Exploring the Use of Fruit Callus Culture as a Model System to Study Color Development and Cell Wall Remodeling during Strawberry Fruit Ripening

Cell cultures derived from strawberry fruit at different developmental stages have been obtained to evaluate their potential use to study different aspects of strawberry ripening. Callus from leaf and cortical tissue of unripe-green, white, and mature-red strawberry fruits were induced in a medium supplemented with 11.3 µM 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) under darkness. The transfer of the established callus from darkness to light induced the production of anthocyanin. The replacement of 2,4-D by abscisic acid (ABA) noticeably increased anthocyanin accumulation in green-fruit callus. Cell walls were isolated from the different fruit cell lines and from fruit receptacles at equivalent developmental stages and sequentially fractionated to obtain fractions enriched in soluble pectins, ester bound pectins, xyloglucans (XG), and matrix glycans tightly associated with cellulose microfibrils. These fractions were analyzed by cell wall carbohydrate microarrays. In fruit receptacle samples, pectins were abundant in all fractions, including those enriched in matrix glycans. The amount of pectin increased from green to white stage, and later these carbohydrates were solubilized in red fruit. Apparently, XG content was similar in white and red fruit, but the proportion of galactosylated XG increased in red fruit. Cell wall fractions from callus cultures were enriched in extensin and displayed a minor amount of pectins. Stronger signals of extensin Abs were detected in sodium carbonate fraction, suggesting that these proteins could be linked to pectins. Overall, the results obtained suggest that fruit cell lines could be used to analyze hormonal regulation of color development in strawberry but that the cell wall remodeling process associated with fruit softening might be masked by the high presence of extensin in callus cultures

Transformación genética de olivo con el gen OeHPL para el análisis funcional del papel de la enzima 13-hidroperóxido liasa (13-HPL) en la producción de compuestos volátiles.

La 13-hidroperóxido liasa es una enzima implicada en la biosíntesis de compues- tos volátiles y tiene un papel fundamental sobre la composición y propiedades del aceite de oliva virgen. La expresión del gen OeHPL muestra una regulación temporal durante la maduración y desarrollo del fruto; además, la expresión es alta en hojas y tejido de mesocarpo y baja en semillas. En este trabajo se aborda el análisis funcional de este gen mediante su sobreexpresión y silenciamiento en plantas transgénicas de olivo. La transformación se llevó a cabo vía Agrobac- terium. Se utilizó la cepa AGL-1 con tres construcciones distintas: pHPLs para sobreexpresión (orientación sentido), pHPLas (orientación antisentido) y pHPLi (ARN-interferente) para silenciamiento. Se recuperaron plantas procedentes de 27 líneas transgénicas independientes, 6 HPLs, 10 HPLas y 11 HPLi. El análisis de la expresión del gen OeHPL en hojas de estas líneas mostró los siguientes resultados, a) líneas sentido: en una de ellas aumentó la expresión 24 veces mien- tras que en otras tres, aumentó en el rango 4-7X; b) líneas antisentido: sólo en dos de ellas disminuyó su expresión un 20% y c) líneas RNAi: en tres de ellas, se redujo la expresión entre 25-35% mientras que en otras dos, disminuyó un 50%. Estas líneas RNAi muestran un crecimiento ralentizado y, en general, presen- tan menor vigor que las controles. Próximamente, se iniciarán los trabajos para cuantificar la actividad enzimática 13-HPL y el contenido de volátiles en hojas con diferentes perfiles de expresión del gen. Asimismo, dado el papel que los vo- látiles de hoja verde, formados vía HPL, juegan en la resistencia a estrés también se evaluará la tolerancia a verticilosis en las plantas de las líneas seleccionadas.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucia Tech

Valorization of Caesalpinia coriaria Fruit Waste to Enhance the Ruminal Mitigation of Greenhouse Gases Production

La editorial tiene los derechos de autor y le solicito a hacer visibles la fecha técnica del artículo.The use of fruits waste from tanniniferous trees represents a new technology that aims to solve or mitigate greenhouse gases emission, and to increase the production of food of animal origin in an ecofriendly manner. This study aims to evaluate the production of methane and carbon dioxide, degradability by in vitro ruminal fermentation in goats diet supplemented with nuts (Caesalpinia coriaria Jacq. Willd.) for adoption by livestock farmers. Condensed tannins (CT) of C. coriaria inclusion rates were 0 (CT0 or control, no CT), 1.5 (CT1.5), 3.0 (CT3), 4.5 (CT4.5) and 6.0% (CT6) of the total mixed ration. All CT treatments reduced (linear, quadratic and cubic; P = 0.001) CH4, CO2 and H2 gases, and had some increasing effect on total biogas production. However, CT3 reduced greenhouse gases and had the highest biogas production. Addition of tannins from cascalote fruit waste (C. coriaria Jacq. Willd.) to goats diet at CT3 level reduced methane production, improved fermentation and ruminal degradability in vitro and has potential to be used as ecofriendly feed or feed additive

Nitrate removal in saline water by photo-reduction using natural FeTiO as catalyst

As climate change progresses, there is an increasing interest on the use of non-conventional water sources such as brackish or saline waters. Nowadays, the main threat in Europe detected in these waterbodies is nitrate contamination. Within the multiple available methods studied for nitrate reduction, photocatalysis presents promising results, but this technology has not yet been tested in saline water. This work tackles the elimination of nitrate ([NO3−] =50 mg/L) in brackish and saline water ([sea salt] = 5–33 g/L) using ilmenite as photocatalyst and oxalic acid as an environmental-friendly reducing agent. The main challenge when working in saline water is to overcome oxalic acid scavenging by Ca2+ present in the water matrix. This can be solved either working at over stoichiometric concentrations of oxalic acid (≈300% stoich. dose) or acidifying the reaction media. The addition of hydrochloric acid ensures the protonation of oxalic acid, reducing drastically its precipitation as CaC2O4. Working at [C2O42−] = 180 mg/L, [FeTiO3] = 450 mg/L and [HCl 37%] = 13 mM, 73% total nitrogen (TN) elimination was reached after 420 min. Reaction temperature was also evaluated in the range of 20–80 °C, which allowed to calculate the Ea=9.8 kJ/mol. Finally, the effect of dissolved O2 on the TN reduction was assessed. Overall, photocatalytic nitrate reduction presents itself as a feasible technology regardless of the water salinit

