Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungal Colonization at Different Succession Stages in Songnen Saline-Alkali Grassland

Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi can form symbiosis with 90% of the vascular plants and play important roles in ecosystem. To realize the AM fungal colonization at different succession stages in saline-alkali land and screen AM fungi species with great functions, roots and soil samples were collected from the three succession stages of Songnen saline-alkali grassland. The soil properties and AM fungal colonization were measured, and the fungus distributed extensively in three stages was annotated by sequencing for AML1/AML2 target, subsequently, maize was selected as the host to verify its colonization. The results showed that the soil properties improved with the succession of saline-alkali grassland. The plants’ communities of the three stages could be colonized by AM fungi, and the colonization rate of Leymus chinensis (the third stage) ranged from 66.67% to 100%, Puccinellia tenuiflora (the second stage) ranged from 50% to 80%, while the Suaeda glauca (the first stage) was only 35%–60%. Glomeraceae sp1 was identified as the dominant AM fungi species which occurred frequently in the succession of saline-alkali land with the isolation frequency, relative abundance, and importance value of 100%, 18.1%, and 59.1%, respectively. The colonization rate of Glomeraceae sp1 in maize ranged from 80% to 87% and similar mycorrhizal characteristics were detected in the roots of P. tenuiflora, S. glauca, and L. chinensis, indicating that Glomeraceae sp1 colonized the samples in the field. The correlation matrix indicated that colonization rate, colonization intensity, and vesicle abundance were closely related to soil conditions most, and they were related significantly to all the soil properties except cellulase activity. Besides, redundancy analysis (RDA) showed that soil properties drove the changes of AM fungal colonization and sporulation. These results will provide theoretical support for realizing the relationship between AM fungal colonization and soil conditions, and also for the exploration of AM fungi species with great functions.

     

Mammal use of riparian corridors in semi-arid Sonora,Mexico

Wildlife populations in semi-arid regions are increasingly challenged by human activities and dependent on the connectivity of riparian corridors for access to surface water. The Madrean Archipelago is a biodiversity hotspot along the arid United States–Mexico borderlands that support both Neotropical and Nearctic wildlife. Infrastructure development (e.g., the border wall and the expansion of Mexican Federal Highway 2) in this region inhibits wildlife movement along the transnational mountain archipelago by disconnecting habitat. To explore the relationship between habitat variables and mammal use of riparian corridors in northern Sonora, Mexico, we collected data from 19 motion-sensitive cameras between October 2018 and April 2019 and used single-season occupancy models and Royle-Nichols abundance estimation models to analyze our data. We recorded 21 species of mammals, including the first sighting of jaguar (Panthera onca) in this region in 25 years. River characteristics (distance from river, riparian corridor width, water availability), remoteness (distance from highway, productivity, elevation), and topographic variety (vertical elevation difference) influenced patterns of occupancy probability and estimated abundance of mammals >1 kg, but the strength and direction of these relationships varied by species. Additionally, intermittently wet desert washes were comparable in species richness to the perennial system. These results highlight the importance of examining physical and biological aspects of habitat. This is especially true when identifying corridors where mitigation structures should be placed to improve wildlife connectivity in biodiversity hotspots like the Madrean Archipelago and semi-arid ecosystems worldwide.     

Experimental and computational characterization of mass transfer in high turndown bioreactors

Single-use bioreactors (SUBs, or disposable bioreactors) are extensively used for the clinical and commercial production of biologics. Despite widespread application, minimal results have been reported utilizing the turndown ratio; an operation mode where the working range of the bioreactor can be expanded to include low fluid volumes. In this work, a systematic investigation into free surface mass transfer and cell growth in high turndown single-use bioreactors is presented. This approach, which combines experimental mass transfer measurements with numerical simulation, deconvolutes the combined effects of headspace mixing and the free surface convective mass transfer on cell growth. Under optimized conditions, mass transfer across the interface alone may be sufficient to satisfy oxygen demands of the cell culture. Within the context of high turndown bioreactors, this finding provides a counterpoint to traditional sparge-based bioreactor operational philosophy. Multiple monoclonal antibody-producing cell lines grown using this high turndown approach showed similar viable cell densities to those cells expanded using a traditional cell bag rocker. Furthermore, cells taken directly from the turndown expansion and placed into production showed identical growth characteristics to traditionally expanded cultures. Taken together, these results suggest that the Xcellerex SUB can be run at a 5:1 working volume as a seed to itself, with no need for system modifications, potentially simplifying preculture operations.     

