Search Results (8,604)

Phosphorus (P) in soil is important in the process by which soil microbial communities regulate soil enzyme activity. We aim to explore how short-term P fertilization affects the composition and functionality of the soil fungal community, offering insights into the complex responses of soil fungi to fertilization. Soil samples from a long-term experiment with no P fertilization were collected for pot experiments. The pot experiment included four treatments: non-P fertilizer (NK), chemical P fertilizer (NPK), 1/2 organic fertilizer + 1/2 chemical fertilizer (MNP), and organic fertilizer (M). High-throughput sequencing was employed to analyze the composition, diversity, and functionality of soil fungal communities. Results showed that short-term P addition significantly increased the soil fungal Shannon and Pielou e indices, with increases of 34.48%~59.00% and 29.79%~53.19%, respectively. Ascomycota and Basidiomycota were the most abundant fungal phyla, whereas Cladosporium and Emericellopsis were the most abundant genera. The main factors affecting soil fungal community composition were total nitrogen (TN) and organic matter (OM). A linear discriminant analysis effect size (LEfSe) analysis indicated that Mortierellomycota were significantly enriched under the NPK treatment. A FUNGuild analysis revealed that, compared to the NK treatment, the relative abundance of Animal Pathogen–Endophyte–Lichen Parasite–Plant Pathogen–Wood Saprotroph was reduced by 67.54%, 46.93%, and 44.10% under NPK, MNP, and M treatments, respectively. The relative abundance of Plant Pathogen was less than 1% in the NPK and the MNP treatments. These results indicate that short-term P addition increased soil nutrient levels and soil fungal community diversity. Chemical P fertilizer significantly improved the fungal community structure in yellow paddy soils, enhancing beneficial fungi and suppressing pathogens. Full article

Chagas disease, caused by the protozoan Trypanosoma cruzi, represents a significant public health challenge, particularly in Latin America’s endemic regions. The limited efficacy and frequent adverse effects of current treatments underscore the need for novel therapeutic options. This research explores marine natural compounds as potential candidates for Chagas disease treatment using virtual screening and in silico evaluation methods. Techniques such as molecular docking, drug-likeness evaluation, and pharmacokinetic analysis were employed to identify promising anti-parasitic compounds. Among the candidates, chandrananimycin A, venezueline A, and dispacamide demonstrated high binding affinities to key targets in T. cruzi alongside favorable docking scores and compliance with essential drug-likeness criteria. Pharmacokinetic profiling further supported their therapeutic potential, revealing desirable properties like effective absorption and minimal toxicity. These findings underscore the promise of marine-derived compounds as a valuable source of new drugs, emphasizing the need for further in vitro and in vivo investigations to elucidate their molecular mechanisms and optimize their development as viable treatments for Chagas disease. Full article

Rhizosphere microbes, particularly bacteria, are essential for controlling plant-parasitic nematodes (PPNs) through various mechanisms. However, the plant’s age and the genetic composition of nematode populations can significantly influence the inhibitory effectiveness of these microbes against the beet cyst nematode Heterodera schachtii. In this study, rhizosphere microbes were isolated from 39-day-old and 69-day-old resistant oilseed radish plants to evaluate their impact on the penetration of the second-stage juveniles (J2s) originating from four genetically distinct H. schachtii populations. The suppression of J2s penetration by the attached microbes varied across the nematode populations, which displayed differing levels of aggressiveness toward the resistant oilseed radish. Furthermore, differences in the alpha and beta diversity of rhizosphere bacteria were observed between the 39-day-old and 69-day-old plants, leading to variations in the bacterial attachment among the four nematode populations. In summary, the effectiveness of resistant catch crops against H. schachtii is influenced by the pathogenicity of the nematode populations and their interactions with the rhizosphere microbial community shaped by the plant’s age. Full article

A high-throughput platform for assessing the activity of synthetic or natural compounds on the motility and development of Haemonchus contortus larvae has been established for identifying new anthelmintic compounds active against strongylid nematodes. This study evaluated the impact of serum supplementation on larval development, motility and survival in vitro and its implications for phenotypic compound screening. Of five blood components assessed, 7.5% sheep serum significantly enhanced larval development, motility and survival compared to the original medium (LB*), leading to the formulation of an improved medium (LBS*). Proteomic analysis revealed marked differences in protein expression in larvae cultured in LBS* versus LB*, including molecules associated with structural integrity and metabolic processes. The phenotypic screening of 240 compounds (“Global Priority Box” from Medicines Malaria Venture) using LBS* yielded results distinct from those in LB*, highlighting the effect of culture conditions on screening assessments. These findings indicate/emphasise the critical need to evaluate and optimise culture media for physiologically relevant conditions in screening platforms, improving the reliability of anthelmintic discovery. Full article

