An overview of malaria transmission from the perspective of Amazon Anopheles vectors

In the Americas, areas with a high risk of malaria transmission are mainly located in the Amazon Forest, which extends across nine countries. One keystone step to understanding the Plasmodium life cycle in Anopheles species from the Amazon Region is to obtain experimentally infected mosquito vectors. Several attempts to colonise Ano- pheles species have been conducted, but with only short-lived success or no success at all. In this review, we review the literature on malaria transmission from the perspective of its Amazon vectors. Currently, it is possible to develop experimental Plasmodium vivax infection of the colonised and field-captured vectors in laboratories located close to Amazonian endemic areas. We are also reviewing studies related to the immune response to P. vivax infection of Anopheles aquasalis, a coastal mosquito species. Finally, we discuss the importance of the modulation of Plasmodium infection by the vector microbiota and also consider the anopheline genomes. The establishment of experimental mosquito infections with Plasmodium falciparum, Plasmodium yoelii and Plasmodium berghei parasites that could provide interesting models for studying malaria in the Amazonian scenario is important. Understanding the molecular mechanisms involved in the development of the parasites in New World vectors is crucial in order to better determine the interaction process and vectorial competence.     

Mir-190b negatively contributes to the Trypanosoma cruzi- infected cell survival by repressing PTEN protein expression

Chagas disease, which is caused by the intracellular protozoanTrypanosoma cruzi, is a serious health problem in Latin America. The heart is one of the major organs affected by this parasitic infection. The pathogenesis of tissue remodelling, particularly regarding cardiomyocyte behaviour after parasite infection, and the molecular mechanisms that occur immediately following parasite entry into host cells are not yet completely understood. Previous studies have reported that the establishment of parasitism is connected to the activation of the phosphatidylinositol-3 kinase (PI3K), which controls important steps in cellular metabolism by regulating the production of the second messenger phosphatidylinositol-3,4,5-trisphosphate. Particularly, the tumour suppressor PTEN is a negative regulator of PI3K signalling. However, mechanistic details of the modulatory activity of PTEN on Chagas disease have not been elucidated. To address this question, H9c2 cells were infected with T. cruzi Berenice 62 strain and the expression of a specific set of microRNAs (miRNAs) were investigated. Our cellular model demonstrated that miRNA-190b is correlated to the decrease of cellular viability rates by negatively modulating PTEN protein expression in T. cruzi-infected cells.     

Biocontrol evaluation of extracts and a major component,clusianone, from Clusia fluminensis Planch. & Triana against Aedes aegypti

Studies evaluated the effects of hexanic extracts from the fruits and flowers ofClusia fluminensis and the main component of the flower extract, a purified benzophenone (clusianone), against Aedes aegypti. The treatment of larvae with the crude fruit or flower extracts from C. fluminensis did not affect the survival ofAe. aegypti (50 mg/L), however, the flower extracts significantly delayed development of Ae. aegypti. In contrast, the clusianone (50 mg/L) isolate from the flower extract, representing 54.85% of this sample composition, showed a highly significant inhibition of survival, killing 93.3% of the larvae and completely blocking development of Ae. aegypti. The results showed, for the first time, high activity of clusianone against Ae. aegypti that both killed and inhibited mosquito development. Therefore, clusianone has potential for development as a biopesticide for controlling insect vectors of tropical diseases. Future work will elucidate the mode of action of clusianone isolated from C. fluminensis.     

Mitochondrial and Oxidative Stress Aspects in Hippocampus of Rats Submitted to Dietary n-3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acid Deficiency After Exposure to Early Stress

Neurochemical Research - Chronic dietary long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) deficiency may lead to changes in cortex and hippocampus neuronal membrane phospholipids, and may be linked...     

