Influence of environmental factors on the tropical peatlands diazotrophic communities from the Southern Brazilian Atlantic Rain Forest.

The tropical peatlands of southern Brazil are essential for the maintenance of the Atlantic Rain Forest, one of the 25 hotspots of biodiversity in the world. Although diazotrophic micro-organisms are essential for the maintenance of this nitrogen limited ecosystem, so far studies have focused only on micro-organisms involved in the carbon cycle. In this work, peat samples were collected from three tropical peatland regions during dry and rainy seasons and their chemical and microbial characteristics were evaluated. Our results showed that the structure of the diazotrophic communities in the Brazilian tropical peatlands differs in the evaluated seasons. The abundance of the genus Bradyrhizobium showed to be affected by rainfall and peat pH. Despite the shifts of the nitrogen-fixing population in the tropical peatland caused by seasonality it showed to be constantly dominated by α-Proteobacteria followed by Cyanobacteria. In addition, more than 50% of nifH gene sequences have not been classified, indicating the necessity for more studies in tropical peatland, since the reduction of N supply in the peatlands stimulates the recalcitrant organic matter decomposition performed by peatland micro-organisms, influencing the C stock.

Effect of ethylene treatment on phytochemical and ethylene-related gene expression during ripening in strawberry fruit Fragaria x ananassa cv. Camino Real.

In contrast to climacteric fruits, in which ethylene is known to be pivotal, the regulation of ripening in non-climacteric fruits is not well understood. The strawberry is a typical example of a non-climacteric fruit, which has been used as a model system of these types of fruit. In this study, the effect of exogenous ethephon on the expression of ethylene biosynthesis and signaling genes, FaERF2 and FaACO1, was analyzed in the Fragaria ananassa cultivar Camino Real by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction, and the physicochemical and phytochemical characteristics of fruits were evaluated in field trials and postharvest tests. Transcript accumulation was influenced by exogenous treatment with ethephon, which affected the pattern of gene expression during different stages of growth and fruit development, with the highest expression occurring during postharvest tests. In addition, ethephon significantly influenced the phytochemical profile of sugars, anthocyanins, phenolic compounds, and vitamin C contents both in the field- and postharvest-treated fruits at different stages. These results indicate that ethylene regulates the phenylpropanoid maturation pathway in strawberry fruit.

Microbial community and performance of slaughterhouse wastewater treatment filters.

The performance of anaerobic filter bioreactors (AFs) is influenced by the composition of the substrate, support medium, and the microbial species present in the sludge. In this study, the efficiency of a slaughterhouse effluent treatment using three AFs containing different support media was tested, and the microbial diversity was investigated by amplified ribosomal DNA restriction analysis and 16S rRNA gene sequencing. The physicochemical analysis of the AF systems tested suggested their feasibility, with rates of chemical oxygen demand removal of 72±8% in hydraulic retention times of 1 day. Analysis of pH, alkalinity, volatile acidity, total solids, total volatile solids, total Kjeldahl nitrogen, and the microbial community structures indicated high similarity among the three AFs. The composition of prokaryotic communities showed a prevalence of Proteobacteria (27.3%) and Bacteroidetes (18.4%) of the Bacteria domain and Methanomicrobiales (36.4%) and Methanosarcinales (35.3%) of the Archaea domain. Despite the high similarity of the microbial communities among the AFs, the reactor containing pieces of clay brick as a support medium presented the highest richness and diversity of bacterial and archaeal operational taxonomic units.

Comparative proteomic analysis between early developmental stages of the Coffea arabica fruits.

Coffee is one of the most valuable agricultural commodities. There is much agronomic research on coffee, but molecular knowledge of its fruit development and ripening is limited. This study reports a comparative proteomic investigation of immature coffee fruits in two early developmental stages: stage 1, cell division and elongation of the perisperm; and stage 2, early growth of the endosperm progressively replacing the perisperm. Proteins were extracted using a modified SDS-phenol method and two-dimensional electrophoresis gels stained with Coomassie blue revealed about 300 well-resolved polypeptide spots in the pH range of 3 to 10. The differentially expressed polypeptides spots were excised, trypsin-digested, and analyzed by MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry. Peptide MS data were searched against the coffee EST database. Most of the identified protein spots are involved in the glycolytic pathway and energy reserve, and are more highly expressed at stage 2.