Comparative aspects of the control of posture and locomotion in the spider crab Libinia emarginata

The study of pedestrian locomotion in crustaceans has largely focused on forward walking macrurans, or sideway walking brachyurans. The spider crab, Libinia emarginata is a brachyuran that, unlike its close relatives, preferentially walks forward. The phylogenetic position, behavioral preference, and amenability to experimental techniques make spider crabs an attractive model for comparative studies of crustacean locomotion. This dissertation looks at the neuroethology of forward walking in L. emarginata. I described the skeletal, muscular, and neural anatomy of the walking machinery of L. emarginata and found adaptations at each level that reflect its walking preference. The ranges of motion of leg joints aiding in forward locomotion were larger for spider crabs than for sideway walking crabs. The leg segments housing the musculature moving these joints were also larger. The proximal leg musculature consists of multiple muscle heads that can be activated independently during locomotion. The motor neurons innervating this musculature exhibited features of distantly related species that walk forward. Unlike many brachyurans, spider crabs use all ten legs during walking. Kinematic characterization of forward walking in L. emarginata showed that anterior and posterior limbs perform different functions during walking. Cross-correlation analysis among the leg joints of spider crabs revealed that distant joints have stronger coupling than adjacent ones. Neuroethology studies of pedestrian locomotion use multiple approaches. In order to understand how adaptive behavior is produced, it is necessary to study how the neural, muscular, and skeletal systems of an organism interact during its performance

The use of new technologies to access to handwritten historical information in digital form. Galeón Project

Español: La investigación histórica en archivos obliga a realizar un amplio trabajo de revisión de miles de documentos que, en muchos casos, no tienen relación con el tema de estudio, generando un importante gasto en tiempo y recursos. Para dar respuesta a este problema en relación al estudio del patrimonio arqueológico subacuático, desde el CAS-IAPH se ha ideado el Proyecto Galeón, cuyo objetivo es desarrollar soluciones innovadoras para consultar grandes conjuntos digitalizados de documentos históricos manuscritos. Actualmente no es posible la transcripción automatizada de un gran volumen de imágenes de documentos manuscritos, pero el desarrollo tecnológico en el campo del reconocimiento formal de palabras, puede simplificar este proceso. Para ello se ha ideado un modelo teórico de Búsqueda de Palabras Claves (BPC) basado en Grafos de Palabras (GP), que, además de para el patrimonio cultural marítimo, podría utilizarse para otros temas de investigación. Inglés: Historical research in archives forces to realize an extensive work of reviewing thousands of documents that, in many cases, have no connection with the subject matter, generating a significant expenditure of time and resources. To address this problem in relation to the study of underwater archaeological heritage, from the CAS-IAPH has been devised the Galleon Project, which aims to develop innovative solutions to query large sets of historical documents digitized manuscripts. Nowadays It is not possible the automated transcription of a large volume of images from handwritten documents, but the development in the field of formal recognition of words, can simplify this process. For this we have developed a theoretical model to identify Keywords based on Graphs of Words (GP), which, as well as in the maritime cultural heritage, could be used for any research topic

Análisis de campañas de comunicación social

Sisenes Jornades de Foment de la Investigació de la FCHS (Any 2000-2001

Distinct mechanoreceptor pezo-1 isoforms modulate food intake in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans

Two PIEZO mechanosensitive cation channels, PIEZO1 and PIEZO2, have been identified in mammals, where they are involved in numerous sensory processes. While structurally similar, PIEZO channels are expressed in distinct tissues and exhibit unique properties. How different PIEZOs transduce force, how their transduction mechanism varies, and how their unique properties match the functional needs of the tissues they are expressed in remain all-important unanswered questions. The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans has a single PIEZO ortholog (pezo-1) predicted to have 12 isoforms. These isoforms share many transmembrane domains but differ in those that distinguish PIEZO1 and PIEZO2 in mammals. We used transcriptional and translational reporters to show that putative promoter sequences immediately upstream of the start codon of long pezo-1 isoforms predominantly drive green fluorescent protein (GFP) expression in mesodermally derived tissues (such as muscle and glands). In contrast, sequences upstream of shorter pezo-1 isoforms resulted in GFP expression primarily in neurons. Putative promoters upstream of different isoforms drove GFP expression in different cells of the same organs of the digestive system. The observed unique pattern of complementary expression suggests that different isoforms could possess distinct functions within these organs. We used mutant analysis to show that pharyngeal muscles and glands require long pezo-1 isoforms to respond appropriately to the presence of food. The number of pezo-1 isoforms in C. elegans, their putative differential pattern of expression, and roles in experimentally tractable processes make this an attractive system to investigate the molecular basis for functional differences between members of the PIEZO family of mechanoreceptors.Fil: Hughes, Kiley. University Of Illinois. Deparment Of Biological Science; Estados UnidosFil: Shah, Ashka. University Of Illinois. Deparment Of Biological Science; Estados UnidosFil: Bai, Xiaofei. National Institutes of Health; Estados UnidosFil: Adams, Jessica. University Of Illinois. Deparment Of Biological Science; Estados UnidosFil: Bauer, Rosemary. University of Chicago; Estados UnidosFil: Jackson, Janelle. University Of Illinois. Deparment Of Biological Science; Estados UnidosFil: Harris, Emily. University Of Illinois. Deparment Of Biological Science; Estados UnidosFil: Ficca, Alyson. University Of Illinois. Deparment Of Biological Science; Estados UnidosFil: Freebairn, Ploy. University Of Illinois. Deparment Of Biological Science; Estados UnidosFil: Mohammed, Shawn. University Of Illinois. Deparment Of Biological Science; Estados UnidosFil: Fernandez, Eliana Mailen. Universidad Nacional de San Martín. Instituto de Investigaciones Biotecnológicas. - Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Instituto de Investigaciones Biotecnológicas; ArgentinaFil: Bainbridge, Chance. University Of Illinois. Deparment Of Biological Science; Estados UnidosFil: Brocco, Marcela Adriana. Universidad Nacional de San Martín. Instituto de Investigaciones Biotecnológicas. - Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Instituto de Investigaciones Biotecnológicas; ArgentinaFil: Stein, Wolfgang. University Of Illinois. Deparment Of Biological Science; Estados UnidosFil: Vidal Gadea, Andrés G.. University Of Illinois. Deparment Of Biological Science; Estados Unido

