Pollinator-assisted plant phenotyping, selection, and breeding for crop resilience to abiotic stresses.

Food security is threatened by climate change, with heat and drought being the main stresses affecting crop physiology and ecosystem services, such as plant-pollinator interactions. We hypothesize that tracking and ranking pollinators' preferences for flowers under environmental pressure could be used as a marker of plant quality for agricultural breeding to increase crop stress tolerance. Despite increasing relevance of flowers as the most stress sensitive organs, phenotyping platforms aim at identifying traits of resilience by assessing the plant physiological status through remote sensing-assisted vegetative indexes, but find strong bottlenecks in quantifying flower traits and in accurate genotype-to-phenotype prediction. However, as the transport of photoassimilates from leaves (sources) to flowers (sinks) is reduced in low-resilient plants, flowers are better indicators than leaves of plant well-being. Indeed, the chemical composition and amount of pollen and nectar that flowers produce, which ultimately serve as food resources for pollinators, change in response to environmental cues. Therefore, pollinators' preferences could be used as a measure of functional source-to-sink relationships for breeding decisions. To achieve this challenging goal, we propose to develop a pollinator-assisted phenotyping and selection platform for automated quantification of Genotype × Environment × Pollinator interactions through an insect geo-positioning system. Pollinator-assisted selection can be validated by metabolic, transcriptomic, and ionomic traits, and mapping of candidate genes, linking floral and leaf traits, pollinator preferences, plant resilience, and crop productivity. This radical new approach can change the current paradigm of plant phenotyping and find new paths for crop redomestication and breeding assisted by ecological decisions.

Clustering COVID-19 ARDS patients through the first days of ICU admission. An analysis of the CIBERESUCICOVID Cohort.

BACKGROUND: Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) can be classified into sub-phenotypes according to different inflammatory/clinical status. Prognostic enrichment was achieved by grouping patients into hypoinflammatory or hyperinflammatory sub-phenotypes, even though the time of analysis may change the classification according to treatment response or disease evolution. We aimed to evaluate when patients can be clustered in more than 1 group, and how they may change the clustering of patients using data of baseline or day 3, and the prognosis of patients according to their evolution by changing or not the cluster. METHODS: Multicenter, observational prospective, and retrospective study of patients admitted due to ARDS related to COVID-19 infection in Spain. Patients were grouped according to a clustering mixed-type data algorithm (k-prototypes) using continuous and categorical readily available variables at baseline and day 3. RESULTS: Of 6205 patients, 3743 (60%) were included in the study. According to silhouette analysis, patients were grouped in two clusters. At baseline, 1402 (37%) patients were included in cluster 1 and 2341(63%) in cluster 2. On day 3, 1557(42%) patients were included in cluster 1 and 2086 (57%) in cluster 2. The patients included in cluster 2 were older and more frequently hypertensive and had a higher prevalence of shock, organ dysfunction, inflammatory biomarkers, and worst respiratory indexes at both time points. The 90-day mortality was higher in cluster 2 at both clustering processes (43.8% [n = 1025] versus 27.3% [n = 383] at baseline, and 49% [n = 1023] versus 20.6% [n = 321] on day 3). Four hundred and fifty-eight (33%) patients clustered in the first group were clustered in the second group on day 3. In contrast, 638 (27%) patients clustered in the second group were clustered in the first group on day 3. CONCLUSIONS: During the first days, patients can be clustered into two groups and the process of clustering patients may change as they continue to evolve. This means that despite a vast majority of patients remaining in the same cluster, a minority reaching 33% of patients analyzed may be re-categorized into different clusters based on their progress. Such changes can significantly impact their prognosis.

The role of organizational factors in promoting workers' health in the construction sector: A comprehensive analysis.

