefs). Current models of brain function view perception as a combination of two distinct sources of information: bottom-up sensory input and top-down influences from prior knowledge. This framework may explain hallucinations and delusions. Here, we characterized the balance between visual bottom-up and top-down processing in people with early psychosis (study 1) and in psychosis-prone, healthy individuals (study 2) to elucidate the mechanisms that might contribute to the emergence of psychotic experiences. Through a specialized mental-health service, we identified unmedicated individuals who experience early psychotic symptoms but fall below the threshold for a categorical diagnosis. We observed that, in early psychosis, there was a shift in information processing favoring prior knowledge over incoming sensory evidence. In the complementary study, we capitalized on subtle variations in perception and belief in the general population that exhibit graded similarity with psychotic experiences (schizotypy). We observed that the degree of psychosis proneness in healthy individuals, and, specifically, the presence of subtle perceptual alterations, is also associated with stronger reliance on prior knowledge. Although, in the current experimental studies, this shift conferred a performance benefit, under most natural viewing situations, it may provoke anomalous perceptual experiences. Overall, we show that early psychosis and psychosis proneness both entail a basic shift in visual information processing, favoring prior knowledge over incoming sensory evidence. The studies provide complementary insights to a mechanism by which psychotic symptoms may emerge

PulseNet International: vision for the implementation of whole genome sequencing (WGS) for global food-borne disease surveillance

FWD-NEXT Expert Panel - Portugal/INSA - Vítor Borges (Instituto Nacional de Saúde Doutor Ricardo Jorge, Lisbon, Portugal)PulseNet International is a global network dedicated to laboratory-based surveillance for food-borne diseases. The network comprises the national and regional laboratory networks of Africa, Asia Pacific, Canada, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, the Middle East, and the United States. The PulseNet International vision is the standardised use of whole genome sequencing (WGS) to identify and subtype food-borne bacterial pathogens worldwide, replacing traditional methods to strengthen preparedness and response, reduce global social and economic disease burden, and save lives. To meet the needs of real-time surveillance, the PulseNet International network will standardise subtyping via WGS using whole genome multilocus sequence typing (wgMLST), which delivers sufficiently high resolution and epidemiological concordance, plus unambiguous nomenclature for the purposes of surveillance. Standardised protocols, validation studies, quality control programmes, database and nomenclature development, and training should support the implementation and decentralisation of WGS. Ideally, WGS data collected for surveillance purposes should be publicly available, in real time where possible, respecting data protection policies. WGS data are suitable for surveillance and outbreak purposes and for answering scientific questions pertaining to source attribution, antimicrobial resistance, transmission patterns, and virulence, which will further enable the protection and improvement of public health with respect to food-borne disease.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Evaluación de métodos para medir la actividad inhibitoria de extractos vegetales nativos del departamento de sucre sobre bacterias y levadura patógenas

The objective of this study was to evaluate the efficiency of two methods for measuring inhibitory activity of native ethanolic extracts plant of the Department of Sucre on bacteria and yeast human pathogenic. Sampling was conducted in the municipalities of Morroa and Sincelejo. The leaves of the plants Melia azederach, Sapium sp, Jatropha gossypilia, Psidium guajava, Origanum vulgare, Melissa officinalis, Eucalyptus sp and Cymbopogon citratus were processed using the methods of percolation and Soxhlet for the extraction of the extract. Methods were tested on agar hole method (Method 1) and the sensitive disk method (method 2) to measure the inhibitory effect on Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Klebsiella oxytoca, Enterococcus faecalis, Escherichia coli, and Bulkolderia glumaea Zygosaccharomyces microellipsoides. The results demonstrate that the method 2 allows greater efficiency and interpretation of results with regard to method 1 where there was diffusion of the extracts in the hole, which creates interference in the measurement. This is the first work in the department of Sucre where two methods are evaluated to determine inhibitory activity of a large group of native plants on pathogenic bacteria and yeast.El objetivo del presente trabajo fue evaluar la eficiencia de dos métodos para medir actividad inhibitoria de extractos vegetales etanólicos nativos del Departamento de Sucre sobre bacterias y levadura patógenas de humanos y plantas. Los muestreos se realizaron en los municipios de Morroa y Sincelejo. Las hojas de las plantas Melia Azederach, Sapium sp, Jatropha gossypilia, Psidium guajava, Origanum vulgare Melissa officinalis, Eucalyptus sp y Cymbopogon citratus fueron procesadas utilizando los métodos de percolación y de soxhlet para la extracción de los extractos. Se evaluaron los métodos de orificio sobre agar (método 1) y el método de disco sensitivos (método 2) para medir el efecto inhibitorio sobre Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Klebsiella oxytoca, Enterococcus faecalis, Escherichia coli, Bulkolderia glumaea y Zygosaccharomyces microellipsoides. Los resultados obtenidos demuestran que el método 2 permite una mayor eficacia e interpretación de los resultados con relación al método 1 donde se observó difusión de los extractos en el orificio, lo cual crea interferencia en la medición. Este es el primer trabajo en el departamento de Sucre donde se evalúan dos métodos para determinar actividad inhibitoria de un grupo amplio de plantas nativas sobre bacterias y levadura patógenas

