Gentle Africanized bees on an oceanic island

Oceanic islands have reduced resources and natural enemies and potentially affect life history traits of arriving organisms. Among the most spectacular invasions in the Western hemisphere is that of the Africanized honeybee. We hypothesized that in the oceanic island Puerto Rico, Africanized bees will exhibit differences from the mainland population such as for defensiveness and other linked traits. We evaluated the extent of Africanization through three typical Africanized traits: wing size, defensive behavior, and resistance to Varroa destructor mites. All sampled colonies were Africanized by maternal descent, with over 65% presence of European alleles at the S-3 nuclear locus. In two assays evaluating defense, Puerto Rican bees showed low defensiveness similar to European bees. In morphology and resistance to mites, Africanized bees from Puerto Rico are similar to other Africanized bees. In behavioral assays on mechanisms of resistance to Varroa, we directly observed that Puerto Rican Africanized bees groomed-off and bit the mites as been observed in other studies. In no other location, Africanized bees have reduced defensiveness while retaining typical traits such as wing size and mite resistance. This mosaic of traits that has resulted during the invasion of an oceanic island has implications for behavior, evolution, and agriculture.National Institutes of Health-Support of Continuous Research Excellence; Center for Research Excellence in Science and Technology Program; Center for Applied Tropical Ecology and Conservation-National Science Foundation; National Institute of Food and AgricultureUnited States Department of Agriculture (USDA)National Institute of Food and Agriculture; NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF GENERAL MEDICAL SCIENCESUnited States Department of Health & Human ServicesNational Institutes of Health (NIH) - USANIH National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) [S06GM008102] Funding Source: NIH RePORTERWe thank members, family and friends of Giray and Rivera-Marchand laboratories for their help in the field; M. Spivak for advice on the methods; R. Dominguez for help with the filming; D. Roubik, G. Robinson, E. Guzman-Novoa, O. McMillan, R. Thomas, E. Santiago, and two anonymous reviewers for advice on the manuscript; and the Department of Agriculture of Puerto Rico for the use of their facilities. This work was partially supported by the National Institutes of Health-Support of Continuous Research Excellence and the Center for Research Excellence in Science and Technology Program; Center for Applied Tropical Ecology and Conservation-National Science Foundation, and National Institute of Food and Agriculture grants to TG

Moore-Gibson-Thompson equation with memory, part II: general decay of energy

We study a temporally third order (Moore-Gibson-Thompson) equation with a memory term. Previously it is known that, in non-critical regime, the global solutions exist and the energy functionals decay to zero. More precisely, it is known that the energy has exponential decay if the memory kernel decays exponentially. The current work is a generalization of the previous one (Part I) in that it allows the memory kernel to be more general and shows that the energy decays the same way as the memory kernel does, exponentially or not.Comment: 22 page

Business consulting de la asociación de productores de banano orgánico Valle del Chira – Avach

El objetivo del presente trabajo de consultoría es hacer un análisis general de la situación actual de la Asociación de Productores de Banano Orgánico Valle del Chira (AVACH), organización que agrupa aproximadamente a 380 pequeños agricultores de Piura, así diseñar estrategias que le permitan consolidarse como uno de los principales exportadores de banano orgánico del país, generar mayor rentabilidad y mejorar así la economía de las familias que conforman su asociación. Del cultivo de banano orgánico dependen económicamente 10,000 familias de pequeños productores en el norte del país. Debido a los incrementos en los costos de los fertilizantes orgánicos, cartón, flete naviero, la presencia del hongo del Fusarium 4 y el alto poder de negociación de los compradores actuales, los pedidos y el precio internacional se han reducido desde el 2021, pasando de USD.14 a menos de USD10 la caja. Mientras el costo de producción es cercano a los USD $13. Esto ha convertido al banano en un cultivo de subsistencia en términos de rentabilidad. (Redacción Gestión, 2022) Después de haber analizado la situación de la industria, competencia, factores internos y externos de la organización, encontramos que el problema principal es la dependencia de los ingresos en pocos clientes, por lo cual concluimos al revisar el impacto y la complejidad en la implementación de las posibles soluciones, que AVACH debería hacer un plan de marketing con una inversión de S/31,601.00, haciendo posible que ingrese a nuevos mercados nicho, con mejores precios y al mismo tiempo disminuir el alto poder de negociación de los compradores actuales. El VAN del escenario base es 2,247,706, el TIR de 702.42% y el ROI de 113.79

Metadata standards and practical guidelines for specimen and DNA curation when building barcode reference libraries for aquatic life

DNA barcoding and metabarcoding is increasingly used to effectively and precisely assess and monitor biodiversity in aquatic ecosystems. As these methods rely on data availability and quality of barcode reference libraries, it is important to develop and follow best practices to ensure optimal quality and traceability of the metadata associated with the reference barcodes used for identification. Sufficient metadata, as well as vouchers, corresponding to each reference barcode must be available to ensure reliable barcode library curation and, thereby, provide trustworthy baselines for downstream molecular species identification. This document (1) specifies the data and metadata required to ensure the relevance, the accessibility and traceability of DNA barcodes and (2) specifies the recommendations for DNA harvesting and for the storage of both voucher specimens/samples and barcode data.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Pathogens and polymers: Microbe–host interactions illuminate the cytoskeleton

