Conservation in Saudi Arabia; moving from strategy to practice

Conservation in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is relatively young, yet have made considerable gains in conservation through strategic proclamation and reintroductions. Changes in land use, illegal hunting and competition with domestic stock has decimated the native ungulates, meaning that the survival of the native ungulate species is now completely dependent on protected area network. The challenge is to sustain this network to make meaningful conservation impact into the future. We review the status of ungulate conservation in Saudi Arabia and highlight that the conservation strategy is well developed. The major challenge faced in conservation in Saudi Arabia now is to implement what has been sanctioned.     

Social media user’s knowledge on soil plant relationship in Saudi Arabia

The study aimed to investigate the soil-plant relationship by looking at knowledge levels of social media users. The study examined the relationship between the users’ characteristics and their knowledge on soil-plant relationship. Online survey was designed and distributed to gather the data. The number of response was received from 383 respondents where 375 participants provided completed information and the remaining eight responses were eliminated due to quality standards. The results show most of the participants (68.8%) are moderately depend on social media to acquire knowledge on soil-plant relationship and indicated “Twitter” as the highly utilized platform followed by the “Youtube”. Meanwhile, 48.8% of the participants indicated that social media have a high impact on their knowledge-based information on soil-plant relationship and agricultural contents. Inferential analysis shows there was a significant positive relationship (p < 0.01) between independent variables; Twitter, Youtube, Instagram, and Snapchat and the degree of trust on these platforms, and the level’s knowledge on soil-plant relationship (dependent variable). Only 13% of the variance accounted for the impact of social media on participants’ agricultural knowledge-base can be predicted from the combination of participants’ reliance on a set of social media platforms (Twitter, Instagram, Youtube, and Snapchat). The study revealed the trust and confidence of the users using social media on agricultural information/soil plant relationship had a medium effect in social and educational research.     

Adenoviral Delivery of Angiotensin-(1-7) or Angiotensin-(1-9) Inhibits Cardiomyocyte Hypertrophy via the Mas or Angiotensin Type 2 Receptor

The counter-regulatory axis of the renin angiotensin system peptide angiotensin-(1-7) [Ang-(1-7)] has been identified as a potential therapeutic target in cardiac remodelling, acting via the mas receptor. Furthermore, we recently reported that an alternative peptide, Ang-(1-9) also counteracts cardiac remodelling via the angiotensin type 2 receptor (AT₂R). Here, we have engineered adenoviral vectors expressing fusion proteins which release Ang-(1-7) [RAdAng-(1-7)] or Ang-(1-9) [RAdAng-(1-9)] and compared their effects on cardiomyocyte hypertrophy in rat H9c2 cardiomyocytes or primary adult rabbit cardiomyocytes, stimulated with angiotensin II, isoproterenol or arg-vasopressin. RAdAng-(1-7) and RAdAng-(1-9) efficiently transduced cardiomyocytes, expressed fusion proteins and secreted peptides, as demonstrated by western immunoblotting and conditioned media assays. Furthermore, secreted Ang-(1-7) and Ang-(1-9) inhibited cardiomyocyte hypertrophy (Control = 168.7±8.4 µm; AngII = 232.1±10.7 µm; AngII+RAdAng-(1-7) = 186±9.1 µm, RAdAng-(1-9) = 180.5±9 µm; P<0.05) and these effects were selectively reversed by inhibitors of their cognate receptors, the mas antagonist A779 for RAdAng-(1-7) and the AT₂R antagonist PD123,319 for RAdAng-(1-9). Thus gene transfer of Ang-(1-7) and Ang-(1-9) produces receptor-specific effects equivalent to those observed with addition of exogenous peptides. These data highlight that Ang-(1-7) and Ang-(1-9) can be expressed via gene transfer and inhibit cardiomyocyte hypertrophy via their respective receptors. This supports applications for this approach for sustained peptide delivery to study molecular effects and potential gene therapeutic actions.     

Emerging 2D Layered Materials for Perovskite Solar Cells

Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) are now at the forefront of the state‐of‐the‐art photovoltaic technologies due to their high efficiency and low fabrication costs. To further realize the potential of this fascinating class of solar cells, nanostructured functional materials have been playing important roles. 2D layered materials have attracted a great deal of interest due to their fascinating properties and unique structure. Recently, the exploration of a wide range of novel 2D materials for use in PSCs has seen considerable progress, but still a lot remains to be done in this field. In this progress report, the advancements that have recently been made in the application of these emerging 2D materials, beyond graphene, for PSCs are presented. Both the advantages and challenges of these 2D materials for PSCs are highlighted. Finally, important directions for the future advancements toward efficient, low‐cost, and stable PSCs are outlined.     

