flies began to be used in the study of species evolution during the late 1930s. The geneticists Natasha Sivertzeva-Dobzhansky and Elizabeth Reed pioneered this work in the United States, and María ...Monclús conducted similar studies in Spain. The research they carried out with their husbands enabled
population genetics to take off and reveals a genealogy of women geneticists grounded in mutual inspiration. Their work also shows that women were present in population genetics from the beginning, although their contributions have previously remained unacknowledged. The similarities between their research biographies also illustrate their position in a genealogy of partnerships working on
genetics.
Correct assessment of the fatty acyl at the glycerol
-2 position in triacylglycerol (TAG) analysis by liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry (LC-MS) is challenging. Ammonium hydroxide (NH
OH) is ...the preferred choice for the solvent additive for the formation of the ammonium adduct (M + NH
). In this study, the influence of different NH
OH concentrations in the eluents on TAG adduct formation and fragmentation under LC-MS analysis was assessed. Increasing NH
OH concentrations delayed the chromatographic elution time according to a power function. The M + NH
and M + ACN + NH
adducts (where ACN means acetonitrile) were formed at all ammonium concentrations assayed. M + ACN + NH
predominated above 18.26 mM NH
OH, and the intensity of M + NH
dropped. TAG fragmentation for fatty acyl release in the MS
was reduced with increasing M + ACN + NH
adduct, which suggests that ACN stabilizes the adduct in a way that inhibits the rupture of the ester bonds in TAGs. A linear equation (H
= a × H
, where
-I refers to the
position of the glycerol (I = 1, 2, or 3) and H is the peak height) was deduced to quantify the dehydroxydiacylglycerol fragment intensity in relation to M + NH
intensity in the full scan. This equation had a slope mean value of 0.369 ± 0.058 for the
-1 and
-3 positions, and of 0.188 ± 0.007 for the
-2 position.
Few genetic polymorphisms predict early response to anti-TNF drugs in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), and even fewer have been identified in the pediatric population. However, it would be of ...considerable clinical interest to identify and validate genetic biomarkers of long-term response. Therefore, the aim of the study was to analyze the usefulness of biomarkers of response to anti-TNFs in pediatric IBD (pIBD) as long-term biomarkers and to find differences by type of IBD and type of anti-TNF drug. The study population comprised 340 children diagnosed with IBD who were treated with infliximab or adalimumab. Genotyping of 9 selected SNPs for their association with early response and/or immunogenicity to anti-TNFs was performed using real-time PCR. Variants C rs10508884 (CXCL12), A rs2241880 (ATG16L1), and T rs6100556 (PHACTR3) (p value 0.049; p value 0.03; p value 0.031) were associated with worse long-term response to anti-TNFs in pIBD. DNA variants specific to disease type and anti-TNF type were identified in the pediatric population. Genotyping of these genetic variants before initiation of anti-TNFs would enable, if validated in a prospective cohort, the identification of pediatric patients who are long-term responders to this therapy.
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The genetic polymorphisms rs2395185 and rs2097432 in HLA genes have been associated with the response to anti-TNF treatment in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The aim was to analyze the association ...between these variants and the long-term response to anti-TNF drugs in pediatric IBD. We performed an observational, multicenter, ambispective study in which we selected 340 IBD patients under 18 years of age diagnosed with IBD and treated with anti-TNF drugs from a network of Spanish hospitals. Genotypes and failure of anti-TNF drugs were analyzed using Kaplan-Meier curves and Cox logistic regression. The homozygous G allele of rs2395185 and the C allele of rs2097432 were associated with impaired long-term response to anti-TNF drugs in children with IBD after 3 and 9 years of follow-up. Being a carrier of both polymorphisms increased the risk of anti-TNF failure. The SNP rs2395185 but not rs2097432 was associated with response to infliximab in adults with CD treated with infliximab but not in children after 3 or 9 years of follow-up. Conclusions: SNPs rs2395185 and rs2097432 were associated with a long-term response to anti-TNFs in IBD in Spanish children. Differences between adults and children were observed in patients diagnosed with CD and treated with infliximab.