INTRODUCTION: The number of physical and mental problems caused by occupational accidents and diseases increases every year. To control them, the safety climate at work is a recognized critical factor. However, a widely applicable model to capture the safety climate for various industries and organizations is lacking. METHOD: This study proposes a theoretical model to measure the direct and indirect effects of safety climate on workers' physical and mental health, mediated by job satisfaction, in the construction sector. We propose a multidimensional construct of safety climate, considering the most salient factors from the literature, and including psychological capital as a new factor. Using data from the last wave of the European Working Conditions Survey (2015) in Spain, the proposed model was validated using structural equation modeling. RESULTS: Our findings suggest that to further improve the mental health of construction workers, work-life balance and job rewards and compensation must be prioritized along with safety climate. As for physical health, safety climate and work-life balance are crucial. Finally, we provide some recommendations for construction company managers based on a ranking of all the factors affecting the safety climate and the workers' health.

The role of phenotypic plasticity in shaping ecological networks.

Plasticity-mediated changes in interaction dynamics and structure may scale up and affect the ecological network in which the plastic species are embedded. Despite their potential relevance for understanding the effects of plasticity on ecological communities, these effects have seldom been analysed. We argue here that, by boosting the magnitude of intra-individual phenotypic variation, plasticity may have three possible direct effects on the interactions that the plastic species maintains with other species in the community: may expand the interaction niche, may cause a shift from one interaction niche to another or may even cause the colonization of a new niche. The combined action of these three factors can scale to the community level and eventually expresses itself as a modification in the topology and functionality of the entire ecological network. We propose that this causal pathway can be more widespread than previously thought and may explain how interaction niches evolve quickly in response to rapid changes in environmental conditions. The implication of this idea is not solely eco-evolutionary but may also help to understand how ecological interactions rewire and evolve in response to global change.

The evolution of same-sex sexual behaviour in mammals.

Same-sex sexual behaviour has attracted the attention of many scientists working in disparate areas, from sociology and psychology to behavioural and evolutionary biology. Since it does not contribute directly to reproduction, same-sex sexual behaviour is considered an evolutionary conundrum. Here, using phylogenetic analyses, we explore the evolution of same-sex sexual behaviour in mammals. According to currently available data, this behaviour is not randomly distributed across mammal lineages, but tends to be particularly prevalent in some clades, especially primates. Ancestral reconstruction suggests that same-sex sexual behaviour may have evolved multiple times, with its appearance being a recent phenomenon in most mammalian lineages. Our phylogenetically informed analyses testing for associations between same-sex sexual behaviour and other species characteristics suggest that it may play an adaptive role in maintaining social relationships and mitigating conflict.

GPS tracking analyses reveal finely-tuned shorebird space use and movement patterns throughout the non-breeding season in high-latitude austral intertidal areas.

BACKGROUND: Long-distance migratory birds spend most of their annual cycle in non-breeding areas. During this period birds must meet their daily nutritional needs and acquire additional energy intake to deal with future events of the annual cycle. Therefore, patterns of space use and movement may emerge as an efficient strategy to maintain a trade-off between acquisition and conservation of energy during the non-breeding season. However, there is still a paucity of research addressing this issue, especially in trans-hemispheric migratory birds. METHODS: Using GPS-tracking data and a recently developed continuous-time stochastic process modeling framework, we analyzed fine-scale movements in a non-breeding population of Hudsonian godwits (Limosa haemastica), a gregarious long-distance migratory shorebird. Specifically, we evaluated if these extreme migrants exhibit restricted, shared, and periodic patterns of space use on one of their main non-breeding grounds in southern South America. Finally, via a generalized additive model, we tested if the observed patterns were consistent within a circadian cycle. RESULTS: Overall, godwits showed finely-tuned range-residence and periodic movements (each 24-72 h), being similar between day and night. Remarkably, range-resident individuals segregated spatially into three groups. In contrast, a smaller fraction of godwits displayed unpredictable and irregular movements, adding functional connectivity within the population. CONCLUSIONS: In coastal non-breeding areas where resource availability is highly predictable due to tidal cycles, range-resident strategies during both the day and night are the common pattern in a long-distance shorebird population. Alternative patterns exhibited by a fraction of non-resident godwits provide functional connectivity and suggest that the exploratory tendency may be essential for information acquisition and associated with individual traits. The methodological approach we have used contributes to elucidate how the composition of movement phases operates during the non-breeding season in migratory species and can be replicated in non-migratory species as well. Finally, our results highlight the importance of considering movement as a continuum within the annual cycle.

Linking occupational accidents and construction firm survival.

