Impact of preharvest and postharvest treatment combinations on increase of stilbene content in grape

Aims : Stilbene-enriched grape is an interesting new food product with numerous health-promoting properties, mainly due to its high added-value compound content, notably resveratrol. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of different elicitors, alone or in combination with ultraviolet C light (UVC) postharvest treatment, on stilbene concentration in grapes. Methods and results : Three preharvest treatments were tested, namely benzothiadiazole, (BTH), methyl jasmonate (MEJA) and chitosan (CHIT). After harvesting, these treatments were combined with UVC postharvest treatment. The stilbene extraction method was validated method. Moreover, and grape quality was evaluated. Of the preharvest treatments, only BTH significantly increased trans-resveratrol concentration in grape, but this appears to be linked to a ripening delay. When pre- and postharvest treatments were combined, only the MEJA-UVC combination was successful in reducing by three days the day of maximum induction of stilbenes (trans resveratrol and piceatannol). Conclusion: The MEJA-UVC combination reached similar grape trans-resveratrol contents than UVC alone, but additionally the time to reach maximum trans-resveratrol after the UVC treatment was reduced by three days and therefore grape quality was preserved. Significance and impact of the study: The achieved results provide a potential treatment combination that allows functional grapes to be obtained in a shorter period than with UVC light alone, making it more applicable

Epigenetics in schizophrenia: a pilot study of global DNA methylation in different brain regions associated with higher cognitive functions

Attempts to discover genes that are involved in the pathogenesis of major psychiatric disorders have been frustrating and often fruitless. Concern is building about the need to understand the complex ways in which nature and nurture interact to produce mental illness. We analyze the epigenome in several brain regions from schizophrenic patients with severe cognitive impairment using high-resolution (450K) DNA methylation array. We identified 139 differentially methylated CpG sites included in known and novel candidate genes sequences as well as in and intergenic sequences which functions remain unknown. We found that altered DNA methylation is not restricted to a particular region, but includes others such as CpG shelves and gene bodies, indicating the presence of different DNA methylation signatures depending on the brain area analyzed. Our findings suggest that epimutations are not relatables between different tissues or even between tissues' regions, highlighting the need to adequately study brain samples to obtain reliable data concerning the epigenetics of schizophrenia

Searching for glycosylated natural products in actinomycetes and identification of novel macrolactams and angucyclines

Many bioactive natural products are glycosylated compounds in which the sugar components usually participate in interaction and molecular recognition of the cellular target. Therefore, the presence of sugar moieties is important, in some cases essential, for bioactivity. Searching for novel glycosylated bioactive compounds is an important aim in the field of the research for natural products from actinomycetes. A great majority of these sugar moieties belong to the 6-deoxyhexoses and share two common biosynthetic steps catalyzed by a NDP-D-glucose synthase (GS) and a NDP-D-glucose 4,6-dehydratase (DH). Based on this fact, seventy one Streptomyces strains isolated from the integument of ants of the Tribe Attini were screened for the presence of biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) for glycosylated compounds. Total DNAs were analyzed by PCR amplification using oligo primers for GSs and DHs and also for a NDP-D-glucose-2,3-dehydratases. Amplicons were used in gene disruption experiments to generate non-producing mutants in the corresponding clusters. Eleven mutants were obtained and comparative dereplication analyses between the wild type strains and the corresponding mutants allowed in some cases the identification of the compound coded by the corresponding cluster (lobophorins, vicenistatin, chromomycins and benzanthrins) and that of two novel macrolactams (sipanmycin A and B). Several strains did not show UPLC differential peaks between the wild type strain and mutant profiles. However, after genome sequencing of these strains, the activation of the expression of two clusters was achieved by using nutritional and genetic approaches leading to the identification of compounds of the cervimycins family and two novel members of the warkmycins family. Our work defines a useful strategy for the identification new glycosylated compounds by a combination of genome mining, gene inactivation experiments and the activation of silent biosynthetic clusters in Streptomyces strains

Natural History of MYH7-Related Dilated Cardiomyopathy

BACKGROUND Variants in myosin heavy chain 7 (MYH7) are responsible for disease in 1% to 5% of patients with dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM); however, the clinical characteristics and natural history of MYH7-related DCM are poorly described. OBJECTIVES We sought to determine the phenotype and prognosis of MYH7-related DCM. We also evaluated the influence of variant location on phenotypic expression. METHODS We studied clinical data from 147 individuals with DCM-causing MYH7 variants (47.6% female; 35.6 +/- 19.2 years) recruited from 29 international centers. RESULTS At initial evaluation, 106 (72.1%) patients had DCM (left ventricular ejection fraction: 34.5% +/- 11.7%). Median follow-up was 4.5 years (IQR: 1.7-8.0 years), and 23.7% of carriers who were initially phenotype-negative developed DCM. Phenotypic expression by 40 and 60 years was 46% and 88%, respectively, with 18 patients (16%) first diagnosed at <18 years of age. Thirty-six percent of patients with DCM met imaging criteria for LV noncompaction. During follow-up, 28% showed left ventricular reverse remodeling. Incidence of adverse cardiac events among patients with DCM at 5 years was 11.6%, with 5 (4.6%) deaths caused by end-stage heart failure (ESHF) and 5 patients (4.6%) requiring heart transplantation. The major ventricular arrhythmia rate was low (1.0% and 2.1% at 5 years in patients with DCM and in those with LVEF of <= 35%, respectively). ESHF and major ventricular arrhythmia were significantly lower compared with LMNA-related DCM and similar to DCM caused by TTN truncating variants. CONCLUSIONS MYH7-related DCM is characterized by early age of onset, high phenotypic expression, low left ventricular reverse remodeling, and frequent progression to ESHF. Heart failure complications predominate over ventricular arrhythmias, which are rare. (C) 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier on behalf of the American College of Cardiology Foundation

Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time,1,2 and attempts to address it require a clear un derstanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space.3,4 While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes,5–7 vast areas of the tropics remain understudied.8–11 In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world’s most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity,12 but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepre sented in biodiversity databases.13–15 To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications16,17 may elim inate pieces of the Amazon’s biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological com munities are responding. To increase generalization and applicability of biodiversity knowledge,18,19 it is thus crucial to reduce biases in ecological research, particularly in regions projected to face the most pronounced environmental changes. We integrate ecological community metadata of 7,694 sampling sites for multiple or ganism groups in a machine learning model framework to map the research probability across the Brazilian Amazonia, while identifying the region’s vulnerability to environmental change. 15%–18% of the most ne glected areas in ecological research are expected to experience severe climate or land use changes by 2050. This means that unless we take immediate action, we will not be able to establish their current status, much less monitor how it is changing and what is being lostinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio