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Sterile pyogranuloma syndrome in a dog successfully treated with immunosuppressive therapy and reconstructive seed grafting
Get PDFThis report describes a case of sterile pyogranuloma syndrome managed with immunomodulatory therapy and seed skin grafting. Seed skin grafting can be considered as part of a multimodal treatment approach for cutaneous defects caused by ulcerative immune-mediated diseases where secondary intention healing is delayed or contraindicated, and other forms of wound reconstruction may be prohibitive
Identification of superior haplotypes in a diverse natural population for breeding desirable plant height in soybean
Get PDFGenetic variation is pivotal for crop improvement. Natural populations are precious genetic resources. However, efficient strategies for the targeted utilization of these resources for quantitative traits, such as plant height (PH), are scarce. Being an important agronomic trait associated with soybean yield and quality, it is imperative to unravel the genetic mechanisms underlying PH in soybean. Here, a genome-wide association study (GWAS) was performed to identify single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) significantly associated with PH in a natural population of 211 cultivated soybeans, which was genotyped with NJAU 355 K Soy SNP Array and evaluated across six environments. A total of 128 SNPs distributed across 17 chromosomes were found to be significantly associated with PH across six environments and a combined environment. Three significant SNPs were consistently identified in at least three environments on Chr.02 (AX-93958260), Chr.17 (AX-94154834), and Chr.19 (AX-93897200). Genomic regions of ~ 130 kb flanking these three consistent SNPs were considered as stable QTLs, which included 169 genes. Of these, 22 genes (including Dt1) were prioritized and defined as putative candidates controlling PH. The genomic region flanking 12 most significant SNPs was in strong linkage disequilibrium (LD). These SNPs formed a single haplotype block containing five haplotypes for PH, namely Hap-A, Hap-B, Hap-C, Hap-D, and Hap-E. Deployment of such superior haplotypes in breeding programs will enable development of improved soybean varieties with desirable plant height
Confirmed disability progression as a marker of permanent disability in multiple sclerosis
Get PDFBackground and purpose
The prevention of disability over the long term is the main treatment goal in multiple sclerosis (MS); however, randomized clinical trials evaluate only short-term treatment effects on disability. This study aimed to define criteria for 6-month confirmed disability progression events of MS with a high probability of resulting in sustained long-term disability worsening.
Methods
In total, 14,802 6-month confirmed disability progression events were identified in 8741 patients from the global MSBase registry. For each 6-month confirmed progression event (13,321 in the development and 1481 in the validation cohort), a sustained progression score was calculated based on the demographic and clinical characteristics at the time of progression that were predictive of long-term disability worsening. The score was externally validated in the Cladribine Tablets Treating Multiple Sclerosis Orally (CLARITY) trial.
Results
The score was based on age, sex, MS phenotype, relapse activity, disability score and its change from baseline, number of affected functional system domains and worsening in six of the domains. In the internal validation cohort, a 61% lower chance of improvement was estimated with each unit increase in the score (hazard ratio 0.39, 95% confidence interval 0.29–0.52; discriminatory index 0.89). The proportions of progression events sustained at 5 years stratified by the score were 1: 72%; 2: 88%; 3: 94%; 4: 100%. The results of the CLARITY trial were confirmed for reduction of disability progression that was >88% likely to be sustained (events with score ˃1.5).
Conclusions
Clinicodemographic characteristics of 6-month confirmed disability progression events identify those at high risk of sustained long-term disability. This knowledge will allow future trials to better assess the effect of therapy on long-term disability accrual
High exposure of global tree diversity to human pressure
No full textSafeguarding Earth’s tree diversity is a conservation priority due to the importance of trees for biodiversity and ecosystem functions and services such as carbon sequestration. Here, we improve the foundation for effective conservation of global tree diversity by analyzing a recently developed database of tree species covering 46,752 species. We quantify range protection and anthropogenic pressures for each species and develop conservation priorities across taxonomic, phylogenetic, and functional diversity dimensions. We also assess the effectiveness of several influential proposed conservation prioritization frameworks to protect the top 17% and top 50% of tree priority areas. We find that an average of 50.2% of a tree species’ range occurs in 110-km grid cells without any protected areas (PAs), with 6,377 small-range tree species fully unprotected, and that 83% of tree species experience nonnegligible human pressure across their range on average. Protecting high-priority areas for the top 17% and 50% priority thresholds would increase the average protected proportion of each tree species’ range to 65.5% and 82.6%, respectively, leaving many fewer species (2,151 and 2,010) completely unprotected. The priority areas identified for trees match well to the Global 200 Ecoregions framework, revealing that priority areas for trees would in large part also optimize protection for terrestrial biodiversity overall. Based on range estimates for >46,000 tree species, our findings show that a large proportion of tree species receive limited protection by current PAs and are under substantial human pressure. Improved protection of biodiversity overall would also strongly benefit global tree diversity
