Genetic stability of micropropagated plants of Crambe abyssinica Hochst using ISSR markers.

Crambe (Crambe abyssinica) is a non-edible annual herb, which was first cultivated to extract oil for industry, and now has great potential for biodiesel production. The objective of this investigation was to evaluate the genetic stability of micropropagated plants of the C. abyssinica Hochst cultivar 'FMS brilhante' using polymerase chain reaction techniques based on inter-simple sequence repeat (ISSR) molecular markers. The aim was to develop a protocol for the in vitro regeneration of these plants with low genetic variation as compared to the donor plant. For micropropagation, shoot tips from in vitro germinated seedlings were used as explants and were initially cultivated for 90 days on MS medium with 5.0 µM 6-benzylaminopurine (BAP), which at 90 days, led to the highest number of shoots per explant (NSE) (12.20 shoots) being detected. After 120 days, the interaction between BAP concentration and naphthalene acetic acid (NAA) was tested, and the highest NSE was observed following exposure to 0.0/0.5 µM BAP/NAA (11.40 shoots) and 1.0/0.0 µM BAP/NAA (11.00 shoots). The highest proportion of rooting phase were observed following exposure to 0.5 µM NAA (30%). The 13 ISSR primers used to analyze genetic stability produced 91 amplification products, of which only eight bands were polymorphic and 83 were monomorphic for all 10 regenerated crambe plants, compared to the donor plant explant. These results indicate that crambe shoot tips are a highly reliable explant that can be used to micropropagate genetically true-to-type plants or to maintain genetic stability, as verified using ISSR markers.

Molecular characterization of Anthurium genotypes by using DNA fingerprinting and SPAR markers.

We characterized single primer amplification reaction (SPAR) molecular markers from 20 genotypes of Anthurium andraeanum Lind., including 3 from commercial varieties and 17 from 2 communities in the State of Espírito Santo, Brazil. Twenty-four SPAR, consisting of 7 random amplified polymorphic DNA and 17 inter-simple sequence repeat markers were used to estimate the genetic diversity of 20 Anthurium accessions. The set of SPAR markers generated 288 bands and showed an average polymorphism percentage of 93.39%, ranging from 71.43 to 100%. The polymorphism information content (PIC) of the random amplified polymorphic DNA primers averaged 0.364 and ranged from 0.258 to 0.490. Primer OPF 06 showed the lowest PIC, while OPAM 14 was the highest. The average PIC of the inter-simple sequence repeat primers was 0.299, with values ranging from 0.196 to 0.401. Primer UBC 845 had the lowest PIC (0.196), while primer UCB 810 had the highest (0.401). By using the complement of Jaccard's similarity index and unweighted pair group method with arithmetic mean clustering, 5 clusters were formed with a cophenetic correlation coefficient of 0.8093, indicating an acceptable clustering consistency. However, no genotype clustering patterns agreed with the morphological data. The Anthurium genotypes investigated in this study are a germplasm source for conservational research and may be used in improvement programs for this species.

Clinical Evolution of Patients Using Ventricular Assist Devices as a Bridge for Transplantation.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the clinical evolution of patients with implantation of ventricular assist device (VAD) and identify the intervening factors for death. METHODS: This analytical, retrospective study was carried out in a public reference hospital in cardiopulmonary diseases located in northeastern Brazil. The study population encompassed the medical records of 16 patients who underwent VAD implantation. Data collection took place from January to August 2016, through the consultation of medical records. Descriptive analysis, odds ratio, and the Fisher's Exact, Wilcoxon, Friedman and t-tests were used to analyze the data. RESULTS: All patients experienced complications during the use of the device, with bleeding being the main cause (11 [68.8%]). There was a significant decrease in noradrenaline (P = .025), milrinone (Primacor; P = .007), and dobutamine (P = .046) flow rates with the clinical evolution of patients. Regarding hematologic parameters, the use of VAD promoted a significant improvement in hemoglobin (P < .001), hematocrit (P = .003), activated partial thromboplastin time (P = .013), and fibrinogen (P = .049) values at the 3 time points analyzed. Regarding the clinical outcome of the patients, the majority (10 [62.5%]) underwent cardiac transplantation. CONCLUSIONS: This study allowed for better knowledge of the clinical evolution of patients with VAD implantation, highlighting the benefits of this type of device as a bridge for heart transplantation.