A list of land plants of Parque Nacional do Caparaó, Brazil, highlights the presence of sampling gaps within this protected area

Brazilian protected areas are essential for plant conservation in the Atlantic Forest domain, one of the 36 global biodiversity hotspots. A major challenge for improving conservation actions is to know the plant richness, protected by these areas. Online databases offer an accessible way to build plant species lists and to provide relevant information about biodiversity. A list of land plants of “Parque Nacional do Caparaó” (PNC) was previously built using online databases and published on the website "Catálogo de Plantas das Unidades de Conservação do Brasil." Here, we provide and discuss additional information about plant species richness, endemism and conservation in the PNC that could not be included in the List. We documented 1,791 species of land plants as occurring in PNC, of which 63 are cited as threatened (CR, EN or VU) by the Brazilian National Red List, seven as data deficient (DD) and five as priorities for conservation. Fifity-one species were possible new ocurrences for ES and MG states

Acetylcholinesterase inhibition and antimicrobial activity of hydroxyl amides synthesized from natural products derivatives

ABSTRACT Thirteen natural products derivatives of hydroxyl amide class, three described for the first time, were synthesized by reaction of three indole acids and 3,4,5-trimethoxybenzoic acid with six different amino alcohols in the presence of triphenylphosphine and N-bromosuccinimide. The derivatives were tested against the Gram (+) bacteria Staphylococcus aureus and Bacillus cereus, Gram (-) Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Escherichia coli, besides the yeast Candida albicans. One of the compounds (7) was selectively active against C. albicans (91.3 ± 0.49% inhibition) showing a great potential as a new drug lead, since it was more active than the positive control, miconazole (88.7 ± 2.41% inhibition). Regarding bacterial inhibition, compounds demonstrated mild activity, but inhibition of compounds 9, 10 and 13 towards E. coli is of interest since it is difficult to find drugs selectively active against Gram (-) bacteria. Most of the compounds were very active in the acetylcholinesterase inhibition assay. Compound 7 was again the most active (93.2 ± 4.47%), being more potent than the control galantamine (90.3 ± 0.45%). The most active gallic acid derivatives, compounds 3, 7 and 8 have in common, besides gallic acid skeleton, a (CH2)2OH group, which may be one of the structural requirements for AChE inhibition

Increased interregional virus exchange and nucleotide diversity outline the expansion of chikungunya virus in Brazil

Abstract The emergence and reemergence of mosquito-borne diseases in Brazil such as yellow fever, zika, chikungunya, and dengue have had serious impacts on public health. Concerns have been raised due to the rapid dissemination of the chikungunya virus across the country since its first detection in 2014 in Northeast Brazil. In this work, we carried out on-site training activities in genomic surveillance in partnership with the National Network of Public Health Laboratories that have led to the generation of 422 chikungunya virus genomes from 12 Brazilian states over the past two years (2021–2022), a period that has seen more than 312 thousand chikungunya fever cases reported in the country. These genomes increased the amount of available data and allowed a more comprehensive characterization of the dispersal dynamics of the chikungunya virus East-Central-South-African lineage in Brazil. Tree branching patterns revealed the emergence and expansion of two distinct subclades. Phylogeographic analysis indicated that the northeast region has been the leading hub of virus spread towards other regions. Increased frequency of C > T transitions among the new genomes suggested that host restriction factors from the immune system such as ADAR and AID/APOBEC deaminases might be driving the genetic diversity of the chikungunya virus in Brazil