Sulforaphane enhanced proliferation of porcine satellite cells via epigenetic augmentation of SMAD7
Get PDFSatellite cells take an indispensable place in skeletal muscle regeneration, maintenance, and growth. However, only limited works have investigated effects of dietary compounds on the proliferation of porcine satellite cells (PSCs) and related mechanisms. Sulforaphane (SFN) at multiple levels was applied to PSCs. The PSCs’ viability and HDAC activity were measured with a WST-1 cell proliferation kit and Color-de-Lys® HDAC colorimetric activity assay kit. Gene expression and epigenetics modification were tested with qRT-PCR, Western blot, bisulfite sequencing, and ChIP-qPCR. This study found that SFN enhanced PSC proliferation and altered mRNA expression levels of myogenic regulatory factors. In addition, SFN inhibited histone deacetylase (HDAC) activity, disturbed mRNA levels of HDAC family members, and elevated acetylated histone H3 and H4 abundance in PSCs. Furthermore, both mRNA and protein levels of the Smad family member 7 (SMAD7) in PSCs were upregulated after SFN treatment. Finally, it was found that SFN increased the acetylation level of histone H4 in the SMAD7 promoter, decreased the expression of microRNAs, including ssc-miR-15a, ssc-miR-15b, ssc-miR-92a, ssc-miR-17-5p, ssc-miR-20a-5p, and ssc-miR-106a, targeting SMAD7, but did not impact on the SMAD7 promoter’s methylation status in PSCs. In summary, SFN was found to boost PSC proliferation and epigenetically increase porcine SMAD7 expression, which indicates a potential application of SFN in modulation of skeletal muscle growth
Simple energy-efficient electrochemically-driven CO2 scrubbing for biogas upgrading
No full textThe conversion of biogas to biomethane represents an attractive solution to replace fossil gas with a renewable gas. However, removal of such a large percentage of CO2 from a fuel gas comes at a significant energy cost using the conventional CO2 capture technologies and hence has led to an opportunity to develop an alternative technique for large-scale carbon capture. Results of the current study suggest that employing an anion exchange membrane (AEM)-based alkaline water electrolyser for CO2 removal from gas mixtures offers an energy-efficient strategy for the capture and removal of CO2 from biogas. After capturing CO2 in an aqueous absorption column, the resulting bicarbonate solution was fed through the cathode of an AEM-based electrolyser. Although the CO2 absorption rate increased from about 300 to 900 mol m−3 h−1 when the pH was elevated from 9 to 13, the system's energy requirement was lowest at pH = 9. The economic assessment shows that the electrochemical work requirement for CO2 removal from biogas using the AEM-based alkaline electrolyser ranges between 0.25 and 0.92 kWh/kg CO2 at optimum conditions (pH = 9). This could potentially reduce the energy input for CO2 removal by about 50% compared to commercially available biogas upgrading technologies
Dynamic change in an ocean desert: Microbial diversity and trophic transfer along the 110 °E meridional in the Indian Ocean
No full textThe eastern Indian Ocean is among the most oligotrophic regions in the world and has been described as an ocean desert. Limited information exists on microbial community profiles from marker gene data, and an open question in this system is how energy is transported from the base of the food web to higher trophic levels. Here we show that, along a 3300 km long transect in the ultra-oligotrophic eastern Indian Ocean, both alpha and beta diversity metrics for prokaryotic and eukaryotic trophic groups revealed remarkably strong latitudinal trends. The latitudinal Shannon diversity pattern for autotrophic eukaryotes furthermore aligned with the isotopic δ13C ratios of particulate organic carbon, fractionated zooplankton and hand-picked fish larvae, suggesting a close trophic linkage between autotrophic eukaryotes and higher trophic levels. Our data also showed an increasing contribution of eukaryotic mixotrophs and a high contribution of heterotrophic eukaryotes towards warmer waters. These findings highlight that not only the recycling of organic matter via bacterial regeneration is important in this system but that mixo- and heterotrophic eukaryotes play a major role in redistributing energy within the marine food web of these oligotrophic waters. Our data provide a baseline to understand how environmental changes such as warming surface waters might impact the open-ocean food web in this oligotrophic basin
Krill along the 110°E meridian: Oceanographic influences on assemblages in the eastern Indian Ocean
