Is Active Management the Key to the Conservation of Saproxylic Biodiversity? Pollarding Promotes the Formation of Tree Hollows

Trees with hollows are key features sustaining biodiversity in wooded landscapes. They host rich assemblages of often highly specialised organisms. Hollow trees, however, have become rare and localised in Europe. Many of the associated biota is thus declining or endangered. The challenge of its conservation, therefore, is to safeguard the presence of hollow trees in sufficient numbers. Populations of numerous species associated with tree hollows and dead wood are often found in habitats that were formed by formerly common traditional silvicultural practices such as coppicing, pollarding or pasture. Although it has been occasionally mentioned that such practices increase the formation of hollows and the availability of often sun-exposed dead wood, their effect has never been quantified. Our study examined the hollow incidence in pollard and non-pollard (unmanaged) willows and the effect of pollarding on incremental growth rate by tree ring analysis. The probability of hollow occurrence was substantially higher in pollard than in non-pollard trees. Young pollards, especially, form hollows much more often than non-pollards; for instance, in trees of 50 cm DBH, the probability of hollow ocurrence was ∼0.75 in pollards, but only ∼0.3 in non-pollards. No difference in growth rate was found. Pollarding thus leads to the rapid formation of tree hollows, a habitat usually associated with old trees. It is therefore potentially a very important tool in the restoration of saproxylic habitats and conservation of hollow-dependent fauna. If applied along e.g. roads and watercourses, pollarding could also be used to increase landscape connectivity for saproxylic organisms. In reserves where pollarding was formerly practiced, its restoration would be necessary to prevent loss of saproxylic biodiversity. Our results point to the importance of active management measures for maintaining availability, and spatial and temporal continuity of deadwood microhabitats.     

Bacteriuria amongst Pregnant Women in the Buea Health District,Cameroon: Prevalence,Predictors, Antibiotic Susceptibility Patterns and Diagnosis

Background

Bacteriuria is associated with significant maternal and foetal risks. However, its prevalence is not known in our community.

Objectives

This study was carried out to determine the prevalence and predictors of bacteriuria in pregnant women of the Buea Health District (BHD) as well as the antibiotic sensitivity patterns of bacterial isolates. It also sought to determine the diagnostic performance of the nitrite and leucocyte esterase tests in detecting bacteriuria in these women.

Methods

An observational analytic cross-sectional study was carried out amongst pregnant women attending selected antenatal care centres in Buea. We recruited 102 consenting pregnant women for the study. Demographic and clinical data were collected using structured questionnaires. Clean catch midstream urine was collected from each participant in sterile leak proof containers. Samples were examined biochemically, microscopically and by culture. Significant bacteriuria was defined as the presence of ≥10⁸ bacteria/L of cultured urine. Identification and susceptibility of isolates was performed using API 20E and ATB UR EU (08) (BioMerieux, Marcy l''Etoile, France).

Results

Significant bacteriuria was found in the urine of 24 of the 102 women tested giving a bacteriuria prevalence of 23.5% in pregnant women of the BHD. Asymptomatic bacteriuria was detected in 8(7.8%) of the women. There was no statistically significant predictor of bacteriuria. Escherichia coli were the most isolated (33%) uropathogens and were 100% sensitive to cefixime, cefoxitin and cephalothin. The nitrite and leucocyte esterase tests for determining bacteriuria had sensitivities of 8%, 20.8% and specificities of 98.7% and 80.8% respectively.

Conclusion

Bacteriuria is frequent in pregnant women in the BHD suggesting the need for routine screening by urine culture. Empiric treatment with cefixime should be instituted until results of urine culture and sensitivity are available. Nitrite and leucocyte esterase tests were not sensitive enough to replace urine culture as screening tests.     

Glucose Augments Killing Efficiency of Daptomycin Challenged Staphylococcus aureus Persisters

Treatment of Staphylococcus aureus in stationary growth phase with high doses of the antibiotic daptomycin (DAP) eradicates the vast majority of the culture and leaves persister cells behind. Despite resting in a drug-tolerant and dormant state, persister cells exhibit metabolic activity which might be exploited for their elimination. We here report that the addition of glucose to S. aureus persisters treated with DAP increased killing by up to five-fold within one hour. This glucose-DAP effect also occurred with strains less sensitive to the drug. The underlying mechanism is independent of the proton motive force and was not observed with non-metabolizable 2-deoxy-glucose. Our results are consistent with two hypotheses on the glucose-DAP interplay. The first is based upon glucose-induced carbohydrate transport proteins that may influence DAP and the second suggests that glucose may trigger the release or activity of cell-lytic proteins to augment DAP’s mode of action.     

By Regulating Mitochondrial Ca2+-Uptake UCP2 Modulates Intracellular Ca2+

Introduction

The possible role of UCP2 in modulating mitochondrial Ca²⁺-uptake (mCa²⁺-uptake) via the mitochondrial calcium uniporter (MCU) is highly controversial.