INTRODUCTION: This paper examines the relationships between the reported accidents of workers in construction firms and the probability of those firms' survival. METHOD: Between 2004 and 2010, a sample of 344 Spanish construction firms from Majorca were selected. The study built panel data with the reported official accidents from the Labor Authority records and the firm survival or mortality from the Bureau van Dijks Iberian Balance Sheet Analysis System database. The hypothesis is that a higher number of accidents directly affects the probability of the company surviving in the sector. By using a probit regression model with panel data, the relationship between these two variables were explored to test the hypothesis. RESULTS: The study found evidence that an increment in accidents decreases the probability of the company continuing to operate, or worse, going bankrupt. The results can be useful to highlight the importance of defining policies to control those accidents effectively, since this may be a key factor in the sustainability, competitiveness, and growth of the construction sector for the economy of a region.

From Risk Assessment on Site to How to Improve Safety: An Easy "App" to Control Construction Site Conditions.

A construction site has specific risks and organizational conditions requiring on-site safety inspections. Paperwork inspections have important limitations that can be overcome by substituting paper records with digital registers and using new information and communication technologies. Although academic literature has provided several tools to carry out on-site safety inspections adopting new technologies, most construction sites are not currently ready to adopt them. This paper covers this need of on-site control by providing an application that uses a simple technology accessible to most construction companies. The main objective and contribution of this paper is to design, develop, and implement a mobile device application (App), named "RisGES". It is based on the model of risk that grounds the Construction Site Risk Assessment Tool (CONSRAT) and on the related models that connect risk with specific organizational and safety resources. This proposed application is aimed to assess the on-site risk and organizational structure by using new technologies and considering all relevant resources and material safety conditions. The paper includes practical examples of how to use RisGES in real settings. Evidence for the discriminant validity of CONSRAT is also provided. The RisGES tool is at once preventive and predictive since it yields a specific set of criteria for interventions intended to decrease the levels of risks on-site, as well as to detect improvement needs in the site structure and resources for increasing the safety levels.

Plasticity of maternal environment-dependent expression-QTLs of tomato seeds.

Seeds are essential for plant reproduction, survival, and dispersal. Germination ability and successful establishment of young seedlings strongly depend on seed quality and on environmental factors such as nutrient availability. In tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) and many other species, seed quality and seedling establishment characteristics are determined by genetic variation, as well as the maternal environment in which the seeds develop and mature. The genetic contribution to variation in seed and seedling quality traits and environmental responsiveness can be estimated at transcriptome level in the dry seed by mapping genomic loci that affect gene expression (expression QTLs) in contrasting maternal environments. In this study, we applied RNA-sequencing to construct a linkage map and measure gene expression of seeds of a tomato recombinant inbred line (RIL) population derived from a cross between S. lycopersicum (cv. Moneymaker) and S. pimpinellifolium (G1.1554). The seeds matured on plants cultivated under different nutritional environments, i.e., on high phosphorus or low nitrogen. The obtained single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were subsequently used to construct a genetic map. We show how the genetic landscape of plasticity in gene regulation in dry seeds is affected by the maternal nutrient environment. The combined information on natural genetic variation mediating (variation in) responsiveness to the environment may contribute to knowledge-based breeding programs aiming to develop crop cultivars that are resilient to stressful environments.

Mediterranean songbirds show pronounced seasonal variation in thermoregulatory traits.

Addressing the patterns of variation in thermal traits is crucial to better predict the potential effects of climate change on organisms. Here, we assessed seasonal (winter vs summer) adjustments in key thermoregulatory traits in eight Mediterranean-resident songbirds. Overall, songbirds increased whole-animal (by 8%) and mass-adjusted (by 9%) basal metabolic rate and decreased (by 56%) thermal conductance below the thermoneutral zone during winter. The magnitude of these changes was within the lower values found in songbirds from northern temperate areas. Moreover, songbirds increased (by 11%) evaporative water loss within the thermoneutral zone during summer, while its rate of increase above the inflection point of evaporative water loss (i.e., the slope of evaporative water loss versus temperature) decreased by 35% during summer - a value well above that reported for other temperate and tropical songbirds. Finally, body mass increased by 5% during winter, a pattern similar to that found in many northern temperate species. Our findings support the idea that physiological adjustments might enhance the resilience of Mediterranean songbirds to environmental changes, with short-term benefits by saving energy and water under thermally stressful conditions. Nevertheless, not all species showed the same patterns, suggesting different strategies in their thermoregulatory adaptations to seasonal environments.

