The antihistaminic chlorpheniramine inhibitsin vitro growth of several fungi isolated from harvested fruits

Chlorpheniramine (CPA) is an antihistaminic that changes the conformation of DNA and inhibits polyamine biosynthesis in mammalian cells. In the present work, we tested the effect of CPA on four genera of fungi species (Altemaria alternata, Botrytis cinerea, Cladosporium cladosporioides and threePenicillium spp.) grownin vitro. Similar growth inhibitions of these genera were produced by 0.5 raM iprodione, CPA and histidinol, but CPA was the most effective. The CPA sensitivities of the twoB. cinerea strains were different. Putrescine did not restore the fungal growth inhibited by CPA.     

The cell and molecular basis of mechanical, cold, and inflammatory pain

Peripheral pain pathways are activated by a range of stimuli. We used diphtheria toxin to kill all mouse postmitotic sensory neurons expressing the sodium channel Nav1.8. Mice showed normal motor activity and low-threshold mechanical and acute noxious heat responses but did not respond to noxious mechanical pressure or cold. They also showed a loss of enhanced pain responses and spontaneous pain behavior upon treatment with inflammatory insults. In contrast, nerve injury led to heightened pain sensitivity to thermal and mechanical stimuli indistinguishable from that seen with normal littermates. Pain behavior correlates well with central input from sensory neurons measured electrophysiologically in vivo. These data demonstrate that Na(v)1.8-expressing neurons are essential for mechanical, cold, and inflammatory pain but not for neuropathic pain or heat sensing.     

Updated Trends on the Biodiscovery of New Marine Natural Products from Invertebrates

From 1990–2019, a total of 15,442 New Marine Natural Products from Invertebrates (NMNPIs) were reported. The 2010s saw the most prolific decade of biodiscovery, with 5630 NMNPIs recorded. The phyla that contributed most biomolecules were the Porifera (sponges) (47.2%, 2659 NMNPIs) and the Cnidaria (35.3%, 1989 NMNPIs). The prevalence of these two phyla as the main sources of NMNPIs became more pronounced in the 2010s. The tropical areas of the Pacific Ocean yielded more NMNPIs, most likely due to the remarkable biodiversity of coral reefs. The Indo-Burma biodiversity hotspot (BH) was the most relevant area for the biodiscovery of NMNPIs in the 2010s, accounting for nearly one-third (1819 NMNPIs) of the total and surpassing the top BH from the 1990s and the 2000s (the Sea of Japan and the Caribbean Islands, respectively). The Chinese exclusive economic zone (EEZ) alone contributed nearly one-quarter (24.7%) of all NMNPIs recorded during the 2010s, displacing Japan’s leading role from the 1990s and the 2000s. With the biodiscovery of these biomolecules steadily decreasing since 2012, it is uncertain whether this decline has been caused by lower bioprospecting efforts or the potential exhaustion of chemodiversity from traditional marine invertebrate sources.     

Validating the effectiveness of alternative euthanasia techniques using penetrating captive bolt guns in mature swine (Sus scrofa domesticus)

Euthanasia of mature swine is challenging. Temporal and behind-the-ear locations are two sites that have been identified as alternatives to the more commonly used frontal placement. In stage one, the effectiveness of two penetrating captive bolt gun styles (cylinder or pistol) was evaluated using frontal, temporal, and behind-the-ear placement in anesthetized mature swine (n = 36; weight: 267 ± 41 kg). For stage one, when evaluating treatment efficacy by sex, the cylinder-style equipment was 100% effective in achieving death when applied to all cranial locations (frontal, temporal, and behind-the-ear) for sows; however, the pistol-style equipment was only 100% effective when applied at the behind-the-ear location for sows. For boars, the cylinder-style equipment was 100% effective when applied to the frontal and behind-the-ear location, but the pistol-style equipment was not effective for any cranial location in boars. Therefore, the pistol–frontal, pistol–temporal, pistol–behind-the-ear, and cylinder–temporal were not included for boars, and pistol–frontal and pistol–temporal were not included for sows in stage two. In stage two, commercial, mixed-breed, mature swine (n = 42; weight: 292 +/− 56 kg) were randomly assigned to one of four treatments based on the inclusion criteria described in stage one. A three-point traumatic brain injury (TBI) score (0 = normal; 1 = some abnormalities; 2 = grossly abnormal, unrecognizable) was used to evaluate six neuroanatomical structures (cerebral cortex, cerebellum, hypothalamus, thalamus, pons, and brain stem), and the presence of hemorrhage was also noted. All treatments were 100% effective in stage two. A significant interaction between gun style and placement was determined on predicting total TBI as the cylinder style produced a higher total TBI score compared with the pistol type of the magnitude of +2.8 (P < 0.01). The cylinder style tended to produce a greater TBI score than the pistol in the temporal location (+1.2; P = 0.08). No difference was noted for TBI score behind-the-ear between the cylinder- and pistol-style gun (P > 0.05). TBI tended to be less in boars compared with sows (−0.6; P = 0.08). Hemorrhage was observed in frontal, parietal, occipital, and temporal lobes. This study demonstrated that the cylinder-style captive bolt gun more effectively resulted in brain trauma and death compared with a pistol-style gun and the behind-the-ear and temporal placement showed promise as an alternative placement site for euthanizing mature pigs on-farm.     

