Working-class royalty: bees beat the caste system

The struggle among social classes or castes is well known in humans. Here, we show that caste inequality similarly affects societies of ants, bees and wasps, where castes are morphologically distinct and workers have greatly reduced reproductive potential compared with queens. In social insects, an individual normally has no control over its own fate, whether queen or worker, as this is socially determined during rearing. Here, for the first time, we quantify a strategy for overcoming social control. In the stingless bee Schwarziana quadripunctata, some individuals reared in worker cells avoid a worker fate by developing into fully functional dwarf queens

Is there still room to explore cyclodextrin glycosyltransferase-producers in Brazilian biodiversity?

In the present work, different Brazilian biomes aiming to identify and select cyclodextrin glycosyltransferase-producer bacteria are explored. This enzyme is responsible for converting starch to cyclodextrin, which are interesting molecules to carry other substances of economic interest applied by textile, pharmaceutical, food, and other industries. Based on the enzymatic index, 12 bacteria were selected and evaluated, considering their capacity to produce the enzyme in culture media containing different starch sources. It was observed that the highest yields were presented by the bacteria when grown in cornstarch. These bacteria were also characterized by sequencing of the 16S rRNA region and were classified as Bacillus, Paenibacillus, Gracilibacillus and Solibacillus.publishersversionpublishe

Overexpression of adenosine A2A receptors in rats: effects on depression, locomotion, and anxiety

Adenosine A2A receptors (A2AR) are a sub-type of receptors enriched in basal ganglia, activated by the neuromodulator adenosine, which interact with dopamine D2 receptors. Although this reciprocal antagonistic interaction is well-established in motor function, the outcome in dopamine-related behaviors remains uncertain, in particular in depression and anxiety. We have demonstrated an upsurge of A2AR associated to aging and chronic stress. Furthermore, Alzheimer's disease patients present A2AR accumulation in cortical areas together with depressive signs. We now tested the impact of overexpressing A2AR in forebrain neurons on dopamine-related behavior, namely depression. Adult male rats overexpressing human A2AR under the control of CaMKII promoter [Tg(CaMKII-hA2AR)] and aged-matched wild-types (WT) of the same strain (Sprague-Dawley) were studied. The forced swimming test (FST), sucrose preference test (SPT), and the open-field test (OFT) were performed to evaluate behavioral despair, anhedonia, locomotion, and anxiety. Tg(CaMKII-hA2AR) animals spent more time floating and less time swimming in the FST and presented a decreased sucrose preference at 48 h in the SPT. They also covered higher distances in the OFT and spent more time in the central zone than the WT. The results indicate that Tg(CaMKII-hA2AR) rats exhibit depressive-like behavior, hyperlocomotion, and altered exploratory behavior. This A2AR overexpression may explain the depressive signs found in aging, chronic stress, and Alzheimer's disease

Estudos sobre a nutrição mineral do sorgo granífero: V. efeitos das deficiências de micronutrientes (nota)

Grain sorghum var. TEY-101 was grown in nutrient solution in the presence and in the absence of micronutrients. Symptoms of deficieny of all micronutrients were obtained. Growth, as measured by dry matter production was affected by the treatments in the folowing decreasing, order: minus Fe, minus Zn, minus Mn, minus B, minus Mo and minus Cu. An additional treatment in which excess Mn was used revealed a relative tolerance of the variety to high levels of this element. The results of chemical analyses of the leaves suggest that the following contents (in ppm) of micronutrients are associated with the respective deficiencies: B - 20 to 40, Cu - 8 to 10, Fe - 198, Mn - 32 to 35, Mo - 0.5, Zn - 46 to 52; in the case of Fe the Fe/Mn relationship seems to give a better indication of the nutritional status than the content of the element per se, being igual to 1.7 in the healthy plants, and 0.6 in the iron deficient ones.O sorgo granífero, var. TEY 101, foi cultivado em solução nutritiva na presença e ausência de micronutrientes. Foram obtidos sintomas de carência e foi feita a determinação dos teores desses elementos nas folhas