The membrane glycerolipids of four phototrophs that were isolated from an edaphic assemblage were determined by UPLC-MS after cultivation in a laboratory growth chamber. Identification was carried ...out by 18S and 16S rDNA sequencing. The algal species were
(Charophyta),
sp. (Chlorophyta), and
(Bacillariophyta), and the cyanobacterium was
(Cyanobacteria). The glycerolipid profile of
sp. was dominated by monogalactosyldiacylglycerol (MGDG) species, with MGDG(18:3/16:4) accounting for 68.6%, whereas MGDG(18:3/16:3) was the most abundant glycerolipid in
(50.1%). A ratio of digalactosyldiacylglycerol (DGDG) species to MGDG species (DGDG/MGDG) was shown to be higher in
(0.26) than in
sp. (0.14). This ratio increased under high light (HL) as compared to low light (LL) in all the organisms, with its highest value being shown in cyanobacterium (0.38-0.58, LL-HL). High contents of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA, C20:5) and hexadecenoic acid were observed in the glycerolipids of
. Similar Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) and Raman spectra were found for
and
sp. Specific bands at 1629.06 and 1582.78 cm
were shown by
in the Raman spectra. Conversely, specific bands in the FTIR spectrum were observed for
at 1143 and 1744 cm
. The results of this study point out differences in the membrane lipid composition between species, which likely reflects their different morphology and evolutionary patterns.
The COVID-19 pandemic caused massive use and improper disposal of surgical polypropylene (PP)-based face masks. For a first evaluation of the respective environmental consequences, we performed a ...6-month microcosm experiment at 25 °C to determine the microbial degradability of 10 × 10 mm cuts of single mask layers and of a complete mask mixed with topsoil (Cambisol). By analyzing the CO2 production, we identified a fast pool with a mean residence time (MRTfast) of 3 to 7 days, corresponding to approximately 4 to 5% of the total mask carbon. Solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy of the degraded masks suggests a cut-off of PP units or oligomers as a main degradation mechanism. The slow carbon pool of the center mask revealed an MRTslow of 7 years and those of the remaining mask material MRTslows between 19 and 28 years, which is three to five times longer than those of soil organic matter (SOM) of the pure soil. Since the masks were not pretreated, and decomposed in the dark without UV radiation, our data support our hypothesis that in soils, microbes must exist that can decompose PP, although their nature still has to be revealed in future attempts.
This paper reports and discusses the results of an experimental investigation on fracture properties of high-performance concrete, involving the tests of 115 three-point bend specimens with different ...compression strengths. The parameters were obtained by the work-of-fracture method and by the size effect method. For most series of tests the fracture energy was measured by the two methods, allowing a correlation between the values obtained by the two processes. A comparison with some results found in literature was performed. It was found that: (a) the ratio between the fracture energy measured by the work-of-fracture method (
G
F) and by the size effect method (
G
f) matched the value estimated by other researchers (
G
F/
G
f
≈
2.5); (b) generally,
G
F increases as the concrete compressive strength increases; and (c) the values obtained for
G
f showed a slight trend to decrease with increasing compressive strength. The results obtained from the standard compressive strength tests indicate that the concrete strength was limited by the type and size of the coarse aggregate. The objective of this study is to provide some experimental data that can be useful in engineering practice for calibrating numerical constitutive models.
Changes in gene expression profiles among individuals with inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs) could potentially influence the responsiveness to anti-TNF treatment. The aim of this study was to ...identify genes that could serve as predictors of early response to anti-TNF therapies in pediatric IBD patients prior to the initiation of treatment.
We conducted a prospective, longitudinal, and multicenter study, enrolling 24 pediatric IBD patients aged less than 18 years who were initiating treatment with either infliximab or adalimumab. RNA-seq from blood samples was analyzed using the DESeq2 library by comparing responders and non-responders to anti-TNF drugs.
Bioinformatic analyses unveiled 102 differentially expressed genes, with 99 genes exhibiting higher expression in responders compared to non-responders prior to the initiation of anti-TNF therapy. Functional enrichment analyses highlighted defense response to Gram-negative bacteria (FDR = 2.3 ×10–7) as the most significant biological processes, and hemoglobin binding (FDR = 0.002), as the most significant molecular function. Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA) revealed notable enrichment in transcriptional misregulation in cancer (FDR = 0.016). Notably, 13 genes (CEACAM8, CEACAM6, CILP2, COL17A1, OLFM4, INHBA, LCN2, LTF, MMP8, DEFA4, PRTN3, AZU1, and ELANE) were selected for validation, and a consistent trend of increased expression in responders prior to drug administration was observed for most of these genes, with findings for 4 of them being statistically significant (CEACAM8, LCN2, LTF2, and PRTN3).
We identified 102 differentially expressed genes involved in the response to anti-TNF drugs in children with IBDs and validated CEACAM8, LCN2, LTF2, and PRTN3. Genes participating in defense response to Gram-negative bacterium, serine-type endopeptidase activity, and transcriptional misregulation in cancer are good candidates for anticipating the response to anti-TNF drugs in children with IBDs.
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•Baseline gene expression in blood associates with the response to anti-TNF drugs.•RNA-seq identified 102 genes associated with the response to anti-TNF drugs.•PRTN3, LTF, LCN, and CEACAM8 are overexpressed in responder children.•Cancer-related genes impact the response to anti-TNF drugs.•Overexpressed genes in responder children directly link to TNF processes.
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