Vaccine breakthrough infections with SARS-CoV-2 Alpha mirror mutations in Delta Plus, Iota, and Omicron

Replication of SARS-CoV-2 in the human population is defined by distributions of mutants that are present at different frequencies within the infected host and can be detected by ultra-deep sequencing techniques. In this study, we examined the SARS-CoV-2 mutant spectra of amplicons from the spike-coding (S-coding) region of 5 nasopharyngeal isolates derived from patients with vaccine breakthrough. Interestingly, all patients became infected with the Alpha variant, but amino acid substitutions that correspond to the Delta Plus, Iota, and Omicron variants were present in the mutant spectra of the resident virus. Deep sequencing analysis of SARS-CoV-2 from patients with vaccine breakthrough revealed a rich reservoir of mutant types and may also identify tolerated substitutions that can be represented in epidemiologically dominant variants.This work was supported by the Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (COVID-19 Research Call COV20/00181) and co-financed by the European Development Regional Fund “A way to achieve Europe.” The work was also supported by grants CSIC-COV19-014 from the CSIC, project 525/C/2021 from the Fundació La Marató de TV3; PID2020-113888RB-I00 from the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación; BFU2017-91384-EXP from the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (MCIU);PI18/00210 and PI21/00139 from the Instituto de Salud Carlos III; and S2018/BAA-4370 (PLATESA2) from the Comunidad de Madrid/ FEDER. This research work was also funded by the European Commission – NextGenerationEU (regulation EU 2020/2094), through the CSIC’s Global Health Platform (PTI Salud Global). CP and PM are supported by the Miguel Servet programme of the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (CPII19/00001 and CP16/00116, respectively), cofinanced by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). CIBERehd is funded by the Instituto de Salud Carlos III. Institutional grants from the Fundación Ramón Areces and Banco Santander to the CBMSO are also acknowledged. The team at CBMSO belongs to the Global Virus Network (GVN). BMG is supported by predoctoral contract PFIS FI19/00119 from the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (Ministerio de Sanidad y Consumo), cofinanced by the Fondo Social Europeo (FSE). CGC is supported by predoctoral contract PRE2018- 083422 from the MCIU. BS was supported by a predoctoral research fellowship (Doctorados Industriales, DI-17-09134) from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO).Peer reviewe

Benthic fluxes of oxygen and nutrients in sublittoral fine sands in a north-western Mediterranean coastal area

[EN] Traditionally, benthic metabolism in sublittoral permeable sands have not been widely studied, although these sands can have a direct and transcendental impact in coastal ecosystems. This study aims to determine oxygen and nutrient fluxes at the sediment-water interface and the study of possible interactions among environmental variables and the benthic metabolism in well-sorted fine sands. Eight sampling campaigns were carried out over the annual cycle in the eastern coast of Spain (NW Mediterranean) at 9 m depth station with permeable bottoms. Water column and sediment samples were collected in order to determine physico-chemical and biological variables. Moreover, in situ incubations were performed to estimate the exchange of dissolved solutes in the sediment-water interface using dark and light benthic chambers. Biochemical compounds at the sediment surface ranged between 160 and 744 mu g g(-1) for proteins, 296 and 702 mu g g(-1) for carbohydrates, and between 327 and 1224 [mu g C g(-1) for biopolymeric carbon. Chloroplastic pigment equivalents in sediments were mainly composed by chlorophyll a (1.81-2.89 mu g g(-1)). These sedimentary organic descriptors indicated oligotrophic conditions according to the biochemical approach used. In this sense, the most abundant species in the macrobenthic community were sensitive to organic enrichment. In dark conditions, benthic fluxes behaved as a sink of oxygen and a source of nutrients. Oxygen fluxes (between -26,610 and -10,635 mu mol m(-2) d(-1)) were related with labile organic fraction (r= -0.86, p < 0.01 with biopolymeric carbon; r= -0.91, p < 0.01 with chloroplastic pigment equivalents). Daily fluxes of dissolved oxygen, that were obtained by adding light and dark fluxes, were only positive in spring campaigns (6966 mu mol m(-2) d(-1)) owing to the highest incident irradiance levels (r=0.98, p < 0.01) that stimulate microphytobenthic primary production. Microphytobenthos played an important role on benthic metabolism and was the main primary producer in this coastal ecosystem. However, an average annual uptake of 31 mmol m-2 d(-1) of oxygen and a release of DIN and Si(OH)(4) (329 and 68 mmol m(-2) d(-1) respectively) were estimated in these bottoms, which means heterotrophic conditions. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.We are grateful for the valuable comments of anonymous reviewers on previous version of the manuscript. This research was supported by the Conselleria d'Educacio (Generalitat Valenciana).Sospedra, J.; Falco, S.; Morata, T.; Gadea, I.; Rodilla, M. (2015). Benthic fluxes of oxygen and nutrients in sublittoral fine sands in a north-western Mediterranean coastal area. Continental Shelf Research. 97:32-42. doi:10.1016/j.csr.2015.02.002S32429

