LA AGRICULTURA, COLOMBIA Y LA UNIVERSIDAD DE LOS ANDES

En la misión de la Universidad de los Andes se declara que somos una institución que imparte a sus estudiantes una formación crítica y ética para afianzar en ellos la conciencia de sus responsabilidades sociales y cívicas, así como su compromiso con el entorno. Dice además que apoya una actividad investigativa que contribuye al desarrollo del país. Es así que es difícil imaginar que la Universidad de los Andes sea indiferente al sector agrícola

Cyclotella katiana sp. nov. from la reina swamp, parque nacional natural los katíos, Colombia

Fil: Sala, Silvia Estela. División Ficología. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo. Universidad Nacional de La Plata; ArgentinaFil: Ramirez Restrepo, John Jairo. Instituto de Biologia. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Universidad de Antioquia. Medellin; Colombi

Identification and Evolution of Transcription Factors in Stramenopiles

Background. 
Many transcriptional regulatory proteins have been identified and classified into several families on the basis of sequence similarity (Fukami, 2003), these families usually regulate important biological processes, such as development and responses to external stimuli. Transcription factors (TFs) regulate spatial and temporal gene expression by binding to DNA and either activating or repressing the action of RNA polymerases (Latchman, 2004); in addition to TFs, other Transcriptional regulators (TRs) participate in transcriptional modulation by e.g., chromatin remodeling. With the availability of genome sequences for several organisms and computational strategies for gene functional annotation, the entire set of Transcription factors (TFs) and Transcription regulators (TRs) can be identified, described, and compared between species and lineages. The diversity among Stramenopiles is striking; they range from large multicellular seaweeds to tiny unicellular species, they are present in freshwater, marine and terrestrial habitats and embrace many ecologically important algal (e.g. diatoms, brown algae, chrysophytes), and heterotrophic (e.g., Oomycetes) groups.

Methods. 
In order to find TF and TR genes in the deduced proteomes of Stramenopile we followed the approach developed in Perez et al. 2010. Briefly, it exploits the presence of protein domains and their combinations, in the form of boolean rules, that are specific for different families of TFs and TRs. Such rules are represented as a bipartite graph in which a set of nodes represent gene families and the other set of nodes, protein domains. Edges are drawn between nodes of different types indicating whether a protein domain is required in the gene family or it is forbidden.

Results. 
We applied an enlarged set of rules to the deduced proteomes of 8 different Stramenopiles, identifying more than 400 different regulatory genes in each species belonging to up to 59 different gene families.

Conclusions. 
The identification of this class of regulatory genes will constitute and important resource that could be exploited in gene functional characterization and evolutionary analyses. All TFs and TRs families found will be publicly released via a web database.

References.
Pérez-Rodríguez P, Riaño-Pachón DM, Corrêa LG, Rensing SA, Kersten B, Mueller-Roeber B. 2010. Nucleic Acids Res. 38(Database issue):D822-

Data Mining of the Coffee Rust Genome

The genomes of nine isolates of _Hemileia vastatrix_, the causal agent of coffee leaf rust were sequenced by Illumina and 454. Quality control, cleaning and _de novo_ assemblies of data were performed. Since isolates were obtained from the field and it is not possible to produce axenic cultures of _H. vastatrix_, MEGAN software was used to evaluate contamination levels and to select contigs with fungal similarities. Mitochondrial contigs were identified and annotated by comparing this assembly against the _Puccinia_ genome. Furthermore, two transcriptomes from isolates of _H. vastatrix_ were assembled to complement the genomic data

Phytophthora infestans population structure: a worldwide scale

Phytophthora infestans, the causal agent of late blight disease in potato and other members of the Solanaceae family, is responsible for causing the Irish potato famine and, even today, it causes enormous economic losses all over the world. For the establishment of an adequate pest management strategy, the determination of population structure is required. To characterize P. infestans populations worldwide two allozymes, Gpi (Glucose-6-phospate isomerase) and Pep (Peptidase), the RG57 DNA RFLP fingerprinting probe, as well as resistance to the fungicide metalaxyl and the mating type, have been used as markers. P. infestans populations in Mexico have been one of the main focuses of research in the population biology of this pathogen because this country has been considered as one of the possible centers of origin of this oomycete. In this review we present the population structure of P. infestans in Mexico, Europe, Africa, Asia, North America, and South America expanding on the present situation of P. infestans in Colombia. Finally, we will discuss different lines of research that are being carried out today with respect to P. infestans in Colombia, which have shown the importance of continuing the study of this devastating plant pathogen in our country.Phytophthora infestans, el agente causal del tizón tardío de la papa y otros miembros de la familia de las Solanáceas, es el responsable de la gran hambruna irlandesa y aún hoy sigue causando grandes pérdidas económicas alrededor del planeta. Para establecer estrategias de control adecuadas contra este patógeno se requiere comprender la estructura poblacional del mismo. Mundialmente se han utilizado como marcadores las aloenzimas, Gpi (Glucosa-6-fosfato isomerasa) y Pep (Peptidasa) y la sonda de fingerprinting de RFLP (Polimorfismos de la Longitud de los Fragmentos de Restricción), RG57. De igual forma, la resistencia al fungicida metalaxyl y el tipo de apareamiento, han sido empleados para caracterizar las poblaciones de P. infestans. Las poblaciones de P. infestans en México han sido uno de los focos principales de investigación en la biología poblacional de este patógeno debido a que este país ha sido considerado como uno de los posibles centros de origen de este oomiceto. En esta revisión se presentará la estructura poblacional de P. infestans en México, Europa, África, Asia, Norte América y Sur América, profundizando en la situación actual de P. infestans en Colombia. Finalmente, se discutirá las diferentes líneas de investigación que se llevan a cabo hoy respecto a P. infestans en Colombia, las cuales han mostrado la importancia de continuar con el estudio de este devastador patógeno de plantas en nuestro país