Gait Function after High-Intensity Focused Ultrasound Thalamotomy for Essential Tremor: Searching for Technique Optimization.

INTRODUCTION: Essential tremor (ET) is one of the most prevalent movement disorders in adults and may be highly disabling for some. Magnetic resonance image-guided high-intensity focused ultrasound (MRIgFUS) has been shown to control tremor efficaciously and with acceptable risk. To date, paresthesia and ataxia are the most common adverse effects (AE). Nevertheless, the impact of MRIgFUS thalamotomy on balance is not well established. METHODS: Thirty-two patients underwent MRIgFUS for ET and completed 6 months of follow-up. Tremor severity and functional disability were assessed using the Essential Tremor Rating Scale and the Quality of Life in Essential Tremor Questionnaire. The Berg Balance Scale (BBS) was applied to objectively measure balance status. RESULTS: All treatments were successful. The sonication target was 1-2 mm above the depth of the intercommissural line. Procedures lasted less the 2 h, with an average of 8 sonications per patient. Twenty-four patients were included in the tremor analysis. The hand tremor score was improved by 76% after 6 months of follow-up and 87% of patients self-reported marked improvement (≥75%). Disability scores showed marked improvement (78%), leading to a significant improvement in quality of life. At the final follow-up, 48% of the patients reported no side effects. When present, AE were generally transient and were considered mild in 96% of affected patients. Paresthesia and subjective feeling of unsteadiness were the most common persistent complaints (23% and 20%, respectively). Regarding objective ataxia, BBS scores remained stable throughout follow-up for most patients. Only 2 patients suffered a mild worsening of balance although no patients experienced moderate or severe ataxia. CONCLUSIONS: Subjective feeling of unsteadiness is one of the most frequent AE after MRIgFUS, although objective ataxia is infrequent and mild. Selecting the most appropriate lesion location and procedural parameters should increase treatment benefits while reducing side effects.

Key Factors Associated With Pulmonary Sequelae in the Follow-Up of Critically Ill COVID-19 Patients.

INTRODUCTION: Critical COVID-19 survivors have a high risk of respiratory sequelae. Therefore, we aimed to identify key factors associated with altered lung function and CT scan abnormalities at a follow-up visit in a cohort of critical COVID-19 survivors. METHODS: Multicenter ambispective observational study in 52 Spanish intensive care units. Up to 1327 PCR-confirmed critical COVID-19 patients had sociodemographic, anthropometric, comorbidity and lifestyle characteristics collected at hospital admission; clinical and biological parameters throughout hospital stay; and, lung function and CT scan at a follow-up visit. RESULTS: The median [p25-p75] time from discharge to follow-up was 3.57 [2.77-4.92] months. Median age was 60 [53-67] years, 27.8% women. The mean (SD) percentage of predicted diffusing lung capacity for carbon monoxide (DLCO) at follow-up was 72.02 (18.33)% predicted, with 66% of patients having DLCO<80% and 24% having DLCO<60%. CT scan showed persistent pulmonary infiltrates, fibrotic lesions, and emphysema in 33%, 25% and 6% of patients, respectively. Key variables associated with DLCO<60% were chronic lung disease (CLD) (OR: 1.86 (1.18-2.92)), duration of invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV) (OR: 1.56 (1.37-1.77)), age (OR [per-1-SD] (95%CI): 1.39 (1.18-1.63)), urea (OR: 1.16 (0.97-1.39)) and estimated glomerular filtration rate at ICU admission (OR: 0.88 (0.73-1.06)). Bacterial pneumonia (1.62 (1.11-2.35)) and duration of ventilation (NIMV (1.23 (1.06-1.42), IMV (1.21 (1.01-1.45)) and prone positioning (1.17 (0.98-1.39)) were associated with fibrotic lesions. CONCLUSION: Age and CLD, reflecting patients' baseline vulnerability, and markers of COVID-19 severity, such as duration of IMV and renal failure, were key factors associated with impaired DLCO and CT abnormalities.

