Qualitative analysis of the vaginal microbiota of healthy cattle and cattle with genital-tract disease.

The microbial community of the reproductive appara-tus, when known, can provide information about the health of the host. Metagenomics has been used to characterize and obtain genetic infor-mation about microbial communities in various environments and can relate certain diseases with changes in this community composition. In this study, samples of vaginal surface mucosal secretions were col-lected from five healthy cows and five cows that showed symptoms of reproductive disorders. Following high-throughput sequencing of the isolated microbial DNA, data were processed using the Mothur soft-ware to remove low-quality sequences and chimeras, and released to the Ribosomal Database Project for classification of operational taxo-nomic units (OTUs). Local BLASTn was performed and results were loaded into the MEGAN program for viewing profiles and taxonomic microbial attributes. The control profile comprised a total of 15 taxa, with Bacteroides, Enterobacteriaceae, and Victivallis comprising the highest representation of OTUs; the reproductive disorder-positive profile comprised 68 taxa, with Bacteroides, Enterobacteriaceae, His-tophilus, Victivallis, Alistipes, and Coriobacteriaceae being the taxa with the most OTU representation. A change was observed in both the community composition as well as in the microbial attributes of the profiles, suggesting that a relationship might exist between the patho-gen and representative taxa, reflecting the production of metabolites to disease progression.

Phylogenetic analysis of substrate-binding subunits in an osmoprotectant system.

Substrate-binding subunits are important components of the solute importation system, known as the osmoprotectant system, which consists of a membrane protein belonging to the ABC superfamily. These molecules recognize specific substrates that have different physiological roles in prokaryotes, i.e., roles that contribute to the survival of these organisms in environments with high concentrations of salt. Using the MEGA software, this study performed a phylogenetic analysis of 431 nucleotide sequences of these subunits, orthologous to each other, collected from the http://www.genome.jp/kegg/ database. This analysis allowed phylogenetic trees to be generated, clearly demonstrating that there was horizontal transfer of some genes through sharing by different organisms. Furthermore, two probable ancestral sequences were generated that showed homology with permeases that transport choline, glycine betaine, and carnitine, which are trimethylamines currently present in various prokaryotes. Therefore, this system probably arose in prokaryotic organisms with the basic function of capturing nutrients, and by performing this basal function and being shared with other organisms, it was fixed in the genome. However, because of prokaryote habitat diversification, this system contributed decisively to the adaptation of these organisms to different environments, especially environments that had a high salt concentration, thus acting as an osmoprotection system, which is how they are currently categorized.

Transcriptional profiling and physiological responses reveal new insights into drought tolerance in a semiarid adapted species, Anacardium occidentale.

Water stress affects plant performance at various organisational levels, from morphological to molecular, with a drastic drop in crop yield. Integrative studies involving transcriptomics and physiological data in recognized tolerant species are appropriate strategies to identify and understand molecular and functional processes related to water deficit tolerance. The cashew tree (Anacardium occidentale) is a species naturally adapted to environments with low water availability associated with adverse conditions such as heat, high radiation and salinity. We used an integrative strategy, combining classical physiological measurements with high throughput RNA-seq to understand the main adaptive mechanisms of cashew to water deficit followed by recovery. Physiological analyses indicate that young cashew plants display typical isohydric behaviour. They first exhibit rapid stomatal closure, followed by CO2 assimilation, thus preserving the relative water content, membrane integrity and photosystem II activity. Differential expression was observed in 1733 genes from plant leaves exposed to water deficit stress for 26 days. Among them, 705 were upregulated and 1028 were downregulated. After rewatering, 1330 (76.7%) genes returned to their basal expression level. Transcriptional, combined with physiological data, reveal that cashew plants display high phenotypic plasticity and resilience to acute water deficit, and do not activate senescence pathways. A series of genes/pathways and processes involved with drought tolerance in cashew are evidenced, particularly in carbon metabolism, photosynthesis and chloroplast homeostasis.

Evaluation of spinal posture using Microsoft Kinect™: A preliminary case-study with 98 volunteers.

This work proposes a novel approach to assess spinal curvature, by using Microsoft's Kinect™ to obtain 3D reconstructed models of subject's dorsal skin surface in different postures. This method is non-invasive, radiation-free and low-cost. The trial tests here presented intended to evaluate the reliability of this approach, by assessing the tendency of 98 volunteers to present scoliosis. The shoulder height difference was calculated for each subject's scan, by quantifying the angular slope of a line crossing both scapulae. The volunteers' average age was 24.7 years. Results showed that 68.37% of the volunteers revealed differences higher than 1° between the shoulders, having that their record in what concerns to loads and lesions proved to increase the angular slope. This initial approach shall establish the grounds for assessing spinal posture in pre-clinical or industrial ergonomics scans. Further studies shall include comparison versus traditional imaging methods and experienced clinical evaluation.