Over recent years, the role of men as women’s allies in the struggle for gender equality has become increasingly important. Previous research has shown that often men do not fight gender inequalities ...as they fail to recognize the severity of discrimination against women (e.g., in hiring). In this study (
N
= 427), we examined whether men who experienced relative deprivation on behalf of women—a form of relative deprivation that stems from the awareness that women hold a less privileged position in society—were more motivated to engage in collective action to support gender equality in the workplace. The findings showed that men’s feelings of deprivation on behalf of women were associated with a greater willingness to engage in collective action for gender equality. This relationship was sequentially mediated by two emotional reactions related to deprivation—increased guilt about gender inequalities and decreased fear of a potential backlash—and the moral conviction of acting for gender equality. These results suggest that men’s awareness of gender inequality at work is an important antecedent to their acting in solidarity with women and that emotions and moral conviction are two psychological processes that turn cognition into behavior. Action to reduce gender inequalities should make men more sensitive to seeing that they hold a privileged position in society and to recognizing the pervasive and harmful nature of women’s deprivation.
Seagrass meadows provide important ecosystem services and are critical for the survival of the associated invertebrate community. However, they are threatened worldwide by human-driven environmental ...change. Understanding the seagrasses' potential for adaptation is critical to assess not only their ability to persist under future global change scenarios, but also to assess the persistence of the associated communities. Here we screened a wild population of Posidonia oceanica, an endemic long-lived seagrass in the Mediterranean Sea, for genes that may be target of environmental selection, using an outlier and a genome-wide transcriptome analysis. We identified loci where polymorphism or differential expression was associated with either a latitudinal or a bathymetric gradient, as well as with both gradients in an effort to identify loci associated with temperature and light. We found the candidate genes underlying growth and immunity to be divergent between populations adapted to different latitudes and/or depths, providing evidence for local adaptation. Furthermore, we found evidence of reduced gene flow among populations including adjacent populations. Reduced gene flow, combined with low sexual recombination, small effective population size, and long generation time of P. oceanica raises concerns for the long-term persistence of this species, especially in the face of rapid environmental change driven by human activities.
Salinity substantially affects plant growth and crop productivity worldwide. Plants adopt several biochemical mechanisms including regulation of antioxidant biosynthesis to protect themselves against ...the toxic effects induced by the stress. One-year-old pistachio rootstock exhibiting different degrees of salinity tolerance were subjected to sodium chloride induced stress to identify genetic diversity among cultivated pistachio rootstock for their antioxidant responses, and to determine the correlation of these enzymes to salinity stress. Leaves and roots were harvested following NaCl-induced stress. The results showed that a higher concentration of NaCl treatment induced oxidative stress in the leaf tissue and to a lesser extent in the roots. Both tissues showed an increase in ascorbate peroxidase, superoxide dismutase, catalase, glutathione reductase, peroxidase, and malondialdehyde. Responses of antioxidant enzymes were cultivar dependent, as well as temporal and dependent on the salinity level. Linear and quadratic regression model analysis revealed significant correlation of enzyme activities to salinity treatment in both tissues. The variation in salinity tolerance reflected their capabilities in orchestrating antioxidant enzymes at the roots and harmonized across the cell membranes of the leaves. This study provides a better understanding of root and leaf coordination in regulating the antioxidant enzymes to NaCl induced oxidative stress.
Abstract
Seagrass
Cymodocea nodosa
was sampled off the Vulcano island, in the vicinity of a submarine volcanic vent. Leaf samples were collected from plants growing in a naturally acidified site, ...influenced by the long-term exposure to high CO
2
emissions, and compared with others collected in a nearby meadow living at normal
p
CO
2
conditions. The differential accumulated proteins in leaves growing in the two contrasting
p
CO
2
environments was investigated. Acidified leaf tissues had less total protein content and the semi-quantitative proteomic comparison revealed a strong general depletion of proteins belonging to the carbon metabolism and protein metabolism. A very large accumulation of proteins related to the cell respiration and to light harvesting process was found in acidified leaves in comparison with those growing in the normal
p
CO
2
site. The metabolic pathways linked to cytoskeleton turnover also seemed affected by the acidified condition, since a strong reduction in the concentration of cytoskeleton structural proteins was found in comparison with the normal
p
CO
2
leaves. Results coming from the comparative proteomics were validated by the histological and cytological measurements, suggesting that the long lasting exposure and acclimation of
C. nodosa
to the vents involved phenotypic adjustments that can offer physiological and structural tools to survive the suboptimal conditions at the vents vicinity.