Intracellular pathogens subvert the host cell cytoskeleton to promote their own survival, replication, and dissemination. Study of these microbes has led to many discoveries about host cell biology, including the identification of cytoskeletal proteins, regulatory pathways, and mechanisms of cytoskeletal function. Actin is a common target of bacterial pathogens, but recent work also highlights the use of microtubules, cytoskeletal motors, intermediate filaments, and septins. The study of pathogen interactions with the cytoskeleton has illuminated key cellular processes such as phagocytosis, macropinocytosis, membrane trafficking, motility, autophagy, and signal transduction

Nephrin Regulates Lamellipodia Formation by Assembling a Protein Complex That Includes Ship2, Filamin and Lamellipodin

Actin dynamics has emerged at the forefront of podocyte biology. Slit diaphragm junctional adhesion protein Nephrin is necessary for development of the podocyte morphology and transduces phosphorylation-dependent signals that regulate cytoskeletal dynamics. The present study extends our understanding of Nephrin function by showing in cultured podocytes that Nephrin activation induced actin dynamics is necessary for lamellipodia formation. Upon activation Nephrin recruits and regulates a protein complex that includes Ship2 (SH2 domain containing 5′ inositol phosphatase), Filamin and Lamellipodin, proteins important in regulation of actin and focal adhesion dynamics, as well as lamellipodia formation. Using the previously described CD16-Nephrin clustering system, Nephrin ligation or activation resulted in phosphorylation of the actin crosslinking protein Filamin in a p21 activated kinase dependent manner. Nephrin activation in cell culture results in formation of lamellipodia, a process that requires specialized actin dynamics at the leading edge of the cell along with focal adhesion turnover. In the CD16-Nephrin clustering model, Nephrin ligation resulted in abnormal morphology of actin tails in human podocytes when Ship2, Filamin or Lamellipodin were individually knocked down. We also observed decreased lamellipodia formation and cell migration in these knock down cells. These data provide evidence that Nephrin not only initiates actin polymerization but also assembles a protein complex that is necessary to regulate the architecture of the generated actin filament network and focal adhesion dynamics

Autosomal and mitochondrial adaptation following admixture: a case study on the honeybees of Reunion Island.

The honeybee population of the tropical Reunion Island is a genetic admixture of the Apis mellifera unicolor subspecies, originally described in Madagascar, and of European subspecies, mainly A.m. carnica and A. m. ligustica, regularly imported to the island since the late 19th century. We took advantage of this population to study genetic admixing of the tropical-adapted indigenous and temperate-adapted European genetic backgrounds. Whole genome sequencing of 30 workers and 6 males from Reunion, compared to samples from Europe, Madagascar, Mauritius, Rodrigues and the Seychelles, revealed the Reunion honeybee population to be composed on average of 53.2 ± 5.9% A. m. unicolor nuclear genomic background, the rest being mainly composed of A. m. carnica and to a lesser extent A. m. ligustica. In striking contrast to this, only one out of the 36 honeybees from Reunion had a mitochondrial genome of European origin, suggesting selection has favoured the A. m. unicolor mitotype, which is possibly better adapted to the island's bioclimate. Local ancestry was determined along the chromosomes for all Reunion samples, and a test for preferential selection for the A. m. unicolor or European background revealed 15 regions significantly associated with the A. m. unicolor lineage and 9 regions with the European lineage. Our results provide insights into the long-term consequences of introducing exotic specimen on the nuclear and mitochondrial genomes of locally-adapted populations. (Résumé d'auteur

Trials

BACKGROUND: The aim of this open-label, randomized controlled trial conducted in four African countries (Madagascar, Niger, Central African Republic, and Senegal) is to compare three strategies of renutrition for moderate acute malnutrition (MAM) in children based on modulation of the gut microbiota with enriched flours alone, enriched flours with prebiotics or enriched flours coupled with antibiotic treatment. METHODS: To be included, children aged between 6 months and 2 years are preselected based on mid-upper-arm circumference (MUAC) and are included based on a weight-for-height Z-score (WHZ) between - 3 and - 2 standard deviations (SD). As per current protocols, children receive renutrition treatment for 12 weeks and are assessed weekly to determine improvement. The primary endpoint is recovery, defined by a WHZ >/= - 1.5 SD after 12 weeks of treatment. Data collected include clinical and socioeconomic characteristics, side effects, compliance and tolerance to interventions. Metagenomic analysis of gut microbiota is conducted at inclusion, 3 months, and 6 months. The cognitive development of children is evaluated in Senegal using only the Developmental Milestones Checklist II (DMC II) questionnaire at inclusion and at 3, 6, and 9 months. The data will be correlated with renutrition efficacy and metagenomic data. DISCUSSION: This study will provide new insights for the treatment of MAM, as well as original data on the modulation of gut microbiota during the renutrition process to support (or not) the microbiota hypothesis of malnutrition. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov, ID: NCT03474276 Last update 28 May 2018