To date, oil-rich plants are the main source of biodiesel products. Because concerns have been voiced about the impact of oil-crop cultivation on the price of food commodities, the interest in oil ...plants not used for food production and amenable to cultivation on non-agricultural land has soared. As a non-food, drought-resistant and oil-rich crop, Jatropha curcas L. fulfils many of the requirements for biofuel production.
We have generated 13,249 expressed sequence tags (ESTs) from developing and germinating Jatropha seeds. This strategy allowed us to detect most known genes related to lipid synthesis and degradation. We have also identified ESTs coding for proteins that may be involved in the toxicity of Jatropha seeds. Another unexpected finding is the high number of ESTs containing transposable element-related sequences in the developing seed library (800) when contrasted with those found in the germinating seed library (80).
The sequences generated in this work represent a considerable increase in the number of sequences deposited in public databases. These results can be used to produce genetically improved varieties of Jatropha with increased oil yields, different oil compositions and better agronomic characteristics.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) Gamma variant of concern has spread rapidly across Brazil since late 2020, causing substantial infection and death waves. Here we used ...individual-level patient records after hospitalization with suspected or confirmed coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) between 20 January 2020 and 26 July 2021 to document temporary, sweeping shocks in hospital fatality rates that followed the spread of Gamma across 14 state capitals, during which typically more than half of hospitalized patients aged 70 years and older died. We show that such extensive shocks in COVID-19 in-hospital fatality rates also existed before the detection of Gamma. Using a Bayesian fatality rate model, we found that the geographic and temporal fluctuations in Brazil's COVID-19 in-hospital fatality rates were primarily associated with geographic inequities and shortages in healthcare capacity. We estimate that approximately half of the COVID-19 deaths in hospitals in the 14 cities could have been avoided without pre-pandemic geographic inequities and without pandemic healthcare pressure. Our results suggest that investments in healthcare resources, healthcare optimization and pandemic preparedness are critical to minimize population-wide mortality and morbidity caused by highly transmissible and deadly pathogens such as SARS-CoV-2, especially in low- and middle-income countries.
We studied neurodevelopment in infants from two communities. Children living in the vicinity of tin-ore kilns and smelters – TOKS; n = 51) were compared to children from a fishing village (Itapuã; ...n = 45). Mean hair-Hg (HHg) concentrations were significantly higher in Itapuã children which received significantly (p = 0.0000001) less mean ethylmercury (88.6 μg) from Thimerosal-containing vaccines (TCV) than the TOKS children (120 μg). Breast-milk Pb concentrations were significantly higher in the TOKS mothers (p = 0.000017; 10.04 vs. 3.9 μg L−1). Bayley mental development index (MDI) and psychomotor development index (PDI) were statistically significant (respectively p < 0.0000001, p = 0.000007) lower for the TOKS children only at 24 months of age. Multivariate regression analysis showed that MDI was negatively affected by breast-milk Pb and by HHg. PDI was positively affected by breastfeeding and negatively affected by ethylmercury. Milestone achievements were negatively affected by breast-milk Pb (age of walking) and by HHg (age of talking).
•Maternal MeHg and Pb, and iatrogenic EtHg (plus Al) exposures are real life scenarios.•Multiple exposures in early life are a dominant cause of neurodevelopmental delays.•Aggravation and/or reversibility of outcomes followed identifiable exposure patterns.
Distinct patterns of metal exposures showed significant differences in neurodevelopmental outcomes. Pb and EtHg showed a dominant cause of neurodevelopmental delays.
The rapid and persistent increase of drug-resistant
(
) infections poses increasing global problems in combatting tuberculosis (TB), prompting for the development of alternative strategies including ...host-directed therapy (HDT). Since
is an intracellular pathogen with a remarkable ability to manipulate host intracellular signaling pathways to escape from host defense, pharmacological reprogramming of the immune system represents a novel, potentially powerful therapeutic strategy that should be effective also against drug-resistant
. Here, we found that host-pathogen interactions in
-infected primary human macrophages affected host epigenetic features by modifying histone deacetylase (HDAC) transcriptomic levels. In addition, broad spectrum inhibition of HDACs enhanced the antimicrobial response of both pro-inflammatory macrophages (Mϕ1) and anti-inflammatory macrophages (Mϕ2), while selective inhibition of class IIa HDACs mainly decreased bacterial outgrowth in Mϕ2. Moreover, chemical inhibition of HDAC activity during differentiation polarized macrophages into a more bactericidal phenotype with a concomitant decrease in the secretion levels of inflammatory cytokines. Importantly,
chemical inhibition of HDAC activity in
-infected zebrafish embryos, a well-characterized animal model for tuberculosis, significantly reduced mycobacterial burden, validating our
findings in primary human macrophages. Collectively, these data identify HDACs as druggable host targets for HDT against intracellular
.
