Chromosome analysis in Pseudopaludicola (Anura, Leiuperidae), with description of sex chromosomes XX/XY in P-saltica

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)Taxonomic changes have frequently occurred in the anuran genus Pseudopaludicola as a consequence of high morphological similarity among its species. The present work reports karyotypic analysis of three Pseudopaludicola species sampled in their type locality and four Pseudopaludicola populations from distinct localities, aiming at contributing to the systematics of this genus. Chromosomes were stained with Giemsa or submitted to the silver staining (Ag-NOR) and C-banding techniques. The karyotype was 2n=22 in P. mineira, Pseudopaludicola sp. and two populations of P. saltica. The chromosome pair 8 was heteromorphic in P. saltica, characterizing a XX/XY sex-determination system with telocentric X and submetacentric Y. Highly similar karyotypes with 2n=18 chromosomes were observed in P. canga, P. aff. canga from Barreirinhas, State of Maranhao, Uberlandia, State of Minas Gerais and Icem, State Sao Paulo. The high similarity among the karyotypes 2n=18 suggested that the populations of P. aff. canga belong to the group 'pusilla', the same group of P. canga. The data demonstrated also that P. aff. canga from Barreirinhas (northeast region) is cytogenetically identical to P. canga with regarding the NOR site position in pair 3 and the presence of a heterochromatic block in the pair 2, whereas P. aff. canga from Uberlandia and Icem (southeast) had the NOR in the pair 9. Moreover, the cytogenetic data discriminated P. mineira and Pseudopaludicola sp. from the previously analyzed species with 22 chromosomes, and suggested that Pseudopaludicola sp. is an undescribed species. Sexual heteromorphic chromosomes are firstly reported in Pseudopaludicola and the data indicated the need of an extensive taxonomic review in this genus.14724352Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)Fundacao de Ensino de Sao Paulo (FUNDESP)Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)FAPESP [6/60055-0

Who Eats Whom in a Pool? A Comparative Study of Prey Selectivity by Predatory Aquatic Insects

Predatory aquatic insects are a diverse group comprising top predators in small fishless water bodies. Knowledge of their diet composition is fragmentary, which hinders the understanding of mechanisms maintaining their high local diversity and of their impacts on local food web structure and dynamics. We conducted multiple-choice predation experiments using nine common species of predatory aquatic insects, including adult and larval Coleoptera, adult Heteroptera and larval Odonata, and complemented them with literature survey of similar experiments. All predators in our experiments fed selectively on the seven prey species offered, and vulnerability to predation varied strongly between the prey. The predators most often preferred dipteran larvae; previous studies further reported preferences for cladocerans. Diet overlaps between all predator pairs and predator overlaps between all prey pairs were non-zero. Modularity analysis separated all primarily nectonic predator and prey species from two groups of large and small benthic predators and their prey. These results, together with limited evidence from the literature, suggest a highly interconnected food web with several modules, in which similarly sized predators from the same microhabitat are likely to compete strongly for resources in the field (observed Pianka’s diet overlap indices >0.85). Our experiments further imply that ontogenetic diet shifts are common in predatory aquatic insects, although we observed higher diet overlaps than previously reported. Hence, individuals may or may not shift between food web modules during ontogeny

Physicochemical characteristics of citrus jelly with non cariogenic and functional sweeteners

In this study the effect of sweeteners with low glycemic index and non-cariogenic characteristics (isomaltulose, oligofructose and tagatose) in jelly prepared with citrus juice has been evaluated considering a citrus jelly formulated with sucrose as reference. The soluble solids, moisture content, pH, water activity, antioxidant capacity, optical and mechanical properties of jelly made using different sweeteners was determined during storage. Besides, mesophilic aerobics and moulds and yeasts was also counted to determine their stability over time. Sensory evaluation of the citrus jelly has also been done. The results showed the antioxidant activity decreased during storage in all formulations. Tagatose increased lightness whereas coordinates a*, b* and chrome of all the jellies prepared using new sweeteners were lower than jellies with sucrose. However, citrus jelly with only oligofructose or tagatose or with the mixture of isomaltulose and tagatose were most closely resembled to the control jelly with respect to mechanical properties. Jelly prepared with the combination of isomaltulose and tagatose in equal proportions obtained the best score in the sensorial analysis.The authors would like to thank the Serigo-Andres family for donating the raw materials, and also the GVA projects GV/2013/029, GV/2014/012 as well as the Universitat Politecnica de Valencia (Spain) for the financial support given to this research study (UPV PAID-06-12 SP20120889).Rubio-Arraez, S.; Capella Hernández, JV.; Castelló Gómez, ML.; Ortolá Ortolá, MD. (2016). Physicochemical characteristics of citrus jelly with non cariogenic and functional sweeteners. 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Bacteria-inducing legume nodules involved in the improvement of plant growth, health and nutrition

Bacteria-inducing legume nodules are known as rhizobia and belong to the class Alphaproteobacteria and Betaproteobacteria. They promote the growth and nutrition of their respective legume hosts through atmospheric nitrogen fixation which takes place in the nodules induced in their roots or stems. In addition, rhizobia have other plant growth-promoting mechanisms, mainly solubilization of phosphate and production of indoleacetic acid, ACC deaminase and siderophores. Some of these mechanisms have been reported for strains of rhizobia which are also able to promote the growth of several nonlegumes, such as cereals, oilseeds and vegetables. Less studied are the mechanisms that have the rhizobia to promote the plant health; however, these bacteria are able to exert biocontrol of some phytopathogens and to induce the plant resistance. In this chapter, we revised the available data about the ability of the legume nodule-inducing bacteria for improving the plant growth, health and nutrition of both legumes and nonlegumes. These data showed that rhizobia meet all the requirements of sustainable agriculture to be used as bio-inoculants allowing the total or partial replacement of chemicals used for fertilization or protection of crops