BLOEM: A spatially explicit model of bioenergy and carbon capture and storage,applied to Brazil

Bioenergy could play a major role in decarbonizing energy systems in the context of the Paris Agreement. Large-scale bioenergy deployment could be related to sustainability issues and requires major infrastructure investments. It, therefore, needs to be studied carefully. The Bioenergy and Land Optimization Spatially Explicit Model (BLOEM) presented here allows for assessing different bioenergy pathways while encompassing various dimensions that influence their optimal deployment. In this study, BLOEM was applied to the Brazilian context by coupling it with the Brazilian Land Use and Energy Systems (BLUES) model. This allowed investigating the most cost-effective ways of attending future bioenergy supply projections and studying the role of recovered degraded pasture lands in improving land availability in a sustainable and competitive manner. The results show optimizing for limiting deforestation and minimizing logistics costs results in different outcomes. It also indicates that recovering degraded pasture lands is attractive from both logistics and climate perspectives. The systemic approach of BLOEM provides spatial results, highlighting the trade-offs between crop allocation, land use and the logistics dynamics between production, conversion, and demand, providing valuable insights for regional and national climate policy design. This makes it a useful tool for mapping sustainable bioenergy value chain pathways.     

Doubling protected land area may be inefficient at preserving the extent of undeveloped land and could cause substantial regional shifts in land use

Projection of land use and land-cover change is highly uncertain yet drives critical estimates of carbon emissions, climate change, and food and bioenergy production. We use new, spatially explicit land availability data in conjunction with a model sensitivity analysis to estimate the effects of additional land protection on land use and land cover. The land availability data include protected land and agricultural suitability and is incorporated into the Moirai land data system for initializing the Global Change Analysis Model. Overall, decreasing land availability is relatively inefficient at preserving undeveloped land while having considerable regional land-use impacts. Current amounts of protected area have little effect on land and crop production estimates, but including the spatial distribution of unsuitable (i.e., unavailable) land dramatically shifts bioenergy production from high northern latitudes to the rest of the world, compared with uniform availability. This highlights the importance of spatial heterogeneity in understanding and managing land change. Approximately doubling the current protected area to emulate a 30% protected area target may avoid land conversion by 2050 of less than half the newly protected extent while reducing bioenergy feedstock land by 10.4% and cropland and grazed pasture by over 3%. Regional bioenergy land may be reduced (increased) by up to 46% (36%), cropland reduced by up to 61%, pasture reduced by up to 100%, and harvested forest reduced by up to 35%. Only a few regions show notable gains in some undeveloped land types of up to 36%. Half of the regions can reach the target using only unsuitable land, which would minimize impacts on agriculture but may not meet conservation goals. Rather than focusing on an area target, a more robust approach may be to carefully select newly protected land to meet well-defined conservation goals while minimizing impacts to agriculture.     

Non-specific phospholipase C4 hydrolyzes phosphosphingolipids and phosphoglycerolipids and promotes rapeseed growth and yield

Phosphorus is a major nutrient vital for plant growth and development, with a substantial amount of cellular phosphorus being used for the biosynthesis of membrane phospholipids. Here, we report that NON-SPECIFIC PHOSPHOLIPASE C4 (NPC4) in rapeseed (Brassica napus) releases phosphate from phospholipids to promote growth and seed yield, as plants with altered NPC4 levels showed significant changes in seed production under different phosphate conditions. Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat (CRISPR)/CRISPR-associated nuclease 9 (Cas9)-mediated knockout of BnaNPC4 led to elevated accumulation of phospholipids and decreased growth, whereas overexpression (OE) of BnaNPC4 resulted in lower phospholipid contents and increased plant growth and seed production. We demonstrate that BnaNPC4 hydrolyzes phosphosphingolipids and phosphoglycerolipids in vitro, and plants with altered BnaNPC4 function displayed changes in their sphingolipid and glycerolipid contents in roots, with a greater change in glycerolipids than sphingolipids in leaves, particularly under phosphate deficiency conditions. In addition, BnaNPC4-OE plants led to the upregulation of genes involved in lipid metabolism, phosphate release, and phosphate transport and an increase in free inorganic phosphate in leaves. These results indicate that BnaNPC4 hydrolyzes phosphosphingolipids and phosphoglycerolipids in rapeseed to enhance phosphate release from membrane phospholipids and promote growth and seed production.     