Emerging issues in genomic selection

Genomic selection (GS) is now practiced successfully across many species. However, many questions remain, such as long-term effects, estimations of genomic parameters, robustness of genome-wide association study (GWAS) with small and large datasets, and stability of genomic predictions. This study summarizes presentations from the authors at the 2020 American Society of Animal Science (ASAS) symposium. The focus of many studies until now is on linkage disequilibrium between two loci. Ignoring higher-level equilibrium may lead to phantom dominance and epistasis. The Bulmer effect leads to a reduction of the additive variance; however, the selection for increased recombination rate can release anew genetic variance. With genomic information, estimates of genetic parameters may be biased by genomic preselection, but costs of estimation can increase drastically due to the dense form of the genomic information. To make the computation of estimates feasible, genotypes could be retained only for the most important animals, and methods of estimation should use algorithms that can recognize dense blocks in sparse matrices. GWASs using small genomic datasets frequently find many marker-trait associations, whereas studies using much bigger datasets find only a few. Most of the current tools use very simple models for GWAS, possibly causing artifacts. These models are adequate for large datasets where pseudo-phenotypes such as deregressed proofs indirectly account for important effects for traits of interest. Artifacts arising in GWAS with small datasets can be minimized by using data from all animals (whether genotyped or not), realistic models, and methods that account for population structure. Recent developments permit the computation of P-values from genomic best linear unbiased prediction (GBLUP), where models can be arbitrarily complex but restricted to genotyped animals only, and single-step GBLUP that also uses phenotypes from ungenotyped animals. Stability was an important part of nongenomic evaluations, where genetic predictions were stable in the absence of new data even with low prediction accuracies. Unfortunately, genomic evaluations for such animals change because all animals with genotypes are connected. A top-ranked animal can easily drop in the next evaluation, causing a crisis of confidence in genomic evaluations. While correlations between consecutive genomic evaluations are high, outliers can have differences as high as 1 SD. A solution to fluctuating genomic evaluations is to base selection decisions on groups of animals. Although many issues in GS have been solved, many new issues that require additional research continue to surface.     

Fertility of Holstein cows and heifers submitted to timed artificial insemination and receiving one or two doses (12 h apart) of semen

The objective of this retrospective study was to assess the effect of receiving a single (n = 50,285) or double (n = 4392) artificial insemination (AI), 12 h apart, within a timed artificial insemination protocol on pregnancy per AI (P/AI) in nulliparous heifers (inseminated with either sex-sorted or conventional semen) and pluriparous Holstein cows in a commercial dairy herd. Also, this study aimed to investigate the relationship between temperature-humidity index (THI) and time of the first AI and fertility. Fertility of cows receiving two AI with normothermia (THI <68) was higher (p < .05) than cows receiving a single AI (42.9% vs. 36.4%). P/AI of cows receiving two AI with severe heat stress (THI >85) was higher (p < .05) than cows receiving a single AI (21.0% vs. 12.6%). Regardless of heat stress conditions, applying the first AI in the morning increased (p < .05) P/AI in cows with double AI than in cows whose first AI occurred in the afternoon (38.4 vs. 33.3%). With moderate heat stress, and sexed-sorted semen, P/AI to timed AI was higher (65.0 vs. 51.9%; p < .05) in heifers receiving double AI than those serviced once. It was concluded that double AI, 12 h apart, enhanced fertility at timed AI than herd mates with a single AI, particularly with heat stress at breeding.     

Effects of live prey availability on growth and survival in the early stages of cuttlefish Sepia officinalis (Linnaeus, 1758) life cycle

This investigation examined the effects of live prey availability on growth and survival of Sepia officinalis. Two independent experiments, comprising two feed rations each, were performed, using adequate prey size. In the first experiment, cuttlefish hatchlings were fed live mysids, Paramysis nouvelli [(feed ratio I (fr I)], at 15% body weight per day (bw day^?1) (fr I₁₅) and 30% bw day^?1 (fr I₃₀). In the second experiment, juvenile cuttlefish were fed live Atlantic ditch shrimp, Paleomonetes varians (fr II), under the same experimental design. In both experiments, the final mean weight, feeding rate and instantaneous growth rate were higher when animals were fed feed ratio fr II₁₅ and fr II₃₀ (30% bw day^?1). The results indicate that prey availability influenced weight gain, irrespective of the prey used, during the first 2 months of cuttlefish life cycle. This effect seems to be more noticeable when a certain limit of prey is achieved. For cuttlefish fed fr II, the optimal prey density is thought to be under 2.5 g prey L^?1 (i.e. 14 shrimp L^?1). Results indicate that cuttlefish can withstand prey densities up to 120 mysids L^?1 for cuttlefish up to 3 weeks old and 19 shrimps L^?1 for cuttlefish up to 6 weeks old.