A requirement for an unconjugated pteridine for the growth of Paramecium aurelia

The ciliated protozoan Paramecium aurelia requires exceptionally high levels (microgram amounts) of folic acid for optimal growth when cultured in a compex synthetic medium. This requirement may be replaced by nanogram quantities of the vitamin provided the unconjugated pteridine biopterin is present in the medium. Both folic acid and biopterin are essential for optimal growth. Evidence has been obtained that the growth-promoting effect of abnormally high concentrations of folic acid may be due to the ability of the protozoan to convert small quantities of the vitamin into biopterin or other nutritionally active pteridines.     

Diversification among coffee smallholders in the highlands of South Sumatra,Indonesia

Over the past decade international organizations and developing countries have been trying to promote agricultural diversification among smallholders under the assumption that smallholders are too dependent upon a narrow range of crops. The International Coffee Organization and the Government of Indonesia have promoted agricultural diversification among coffee farmers to curb production and, thereby, increase prices. In South Sumatra, Indonesia, coffee smallholders diversify on their own initiative and depend upon numerous resource systems. They diversify out of coffee and even agriculture because other investments yield attractive returns and because further diversification within agriculture is often limited by agronomic and financial constraints.The Center for Policy and Implementation Studies (CPIS), Ministry of Finance, in Indonesia funded this research.     

Impact of Extraction Parameters on the Recovery of Lipolytic Activity from Fermented Babassu Cake

Enzyme extraction from solid matrix is as important step in solid-state fermentation to obtain soluble enzymes for further immobilization and application in biocatalysis. A method for the recovery of a pool of lipases from Penicillium simplicissimum produced by solid-state fermentation was developed. For lipase recovery different extraction solution was used and phosphate buffer containing Tween 80 and NaCl showed the best results, yielding lipase activity of 85.7 U/g and 65.7 U/g, respectively. The parameters with great impacts on enzyme extraction detected by the Plackett-Burman analysis were studied by Central Composite Rotatable experimental designs where a quadratic model was built showing maximum predicted lipase activity (160 U/g) at 25°C, Tween 80 0.5% (w/v), pH 8.0 and extraction solution 7 mL/g, maintaining constant buffer molarity of 0.1 M and 200 rpm. After the optimization process a 2.5 fold increase in lipase activity in the crude extract was obtained, comparing the intial value (64 U/g) with the experimental design (160 U/g), thus improving the overall productivity of the process.     

Eighteen polymorphic microsatellite markers for the highly endangered Spanish imperial eagle (Aquila adalberti) and related species

Here we describe the development of 18 polymorphic microsatellite markers for the endangered Spanish imperial eagle (Aquila adalberti). Microsatellites were tested in five other raptor species. These markers were revealed as good molecular tools for genetic population studies, individual identification and parentage assessment in Spanish imperial eagle and closely related species.     

Variant discovery in a QTL region on chromosome 3 associated with fatness in chickens

Abdominal fat content is an economically important trait in commercially bred chickens. Although many quantitative trait loci (QTL) related to fat deposition have been detected, the resolution for these regions is low and functional variants are still unknown. The current study was conducted aiming at increasing resolution for a region previously shown to have a QTL associated with fat deposition, to detect novel variants from this region and to annotate those variants to delineate potentially functional ones as candidates for future studies. To achieve this, 18 chickens from a parental generation used in a reciprocal cross between broiler and layer lines were sequenced using the Illumina next‐generation platform with an initial coverage of 18X/chicken. The discovery of genetic variants was performed in a QTL region located on chromosome 3 between microsatellite markers LEI0161 and ADL0371 (33 595 706–42 632 651 bp). A total of 136 054 unique SNPs and 15 496 unique INDELs were detected in this region, and after quality filtering, 123 985 SNPs and 11 298 INDELs were retained. Of these variants, 386 SNPs and 15 INDELs were located in coding regions of genes related to important metabolic pathways. Loss‐of‐function variants were identified in several genes, and six of those, namely LOC771163, EGLN1, GNPAT, FAM120B, THBS2 and GGPS1, were related to fat deposition. Therefore, these loss‐of‐function variants are candidate mutations for conducting further studies on this important trait in chickens.     

Effects of substance P on acetylcholinesterase activity

The effects of substance P on acetylcholinesterase activity have been examined. The neuropeptide produced a significant increase in the activity of the enzyme in rat cerebral cortex. Pretreatment of rats with either actinomycin-D or cycloheximide did not fully abolish the substance P-mediated stimulation of cerebral acetylcholinesterase. Substance P increased the enzyme activity in rat brain slices; moreover, substance P increased the activity of electric eel acetylcholinesterase in in vitro experiments. These observations indicate that substance P produces an induction of acetylcholinesterase in cerebral cortex of rats and in addition indicate that a direct action on the enzyme takes place.     

Lipidomic profile as a noninvasive tool to predict endometrial receptivity

For the present study we asked whether the endometrial fluid lipidomic may be a useful approach to predict endometrial receptivity in freeze‐all cycles. For this case‐control study, endometrial fluid samples were collected from 41 patients undergoing freeze‐all cycles. Samples were split depending on the pregnancy outcome: positive group (n = 24) and negative group (n = 17). Data were acquired by the matrix‐assisted laser desorption/ionization time‐of‐flight mass spectrometry. Principal component analysis (PCA) and partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS‐DA) were applied. A list of potential biomarker ion ratios was obtained and the values were used to build a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve to predict pregnancy success. The lipid categories were attributed by LIPID MAPS database. Ion ratios were established according to their correlations and used for the analysis. The PCA showed a tendency of separation between the studied groups, whereas the PLS‐DA was able to clearly distinguish them. Fifteen ratios (13 hyper‐represented in the negative and two hyper‐represented in the positive group) were selected according to their importance for model prediction. These ratios were used to build the ROC curve, which presented an area under curve of 84.0% (95%CI: 69.2–97.4%; p = 0.009). These findings suggest that lipidomic profiling of endometrial fluid may be a valuable tool for identifying the time interval comprising the window of implantation.