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Background: Vaccination is widely used in fish aquaculture for three primary reasons: to prevent bacterial disease spreading, minimize antibiotic use and fight antibiotic resistance. Vaccine production is an expensive and consuming process, mainly in terms of money, resources, and animals for quality control. The replace, reduce, and refine (3Rs) philosophy suggests developing and validates alternative methods to animal testing for scientific purposes, even for biologicals and vaccines. Aim: The current study explored the potential use of mouse and fish cells in the in vitro toxicity grade assessment through different methods, as an alternative assay to in vivo residual toxicity tests for autogenous fish vaccine control. Methods: BF2 and L929 cell lines were exposed to vaccine dilutions in two different ways of administration and toxicity grade was recorded by MTS assay, compared to the in vivo gold standard test. Results: Autogenous vaccines (AVs) caused no reactions in the in vivo test. In the in vitro assay, the different toxicity grade recorded was statistically significant between the cell lines adopted and the AVs way of administration. Conclusions: Data obtained represent the first application of 3Rs method to fish AVs produced in Italy, more investigations are needed to collect solid results and standardize new in vitro methods for vaccine quality control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mal secco is a severe vascular citrus disease (MSD) caused by the mitosporic fungus Plenodomus tracheiphilus (Pt). The pathogen enters through wounds on the above- and below-ground parts of the tree. The susceptible species sour orange (Citrus aurantium) is the most commonly used rootstock for lemon trees in Italy. In this study, sour orange seedlings were wound-inoculated with P. tracheiphilus in leaves or roots. Six months post-inoculation, the microbial communities of rhizosphere, endorhizosphere, and xylem endosphere samples from inoculated and healthy plants were analyzed by 16S rRNA and ITS (internal transcribed spacer) amplicon sequencing. The DNA of Pt was quantified by real-time PCR in the three compartments. According to our results, the endorhizosphere of root-inoculated plants showed the highest concentration of the pathogen DNA. Bacterial populations of potentially beneficial taxa (e.g., Pseudomonas and Burkholderia) were depleted in the rhizosphere of the inoculated plants. Infection through leaves and roots also produced a network-wide rewiring of microbial associations in sour orange roots. Overall, our findings revealed community-level changes induced by Pt infection in the sour orange root and xylem microbiome, providing further insights into the beneficial multispecies interactions in Citrus-associated microbial communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: An enigmatic, c. 2km-long and 15m-high travertine ridge, the Colle Fiorito ridge, occurs in the northwestern sector of the Tivoli travertine plateau, central Italy. The main questions addressed in this paper concern the origin and mode of growth of this prominent ridge. The presence of active structures beneath the studied ridge is inferred by recent and past earthquakes located at shallow depths immediately beneath Colle Fiorito. To understand the surficial structure of the Colle Fiorito ridge and the travertine depositional environment, we constructed a 10m-resolution DEM, analyzed recent and past aerial photographs, and conducted field surveys and meso- to micro-scale sedimentological analyses. To understand the ridge subsurface structure, we studied a set of 32 stratigraphic well logs available from previous works and from the local decorative stone industry, and realized a 2D electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) across the ridge. Results show a gentle antiformal structure affected by subvertical zones of strata discontinuity. The Colle Fiorito structure is interpreted as a previously-unknown fissure ridge travertine grown at the edge of the Tivoli travertine plateau, perhaps when the volumetric deposition rate reached its climax in the plateau for the abundance of fluid discharge and the rise of the water table. Such a fluid pressure may have activated the faults and fractures beneath Colle Fiorito, thus opening new pathways for the ascension of geothermal fluids toward the surface. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Simple Summary: A retrospective, large-scale molecular survey was carried out to detect the presence of the PCV-2 and PCV-3 genomes in wild boar samples in the Campania region. A total of 148 samples from wild boars were tested for PCV-2 and PCV-3 by real-time PCR. The combined prevalence was 74.32%. The percentage of coinfected animals was 22.30%. In recent years, porcine circovirus (PCV) infection has been documented as an important and emerging health concern for livestock and wildlife worldwide. The purpose of the present study was to assess the molecular prevalence of PCV-2 and PCV-3 and to clarify the epidemiological role of wild boars in the circulation of this virus in Campania, Southern Italy. For this purpose, samples from several organs were collected during the hunting season 2017–2018 from 148 wild boars in the Campania region. Quantitative real-time PCR was used for the detection and quantification of PCV-2 and PCV-3 genomes. The combined prevalence of PCV-2 and PCV-3 was 74.32% in the wild boars tested. The proportions of wild boars positive for PCV-2 or PCV-3, or coinfected, were 47.30%, 49.32%, and 22.30%, respectively. No link was detected between PCV positivity and location, but gender was a risk factor for the disease (female; p < 0.0001; OR 0.29). Furthermore, our study provides a snapshot of PCV-2 and PCV-3 circulation in wild boars in the Campania region: our findings can help us to better understand the role of wildlife in PCV circulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As for a consolidated tradition, the 5th annual meeting of the Italian Network for Cancer Biotherapy