Emerging insights into nitrogen assimilation in gymnosperms

Gymnosperms are a heterogeneous and ancient group of seed plants that includes conifers, ginkgos, cycads and gnetophytes. Molecular studies on extant gymnosperms have been constrained by some discouraging features for experimental research such as their long life cycles, large sizes, complex megagenomes and abundant phenolic compounds in their woody tissues. However, the development of high-throughput sequencing and refined multiomics technologies in the last few years has allowed to explore the molecular basis of essential processes in this ancient lineage of plants. Nitrogen is one of the main limiting factors determining vascular development and biomass production in woody plants. Therefore, nitrogen uptake, metabolism, storage and recycling are essential processes for fundamental gymnosperm biology. Here, recent progress in the molecular regulation of nitrogen assimilation in gymnosperms is reviewed and some future perspectives on this topic are outlined.This research was fnancially supported by Ministry of Science and Innovation (BIO2015-73512-JIN, RTI2018-094041-B-I00 and PID2021-125040OB-I00) and by Junta de Andalucía (P20-00036 PAIDI 2020/FEDER, UE). JMVM was supported by a Grant from the Spanish Ministry of Education (FPU17/03517). Funding for open access publishing: Universidad Málaga/CBUA

Algunos aspectos de la evolución de la familia génica de glutamina sintetasa en plantas

En las plantas, la actividad glutamina sintetasa reside en miembros de la superfamilia GSII, que forman dos grupos de enzimas GS funcionales: la GSIIb eubacteriana (GLN2) y la GSIIe eucariota (GLN1/GS). Los análisis filogenéticos han demostrado que el grupo GLN2 se originó mediante un proceso de transferencia horizontal desde bacterias tras la divergencia de procariotas y eucariotas2. En las plantas vasculares solo se encuentran genes GLN1/GS, lo que sugiere que la evolución a esta composición de isoformas de GS está asociada a la adaptación final de las plantas a la vida terrestre. El estudio filogenético que presentamos reclasifica las diferentes GS de las plantas con semilla en tres grupos: GS1a, GS1b y GS23. GS1b y GS2 corresponden a las formas citosólica y cloroplastídica ampliamente estudiadas en angiospermas. Mientras que GS1a corresponde a una isoforma de localización citosólica identificada anteriormente exclusivamente en coníferas y que se ha propuesto que reemplaza funcionalmente a la forma cloroplastídica ausente en este grupo. Nuestro trabajo ha permitido también ampliar la presencia de genes que codifican la isoforma cloroplastídica GS2 a las gimnospermas Cycadopsida, lo que sugiere el origen de este gen en un ancestro común de Cycadopsida, Ginkgoopsida y angiospermas. Además, genes que codifican GS1a se han identificado en todas las gimnospermas, las angiospermas basales y algunas especies de Magnoliidae. Los estudios previos en coníferas y los perfiles de expresión génica en ginkgo y magnolia que hemos realizado en este trabajo podrían explicar la ausencia de GS1a en especies de angiospermas más recientes (por ejemplo, monocotiledóneas y eudicotiledóneas), debido a las funciones redundantes de GS1a y GS2 en las células fotosintéticas. En conjunto, los resultados proporcionan una mejor comprensión de la evolución de la familia génica de la GS en plantas.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Association of Candidate Gene Polymorphisms With Chronic Kidney Disease: Results of a Case-Control Analysis in the Nefrona Cohort

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a major risk factor for end-stage renal disease, cardiovascular disease and premature death. Despite classical clinical risk factors for CKD and some genetic risk factors have been identified, the residual risk observed in prediction models is still high. Therefore, new risk factors need to be identified in order to better predict the risk of CKD in the population. Here, we analyzed the genetic association of 79 SNPs of proteins associated with mineral metabolism disturbances with CKD in a cohort that includes 2, 445 CKD cases and 559 controls. Genotyping was performed with matrix assisted laser desorption ionizationtime of flight mass spectrometry. We used logistic regression models considering different genetic inheritance models to assess the association of the SNPs with the prevalence of CKD, adjusting for known risk factors. Eight SNPs (rs1126616, rs35068180, rs2238135, rs1800247, rs385564, rs4236, rs2248359, and rs1564858) were associated with CKD even after adjusting by sex, age and race. A model containing five of these SNPs (rs1126616, rs35068180, rs1800247, rs4236, and rs2248359), diabetes and hypertension showed better performance than models considering only clinical risk factors, significantly increasing the area under the curve of the model without polymorphisms. Furthermore, one of the SNPs (the rs2248359) showed an interaction with hypertension, being the risk genotype affecting only hypertensive patients. We conclude that 5 SNPs related to proteins implicated in mineral metabolism disturbances (Osteopontin, osteocalcin, matrix gla protein, matrix metalloprotease 3 and 24 hydroxylase) are associated to an increased risk of suffering CKD

