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This paper outlines the history of scientific research developed in the Portofino Promontory, located in the centre of the Ligurian Sea. The chronicles span over two centuries, from the late 18th century to the present day. Portofino is now recognised as one of the best-known areas in the world regarding marine biological communities and their temporal dynamics, particularly in relation to current climate changes. In addition, since 1999, with the establishment of the Marine Protected Area, significant research related to marine environment conservation has developed in Portofino. The role of the University of Genoa, the Natural History Museum, other important institutions, and the researchers involved in the Portofino area has been outlined.

This paper outlines the history of scientific research developed in the Portofino Promontory, located in the centre of the Ligurian Sea. The chronicles span over two centuries, from the late 18th century to the present day. Portofino is now recognised as one of the best-known areas in the world regarding marine biological communities and their temporal dynamics, particularly in relation to current climate changes. In addition, since 1999, with the establishment of the Marine Protected Area, significant research related to marine environment conservation has developed in Portofino. The role of the University of Genoa, the Natural History Museum, other important institutions, and the researchers involved in the Portofino area has been outlined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We review the advances obtained by using Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM)-based approaches in the field of cell/tissue mechanics and adhesion, comparing the solutions proposed and critically discussing them. AFM offers a wide range of detectable forces with a high force sensitivity, thus allowing a broad class of biological issues to be addressed. Furthermore, it allows for the accurate control of the probe position during the experiments, providing spatially resolved mechanical maps of the biological samples with subcellular resolution. Nowadays, mechanobiology is recognized as a subject of great relevance in biotechnological and biomedical fields. Focusing on the past decade, we discuss the intriguing issues of cellular mechanosensing, i.e., how cells sense and adapt to their mechanical environment. Next, we examine the relationship between cell mechanical properties and pathological states, focusing on cancer and neurodegenerative diseases. We show how AFM has contributed to the characterization of pathological mechanisms and discuss its role in the development of a new class of diagnostic tools that consider cell mechanics as new tumor biomarkers. Finally, we describe the unique ability of AFM to study cell adhesion, working quantitatively and at the single-cell level. Again, we relate cell adhesion experiments to the study of mechanisms directly or secondarily involved in pathologies.

Abstract The potential toxicity of ligand-protected nanoparticles (NPs) on biological targets is crucial for their clinical translation. A number of studies are aimed at investigating the molecular mechanisms shaping the interactions between synthetic NPs and neutral plasma membranes. The role played by the NP surface charge is still widely debated. We compare, via liposome leakage assays, the perturbation induced by the penetration of sub-6 nm anionic and cationic Au NPs into model neutral lipid membranes composed of the zwitterionic 1-palmitoyl-2-oleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (POPC). Our charged Au NPs are functionalized by a mixture of the apolar 1-octanethiol and a ω-charged thiol which is either the anionic 11-mercapto-1-undecanesulfonate or the cationic (11-mercaptoundecyl)-N,N,N-trimethylammonium. In both cases, the NP uptake in the bilayer is confirmed by quartz crystal microbalance investigations. Our leakage assays show that both negatively and positively charged Au NPs do not induce significant membrane damage on POPC liposomes when penetrating into the bilayer. By means of molecular dynamics simulations, we show that the energy barrier for membrane penetration is the same for both NPs. These results suggest that the sign of the NP surface charge, per se, does not imply different physicochemical mechanisms of interaction with zwitterionic lipid membranes.

Trawling pressure and environmental changes may affect the composition of fish assemblages. Our knowledge on large spatio-temporal patterns of demersal fish composition remains incomplete for the Mediterranean Sea. We investigated (1) the spatio-temporal stability of demersal assemblages, (2) the relationships between these assemblages and potential structuring factors (trawling pressure and environmental conditions) in order to assess the dynamic of the assemblage structure at the scale of the northern Mediterranean Sea. We analysed a dataset of 18062 hauls from 10 to 800 m depth performed annually during the last two decades across 17 Geographical Sub-Areas (GSAs) (MEDITS program). A multi-table analysis (STATICO-CoA) evidenced a strong inter-GSAs stability in the organization of assemblages, with specificities for some GSAs. The most stable structuring factors were linked to combined gradients of chlorophyll a, phytoplancton carbon biomass and temperature, inversely correlated with depth, salinity and nutrient gradients (axis 1 of the STATICO-CoA compromise, 93.74% of the total variability). A common pattern linking the distribution of species to these environmental gradients was evidenced for most of the 17 GSAs. Estimate of trawling pressure showed a minor role in the organization of the assemblages for the spatial scale and years investigated (axis 2, 4.67%).

The MEDITS programme started in 1994 in the Mediterranean with the cooperation among research institutes from four countries: France, Greece, Italy and Spain. Over the years, until the advent of the European framework for the collection and management of fisheries data (the Data Collection Framework, DCF), new partners from Slovenia, Croatia, Albania, Montenegro, Malta and Cyprus joined MEDITS. The FAO regional projects facilitated the cooperation with non-European countries. MEDITS applies a common sampling protocol and methodology for sample collection, data storage and data quality checks (RoME routines). For many years, MEDITS represented the most important data source supporting the evaluation of demersal resources by means of population and community indicators, assessment and simulation models based on fishery-independent data. With the consolidation of the DCF, MEDITS routinely provides abundance indices of target species for tuning stock assessment models of intermediate complexity. Over the years, the survey scope has broadened from the population of demersal species to their fish community and ecosystems, and it has faced new challenges, such as the identification of essential fish habitats, providing new scientific insights linked to the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (e.g. biodiversity, trophic webs, allochthonous species and marine macro-litter evaluations) and to the ecosystem approach to fishery and marine spatial planning.

