The Plasma Membrane Calcium ATPases and Their Role as Major New Players in Human Disease.

The Ca2+ extrusion function of the four mammalian isoforms of the plasma membrane calcium ATPases (PMCAs) is well established. There is also ever-increasing detail known of their roles in global and local Ca2+ homeostasis and intracellular Ca2+ signaling in a wide variety of cell types and tissues. It is becoming clear that the spatiotemporal patterns of expression of the PMCAs and the fact that their abundances and relative expression levels vary from cell type to cell type both reflect and impact on their specific functions in these cells. Over recent years it has become increasingly apparent that these genes have potentially significant roles in human health and disease, with PMCAs1-4 being associated with cardiovascular diseases, deafness, autism, ataxia, adenoma, and malarial resistance. This review will bring together evidence of the variety of tissue-specific functions of PMCAs and will highlight the roles these genes play in regulating normal physiological functions and the considerable impact the genes have on human disease

Little samplers, big fleet: eDNA metabarcoding from commercial trawlers enhances ocean monitoring

The global need to monitor the status of marine resources is a priority task in marine management, but most ocean surveys still rely on costly and time-consuming capture-based techniques. Here we test a novel, easy-to use device to collect eDNA on board of bottom trawl fishing vessels, during normal fishing operations, quickly and easily: custom-made rolls of gauze tied to a hollow perforated spherical probe (the ‘metaprobe’) that placed inside the fishing net aims to gather traces of genetic material from the surrounding environment. We collected six samples from three central Tyrrhenian sites. Using an established fish-specific metabarcoding marker, we recovered over 70% of the caught species and accurately reconstructed fish assemblages typical of the different bathymetric layers considered. eDNA metabarcoding data also returned a biodiversity ‘bonus’ of mostly mesopelagic species, not catchable by bottom trawls. Further investigation is needed to upscale this promising approach as a powerful tool to monitor catch composition, assess the distribution of stocks, and generally record changes in fish communities across the oceans

Tacticity, Regio and Stereoregularity

This chapter focus on the polypropylene tacticity. The stereoregularity and regioregularity of the processes catalyzed by heterogeneous and homogeneous Ziegler-Natta catalysts are discussed. The amazing variety of molecular architectures available for polypropylene-based materials are summarized together with the catalytic mechanisms for tacticity control. The main techniques applied for the determination of PP tacticity are reported as well as the outstanding development of new catalyst systems able to achieve unprecedented PP microstructures