Development of New Natural Extracts

For over the past 20 years, a remarkable development in the study and search of natural products has been observed. This is linked to a new market trend towards ecology and also due to new regulations. This could be a rupture, but also a real booster for creativity. Usually, in the flavor and fragrance field, creativity was boosted by the arrival of new synthetic molecules. Naturals remained the traditional, century‐old products, protected by secrecy and specific know‐how from each company. Regulatory restrictions or eco‐friendly certification constraints like hexane‐free processes triggered an important brainstorming in the industry. As a result, we developed new eco‐friendly processes including supercritical CO₂ extraction, allowing fresh plants to be used to obtain industrial flower extracts (Jasmine Grandiflorum, Jasmine Sambac, Orange blossom). These extracts are analyzed by GC, GC/MS, GC? O, and HPTLC techniques. New or unusual raw materials can also be explored, but the resulting extracts have to be tested for safety reasons. Some examples are described.     

MALDI–MS Profiling to Address Honey Bee Health Status under Bacterial Challenge through Computational Modeling

Honey bees play a critical role in the maintenance of plant biodiversity and sustainability of food webs. In the past few decades, bees have been subjected to biotic and abiotic threats causing various colony disorders. Therefore, monitoring solutions to help beekeepers to improve bee health are necessary. Matrix‐assisted laser desorption ionization–mass spectrometry (MALDI–MS) profiling has emerged within this decade as a powerful tool to identify in routine micro‐organisms and is currently used in real‐time clinical diagnosis. MALDI BeeTyping is developed to monitor significant hemolymph molecular changes in honey bees upon infection with a series of entomopathogenic Gram‐positive and ‐negative bacteria. A Serratia marcescens strain isolated from one naturally infected honey bee collected from the field is also considered. A series of hemolymph molecular mass fingerprints is individually recorded and to the authors' knowledge, the first computational model harboring a predictive score of 97.92% and made of nine molecular signatures that discriminate and classify the honey bees’ systemic response to the bacteria is built. Hence, the model is challenged by classifying a training set of hemolymphs and an overall recognition of 91.93% is obtained. Through this work, a novel, time and cost saving high‐throughput strategy that addresses honey bee health on an individual scale is introduced.     

Risks of Avian Influenza Transmission in Areas of Intensive Free-Ranging Duck Production with Wild Waterfowl

For decades, southern China has been considered to be an important source for emerging influenza viruses since key hosts live together in high densities in areas with intensive agriculture. However, the underlying conditions of emergence and spread of avian influenza viruses (AIV) have not been studied in detail, particularly the complex spatiotemporal interplay of viral transmission between wild and domestic ducks, two major actors of AIV epidemiology. In this synthesis, we examine the risks of avian influenza spread in Poyang Lake, an area of intensive free-ranging duck production and large numbers of wild waterfowl. Our synthesis shows that farming of free-grazing domestic ducks is intensive in this area and synchronized with wild duck migration. The presence of juvenile domestic ducks in harvested paddy fields prior to the arrival and departure of migrant ducks in the same fields may amplify the risk of AIV circulation and facilitate the transmission between wild and domestic populations. We provide evidence associating wild ducks migration with the spread of H5N1 in the spring of 2008 from southern China to South Korea, Russia, and Japan, supported by documented wild duck movements and phylogenetic analyses of highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 sequences. We suggest that prevention measures based on a modification of agricultural practices may be implemented in these areas to reduce the intensity of AIV transmission between wild and domestic ducks. This would require involving all local stakeholders to discuss feasible and acceptable solutions.     

Reciprocal influence of connexins and apical junction proteins on their expressions and functions

Membranes of adjacent cells form intercellular junctional complexes to mechanically anchor neighbour cells (anchoring junctions), to seal the paracellular space and to prevent diffusion of integral proteins within the plasma membrane (tight junctions) and to allow cell-to-cell diffusion of small ions and molecules (gap junctions). These different types of specialised plasma membrane microdomains, sharing common adaptor molecules, particularly zonula occludens proteins, frequently present intermingled relationships where the different proteins co-assemble into macromolecular complexes and their expressions are co-ordinately regulated. Proteins forming gap junction channels (connexins, particularly) and proteins fulfilling cell attachment or forming tight junction strands mutually influence expression and functions of one another.     

What Triggers Reproductive Life? Effects of Adolescent Cohabitation,Social Novelty and Aggression in a Monogamous Mouse

Cohabitation during childhood has been described as a powerful inhibitor of later sexual interest in animals including humans (the 'Westermarck effect'), serving as a brother–sister incest avoidance mechanism. Mound-building mice Mus spicilegus display a strong social inhibition of reproduction, responsible for the absence of reproduction in over-wintering tumuli. To better understand the mechanisms responsible for triggering reproduction in this monogamous species, we formed 100 experimental couples of juveniles (35 d) and surveyed reproduction for 45 d. As expected, very few couples reproduced, which confirms the role of social familiarity in the inhibition of reproduction. Temporary separation (1 h or 24 h) of the two partners had little effect on reproductive success. However, pairing with a new partner, with or without prior isolation, significantly triggered reproduction. Observations of the first encounter between new partners revealed more agonistic and less affiliative behaviour than in controls (reunion of familiar partners). Interestingly, when the new partner was a sibling of the previous one, the behavioural analysis revealed an intermediate level of aggression, indicating that kinship with the previous partner was perceived and had consequences on social behaviour. Mice could therefore choose a new partner based on its relatedness to the previous mate. Mutual tolerance between new partners during the dyadic encounter was negatively correlated with subsequent reproduction. These results demonstrate the paramount role of social novelty in triggering reproduction in this monogamous mouse, and suggest a link between agonistic behaviour and sexual motivation. In the field, mound-building mice may need to engage in agonistic interactions so as to overcome the long-lasting social inhibition of reproduction in overwintering mounds.     

