Correction to: Population genomic structure of the black coral Antipathella subpinnata in Mediterranean Vulnerable Marine Ecosystems

Coral Reefs - A correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00338-021-02120-y     

Biological insights in the pathogenesis of hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome from proteome profiling of patients' dermal myofibroblasts

Hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (hEDS), mainly characterized by generalized joint hypermobility and its complications, minor skin changes, and apparently segregating with an autosomal dominant pattern, is still without a known molecular basis. Hence, its diagnosis is only clinical based on a strict set of criteria defined in the revised EDS nosology. Moreover, the hEDS phenotypic spectrum is wide-ranging and comprises multiple associated signs and symptoms shared with other heritable or acquired connective tissue disorders and chronic inflammatory diseases. In this complex scenario, we previously demonstrated that hEDS patients' skin fibroblasts show phenotypic features of myofibroblasts, widespread extracellular matrix (ECM) disarray, perturbation of ECM-cell contacts, and dysregulated expression of genes involved in connective tissue architecture and related to inflammatory and pain responses. Herein, the cellular proteome of 6 hEDS dermal myofibroblasts was compared to that of 12 control fibroblasts to deepen the knowledge on mechanisms involved in the disease pathogenesis. Qualitative and quantitative differences were assessed based on top-down and bottom-up approaches and some differentially expressed proteins were proofed by biochemical analyses. Proteomics disclosed the differential expression of proteins principally implicated in cytoskeleton organization, energy metabolism and redox balance, proteostasis, and intracellular trafficking. Our findings offer a comprehensive view of dysregulated protein networks and related pathways likely associated with the hEDS pathophysiology. The present results can be regarded as a starting point for future in-depth investigations aimed to decipher the functional impact of potential bioactive molecules for the development of targeted management and therapies.     

Preliminary survey of pests and diseases of eucheumatoid seaweed farms in the Philippines

Journal of Applied Phycology - Farmed eucheumatoids are the top aquaculture commodity in the Philippines, contributing more than 60% of total national aquaculture production by volume. Despite...     

Development of multi-component non-sex pheromone blends to monitor both sexes of Cydia pomonella (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae)

Nineteen host plant volatiles (HPVs) were screened for attractivity to adult codling moth Cydia pomonella (L.) as a fourth component of core blends (3K) including (E,Z)-2,4-ethyl decadienoate, (E)-4,8-dimethyl-1,3,7-nonatriene and acetic acid. Each new quaternary combination was compared with a previously reported attractive bisexual lure (4K), consisting of the 3K blend plus 6-ethenyl-2,2,6-trimethyloxan-3-ol (pyranoid linalool oxide, pyrLOX). All lure evaluations were conducted in apple, Malus domestica (Borkhausen). Several compounds were found to significantly lower total and/or female catches when added to the 3K blend, including (Z)-3-hexenol, (E)-2-hexanal and hexyl butanoate (female and total moths), and (Z)-3-hexenyl acetate and linalool (female moths). Other compounds when added to the 3K blend did not increase or decrease moth catches, including methyl salicylate, (E)-β-ocimene, limonene, β-caryophyllene, butyl hexanoate, farnesol, terpineol, terpinen-4-ol and α-pinene. A few added compounds significantly increased moth catches compared with the 3K blend, including β-pinene (male moths), (Z)-jasmone (male and total moths), (E)-β-farnesene and β-myrcene (female and total moths), and (E,E)-α-farnesene (male, female, and total moths). In addition, each of these five compounds when added to the 3K core blend performed similarly to the 4K lure (male, females, and total moths). Further studies should expand these results through tests of these and other new blends with a range of component ratios and total loading amounts. Field trials should also be replicated within all host crops of codling moth and across major geographical production regions.     

Upper bound estimators of the population size based on ordinal models for capture‐recapture experiments

Capture‐recapture studies have attracted a lot of attention over the past few decades, especially in applied disciplines where a direct estimate for the size of a population of interest is not available. Epidemiology, ecology, public health, and biodiversity are just a few examples. The estimation of the number of unseen units has been a challenge for theoretical statisticians, and considerable progress has been made in providing lower bound estimators for the population size. In fact, it is well known that consistent estimators for this cannot be provided in the very general case. Considering a case where capture‐recapture studies are summarized by a frequency of frequencies distribution, we derive a simple upper bound of the population size based on the cumulative distribution function. We introduce two estimators of this bound, without any specific parametric assumption on the distribution of the observed frequency counts. The behavior of the proposed estimators is investigated using several benchmark datasets and a large‐scale simulation experiment based on the scheme discussed by Pledger.