TRY plant trait database – enhanced coverage and open access

Plant traits - the morphological, anatomical, physiological, biochemical and phenological characteristics of plants - determine how plants respond to environmental factors, affect other trophic levels, and influence ecosystem properties and their benefits and detriments to people. Plant trait data thus represent the basis for a vast area of research spanning from evolutionary biology, community and functional ecology, to biodiversity conservation, ecosystem and landscape management, restoration, biogeography and earth system modelling. Since its foundation in 2007, the TRY database of plant traits has grown continuously. It now provides unprecedented data coverage under an open access data policy and is the main plant trait database used by the research community worldwide. Increasingly, the TRY database also supports new frontiers of trait‐based plant research, including the identification of data gaps and the subsequent mobilization or measurement of new data. To support this development, in this article we evaluate the extent of the trait data compiled in TRY and analyse emerging patterns of data coverage and representativeness. Best species coverage is achieved for categorical traits - almost complete coverage for ‘plant growth form’. However, most traits relevant for ecology and vegetation modelling are characterized by continuous intraspecific variation and trait–environmental relationships. These traits have to be measured on individual plants in their respective environment. Despite unprecedented data coverage, we observe a humbling lack of completeness and representativeness of these continuous traits in many aspects. We, therefore, conclude that reducing data gaps and biases in the TRY database remains a key challenge and requires a coordinated approach to data mobilization and trait measurements. This can only be achieved in collaboration with other initiatives

The effect of exercise and protein source on food intake regulation and characteristics of metabolic syndrome in obese female wistar rats

Background: Beneficial effects of dietary proteins and exercise in treatment of obesity is well-recognized. The effect of exercise and protein source on food intake, body weight and characteristics of metabolic syndrome in obese female Wistar rats was examined. Female Wistar rats received an obesogenic diet for 12 weeks. Then, rats were allocated to four groups and received one of the following treatments for eight weeks: 1- Whey protein Diet + Exercise (WPE), 2- Soy protein diet + exercise (SPE), 3- Whey protein diet, no exercise (WPN), 4- Soy protein diet, no exercise (SPN). The exercise comprised of 30 minutes on a treadmill, three times/week. Body weight (BW) and food intake (FI), blood pressure, pulse, glucose and intake regulatory hormones were measured. Results: FI and plasma ghrelin (2.7 times) were higher in exercise groups compared with non-exercise groups. BW was lower (6.7%) in groups fed a whey protein diet compared with those fed a soy protein diet. Abdominal fat (% BW) was lower (22.8%) in WPE compared with other groups. Diastolic blood pressure (11.1%) and pulse (6%) were lower in groups fed a soy protein diet compared with groups fed a whey protein diet. Conclusion: While exercise affects food intake, source of protein determines BW and BC. Whey protein showed more favorable effect on BW and body composition

Lack of a Major Role of Staphylococcus aureus Panton-Valentine Leukocidin in Lower Respiratory Tract Infection in Nonhuman Primates

Panton-Valentine leukocidin (PVL) is a two-component cytolytic toxin epidemiologically linked to community-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (CA-MRSA) infections, including serious invasive infections caused by the epidemic clone referred to as strain USA300. Although PVL has long been known to be a S. aureus virulence molecule in vitro, the relative contribution of this leukotoxin to invasive CA-MRSA infections such as pneumonia remains controversial. We developed a nonhuman primate model of CA-MRSA pneumonia and used it to test the hypothesis that PVL contributes to lower respiratory tract infections caused by S. aureus strain USA300. The lower respiratory tract disease observed in this monkey model mimicked the clinical and pathological features of early mild to moderate S. aureus pneumonia in humans, including fine-structure histopathology. In this experiment using a large sample of monkeys and multiple time points of examination, no involvement of PVL in virulence could be detected. Compared with the wild-type parental USA300 strain, the isogenic PVL deletion-mutant strain caused equivalent lower respiratory tract pathology. We conclude that PVL does not contribute to lower respiratory tract infection in this nonhuman primate model of human CA-MRSA pneumonia

TRY plant trait database - enhanced coverage and open access

10.1111/gcb.14904GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY261119-18