Search results for "ORGANISMS"

Immune Modulating Effects of NKT Cells in a Physiologically Low Dose Leishmania major Infection Model after αGalCer Analog PBS57 Stimulation

2014

Leishmaniasis is a parasitic infection affecting ∼12 million people worldwide, mostly in developing countries. Treatment options are limited and no effective vaccines exist to date. Natural Killer T (NKT) cells are a conserved innate-like lymphocyte population with immunomodulating effects in various settings. A number of reports state a role of NKT cells in different models of Leishmania infection. Here, we investigated the effect of NKT cells in a physiologically relevant, intradermal low dose infection model. After inoculation of 103 infectious-stage L. major, comparable numbers of skin-immigrating NKT cells in both susceptible BALB/c mice and resistant C57BL/6 mice were noted. Compared …

Scientific Opinion addressing the state of the science on risk assessment of plant protection products for in‐soil organisms

2017

Abstract Following a request from EFSA, the Panel on Plant Protection Products and their Residues developed an opinion on the science behind the risk assessment of plant protection products for in‐soil organisms. The current risk assessment scheme is reviewed, taking into account new regulatory frameworks and scientific developments. Proposals are made for specific protection goals for in‐soil organisms being key drivers for relevant ecosystem services in agricultural landscapes such as nutrient cycling, soil structure, pest control and biodiversity. Considering the time‐scales and biological processes related to the dispersal of the majority of in‐soil organisms compared to terrestrial non…

Infective Endocarditis: Preliminary Results of a Cohort Study in the Southern Italian Population.

2020

Background Infective endocarditis (IE) is an uncommon disease with an involved interplay of clinical and surgical team management. We aimed to define diagnosis parameters and delineate in-hospital management in patients with IE admitted in a tertiary hospital of Southern Italian. Materials and methods Fifty-six consecutive patients (42 males, 14 females; age range: 34-85 years) admitted for IE in the Infectious Diseases, Cardiac Surgery, and Cardiology units, between January 2011 and August 2017, were enrolled. Demographic data, mortality, comorbidities, specimen type, microscopy results, special histological staining performed, and antimicrobial therapy were collected and analyzed. Any com…

Effect of iron-porphyrin treatment on soil microbial communities

2009

Intensive agricultural management have led to an increasing transfer of carbon from soil organic matter (SOM) to atmospheric CO2. It is noteworthy that the flux of CO2 from the soil is ten times greater than fossil fuel emission from industrial and automotive activities. Piccolo and co-workers (1999) suggested that hydrophobic humic components in soil exerted hydrophobic protection towards easily degradable compounds. They postulated that associations of apolar molecules deriving from plant degradation and microbial activity incorporate more polar molecules, thus preventing their otherwise rapid microbial degradation and enhancing their persistence in soil. Moreover, synthetic metal-porphyr…

Effect of agricultural practices on soil microbial communities

2008

Soil carbon sequestration is an important and immediate sink for removing atmospheric carbon dioxide and slowing global warming. Agricultural practices strongly impact CO2 emission from the soil and the loss of soil organic matter is lower when “no-till” agriculture is practiced. The present work was performed in order to investigate effects of different agricultural practices on soil microbial communities. Field experiments took place at three Italian locations strongly differing in pedological, chemical and climatic characteristics: Naples, Turin and Piacenza. Soils were subjected to four management practices such as traditional (TRA), minimum tillage (MIN) and amendments with compost (CO…

Microbial bioresources for rehabilitation of natural and anthropogenic deserts

2012

Arid lands and deserts cover one fifth of the earth’s land surface and they are currently increasing due to the global warming. Besides the natural desert settings, human activities lead to the desertification of certain areas: municipal landfills and caves are the most common examples of such anthropogenic deserts. Massive pollution and lack of natural soil profiles create harsh conditions and hinder the spontaneous rehabilitation of such areas. Phytoremediation is often used for renaturalization of such degraded soils. Two case studies are presented aiming at demonstrating that the plant-microbe interactions are essential for improving the soil quality and allowing the formation of crops.…

Refreigerated storage of raw milk for Trentingrana production: microbiological effects

2008

Induction of body weight loss through RNAi-knockdown of APOBEC1 gene expression in transgenic rabbits

2014

In the search of new strategies to fight against obesity, we targeted a gene pathway involved in energy uptake. We have thus investigated the APOB mRNA editing protein (APOBEC1) gene pathway that is involved in fat absorption in the intestine. The APOB gene encodes two proteins, APOB100 and APOB48, via the editing of a single nucleotide in the APOB mRNA by the APOBEC1 enzyme. The APOB48 protein is mandatory for the synthesis of chylomicrons by intestinal cells to transport dietary lipids and cholesterol. We produced transgenic rabbits expressing permanently and ubiquitously a small hairpin RNA targeting the rabbit APOBEC1 mRNA. These rabbits exhibited a moderately but significantly reduced …

Molecular evolution of aphids and their primary (Buchnera sp.) and secondary endosymbionts: Implications for the role of symbiosis in insect evolution

2001

Aphids maintain an obligate, endosymbiotic association with Buchnera sp., a bacterium closely related to Escherichia coli. Bacteria are housed in specialized cells of organ-like structures called bacteriomes in the hemocoel of the aphid and are maternally transmitted. Phylogenetic studies have shown that the association had a single origin, dated about 200-250 million years ago, and that host and endosymbiont lineages have evolved in parallel since then. However, the pattern of deepest branching within the aphid family remains unsolved, which thereby hampers an appraisal of, for example, the role played by horizontal gene transfer in the early evolution of Buchnera. The main role of Buchner…

Subtropical streams harbour higher genus richness and lower abundance of insects compared to boreal streams, but scale matters

2018

Aim: Biological diversity typically varies between climatically different regions, and regions closer to the equator often support higher numbers of taxa than those closer to the poles. However, these trends have been assessed for a few organism groups, and the existing studies have rarely been based on extensive identical surveys in different climatic regions. Location: We conducted standardized surveys of wadeable streams in a boreal (western Finland) and a subtropical (south-eastern Brazil) region, sampling insects identically from 100 streams in each region and measuring the same environmental variables in both regions. Taxon: Aquatic insects. Methods: Comparisons were made at the scale…