Nitrogen fertilization increased largely over the last decade in tropical eucalypt plantations but the behaviour of belowground tree components has received little attention. Sequential soil coring ...and ingrowth core methods were used in a randomized block experiment, from 18 to 32 months after planting
Eucalyptus grandis, in Brazil, in order to estimate annual fine root production and turnover under contrasting N fertilization regimes (120
kg
N
ha
−1 vs. 0
kg
N
ha
−1). The response of growth in tree height and basal area to N fertilizer application decreased with stand age and was no longer significant at 36 months of age. The ingrowth core method provided only qualitative information about the seasonal course of fine root production and turnover. Mean fine root biomasses (diameter <2
mm) in the 0–30
cm layer measured by monthly coring amounted to 0.91 and 0.84
t
ha
−1 in the 0 N and the 120 N treatments, respectively. Fine root production was significantly higher in the 0 N treatment (1.66
t
ha
−1
year
−1) than in the 120 N treatment (1.12
t
ha
−1
year
−1), probably as a result of the greater tree growth in the control treatment throughout the sampling period. Fine root turnover was 1.8 and 1.3
year
−1 in the 0 N and the 120 N treatments, respectively. However, large fine root biomass (diameter <1
mm) was found down to a depth of 3
m one year after planting: 1.67 and 1.61
t
ha
−1 in the 0 N and the 120 N treatments, respectively. Fine root turnover might not be insubstantial in deep soil layers where large changes in soil water content were observed.
The emergence of diverse lineages harboring mutations with functional significance and potentially enhanced transmissibility imposes an increased difficulty on the containment of the SARS-CoV-2 ...pandemic ....
Epiphytic and rupicolous plants inhabit environments with limited water resources. Such plants commonly use Crassulacean Acid Metabolism (CAM), a photosynthetic pathway that accumulates organic acids ...in cell vacuoles at night, so reducing their leaf water potential and favouring water absorption. Foliar water uptake (FWU) aids plant survival during drought events in environments with high water deficits. We hypothesized that FWU represents a strategy employed by epiphytic and rupicolous orchids for water acquisition and that CAM will favour increased water absorption.
We examined 6 epiphyte, 4 terrestrial and 6 rupicolous orchids that use C3 (n = 9) or CAM (n = 7) pathways. Five individuals per species were used to evaluate FWU, structural characteristics and leaf water balance.
Rupicolous species with C3 metabolism had higher FWU than other species. FWU (Cmax and k) could be related to succulence, SLM and leaf RWC. The results indicated that high orchid leaf densities favoured FWU, as area available for water storage increases with leaf density. Structural characteristics linked to water storage (e.g. high RWC, succulence), on the other hand, could limit leaf water absorption by favouring high internal leaf water potentials.
Epiphytic, rupicolous and terrestrial orchids showed FWU. Rupicolous species had high levels of FWU, probably through absorption from mist. However, succulence in plants with CAM appears to mitigate FWU.
Foliar water absorption in orchids can vary according to the types of environments in which they grow, their photosynthetic metabolism, and structural characteristics of the leaves.
Lignocellulosic hydrolysates will also contain compounds that inhibit microbial metabolism, such as organic acids, furaldehydes, and phenolic compounds. Understanding the response of yeasts toward ...such inhibitors is important to the development of different bioprocesses. In this work, the growth capacity of 7 industrial
Saccharomyces cerevisiae
and 7 non-
Saccharomyces
yeasts was compared in the presence of 3 different concentrations of furaldehydes (furfural and 5-hydroxymetil-furfural), organic acids (acetic and formic acids), and phenolic compounds (vanillin, syringaldehyde, ferulic, and coumaric acids). Then,
Candida tropicalis
JA2,
Meyerozyma caribbica
JA9,
Wickerhamomyces anomalus
740,
S. cerevisiae
JP1, B1.1, and G06 were selected for fermentation in presence of acetic acid, HMF, and vanillin because they proved to be most tolerant to the tested compounds, while
Spathaspora
sp. JA1 because its xylose consumption rate. The results obtained showed a dose-dependent response of the yeasts toward the eight different inhibitors. Among the compared yeasts,
S. cerevisiae
strains presented higher tolerance than non-
Saccharomyces
, 3 of them with the highest tolerance among all. Regarding the non-
Saccharomyces
yeasts,
C. tropicalis
JA2 and
W. anomalus
740 appeared as the most tolerant, whereas
Spathaspora
strains appeared very sensitive to the different compounds.
Failure diagnosis is a crucial task in modern industrial systems, and several works in the literature address this problem by modeling the system as a Discrete-Event System (DES). Most of them assume ...perfect communication between sensors and diagnosers,
i
.
e
., no loss of observation of events, or event communication delays between the measurement sites and the diagnosers. However, industrial systems can be large and physically distributed, in which cases, communication networks are used to provide an efficient way to establish communication between devices. In diagnosis systems, the use of networks can introduce delays in the communication of event occurrences from measurement sites to the local diagnosers, leading to an incorrect observation of the order of occurrence of events generated by the system and, as a consequence, to an incorrect diagnosis decision by the local diagnoser. In this paper, we address the problem of decentralized diagnosis of networked Discrete-Event Systems subject to event communication delays, and we introduce the definition of network codiagnosability of the language generated by a DES subject to both event communication delays and intermittent loss of observation, and present necessary and sufficient conditions for a language to be network codiagnosable, for short. We also propose an algorithm to verify this property.
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