Reproductive resilience: a paradigm shift in understanding spawner‐recruit systems in exploited marine fish

A close relationship between adult abundance and stock productivity may not exist for many marine fish stocks, resulting in concern that the management goal of maximum sustainable yield is either inefficient or risky. Although reproductive success is tightly coupled with adult abundance and fecundity in many terrestrial animals, in exploited marine fish where and when fish spawn and consequent dispersal dynamics may have a greater impact. Here, we propose an eco‐evolutionary perspective, reproductive resilience, to understand connectivity and productivity in marine fish. Reproductive resilience is the capacity of a population to maintain the reproductive success needed to result in long‐term population stability despite disturbances. A stock's reproductive resilience is driven by the underlying traits in its spawner‐recruit system, selected for over evolutionary timescales, and the ecological context within which it is operating. Spawner‐recruit systems are species specific, have both density‐dependent and fitness feedback loops and are made up of fixed, behavioural and ecologically variable traits. They operate over multiple temporal, spatial and biological scales, with trait diversity affecting reproductive resilience at both the population and individual (i.e. portfolio) scales. Models of spawner‐recruit systems fall within three categories: (i) two‐dimensional models (i.e. spawner and recruit); (ii) process‐based biophysical dispersal models which integrate physical and environmental processes into understanding recruitment; and (iii) complex spatially explicit integrated life cycle models. We review these models and their underlying assumptions about reproductive success vs. our emerging mechanistic understanding. We conclude with practical guidelines for integrating reproductive resilience into assessments of population connectivity and stock productivity.     

Antimicrobial activity and cytotoxicity of Cirsium tenoreanum

The methanol and ethyl acetate extracts of the aerial parts of Cirsium tenoreanum, have been evaluated for their phytochemical constituents and antibacterial and cytotoxic properties. Three flavonoids, apigenin, quercetin-3-O-galactoside and kaempferol-3-O-ramnoside, were isolated. The ethyl acetate extract showed a good antiproliferative activity.     

Solid olive residues: insight into their phenolic composition

Solid olive residues (SOR) are byproducts of the olive-milling process, but they have an increasing importance in the pharmaceutical industry due to their rich content of biophenols. Such compounds are studied widely for their antioxidant and antimicrobial activities, but there is a lack of information about their quantitative recovery. This research highlighted the key role played both by the selection of the cultivar and by the degree of olive fruit ripening on the phenolic content on the SOR. The extraction methods were selected to reach the best quantitative results mainly using a safe food solvent. In light of the results the Soxhlet extraction with ethanol could be proposed as preferential for a higher recovery of verbascoside and its analogues.     

Survey onYersinia Enterocolitica and related bacteria in shellfish

Results from examining shellfish collected from ‘safe’ (2–34Escherichia coli/100 mL) and ‘unsafe’ (> 34E. coli/100 mL) waters for the presence ofYersinia enterocolitica and related bacteria are reported. The recovery of these microorganisms was low in bivalve mollusks destined for food consumption, high in those derived from prohibited areas. No human pathogenic bio-serogroup f Yersinia was found during the entire survey.     

Isolation of Canine Mammary Cells With Stem Cell Properties and Tumour-Initiating Potential

Recent data suggest that mammary carcinogenesis may be driven by cancer stem cells (CSCs) derived from mutated adult stem cells, which have acquired aberrant cell self-renewal or by progenitor cells that have acquired the capacity for cell self-renewal. Spontaneous mammary cancers in cats and dogs are important models for the understanding of human breast cancer and may represent alternative species model systems that can significantly contribute to the study of human oncogenesis. With the goal of identifying markers for isolating human breast CSCs, we have generated a canine model system to isolate and characterize normal and CSCs from dog mammary gland. Insight into the hierarchical organization of canine tumours may contribute to the development of universal concepts in oncogenesis by CSCs. Cells with stem cell properties were isolated from normal and tumoural canine breast tissue and propagated as mammospheres and tumourspheres in long-term non-adherent culture conditions. We showed that cells obtained from spheres that display self-renewing properties, have multi-lineage differentiation potential, could generate complex branched tubular structures in vitro and form tumours in NOD/SCID mice. We analysed these cells for the expression of human stem and CSC markers and are currently investigating the tumour-initiating properties of these cells and the hierarchical organization of normal and neoplastic canine mammary tissue.     

