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Leaf scald caused by Xanthomonas albilineans in sugarcane is one of the most important diseases around the world since it causes severe losses in both agricultural and industrial yields. In Cuba, resistance to this disease is considered a major selection criterion within the breeding program. The aim of this work was to detect sugarcane cultivars with stable reaction to X. albilineans by using both additive main effects and multiplicative interaction (AMMI) and linear general models. For this, 16 cultivars planted simultaneously in 2015, 2016, and 2017 in two locations: Jovellanos (Matanzas) and Florida (Camaguey) in Cuba were mechanically inoculated with a bacterial isolate previously characterized by sequencing its DNA fragment. Disease severity was recorded in plant cane and first ratoon, and results were consistent in both analyses and revealed that L55-5 and C323-68 were the most susceptible cultivars and C1051-73 was the most resistant; however, C1051-73, C275-80, C86-12, C88-382, C89-147, My5514, and Ty86-28 were the most stable across the years and localities evaluated. Results will allow adapting the methodology for the evaluation of the reaction to leaf scald of new sugarcane cultivars.

Resumen del trabajo presentado en el Workshop Mitochondrial homeostasis and human disease, celebrado en Girona (España) del 21 al 24 de septiembre de 2021., Fatty acids and glucose are the main bioenergetic substrates in mammals. Impairment of mitochondrial fatty acid oxidation causes mitochondrial myopathy leading to decreased physical performance. We have reported that haploinsufficiency of ADCK2 in humans is associated with liver dysfunction and severe mitochondrial myopathy with lipid droplets in skeletal muscle. In order to better understand the aetiology of this rare disorder, we generated a heterozygous Adck2 knockout mouse model to perform in vivo and cellular studies using integrated analysis of physiological and omics data. We showed that Adck2+/− mice exhibited impaired fatty acid oxidation, liver dysfunction, and mitochondrial myopathy specific of skeletal muscle. Significant decrease in Coenzyme Q (CoQ) levels was observed. These results indicate that ADCK2 is involved in fatty acid metabolism and in CoQ biosynthesis in skeletal muscle. In order to evaluate if transgenic mouse phenotype could be altered since the early development, we decide to study the embryonic development of our mice to identify potential alterations. We also analysed the effect of prenatal CoQ10 administration during embryonic development and aging. In parallel, we have developed an ex-vivo model of our mice using adult muscle stem cells to study skeletal muscle cells specification and differentiation process during aging, and an in-vivo assessing of adult muscle stem cells after inducing skeletal muscle regeneration. We also evaluate these processes in skeletal muscle cells from mice supplemented with CoQ10. We have also assessed the progression of the phenotype of the mice to understand the progressive impairment that skeletal muscle shows during aging. The description of embryonic development and the study of aged mice could help to evaluate if the damages start during embryonic development and its progression during aging while CoQ10 prenatal administration could help to examine a potential approach for mitochondrial diseases.

La determinación de las coberturas del terreno es un factor trascendental en el conocimiento y entendimiento de las complejas dinámicas territoriales en un área específica; a su vez, son un insumo básico de la planificación del territorio y sus recursos naturales. El presente estudio tuvo por objeto evaluar la aplicación de cuatro índices de vegetación (RATIO, NDVI, NRVI, CTVI), para determinar las coberturas presentes en la parte media de la cuenca del río Combeima, empleando el proceso de clasificación supervisada de máxima verosimilitud en una imagen Pleiades de alta resolución espacial (0,5m). Los resultados demuestran que el uso de los cuatro índices de vegetación, como apoyo al proceso de clasificación supervisada, presentó mejores valores en los índices de calidad temática de la interpretación, siendo el índice RATIO el que registró mayor valor, incrementando en 0,24 el valor Kappa respecto al uso exclusivo de las bandas originales de la imagen. Land cover determination is a transcendental factor in the knowledge and understanding of complex spatial dynamics in a specific area, also, they are a basic input in land planning and its natural resources. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the application of four vegetation indices (RATIO, NDVI, NRVI, CTVI) to estimate the land cover present in the middle part of the Combeima river basin by using the maximum likelihood supervised classification method in a high spatial resolution Pleiades image (0,5m). The results showed that the use of the four vegetation indices, as a support to the supervised classification process, showed better values in the thematic quality indexes of interpretation, with the RATIO index being the best performer, increasing Kappa value by 0,24 with respect to the use of the original image bands. 396-411 jlealv@ut.edu.co mperea@dimar.mil.co jlopez@ut.edu.co Semestral http://www.saber.ula.ve/regeoven/

Additional file 2. Review history.

Trabajo presentado al XXIX Seminario Orotava de Historia de la Ciencia, el 20 de enero de 2020.

Trabajo presentado en la Reunión Técnica TerCel 2020: Herramientas de Edición Molecular, celebrada en Madrid (España) el 17 de enero de 2020.