took place in the Certosa of Pontignano, a Tuscan monastery, on September 20-22, 2007. The congress gathered more than 40 Italian leading groups representing academia, biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry. Aim of the meeting was to share new advances in cancer bioimmunotherapy and to promote their swift translation from pre-clinical research to clinical applications. Several topics were covered including: a) molecular and cellular mechanisms of tumor escape; b) therapeutic antibodies and recombinant constructs; c) clinical trials up-date and new programs; d) National Cooperative Networks and their potential interactions; e) old and new times in cancer immunology, an "amarcord". Here, we report the main issues discussed during the meeting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Loriolella Fucini is an enigmatic and poorly understood Early Jurassic sea-urchin that has been interpreted both as a regular and an irregular echinoid. The discovery of new and well-preserved material of the type species L. ludovicii (Meneghini) from the Upper Pliensbachian (Lower Jurassic) of Lombardy, Italy, has clarified the morphology of this genus for the first time. Loriolella resembles regular echinoids in having a large (almost certainly monocyclic) apical disc enclosing the periproct, and large primary interambulacral tubercles and spines. However, its peristome is extremely small with only vestigial buccal notches and auricles, and the ambulacra expand adorally forming cassiduloid-like phyllodes. Cladistic analysis suggests that Loriolella is the earliest known microstomatid irregular echinoid. Its unique mixture of primitive and derived characters is important for interpreting the initial steps by which irregular echinoids arose from diadematoid-like regular ancestors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Listeria monocytogenes is a Gram-positive pathogen causing life-threatening infections both in humans and animals. In livestock farms, it can persist for a long time and primarily causes uterine infections and encephalitis in farmed animals. Whole genome sequencing (WGS) is currently becoming the best method for molecular typing of this pathogen due to its high discriminatory power and efficiency of characterization. This study describes the WGS-based characterization of an L. monocytogenes strain from an aborted water buffalo fetus in southern Italy. The strain under study was classified as molecular serogroup IVb, phylogenetic lineage I, MLST sequence type 6, Clonal Complex 6, and cgMLST type CT3331, sublineage 6. Molecular analysis indicated the presence of 61 virulence genes and 4 antibiotic resistance genes. Phylogenetic analysis, including all the publicly available European L. monocytogenes serogroup IVb isolates, indicated that our strain clusterized with all the other CC6 strains and that different CCs were variably distributed within countries and isolation sources. This study contributes to the current understanding of the genetic diversity of L. monocytogenes from animal sources and highlights how the WGS strategy can provide insights into the pathogenic potential of this microorganism, acting as an important tool for epidemiological studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Morphologically-different deposits of thermal travertines are known worldwide, but what factors controlled their morphology, volume, and growth for tens of thousands of years is only partially understood. Two main morphotypes of Quaternary thermal travertines are reconsidered here to understand the reasons for their differential growth: the fissure ridge travertines of Denizli Basin, western Turkey, and the travertine plateau of Tivoli, central Italy. For comparable longevities and average vertical deposition rates, the main differences between the studied travertines are as follows: (1) volume of the travertine plateau is about one hundred times larger than each fissure ridge; (2) despite a larger volume, the travertine plateau does not produce relief, whereas the fissure ridges produce a characteristic prominent topography; (3) the travertine plateau grew primarily through lateral progradation, whereas the fissure ridges through vertical aggradation; (4) travertine deposition occurred in different environments: principally low-energy flat or shallow environments at Tivoli and high-energy inclined environments at Denizli; (5) the growth of the Tivoli plateau occurred in a subsiding basin, whereas the fissure ridges were not influenced by significant subsidence; (6) C- and O-isotope signatures from the two studied travertines are different; (7) despite similar annual precipitations, the present water discharge in the Tivoli area is about ten times greater than that of the Denizli Basin. U-series ages from the two deposits are correlated with paleoclimate oscillations at regional and global scales. Geological field evidence together with paleoclimate correlations suggest that, in both the study cases, the main body of travertine deposits (the bedded travertine) grew preferentially when the water table was high (warm and/or humid periods). Conversely, when the water table was depressed (cold and/or dry periods), the Tivoli travertine underwent partial erosion and the Denizli ridges were cut by axial veins and lateral sill-like structures filled by banded sparitic travertine. A comparative model is proposed where the main factor driving the difference in the morphostratigraphic architecture of fissure ridges and travertine plateaus is the volume of water discharge. A high discharge rate resulted in the precipitation of CaCO3 far away from the springs, hence driving the lateral progradation of the Tivoli plateau. A reduced discharge rate caused travertine precipitation close to the springs, thus causing the vertical aggradation of the Denizli fissure ridges. Paleoclimate oscillations must have controlled the amount of fluid discharge, which, in turn, must have influenced the opening of the feeding fractures by an increased pore pressure. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]