Effect of essential oil from citronella and alfazema on fennel aphids Hyadaphis foeniculi Passerini (Hemiptera: Aphididae) and its predator Cycloneda sanguinea L. (Coleoptera: Coccinelidae)

The essential oil of plants is used as an alternative to pesticides for the control of aphids. We study the effect of the essential oils of citronella and alfazema on aphid populations in the laboratory and in the field. We also investigate the effect of these oils on the behavior of the aphid's principal predator the ladybug. The results show that alfazema is highly effective, more so than citronella. A 1% concentration of alfazema oil is more effective in killing aphids than the same concentration of citronella. Alfazema oil has the further advantage that it is attractive to ladybugs and is less lethal to fennel flowers.Peer reviewedPsychologyZoolog

Factorial design for collagenase production by Penicillium sp. selected from the Caatinga soil

Collagenolytic proteases can hydrolyze both denatured and native collagen and are becoming increasingly important commercially. The aim of this work was to select a new strain of Penicillium sp. isolated from the soil of Caatinga for collagenase production. A factorial design 24 was performed to determine the best conditions of enzyme production. Collagenolytic activity reported on this work is about 2 times larger than existing data. According to the growth kinetics, after 126 hours of production, were obtained the highest values of collagenolytic activity and specific activity. The highest values of collagenolytic activity and specific activity were obtained on a culture medium containing 0.25% (w/v) gelatin, 200 rpm, pH 8.0 and 24 °C. Only two factors were statistically significant: pH and temperature, both with negative effects. The experimental design made possible to define fermentation culture conditions able to increase by 66% the value of the initial enzyme activity.Fundação de Amparo à Ciência e Tecnologia do Estado de Pernambuco (FACEPE) and Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Cladosporium tenuissimum URM 7803: a promising new β-galactosidase producer

The Cladosporium genus, defined by Link in 1816, is one of the largest and most heterogeneous Hyphomycetes genus. It comprises more than 189 species still rarely explored biotechnologically. One of the most studied microbial enzymes, -galactosidase is a glycoside hydrolase enzyme that catalyzes the hydrolysis of -galactosides into monosaccharides through the breaking of a glycosidic bond. Recently, new studies comprising new microbial sources of -galactosidase, presenting biotechnologically interesting characteristics, have been encouraged. In this context, the present study evaluated the production of -galactosidase by a new isolate of Cladosporium tenuissimum. A C. tenuissimum inoculum was prepared adding 107 spore/mL in sterile saline solution 0.85% (w/v) NaCl containing 0.01% (w/v) Tween 80 and added to fermentation medium for enzyme production. The fermentation medium, composed of (% w/v): lactose (2), peptone (0.4), yeast extract (0.4) and salts (KH2PO4 (0.2), Na2HPO4.12H2O (0.8) and MgSO4.7H2O (0.025), pH 6.5, was maintained at 28° C and 180 rpm for 13 days. One sample (50 mL erlenmeyer) was removed every 24 hours and -galactosidase activity was evaluated using ONPG (ortho-Nitrophenyl--galactoside) method. The results showed maximum -galactosidase production by C. tenuissimum URM 7803 on thirteenth day, displayed enzymatic activity of 462.13 U/mL. The C. tenuissimum URM 7803 isolate proved to be a powerful new -galactosidase producer with potential application for food processing.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

HIGH DOSE ORAL BUSULFAN and INTRAVENOUS MELPHALAN AS CONDITIONING THERAPY for AUTOLOGOUS HEMATOPOIETIC STEM CELL TRANSPLANT (HSCT) for the TREATMENT of PEDIATRIC SOLID TUMORS

Universidade Federal de São Paulo, Inst Oncol Pediat, GRAACC, São Paulo, BrazilUniversidade Federal de São Paulo, Inst Oncol Pediat, GRAACC, São Paulo, BrazilWeb of Scienc

Cooperation between Apoptotic and Viable Metacyclics Enhances the Pathogenesis of Leishmaniasis

