A purL mutant of Sinorhizobium fredii HH103 is symbiotically defective and altered in its lipopolysaccharide

The pleiotropic phenotype of an auxotrophic purL mutant (SVQ295) of Sinorhizobium fredii HH103 has been investigated. SVQ295 forms colonies that are translucent, produce more slime and absorb less Congo red than those of wild-type strain HH103. SVQ295 did not grow in minimal medium unless the culture was supplemented with thiamin and adenine or with thiamin and AICA-riboside (5-aminoimidazole-4-carboxamide 1-b-D-ribofuranoside), an intermediate of purine biosynthesis. Bacterial cultures supplemented with AICA-riboside or adenine reached the same culture density, although the doubling time of SVQ295 cultures containing AICA-riboside was clearly longer. S. fredii SVQ295 induced pseudonodules on Glycine max and failed to nodulate six different legumes. On Glycyrrhiza uralensis, however, nodules showing nitrogenase activity and containing infected plant cells were formed. SVQ295 showed auto-agglutination when grown in liquid TY medium and its lipopolysaccharide (LPS) electrophoretic profile differed from that of its parental strain HH103-1. In addition, four monoclonal antibodies that recognize the LPS of S. fredii HH103 failed to recognize the LPS produced by SVQ295. In contrast, 1H-NMR spectra of K-antigen capsular polysaccharides (KPS) produced by SVQ295 and the wild-type strain HH103 were similar. Co-inoculation of soybean plants with SVQ295 and SVQ116 (a nodA mutant derivative of HH103) produced nitrogen-fixing nodules that were only occupied by SVQ116

RICORS2040 : The need for collaborative research in chronic kidney disease

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a silent and poorly known killer. The current concept of CKD is relatively young and uptake by the public, physicians and health authorities is not widespread. Physicians still confuse CKD with chronic kidney insufficiency or failure. For the wider public and health authorities, CKD evokes kidney replacement therapy (KRT). In Spain, the prevalence of KRT is 0.13%. Thus health authorities may consider CKD a non-issue: very few persons eventually need KRT and, for those in whom kidneys fail, the problem is 'solved' by dialysis or kidney transplantation. However, KRT is the tip of the iceberg in the burden of CKD. The main burden of CKD is accelerated ageing and premature death. The cut-off points for kidney function and kidney damage indexes that define CKD also mark an increased risk for all-cause premature death. CKD is the most prevalent risk factor for lethal coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and the factor that most increases the risk of death in COVID-19, after old age. Men and women undergoing KRT still have an annual mortality that is 10- to 100-fold higher than similar-age peers, and life expectancy is shortened by ~40 years for young persons on dialysis and by 15 years for young persons with a functioning kidney graft. CKD is expected to become the fifth greatest global cause of death by 2040 and the second greatest cause of death in Spain before the end of the century, a time when one in four Spaniards will have CKD. However, by 2022, CKD will become the only top-15 global predicted cause of death that is not supported by a dedicated well-funded Centres for Biomedical Research (CIBER) network structure in Spain. Realizing the underestimation of the CKD burden of disease by health authorities, the Decade of the Kidney initiative for 2020-2030 was launched by the American Association of Kidney Patients and the European Kidney Health Alliance. Leading Spanish kidney researchers grouped in the kidney collaborative research network Red de Investigación Renal have now applied for the Redes de Investigación Cooperativa Orientadas a Resultados en Salud (RICORS) call for collaborative research in Spain with the support of the Spanish Society of Nephrology, Federación Nacional de Asociaciones para la Lucha Contra las Enfermedades del Riñón and ONT: RICORS2040 aims to prevent the dire predictions for the global 2040 burden of CKD from becoming true

Signal molecules in the peanut–bradyrhizobia interaction

Main nodulation signal molecules in the peanut-bradyrhizobia interaction were examined. Flavonoids exuded by Arachis hypogaea L. cultivar Tegua were genistein, daidzein and chrysin, the latest being released in lower quantities. Thin layer chromatography analysis from genistein-induced bacterial cultures of three peanut bradyrhizobia resulted in an identical Nod factor pattern, suggesting low variability in genes involved in the synthesis of these molecules. Structural study of Nod factor by mass spectrometry and NMR analysis revealed that it shares a variety of substituents with the broad-host-range Rhizobium sp NGR234 and Bradyrhizobium spp. Nodulation assays in legumes nodulated by these rhizobia demonstrated differences between them and the three peanut bradyrhizobia. The three isolates were classified as Bradyrhizobium sp. Their fixation gene nifD and the common nodulation genes nodD, nodA were also analyzed.Fil: Taurian, Tania. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Río Cuarto. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Fisicoquímicas y Naturales. Departamento de Ciencias Naturales; ArgentinaFil: Morón, Belén. Universidad de Sevilla; EspañaFil: Soria Díaz, María. Universidad de Sevilla; EspañaFil: Angelini, Jorge Guillermo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Río Cuarto. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Fisicoquímicas y Naturales. Departamento de Ciencias Naturales; ArgentinaFil: Tejero Mateo, Pilar. Universidad de Sevilla; EspañaFil: Gill Serrano, Antonio. Universidad de Sevilla; EspañaFil: Megías, Manuel. Universidad de Sevilla; EspañaFil: Fabra, Adriana Isidora. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Río Cuarto. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Fisicoquímicas y Naturales. Departamento de Ciencias Naturales; Argentin