Bacterial niche-specific genome expansion is coupled with highly frequent gene disruptions in deep-sea sediments

The complexity and dynamics of microbial metagenomes may be evaluated by genome size, gene duplication and the disruption rate between lineages. In this study, we pyrosequenced the metagenomes of microbes obtained from the brine and sediment of a deep-sea brine pool in the Red Sea to explore the possible genomic adaptations of the microbes in response to environmental changes. The microbes from the brine and sediments (both surface and deep layers) of the Atlantis II Deep brine pool had similar communities whereas the effective genome size varied from 7.4 Mb in the brine to more than 9 Mb in the sediment. This genome expansion in the sediment samples was due to gene duplication as evidenced by enrichment of the homologs. The duplicated genes were highly disrupted, on average by 47.6% and 70% for the surface and deep layers of the Atlantis II Deep sediment samples, respectively. The disruptive effects appeared to be mainly due to point mutations and frameshifts. In contrast, the homologs from the Atlantis II Deep brine sample were highly conserved and they maintained relatively small copy numbers. Likely, the adaptation of the microbes in the sediments was coupled with pseudogenizations and possibly functional diversifications of the paralogs in the expanded genomes. The maintenance of the pseudogenes in the large genomes is discussed.     

Association of multiple drug resistance-1 gene polymorphism with multiple drug resistance in breast cancer patients from an ethnic Saudi Arabian population

Chemotherapy has been used widely to treat cancer, both as a systemic therapy and as a local treatment. Unfortunately, many types of cancer are still refractory to chemotherapy. The mechanisms of anticancer drug resistance have been extensively explored but have not been fully characterized. This study analyzed the occurrences of polymorphism (SNP) in the MDR1 gene in breast cancer patients and determined a possible association with chemotherapy. The study group included one hundred breast carcinoma patients who subsequently received chemotherapy (the regimen generally consisted of commonly used drugs such as cyclophosphamide, adriamycin, 5-fluorouracil, docetaxel and their combinations). Blood samples from 100 healthy individuals are used, as controls were also genotyped for the MDR1 gene. This investigation revealed a significant correlation with response to various regimens of chemotherapy showing a low response to therapy with the CT/TT genotype at (exon 12) 1236 codon (p < 0.001). These findings demonstrate, for the first time, that the polymorphisms in (exon 12) 1236 codon of the MDR1 gene greatly influence the drug response in patients from the Arab population of Saudi Arabia.     

Sex-specific differences in the prevalence of sarcopenia among pre-frail community-dwelling older adults in Saudi Arabia

ObjectivesTo assess sex differences in the prevalence of sarcopenia among pre-frail community-dwelling older adults in Saudi Arabia.MethodsThis was a cross-sectional study conducted at a tertiary-level hospital in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in 2019. The study participants were pre-frail community-dwelling older adults, according to the Edmonton Frail Scale. The SARC-F questionnaire was used to diagnose sarcopenia. The Katz Activities of Daily Living (ADL) was used to rank the adequacy of performance in six functions: bathing, dressing, toileting, transferring, continence, and feeding, while the Lawton Instrumental Activities of Daily Living scale was used to assess the more complex ADL necessary for living in the community.ResultsIn total, 283 community-dwelling older adults were recruited for this study, with a mean (±SD) age of 70.77 (±6.26) years; 72.7% of the total were female participants. The majority (85.5%) of the patients reported that they needed home care assistance. The mean ADL score of the participants was high, indicating high function and independence (KATZ-ADL: M 4.60 SD 1.75; Lawton Brody: 60%). The overall prevalence of sarcopenia among the studied participants was 65.7%, which was significantly higher among females (71.9%) than among males (59.1%), with a P-value of 0.007. Among the demographic characteristics of the participants, there was a significant difference in the need for home care assistance in female sarcopenic and non-sarcopenic participants (74.1% vs. 25.9%, p = 0.017), but without demonstrable difference in males. Additionally, there was a significant difference (P < 0.05) in the prevalence of sarcopenia between male and female participants according to ADL scores. The strongest predictor for sarcopenia prevalence in males was an ADL score <2 according to the Katz index, with an odds ratio of 6.5, while the need for home care was the only significant predictor of sarcopenia among female participants (OR 3.25, CI: 1.14–9.25, p = 0.02).ConclusionOverall, almost two-thirds of the studied pre-frail community-dwelling older adult population were sarcopenic. The prevalence of sarcopenia was significantly higher among females than males. The strongest predictor of sarcopenia was an ADL score <2 based on the Katz index in males and the need for home care assistance in females.     

Genetic diversity among different species of the genus Leiurus (Scorpiones: Buthidae) in Saudi Arabia and the Middle East

The molecular phylogenetic relationship among two species of genus Leiurus, from Saudi Arabia with additional comparative sequence data available from Egypt, Oman and Turkey is presented. The molecular phylogeny was performed using maximum parsimony, neighbor joining and bayesian inference. Our results indicate a clear deep splitting between the Western clade, which represented by L. quinuestriatus sequences from Egypt and those from the Eastern clade which encompassing different Leiurus species from Saudi Arabia, Oman and Turkey was shown. Also, the phylogenetic relationship represents additional support for the taxonomic status of Arabian Leiurus species.