The purpose of this research is to establish a routine procedure for the application of proteomic analysis to olive tree. Olive leaf tissue is notoriously recalcitrant to common protein extraction ...methods due to high levels of interfering compounds. We developed a protocol for isolating proteins suitable for two‐dimensional electrophoresis (2‐DE) from olive leaf. The remarkable characteristics of the protocol include: (i) additional grinding dry acetone powder of leaf tissue to a finer extent, (ii) after extensive organic solvent washes to remove pigments, lipids etc., using aqueous tricholoroacetic acid washes to remove water‐soluble contaminants, and (iii) phenol extraction of proteins in the presence of sodium dodecyl sulfate. The final protein preparation is free of interfering compounds based on its well‐resolved 2‐DE patterns. The protocol can be completed within 3 h, and protein yield is approximately 2.49 mg⋅g−1 of aged leaf. We also evaluated the protocol by immunoblotting with anti‐tyrosinate α‐tubulin antibody. To our knowledge, this is the first time that a protocol for protein extraction from olive leaf appears to give satisfactory and reproducible results. The protocol is expected to be applicable to other recalcitrant plant tissues and could be of interest to laboratories involved in plant proteomics.
The
spp. exhibited an ability to tolerate the organophosphates. This study aimed to explore the effects of the herbicide glyphosate on a selected strain of the cyanobacteria
cultivated in a company. ...Experimental cultivations acclimated in aquaria were treated with 0.2 mM glyphosate N-(phosphonomethyl) glycine. The culture biomass, the phycocyanin, and the chlorophyll
concentrations were evaluated every week during 42 days of treatment. The differentially expressed proteins in the treated cyanobacteria versus the control cultivations were evaluated weekly during 21 days of treatment. Even if the glyphosate treatment negatively affected the biomass and the photosynthetic pigments, it induced resistance in the survival
population. Proteins belonging to the response to osmotic stress and methylation pathways were strongly accumulated in treated cultivation; the response to toxic substances and the negative regulation of transcription seemed to have a role in the resistance. The glyphosate-affected enzyme, chorismate synthase, a key enzyme in the shikimic acid pathway, was accumulated during treatment, suggesting that the surviving strain of
expressed a glyphosate-resistant target enzyme.
Information regarding the physiological and molecular plant responses to the treatment with new biofertilizers is limited. In this study, a fast-composting soil amendment obtained from solid waste by ...means of a Fenton reaction was assessed to evaluate the effects on the growth of
L. var. longifolia seedlings. Growth rate, root biomass, chlorophyll concentration, and total soluble proteins of seedlings treated with the 2% fast-composting soil amendment showed significant increases in comparison with the control seedlings. Proteomic analysis revealed that the soil amendment induced the up-regulation of proteins belonging to photosynthesis machinery, carbohydrate metabolism, and promoted energy metabolism. Root proteomics indicated that the fast-composting soil amendment strongly induced the organs morphogenesis and development; root cap development, lateral root formation, and post-embryonic root morphogenesis were the main biological processes enriched by the treatment. Overall, our data suggest that the addition of the fast-composting soil amendment formulation to the base soils might ameliorate plant growth by inducing carbohydrate primary metabolism and the differentiation of a robust root system.