Two related P-type ATPases, designated as ATPase1 and ATPase3, were identified in Plasmodium falciparum. These two ATPases exhibit very similar gene and protein structures and are most similar to P5B-ATPases. There are some differences in the predicted substrate-binding sites of ATPase1 and ATPase3 that suggest different functions for these two ATPases. Orthologues of ATPase3 were identified in all Plasmodium species, including the related Hepatocystis and Haemoproteus. ATPase3 orthologues could also be identified in all apicomplexan species, but no clear orthologues were identified outside of the Apicomplexa. In contrast, ATPase1 orthologues were only found in the Laverania, avian Plasmodium species, and Haemoproteus. ATPase1 likely arose from a duplication of the ATPase3 gene early in the evolution of malaria parasites. These results support a model in which early malaria parasites split into two clades. One clade consists of mammalian malaria parasites and Hepatocystis but excludes P. falciparum and related Laverania. The other clade includes Haemoproteus, avian Plasmodium species, and Laverania. This contrasts to recent models that suggest all mammalian malaria parasites form a monophyletic group, and all avian malaria parasites form a separate monophyletic group. ATPase1 may be a useful taxonomic/phylogenetic character for the phylogeny of Haemosporidia. Full article

Oryctes monoceros (Olivier, 1789) (Scarabaeidae) and Rhynchophorus phoenicis (Fabricius, 1801) (Curculionidae) are two insects generally known as formidable pests of oil palms and coconuts trees. Although little known, different developmental stages of these insects are consumed. The aim of this study is to determine the composition of these adult Coleopteran species in order to promote their consumption as a strategy for enhancing food security. Chemical analyses were carried out on adults of both species. Samples of O. monoceros and R. phoenicis were collected in three localities in Togo. The ash, protein, vitamin, and lipid contents were determined according to the AOAC reference methods. The fiber contents were obtained by the method of Weende. The minerals and heavy metals were analyzed by atomic absorption spectrophotometry and colorimetry. Fatty acid composition was determined by gas chromatography. The results showed the average protein content ranges from 44.32 ± 0.83 to 45.89 ± 0.83%. The lipid level is between 15.06 ± 0.28% and 14.64 ± 0.54. Their lipids contain unsaturated fatty acids, notably oleic (40.84 ± 0.112 vs. 40.84 ± 0.11%), linoleic (4.49 ± 0.00 vs. 5.07 ± 0.02%), and α-linolenic (5.07 ± 0.02 vs. 6.35 ± 0.01%) acid. They are excellent sources of minerals and vitamins. They are also free of heavy metals. These species could, therefore, contribute to the nutritional balance of consumers. They deserve to be better promoted for human consumption, as they could make a significant contribution to the fight against malnutrition and constitute a novel food source. Full article

Entomopathogenic fungi, a group of insect pathogens, are characterized by high insecticidal efficacy and minimal environmental impact. They are commonly used as biopesticides for pest control due to their significant practical value. We here classify entomopathogenic fungi according to the process of fungal infection in hosts, changes in host behavior during infection, and mechanisms of spore transmission, and review the strategies employed by insects to resist infection, including physical barrier defenses, immune system defenses, and behavioral avoidance of fungal pathogens. This review also discusses the pathogenic mechanisms of fungi on insects and the closely linked co-evolution between fungal pathogens and insect defenses. In conclusion, a perspective on future research is provided, emphasizing the impact of insect population density and spore concentration in the environment on disease outbreaks. Full article

Background/Objectives: The total lysate of Leishmania amazonensis (LaAg) is one of the most extensively studied vaccine formulations against leishmaniasis. Despite demonstrating safety and immunogenicity when administered intramuscularly, LaAg has failed to show efficacy in clinical trials and, in some cases, has even been associated with an enhanced susceptibility to infection. Adjuvants, which are molecules or compounds added to antigens to enhance the immunogenicity or modulate the immune response, are frequently employed in vaccine studies. This study aimed to evaluate different adjuvants to improve the protective efficacy of LaAg in L.amazonensis infection using a BALB/c mouse model. Methods: BALB/c mice were immunized with LaAg in combination with various adjuvants. The delayed-type hypersensitivity (DTH) test was assessed by measuring the infected paw and was used to evaluate the immunogenicity and to determine the most effective adjuvant. The immune response was analyzed through flow cytometry, focusing on cytokine production, immune cell recruitment and lesion size, alongside the control of parasite load at the infection site. The expression levels of iNOS and TGF-β were quantified using RT-qPCR, while IgG1, IgG2a and IgE antibody levels were determined via ELISA. Results: Among the adjuvants tested, only saponin (SAP) elicited a significant DTH response following LaAg challenge. SAP enhanced the immunogenicity of LaAg, as evidenced by increased IFN-γ-producing CD4⁺ and CD8⁺ T cells in the draining lymph nodes at 18 h post-challenge. Additionally, SAP facilitated the recruitment of lymphocytes, macrophages, neutrophils and eosinophils to the infection site. Conclusions: The LaAg + SAP combination conferred partial protection, as demonstrated by a reduction in lesion size and the partial control of parasite load. In conclusion, the addition of SAP as an adjuvant to LaAg effectively modulates the immune response, enhancing the vaccine’s protective efficacy. These findings provide valuable insights into the development of improved vaccines against L.amazonensis infection. Full article

