Hypoxia adaptation in fish of the Amazon: a never-ending task

In addition to seasonal long-term changes in dissolved oxygen and carbon dioxide, water bodies of the Amazon present periodic short-term episodes of hypoxia and even anoxia. To preserve gas exchange and acid base balance, fish of the Amazon have developed multiple adaptive solutions which occur at all biological levels. These solutions are thought to represent adaptive convergence rather than phylogenetic relatedness. Fish of the Amazon exposed to different experimental conditions adjust, for example, several parameters to improve oxygen transfer from the gas-exchange site to the tissues. These parameters include morphological changes such as the development of the lower lip in Colossoma, changes in ventilation rates, changes in circulatory parameters, increased circulating red blood cells, decreased levels of intraerythrocytic phosphates, and adjustments of intraerythrocytic pH (pHi). These adjustments that allow fish to survive both short- and long-term hypoxia occur in different degrees in different fish species and may or may not occur simultaneously. In addition, these adjustments in oxygen transfer affect many other parameters, particularly acid-base status. We suggest that these adjustments are initiated as soon as the animal detects the environmental change in oxygen availability and are mediated by a single factor, possibly one of the catecholamines. In this paper we aim to show that adaptation to hypoxia is a never-ending task for the fish of the Amazon

Photochemically produced SO2 in the atmosphere of WASP-39b

S.-M.T. is supported by the European Research Council advanced grant EXOCONDENSE (no. 740963; principal investigator: R. T. Pierrehumbert). E.K.H.L. is supported by the SNSF Ambizione Fellowship grant (no. 193448). X.Z. is supported by NASA Exoplanet Research grant 80NSSC22K0236. O.V. acknowledges funding from the ANR project ‘EXACT’ (ANR-21-CE49-0008-01), from the Centre National d’Études Spatiales (CNES) and from the CNRS/INSU Programme National de Planétologie (PNP). L.D. acknowledges support from the European Union H2020-MSCA-ITN-2109 under grant no. 860470 (CHAMELEON) and the KU Leuven IDN/19/028 grant Escher. This work benefited from the 2022 Exoplanet Summer Program at the Other Worlds Laboratory (OWL) at the University of California, Santa Cruz, a programme financed by the Heising-Simons Foundation. T.D. is an LSSTC Catalyst Fellow. J.K. is an Imperial College Research Fellow. B.V.R. is a 51 Pegasi b Fellow. L.W. is an NHFP Sagan Fellow. A.D.F. is an NSF Graduate Research Fellow.Photochemistry is a fundamental process of planetary atmospheres that regulates the atmospheric composition and stability1. However, no unambiguous photochemical products have been detected in exoplanet atmospheres so far. Recent observations from the JWST Transiting Exoplanet Community Early Release Science Program2,3 found a spectral absorption feature at 4.05 μm arising from sulfur dioxide (SO2) in the atmosphere of WASP-39b. WASP-39b is a 1.27-Jupiter-radii, Saturn-mass (0.28 MJ) gas giant exoplanet orbiting a Sun-like star with an equilibrium temperature of around 1,100 K (ref. 4). The most plausible way of generating SO2 in such an atmosphere is through photochemical processes5,6. Here we show that the SO2 distribution computed by a suite of photochemical models robustly explains the 4.05-μm spectral feature identified by JWST transmission observations7 with NIRSpec PRISM (2.7σ)8 and G395H (4.5σ)9. SO2 is produced by successive oxidation of sulfur radicals freed when hydrogen sulfide (H2S) is destroyed. The sensitivity of the SO2 feature to the enrichment of the atmosphere by heavy elements (metallicity) suggests that it can be used as a tracer of atmospheric properties, with WASP-39b exhibiting an inferred metallicity of about 10× solar. We further point out that SO2 also shows observable features at ultraviolet and thermal infrared wavelengths not available from the existing observations.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

O período da contaminação com petróleo influencia a rebrota de Echinochloa polystachya (H.B.K.) Hitchcock em solo de várzea da Amazônia central?

Several factors may influence the impact of oil on the environment. However, although it is understood that the effect of pollutants may change throughout the year according to seasonal variations in environmental parameters, this effect is poorly studied in the tropical region. The effects of Urucu's crude oil on the vegetative propagation and growth of Echinochloa polystachya were evaluated in a 63 days period, in two experiments, "A" (July-September) and "B" (September-November) planting the species in a greenhouse. In both experiments parts of stems were placed in 2 L of várzea soil contaminated by 6 oil doses, ranging from 0 to 0.231 L oil m-2 soil. In response to dosage increase there was a decrease of total biomass, ratio of live /total biomass, the leaf length and number of leaves. The period of planting influenced the response of plants to the dosage applied due to climate change, with negative effects in the "B" period of higher temperatures. We concluded that the exposure period influence the vegetative propagation and growth of the seedlings, being a spill in the period of the higher temperatures more dangerous for this specie

Protein requirement of tambaqui juveniles (Colossoma macropomum) after feed deprivation

The aim of this work was evaluate protein requirement of tambaqui (Colossoma macropomum) juveniles after feed deprivation. During 60 days, fish (50,3 ± 0,26 g) were fed on four isoenergetics diets with different protein content (28, 32, 36 and 40% crude protein) at two feeding regimes (with and without feed deprivation) under completely random factorial design (4x2) in triplicate. Water quality parameters and performance index were evaluated at 1º, 15º and 60º days. Water quality parameters were kept at normal fish cultivation patterns. No mortality in the tested treatments. There were observed differences among treatments for performance indexes analyzed: growth rate, feed efficiency, daily feed consumption, crude protein consumption, efficiency protein rate and relative weight gain, except for hepatosomatic index. Hyperfagia was detected indicating the occurrence of compensatory growth. Fat content and body protein deposition increased in fishes refed on 36% of crude protein. These results explain some data observed belong the experiment like the increase of weight gain, of the hyperfagia time extension, of the growth rate and of the feed efficiency. Therefore those fish shows increase on weight gain, hyperfagia time, growth rate and feed efficiency. There is no influence of feed deprivation on protein requirement tambaqui juveniles.O objetivo deste trabalho foi avaliar a exigência protéica de juvenis de tambaqui (Colossoma macropomum) após a privação alimentar. Os peixes (50,3 ± 0,26g) foram submetidos a quatro rações isoenergéticas com diferentes concentrações protéicas (28, 32, 36 e 40% proteína bruta) e dois regimes alimentares (com privação e sem privação) durante 60 dias. O delineamento experimental foi inteiramente casualizado, em esquema fatorial 4x2, em triplicata. Avaliaram-se os parâmetros de qualidade de água e de desempenho no 1º, 15º e 60º dia de experimento. Os parâmetros da qualidade da água permaneceram dentro dos padrões de cultivo. Não houve mortalidade nos tratamentos testados. Foram observados diferenças entre os tratamentos para os índices de desempenho analisadostaxa de crescimento específico, eficiência alimentar, consumo diário de ração, consumo de proteína bruta, taxa de eficiência protéica e ganho de peso relativo, com exceção do índice hepatossomático. Houve hiperfagia, indicando a existência de crescimento compensatório. Os peixes realimentados com 36% proteína bruta tiveram incremento no teor de gordura visceral e maior deposição de proteína corporal. Estes resultados explicam uma melhora nos dados de ganho de peso, duração da hiperfagia, taxa de crescimento e eficiência alimentar. A privação alimentar não influencia a exigência protéica em juvenis de tambaqui

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