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En la literatura botánica de Colombia y el Ecuador figura ocasionalmente con tono de notable indiferencia el nombre de EDOUARD ANDRÉ, célebre jardinero-naturalista francés, que visitó estos dos países allá por los años de 1875-1876. Por esta razón, los datos biográficos que se incluyen a continuación pueden ser de interés. Los debo principalmente a la exquisita gentileza de MADAME DUPRAT, bibliotecaria del Museo Nacional de Historia Natural, de París, quien recientemente me ha suministrado copia de los datos biográficos de ANDRE, publicados en la Revue horticote (numero del 1o de noviembre de 1911, agotado).

Aplastic anemia is a rare disease with a large differential diagnosis, including neoplastic origin as well as congenital bone marrow failure syndromes. Investigations must be quick and precise. Treatment depends on the patient's age and consists of immunosuppression treatment or allogeneic bone marrow transplantation. Because of the risk of progression to other hematological diseases, a close specialized follow-up is recommended., Competing Interests: Les auteurs n’ont déclaré aucun conflit d’intérêts en relation avec cet article.

Little is still known about the low dose effects of radiation on the microbial communities in the environment. Mineral springs are ecosystems than can be affected by natural radioactivity. These extreme environments are, therefore, observatories for studying the influence of chronic radioactivity on the natural biota. In these ecosystems we find diatoms, unicellular microalgae, playing an essential role in the food chain. The present study aimed to investigate, using DNA metabarcoding, the effect of natural radioactivity in two environmental compartments (i.e. spring sediments and water) on the genetic richness, diversity and structure of diatom communities in 16 mineral springs in the Massif Central, France. Diatom biofilms were collected during October 2019, and a 312 bp region of the chloroplast gene rbcL (coding for the Ribulose Bisphosphate Carboxylase) used as a barcode for taxonomic assignation. A total of 565 amplicon sequence variants (ASV) were found. The dominant ASV were associated with Navicula sanctamargaritae, Gedaniella sp., Planothidium frequentissimum, Navicula veneta, Diploneis vacillans, Amphora copulata, Pinnularia brebissonii, Halamphora coffeaeformis, Gomphonema saprophilum, and Nitzschia vitrea, but some of the ASVs could not be assigned at the species level. Pearson correlation failed to show a correlation between ASV' richness and radioactivity parameters. Non-parametric MANOVA analysis based on ASVs occurrence or abundances revealed that geographical location was the main factor influencing ASVs distribution. Interestingly, 238 U was the second factor that explained diatom ASV structure. Among the ASVs in the mineral springs monitored, ASV associated with one of the genetic variants of Planothidium frequentissimum was well represented in the springs and with higher levels of 238 U, suggesting its high tolerance to this particular radionuclide. This diatom species may therefore represent a bio-indicator of high natural levels of uranium., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Bone marrow (BM) cellularity assessment is a crucial step in the evaluation of BM trephine biopsies for hematologic and nonhematologic disorders. Clinical assessment is based on a semiquantitative visual estimation of the hematopoietic and adipocytic components by hematopathologists, which does not provide quantitative information on other stromal compartments. In this study, we developed and validated MarrowQuant 2.0, an efficient, user-friendly digital hematopathology workflow integrated within QuPath software, which serves as BM quantifier for 5 mutually exclusive compartments (bone, hematopoietic, adipocytic, and interstitial/microvasculature areas and other) and derives the cellularity of human BM trephine biopsies. Instance segmentation of individual adipocytes is realized through the adaptation of the machine-learning-based algorithm StarDist. We calculated BM compartments and adipocyte size distributions of hematoxylin and eosin images obtained from 250 bone specimens, from control subjects and patients with acute myeloid leukemia or myelodysplastic syndrome, at diagnosis and follow-up, and measured the agreement of cellularity estimates by MarrowQuant 2.0 against visual scores from 4 hematopathologists. The algorithm was capable of robust BM compartment segmentation with an average mask accuracy of 86%, maximal for bone (99%), hematopoietic (92%), and adipocyte (98%) areas. MarrowQuant 2.0 cellularity score and hematopathologist estimations were highly correlated (R 2  = 0.92-0.98, intraclass correlation coefficient [ICC] = 0.98; interobserver ICC = 0.96). BM compartment segmentation quantitatively confirmed the reciprocity of the hematopoietic and adipocytic compartments. MarrowQuant 2.0 performance was additionally tested for cellularity assessment of specimens prospectively collected from clinical routine diagnosis. After special consideration for the choice of the cellularity equation in specimens with expanded stroma, performance was similar in this setting (R 2  = 0.86, n = 42). Thus, we conclude that these validation experiments establish MarrowQuant 2.0 as a reliable tool for BM cellularity assessment. We expect this workflow will serve as a clinical research tool to explore novel biomarkers related to BM stromal components and may contribute to further validation of future digitalized diagnostic hematopathology workstreams., (Copyright © 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Implementation of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) testing in the daily practice of pathology laboratories requires procedure adaptation to formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded (FFPE) samples. So far, one study reported the feasibility of SARS-CoV-2 genome sequencing on FFPE tissues with only one contributory case of two. This study optimized SARS-CoV-2 genome sequencing using the Ion AmpliSeq SARS-CoV-2 Panel on 22 FFPE lung tissues from 16 deceased coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients. SARS-CoV-2 was detected in all FFPE blocks using a real-time RT-qPCR targeting the E gene with crossing point (Cp) values ranging from 16.02 to 34.16. Sequencing was considered as contributory (i.e. with a uniformity >55%) for 17 FFPE blocks. Adapting the number of target amplification PCR cycles according to the RT-qPCR Cp values allowed optimization of the sequencing quality for the contributory blocks (i.e. 20 PCR cycles for blocks with a Cp value <28 and 25 PCR cycles for blocks with a Cp value between 28 and 30). Most blocks with a Cp value >30 were non-contributory. Comparison of matched frozen and FFPE tissues revealed discordance for only three FFPE blocks, all with a Cp value >28. Variant identification and clade classification was possible for 13 patients. This study validates SARS-CoV-2 genome sequencing on FFPE blocks and opens the possibility to explore correlation between virus genotype and histopathologic lesions., (Copyright © 2021 Association for Molecular Pathology and American Society for Investigative Pathology. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Most in vitro reporter gene assays used to assess estrogenic contamination are based on human estrogen receptor α (hERα) activation. However, fish bioassays can have distinct response to estrogenic chemicals and mixtures, questioning the relevance of human-based bioassays for assessing risk to this species. In this study, zebrafish liver cells stably expressing zebrafish ERβ2 (ZELHβ2) and human breast cancer cells expressing hERα (MELN) were used to quantify the estrogenic activity of 25 surface water samples of the Danube River, for which chemicals have been previously quantified. Most samples had a low estrogenic activity below 0.1 ng/L 17β-estradiol-equivalents that was more often detected by MELN cells, while ZELHβ2 response tend to be lower than predicted based on the chemicals identified. Nevertheless, both bioassays quantified well a higher estrogenic activity at two sites, which was confirmed in vivo using a transgenic zebrafish assay. The results are discussed considering the effect-based trigger values proposed for water quality monitoring., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors report no declarations of interest., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Appropriate use and specific primers are important in assessing the diversity and abundance of microbial groups of interest. Bdellovibrio and like organisms (BALOs), that refer to obligate Gram-negative bacterial predators of other Gram-negative bacteria, evolved in terms of taxonomy and classification over the past two decades. Hence, some former primers have become inadequate while others are yet to be designed, for both PCR (especially with the advent of NGS) and qPCR approaches. Thus, to study BALOs' abundance and diversity in a variety of aquatic ecosystems, we designed in silico specific primer sets for each BALO genera and tested them in vitro on a variety of cultures and environmental samples. Also, we performed Sanger and Nano Miseq sequencing to reveal the exact degree of specificity of the most promising primers set. Here we report our success in designing specific primers for some BALOs genera, i.e. Bdellovibrio (PCR), Bacteriovorax (qPCR), Peredibacter (PCR)., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Nitrogen (N) is a major factor for plant development and productivity. However, the application of nitrogenous fertilizers generates environmental and economic problems. To cope with the increasing global food demand, the development of rice varieties with high nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) is indispensable for reducing environmental issues and achieving sustainable agriculture. Here, we report that the concomitant activation of the rice (Oryza sativa) Ammonium transporter 1;2 (OsAMT1;2) and Glutamate synthetase 1 (OsGOGAT1) genes leads to increased tolerance to nitrogen limitation and to better ammonium uptake and N remobilization at the whole plant level. We show that the double activation of OsAMT1;2 and OsGOGAT1 increases plant performance in agriculture, providing better N grain filling without yield penalty under paddy field conditions, as well as better grain yield and N content when plants are grown under N llimitations in field conditions. Combining OsAMT1;2 and OsGOGAT1 activation provides a good breeding strategy for improving plant growth, nitrogen use efficiency and grain productivity, especially under nitrogen limitation, through the enhancement of both nitrogen uptake and assimilation., (© 2020 The Authors. The Plant Journal published by Society for Experimental Biology and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