Additional file 1: Fig. S1 The Tceal7 gene is derived from the domestication of L1 retrotransposon fragments. Fig. S2 The Bex/Tceal gene cluster was established before the diversification of extant eutherians. Fig. S3 Highly diverged BEX/TCEAL proteins share a coiled coil domain. Fig. S4 BEX/TCEAL proteins might have inherited some of their structural properties from the ancestral transposon. Fig. S5 Selection pressure analyses reveal signatures of positive selection in the Bex/Tceal genes. Fig. S6 A BGW-like sequence was already present in the GLA promoter of the last therian common ancestor. Fig. S7 Bex/Tceal genes show tissue-enriched expression patterns during development. Fig. S8 Bex3 and Tceal7 genes, but not the ancestral HALEX element, induce cell proliferation in chicken neural tube. Fig. S9 The deletions introduced using CRISPR-Cas9 technology can be observed in the mRNA expressed from the Bex3 mutant alleles. Fig. S10 CRISPR-Cas9-generated Bex3 mutant alleles show subtle skull abnormalities. Fig. S11 Bex3 mutant mice show normal acoustic startle reflex. Fig. S12 Bex3 deficiency leads to aberrant mTOR signaling in the brain. Table S1 Coding genes putatively derived from transposable elements in the human and mouse genomes. Table S2 Altered expression of BEX and TCEAL genes in subjects with autism spectrum disorder or schizophrenia. Table S3 Enrichment of differential gene expression in BEX and TCEAL gene families in subjects with autism spectrum disorder or schizophrenia. Table S4 Primers and reconstructed gene sequences used in this work. Supplementary references.

La personalidad humana ha sido definida desde diferentes perspectivas a través de una variedad de escalas de medida de rasgos de personalidad, las cuales exhiben una escasa relación entre el concepto y el rasgo en particular, además de variar en la interpretación de acuerdo a quien la aplique. Es por ello que se pretende plantear un modelo descriptivo desde la psicología de la personalidad. A partir de un modelo taxonómico referenciado a finales de los años 30 se denotaron ciertas variables establecidas dentro de diferentes categorías , tales como: el estado de ánimo; la forma de relacionarnos con el otro; el impacto que provocamos en los demás; el tipo de actividades en el que nos involucramos; entre otros. Lo anterior para definir el gran modelo de las cinco dimensiones de la personalidad humana (1,6). La psicología en la personalidad es una herramienta que permite entender las conexiones entre el individuo y el self con el mundo exterior. En psiquiatría ha permitido definir el concepto de humanidad y desde allí construir modelos de enfermedad mental (14). Es difícil encontrar estudios de cruce cultural sobre la personalidad, más bien son estudios realizados en poblaciones de cada país. Sin embargo, el asumir los procesos de personalidad como universales es su naturaleza social, por lo cual es difícil estandarizar su investigación (6). El presente reporte pretende describir ciertos rasgos de personalidad en Tintín, un personaje de ficción que emerge en un contexto social de importancia histórica. A través de este estudio de caso pretendemos mostrar los rasgos de personalidad en el personaje de Tintín que resultan de su contexto sociocultural, abriendo a una discusión entre la relación existente de la presencia de los rasgos de personalidad y el contexto social; así como relacionar la influencia de las interacciones sociales como base de la estructura de la personalidad. Exploramos la perspectiva del autor dentro de la era cultural en la que fue desarrollada la historieta. Personality has been defined by different perspectives with a variety of scales used to measure personality traits. Scales that exhibit poor concept-name relation to the traits and that varies according to each assessor´s scale interpretation. In order to demur this problem, a particular study integrates concepts through the introduction of a descriptive model from personality psychology. This taxonomy is referenced in late 30’s until the reduction of several variables involved in different categories such as the internal state of people, the effects they have in others, the activities they engage in, etc. All this in order to determine the big five dimensions of human personality (1,6). Personality psychology has allowed to determine and help us understand the connection between the people, the self with the external world. In psychiatry it has helped to define what the human been is made of and from it to construct a model of human mental disorders (14). Normally there is no cross-cultural study in the publications, but more simply personality research conducted in different countries. What gives an assumption that personality processes are universal is its social nature. Hence, it would be daring to define a standardized research of human personality (6). The present paper pretends to describe some of Tintin’s personality traits, which emerged during an important historical social context. Through this case study, the objective is to outline TinTin’s personality traits developed in its particular sociocultural context opening a discussion about the relation between personality traits and the social context where they appear. At the same time to correlate the foundation of the personality’s structure with the influence of social interactions. Finally exploring the author’s perspective inside the cultural era in which Tintin was created.

