This study provides new insights into how the soil microbiome of urban greenspaces differs from surrounding natural ecosystems.
The structure and function of the soil microbiome of urban greenspaces ...remain largely undetermined. We conducted a global field survey in urban greenspaces and neighboring natural ecosystems across 56 cities from six continents, and found that urban soils are important hotspots for soil bacterial, protist and functional gene diversity, but support highly homogenized microbial communities worldwide. Urban greenspaces had a greater proportion of fast-growing bacteria, algae, amoebae, and fungal pathogens, but a lower proportion of ectomycorrhizal fungi than natural ecosystems. These urban ecosystems also showed higher proportions of genes associated with human pathogens, greenhouse gas emissions, faster nutrient cycling, and more intense abiotic stress than natural environments. City affluence, management practices, and climate were fundamental drivers of urban soil communities. Our work paves the way toward a more comprehensive global-scale perspective on urban greenspaces, which is integral to managing the health of these ecosystems and the well-being of human populations.
Hyperphosphatemia has been associated with higher mortality risk in CKD 5 patients receiving dialysis. Here, we determined the association between the use of single and combined phosphate-binding ...agents and survival in 6797 patients of the COSMOS study: a 3-year follow-up, multicenter, open-cohort, observational prospective study carried out in 227 dialysis centers from 20 European countries. Patient phosphate-binding agent prescriptions (time-varying) and the case-mix–adjusted facility percentage of phosphate-binding agent prescriptions (instrumental variable) were used as predictors of the relative all-cause and cardiovascular mortality using Cox proportional hazard regression models. Three different multivariate models that included up to 24 variables were used for adjustments. After multivariate analysis, patients prescribed phosphate-binding agents showed a 29 and 22% lower all-cause and cardiovascular mortality risk, respectively. The survival advantage of phosphate-binding agent prescription remained statistically significant after propensity score matching analysis. A decrease of 8% in the relative risk of mortality was found for every 10% increase in the case-mix–adjusted facility prescription of phosphate-binding agents. All single and combined therapies with phosphate-binding agents, except aluminum salts, showed a beneficial association with survival. The findings made in the present association study need to be confirmed by randomized controlled trials to prove the observed beneficial effect of phosphate-binding agents on mortality.
Summary
ortho‐Phthalate derives from industrially produced phthalate esters, which are massively used as plasticizers and constitute major emerging environmental pollutants. The pht pathway for the ...anaerobic bacterial biodegradation of o‐phthalate involves its activation to phthaloyl‐CoA followed by decarboxylation to benzoyl‐CoA. Here, we have explored further the pht peripheral pathway in denitrifying bacteria and shown that it requires also an active transport system for o‐phthalate uptake that belongs to the poorly characterized class of TAXI‐TRAP transporters. The construction of a fully functional pht cassette combining both catabolic and transport genes allowed to expand the o‐phthalate degradation ecological trait to heterologous hosts. Unexpectedly, the pht cassette also allowed the aerobic conversion of o‐phthalate to benzoyl‐CoA when coupled to a functional box central pathway. Hence, the pht pathway may constitute an evolutionary acquisition for o‐phthalate degradation by bacteria that thrive either in anoxic environments or in environments that face oxygen limitations and that rely on benzoyl‐CoA, rather than on catecholic central intermediates, for the aerobic catabolism of aromatic compounds. Finally, the recombinant pht cassette was used both to screen for functional aerobic box pathways in bacteria and to engineer recombinant biocatalysts for o‐phthalate bioconversion into sustainable bioplastics, e.g., polyhydroxybutyrate, in plastic recycling industrial processes.
Improving the yield of carbohydrate to lipid conversion and lipid productivity are two critical goals to develop an economically feasible process to commercialize microbial oils. Lignocellulosic ...sugars are potential low-cost carbon sources for this process but their use is limited by the toxic compounds produced during biomass pretreatment at high solids loading, and by the pentose sugars (mainly xylose) which are not efficiently metabolized by many microorganisms. Adaptive laboratory evolution was used to select a
Rhodosporidium toruloides
strain with robust growth in non-detoxified wheat straw hydrolysates, produced at 20% solids loading, and better xylose consumption rate. An arabinose-inducible cre-lox recombination system was developed in this evolved strain that was further engineered to express a second copy of the native
DGAT1
and
SCD1
genes under control of the native xylose reductase (
XYL
1) promoter. Fed-batch cultivation of the engineered strain in 7-L bioreactors produced 39.5 g lipid/L at a rate of 0.334 g/Lh
−1
and 0.179 g/g yield, the best results reported in
R. toruloides
with non-detoxified lignocellulosic hydrolysates to date.