Methods

Thus, we analyzed mCa²⁺-uptake in isolated cardiac mitochondria, MCU single-channel activity in cardiac mitoplasts, dual Ca²⁺-transients from mitochondrial ((Ca²⁺)m) and intracellular compartment ((Ca²⁺)c) in the whole-cell configuration in cardiomyocytes of wild-type (WT) and UCP2^-/- mice.

Results

Isolated mitochondria showed a Ru360 sensitive mCa²⁺-uptake, which was significantly decreased in UCP2^-/- (229.4±30.8 FU vs. 146.3±23.4 FU, P<0.05). Single-channel registrations confirmed a Ru360 sensitive voltage-gated Ca²⁺-channel in mitoplasts, i.e. mCa1, showing a reduced single-channel activity in UCP2^-/- (Po,total: 0.34±0.05% vs. 0.07±0.01%, P<0.05). In UCP2^-/- cardiomyocytes (Ca²⁺)m was decreased (0.050±0.009 FU vs. 0.021±0.005 FU, P<0.05) while (Ca²⁺)c was unchanged (0.032±0.002 FU vs. 0.028±0.004 FU, P>0.05) and transsarcolemmal Ca²⁺-influx was inhibited suggesting a possible compensatory mechanism. Additionally, we observed an inhibitory effect of ATP on mCa²⁺-uptake in WT mitoplasts and (Ca²⁺)m of cardiomyocytes leading to an increase of (Ca²⁺)c while no ATP dependent effect was observed in UCP2^-/-.

Conclusion

Our results indicate regulatory effects of UCP2 on mCa²⁺-uptake. Furthermore, we propose, that previously described inhibitory effects on MCU by ATP may be mediated via UCP2 resulting in changes of excitation contraction coupling.     

The Diversity of Yellow-Related Proteins in Sand Flies (Diptera: Psychodidae)

Yellow-related proteins (YRPs) present in sand fly saliva act as affinity binders of bioamines, and help the fly to complete a bloodmeal by scavenging the physiological signals of damaged cells. They are also the main antigens in sand fly saliva and their recombinant form is used as a marker of host exposure to sand flies. Moreover, several salivary proteins and plasmids coding these proteins induce strong immune response in hosts bitten by sand flies and are being used to design protecting vaccines against Leishmania parasites. In this study, thirty two 3D models of different yellow-related proteins from thirteen sand fly species of two genera were constructed based on the known protein structure from Lutzomyia longipalpis. We also studied evolutionary relationships among species based on protein sequences as well as sequence and structural variability of their ligand-binding site. All of these 33 sand fly YRPs shared a similar structure, including a unique tunnel that connects the ligand-binding site with the solvent by two independent paths. However, intraspecific modifications found among these proteins affects the charges of the entrances to the tunnel, the length of the tunnel and its hydrophobicity. We suggest that these structural and sequential differences influence the ligand-binding abilities of these proteins and provide sand flies with a greater number of YRP paralogs with more nuanced answers to bioamines. All these characteristics allow us to better evaluate these proteins with respect to their potential use as part of anti-Leishmania vaccines or as an antigen to measure host exposure to sand flies.     

Literature-Informed Analysis of a Genome-Wide Association Study of Gestational Age in Norwegian Women and Children Suggests Involvement of Inflammatory Pathways

BackgroundFive-to-eighteen percent of pregnancies worldwide end in preterm birth, which is the major cause of neonatal death and morbidity. Approximately 30% of the variation in gestational age at birth can be attributed to genetic factors. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have not shown robust evidence of association with genomic loci yet.MethodsWe separately investigated 1921 Norwegian mothers and 1199 children from pregnancies with spontaneous onset of delivery. Individuals were further divided based on the onset of delivery: initiated by labor or prelabor rupture of membranes. Genetic association with ultrasound-dated gestational age was evaluated using three genetic models and adaptive permutations. The top-ranked loci were tested for enrichment in 12 candidate gene-sets generated by text-mining PubMed abstracts containing pregnancy-related keywords.ResultsThe six GWAS did not reveal significant associations, with the most extreme empirical p = 5.1 × 10⁻⁷. The top loci from maternal GWAS with deliveries initiated by labor showed significant enrichment in 10 PubMed gene-sets, e.g., p = 0.001 and 0.005 for keywords "uterus" and "preterm" respectively. Enrichment signals were mainly caused by infection/inflammation-related genes TLR4, NFKB1, ABCA1, MMP9. Literature-informed analysis of top loci revealed further immunity genes: IL1A, IL1B, CAMP, TREM1, TFRC, NFKBIA, MEFV, IRF8, WNT5A.ConclusionOur analyses support the role of inflammatory pathways in determining pregnancy duration and provide a list of 32 candidate genes for a follow-up work. We observed that the top regions from GWAS in mothers with labor-initiated deliveries significantly more often overlap with pregnancy-related genes than would be expected by chance, suggesting that increased sample size would benefit similar studies.