Associative Conditioning Is a Robust Systemic Behavior in Unicellular Organisms: An Interspecies Comparison

The capacity to learn new efficient systemic behavior is a fundamental issue of contemporary biology. We have recently observed, in a preliminary analysis, the emergence of conditioned behavior in some individual amoebae cells. In these experiments, cells were able to acquire new migratory patterns and remember them for long periods of their cellular cycle, forgetting them later on. Here, following a similar conceptual framework of Pavlov’s experiments, we have exhaustively studied the migration trajectories of more than 2000 individual cells belonging to three different species: Amoeba proteus, Metamoeba leningradensis, and Amoeba borokensis. Fundamentally, we have analyzed several relevant properties of conditioned cells, such as the intensity of the responses, the directionality persistence, the total distance traveled, the directionality ratio, the average speed, and the persistence times. We have observed that cells belonging to these three species can modify the systemic response to a specific stimulus by associative conditioning. Our main analysis shows that such new behavior is very robust and presents a similar structure of migration patterns in the three species, which was characterized by the presence of conditioning for long periods, remarkable straightness in their trajectories and strong directional persistence. Our experimental and quantitative results, compared with other studies on complex cellular responses in bacteria, protozoa, fungus-like organisms and metazoans that we discus here, allow us to conclude that cellular associative conditioning might be a widespread characteristic of unicellular organisms. This new systemic behavior could be essential to understand some key principles involved in increasing the cellular adaptive fitness to microenvironments.This work was supported by a grant of the University of Basque Country (UPV/EHU), GIU17/066, the Basque Government grant IT974-16, the UPV/EHU and Basque Center of Applied Mathematics, grant US18/21, and the Israel Science Foundation (536/19)Peer reviewe

Evidence of conditioned behavior in amoebae

Associative memory is the main type of learning by which complex organisms endowed with evolved nervous systems respond efficiently to certain environmental stimuli. It has been found in different multicellular species, from cephalopods to humans, but never in individual cells. Here we describe a motility pattern consistent with associative conditioned behavior in the microorganism Amoeba proteus. We use a controlled direct-current electric field as the conditioned stimulus, and a specific chemotactic peptide as the unconditioned stimulus. The amoebae are capable of linking two independent past events, generating persistent locomotion movements that can prevail for 44 min on average. We confirm a similar behavior in a related species, Metamoeba leningradensis. Thus, our results indicate that unicellular organisms can modify their behavior during migration by associative conditioning.We would like to thank Dr. Andrew Goodkov from the Institute of Cytology (Russian Academy of Science) St. Petersburg, Russia, for valuable advices related to Amoeba organisms, Laura Perez Gomez and Luis Rojo Garcia for their assistance designing Fig. 1 and the AutoCAD 3D model, A-M Perez Biedermann for her valuable contribution in our study, Jose Gonzalez Romero and Jose Miguel Perez Perez from the Institute of Parasitology and Biomedicine "Lopez-Neyra" for their technical assistance. In addition, we thank Maria Calleja-Felipe for her valuable help in the peptide gradient experiments. This work was supported by a grant of the University of Basque Country (UPV/EHU), GIU17/066, the Basque Government grant IT974-16, and by the UPV/EHU and Basque Center of Applied Mathematics, grant US18/21"

Genomic transformation and social organization during the Copper Age-Bronze Age transition in southern Iberia

[EN]The emerging Bronze Age (BA) of southeastern Iberia saw marked social changes. Late Copper Age (CA) settlements were abandoned in favor of hilltop sites, and collective graves were largely replaced by single or double burials with often distinctive grave goods indirectly reflecting a hierarchical social organization, as exemplified by the BA El Argar group. We explored this transition from a genomic viewpoint by tripling the amount of data available for this period. Concomitant with the rise of El Argar starting similar to 2200 cal BCE, we observe a complete turnover of Y-chromosome lineages along with the arrival of steppe-related ancestry. This pattern is consistent with a founder effect in male lineages, supported by our finding that males shared more relatives at sites than females. However, simple two-source models do not find support in some El Argar groups, suggesting additional genetic contributions from the Mediterranean that could predate the BA.This work was supported by the Max Planck Society (V.V.-M. and W.H.); European Research Council (ERC) grant 771234-PALEoRIDER (W. H.); Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness project HAR2017-85962-P (C.O., C.R.-H., M.I.F., E.C.B., C.V.-F., V.L., R.M., and R.R.); AGAUR 2017SGR1044 (C.O., C.R.-H., M.I.F., E. C.B., C.V.-F., V. L., R.M., and R.R.); ICREA Academia program (R.R.); John Templeton Foundation grant 61220 (D.R.); and Paul Allen Family Foundation (D.R.). D.R. is an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Genomic transformation and social organization during the Copper Age-Bronze Age transition in southern Iberia

