How Cheap Is Soaring Flight in Raptors? A Preliminary Investigation in Freely-Flying Vultures

Measuring the costs of soaring, gliding and flapping flight in raptors is challenging, but essential for understanding their ecology. Among raptors, vultures are scavengers that have evolved highly efficient soaring-gliding flight techniques to minimize energy costs to find unpredictable food resources. Using electrocardiogram, GPS and accelerometer bio-loggers, we report the heart rate (HR) of captive griffon vultures (Gyps fulvus and G. himalayensis) trained for freely-flying. HR increased three-fold at take-off (characterized by prolonged flapping flight) and landing (>300 beats-per-minute, (bpm)) compared to baseline levels (80–100 bpm). However, within 10 minutes after the initial flapping phase, HR in soaring/gliding flight dropped to values similar to baseline levels, i.e. slightly lower than theoretically expected. However, the extremely rapid decrease in HR was unexpected, when compared with other marine gliders, such as albatrosses. Weather conditions influenced flight performance and HR was noticeably higher during cloudy compared to sunny conditions when prolonged soaring flight is made easier by thermal ascending air currents. Soaring as a cheap locomotory mode is a crucial adaptation for vultures who spend so long on the wing for wide-ranging movements to find food.     

Jellyfish as Prey: Frequency of Predation and Selective Foraging of Boops boops (Vertebrata,Actinopterygii) on the Mauve Stinger Pelagia noctiluca (Cnidaria,Scyphozoa)

In recent years, jellyfish blooms have attracted considerable scientific interest for their potential impacts on human activities and ecosystem functioning, with much attention paid to jellyfish as predators and to gelatinous biomass as a carbon sink. Other than qualitative data and observations, few studies have quantified direct predation of fish on jellyfish to clarify whether they may represent a seasonally abundant food source. Here we estimate predation frequency by the commercially valuable Mediterranean bogue, Boops boops on the mauve stinger jellyfish, Pelagia noctiluca, in the Strait of Messina (NE Sicily). A total of 1054 jellyfish were sampled throughout one year to quantify predation by B. boops from bite marks on partially eaten jellyfish and energy density of the jellyfish. Predation by B. boops in summer was almost twice that in winter, and they selectively fed according to medusa gender and body part. Calorimetric analysis and biochemical composition showed that female jellyfish gonads had significantly higher energy content than male gonads due to more lipids and that gonads had six-fold higher energy content than the somatic tissues due to higher lipid and protein concentrations. Energetically, jellyfish gonads represent a highly rewarding food source, largely available to B. boops throughout spring and summer. During the remainder of the year, when gonads were not very evident, fish predation switched towards less-selective foraging on the somatic gelatinous biomass. P. noctiluca, the most abundant jellyfish species in the Mediterranean Sea and a key planktonic predator, may represent not only a nuisance for human leisure activities and a source of mortality for fish eggs and larvae, but also an important resource for fish species of commercial value, such as B. boops.     

Pairwise binding competition experiments for sorting hub-protein/effector interaction hierarchy and simultaneous equilibria

NMR experiments on proteins in simultaneous equilibria with multiple binding partners can provide a tool to understand complex biological interaction networks. Competition among proteins for binding to signaling hubs is often at the basis of the information transmission across signaling networks in every organism. Changes in affinity towards one or more partners, as well as changes of the relative concentration of the competing partners, can determine pathways alterations that lead to pathological consequences. Overall, the knowledge of the interaction hierarchy of the multiple partners to a single signaling hub can lead to new therapeutic strategies. Smith and Ikura (Nat Chem Biol 10:223–230, 2014) have recently proposed pairwise competition NMR experiments to determine the binding hierarchy in network interactions. We have taken the moves from their approach to show how from pairwise competition NMR experiments the ratios between the equilibrium constants for multiple binding partners can be determined, and thus, given their concentration in solution, the concentrations of all the possible complexes can be obtained.     

Pyrazolobenzodiazepines: Part I. Synthesis and SAR of a potent class of kinase inhibitors

A novel series of pyrazolobenzodiazepines 3 has been identified as potent inhibitors of cyclin-dependent kinase 2 (CDK2). Their synthesis and structure–activity relationships (SAR) are described. Representative compounds from this class reversibly inhibit CDK2 activity in vitro, and block cell cycle progression in human tumor cell lines. Further exploration has revealed that this class of compounds inhibits several kinases that play critical roles in cancer cell growth and division as well as tumor angiogenesis. Together, these properties suggest a compelling basis for their use as antitumor agents.     

Cardiospheres and tissue engineering for myocardial regeneration: potential for clinical application

Tissue engineering is an increasingly expanding area of research in the cardiovascular field that involves engineering, chemistry, biology and medicine. Cardiac tissue engineering (CTE) aims to regenerate myocardial damage by combining cells, matrix, biological active molecules and physiological stimuli. The rationale behind CTE applications is that in order to regenerate the ventricular wall after a myocardial infarction it is necessary to combine procedures that regenerate both cardiomyocytes and the extracellular matrix. The application of (stem) cells together with a matrix could represent an environment protected from the inflammatory and pro-apoptotic signals, a stemness/survival reservoir slowly releasing cells and factors promoting tissue regeneration and angiogenesis. This review will focus on the applications and advantages that CTE application could offer compared to conventional cell therapy.     

PCR-based methods to discriminateBacillus thuringiensis strains

Bacillus thuringiensis is a Gram positive bacterium that is used for the production of biopesticides. The toxic action of different strains and serovars ofB. thuringiensis can be extremely selective towards specific pests, or, in contrast, it can affect a wide variety of non-target organisms such as insects, vertebrates or humans. A reliable characterization of the cultivated strains is of primary importance for the biopesticide industry, in order to assess the contamination of the final product with strains with different pesticide actions or that might be dangerous for human health. The aim of this study was to develop useful methods for the typing of differentB. thuringiensis strains using two PCR-based methods, RAPD and Rep-PCR with BOXA1R and ERIC2 primers. The molecular fingerprints obtained using ERIC2-PCR showed a reliable ability to discriminateBacillus thuringiensis strains.     

Genetics of the early stages of invasion of the Lessepsian rabbitfish Siganus luridus

Information on the initial stages of dispersal and settlement are of great interest in understanding the dynamics of biological invasions and in designing management responses. A newly settled population of the Lessepsian rabbitfish migrant Siganus luridus, that arrived in Linosa Island (Sicily Strait) in 2000, offered a unique opportunity to examine the genetic variability of the early phase of invasion and the starting point to test genetic variation within and between colonist and source populations.Demographics and dynamic aspects of S. luridus in the Mediterranean were evaluated by using phylogeographic and demographic (coalescent) methods based on DNA sequences of the mitochondrial control region. Sequences from 95 S. luridus, 25 Siganus rivulatus, and one of Siganus (Lo) vulpinus and S. doliatus were used. Samples were collected in one locality in the Red Sea (Eilat) and three localities in the Mediterranean (Israel, Greece and Linosa, Italy). Data showed (for the first time in a Lessepsian migrant) a lowering of the genetic diversity of the invading population (Mediterranean) (haplotype diversity 0.879, nucleotide diversity 0.592) compared to the parental one (Red Sea) (haplotype diversity 0.978, nucleotide diversity 0.958).Within the Mediterranean populations, there was no pattern of regional separation and mitochondrial diversity appeared to be preserved during the Linosa colonization, with no traces of founder events. Such evidence agrees with the idea that Lessepsian migration involves many individuals from its earliest stages.