Stress early in life leads to cognitive impairments,reduced numbers of CA3 neurons and altered maternal behavior in adult female mice

The hippocampus is a crucial part of the limbic system involved both in cognitive processing and in the regulation of responses to stress. Adverse experiences early in life can disrupt hippocampal development and lead to impairment of the hypothalamic‐pituitary‐adrenal axis response to subsequent stressors. In our study, two types of early‐life stress were used: prolonged separation of pups from their mothers (for 3 hours/day, maternal separation, MS) and brief separation (for 15 minutes/day, handling, HD). In the first part of our study, we found that adult female mice (F0) who had experienced MS showed reduced locomotor activity and impairment of long‐term spatial and recognition memory. Analysis of various hippocampal regions showed that MS reduced the number of mature neurons in CA3 of females, which is perhaps a crucial hippocampal region for learning and memory; however, neurogenesis remained unchanged. In the second part, we measured maternal care in female mice with a history of early‐life stress (F0) as well as the behavior of their adult offspring (F1). Our results indicated that MS reduced the level of maternal care in adult females (F0) toward their own progeny and caused sex‐specific changes in the social behavior of adult offspring (F1). In contrast to MS, HD had no influence on female behavior or hippocampal plasticity. Overall, our results suggest that prolonged MS early in life affects the adult behavior of F0 female mice and hippocampal neuronal plasticity, whereas the mothers' previous experience has effects on the behavior of their F1 offspring through disturbances of mother‐infant interactions.     

Silver‐spoon upbringing improves early‐life fitness but promotes reproductive ageing in a wild bird

Early‐life conditions can have long‐lasting effects and organisms that experience a poor start in life are often expected to age at a faster rate. Alternatively, individuals raised in high‐quality environments can overinvest in early‐reproduction resulting in rapid ageing. Here we use a long‐term experimental manipulation of early‐life conditions in a natural population of collared flycatchers (Ficedula albicollis), to show that females raised in a low‐competition environment (artificially reduced broods) have higher early‐life reproduction but lower late‐life reproduction than females raised in high‐competition environment (artificially increased broods). Reproductive success of high‐competition females peaked in late‐life, when low‐competition females were already in steep reproductive decline and suffered from a higher mortality rate. Our results demonstrate that ‘silver‐spoon’ natal conditions increase female early‐life performance at the cost of faster reproductive ageing and increased late‐life mortality. These findings demonstrate experimentally that natal environment shapes individual variation in reproductive and actuarial ageing in nature.     

C-reactive protein as an early predictor of COVID-19 severity

BackgroundData for predicting severity of patients with COVID-19 infection are sparse and still under investigation. We retrospectively studied whether the admission serum C-reactive protein level (CRP) can serve as nearly predictor of disease severity during COVID-19 infection in comparison with other hematologic and inflammatory markers.MethodsWe included all consecutive patients who were admitted in Cheikh Khalifa International University Hospital, Casablanca, Morocco, between February to April 2020, with a confirmed diagnosis of COVID-19 infection using SARS-CoV-2 viral nucleic acid via RT-PCR. The complete blood count and serum CRP level were routinely measured on admission. All clinical and laboratory data of patients were collected and analyzed. The classification of the disease severity was in accordance with the clinical classification of the WHO interim guidance, and the management of patients were adapted to the national management guideline. We estimated receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves of blood routine parameters as well as their association with COVID-19 disease severity.Results145 COVID-19 patients were included in the study. The median age (range) was 50 (32-63) years, and 75 (51.7%) were men. 101 patients were classified in the non-severe group and 44 patients in the severe group. Based on disease severity, significant differences were observed in the age, gender, comorbidities, and respiratory symptom. Similarly, the biological analysis found significant differences for the neutrophil count, lymphocyte count, eosinophil count, and CRP level. However, according to ROC curves of these laboratory biomarkers, the AUC of CRP at 0.872 was significantly higher than all other parameters. Further, CRP was independently associated with severity of COVID-19 disease (OR = 1.11, 95% IC (1.01-1.22) and or = 1.13, 95% IC (1.04-1.23)).ConclusionsThis study found that the CRP level at admission represent a simple and independent factor that can be useful for early detection of severity during COVID-19 and the easy guidance of primary care.     

安徽省宣城麻村旧石器遗址调查及发掘简报

水阳江流域是长江下游右岸的一条重要支流,以上世纪80-90年代发现“水阳江旧石器地点群”为学术界所关注。2004年,安徽省文物考古研究所主持对流域内宣城麻村旧石器遗址进行考古调查与发掘工作,其中调查采集石制品71件,发掘出土石制品78件。遗址埋藏于水阳江右岸第二级河流阶地的红色黏土层中;石制品原料取自河流阶地下部的河卵石且以石英岩占绝对优势。石制品制作以锤击法为主,砸击法少量;石制品类型包括打击类、剥片类、废片类和小型工具等。石核剥片程度较低,石片多为初级剥片产品,总体显示中国南方砾石工业的特点。虽然技术组合处于模式I范畴内,但部分长度超过10 cm的石片和手镐及石刀等大型切割工具的发现,表明早期人类具备生产模式II产品的能力。根据石制品埋藏于网纹红土及上部均质红土的特点以及同长江中下游相关地区的地貌和年代对比,推测麻村遗址时代为大致为中更新世晚期至晚更新世早期。     