Resumen del trabajo presentado en el European Developmental Biology Congress, celebrado en Alicante (España), del 23 al 26 de octubre de 2019, Skeletal muscles originate from different mesoderms: presomitic (limb and trunk muscles), head (extraocular muscles) and pharyngeal mesoderm (facial muscles). Independently from their origin, all muscles develop under the control of the four Myogenic Regulatory Factors: Myf5, Mrf4, MyoD and MyoG. Myf5 is the first to be expressed, and controls myogenic specification. MyoD function overlaps with that of Myf5, and rescues the Myf5-KO phenotype. Myf5/MyoD double mutants have a general lack of skeletal muscles as myogenic precursors are not specified. MyoG drives terminal differentiation and in its absence adult muscles are not formed. Mrf4 plays roles in specification and differentiation, although its function remains poorly understood. The Early Epaxial Enhancer (EEE) directs the earliest Myf5 expression, starting in the somitic dorsomedial lip. We have generated a new mouse allele in which the EEE has been removed. This new mutant only loses Myf5 expression in the dorsal part of the first 5-6 somites. RNA-seq reveals differences in myogenic, innervation and limb, neurogenesis and chondrogenesis gene-networks. We have now validated several of the identified genes by qPCR and/or ISH. Because EEE-KO animals lack an overt phenotype, we generated EEE/MyoD double mutants, thus abolishing MyoD rescue in dorsal somitic progenitors. In these animals, we observe severe defects in diaphragm, ribcage and posture (kyphosis), which lead us to study the epaxial musculature more in detail to see if there is a particular group of muscles affected. Also, we are trying to elucidate how absence of Myf5 impacts upon Pax1 expression, presumably causing the ribcage defects.

Orthologous pairwise clusters involving the FoxO1 gene. Figure S2. Conservation analysis across the FoxO1-Maml3 intergenic region. Figure S3. ECRs identified in the FoxO1 region downstream of the RMS breakpoint and associated H3K27ac marks. Figure S4. Time-course of embryos carrying the B116Z-Foxo1 reporter construct. Figure S5. Time-course of embryos carrying the B61Z-Foxo1 reporter construct. Figure S6. Time-course of embryos carrying the B38Z-Foxo1 reporter construct. Figure S7. Recapitulation of Pax3 endogenous expression pattern by a BAC carrying 30 kb of upstream sequences. Figure S8 Peaks of interaction established by the PAX3 promoter at the FOXO1 locus in RMS cells. (PDF 3020 kb)

Resumen del trabajo presentado en el European Developmental Biology Congress, celebrado en Alicante (España), del 23 al 26 de octubre de 2019, The myogenic regulatory factors (MRFs) Myf5, Mrf4, MyoD and MyoG are transcription factors that control the determination, specification and differentiation of skeletal muscle during development. Mrf4 specific functions remain elusive to date in spite of the three knock-out (KO) models available for over two decades. This can be explained by the disparity in their phenotypes, which ranges from complete lethality at birth to full viability into the adult. By studying the long-range interactions established in the locus, we show that the selectable marker cassette introduced upon generation of the mutants completely sequesters the neighbouring Myf5 promoter, only 8.7 Kb apart. Thus, these models behave phenotypically as partial or full compound Mrf4/Myf5 mutants, obscuring Mrf4 function. Using CRISPR/Cas9 technology, we created two novel KO alleles that do not affect Myf5 expression in cis. Preliminary analyses reveal that the expression patterns of the other MRFs are not affected during development and that, unlike previous KO models, no skeletal defects are observed unless Myf5 is additionally inactivated. Mrf4 KO animals show fibre hypertrophy and, surprisingly, cardiac hypertrophy even if none of the MRFs is ever expressed in the heart. Deep morphologic and transcriptomic characterization of the novel KOs under the paradigms of muscle regeneration, natural hypertrophy and denervation-induced atrophy will shed some light into how Mrf4 controls muscle growth and homeostasis.

La idea que motiva el presente proyecto es la generación de un modelo de negocio para un sistema de captura automática de datos, enfocado en el sector de las motocicletas, que facilite el proceso de comunicación entre los usuarios y el sistema de salud, en caso de accidentes. Esta herramienta favorecerá la respuesta oportuna del sistema de salud, pero igualmente se puede convertir en un factor diferenciador, desde la perspectiva de los usuarios de estas motocicletas, los fabricantes y comercializadores. Se hace necesario definir primero qué es un modelo de negocio; posteriormente, seguir una metodología de generación del modelo de negocio. Para el presente caso, la metodología seleccionada corresponde al modelo Canvas, debido a la versatilidad de la metodología y a la posibilidad de construir paso a paso cada uno de los 9 elementos que hacen parte de la metodología, generando un modelo robusto y considerando los elementos más relevantes., The idea that motivates the present project is the generation of a business model for an automatic data capture system, focused on the motorcycle sector, which facilitates the communication process between users and the health system, in case of accidents This tool will favor the timely response of the health system, but it can also become a differentiating factor, from the perspective of the users of these motorcycles, manufacturers and marketers. It is necessary to first define what a business model is; subsequently, follow a methodology for generating the business model. For the present case, the selected methodology corresponds to the Canvas model, due to the versatility of the methodology and the possibility of building step by step each of the 9 elements that make up the methodology, generating a robust model and considering the most relevant elements.