Prescribed fire increases plant-pollinator network robustness to losses of rare native forbs.

Restoration efforts often focus on changing the composition and structure of invaded plant communities, with two implicit assumptions: (1) functional interactions with species of other trophic levels, such as pollinators, will reassemble automatically when native plant diversity is restored and (2) restored communities will be more resilient to future stressors. However, the impact of restoration activities on pollinator richness, plant-pollinator interaction network structure, and network robustness is incompletely understood. Leveraging a restoration chronosequence in Pacific Northwest prairies, we examined the effects of restoration-focused prescribed fire and native forb replanting on floral resources, pollinator visitation, and plant-pollinator network structure. We then simulated the effects of plant species loss/removal scenarios on secondary extinction cascades in the networks. Specifically, we explored three management-relevant plant loss scenarios (removal of an abundant exotic forb, removal of an abundant forb designated a noxious weed, and loss of the rarest native forb) and compared them to control scenarios. Pyrodiversity and proportion of area recently burned increased the abundance and diversity of floral resources, with concomitant increases in pollinator visitation and diversity. Pyrodiversity also decreased network connectance and nestedness, increased modularity, and buffered networks against secondary extinction cascades. Rare forbs contributed disproportionately to network robustness in less restored prairies, while removal of typical "problem" plants like exotic and noxious species had relatively small impacts on network robustness, particularly in prairies with a long history of restoration activities. Restoration actions aimed mainly at improving the diversity and abundance of pollinator-provisioning plants may also produce plant-pollinator networks with increased resilience to plant species losses.

Exploratory in vitro study of red blood cell storage containers formulated with an alternative plasticizer.

BACKGROUND: The plasticizer di-2-ethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP) is a common component in medical plastics. There is motivation to replace this component; however, DEHP is necessary to prevent excessive hemolysis in stored red blood cells (RBCs). Our objective is to evaluate a candidate replacement plasticizer (Hexamoll, di-isononyl cyclohexane-1,2-dicarboxylic acid [DINCH], BASF Corp.) compared to DEHP in an in vitro feasibility study. We hypothesize that the candidate will provide at least equivalent protection against hemolysis for RBCs stored for 42 days and periodic mixing of RBCs will add additional protection against hemolysis. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: Whole blood was collected into citrate-phosphate-dextrose; combined into pools of 2 ABO identical whole blood units; and divided, leukoreduced, centrifuged, and separated into plasma and RBCs. Additive solution was added, and the RBCs were stored for 42 days at 1 to 6°C. In three parts of this study, split pools were paired as DINCH-polyvinyl chloride (PVC) with weekly mixing versus DINCH-PVC with no mixing, DINCH-PVC mixed versus DEHP-PVC no mix, and DINCH-PVC versus DEHP-PVC with neither mixed. A standard panel of in vitro RBC characteristics was determined on Days 0 and 42. RESULTS: Mixing DINCH-PVC weekly improved Day 42 hemolysis (0.36 ± 0.07% vs.0.56 ± 0.15%, p = 0.002), and mixed DINCH-PVC bags were noninferior to unmixed DEHP-PVC bags (p ≤ 0.05). DINCH-PVC bags stored without weekly mixing were inferior to unmixed DEHP-PVC bags for hemolysis on Day 42, although no individual bag exceeded 0.8% hemolysis. CONCLUSION: Periodic mixing of RBCs stored in DINCH-PVC provides additional protection against hemolysis. Unmixed DINCH-PVC bags were inferior to DEHP-PVC bags for prevention of hemolysis, but remain a candidate for replacement DEHP in RBC storage bags.

Functional annotations of three domestic animal genomes provide vital resources for comparative and agricultural research.

Gene regulatory elements are central drivers of phenotypic variation and thus of critical importance towards understanding the genetics of complex traits. The Functional Annotation of Animal Genomes consortium was formed to collaboratively annotate the functional elements in animal genomes, starting with domesticated animals. Here we present an expansive collection of datasets from eight diverse tissues in three important agricultural species: chicken (Gallus gallus), pig (Sus scrofa), and cattle (Bos taurus). Comparative analysis of these datasets and those from the human and mouse Encyclopedia of DNA Elements projects reveal that a core set of regulatory elements are functionally conserved independent of divergence between species, and that tissue-specific transcription factor occupancy at regulatory elements and their predicted target genes are also conserved. These datasets represent a unique opportunity for the emerging field of comparative epigenomics, as well as the agricultural research community, including species that are globally important food resources.