Enzymatic hydrolysis of esters from 2-carboxy-6- methoxy-2,3-dihydrobenzofuran acid

In this work we describe the results of the enzymatic hydrolysis of esters from 2-carboxy-6-methoxy-2,3-dihydrobenzofuran acid using Candida antarctica lipase supported on acrylic resin, with enantiomeric excesses ranging between 80 to 99%

Effect of an edible nanomultilayer coating by electrostatic self-assembly on the shelf life of fresh-cut mangoes

This work aims at evaluating the effect of an alginate-chitosan nanomultilayer coating, obtained by electrostatic layer-by-layer self-assembling, in the quality and shelf life of fresh-cut mangoes. Coated and uncoated fresh-cut mangoes were stored under refrigeration (8 °C) for 14 days. The changes in mass loss, titratable acidity, pH, ascorbic acid content, total soluble solids, malondialdehyde content, browning rate, and microbial count were evaluated during storage. At the end of the storage period, lower values of mass loss, pH, malondialdehyde content, browning rate, soluble solids, microorganisms proliferation, and higher titratable acidity were observed in the coated mangoes. The nanomultilayer coating did not improve the retention of vitamin C during storage of fresh-cut mangoes. Results suggest that chitosan-alginate nanomultilayer edible coating extends the shelf life of fresh-cut mangoes up to 8 days.Author Marthyna Pessoa de Souza thanks Coordenacao de Aperfeicoamento de Pessoal de Nivel Superior (CAPES/PDEE-Brazil) and Fundacao de Amparo a Ciencia e Tecnologia do Estado de Pernambuco (FACEPE, Brazil) for granting her scholarships. The authors thank the Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia (FCT) Strategic Project PEst-OE/EQB/LA0023/2013 and the Project "BioInd-Biotechnology and Bioengineering for improved Industrial and Agro-Food processes", REF. NORTE-07-0124-FEDER-000028, co-funded by the Programa Operacional Regional do Norte (ON.2-O Novo Norte), QREN, and FEDER (Portugal)

Anaerobic animals from an ancient, anoxic ecological niche

Tiny marine animals that complete their life cycle in the total absence of light and oxygen are reported by Roberto Danovaro and colleagues in this issue of BMC Biology. These fascinating animals are new members of the phylum Loricifera and possess mitochondria that in electron micrographs look very much like hydrogenosomes, the H2-producing mitochondria found among several unicellular eukaryotic lineages. The discovery of metazoan life in a permanently anoxic and sulphidic environment provides a glimpse of what a good part of Earth's past ecology might have been like in 'Canfield oceans', before the rise of deep marine oxygen levels and the appearance of the first large animals in the fossil record roughly 550-600 million years ago. The findings underscore the evolutionary significance of anaerobic deep sea environments and the anaerobic lifestyle among mitochondrion-bearing cells. They also testify that a fuller understanding of eukaryotic and metazoan evolution will come from the study of modern anoxic and hypoxic habitats

Exploring the Ecological History of a Tropical Agroforestry Landscape Using Fossil Pollen and Charcoal Analysis from Four Sites in Western Ghats, India

Contrary to expectations, some human-modified landscapes are considered to sustain both human activities and biodiversity over the long-term. Agroforestry systems are among these landscapes where crops are planted under native shade trees. In this context, ancient agroforestry systems can provide insight into how farmers managed the landscape over time. Such insight can help to quantify the extent to which tropical forests (especially habitat-specialist trees) are responding to local and landscape-level management. Here, we extracted fossil pollen (indicator of past vegetation changes) and macroscopic charcoal (indicator of biomass burning) from four forest hollows’ sedimentary sequences in an ancient agroforestry system in Western Ghats, India. We used a mixed-modelling approach and a principal components analysis (PCA) to determine past trajectories of forest change and species composition dynamics for the last 900 years. In addition, we reconstructed the long-term forest canopy dynamics and examined the persistence of habitat-specialist trees over time. Our results show that the four sites diverged to a surprising degree in both taxa composition and dynamics. However, despite these differences, forest has persisted over 900 years under agricultural activities within agroforestry systems. This long-term analysis highlights the importance of different land-use legacies as a framework to increase the effectiveness of management across tropical agricultural lands