Mortality and pulmonary complications in patients undergoing surgery with perioperative SARS-CoV-2 infection: an international cohort study

Background: The impact of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) on postoperative recovery needs to be understood to inform clinical decision making during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. This study reports 30-day mortality and pulmonary complication rates in patients with perioperative SARS-CoV-2 infection. Methods: This international, multicentre, cohort study at 235 hospitals in 24 countries included all patients undergoing surgery who had SARS-CoV-2 infection confirmed within 7 days before or 30 days after surgery. The primary outcome measure was 30-day postoperative mortality and was assessed in all enrolled patients. The main secondary outcome measure was pulmonary complications, defined as pneumonia, acute respiratory distress syndrome, or unexpected postoperative ventilation. Findings: This analysis includes 1128 patients who had surgery between Jan 1 and March 31, 2020, of whom 835 (74·0%) had emergency surgery and 280 (24·8%) had elective surgery. SARS-CoV-2 infection was confirmed preoperatively in 294 (26·1%) patients. 30-day mortality was 23·8% (268 of 1128). Pulmonary complications occurred in 577 (51·2%) of 1128 patients; 30-day mortality in these patients was 38·0% (219 of 577), accounting for 81·7% (219 of 268) of all deaths. In adjusted analyses, 30-day mortality was associated with male sex (odds ratio 1·75 [95% CI 1·28–2·40], p\textless0·0001), age 70 years or older versus younger than 70 years (2·30 [1·65–3·22], p\textless0·0001), American Society of Anesthesiologists grades 3–5 versus grades 1–2 (2·35 [1·57–3·53], p\textless0·0001), malignant versus benign or obstetric diagnosis (1·55 [1·01–2·39], p=0·046), emergency versus elective surgery (1·67 [1·06–2·63], p=0·026), and major versus minor surgery (1·52 [1·01–2·31], p=0·047). Interpretation: Postoperative pulmonary complications occur in half of patients with perioperative SARS-CoV-2 infection and are associated with high mortality. Thresholds for surgery during the COVID-19 pandemic should be higher than during normal practice, particularly in men aged 70 years and older. Consideration should be given for postponing non-urgent procedures and promoting non-operative treatment to delay or avoid the need for surgery. Funding: National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), Association of Coloproctology of Great Britain and Ireland, Bowel and Cancer Research, Bowel Disease Research Foundation, Association of Upper Gastrointestinal Surgeons, British Association of Surgical Oncology, British Gynaecological Cancer Society, European Society of Coloproctology, NIHR Academy, Sarcoma UK, Vascular Society for Great Britain and Ireland, and Yorkshire Cancer Research

Efecto combinado de la nutrición nitrogenada y concentración de CO2 en biomasa y perfiles de expresión génica en Pinus pinaster

Carbon dioxide (CO2) in high concentration is beneficial for crop development, but due to the reduction of photorespiration in C3 plants, there is less reducing power available for nitrate (NO3-) reduction and later nitrogen assimilation compared to ammonium (NH4+) nutrition. To overcome this problem, research is focusing on NH4+ nutrition, because its assimilation is less expensive in terms of energy (Bloom, 2015). Knowing how plants manage NH4+ toxicity by gene expression and enzymatic pathways activation, will result in a novel set of molecular mechanisms that could be applied in crops in the near future, solving the problem of photorespiration reduction and nitrogen use efficiency (South et al., 2018). In this work we studied the growth of Pinus pinaster (Aiton) seedlings in 400 and 720 ppm CO2 concentrations and under NO3- and NH4+ nutrition, due to the tolerance that conifers have for NH4+ (Marino et al., 2022). Results show that during the early development, the combination of high CO2 concentration and NH4+ leads to an increase in biomass of the seedling and growth rates. To further investigate the set of genes differentially regulated in these conditions of nitrogen nutrition and CO2 concentration, we analysed the data from RNA-seq experiments from different organs of 2 months seedlings growth in 400 and 720 ppm of CO2 and different nitrogen nutrition (8 mM NH4+ or 8 mM NO3-).Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Open data from the first and second observing runs of Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo

Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo are monitoring the sky and collecting gravitational-wave strain data with sufficient sensitivity to detect signals routinely. In this paper we describe the data recorded by these instruments during their first and second observing runs. The main data products are gravitational-wave strain time series sampled at 16384 Hz. The datasets that include this strain measurement can be freely accessed through the Gravitational Wave Open Science Center at http://gw-openscience.org, together with data-quality information essential for the analysis of LIGO and Virgo data, documentation, tutorials, and supporting software