Comparative Epidemiology of Three Virus Diseases on Zucchini Squash

Zucchini yellow mosaic virus (ZYMV), Papaya ringspot virus – type W (PRSV‐W) and Zucchini lethal chlorosis virus (ZLCV) cause important diseases on zucchini squash crops in Brazil. ZYMV and PRSV‐W belong to the genus Potyvirus and are transmitted by aphids, whereas ZLCV belongs to Tospovirus and is transmitted by the thrips Frankliniella zucchini. These three viruses may occur simultaneously in the field, and the epidemiology of the corresponding diseases may be determined by interactions among viruses, hosts and vectors. In this work, the progress of the diseases caused by these viruses was studied over a temporal and geographic range for three planting seasons (PS). For the lethal chlorosis (ZLCV), a monomolecular model was found to be the best fit for the data, though only during the third PS. For data collected during the first two PS, the Gompertz model was found to fit the data best. The spatial distribution of disease indicated disease aggregation at the end of the crop cycle. For the yellow mosaic (ZYMV), the model that best fit in the 1st PS was the logistic and in the 2nd and 3rd PS was monomolecular. The spatial pattern of the disease was random when the disease incidence was low but aggregated when the disease incidence was high. The common mosaic (PRSV‐W) showed the lowest incidence in all three PS. An exponential model was the best fit for data collected during all PS, and the spatial pattern of the disease was random. Interactions among the three viruses apparently did not result in changes in the epidemiology of the diseases. Removal of sources of inoculum and planting at an unfavourable time for reproduction of virus vectors are the two main measures recommended for the control of these diseases. The use of insecticide is indicated only for the control of the F. zucchini.     

Phylogenetic eigenvectors and nonstationarity in the evolution of theropod dinosaur skulls

Despite the long‐standing interest in nonstationarity of both phenotypic evolution and diversification rates, only recently have methods been developed to study this property. Here, we propose a methodological expansion of the phylogenetic signal‐representation (PSR) curve based on phylogenetic eigenvectors to test for nonstationarity. The PSR curve is built by plotting the coefficients of determination R² from phylogenetic eigenvector regression (PVR) models increasing the number of phylogenetic eigenvectors against the accumulated eigenvalues. The PSR curve is linear under a stationary model of trait evolution (i.e. the Brownian motion model). Here we describe the distribution of shifts in the models R² and used a randomization procedure to compare observed and simulated shifts along the PSR curve, which allowed detecting nonstationarity in trait evolution. As an applied example, we show that the main evolutionary pattern of variation in the theropod dinosaur skull was nonstationary, with a significant shift in evolutionary rates in derived oviraptorosaurs, an aberrant group of mostly toothless, crested, birdlike theropods. This result is also supported by a recently proposed Bayesian‐based method (AUTEUR). A significant deviation between Ceratosaurus and Limusaurus terminal branches was also detected. We purport that our new approach is a valuable tool for evolutionary biologists, owing to its simplicity, flexibility and comprehensiveness.     

Differential effects of temperature change and human impact on European Late Quaternary mammalian extinctions

Species that inhabited Europe during the Late Quaternary were impacted by temperature changes and early humans, resulting in the disappearance of half of the European large mammals. However, quantifying the relative importance that each factor had in the extinction risk of species has been challenging, mostly due to the spatio‐temporal biases of fossil records, which complicate the calibration of realistic and accurate ecological niche modeling. Here, we overcome this problem by using ecotypes, and not real species, to run our models. We created 40 ecotypes with different temperature requirements (mean temperature from ?20 °C to 25 °C and temperature range from 10 °C to 40 °C) and used them to quantify the effect of climate change and human impact. Our results show that cold‐adapted ecotypes would have been highly affected by past temperature changes in Europe, whereas temperate and warm‐adapted ecotypes would have been positively affected by temperature change. Human impact affected all ecotypes negatively, and temperate ecotypes suffered the greatest impacts. Based on these results, the extinction of cold‐adapted species like Mammuthus primigenius may be related to temperature change, while the extinction of temperate species, like Crocuta crocuta, may be related to human impact. Our results suggest that temperature change and human impact affected different ecotypes in distinct ways, and that the interaction of both impacts may have shaped species extinctions in Europe.