Keys to understand the invasive success of Rugulopteryx okamurae (Dictyotales, Ochrophyta).

Since its first records in the Strait of Gibraltar in 2015, the Pacific brown algae Rugulopteryx okamurae has produced important environmental and socioeconomic impacts that have attracted media attention to a seaweed in Spain for the first time and have led to its inclusion in the Spanish checklist of invasive alien species. Since then, this research group has studied the basic biology and the potential distribution of the species, the results of which are part of the present communication in the body of theoretical knowledge of invasion hypotheses. To begin with, the species exhibits a series of vegetative, reproductive and physiological attributes that confer it a high invasiveness. Morphologically the species is an example of a cryptic invasion due to its similarity with native species of the genus Dictyota; furthermore, the species exhibits seasonal changes in its morphology, alternating thin, thick and intermediate thalli, that altogether make its correct identification difficult. Although sexual cycle of the species has not been confirmed yet in its introduced area, it is able to maintain a rapid and abundant recruitment of new clonal individuals along the year, by vegetative propagules and asexual monospores, which produce a constant propagule pressure. Furthermore, it presents a high adaptation capacity to a wide range of the main environmental factors such as temperature, light and nutrients, that allows it colonizing a wide bathymetric and community range. To this we must add the high invasibility of ecosystems that are suffering for more than 20 years an invational meltdown process, due to previous arrivals of other invasive species of macroalgae, such as those of the genus Asparagopsis and Caulerpa racemosa, that have altered their functions and the resources availability. All this together with a high environmental favorability of the Mediterranean Sea and European Atlantic coasts, explain the wide potential distribution area of the species.FUNDACIÓN BIODIVERSIDAD, MITECO FONDOS FEDER UNIVERSIDAD DE MÁLAG

RICORS2040 : The need for collaborative research in chronic kidney disease

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a silent and poorly known killer. The current concept of CKD is relatively young and uptake by the public, physicians and health authorities is not widespread. Physicians still confuse CKD with chronic kidney insufficiency or failure. For the wider public and health authorities, CKD evokes kidney replacement therapy (KRT). In Spain, the prevalence of KRT is 0.13%. Thus health authorities may consider CKD a non-issue: very few persons eventually need KRT and, for those in whom kidneys fail, the problem is 'solved' by dialysis or kidney transplantation. However, KRT is the tip of the iceberg in the burden of CKD. The main burden of CKD is accelerated ageing and premature death. The cut-off points for kidney function and kidney damage indexes that define CKD also mark an increased risk for all-cause premature death. CKD is the most prevalent risk factor for lethal coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and the factor that most increases the risk of death in COVID-19, after old age. Men and women undergoing KRT still have an annual mortality that is 10- to 100-fold higher than similar-age peers, and life expectancy is shortened by ~40 years for young persons on dialysis and by 15 years for young persons with a functioning kidney graft. CKD is expected to become the fifth greatest global cause of death by 2040 and the second greatest cause of death in Spain before the end of the century, a time when one in four Spaniards will have CKD. However, by 2022, CKD will become the only top-15 global predicted cause of death that is not supported by a dedicated well-funded Centres for Biomedical Research (CIBER) network structure in Spain. Realizing the underestimation of the CKD burden of disease by health authorities, the Decade of the Kidney initiative for 2020-2030 was launched by the American Association of Kidney Patients and the European Kidney Health Alliance. Leading Spanish kidney researchers grouped in the kidney collaborative research network Red de Investigación Renal have now applied for the Redes de Investigación Cooperativa Orientadas a Resultados en Salud (RICORS) call for collaborative research in Spain with the support of the Spanish Society of Nephrology, Federación Nacional de Asociaciones para la Lucha Contra las Enfermedades del Riñón and ONT: RICORS2040 aims to prevent the dire predictions for the global 2040 burden of CKD from becoming true

Seaweed: Nutritional and gastronomic perspective. A review

Seaweed are organisms rich in many bioactive compounds such as proteins, minerals, vitamins, fibers, essential amino acids, pigments, and fatty acids, which give them extraordinary antihypertensive, antidiabetic, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antitumoral, antiviral, and antimicrobial properties. Seaweed could potentially contribute to future global security in functional foods and nutraceuticals and could be an important compound in the pharmaceutical and biotechnological industries in drug development, among other uses. This review focuses on the gastronomic point of view and discusses the compositional and nutritional characteristics, topics related to consumption, current applications and technologies, limitations and challenges in production, and market developments in this rising market.This work was supported by the project 00002-INA2022-33 “SLOWALGA 2” funded by the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), Spain, and the IT1471-22 and IT1743-22 projects consolidated research groups of the Basque Government