The emerging Bronze Age (BA) of southeastern Iberia saw marked social changes. Late Copper Age (CA) settlements were abandoned in favor of hilltop sites, and collective graves were largely replaced by single or double burials with often distinctive grave goods indirectly reflecting a hierarchical social organization, as exemplified by the BA El Argar group. We explored this transition from a genomic viewpoint by tripling the amount of data available for this period. Concomitant with the rise of El Argar starting ~2200 cal BCE, we observe a complete turnover of Y-chromosome lineages along with the arrival of steppe-related ancestry. This pattern is consistent with a founder effect in male lineages, supported by our finding that males shared more relatives at sites than females. However, simple two-source models do not find support in some El Argar groups, suggesting additional genetic contributions from the Mediterranean that could predate the BA

Genomic transformation and social organization during the Copper Age-Bronze Age transition in southern Iberia

The emerging Bronze Age (BA) of southeastern Iberia saw marked social changes. Late Copper Age (CA) settlements were abandoned in favor of hilltop sites, and collective graves were largely replaced by single or double burials with often distinctive grave goods indirectly reflecting a hierarchical social organization, as exemplified by the BA El Argar group. We explored this transition from a genomic viewpoint by tripling the amount of data available for this period. Concomitant with the rise of El Argar starting ∼2200 cal BCE, we observe a complete turnover of Y-chromosome lineages along with the arrival of steppe-related ancestry. This pattern is consistent with a founder effect in male lineages, supported by our finding that males shared more relatives at sites than females. However, simple two-source models do not find support in some El Argar groups, suggesting additional genetic contributions from the Mediterranean that could predate the BA.This work was supported by the Max Planck Society (V.V.-M. and W.H.); European Research Council (ERC) grant 771234—PALEoRIDER (W.H.); Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness project HAR2017-85962-P (C.O., C.R.-H., M.I.F., E.C.B., C.V.-F., V.L., R.M., and R.R.); AGAUR 2017SGR1044 (C.O., C.R.-H., M.I.F., E.C.B., C.V.-F., V.L., R.M., and R.R.); ICREA Academia program (R.R.); John Templeton Foundation grant 61220 (D.R.); and Paul Allen Family Foundation (D.R.). D.R. is an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Stability of SARS-CoV-2 spike antigens against mutations

Modern health care needs preventive vaccines and therapeutic treatments with stability against pathogen mutations to cope with current and future viral infections. At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, our analytic and predictive tool identified a set of eight short SARS-CoV-2 S-spike protein epitopes that had the potential to persistently avoid mutation. Here a combination of genetic, Systems Biology and protein structure analyses confirm the stability of our identified epitopes against viral mutations. Remarkably, this research spans the whole period of the pandemic, during which 93.9% of the eight peptides remained invariable in the globally predominant 43 circulating variants, including Omicron. Likewise, the selected epitopes are conserved in 97% of all 1,514 known SARS-CoV-2 lineages. Finally, experimental analyses performed with these short peptides showed their specific immunoreactivity. This work opens a new perspective on the design of next-generation vaccines and antibody therapies that will remain reliable against future pathogen mutations.Dr. Lozano-Perez acknowledges the European Commission ERDF/FEDER Operational Program 'Murcia' CCI No. 2007ES161PO001 (Project No. 14-20/20). Miodrag Grbic acknowledges support from the NSERC Discovery grant (Canada). This work also has received funding from the Department of Education of the Basque Government via the Consolidated Research Group MATH MODE (IT1456-22). Besides, Ildefonso Martinez De la Fuente and Iker Malaina were supported by the UPV/EHU and Basque Center of Applied Mathematics, grant US21/27N

Impact of the first wave of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic on the outcome of neurosurgical patients: A nationwide study in Spain