Predicting Pasture and Forest Landowner Intention to Create Early Successional Habitat

As human land uses expand across the landscape, the management practices of private landowners are an essential part of effective conservation. Early successional habitats (ESH) and the species that depend on them are a priority in the eastern United States, and efforts to create ESH on private lands has primarily focused on forest landowners and timber harvests. Private pasture lands in a forested landscape present an additional opportunity to create and maintain ESH, yet our understanding of landowner values and attitudes about management strategies in pastures is lacking. To address this, we surveyed private landowners in 5 Virginia counties who own ≥10.1 ha at >610 m elevation (n = 503). Our primary objective was to understand how a variety of factors such as landowner values, past experience with habitat management, and perceived barriers to carrying out habitat management are associated with private landowner intention to carry out 7 ESH management strategies (i.e., reduced mowing, reduced grazing, timber harvests within forest, timber harvests at a field-forest border, prescribed fire, use of machinery, and use of herbicides to control invasive species) for the benefit of wildlife in the next 5 years. We used boosted regression trees to determine which factors best predicted the intention to carry out each management strategy. We were able to predict accuracy >75% of the time for landowner intention to engage in open pasture and timber management strategies. Landowner values were not consistent across the different management strategies; landowners likely to reduce mowing or grazing valued ecological aspects of their land (e.g., pollinator habitat, water quality), whereas landowners likely to harvest timber valued hunting and revenue. Past experience with wildlife management was the strongest predictor of likelihood to reduce mowing and grazing. Our results suggest that expanding outreach efforts to include pasture management options would engage a broader set of landowners in creating ESH, especially if such efforts highlighted the benefits to pollinator species, water quality, and enhanced opportunities for hunting and other types of recreation. © 2021 The Wildlife Society.     

The Regulatory Roles of microRNAs and Associated Target Genes during Early Somatic Embryogenesis in <i>Liriodendron Sino-Americanum</i>

Somatic cells respond to considerable stress, and go through a series of phytohormone pathways, then forming an embryo. The developmental process is recorded as somatic embryogenesis (SE). One of the key components regulating SE are the microRNAs (miRNAs). Despite previous studies, it is still not clear exactly how miRNAs exert their function of regulating targets during conditionally activated early SE. Here, we use Liriodendron sino-americanum as a model system and perform a combined analysis of microfluidic chips and degradome sequencing to study this process. We identified a total of 386 conserved miRNAs and 153 novel miRNAs during early SE. According to the ANOVA test, 239 miRNAs showed 12 distinct expression patterns. Through degradome sequencing, 419 targets and 198 targets were identified for 136 known miRNAs and 37 novel miRNAs, respectively. Gene Ontology (GO) and metabolism pathway enrichment analysis revealed that these targets were significantly involved in oxidation-reduction processes, calmodulin-mediated signal transduction pathways and carbohydrate metabolism. The genes that were related to stress responses, phytohormone pathways and plant metabolism were identified within the targets of miR319, miR395, miR408, miR472, miR482, miR390, miR2055, miR156, miR157, miR171, miR396, miR397, miR529, miR535 and miR159. According to promoter analysis, various cis-acting elements related to plant growth and development, phytohormones response and stress response were present in the promoter of the miRNAs. The differential expression patterns of 11 miRNA-target modules were confirmed by real-time quantitative PCR. The study demonstrated that the miRNA plays an important role in the early SE process by regulating its target and then participating in carbohydrate metabolism and stress response. It also provided a valuable resource for further research in determining the genetic mechanism of SE, and then facilitating breeding programs on plants.     

Early development of the endemic dace Telestes karsticus (Leuciscidae,Cypriniformes) in a Dinaric karst stream in Croatia

Early development of the endemic dace Telestes karsticus is described in a Dinaric karst stream in Croatia. Larvae were acquired from successful rearing in an aquarium. Basic morphometric and meristic measures of larvae were taken during 55 days of observation. The mean total length of larvae at the time of hatching was 6.45 mm. The yolk sac was completely absorbed in all larvae by day 9 post-hatching (PH), when the mouth also opened and independent feeding and intestinal function were observed. Flexion of the urostyle was completed between days 12–16 PH. The caudal fin became completely forked on day 23 PH. Formation of fin rays was complete on day 48 PH when fish fully resembled juvenile specimens. The number of soft ray fins corresponds to the adult. Understanding the early development is particularly valuable in assessing environmental impacts and recovering of this endangered species and it is essential for effective monitoring and its conservation. This is the first report of the early development for the endemic Telestes karsticus, pointing out the importance of the obtained results for the effective conservation of the species.     

Microautophagy in the visceral endoderm is essential for mouse early development

During early embryogenesis, before the conceptus forms the placenta, maternal nutrients as well as signaling molecules must reach the embryo proper through a tightly sealed epithelial tissue, the visceral endoderm (VE). The VE serves as a signaling center for embryogenesis, where exocytic and endocytic processes integrate signal production, perception and termination. However, the endocytic process in this important tissue has not been well characterized. We show that endocytic delivery to the lysosomes occurs via RAB7-dependent microautophagy. This process is essential for early mammalian development.