Search results for "RFI"

Unveiling the diet of the thermophilic starfish Ophidiaster ophidianus (Echinodermata: Asteroidea) combining visual observation and stable isotopes a…

2020

The starfish Ophidiaster ophidianus is an Atlanto-Mediterranean species protected under the EU’s Habitat Directive. Despite the wide distribution and the current range of expansion of this thermophilic species in the northern Mediterranean Sea, nothing is known about its diet. Using field observations and δ13C and δ15N Stable Isotopes Analysis (SIA), the feeding habits of O. ophidianus were explored in two Mediterranean rocky reef areas located in the southern Tyrrhenian (Ustica Island, Italy) and the eastern Adriatic Sea (Molunat, Croatia). According to field observations, O. ophidianus preys mainly on crustose coralline algae (CCA) and the keratose sponge Ircinia variabilis in both areas.…

Short-term benefits, but transgenerational costs of maternal loss in an insect with facultative maternal care

2015

A lack of parental care is generally assumed to entail substantial fitness costs for offspring that ultimately select for the maintenance of family life across generations. However, it is unknown whether these costs arise when parental care is facultative, thus questioning their fundamental importance in the early evolution of family life. Here, we investigated the short-term, long-term and transgenerational effects of maternal loss in the European earwig Forficula auricularia , an insect with facultative post-hatching maternal care. We showed that maternal loss did not influence the developmental time and survival rate of juveniles, but surprisingly yielded adults of larger body and force…

The WtmsDW Locus on Wheat Chromosome 2B Controls Major Natural Variation for Floret Sterility Responses to Heat Stress at Booting Stage

2021

Heat stress at booting stage causes significant losses to floret fertility (grain set) and hence yield in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.); however, there is a lack of well-characterized sources of tolerance to this type of stress. Here, we describe the genetic analysis of booting stage heat tolerance in a cross between the Australian cultivars Drysdale (intolerant) and Waagan (tolerant), leading to the definition of a major-effect tolerance locus on the short arm of chromosome 2B, Wheat thermosensitive male sterile Drysdale/Waagan (WtmsDW). WtmsDW offsets between 44 and 65% of the losses in grain set due to heat, suggesting that it offers significant value for marker-assisted tolerance breedin…

Marine reserves: size and age do matter

2008

Marine reserves are widely used throughout the world to prevent overfishing and conserve biodiversity, but uncertainties remain about their optimal design. The effects of marine reserves are heterogeneous. Despite theoretical findings, empirical studies have previously found no effect of size on the effectiveness of marine reserves in protecting commercial fish stocks. Using 58 datasets from 19 European marine reserves, we show that reserve size and age do matter: Increasing the size of the no-take zone increases the density of commercial fishes within the reserve compared with outside; whereas the size of the buffer zone has the opposite effect. Moreover, positive effects of marine reserve…

Long live the alien: is high genetic diversity a pivotal aspect of crested porcupine (Hystrix cristata) long-lasting and successful invasion?

2016

AbstractStudying the evolutionary dynamics of an alien species surviving and continuing to expand after several generations can provide fundamental information on the relevant features of clearly successful invasions. Here, we tackle this task by investigating the dynamics of the genetic diversity in invasive crested porcupine (Hystrix cristata) populations, introduced to Italy about 1500 years ago, which are still growing in size, distribution range and ecological niche. Using genome-wide RAD markers, we describe the structure of the genetic diversity and the demographic dynamics of theH. cristatainvasive populations and compare their genetic diversity with that of native African populatio…

β-amyloid wall deposit of temporal artery in subjects with spontaneous intracerebral haemorrhage.

2018

// Antonino Tuttolomondo 1 , Rosario Maugeri 4 , Elisabetta Orlando 2 , Giulio Giannone 2 , Francesco Ciccia 3 , Aroldo Rizzo 5 , Domenico Di Raimondo 1 , Francesca Graziano 4 , Rosaria Pecoraro 1 , Carlo Maida 1 , Irene Simonetta 1 , Anna Cirrincione 1 , Francesca Portelli 2 , Francesca Corpora 1 , Domenico Gerardo Iacopino 4 and Antonio Pinto 1 1 Internal Medicine and Stroke Care Ward, Dipartimento Biomedico di Medicina Interna e Specialistica, University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy 2 Human Pathology Section, Human Pathology Section, Department of Health Sciences, University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy 3 Rheumathology Ward, Dipartimento Biomedico di Medicina Interna e Specialistica, Univers…

2018

The cutis laxa syndromes are multisystem disorders that share loose redundant inelastic and wrinkled skin as a common hallmark clinical feature. The underlying molecular defects are heterogeneous and 13 different genes have been involved until now, all of them being implicated in elastic fiber assembly. We provide here molecular and clinical characterization of three unrelated patients with a very rare phenotype associating cutis laxa, facial dysmorphism, severe growth retardation, hyperostotic skeletal dysplasia and intellectual disability. This disorder called Lenz-Majewski syndrome (LMS) is associated with gain of function mutations in PTDSS1, encoding an enzyme involved in phospholipid …

Genome-Wide Association Study for Serum Omega-3 and Omega-6 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids: Exploratory Analysis of the Sex-Specific Effects and Dietary…

2020

Many early studies presented beneficial effects of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) on cardiovascular risk factors and disease. However, results from recent meta-analyses indicate that this effect would be very low or nil. One of the factors that may contribute to the inconsistency of the results is that, in most studies, genetic factors have not been taken into consideration. It is known that fatty acid desaturase (FADS) gene cluster in chromosome 11 is a very important determinant of plasma PUFA, and that the prevalence of the single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) varies greatly between populations and may constitute a bias in meta-analyses. Previous genome-wide association studies (GW…

De Novo and Inherited Pathogenic Variants in KDM3B Cause Intellectual Disability, Short Stature, and Facial Dysmorphism

2019

Contains fulltext : 202646.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access) By using exome sequencing and a gene matching approach, we identified de novo and inherited pathogenic variants in KDM3B in 14 unrelated individuals and three affected parents with varying degrees of intellectual disability (ID) or developmental delay (DD) and short stature. The individuals share additional phenotypic features that include feeding difficulties in infancy, joint hypermobility, and characteristic facial features such as a wide mouth, a pointed chin, long ears, and a low columella. Notably, two individuals developed cancer, acute myeloid leukemia and Hodgkin lymphoma, in childhood. KDM3B encodes for a histone …

Dominant variants in the splicing factor PUF60 cause a recognizable syndrome with intellectual disability, heart defects and short stature

2016

Item does not contain fulltext Verheij syndrome, also called 8q24.3 microdeletion syndrome, is a rare condition characterized by ante- and postnatal growth retardation, microcephaly, vertebral anomalies, joint laxity/dislocation, developmental delay (DD), cardiac and renal defects and dysmorphic features. Recently, PUF60 (Poly-U Binding Splicing Factor 60 kDa), which encodes a component of the spliceosome, has been discussed as the best candidate gene for the Verheij syndrome phenotype, regarding the cardiac and short stature phenotype. To date, only one patient has been reported with a de novo variant in PUF60 that probably affects function (c.505C>T leading to p.(His169Tyr)) associated wi…