Efficiency of flagging and dragging for tick collection

It is acknowledged that data from field studies on tick ecology might be biased by collection methods, but actually comparative studies are still limited. Herein we assessed whether the efficiency of flagging and dragging varies according to tick developmental stage, species, season and habitat. Ticks were collected in three sites bordered by an oak forest. The abundance of ticks collected by each collection method varied according to tick species, developmental stage, season, and habitat. Flagging was in general more efficient in collecting adult ticks, especially in spring and winter. Females were more frequently collected by flagging in the meadow and grassland habitats and males in the man-made trail. Flagging collected significantly more adults of Dermacentor marginatus, Hyalomma marginatum, Haemaphysalis inermis and Ixodes ricinus. Flagging was more efficient in collecting D. marginatus and I. ricinus in spring, and H. inermis and I. ricinus females in both spring and winter. In summer and autumn tick abundances were generally similar, with the exception of D. marginatus female in autumn. Flagging was more efficient in collecting D. marginatus adults in the meadow habitat and in the man-made trail, and I. ricinus adults in the meadow and grassland habitats. Dragging was more efficient in grassland for R. turanicus. Our results suggest that variations in terms of collection method performance are associated to factors linked to tick behaviour, habitat characteristics, and climate. Field studies employing these collection methods should take this into account to avoid misleading conclusions about tick population dynamics and tick-borne pathogen transmission risk.     

Aerobic biodegradation of propylene glycol by soil bacteria

Propylene glycol (PG) is a main component of aircraft deicing fluids and its extensive use in Northern airports is a source of soil and groundwater contamination. Bacterial consortia able to grow on PG as sole carbon and energy source were selected from soil samples taken along the runways of Oslo Airport Gardermoen site (Norway). DGGE analysis of enrichment cultures showed that PG-degrading populations were mainly composed by Pseudomonas species, although Bacteroidetes were found, as well. Nineteen bacterial strains, able to grow on PG as sole carbon and energy source, were isolated and identified as different Pseudomonas species. Maximum specific growth rate of mixed cultures in the absence of nutrient limitation was 0.014 h^?1 at 4 °C. Substrate C:N:P molar ratios calculated on the basis of measured growth yields are in good agreement with the suggested values for biostimulation reported in literature. Therefore, the addition of nutrients is suggested as a suitable technique to sustain PG aerobic degradation at the maximum rate by autochthonous microorganisms of unsaturated soil profile.     

Multi-Allelic Major Effect Genes Interact with Minor Effect QTLs to Control Adaptive Color Pattern Variation in Heliconius erato

Recent studies indicate that relatively few genomic regions are repeatedly involved in the evolution of Heliconius butterfly wing patterns. Although this work demonstrates a number of cases where homologous loci underlie both convergent and divergent wing pattern change among different Heliconius species, it is still unclear exactly how many loci underlie pattern variation across the genus. To address this question for Heliconius erato, we created fifteen independent crosses utilizing the four most distinct color pattern races and analyzed color pattern segregation across a total of 1271 F2 and backcross offspring. Additionally, we used the most variable brood, an F2 cross between H. himera and the east Ecuadorian H. erato notabilis, to perform a quantitative genetic analysis of color pattern variation and produce a detailed map of the loci likely involved in the H. erato color pattern radiation. Using AFLP and gene based markers, we show that fewer major genes than previously envisioned control the color pattern variation in H. erato. We describe for the first time the genetic architecture of H. erato wing color pattern by assessing quantitative variation in addition to traditional linkage mapping. In particular, our data suggest three genomic intervals modulate the bulk of the observed variation in color. Furthermore, we also identify several modifier loci of moderate effect size that contribute to the quantitative wing pattern variation. Our results are consistent with the two-step model for the evolution of mimetic wing patterns in Heliconius and support a growing body of empirical data demonstrating the importance of major effect loci in adaptive change.     

Visual BOLD Response in Late Blind Subjects with Argus II Retinal Prosthesis

Retinal prosthesis technologies require that the visual system downstream of the retinal circuitry be capable of transmitting and elaborating visual signals. We studied the capability of plastic remodeling in late blind subjects implanted with the Argus II Retinal Prosthesis with psychophysics and functional MRI (fMRI). After surgery, six out of seven retinitis pigmentosa (RP) blind subjects were able to detect high-contrast stimuli using the prosthetic implant. However, direction discrimination to contrast modulated stimuli remained at chance level in all of them. No subject showed any improvement of contrast sensitivity in either eye when not using the Argus II. Before the implant, the Blood Oxygenation Level Dependent (BOLD) activity in V1 and the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) was very weak or absent. Surprisingly, after prolonged use of Argus II, BOLD responses to visual input were enhanced. This is, to our knowledge, the first study tracking the neural changes of visual areas in patients after retinal implant, revealing a capacity to respond to restored visual input even after years of deprivation.     