Objective To assess the effect of the first wave of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic on the outcome of neurosurgical patients in Spain. Settings The initial flood of COVID-19 patients overwhelmed an unprepared healthcare system. Different measures were taken to deal with this overburden. The effect of these measures on neurosurgical patients, as well as the effect of COVID-19 itself, has not been thoroughly studied. Participants This was a multicentre, nationwide, observational retrospective study of patients who underwent any neurosurgical operation from March to July 2020. Interventions An exploratory factorial analysis was performed to select the most relevant variables of the sample. Primary and secondary outcome measures Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed to identify independent predictors of mortality and postoperative SARS-CoV-2 infection. Results Sixteen hospitals registered 1677 operated patients. The overall mortality was 6.4%, and 2.9% (44 patients) suffered a perioperative SARS-CoV-2 infection. Of those infections, 24 were diagnosed postoperatively. Age (OR 1.05), perioperative SARS-CoV-2 infection (OR 4.7), community COVID-19 incidence (cases/10 5 people/week) (OR 1.006), postoperative neurological worsening (OR 5.9), postoperative need for airway support (OR 5.38), ASA grade =3 (OR 2.5) and preoperative GCS 3-8 (OR 2.82) were independently associated with mortality. For SARS-CoV-2 postoperative infection, screening swab test <72 hours preoperatively (OR 0.76), community COVID-19 incidence (cases/10 5 people/week) (OR 1.011), preoperative cognitive impairment (OR 2.784), postoperative sepsis (OR 3.807) and an absence of postoperative complications (OR 0.188) were independently associated. Conclusions Perioperative SARS-CoV-2 infection in neurosurgical patients was associated with an increase in mortality by almost fivefold. Community COVID-19 incidence (cases/10 5 people/week) was a statistically independent predictor of mortality. Trial registration number CEIM 20/217

Çédille, revista de estudios franceses

Presentació

Organic free radicals for molecular electronics and spintronics

La presente tesis doctoral se centra en el campo de la electrónica molecular, en particular se ocupa del desarrollo de nuevos dispositivos moleculares y del estudio de los fenómenos de transferencias electrónica asociados a ellos. Las propiedad de los policloro trifenilmetil radicales (PTM) han sido utilizadas en este trabajo para investigar los diferentes mecanismos de transferencia de carga asociados a varios sistemas en los cuales los PTM están involucrados. En la primera parte de la tesis se ha descrito el estudio de los procesos de transferencia de carga a través de dos diferentes familias de hilos moleculares, una de vinilo tiofene y la otra de oligo-p-fenilenos vinilenos fusionado conectados a dos moléculas de PTM las cuales actúan como dadores y aceptores de electrones en sistemas de valencia mixta D-B-A. Estos sistemas han sido completamente caracterizados por diferentes técnicas espectroscópicas en sus diferentes estados de oxidación: neutro, de valencia mixta y oxidada. Además, los mecanismos para la transferencia electrónica intermolecular a través de estos hilos moleculares han sido elucidados. En la segunda parte de la tesis ha sido reportada la síntesis de una familia de derivados de PTM con grupos tiol conectados al PTM a través de un cadena alquílica de diferentes longitudes, capaces de formar monocapas auotensambladas (SAM) sobre substratos de oro. Asimismo, se ha estudiado los mecanismos de transferencia electrónica a través de las SAMs de PTM en sus diferentes estados de oxidación, contactadas estas por el electrodo de eutéctico galio-indio y por el microscopio de efecto túnel. Para finalizar, en la última parte de la tesis, se ha reportado el estudio de las propiedades magnéticas y eléctricas de dos derivados de PTM en break-juction unimoleculares de oro y HOPG. Interesante fue el hecho de que en las break-juction unimoleculares de oro, se detectó un pico Kondo lo que indica que el momento magnético del radical PTM interactúa con los electrones de conducción.The present Doctoral Thesis is framed in the field of molecular electronics, specifically is focused on the development of new molecular electronic devices and on the study of the electron transfer phenomena associated to them. We exploit the properties of polychloro thriphenylmethyl radical (PTM) molecules to explore the charge transfer mechanisms involved in many different systems containing PTM derivatives. In the first part of the Thesis, we have described the study of the charge transfer process through two different families of molecular wires, oligo vinylene-thiophne (nTV) and fused oligo-p-phenylene vinylene (nCOPV), connecting two PTM moieties acting as electron donor/acceptor in mixed valence systems D-B-A. These systems were fully characterized by different spectroscopic techniques in their neutral, mixed valence and oxidized states. The mechanism for the intramolecular charge transfer through these wires was elucidated. In the second part of Thesis we have reported the synthesis of a family of PTM derivatives containing a thiol terminal group connected to the PTM through an alkyl chain with different length, able to form self-assembled monolayers (SAM) on gold substrates. We have studied the charge transport mechanisms through PTM SAMs contacted by eutectic gallium-indium electrode and scanning tunneling microcopy, in their different redox states. Finally, in last part of the thesis we have reported the study of the electric and magnetic properties of two PTM derivatives in gold and HOPG single molecule break-junctions. On gold PTM break-junctions, a Kondo peak was detected indicating that the localized magnetic moment of PTM radical interacts with conducting electrons

