Helminth fauna of small mammals (insectivores and rodents) in Doñana (southeastern Iberian Peninsula)

Peer Reviewe

Nuevos datos cronoestratigráficos de la Fm. Marismas (Bajo Guadalquivir)

La Formación Marismas forma la parte superior del relleno sedimentario del sector SW de la cuenca del Guadalquivir. Los datos previos sobre el sondeo Lebrija, indicaban que la parte más alta de esta formación tenía edades de hasta 9.6 kyr BP y en la parte inferior eran cercanas o fuera del rango del radiocarbono, pero posterior a la reversión Brunhes-Matuyama. En este trabajo se aportan 17 nuevas dataciones realizadas mediante racemización de aminoácidos en valvas de ostrácodos en este mismo sondeo, con el fin de completar la cronología y el modelo de edad de la parte superior e inferior de la Fm Marismas. El resultado indica que el tramo situado por debajo del metro 56, arroja edades que oscilan entre 164685±14110 y 202830±30255, que se correlacionan con los estadios isotópicos marinos MIS 6-7 del Pleistoceno medio, edad sensiblemente más baja a las inferidas para esta formación en otros puntos de la Cuenca del bajo Guadalquivir. Abstract: The Marismas Formation is the upper part of the sedimentary infill of the SW sector of the Guadalquivir basin. Previous chronological data of the Lebrija core sediments, indicated that the age at the top of this formation was 9.6 kyr BP and the bottom, 60 m, is near or beyond the range of radiocarbon, but post Matuyama - Brunhes reversal. In this work we present 17 new ages coming from the analysis of racemization of amino acid on valves of ostracods, in order to complete the chronology and the age-depth model of the Marismas Formation. The results indicates that the section located below the meter 56, throws ages ranging between 164685±14110 and 202830±30255, which correlates with the marine isotope stage MIS6-7 Middle Pleistocene, significantly lower in age than described in other parts of the lower Guadalquivir basi

Aproximación al registro paleoambiental de la cueva de Goikoetxe (Busturia): Evidencias sedimentarias y paleontológicas

Aproximación al registro paleoambiental de la cueva de Goikoetxe (Busturia): Evidencias sedimentarias y paleontológica

AvrRpm1 Functions as an ADP-Ribosyl Transferase to Modify NOI Domain-Containing Proteins, Including Arabidopsis and Soybean RPM1-Interacting Protein4

The Pseudomonas syringae effector protein AvrRpm1 activates the Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) intracellular innate immune receptor protein RESISTANCE TO PSEUDOMONAS MACULICOLA1 (RPM1) via modification of a second Arabidopsis protein, RPM1-INTERACTING PROTEIN4 (AtRIN4). Prior work has shown that AvrRpm1 induces phosphorylation of AtRIN4, but homology modeling indicated that AvrRpm1 may be an ADP-ribosyl transferase. Here, we show that AvrRpm1 induces ADP-ribosylation of RIN4 proteins from both Arabidopsis and soybean (Glycine max) within two highly conserved nitrate-induced (NOI) domains. It also ADP ribosylates at least 10 additional Arabidopsis NOI domain-containing proteins. The ADP-ribosylation activity of AvrRpm1 is required for subsequent phosphorylation on Thr-166 of AtRIN4, an event that is necessary and sufficient for RPM1 activation. We also show that the C-terminal NOI domain of AtRIN4 interacts with the exocyst subunits EXO70B1, EXO70E1, EXO70E2, and EXO70F1. Mutation of either EXO70B1 or EXO70E2 inhibited secretion of callose induced by the bacterial flagellin-derived peptide flg22. Substitution of RIN4 Thr-166 with Asp enhanced the association of AtRIN4 with EXO70E2, which we posit inhibits its callose deposition function. Collectively, these data indicate that AvrRpm1 ADP-ribosyl transferase activity contributes to virulence by promoting phosphorylation of RIN4 Thr-166, which inhibits the secretion of defense compounds by promoting the inhibitory association of RIN4 with EXO70 proteins

Massive Star Formation

This chapter reviews progress in the field of massive star formation. It focuses on evidence for accretion and current models that invoke high accretion rates. In particular it is noted that high accretion rates will cause the massive young stellar object to have a radius much larger than its eventual main sequence radius throughout much of the accretion phase. This results in low effective temperatures which may provide the explanation as to why luminous young stellar objects do not ionized their surroundings to form ultra-compact H II regions. The transition to the ultra-compact H II region phase would then be associated with the termination of the high accretion rate phase. Objects thought to be in a transition phase are discussed and diagnostic diagrams to distinguish between massive young stellar objects and ultra-compact H II regions in terms of line widths and radio luminosity are presented.Comment: 21 pages, 6 figures, chapter in Diffuse Matter from Star Forming Regions to Active Galaxies - A Volume Honouring John Dyson, Edited by T.W. Hartquist, J. M. Pittard, and S. A. E. G. Falle. Series: Astrophysics and Space Science Proceedings. Springer Dordrecht, 2007, p.6