Activation of the p53 pathway by the MDM2 inhibitor nutlin-3a overcomes BCL2 overexpression in a preclinical model of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma associated with t(14;18)(q32;q21)

p53 is frequently wild type (wt) in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) associated with t(14;18)(q32;q21) that overexpresses BCL2. Nutlin-3a is a small molecule that activates the p53 pathway by disrupting p53–MDM2 interaction. We show that nutlin-3a activates p53 in DLBCL cells associated with t(14;18)(q32;q21), BCL2 overexpression and wt p53, resulting in cell cycle arrest and apoptosis. Nutlin-3a treatment had similar effects on DLBCL cells of activated B-cell phenotype with wt p53. Cell cycle arrest was associated with upregulation of p21. Nutlin-3a-induced apoptosis was accompanied by BAX and PUMA upregulation, BCL-XL downregulation, serine-70 dephosphorylation of BCL2, direct binding of BCL2 by p53, caspase-9 upregulation and caspase-3 cleavage. Cell death was reduced when p53-dependent transactivation activity was inhibited by pifithrin-α (PFT-α), or PFT-μ inhibited direct p53 targeting of mitochondria. Nutlin-3a sensitized activation of the intrinsic apoptotic pathway by BCL2 inhibitors in t(14;18)-positive DLBCL cells with wt p53, and enhanced doxorubicin cytotoxicity against t(14;18)-positive DLBCL cells with wt or mutant p53, the latter in part via p73 upregulation. Nutlin-3a treatment in a xenograft animal lymphoma model inhibited growth of t(14;18)-positive DLBCL tumors, associated with increased apoptosis and decreased proliferation. These data suggest that disruption of the p53–MDM2 interaction by nutlin-3a offers a novel therapeutic approach for DLBCL associated with t(14;18)(q32;q21)

Zebrafish as a model for kidney function and disease

Kidney disease is a global problem with around three million people diagnosed in the UK alone and the incidence is rising. Research is critical to develop better treatments. Animal models can help to better understand the pathophysiology behind the various kidney diseases and to screen for therapeutic compounds, but the use especially of mammalian models should be minimised in the interest of animal welfare. Zebrafish are increasingly used, as they are genetically tractable and have a basic renal anatomy comparable to mammalian kidneys with glomerular filtration and tubular filtration processing. Here, we discuss how zebrafish have advanced the study of nephrology and the mechanisms underlying kidney disease

The Relative Impact of Climate Change on the Extinction Risk of Tree Species in the Montane Tropical Andes.

There are widespread concerns that anthropogenic climate change will become a major cause of global biodiversity loss. However, the potential impact of climate change on the extinction risk of species remains poorly understood, particularly in comparison to other current threats. The objective of this research was to examine the relative impact of climate change on extinction risk of upper montane tree species in the tropical Andes, an area of high biodiversity value that is particularly vulnerable to climate change impacts. The extinction risk of 129 tree species endemic to the region was evaluated according to the IUCN Red List criteria, both with and without the potential impacts of climate change. Evaluations were supported by development of species distribution models, using three methods (generalized additive models, recursive partitioning, and support vector machines), all of which produced similarly high AUC values when averaged across all species evaluated (0.82, 0.86, and 0.88, respectively). Inclusion of climate change increased the risk of extinction of 18-20% of the tree species evaluated, depending on the climate scenario. The relative impact of climate change was further illustrated by calculating the Red List Index, an indicator that shows changes in the overall extinction risk of sets of species over time. A 15% decline in the Red List Index was obtained when climate change was included in this evaluation. While these results suggest that climate change represents a significant threat to tree species in the tropical Andes, they contradict previous suggestions that climate change will become the most important cause of biodiversity loss in coming decades. Conservation strategies should therefore focus on addressing the multiple threatening processes currently affecting biodiversity, rather than focusing primarily on potential climate change impacts

Population genomics applications for conservation: the case of the tropical dry forest dweller Peromyscus melanophrys

Recent advances in genomic sequencing have opened new horizons in the study of population genetics and evolution in non-model organisms. However, very few population genomic studies have been performed on wild mammals to understand how the landscape affects the genetic structure of populations, useful information for the conservation of biodiversity. Here, we applied a genomic approach to evaluate the relationship between habitat features and genetic patterns at spatial and temporal scales in an endangered ecosystem, the Tropical Dry Forest (TDF). We studied populations of the Plateau deer mouse Peromyscus melanophrys to analyse its genomic diversity and structure in a TDF protected area in the Huautla Mountain Range (HMR), Mexico based on 8,209 SNPs obtained through Genotyping-by-Sequencing. At a spatial scale, we found a significant signature of isolation-by-distance, few significant differences in genetic diversity indices among study sites, and no significant differences between habitats with different levels of human perturbation. At a temporal scale, while genetic diversity levels fluctuated significantly over time, neither seasonality nor disturbance levels had a significant effect. Also, outlier analysis revealed loci potentially under selection. Our results suggest that the population genetics of P. melanophrys may be little impacted by anthropogenic disturbances, or by natural spatial and temporal habitat heterogeneity in our study area. The genome-wide approach adopted here provides data of value for conservation planning, and a baseline to be used as a reference for future studies on the effects of habitat fragmentation and seasonality in the HMR and in TDF