Introduction: Platelets are the smallest cells within the circulating blood with key roles in physiological hemostasis and pathological thrombosis regulated by the onset of activating/inhibiting processes via receptor responses and signaling cascades.
Areas covered: Proteomics as well as genomic approaches have been fundamental in identifying and quantifying potential targets for future diagnostic strategies in the prevention of bleeding and thrombosis, and uncovering the complexity of platelet functions in health and disease. In this article, we provide a critical overview on current functional tests used in diagnostics and the future perspectives for platelet proteomics in clinical applications.
Expert commentary: Proteomics represents a valuable tool for the identification of patients with diverse platelet associated defects. In-depth validation of identified biomarkers, e.g. receptors, signaling proteins, post-translational modifications, in large cohorts is decisive for translation into routine clinical diagnostics. 相似文献
Different species’ niche breadths in relation to ecological gradients are infrequently examined within the same study and, moreover, species niche breadths have rarely been averaged to account for variation in entire ecological communities. We investigated how average environmental niche breadths (climate, water quality and climate–water quality niches) in aquatic macrophyte communities are related to ecological gradients (latitude, longitude, altitude, species richness and lake area) among four distinct regions (Finland, Sweden and US states of Minnesota and Wisconsin) on two continents. We found that correlations between the three different measures of average niche breadths and ecological gradients varied considerably among the study regions, with average climate and average water quality niche breadth models often showing opposite trends. However, consistent patterns were also found, such as widening of average climate niche breadths and narrowing of average water quality niche breadths of aquatic macrophytes along increasing latitudinal and altitudinal gradients. This result suggests that macrophyte species are generalists in relation to temperature variations at higher latitudes and altitudes, whereas species in southern, lowland lakes are more specialised. In contrast, aquatic macrophytes growing in more southern nutrient-rich lakes were generalists in relation to water quality, while specialist species are adapted to low-productivity conditions and are found in highland lakes. Our results emphasise that species niche breadths should not be studied using only coarse-scale data of species distributions and corresponding environmental conditions, but that investigations on different kinds of niche breadths (e.g., climate vs. local niches) also require finer resolution data at broad spatial extents. 相似文献
Aquatic macrophytes are one of the biological quality elements in the Water Framework Directive (WFD) for which status assessments
must be defined. We tested two methods to classify macrophyte species and their response to eutrophication pressure: one based
on percentiles of occurrence along a phosphorous gradient and another based on trophic ranking of species using Canonical
Correspondence Analyses in the ranking procedure. The methods were tested at Europe-wide, regional and national scale as well
as by alkalinity category, using 1,147 lakes from 12 European states. The grouping of species as sensitive, tolerant or indifferent
to eutrophication was evaluated for some taxa, such as the sensitive Chara spp. and the large isoetids, by analysing the (non-linear) response curve along a phosphorous gradient. These thresholds
revealed in these response curves can be used to set boundaries among different ecological status classes. In total 48 taxa
out of 114 taxa were classified identically regardless of dataset or classification method. These taxa can be considered the
most consistent and reliable indicators of sensitivity or tolerance to eutrophication at European scale. Although the general
response of well known indicator species seems to hold, there are many species that were evaluated differently according to
the database selection and classification methods. This hampers a Europe-wide comparison of classified species lists as used
for the status assessment within the WFD implementation process. 相似文献
Certain substances may be hazardous to ecosystems. To be able to preserve the structures and functions of ecosystems, knowledge is required to qualify and quantify such hazards. To this end, biotests are indispensable tools. For the development and/or choice of biotests, special attention has to be drawn to conflicts between scientific demands and practical constraints. From a purely scientific point of view, experiments should be designed to maximise the ecological relevance of the obtained results. However, this often collides with the limited resources (budget, time, manpower) available. Furthermore, societal issues (e.g. animal welfare) have to be taken into account. Thus, it is necessary to develop a scientifically sound testing approach that avoids unnecessary animal testing, keeps the costs low, and can be performed within a short timeframe. The different perspectives of ecology, environmental toxicology, and environmental chemistry should be integrated into a balanced ecotoxicological approach. Accordingly, we propose a dynamic testing strategy, which is adapted to the substance (or substance group) in question and its mode(s) of action. 相似文献