Hybridization and introgression are prevalent in Southern European Erysimum (Brassicaceae) species.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Hybridization is a common and important force in plant evolution. One of its outcomes is introgression - the transfer of small genomic regions from one taxon to another by hybridization and repeated backcrossing. This process is believed to be common in glacial refugia, where range expansions and contractions can lead to cycles of sympatry and isolation, creating conditions for extensive hybridization and introgression. Polyploidization is another genome-wide process with a major influence on plant evolution. Both hybridization and polyploidization can have complex effects on plant evolution. However, these effects are often difficult to understand in recently evolved species complexes. METHODS: We combined flow cytometry, analyses of transcriptomic sequences and pollen tube growth assays to investigate the consequences of polyploidization, hybridization and introgression on the recent evolution of several Erysimum (Brassicaceae) species from the South of the Iberian Peninsula, a well-known glacial refugium. This species complex differentiated in the last 2 million years, and its evolution has been hypothesized to be determined mainly by polyploidization, interspecific hybridization and introgression. KEY RESULTS: Our results support a scenario of widespread hybridization involving both extant and 'ghost' taxa. Several taxa studied here, most notably those with purple corollas, are polyploids, probably of allopolyploid origin. Moreover, hybridization in this group might be an ongoing phenomenon, as pre-zygotic barriers appeared weak in many cases. CONCLUSIONS: The evolution of Erysimum spp. has been determined by hybridization to a large extent. Species with purple (polyploids) and yellow flowers (mostly diploid) exhibit a strong signature of introgression in their genomes, indicating that hybridization occurred regardless of colour and across ploidy levels. Although the adaptive value of such genomic exchanges remains unclear, our results demonstrate the significance of hybridization for plant diversification, which should be taken into account when studying plant evolution.

Effects of intubation timing in patients with COVID-19 throughout the four waves of the pandemic: a matched analysis.

BACKGROUND: The primary aim of our study was to investigate the association between intubation timing and hospital mortality in critically ill patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)-associated respiratory failure. We also analysed both the impact of such timing throughout the first four pandemic waves and the influence of prior noninvasive respiratory support on outcomes. METHODS: This is a secondary analysis of a multicentre, observational and prospective cohort study that included all consecutive patients undergoing invasive mechanical ventilation due to COVID-19 from across 58 Spanish intensive care units (ICUs) participating in the CIBERESUCICOVID project. The study period was between 29 February 2020 and 31 August 2021. Early intubation was defined as that occurring within the first 24 h of ICU admission. Propensity score matching was used to achieve a balance across baseline variables between the early intubation cohort and those patients who were intubated after the first 24 h of ICU admission. Differences in outcomes between early and delayed intubation were also assessed. We performed sensitivity analyses to consider a different time-point (48 h from ICU admission) for early and delayed intubation. RESULTS: Of the 2725 patients who received invasive mechanical ventilation, a total of 614 matched patients were included in the analysis (307 for each group). In the unmatched population, there were no differences in mortality between the early and delayed groups. After propensity score matching, patients with delayed intubation presented higher hospital mortality (27.3% versus 37.1%; p=0.01), ICU mortality (25.7% versus 36.1%; p=0.007) and 90-day mortality (30.9% versus 40.2%; p=0.02) compared with the early intubation group. Very similar findings were observed when we used a 48-h time-point for early or delayed intubation. The use of early intubation decreased after the first wave of the pandemic (72%, 49%, 46% and 45% in the first, second, third and fourth waves, respectively; first versus second, third and fourth waves p<0.001). In both the main and sensitivity analyses, hospital mortality was lower in patients receiving high-flow nasal cannula (HFNC) (n=294) who were intubated earlier. The subgroup of patients undergoing noninvasive ventilation (n=214) before intubation showed higher mortality when delayed intubation was set as that occurring after 48 h from ICU admission, but not when after 24 h. CONCLUSIONS: In patients with COVID-19 requiring invasive mechanical ventilation, delayed intubation was associated with a higher risk of hospital mortality. The use of early intubation significantly decreased throughout the course of the pandemic. Benefits of such an approach occurred more notably in patients who had received HFNC.