Interactive effects of pests increase seed yield

Loss in seed yield and therefore decrease in plant fitness due to simultaneous attacks by multiple herbivores is not necessarily additive, as demonstrated in evolutionary studies on wild plants. However, it is not clear how this transfers to crop plants that grow in very different conditions compared to wild plants. Nevertheless, loss in crop seed yield caused by any single pest is most often studied in isolation although crop plants are attacked by many pests that can cause substantial yield losses. This is especially important for crops able to compensate and even overcompensate for the damage. We investigated the interactive impacts on crop yield of four insect pests attacking different plant parts at different times during the cropping season. In 15 oilseed rape fields in Sweden, we estimated the damage caused by seed and stem weevils, pollen beetles, and pod midges. Pest pressure varied drastically among fields with very low correlation among pests, allowing us to explore interactive impacts on yield from attacks by multiple species. The plant damage caused by each pest species individually had, as expected, either no, or a negative impact on seed yield and the strongest negative effect was caused by pollen beetles. However, seed yield increased when plant damage caused by both seed and stem weevils was high, presumably due to the joint plant compensatory reaction to insect attack leading to overcompensation. Hence, attacks by several pests can change the impact on yield of individual pest species. Economic thresholds based on single species, on which pest management decisions currently rely, may therefore result in economically suboptimal choices being made and unnecessary excessive use of insecticides.     

Modeling Staphylococcus epidermidis-Induced Non-Unions: Subclinical and Clinical Evidence in Rats

S. epidermidis is one of the leading causes of orthopaedic infections associated with biofilm formation on implant devices. Open fractures are at risk of S. epidermidis transcutaneous contamination leading to higher non-union development compared to closed fractures. Although the role of infection in delaying fracture healing is well recognized, no in vivo models investigated the impact of subclinical low-grade infections on bone repair and non-union. We hypothesized that the non-union rate is directly related to the load of this commonly retrieved pathogen and that a low-grade contamination delays the fracture healing without clinically detectable infection. Rat femurs were osteotomized and stabilized with plates. Fractures were infected with a characterized clinical-derived methicillin-resistant S. epidermidis (10³, 10⁵, 10⁸ colony forming units) and compared to uninfected controls. After 56 days, bone healing and osteomyelitis were clinically assessed and further evaluated by micro-CT, microbiological and histological analyses. The biofilm formation was visualized by scanning electron microscopy. The control group showed no signs of infection and a complete bone healing. The 10³ group displayed variable response to infection with a 67% of altered bone healing and positive bacterial cultures, despite no clinical signs of infection present. The 10⁵ and 10⁸ groups showed severe signs of osteomyelitis and a non-union rate of 83–100%, respectively. The cortical bone reaction related to the periosteal elevation in the control group and the metal scattering detected by micro-CT represented limitations of this study. Our model showed that an intra-operative low-grade S. epidermidis contamination might prevent the bone healing, even in the absence of infectious signs. Our findings also pointed out a dose-dependent effect between the S. epidermidis inoculum and non-union rate. This pilot study identifies a relevant preclinical model to assess the role of subclinical infections in orthopaedic and trauma surgery and to test specifically designed diagnostic, prevention and therapeutic strategies.     

The rat ErbB2 tyrosine kinase receptor produced in plants is immunogenic in mice and confers protective immunity against ErbB2+ mammary cancer

The rat ErbB2 (rErbB2) protein is a 185‐kDa glycoprotein belonging to the epidermal growth factor‐related proteins (ErbB) of receptor tyrosine kinases. Overexpression and mutations of ErbB proteins lead to several malignancies including breast, lung, pancreatic, bladder and ovary carcinomas. ErbB2 is immunogenic and is an ideal candidate for cancer immunotherapy. We investigated the possibility of expressing the extracellular (EC) domain of rErbB2 (653 amino acids, aa) in Nicotiana benthamiana plants, testing the influence of the 23 aa transmembrane (TM) sequence on protein accumulation. Synthetic variants of the rErbB2 gene portion encoding the EC domain, optimized with a human codon usage and either linked to the full TM domain (rErbB2_TM, 676 aa), to a portion of it (rErbB2‐pTM, 662 aa), or deprived of it (rErbB2_noTM, 653 aa) were cloned in the pEAQ‐HT expression vector as 6X His tag fusions. All rErbB2 variants (72–74.5 kDa) were transiently expressed, but the TM was detrimental for rErbB2 EC accumulation. rERbB2_noTM was the most expressed protein; it was solubilized and purified with Nickel affinity resin. When crude soluble extracts expressing rErbB2_noTM were administered to BALB/c mice, specific rErbB2 immune responses were triggered. A potent antitumour activity was induced when vaccinated mice were challenged with syngeneic transplantable ErbB2⁺ mammary carcinoma cells. To our knowledge, this is the first report of expression of rErbB2 in plants and of its efficacy in inducing a protective antitumour immune response, opening interesting perspectives for further immunological testing.