Mimicking mammalian apoptotic cells by exposing phosphatidylserine (PS) is a strategy used by virus and parasitic protozoa to escape host protective inflammatory responses. With Leishmania amazonensis (La), apoptotic mimicry is a prerogative of the intramacrophagic amastigote form of the parasite and is modulated by the host. Now we show that differently from what happens with amastigotes, promastigotes exposing PS are non-viable, non-infective cells, undergoing apoptotic death. As part of the normal metacyclogenic process occurring in axenic cultures and in the gut of sand fly vectors, a sub-population of metacyclic promastigotes exposes PS. Apoptotic death of the purified PS-positive (PSPOS) sub-population was confirmed by TUNEL staining and DNA laddering. Transmission electron microscopy revealed morphological alterations in PSPOS metacyclics such as DNA condensation, cytoplasm degradation and mitochondrion and kinetoplast destruction, both in in vitro cultures and in sand fly guts. TUNELPOS promastigotes were detected only in the anterior midgut to foregut boundary of infected sand flies. Interestingly, caspase inhibitors modulated parasite death and PS exposure, when added to parasite cultures in a specific time window. Efficient in vitro macrophage infections and in vivo lesions only occur when PSPOS and PS-negative (PSNEG) parasites were simultaneously added to the cell culture or inoculated in the mammalian host. The viable PSNEG promastigote was the infective form, as shown by following the fate of fluorescently labeled parasites, while the PSPOS apoptotic sub-population inhibited host macrophage inflammatory response. PS exposure and macrophage inhibition by a subpopulation of promastigotes is a different mechanism than the one previously described with amastigotes, where the entire population exposes PS. Both mechanisms co-exist and play a role in the transmission and development of the disease in case of infection by La. Since both processes confer selective advantages to the infective microorganism they justify the occurrence of apoptotic features in a unicellular pathogen

Agricultura e biodiversidade nas ciências sociais brasileiras: alimentando a comunicação entre ciência e políticas públicas.

O presente artigo decorre de uma reflexão sustentada em dois pressupostos: a) que as ciências e, em particular, as sociais, podem contribuir para informar as tomadas de decisão e a formulação de políticas públicas visando a melhoria da vida das pessoas no planeta e b) que o papel da agricultura na conservação da biodiversidade é uma questão atual de extrema relevância e que merece ser aprofundada. A relação entre a agricultura e a biodiversidade tem sido objeto de questionamentos recentes na sociedade e no campo das políticas públicas. Contudo, se os estudos relacionados à biodiversidade e à agricultura, separadamente, têm observado um considerável crescimento no Brasil, poucos são os investimentos de pesquisa sobre a relação entre esses dois grandes temas. A partir dessas considerações, seguimos dois objetivos principais: 1) investigar como o papel da agricultura familiar na preservação da biodiversidade tem sido abordado pelas Ciências Sociais no Brasil, particularmente nos artigos publicados em periódicos brasileiros nos últimos 20 anos; 2) testar uma metodologia de revisão bibliográfica, criteriosa, que possa ser útil aos tomadores de decisão em políticas públicas e demais interessados

Gut Bacterial Communities in the Giant Land Snail Achatina fulica and Their Modification by Sugarcane-Based Diet

The invasive land snail Achatina fulica is one of the most damaging agricultural pests worldwide representing a potentially serious threat to natural ecosystems and human health. This species is known to carry parasites and harbors a dense and metabolically active microbial community; however, little is known about its diversity and composition. Here, we assessed for the first time the complexity of bacterial communities occurring in the digestive tracts of field-collected snails (FC) by using culture-independent molecular analysis. Crop and intestinal bacteria in FC were then compared to those from groups of snails that were reared in the laboratory (RL) on a sugarcane-based diet. Most of the sequences recovered were novel and related to those reported for herbivorous gut. Changes in the relative abundance of Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes were observed when the snails were fed a high-sugar diet, suggesting that the snail gut microbiota can influence the energy balance equation. Furthermore, this study represents a first step in gaining a better understanding of land snail gut microbiota and shows that this is a complex holobiont system containing diverse, abundant and active microbial communities