Functional peptides are now widely used in a myriad of biomedical and clinical contexts, from cancer therapy and tumor targeting to the treatment of bacterial and viral infections. Underlying this diverse range of applications are the non-specific interactions that can occur between peptides and cell membranes, which, in many contexts, result in spontaneous internalization of the peptide within cells by avoiding energy-driven endocytosis. For this to occur, the amphipathicity and surface structural flexibility of the peptides play a crucial role and can be regulated by the presence of specific molecular residues that give rise to precise molecular events. Nevertheless, most of the mechanistic details regulating the encounter between peptides and the membranes of bacterial or animal cells are still poorly understood, thus greatly limiting the biomimetic potential of these therapeutic molecules. In this arena, finely engineered nanomaterials—such as small amphiphilic gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) protected by a mixed thiol monolayer—can provide a powerful tool for mimicking and investigating the physicochemical processes underlying peptide-lipid interactions. Within this perspective, we present here a critical review of membrane effects induced by both amphiphilic AuNPs and well-known amphiphilic peptide families, such as cell-penetrating peptides and antimicrobial peptides. Our discussion is focused particularly on the effects provoked on widely studied model cell membranes, such as supported lipid bilayers and lipid vesicles. Remarkable similarities in the peptide or nanoparticle membrane behavior are critically analyzed. Overall, our work provides an overview of the use of amphiphilic AuNPs as a highly promising tailor-made model to decipher the molecular events behind non-specific peptide-lipid interactions and highlights the main affinities observed both theoretically and experimentally. The knowledge resulting from this biomimetic approach could pave the way for the design of synthetic peptides with tailored functionalities for next-generation biomedical applications, such as highly efficient intracellular delivery systems.

Magnetite-based magnetic nanoparticles have been successfully coupled to an organic system constituted of a fluorescent molecule, a tripeptide specifier and a spacer. The system is able to selectively release the fluorescent molecule upon targeted enzymatic hydrolysis promoted by a lysine/arginine specific protease.

Decrease in Apolipoprotein C-III (ApoC-III) yields a cardioprotective lipoprotein profile. Here, Valleix et al.reveal a novel ApoC-III variant conferring low plasma ApoC-III concentration and cardioprotection despite renal insufficiency, and, unexpectedly, causing dominant hereditary systemic amyloidosis due to its fibrillogenic nature.

In this paper, we discuss amyloidogenic proteins, their misfolding, resulting structures, and interactions with membranes, which lead to membrane damage and subsequent cell death. Many of these proteins are implicated in serious illnesses such as Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease. Misfolding of amyloidogenic proteins leads to the formation of polymorphic oligomers and fibrils. Oligomeric aggregates are widely thought to be the toxic species, however, fibrils also play a role in membrane damage. We focus on the structure of these aggregates and their interactions with model membranes. Study of interactions of amlyoidogenic proteins with model and natural membranes has shown the importance of the lipid bilayer in protein misfolding and aggregation and has led to the development of several models for membrane permeabilization by the resulting amyloid aggregates. We discuss several of these models: formation of structured pores by misfolded amyloidogenic proteins, extraction of lipids, interactions with receptors in biological membranes, and membrane destabilization by amyloid aggregates perhaps analogous to that caused by antimicrobial peptides.

Species diversity is widely recognized as an important trait of ecosystems' functioning and resilience. Understanding the causes of diversity patterns and their interaction with the environmental conditions is essential in order to effectively assess and preserve existing diversity. While diversity patterns of most recurrent groups such as fish are commonly studied, other important taxa such as cephalopods have received less attention. In this work we present spatio-temporal trends of cephalopod diversity across the entire Mediterranean Sea during the last 19 years, analysing data from the annual bottom trawl survey MEDITS conducted by 5 different Mediterranean countries using standardized gears and sampling protocols. The influence of local and regional environmental variability in different Mediterranean regions is analysed applying generalized additive models, using species richness and the Shannon Wiener index as diversity descriptors. While the western basin showed a high diversity, our analyses do not support a steady eastward decrease of diversity as proposed in some previous studies. Instead, high Shannon diversity was also found in the Adriatic and Aegean Seas, and high species richness in the eastern Ionian Sea. Overall diversity did not show any consistent trend over the last two decades. Except in the Adriatic Sea, diversity showed a hump-shaped trend with depth in all regions, being highest between 200-400 m depth. Our results indicate that high Chlorophyll a concentrations and warmer temperatures seem to enhance species diversity, and the influence of these parameters is stronger for richness than for Shannon diversity.

A tagging experiment of the blue and red shrimp, Aristeus antennatus was carried out in the Ionian Sea, off Roccella Jonica (RC). The experiment involved 45 shrimps, caught by trawling at night at about 100-150 m in depth. One month after tagging one specimen was recaptured at about 10 nautical miles from the releasing point. As the first case of tagged recaptured deep sea shrimp, this experiment brings important results about the feasibility of experimental studies on displacement and growth and gives the first direct proof of the migratory abilities A. antennatus.