A new marker for rapid sex identification of red deer (cervus elaphus) | Un nuovo marcatore per l'identificazione rapida del sesso del cervo (cervus elaphus)

Un nuovo marcatore per l'identificazione rapida del sesso del cervo (Cervus elaphus). Il cervo (Cervus elaphus) è una specie cacciabile economicamente importante che risente di alcuni problemi di conservazione. La conoscenza di parametri di popolazione come il rapporto sessi è importante per la sua gestione e conservazione. In questo studio, utilizzando condizioni poco specifiche per l’amplificazione di un frammento del cromosoma Y già descritto in precedenza, descriviamo un metodo che permette una rapida e corretta identificazione del sesso in questa specie, producendo due amplicons diversi nei maschi e uno nelle femmine. I due frammenti, diversi per il peso molecolare, sono facilmente separabili mediante elettroforesi in gel di agarosio, permettendo l'identificazione del sesso con un unico test in campioni biologici come carcasse, embrioni recuperati da femmine abbattute e, forse, peli o escrementi (se la qualità del DNA è accettabile). Questo metodo può essere di aiuto in studi sul rapporto sessi degli embrioni, sulla mortalità associata al sesso o sul rapporto sessi in popolazioni selvatiche o semiselvatiche, con ricadute applicative per le analisi demografiche, la gestione venatoria e la conservazione

Large scale underground energy storage for renewables integration: general criteria for reservoir identification and viable technologies.

The increasing integration of renewable energies in the electricity grid contributes considerably to achieve the European Union goals on energy and Greenhouse Gases (GHG) emissions reduction. However, it also brings problems to grid management. Large scale energy storage can provide the means for a better integration of the renewable energy sources, for balancing supply and demand, to increase energy security, to enhance a better management of the grid and also to converge towards a low carbon economy. Geological formations have the potential to store large volumes of fluids with minimal impact to environment and society. One of the ways to ensure a large scale energy storage is to use the storage capacity in geological reservoir. In fact, there are several viable technologies for underground energy storage, as well as several types of underground reservoirs that can be considered. The geological energy storage technologies considered in this research were: Underground Gas Storage (UGS), Hydrogen Storage (HS), Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES), Underground Pumped Hydro Storage (UPHS) and Thermal Energy Storage (TES). For these different types of underground energy storage technologies there are several types of geological reservoirs that can be suitable, namely: depleted hydrocarbon reservoirs, aquifers, salt formations and caverns, engineered rock caverns and abandoned mines. Specific site screening criteria are applicable to each of these reservoir types and technologies, which determines the viability of the reservoir itself, and of the technology for any particular site. This paper presents a review of the criteria applied in the scope of the Portuguese contribution to the EU funded project ESTMAP – Energy Storage Mapping and Planning.

Identification and characterization of parasitism genes from the pinewood nematode Bursaphelenchus xylophilus reveals a multilayered detoxification strategy.

The migratory endoparasitic nematode Bursaphelenchus xylophilus, which is the causal agent of pine wilt disease, has phytophagous and mycetophagous phases during its life cycle. This highly unusual feature distinguishes it from other plantparasitic nematodes and requires profound changes in biology between modes. During the phytophagous stage, the nematode migrates within pine trees, feeding on the contents of parenchymal cells. Like other plant pathogens, B. xylophilus secretes effectors from pharyngeal gland cells into the host during infection.We provide the first description of changes in the morphology of these gland cells between juvenile and adult life stages. Using a comparative transcriptomics approach and an effector identification pipeline, we identify numerous novel parasitism genes which may be important for the mediation of interactions of B. xylophilus with its host. In-depth characterization of all parasitism genes using in situ hybridization reveals two major categories of detoxification proteins, those specifically expressed in either the pharyngeal gland cells or the digestive system. These data suggest that B. xylophilus incorporates effectors in a multilayer detoxification strategy in order to protect itself from host defence responses during phytophagy.

Development of a novel molecular tool for the rapid assessment of the biodiversity changes of benthic nematodes assemblages. Mares Conference Marine Ecosystems Helath and conservation

The molecular profiling system was developed using directed terminal-restriction fragment length polymorphism (dT-RFLP) to characterize soil nematode assemblages by relative abundance of feeding guilds and validation by comparison to traditional morphological method. The good performance of these molecular tools applied to soil nematodes assemblages create an opportunity to develop a novel approach for rapid assessment of the biodiversity changes of benthic nematodes assemblages of marine and estuarine sediments. The main aim of this research is to combine morphological and molecular analysis of estuarine nematodes assemblages, to establish a tool for fast assessment of the biodiversity changes within habitat recovery of Zostera noltii seagrass beds; and validate the dT-RFLP as a high-throughput tool to assess the system recovery. It was also proposed to develop a database of sequences related to individuals identified at species level to develop a new taxonomic reference system. A molecular phylogenetic analysis of the estuarine nematodes has being performed. After morphological identification, barcoding of 18S rDNA are being determined for each nematode species and the results have shown a good degree of concordance between traditional morphology-based identification and DNA sequences. The digest strategy developed for soil nematodes is not suitable for marine nematodes. Then five samples were cloned and sequenced and the sequence data was used to design a new dT-RFLP strategy to adapt this tool to marine assemblages. Several solutions were presented by DRAT and tested empirically to select the solution that cuts most efficiently, separating the different clusters. The results of quantitative PCR showed differences in nematode density between two sampling stations according the abundance of the nematode density obtained by the traditional methods. These results suggest that qPCR could be a robust tool for enumeration of nematode abundance, saving time.