Organic free radicals for molecular electronics and spintronics

La presente tesis doctoral se centra en el campo de la electrónica molecular, en particular se ocupa del desarrollo de nuevos dispositivos moleculares y del estudio de los fenómenos de transferencias electrónica asociados a ellos. Las propiedad de los policloro trifenilmetil radicales (PTM) han sido utilizadas en este trabajo para investigar los diferentes mecanismos de transferencia de carga asociados a varios sistemas en los cuales los PTM están involucrados. En la primera parte de la tesis se ha descrito el estudio de los procesos de transferencia de carga a través de dos diferentes familias de hilos moleculares, una de vinilo tiofene y la otra de oligo-p-fenilenos vinilenos fusionado conectados a dos moléculas de PTM las cuales actúan como dadores y aceptores de electrones en sistemas de valencia mixta D-B-A. Estos sistemas han sido completamente caracterizados por diferentes técnicas espectroscópicas en sus diferentes estados de oxidación: neutro, de valencia mixta y oxidada. Además, los mecanismos para la transferencia electrónica intermolecular a través de estos hilos moleculares han sido elucidados. En la segunda parte de la tesis ha sido reportada la síntesis de una familia de derivados de PTM con grupos tiol conectados al PTM a través de un cadena alquílica de diferentes longitudes, capaces de formar monocapas auotensambladas (SAM) sobre substratos de oro. Asimismo, se ha estudiado los mecanismos de transferencia electrónica a través de las SAMs de PTM en sus diferentes estados de oxidación, contactadas estas por el electrodo de eutéctico galio-indio y por el microscopio de efecto túnel. Para finalizar, en la última parte de la tesis, se ha reportado el estudio de las propiedades magnéticas y eléctricas de dos derivados de PTM en break-juction unimoleculares de oro y HOPG. Interesante fue el hecho de que en las break-juction unimoleculares de oro, se detectó un pico Kondo lo que indica que el momento magnético del radical PTM interactúa con los electrones de conducción.The present Doctoral Thesis is framed in the field of molecular electronics, specifically is focused on the development of new molecular electronic devices and on the study of the electron transfer phenomena associated to them. We exploit the properties of polychloro thriphenylmethyl radical (PTM) molecules to explore the charge transfer mechanisms involved in many different systems containing PTM derivatives. In the first part of the Thesis, we have described the study of the charge transfer process through two different families of molecular wires, oligo vinylene-thiophne (nTV) and fused oligo-p-phenylene vinylene (nCOPV), connecting two PTM moieties acting as electron donor/acceptor in mixed valence systems D-B-A. These systems were fully characterized by different spectroscopic techniques in their neutral, mixed valence and oxidized states. The mechanism for the intramolecular charge transfer through these wires was elucidated. In the second part of Thesis we have reported the synthesis of a family of PTM derivatives containing a thiol terminal group connected to the PTM through an alkyl chain with different length, able to form self-assembled monolayers (SAM) on gold substrates. We have studied the charge transport mechanisms through PTM SAMs contacted by eutectic gallium-indium electrode and scanning tunneling microcopy, in their different redox states. Finally, in last part of the thesis we have reported the study of the electric and magnetic properties of two PTM derivatives in gold and HOPG single molecule break-junctions. On gold PTM break-junctions, a Kondo peak was detected indicating that the localized magnetic moment of PTM radical interacts with conducting electrons