Meta-analysis of type 2 Diabetes in African Americans Consortium

Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is more prevalent in African Americans than in Europeans. However, little is known about the genetic risk in African Americans despite the recent identification of more than 70 T2D loci primarily by genome-wide association studies (GWAS) in individuals of European ancestry. In order to investigate the genetic architecture of T2D in African Americans, the MEta-analysis of type 2 DIabetes in African Americans (MEDIA) Consortium examined 17 GWAS on T2D comprising 8,284 cases and 15,543 controls in African Americans in stage 1 analysis. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) association analysis was conducted in each study under the additive model after adjustment for age, sex, study site, and principal components. Meta-analysis of approximately 2.6 million genotyped and imputed SNPs in all studies was conducted using an inverse variance-weighted fixed effect model. Replications were performed to follow up 21 loci in up to 6,061 cases and 5,483 controls in African Americans, and 8,130 cases and 38,987 controls of European ancestry. We identified three known loci (TCF7L2, HMGA2 and KCNQ1) and two novel loci (HLA-B and INS-IGF2) at genome-wide significance (4.15 × 10(-94)<P<5 × 10(-8), odds ratio (OR)  = 1.09 to 1.36). Fine-mapping revealed that 88 of 158 previously identified T2D or glucose homeostasis loci demonstrated nominal to highly significant association (2.2 × 10(-23) < locus-wide P<0.05). These novel and previously identified loci yielded a sibling relative risk of 1.19, explaining 17.5% of the phenotypic variance of T2D on the liability scale in African Americans. Overall, this study identified two novel susceptibility loci for T2D in African Americans. A substantial number of previously reported loci are transferable to African Americans after accounting for linkage disequilibrium, enabling fine mapping of causal variants in trans-ethnic meta-analysis studies.Peer reviewe

Functional mechanisms underlying pleiotropic risk alleles at the 19p13.1 breast-ovarian cancer susceptibility locus

A locus at 19p13 is associated with breast cancer (BC) and ovarian cancer (OC) risk. Here we analyse 438 SNPs in this region in 46,451 BC and 15,438 OC cases, 15,252 BRCA1 mutation carriers and 73,444 controls and identify 13 candidate causal SNPs associated with serous OC (P=9.2 × 10-20), ER-negative BC (P=1.1 × 10-13), BRCA1-associated BC (P=7.7 × 10-16) and triple negative BC (P-diff=2 × 10-5). Genotype-gene expression associations are identified for candidate target genes ANKLE1 (P=2 × 10-3) and ABHD8 (P<2 × 10-3). Chromosome conformation capture identifies interactions between four candidate SNPs and ABHD8, and luciferase assays indicate six risk alleles increased transactivation of the ADHD8 promoter. Targeted deletion of a region containing risk SNP rs56069439 in a putative enhancer induces ANKLE1 downregulation; and mRNA stability assays indicate functional effects for an ANKLE1 3′-UTR SNP. Altogether, these data suggest that multiple SNPs at 19p13 regulate ABHD8 and perhaps ANKLE1 expression, and indicate common mechanisms underlying breast and ovarian cancer risk

Genome-Wide Association Study in BRCA1 Mutation Carriers Identifies Novel Loci Associated with Breast and Ovarian Cancer Risk

BRCA1-associated breast and ovarian cancer risks can be modified by common genetic variants. To identify further cancer risk-modifying loci, we performed a multi-stage GWAS of 11,705 BRCA1 carriers (of whom 5,920 were diagnosed with breast and 1,839 were diagnosed with ovarian cancer), with a further replication in an additional sample of 2,646 BRCA1 carriers. We identified a novel breast cancer risk modifier locus at 1q32 for BRCA1 carriers (rs2290854, P = 2.7×10-8, HR = 1.14, 95% CI: 1.09-1.20). In addition, we identified two novel ovarian cancer risk modifier loci: 17q21.31 (rs17631303, P = 1.4×10-8, HR = 1.27, 95% CI: 1.17-1.38) and 4q32.3 (rs4691139, P = 3.4×10-8, HR = 1.20, 95% CI: 1.17-1.38). The 4q32.3 locus was not associated with ovarian cancer risk in the general population or BRCA2 carriers, suggesting a BRCA1-specific associat

The CARMENES search for exoplanets around M dwarfs. First visual-channel radial-velocity measurements and orbital parameter updates of seven M-dwarf planetary systems

Stars and planetary system

The Influence of Number and Timing of Pregnancies on Breast Cancer Risk for Women With BRCA1 or BRCA2 Mutations

Background: Full-term pregnancy (FTP) is associated with a reduced breast cancer (BC) risk over time, but women are at increased BC risk in the immediate years following an FTP. No large prospective studies, however, have examined whether the number and timing of pregnancies are associated with BC risk for BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutation carriers. Methods: Using weighted and time-varying Cox proportional hazards models, we investigated whether reproductive events are associated with BC risk for mutation carriers using a retrospective cohort (5707 BRCA1 and 3525 BRCA2 mutation carriers) and a prospective cohort (2276 BRCA1 and 1610 BRCA2 mutation carriers), separately for each cohort and the combined prospective and retrospective cohort. Results: For BRCA1 mutation carriers, there was no overall association with parity compared with nulliparity (combined hazard ratio [HRc] ¼ 0.99, 95% confidence interval [CI] ¼ 0.83 to 1.18). Relative to being uniparous, an increased number of FTPs was associated with decreased BC risk (HRc¼ 0.79, 95% CI ¼ 0.69 to 0.91; HRc¼ 0.70, 95% CI ¼ 0.59 to 0.82; HRc¼ 0.50, 95% CI ¼ 0.40 to 0.63, for 2, 3, and 4 FTPs, respectively, Ptrend < .0001) and increasing duration of breastfeeding was associated with decreased BC risk (combined cohort Ptrend ¼ .0003). Relative to being nulliparous, uniparous BRCA1 mutation carriers were at increased BC risk in the prospective analysis (prospective hazard ration [HRp] ¼ 1.69, 95% CI ¼ 1.09 to 2.62). For BRCA2 mutation carriers, being parous was associated with a 30% increase in BC risk (HRc ¼ 1.33, 95% CI ¼ 1.05 to 1.69), and there was no apparent decrease in risk associated with multiparity except for having at least 4 FTPs vs. 1 FTP (HRc¼ 0.72, 95% CI ¼ 0.54 to 0.98). Conclusions: These findings suggest differential associations with parity between BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutation carriers with higher risk for uniparous BRCA1 carriers and parous BRCA2 carriers