The data on hosts of Ellobiopsis in Central Asia waterbodies are nearly non-existent. All research in this direction was conducted in other regions (Europe and Brazil). Parasitological studies were carried out in different seasons in the North and Middle Caspian Sea. Twenty-one taxa were registered in zooplankton, and only dominants of community calanoids Acartia (Acanthacartia) tonsa and Calanipeda aquaedulcis were infected with Ellobiopsis sp. Calanoida C. aquaedulcis was reported for the first time as a host for Ellobiopsis. The number of parasites per host was equal to one. The body length of parasites varied from 0.10 to 0.80 mm. The highest infection degree was recorded in C. aquaedulcis (5.71%), and it varied from 2.61% to 3.35% in Acartia. The individuals in the juvenile developmental stages were infected in Calanipeda, while in Acartia, individuals in all developmental stages were vulnerable to infection. The infected calanids had reduced body lengths. The findings suggest the possible influence of Ellobiopsis sp. on quantitative variables of hosts in the Middle Caspian, especially on biomass, by reducing the body sizes of hosts. However, no effect on the abundance and biomass of the host and the structure of the zooplankton of the North Caspian Sea has been detected. Full article

Infection by gastrointestinal nematodes (GINs) in sheep is a significant health issue that affects animal welfare and leads to economic losses in the production sector. Genetic selection for parasite resistance has shown promise in improving animal health and productivity. This study aimed to determine if incorporating genomic data into genetic prediction models currently used in Uruguay could improve the accuracy of breeding value estimations for GIN resistance in the Australian Merino breed. This study compared the accuracy of breeding value predictions using the BLUP (Best Linear Unbiased Prediction) and ssGBLUP (single-step genomic BLUP) models on partial and complete data sets, including 32,713 phenotyped and 3238 genotyped animals. The quality of predictions was evaluated using a linear regression method, focusing on 145 rams. The inclusion of genomic data increased the average individual accuracies by 4% for genotyped and phenotyped animals. For animals with genomic and non-phenotyped data, the accuracy improvement reached 8%. Of these, one group of animals that benefited from an ssGBLUP evaluation came from a facility with a strong connection to the informative nucleus and showed an average increase of 20% in their individual accuracy. Additionally, ssGBLUP slightly outperformed BLUP in terms of prediction quality. These findings demonstrate the potential of genomic information to improve the accuracy of breeding value predictions for parasite resistance in sheep. The integration of genomic data, particularly in non-phenotyped animals, offers a promising tool for enhancing genetic selection in Australian Merino sheep to improve resistance to gastrointestinal parasites. Full article

Ticks are important vectors of a wide range of pathogens with significant medical and veterinary importance. Different tick species occupy different habitats with an overall widespread geographical distribution. In addition to their role as reservoirs or vectors, ticks are involved in maintaining pathogens in the environment and among wild and domestic animals. In this study, tick species infesting wild animals, as well as collected from the environment and their pathogens reported in 17 countries in Africa between 2003 and 2023, were collected according to the PRISMA guidelines. Data on ticks resulted in a total of 40 different tick species from 35 different wild animal species. Among the ticks, 34 infectious agents were noted including parasitic (Babesia, Theileria, Hepatozoon, Eimeria), bacterial (Anaplasma, Bartonella, Borrelia, Candidatus Midichloria mitochondrii, Candidatus Allocryptoplasma spp., Coxiella, Ehrlichia, Francisella, and Rickettsia), and a surprisingly high diversity of viral pathogens (Bunyamwera virus, Crimean-Congo Haemorhagic Fever virus, Ndumu virus, Semliki Forest virus, Thogoto virus, West Nile virus). These results highlight the public health and veterinary importance of the information on tick-borne infections. This knowledge is essential to strive to implement programs for sustainable control of ticks and tick-borne diseases. Full article