Rainfall manipulation experiments as simulated by terrestrial biosphere models: Where do we stand?

Changes in rainfall amounts and patterns have been observed and are expected to continue in the near future with potentially significant ecological and societal consequences. Modelling vegetation responses to changes in rainfall is thus crucial to project water and carbon cycles in the future. In this study, we present the results of a new model‐data intercomparison project, where we tested the ability of 10 terrestrial biosphere models to reproduce the observed sensitivity of ecosystem productivity to rainfall changes at 10 sites across the globe, in nine of which, rainfall exclusion and/or irrigation experiments had been performed. The key results are as follows: (a) Inter‐model variation is generally large and model agreement varies with timescales. In severely water‐limited sites, models only agree on the interannual variability of evapotranspiration and to a smaller extent on gross primary productivity. In more mesic sites, model agreement for both water and carbon fluxes is typically higher on fine (daily–monthly) timescales and reduces on longer (seasonal–annual) scales. (b) Models on average overestimate the relationship between ecosystem productivity and mean rainfall amounts across sites (in space) and have a low capacity in reproducing the temporal (interannual) sensitivity of vegetation productivity to annual rainfall at a given site, even though observation uncertainty is comparable to inter‐model variability. (c) Most models reproduced the sign of the observed patterns in productivity changes in rainfall manipulation experiments but had a low capacity in reproducing the observed magnitude of productivity changes. Models better reproduced the observed productivity responses due to rainfall exclusion than addition. (d) All models attribute ecosystem productivity changes to the intensity of vegetation stress and peak leaf area, whereas the impact of the change in growing season length is negligible. The relative contribution of the peak leaf area and vegetation stress intensity was highly variable among models.     

Rudimentary pedal grasping in mice and implications for terminal branch arboreal quadrupedalism

We use an outbred laboratory mouse strain (ICR/CD‐1, Charles River Laboratories, Inc.) to model a type of preprimate locomotion associated with rudimentary pedal grasping. Ten male mice were assigned to either control or climbing groups (n = 5 per group). Climbing mice lived within a specialized terrarium that included ～7.5 m of thin branches (5 and 10 cm long) with a thickness of 3.3mm, arranged in a reticulated canopy. Food, water, and a nest site were placed among the branches. To discourage mice from palmigrade or digitigrade locomotion, the floor of the terrarium was flooded with a few centimeters of water. Climbing mice were placed in this setting upon weaning and reared for 3 months until they were mature in size. Litter, and age‐matched controls were also maintained for comparison with climbers. Climbing mice quickly acclimated to the requirements of the fine‐branch model using the foot and tail for grasping and balance. At maturity, climbing and control mice exhibited minor, but significant, morphological plasticity. For climbers, this includes a greater angle of the femoral neck, larger patellar groove index, relatively shorter talar neck length, and more circular talar head aspect ratio (P < 0.10). Climbers also exhibit increased curvature of the distal third metacarpal, decreased talar head angle, and relatively longer caudal vertebrae transverse processes (P < 0.05). These results in a small‐bodied eutherian mammal suggest that facultative hallucial opposability and coordinated tail use enable a kind of grasping active arboreal quadrupedality relevant to the latest stages of pre‐euarchontan evolution. In light of these data, we hypothesize that a unique advantage of mouse‐sized mammals is that they exhibit a highly flexible body plan allowing them to engage in a diverse array of anatomical positions without requiring specific limb morphologies. J. Morphol.,2011. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Role of RYR3 splice variants in calcium signaling in mouse nonpregnant and pregnant myometrium

Alternative splicing of ryanodine receptor subtype 3 (RYR3) may generate a short isoform (RYR3S) without channel function and a functional full-length isoform (RYR3L). The RYR3S isoform has been shown to negatively regulate the native RYR2 subtype in smooth muscle cells as well as the RYR3L isoform when both isoforms were coexpressed in HEK-293 cells. Mouse myometrium expresses only the RYR3 subtype, but the role of RYR3 isoforms obtained by alternative splicing and their activation by cADP-ribose during pregnancy have never been investigated. Here, we show that both RYR3S and RYR3L isoforms are differentially expressed in nonpregnant and pregnant mouse myometrium. The use of antisense oligonucleotides directed against each isoform indicated that only RYR3L was activated by caffeine and cADP-ribose in nonpregnant myometrium. These RYR3L-mediated Ca²⁺ releases were negatively regulated by RYR3S expression. At the end of pregnancy, the relative expression of RYR3L versus RYR3S and its ability to respond to cADP-ribose were increased. Therefore, our results suggest that physiological regulation of RYR3 alternative splicing may play an essential role at the end of pregnancy. ryanodine receptor; smooth muscle; alternative splicing