Mejoramiento de la comprensión lectora a través del recurso didáctico de la imagen icónica

El presente proyecto tiene como objetivo aportar herramientas para el mejoramiento de la comprensión lectora en los estudiantes de educación básica, teniendo como referente el grupo 6º 04 de la institución educativa Antonio Derka Santo Domingo, sede Santo Domingo. De la misma forma, se identifican algunas causas por las cuales se presenta el déficit de comprensión lectora en nuestros estudiantes desde los grados 1º a 9º y se propone a su vez la imagen icónica como estrategia lúdica que posibilite la adquisición de las competencias comunicativas en los mismos

Los compositores de Santa Capilla en los Festivales de Música de Caracas

Composers, promoters and musical critics agree in asserting that the academic music of the Latin American creators of the new generations has little diffusion. This article allows to determine how true this affirmation is for Venezuela, focusing on a case study: Caracas between 1950 and 1970, period in which the Music Festivals of Caracas were held. We analyzed how the production of the young composers of the moment, students of the composition chair of the School "José Ángel Lamas" (School of Santa Capilla by its location), was present in those festivals that, given its trajectory, the quality of the participants and their profile, were considered a fundamental reference for Venezuela and the Latin American continent in the field of contemporary music.Compositores, promotores y críticos musicales coinciden en aseverar que la música académica de los creadores latinoamericanos de las nuevas generaciones tiene poca difusión. Este artículo permite determinar cuán verdadera es esta afirmación para Venezuela centrándose en un estudio de caso: Caracas entre 1950 y 1970, periodo en el que se realizaron los Festivales de Música de Caracas. Se analiza cómo la producción de los compositores jóvenes del momento, estudiantes de la cátedra de composición de la Escuela “José Ángel Lamas” (Escuela de Santa Capilla por su locación), estuvo presente en esta tribuna que, dada su trayectoria, la calidad de los participantes y su perfil, fue considerada referente fundamental para Venezuela y el continente Latinoamericano en el ámbito de la música contemporánea

Alternative Oxidase Gene (Aox I): A Good DNA Barcoding Candidate for the Genus Fusarium

DNA barcoding is a tool for taxonomy analysis that uses a short standard genomic sequence present in all the taxa of interest, which has enough sequence variation to discriminate among species. Members of the genus Fusarium are recognized as saprophytes and important plant and human pathogens, and their taxonomic identification commonly relies on macro and microscopical characteristics and molecular methods. However, identification can be difficult due to the lack of some structures in culture or poor polymorphism in ribosomal DNA sequences. Barcoding could provide an easy and reliable method to overcome these problems. This study is a preliminary study to evaluate sequences of Cox (mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit I) and Aox (alternative oxidase) as potential DNA barcodes for identification of Fusarium species. DNA was extracted from 12 Fusarium isolates previously identified by traditional methods into different complexes: F. solani, F. oxysporum and Gibbellera fujikuroi. For PCR amplification of Cox 1 gene, primers designed in a previous study were used and amplicons of approximately 600 pb were observed in all the isolates. For the amplification of Aox, primers were designed by our group showing amplification of a region of 800 bp approximately in all Fusarium species. The sequences were clustered using phylogenetic trees, additionally, intra-and interspecific divergence were estimated with the K2P model. These results showed that the Aox sequence clustered the isolates into the appropriate Fusarium species complex, according to previous morphological characterization, indicating its potential to differentiate Fusarium isolates to the species level. Similarity analysis of Cox1 sequences showed insufficient variation to discriminate among isolates. In conclusion, the 800 bp sequence of AOX is a candidate to become a DNA barcode sequence, but more species and isolates are needed to further test its discriminating ability

Chromosome 10 in the tomato plant carries clusters of genes responsible for field resistance/defence to Phytophthora infestans

AbstractThe main objective of the present study was to reanalyse tomato expression data that was previously submitted to the Tomato Expression Database to dissect the resistance/defence genomic and metabolic responses of tomato to Phytophthora infestans under field conditions. Overrepresented gene sets belonging to chromosome 10 were identified using the Gene Set Enrichment Analysis, and we found that these genes tend to be located towards the end of the chromosome 10. An analysis of syntenic regions between Arabidopsis thaliana chromosomes and the tomato chromosome 10 allowed us to identify conserved regions in the two genomes. In addition to allowing for the identification of tomato candidate genes participating in resistance/defence in the field, this approach allowed us to investigate the relationships of the candidate genes with chromosomal position and participation in metabolic functions, thus offering more insight into the phenomena occurring during the infection process