This paper presents PCB design solutions for implementing a radiative-field RF energy harvester with an ASK-PWM decoding communication scheme using available commercial components. The paper provides the design approach and tackles key challenges such as the impact of inductive parasitic effects at the output of the harvester, how to maintain the $PCE$ at a constant value regardless of the time constant at the output of the communication path’s rectifier, and the difficulty of changing the aspect ratio of the discrete inverter used for PWM decoding. These challenges are addressed by using multiple capacitors connected in parallel at the output of the rectifier to reduce inductive parasitic effects, adding a series resistor in the communication path’s rectifier to isolate its loading from impacting the $PCE$, and utilizing a potentiometer in the inverter to realize PWM decoding on PCB. The system was manufactured using FR-4 substrate material with a size of 5 cm × 4 cm × 0.6 cm, harvesting energy at the ISM frequency of 924 MHz with a $PCE$ of $42.12\%$ at a bit rate of 15 Kbps. Moreover, the system consumes only 355 μW of power and maintains correct harvesting and decoding operation in the antenna separation range of 6–12 cm. This work aims to provide an alternative to IC realization by implementing the system entirely using commercial discrete components, reducing costs, adding flexibility, reducing development time, and allowing for simple debugging. Full article

Due to the restrictions of the operating environment and on-site space conditions, the energy routing devices used in Antarctic research stations must have a compact structure and require the internal power converter to have a high enough power density to reduce its size, so the internal DC/DC conversion link of the energy router adopts a two-stage voltage regulation scheme. In this paper, a Switched Tank Converter (STC) is used to realize the coarse voltage adjustment of the first stage. In order to further improve the power density of the STC, this paper integrates the half bridge with the same switching action in the STC, and several resonant slots share one inductor to obtain an H-bridge STC with reduced inductance. At the same time, an improved control method is proposed to solve the influence of passive device parameter error and the parasitic parameter on the resonant frequency by adjusting the on-time value of the switch on the rectifier side. This control method can effectively solve the influence of the passive device parameter difference on the converter without adding new devices, ensure the power density advantage of the converter, and improve efficiency. Finally, the validity and rationality of the circuit and the improved control method are verified by simulation and experiment. The experimental result shows that the H-bridge STC with reduced inductance has a power density of 1041 W/in³ at 600 W, which greatly improves the overall operating efficiency of the energy router. Full article

Byssosphaeria Cooke is a monophyletic genus of the family Melanommataceae. The genus is characterized by ascomata smaller than 1000 µm, globose, well-developed subiculum, with a flat ostiole, and yellow-orange or reddish-brown color around the ostiole. The peridium is composed of an external layer of irregular cells followed by an internal layer of thinner cells. Clavate asci have fusiform ascospores, a hyaline-to-brown color, with one or more septa. The genus Byssosphaeria is composed of 29 species: saprophytes, endophytes, and parasites of woody angiosperms, and they are found in wood, leaves, and other decaying substrates. The distribution of these species is cosmopolitan, and four species have been described in Mexico. This study describes, through morphological characteristics and the phylogenetic analysis of molecular markers (ITS, SSU, LSU, tef1-α), four new species of Byssosphaeria: B. bautistae, B. chrysostoma, B. neorhodomphala, and B. neoschiedermayriana. These species are saprophytes on wood rot and are distributed in mountainous mesophilic forests from the states of Hidalgo, Puebla, and Oaxaca. The significance of this study is in the diversity of this genus in Mexico since eight species have been described. Full article

In the natural environment, plants are simultaneously exposed to multivariable abiotic and biotic stresses. Typical abiotic stresses are changes in temperature, light intensity and quality, water stress (drought, flood), microelements availability, salinity, air pollutants, and others. Biotic stresses are caused by other organisms, such as pathogenic bacteria and viruses or parasites. This review presents the current state-of-the-art knowledge on programmed cell death in the cross-tolerance phenomena and its conditional molecular and physiological regulators, which simultaneously regulate plant acclimation, defense, and developmental responses. It highlights the role of the absorbed energy in excess and its dissipation as heat in the induction of the chloroplast retrograde phytohormonal, electrical, and reactive oxygen species signaling. It also discusses how systemic- and network-acquired acclimation and acquired systemic resistance are mutually regulated and demonstrates the role of non-photochemical quenching and the dissipation of absorbed energy in excess as heat in the cross-tolerance phenomenon. Finally, new evidence that plants evolved one molecular system to regulate cell death, acclimation, and cross-tolerance are presented and discussed. Full article