Heat tolerance limits of Mediterranean songbirds and their current and future vulnerabilities to temperature extremes.

Songbirds are one of the groups most vulnerable to extreme heat events. Although several recent studies have assessed their physiological responses to heat, most of them have focused solely on arid-zone species. We investigated thermoregulatory responses to heat in eight small-sized songbirds occurring in the Mediterranean Basin, where heatwaves are becoming more frequent and intense. Specifically, we determined their heat tolerance limits (HTLs) and evaporative cooling efficiency, and evaluated their current and future vulnerabilities to heat in southwestern Iberia, a Mediterranean climate warming hotspot. To do this, we exposed birds to an increasing profile of air temperatures (Ta) and measured resting metabolic rate (RMR), evaporative water loss (EWL), evaporative cooling efficiency (the ratio between evaporative heat loss and metabolic heat production) and body temperature (Tb). HTL ranged between 40 and 46°C across species, and all species showed rapid increases in RMR, EWL and Tb in response to increasing Ta. However, only the crested lark (Galerida cristata) achieved an evaporative cooling efficiency greater than 1. The studied songbirds currently experience summer Ta maxima that surpass the upper critical temperatures of their thermoneutral zone and even their HTL. Our estimates indicate that five of the eight species will experience moderate risk of lethal dehydration by the end of the century. We argue that the limited heat tolerance and evaporative cooling efficiency of small-sized Mediterranean songbirds make them particularly vulnerable to heatwaves, which will be exacerbated under future climate change scenarios.

Lack of ITS sequence homogenization in Erysimum species (Brassicaceae) with different ploidy levels.

The internal transcribed spacers (ITS) exhibit concerted evolution by the fast homogenization of these sequences at the intragenomic level. However, the rate and extension of this process are unclear and might be conditioned by the number and divergence of the different ITS copies. In some cases, such as hybrid species and polyploids, ITS sequence homogenization appears incomplete, resulting in multiple haplotypes within the same organism. Here, we studied the dynamics of concerted evolution in 85 individuals of seven plant species of the genus Erysimum (Brassicaceae) with multiple ploidy levels. We estimated the rate of concerted evolution and the degree of sequence homogenization separately for ITS1 and ITS2 and whether these varied with ploidy. Our results showed incomplete sequence homogenization, especially for polyploid samples, indicating a lack of concerted evolution in these taxa. Homogenization was usually higher in ITS2 than in ITS1, suggesting that concerted evolution operates more efficiently on the former. Furthermore, the hybrid origin of several species appears to contribute to the maintenance of high haplotype diversity, regardless of the level of ploidy. These findings indicate that sequence homogenization of ITS is a dynamic and complex process that might result in varying intra- and inter-genomic diversity levels.

Prognostic implications of comorbidity patterns in critically ill COVID-19 patients: A multicenter, observational study.

Background: The clinical heterogeneity of COVID-19 suggests the existence of different phenotypes with prognostic implications. We aimed to analyze comorbidity patterns in critically ill COVID-19 patients and assess their impact on in-hospital outcomes, response to treatment and sequelae. Methods: Multicenter prospective/retrospective observational study in intensive care units of 55 Spanish hospitals. 5866 PCR-confirmed COVID-19 patients had comorbidities recorded at hospital admission; clinical and biological parameters, in-hospital procedures and complications throughout the stay; and, clinical complications, persistent symptoms and sequelae at 3 and 6 months. Findings: Latent class analysis identified 3 phenotypes using training and test subcohorts: low-morbidity (n=3385; 58%), younger and with few comorbidities; high-morbidity (n=2074; 35%), with high comorbid burden; and renal-morbidity (n=407; 7%), with chronic kidney disease (CKD), high comorbidity burden and the worst oxygenation profile. Renal-morbidity and high-morbidity had more in-hospital complications and higher mortality risk than low-morbidity (adjusted HR (95% CI): 1.57 (1.34-1.84) and 1.16 (1.05-1.28), respectively). Corticosteroids, but not tocilizumab, were associated with lower mortality risk (HR (95% CI) 0.76 (0.63-0.93)), especially in renal-morbidity and high-morbidity. Renal-morbidity and high-morbidity showed the worst lung function throughout the follow-up, with renal-morbidity having the highest risk of infectious complications (6%), emergency visits (29%) or hospital readmissions (14%) at 6 months (p<0.01). Interpretation: Comorbidity-based phenotypes were identified and associated with different expression of in-hospital complications, mortality, treatment response, and sequelae, with CKD playing a major role. This could help clinicians in day-to-day decision making including the management of post-discharge COVID-19 sequelae. Funding: ISCIII, UNESPA, CIBERES, FEDER, ESF.