BRCA2 polymorphic stop codon K3326X and the risk of breast, prostate, and ovarian cancers

Background: The K3326X variant in BRCA2 (BRCA2*c.9976A&gt;T; p.Lys3326*; rs11571833) has been found to be associated with small increased risks of breast cancer. However, it is not clear to what extent linkage disequilibrium with fully pathogenic mutations might account for this association. There is scant information about the effect of K3326X in other hormone-related cancers. Methods: Using weighted logistic regression, we analyzed data from the large iCOGS study including 76 637 cancer case patients and 83 796 control patients to estimate odds ratios (ORw) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for K3326X variant carriers in relation to breast, ovarian, and prostate cancer risks, with weights defined as probability of not having a pathogenic BRCA2 variant. Using Cox proportional hazards modeling, we also examined the associations of K3326X with breast and ovarian cancer risks among 7183 BRCA1 variant carriers. All statistical tests were two-sided. Results: The K3326X variant was associated with breast (ORw = 1.28, 95% CI = 1.17 to 1.40, P = 5.9x10- 6) and invasive ovarian cancer (ORw = 1.26, 95% CI = 1.10 to 1.43, P = 3.8x10-3). These associations were stronger for serous ovarian cancer and for estrogen receptor–negative breast cancer (ORw = 1.46, 95% CI = 1.2 to 1.70, P = 3.4x10-5 and ORw = 1.50, 95% CI = 1.28 to 1.76, P = 4.1x10-5, respectively). For BRCA1 mutation carriers, there was a statistically significant inverse association of the K3326X variant with risk of ovarian cancer (HR = 0.43, 95% CI = 0.22 to 0.84, P = .013) but no association with breast cancer. No association with prostate cancer was observed. Conclusions: Our study provides evidence that the K3326X variant is associated with risk of developing breast and ovarian cancers independent of other pathogenic variants in BRCA2. Further studies are needed to determine the biological mechanism of action responsible for these associations

The Fourteenth Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: First Spectroscopic Data from the extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey and from the second phase of the Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment

The fourth generation of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-IV) has been in operation since July 2014. This paper describes the second data release from this phase, and the fourteenth from SDSS overall (making this, Data Release Fourteen or DR14). This release makes public data taken by SDSS-IV in its first two years of operation (July 2014-2016). Like all previous SDSS releases, DR14 is cumulative, including the most recent reductions and calibrations of all data taken by SDSS since the first phase began operations in 2000. New in DR14 is the first public release of data from the extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS); the first data from the second phase of the Apache Point Observatory (APO) Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE-2), including stellar parameter estimates from an innovative data driven machine learning algorithm known as "The Cannon"; and almost twice as many data cubes from the Mapping Nearby Galaxies at APO (MaNGA) survey as were in the previous release (N = 2812 in total). This paper describes the location and format of the publicly available data from SDSS-IV surveys. We provide references to the important technical papers describing how these data have been taken (both targeting and observation details) and processed for scientific use. The SDSS website (www.sdss.org) has been updated for this release, and provides links to data downloads, as well as tutorials and examples of data use. SDSS-IV is planning to continue to collect astronomical data until 2020, and will be followed by SDSS-V.Comment: SDSS-IV collaboration alphabetical author data release paper. DR14 happened on 31st July 2017. 19 pages, 5 figures. Accepted by ApJS on 28th Nov 2017 (this is the "post-print" and "post-proofs" version; minor corrections only from v1, and most of errors found in proofs corrected

Ocean Drilling Perspectives on Meteorite Impacts

Extraterrestrial impacts that reshape the surfaces of rocky bodies are ubiquitous in the solar system. On early Earth, impact structures may have nurtured the evolution of life. More recently, a large meteorite impact off the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico at the end of the Cretaceous caused the disappearance of 75% of species known from the fossil record, including non-avian dinosaurs, and cleared the way for the dominance of mammals and the eventual evolution of humans. Understanding the fundamental processes associated with impact events is critical to understanding the history of life on Earth, and the potential for life in our solar system and beyond. Scientific ocean drilling has generated a large amount of unique data on impact pro- cesses. In particular, the Yucatán Chicxulub impact is the single largest and most sig- nificant impact event that can be studied by sampling in modern ocean basins, and marine sediment cores have been instrumental in quantifying its environmental, cli- matological, and biological effects. Drilling in the Chicxulub crater has significantly advanced our understanding of fundamental impact processes, notably the formation of peak rings in large impact craters, but these data have also raised new questions to be addressed with future drilling. Within the Chicxulub crater, the nature and thickness of the melt sheet in the central basin is unknown, and an expanded Paleocene hemipelagic section would provide insights to both the recovery of life and the climatic changes that followed the impact. Globally, new cores collected from today’s central Pacific could directly sample the downrange ejecta of this northeast-southwest trending impact. Extraterrestrial impacts have been controversially suggested as primary drivers for many important paleoclimatic and environmental events throughout Earth history. However, marine sediment archives collected via scientific ocean drilling and geo- chemical proxies (e.g., osmium isotopes) provide a long-term archive of major impact events in recent Earth history and show that, other than the end-Cretaceous, impacts do not appear to drive significant environmental changes