No full textIn pelagic ecosystems in all oceans, euphausiids (krill) are important components of the zooplankton. In May–June 2019, euphausiids were investigated from temperate to tropical waters along the 110°E meridian, originally surveyed in 1962–1963 during the first International Indian Ocean Expedition (IIOE). A total of 28 species of tropical, subtropical and temperate euphausiids were identified from day and night vertical hauls using an Indian Ocean Standard Net (IOSN) through the upper 200 m of the water column between 11.5°S and 39.5°S. Abundances of larvae, juveniles and adults were generally higher in warmer tropical waters, as were the number of species, albeit the highest abundance recorded (4240 inds·1000 m−3), comprising of Thysanoessa gregaria, occurred in the cooler waters south of the Subtropical Front. Species from the genera Stylocheiron and Euphausia dominated along most of the transect line. The different water masses together with the influence of ocean currents appeared to affect the euphausiid assemblages with, for example, the occurrence of the Pacific Ocean species, Euphausia pacifica/nana, likely reaching the study region via the Indonesian Throughflow, and the occurrence of the typically neritic Pseudeuphausia latifrons, likely a result of the westward propagation of Leeuwin Current eddies. Redundancy analysis showed that the properties of water masses had a stronger influence on euphausiid assemblage variability than food availability (chlorophyll a), which was relatively low across most of the transect. In comparison to the first IIOE, which used the same IOSN collection method, a similar number of species was identified from the more temporally extensive sampling period in 1962–1963, though the occurrences of rare species were different. At comparable latitudes during May–June in 1963 and 2019, total euphausiid abundances and proportions of life stages were similar. This rare opportunity to repeat an open ocean transect provides an updated baseline on euphausiid species occurrence, distribution and assemblages in the eastern Indian Ocean
Seasonal and year-round distributions of Bactrocera dorsalis (Hendel) and its risk to temperate fruits under climate change
Get PDFBactrocera dorsalis (Hendel) is an important pest to fruits and vegetables. It can damage more than 300 plant species. The distribution of B. dorsalis has been expanding owing to international trade and other human activities. B. dorsalis occurrence is strongly related to suitable overwintering conditions and distribution areas, but it is unclear where these seasonal and year-round suitable areas are. We used maximum entropy (MaxEnt) to predict the potential seasonal and year-round distribution areas of B. dorsalis. We also projected suitable habitat areas in 2040 and 2060 under global warming scenarios, such as SSP126 and SSP585. These models achieved AUC values of 0.860 and 0.956 for the seasonal and year-round scenarios, respectively, indicating their good prediction capabilities. The precipitation of the wettest month (Bio13) and the mean diurnal temperature range (Bio2) contributed 83.9% to the seasonal distribution prediction model. Bio2 and the minimum temperature of the coldest month (Bio6) provided important information related to the year-round distribution prediction. In future scenarios, the suitable area of B. dorsalis will increase and the range will expand northward. Four important temperate fruits, namely, apples, peaches, pears, and oranges, will be seriously threatened. The information from this study provides a useful reference for implementing improved population management strategies for B. dorsalis
Screening of chickpea genotypes for boron biofortification potential
Get PDFBackground
Malnutrition is a significant threat to mankind and deficiency of important minerals like boron (B) exert negative impacts on human health mostly in developing and least developed countries. Chickpea is an important legume with wide consumption in human diet due to easily digestible dietary protein and grown. Chickpea is mostly grown in arid and semi-arid regions of Pakistan. The B-deficiency in these areas not only decreases chickpea productivity, but also results lowers B concentration in grains. Different chickpea genotypes are capable of perform differently due to their divergent genetic makeup under stressful environmental conditions. Therefore, this field study screened different chickpea genotypes to improve yield and B biofortification.
Methods
For this purpose 20 ‘desi’ (i.e., ‘TG-1430’, ‘Parbat’, ‘TG-1616’, ‘TG-1620’, ‘05A028’, ‘TG-1601’, ‘TG-1623’, ‘Thal-2006’, ‘TG-1218’, ‘TG-1513’, ‘Chattan’, ‘BK-2011’, ‘TG-1500’, ‘NIAB-2016’, ‘GGP-1456’, ‘TG-1618’, ‘TG-1619’, ‘Bittle-2016’, ‘TG-1415’ and ‘Punjab-2008’) and 06 ‘kabuli’ (i.e., ‘TGK-228’, ‘TGK-1767’, ‘TGK-1802’, ‘NOOR-2009’, ‘TGK-1761’ and ‘TGK-1805’) chickpea genotypes were sown under 0 or 1 kg B ha−1 as soil application.
Results
Results indicated that B application improved the growth, nodulation, yield and grains B concentrations of all genotypes; however, genotype significantly differed in their response. Of the 20 ‘desi’ genotypes ‘Punjab-2008’ recorded the highest leaf area index, leaf area duration, crop growth rate, nodulation, yield and related traits under B application. However, genotypes ‘BK-2011’, ‘TG-1500’ and ‘NIAB-2016’ had higher grains B content under 1 kg ha−1 B application. Similarly, ‘kabuli genotypes’, i.e., ‘TGK-1761’ and ‘TGK-1802’ recorded higher nodulation, while ‘NOOR-2009’ had higher leaf area index, leaf area duration, crop growth rate, 1000-grain weight, grain yield and biological yield with 1 kg ha−1 B application compared to the rest of the ‘kabuli’ genotypes included in the study. The highest grain B concentration was recorded for ‘TGK-1767’ among ‘kabuli’ genotypes.
Conclusion
In conclusion, ‘desi’ genotype ‘Punjab-2008’ and ‘kabuli’ genotype ‘NOOR-2009’ should be grown under 1 kg ha−1 B application to get higher productivity and B biofortification. The genotypes which accumulated more B in their seeds should be included in future breeding programs to produce B-rich grains for reducing malnutrition