SELF PRUNING 3C is a flowering repressor that modulates seed germination, root architecture, and drought responses.

Allelic variation in the CETS (CENTRORADIALIS, TERMINAL FLOWER 1, SELF PRUNING) gene family controls agronomically important traits in many crops. CETS genes encode phosphatidylethanolamine-binding proteins that have a central role in the timing of flowering as florigenic and anti-florigenic signals. The great expansion of CETS genes in many species suggests that the functions of this family go beyond flowering induction and repression. Here, we characterized the tomato SELF PRUNING 3C (SP3C) gene, and show that besides acting as a flowering repressor it also regulates seed germination and modulates root architecture. We show that loss of SP3C function in CRISPR/Cas9-generated mutant lines increases root length and reduces root side branching relative to the wild type. Higher SP3C expression in transgenic lines promotes the opposite effects in roots, represses seed germination, and also improves tolerance to water stress in seedlings. These discoveries provide new insights into the role of SP paralogs in agronomically relevant traits, and support future exploration of the involvement of CETS genes in abiotic stress responses.

Major candidate variables to guide personalised treatment with steroids in critically ill patients with COVID-19: CIBERESUCICOVID study.

PURPOSE: Although there is evidence supporting the benefits of corticosteroids in patients affected with severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), there is little information related to their potential benefits or harm in some subgroups of patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) with COVID-19. We aim to investigate to find candidate variables to guide personalized treatment with steroids in critically ill patients with COVID-19. METHODS: Multicentre, observational cohort study including consecutive COVID-19 patients admitted to 55 Spanish ICUs. The primary outcome was 90-day mortality. Subsequent analyses in clinically relevant subgroups by age, ICU baseline illness severity, organ damage, laboratory findings and mechanical ventilation were performed. High doses of corticosteroids (≥ 12 mg/day equivalent dexamethasone dose), early administration of corticosteroid treatment (< 7 days since symptom onset) and long term of corticosteroids (≥ 10 days) were also investigated. RESULTS: Between February 2020 and October 2021, 4226 patients were included. Of these, 3592 (85%) patients had received systemic corticosteroids during hospitalisation. In the propensity-adjusted multivariable analysis, the use of corticosteroids was protective for 90-day mortality in the overall population (HR 0.77 [0.65-0.92], p = 0.003) and in-hospital mortality (SHR 0.70 [0.58-0.84], p < 0.001). Significant effect modification was found after adjustment for covariates using propensity score for age (p = 0.001 interaction term), Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) score (p = 0.014 interaction term), and mechanical ventilation (p = 0.001 interaction term). We observed a beneficial effect of corticosteroids on 90-day mortality in various patient subgroups, including those patients aged ≥ 60 years; those with higher baseline severity; and those receiving invasive mechanical ventilation at ICU admission. Early administration was associated with a higher risk of 90-day mortality in the overall population (HR 1.32 [1.14-1.53], p < 0.001). Long-term use was associated with a lower risk of 90-day mortality in the overall population (HR 0.71 [0.61-0.82], p < 0.001). No effect was found regarding the dosage of corticosteroids. Moreover, the use of corticosteroids was associated with an increased risk of nosocomial bacterial pneumonia and hyperglycaemia. CONCLUSION: Corticosteroid in ICU-admitted patients with COVID-19 may be administered based on age, severity, baseline inflammation, and invasive mechanical ventilation. Early administration since symptom onset may prove harmful.