Polyphenols are natural compounds with strong antioxidant properties synthesized by plants and widely distributed in plant tissues. They compose a broad class of compounds that are commonly employed ...for multiple applications such as food, pharmaceutical, adhesives, biomedical, agricultural, and industrial purposes. Runoffs from these sources result in the introduction of polyphenols into aquatic environments where they further transform into highly toxic pollutants that can negatively affect aquatic ecosystems and humans. Therefore, the development of extraction and remediation methods for such compounds must be addressed. This study describes the identification and operation of a method to recover polyphenolic compounds from water environments by utilizing membrane-based separation. Composite membranes derived from electrospun cellulose acetate (CA) fibers and diblock copolymer (DiBCP) PEO-b-P4VP were prepared to evaluate the adsorption of polyphenolic compounds from aqueous environments. The highly porous CA fibers were developed using the electrospinning technique, and the fabricated DiBCP/CA membranes were characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, and tensile testing. Finally, the ability of the composite membranes to adsorb the soluble polyphenolic compounds catechol (CAT) and gallic acid (GA), from a wetland environment, was studied via batch adsorption experiments and by solid-phase extraction (SPE). Results revealed a successful recovery of both polyphenols, at concentrations within the parts per million (ppm) range, from the aqueous media. This suggests a novel approach to recover these compounds to prevent their transformation into toxic pollutants upon entrance to water environments.
Healthy lifestyle habits are the cornerstone in the management of familial hypercholesterolaemia (FH). Nevertheless, dietary studies on FH-affected populations are scarce. The present study analyses ...dietary habits, adherence to a Mediterranean diet pattern and physical activity in an adult population with FH and compares them with their non-affected relatives.
Cross-sectional study.
Data came from SAFEHEART, a nationwide study in Spain.ParticipantsIndividuals (n 3714) aged ≥18 years with a genetic diagnosis of FH (n2736) and their non-affected relatives (n 978). Food consumption was evaluated using a validated FFQ.
Total energy intake was lower in FH patients v. non-affected relatives (P<0·005). Percentage of energy from fats was also lower in the FH population (35 % in men, 36 % in women) v. those non-affected (38 % in both sexes, P<0·005), due to the lower consumption of saturated fats (12·1 % in FH patients, 13·2 % in non-affected, P<0·005). Consumption of sugars was lower in FH patients v. non-affected relatives (P<0·05). Consumption of vegetables, fish and skimmed milk was higher in the FH population (P<0·005). Patients with FH showed greater adherence to a Mediterranean diet pattern v. non-affected relatives (P<0·005). Active smoking was lower and moderate physical activity was higher in people with FH, especially women (P<0·005).
Adult patients with FH report healthier lifestyles than their non-affected family members. They eat a healthier diet, perform more physical activity and smoke less. However, this patient group's consumption of saturated fats and sugars still exceeds guidelines.
With the commercialization and increasing availability of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) multiple rotor copters have expanded rapidly in plant phenotyping studies with their ability to provide ...clear, high resolution images. As such, the traditional bottleneck of plant phenotyping has shifted from data collection to data processing. Fortunately, the necessarily controlled and repetitive design of plant phenotyping allows for the development of semi-automatic computer processing tools that may sufficiently reduce the time spent in data extraction. Here we present a comparison of UAV and field based high throughput plant phenotyping (HTPP) using the free, open-source image analysis software FIJI (Fiji is just ImageJ) using RGB (conventional digital cameras), multispectral and thermal aerial imagery in combination with a matching suite of ground sensors in a study of two hybrids and one conventional barely variety with ten different nitrogen treatments, combining different fertilization levels and application schedules. A detailed correlation network for physiological traits and exploration of the data comparing between treatments and varieties provided insights into crop performance under different management scenarios. Multivariate regression models explained 77.8, 71.6, and 82.7% of the variance in yield from aerial, ground, and combined data sets, respectively.
Parrots as overlooked seed dispersers Tella, José L; Baños-Villalba, Adrián; Hernández-Brito, Dailos ...
Frontiers in ecology and the environment,
2015-August, 20150801, August 2015, 2015-08-00, Letnik:
13, Številka:
6
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Shortly after our friend and colleague Gary R Bortolotti passed away in 2011, his widow Heather Trueman sent JLT ten photographs of parrots that Gary had taken in Brazil. In one of these images, we ...saw a flying chestnut-fronted macaw (Ara severus) carrying in its beak a defleshed fruit of the motacu palm (Attalea phalerata; upper-right arrow in Figure 1); upon enlarging this picture for publication in Frontiers, we noticed another macaw transporting a smaller-sized seed (lower-left arrow in Figure 1). Gary's photograph had captured what has been described as an unusual behavior: active seed dispersal by parrots. The unexpected nature of this observation was reinforced during discussions with colleagues who specialize in avian frugivory and seed dispersal. As they argued - and contrary to well-recognized avian seed dispersers such as frugivorous passerines, trogons, and toucans, which typically swallow whole fruits and disperse seeds after gut passage - parrots handle and destroy fruits in situ to eat the pulp or to gain access to the seeds.
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