SARS-CoV-2 mutant spectra reveal differences between COVID-19 severity categories

Trabajo presentado en el XVI Congreso Nacional de Virología, celebrado en Málaga (España) del 06 al 09 de septiembre de 2022.RNA virus populations are composed of complex mixtures of genomes that are termed mutant spectra. SARS-CoV-2 replicates as a viral quasispecies, and mutations that are detected at low frequencies in a host can be dominant in subsequent variants. We have studied mutant spectrum complexities of SARS-CoV-2 populations derived from thirty nasopharyngeal swabs of patients infected during the first wave (April 2020) in the Hospital Universitario Fundación Jiménez Díaz. The patients were classified according to the COVID-19 severity in mild (non-hospitalized), moderate (hospitalized) and exitus (hospitalized with ICU admission and who passed away due to COVID-19). Using ultra-deep sequencing technologies (MiSeq, Illumina), we have examined four amplicons of the nsp12 (polymerase)-coding region and two amplicons of the spike-coding region. Ultra-deep sequencing data were analyzed with different cut-off frequency for mutation detection. Average number of different point mutations, mutations per haplotype and several diversity indices were significantly higher in SARS-CoV-2 isolated from patients who developed mild disease. A feature that we noted in the SARS-CoV-2 mutant spectra from diagnostic samples is the remarkable absence of mutations at intermediate frequencies, and an overwhelming abundance of mutations at frequencies lower than 10%. Thus, the decrease of the cut-off frequency for mutation detection from 0.5% to 0.1% revealed an increasement (50- to 100 fold) in the number of different mutations. The significantly higher frequency of mutations in virus from patients displaying mild than moderate or severe disease was maintained with the 0.1% cut- off frequency. To evaluate whether the frequency repertoire of amino acid substitutions differed between SARS-CoV-2 and the well characterized hepatitis C virus (HCV), we performed a comparative study of mutant spectra from infected patients using the same bioinformatics pipelines. HCV did not show the deficit of intermediate frequency substitutions that was observed with SARS-CoV-2. This difference was maintained when two functionally equivalent proteins, the corresponding viral polymerases, were compared. In conclusion, SARS-CoV-2 mutant spectra are rich reservoirs of mutants, whose complexity is not uniform among clinical isolates. Virus from patients who developed mild disease may be a source of new variants that may acquire epidemiological relevance.This work was supported by Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Spanish Ministry of Science and In-novation (COVID-19 Research Call COV20/00181), and co-financed by European Development Regional Fund ‘A way to achieve Europe’. The work was also supported by grants CSIC-COV19-014 from Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), project 525/C/2021 from Fundació La Marató de TV3, PID2020-113888RB-I00 from Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, BFU2017-91384-EXP from Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (MCIU), PI18/00210 and PI21/00139 from Instituto de Salud Carlos III, and S2018/BAA-4370 (PLATESA2 from Comunidad de Madrid/FEDER). C.P., M.C., and P.M. are supported by the Miguel Servet programme of the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (CPII19/00001, CPII17/00006, and CP16/00116, respectively) co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). CIBERehd (Centro de Investi-gación en Red de Enfermedades Hepáticas y Digestivas) is funded by Instituto de Salud Carlos III. Institutional grants from the Fundación Ramón Areces and Banco Santander to the CBMSO are also acknowledged. The team at CBMSO belongs to the Global Virus Network (GVN). B.M.-G. is supported by predoctoral contract PFIS FI19/00119 from Instituto de Salud Carlos III (Ministerio de Sanidad y Consumo) cofinanced by Fondo Social Europeo (FSE). R.L.-V. is supported by predoctoral contract PEJD-2019-PRE/BMD-16414 from Comunidad de Madrid. C.G.-C. is sup-ported by predoctoral contract PRE2018-083422 from MCIU. BS was supported by a predoctoral research fellowship (Doctorados Industriales, DI-17-09134) from Spanish MINECO