Nature of the mixed-oxide interface in ceria-titania catalysts: Clusters, chains, and nanoparticles

The ceria-titania mixed metal oxide is an important component of catalysts active for the production of hydrogen through the water-gas shift reaction (CO + H2O → H2 + CO2) and the photocatalytic splitting of water (H2O + hv → H2 + 0.5O 2). We have found that ceria-titania catalysts prepared through wet chemical methods have a unique hierarchal architecture. Atomic resolution imaging by high-angle annular dark field scanning transmission electron microscopy (HAADF STEM) reveals that ceria supported on titania exhibits a range of morphologies. One can clearly identify ceria structures involving clusters, chains, and nanoparticles, which are distributed inhomogeneously on the titania support. These structures are often below the sensitivity limit of techniques such as X-ray diffraction (XRD), which in this case identifies the average particle size of the ceria and titania nanoparticles (via the Debye-Scherer equation) to be 7.5 and 36 nm, respectively. The fluorite-structured ceria grows epitaxially on the anatase-structured titania, and this epitaxial growth influences the morphology of the nanoparticles. The presence of defects in the ceria - such as dislocations and surface steps - was routinely observed in HAADF STEM. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations indicate an energetic preference for the formation of O vacancies and the corresponding Ce 3+ sites at the ceria-titania interface. Experimental corroboration by soft X-ray absorption spectroscopy (SXAS) does suggest the presence of Ce3+ sites at the interface. © 2013 American Chemical Society.The research carried out at the Center for Functional Nanomaterials and the Chemistry Department of Brookhaven National Laboratory was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, under Contract No. DE-AC02-98CH10886. The theoretical studies were funded by the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (Spain, grants MAT2012-31526 and CSD2008-0023) and EU FEDER. Computational resources were provided by the Barcelona Supercomputing Center/Centro Nacional de Supercomputación (Spain).Peer Reviewe

Gender differences in adaptation to heat in Spain (1983–2018)

In Spain the average temperature has increased by 1.7 °C since pre-industrial times. There has been an increase in heat waves both in terms of frequency and intensity, with a clear impact in terms of population health. The effect of heat waves on daily mortality presents important territorial differences. Gender also affects these impacts, as a determinant that conditions social inequalities in health. There is evidence that women may be more susceptible to extreme heat than men, although there are relatively few studies that analyze differences in the vulnerability and adaptation to heat by sex. This could be related to physiological causes. On the other hand, one of the indicators used to measure vulnerability to heat in a population and its adaptation is the minimum mortality temperature (MMT) and its temporal evolution.The authors wish to thank the funding provided by the ENPY 304/20, ENPY 376/18 and ENPY 107/18 projects of the Carlos III Health Institute III (ISCIII)

An integrative taxonomic approach reveals Octopus insularis as the dominant species in the Veracruz Reef System (southwestern Gulf of Mexico)

The common octopus of the Veracruz Reef System (VRS, southwestern Gulf of Mexico) has historically been considered as Octopus vulgaris, and yet, to date, no study including both morphological and genetic data has tested that assumption. To assess this matter, 52 octopuses were sampled in different reefs within the VRS to determine the taxonomic identity of this commercially valuable species using an integrative taxonomic approach through both morphological and genetic analyses. Morphological and genetic data confirmed that the common octopus of the VRS is not O. vulgaris and determined that it is, in fact, the recently described O. insularis. Morphological measurements, counts, indices, and other characteristics such as specific colour patterns, closely matched what had been reported for O. insularis in Brazil. In addition, sequences from cytochrome oxidase I (COI) and 16S ribosomal RNA (r16S) mitochondrial genes confirmed that the common octopus from the VRS is in the same highly supported clade as O. insularis from Brazil. Genetic distances of both mitochondrial genes as well as of cytochrome oxidase subunit III (COIII) and novel nuclear rhodopsin sequences for the species, also confirmed this finding (0–0.8%). We discuss our findings in the light of the recent reports of octopus species misidentifications involving the members of the ‘O. vulgaris species complex’ and underscore the need for more morphological studies regarding this group to properly address the management of these commercially valuable and similar taxa

Intelligent decision support for maintenance: an overview and future trends

The changing nature of manufacturing, in recent years, is evident in industry’s willingness to adopt network-connected intelligent machines in their factory development plans. A number of joint corporate/government initiatives also describe and encourage the adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the operation and management of production lines. Machine learning will have a significant role to play in the delivery of automated and intelligently supported maintenance decision-making systems. While e-maintenance practice provides aframework for internet-connected operation of maintenance practice the advent of IoT has changed the scale of internetworking and new architectures and tools are needed. While advances in sensors and sensor fusion techniques have been significant in recent years, the possibilities brought by IoT create new challenges in the scale of data and its analysis. The development of audit trail style practice for the collection of data and the provision of acomprehensive framework for its processing, analysis and use should be avaluable contribution in addressing the new data analytics challenges for maintenance created by internet connected devices. This paper proposes that further research should be conducted into audit trail collection of maintenance data, allowing future systems to enable ‘Human in the loop’ interactions