The purification of phycocyanin (PC) from
generally involves a combination of different techniques. Here, we report the results on PC yields from a combined aqueous extraction-ultrafiltration (UF) ...process of a strain of
cultivated in a farm devoted to producing PC with food-grade purity. Samples optimized from different biomass/solvent ratios were purified by using a polyethersulphone (PES) membrane with a molecular weight cut-off (MWCO) of 20 kDa. The UF system was operated at 2.0 ± 0.1 bar and at 24 ± 2 °C up to a volume concentration factor (VCF) of 5. A diafiltration (DF) process was conducted after UF in order to increase the PC recovery in the retentate. Samples were collected during both UF and DF processes in order to evaluate membrane productivity and PC purity. The average permeate fluxes of about 14.4 L/m
h were measured in the selected operating conditions and more than 96% of PC was rejected by the UF membrane independently ofthe extraction yields and times. The concentration of PC in the final retentate was 1.17 mg/mL; this confirmed the observed rejection and the final VCF of the process (about 5-fold when compared to the concentration of PC in the crude extract). In addition, the combination of UF and diafiltration allowed the removal of about 91.7% of the DNA from the crude extract, thereby improving the purity of the phycocyanin in the retentate fraction.
In terrestrial snails, thermal selection acts on shell coloration. However, the biological relevance of small differences in the intensity of shell pigmentation and the associated thermodynamic, ...physiological, and evolutionary consequences for snail diversity within the course of environmental warming are still insufficiently understood. To relate temperature‐driven internal heating, protein and membrane integrity impairment, escape behavior, place of residence selection, water loss, and mortality, we used experimentally warmed open‐top chambers and field observations with a total of >11,000 naturally or experimentally colored individuals of the highly polymorphic species Theba pisana (O.F. MÜLLER, 1774). We show that solar radiation in their natural Mediterranean habitat in Southern France poses intensifying thermal stress on increasingly pigmented snails that cannot be compensated for by behavioral responses. Individuals of all morphs acted neither jointly nor actively competed in climbing behavior, but acted similarly regardless of neighbor pigmentation intensity. Consequently, dark morphs progressively suffered from high internal temperatures, oxidative stress, and a breakdown of the chaperone system. Concomitant with increasing water loss, mortality increased with more intense pigmentation under simulated global warming conditions. In parallel with an increase in mean ambient temperature of 1.34°C over the past 30 years, the mortality rate of pigmented individuals in the field is, currently, about 50% higher than that of white morphs. A further increase of 1.12°C, as experimentally simulated in our study, would elevate this rate by another 26%. For 34 T. pisana populations from locations that are up to 2.7°C warmer than our experimental site, we show that both the frequency of pigmented morphs and overall pigmentation intensity decrease with an increase in average summer temperatures. We therefore predict a continuing strong decline in the frequency of pigmented morphs and a decrease in overall pigmentation intensity with ongoing global change in areas with strong solar radiation.
We simulated environmental warming for 1.12°C in the Mediterranean, and related temperature‐driven internal heating, protein and membrane integrity impairment, escape behavior, place of residence selection, water loss, and mortality in a total of >11,000 naturally or experimentally colored individuals of the highly polymorphic land snail species Theba pisana. These molecular and physiological responses lead to elevated mortality in naturally pigmented morphs by 26%. By comparing the situation in 35 Mediterranean T. pisana populations, we show that both the frequency of pigmented morphs and overall pigmentation intensity decrease with an increase in average summer temperatures.
This paper examines how a social threat posed by a deviant behavior affects second-hand forgiveness over time toward ingroup and outgroup transgressors. In Study 1, using real news reports, we ...investigated intergroup rivalries between soccer fans in order to understand the role of group membership in predicting the intention to forgive transgressors. Results suggested that transgressors were less likely to be forgiven by ingroup members rather than outgroup members, thus showing evidence of the black sheep effect. In Study 2 (using a different sample), we analyzed the same intergroup rivalries one year after the transgression in order to explore changes in intention to forgive over time. Results showed that, after one year, ingroup members were more likely to forgive ingroup than outgroup transgressors, but only when the threat to the group stereotype was not salient. The implications of the results for the subjective group dynamics theory and for the black sheep effect are discussed.
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