A chemometric approach to the comparison of different sample treatments for metals determination by atomic absorption spectroscopy in aceto Balsamico tradizionale di Modena

A comparison of different digestion procedures has been carried out for the analysis of metal concentration in samples of vinegars and Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale of Modena (ABTM) coming from an unique barrel set. In particular, classical wet, dry ashing, and closed vessel microwave digestion procedure have been utilized and compared for each investigated species. In a few cases, direct metal determination on ABTM (without treatment procedure) is proposed as possible alternative to sample manipulation. Flame atomic absorption spectrometry was used for the quantification of iron and zinc, while graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry was used for all the other elements (i.e., chromium, manganese, cobalt, nickel, copper, cadmium, and lead). The comparison among the different sample treatments was carried out by the use of statistical and chemometric tools. In particular, principal component analysis and ANOVA approaches were used to discriminate between the diverse analytical methods. Furthermore, for all the dissolving techniques, the analytical metal recovery was always evaluated by the application of the recovery function on the same sample matrix. In general, the recoveries were fairly good, ranging from 90 to 103%, except for Cd and Pb with dry ashing, which showed recovery values close to 55% and 67%, respectively. As regards the metals concentration of the investigated samples, the experimental data reveal for some species the presence of concentration slightly over the legal limit fixed for wine and wine vinegar.     

Avian pathogenic Escherichia coli MT78 invades chicken fibroblasts

Avian pathogenic Escherichia coli (APEC) are responsible for extraintestinal diseases, called colibacillosis, in avian species. The most severe manifestation of the disease is colisepticemia that usually starts at the respiratory tract and may result in bird death. However, it is not yet clear how APEC cross the respiratory epithelium and get into the bloodstream. In this work, we studied the interaction between 8 APEC strains (UEL31, UEL17, UEL13, UEL29, MT78, IMT5155, IMT2470, A2363) and a chicken non-phagocytic cell, the fibroblast CEC-32 cell line. We investigated the association profile, the invasion capability, the cytotoxicity effect and the induction of caspase-3/7 activation in an attempt to understand the way the pathogen gains access to the host bloodstream. Association to cells was determined after 1 h of infection, while cell invasion was determined after 4 and 24 h of infection. The cytotoxic effect of bacterial infection was measured by lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) release and the activation of the apoptotic program was verified by caspase-3/7 activation. Also, the presence of genes for adhesins, invasins and other related virulence-associated factors was verified by PCR. All bacterial strains showed similarity in relation to adhesion, LDH release and caspase-3/7 activation. However, one APEC strain, MT78, showed high invasion capability, comparable to the invasive Salmonella typhimurium strain SL1344. Since an APEC strain was capable of invading non-phagocytic cells in vitro, the same may be happening with the epithelial cells of the avian respiratory tract in vivo. CEC-32 monolayers can also provide a useful experimental model to study the molecular mechanisms used by APEC to invade non-phagocytic cells.     

Proline and light as quality enhancers of rocket (Eruca sativa Miller) grown under saline conditions

Stress conditions experienced during growth may affect plant responses during post-harvest storage and eventually determine the overall quality of commercial products. In this context, we hypothesized that foliar applications of proline during the growth cycle and light exposure during post-harvest storage could be two important modulators of yield and quality parameters of rocket plants exposed to NaCl stress. Dry matter percentage increased upon NaCl treatment. However, fresh weight loss during storage did not change over time as a consequence of salt stress. High salinity (100 mM NaCl) moderately reduced both leaf nitrate (14%) and nitrite (3%) contents. Lipophilic (LAC) and hydrophilic (HAC) antioxidant activities also decreased by 10% at the highest salinization (average of two growth cycles). In contrast, during storage, LAC decreased whereas HAC increased. Proline applications reduced the leaf nitrate content during storage by 16%, increased carotenoids and chlorophyll contents in salinized plants and also increased the ascorbate leaf concentration in both salinized and non-salinzed plants. Light storage enhanced fresh weight loss in contrast to dark storage. However the exposure to light reduced leaf nitrate levels by 7% (average of two growth cycles) and contributed to maintain high leaf ascorbate concentrations over time.     

Pre-unfolding resonant oscillations of single green fluorescent protein molecules

Fluorescence spectroscopy of a green fluorescent protein mutant at single-molecule resolution has revealed a remarkable oscillatory behavior that can also be driven by applied fields. We show that immediately before unfolding, several periodic oscillations among the chemical substates of the protein chromophore occur. We also show that applied alternating electric or acoustic fields, when tuned to the protein characteristic frequencies, give rise to strong resonance effects.