Prevalence and trends of common mental disorders from 2007-2009 to 2019-2022: results from the Netherlands Mental Health Survey and Incidence Studies (NEMESIS), including comparison of prevalence rates before vs. during the COVID-19 pandemic

Up-to-date information on the prevalence and trends of common mental disorders is relevant to health care policy and planning, owing to the high burden associated with these disorders. In the first wave of the third Netherlands Mental Health Survey and Incidence Study (NEMESIS-3), a nationally representative sample was interviewed face-to-face from November 2019 to March 2022 (6,194 subjects; 1,576 interviewed before and 4,618 during the COVID-19 pandemic; age range: 18-75 years). A slightly modified version of the Composite International Diagnostic Interview 3.0 was used to assess DSM-IV and DSM-5 diagnoses. Trends in 12-month prevalence rates of DSM-IV mental disorders were examined by comparing these rates between NEMESIS-3 and NEMESIS-2 (6,646 subjects; age range: 18-64 years; interviewed from November 2007 to July 2009). Lifetime DSM-5 prevalence estimates in NEMESIS-3 were 28.6% for anxiety disorders, 27.6% for mood disorders, 16.7% for substance use disorders, and 3.6% for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Over the last 12 months, prevalence rates were 15.2%, 9.8%, 7.1%, and 3.2%, respectively. No differences in 12-month prevalence rates before vs. during the COVID-19 pandemic were found (26.7% pre-pandemic vs. 25.7% during the pandemic), even after controlling for differences in socio-demographic characteristics of the respondents interviewed in these two periods. This was the case for all four disorder categories. From 2007-2009 to 2019-2022, the 12-month prevalence rate of any DSM-IV disorder significantly increased from 17.4% to 26.1%. A stronger increase in prevalence was found for students, younger adults (18-34 years) and city dwellers. These data suggest that the prevalence of mental disorders has increased in the past decade, but this is not explained by the COVID-19 pandemic. The already high mental disorder risk of young adults has particularly further increased in recent years.     

Substance use disorders: a comprehensive update of classification,epidemiology, neurobiology,clinical aspects,treatment and prevention

Substance use disorders (SUDs) are highly prevalent and exact a large toll on individuals’ health, well-being, and social functioning. Long-lasting changes in brain networks involved in reward, executive function, stress reactivity, mood, and self-awareness underlie the intense drive to consume substances and the inability to control this urge in a person who suffers from addiction (moderate or severe SUD). Biological (including genetics and developmental life stages) and social (including adverse childhood experiences) determinants of health are recognized factors that contribute to vulnerability for or resilience against developing a SUD. Consequently, prevention strategies that target social risk factors can improve outcomes and, when deployed in childhood and adolescence, can decrease the risk for these disorders. SUDs are treatable, and evidence of clinically significant benefit exists for medications (in opioid, nicotine and alcohol use disorders), behavioral therapies (in all SUDs), and neuromodulation (in nicotine use disorder). Treatment of SUDs should be considered within the context of a Chronic Care Model, with the intensity of intervention adjusted to the severity of the disorder and with the concomitant treatment of comorbid psychiatric and physical conditions. Involvement of health care providers in detection and management of SUDs, including referral of severe cases to specialized care, offers sustainable models of care that can be further expanded with the use of telehealth. Despite advances in our understanding and management of SUDs, individuals with these conditions continue to be stigmatized and, in some countries, incarcerated, highlighting the need to dismantle policies that perpetuate their criminalization and instead develop policies to ensure support and access to prevention and treatment.     

Effect of nitrogen application on growth and photosynthetic nitrogen use efficiency in two ecotypes of wild strawberry, Fragaria chiloensis

The relationships between increasing nitrogen fertilization and growth, maximum CO₂ assimilation and the initial slope of the CO₂ response curve were studied in 2 ecotypes of wild strawberry, Fragaria chiloensis (L.) Duchn. Nitrogen accumulation of CA11, an ecotype from a low-nutrient dune site, was greater at all nitrogen concentrations than that of RCP37, an ecotype from a higher-nutrient strand site. Maximum CO₂ assimilation, total Rubisco activity, dry weight, and initiation of leaves and crowns were higher in CAI1 than RCP37 as nitrogen treatment was increased from 0 to 200 mg ^l-1, whereas these parameters were lower in CAl1 when fertilized at 300 mg T¹, but not in RCP37. The mean leaf area of CA11 was greater than RCP37 when grown with no supplemental nitrogen, but mean leaf area of the 2 lines was similar under nitrogen fertilization. Maximum CO₂ assimilation and carboxylation efficiency increased with increasing leaf nitrogen in both clones. At equivalent concentrations of leaf nitrogen, RCP37 had higher CO₂ assimilation and carboxylation efficiency than CA11 and the difference between the 2 clones increased as ieaf nitrogen increased. Thus, RCP37 had a higher photosynthetic nitrogen use efficiency than CA11. However, at a given applied nitrogen level, CA11 allocated more nitrogen to a unit of leaf area so that photosynthetic rates were higher than RCP37, except at the highest application of 300 mg ^l-1. The high nitrogen accumulation capacity and resource allocation to fruiting structures (crowns) in CA11 leads us to suggest that this clone may possess genes that could increase fruit yield in cultivated strawberry.