TAFRO (thrombocytopenia, anasarca, fever, reticulin myelofibrosis or renal dysfunction and organomegaly) syndrome is a systemic inflammatory disease characterised by thrombocytopenia, anasarca, fever or inflammatory syndrome, reticulin myelofibrosis or renal dysfunction and organomegaly. It was first described as a subtype of idiopathic multicentric Castleman disease. Here, we report the case of a 42-year-old woman presenting with thrombocytopenia, anasarca, inflammatory syndrome, renal insufficiency, reticulin myelofibrosis at bone marrow biopsy and cervical and axillary lymph nodes. Kidney biopsy showed double contours of the glomerular basement membrane, mesangiolysis and endothelial swelling compatible with thrombotic microangiopathy (TMA) as well as with TAFRO syndrome. She was successfully treated by corticosteroids, tocilizumab and rituximab. This new case description of TAFRO syndrome underlines three features of this disease rarely described in the literature and never simultaneously in the same patient: the association to severe hypothyroidism, the presence of TMA-like lesions on kidney biopsy and the treatment by the association of steroids, tocilizumab and rituximab., Competing Interests: Competing interests: None declared., (© BMJ Publishing Group Limited 2020. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.)

The effectiveness of environmental protection measures is based on the early identification and diagnosis of anthropogenic pressures. Similarly, restoration actions require precise monitoring of changes in the ecological quality of ecosystems, in order to highlight their effectiveness. Monitoring the ecological quality relies on bioindicators, which are organisms revealing the pressures exerted on the environment through the composition of their communities. Their implementation, based on the morphological identification of species, is expensive because it requires time and experts in taxonomy. Recent genomic tools should provide access to reliable and high-throughput environmental monitoring by directly inferring the composition of bioindicators' communities from their DNA (metabarcoding). The French-Swiss program SYNAQUA (INTERREG France-Switzerland 2017-2019) proposes to use and validate the tools of environmental genomic for biomonitoring and aims ultimately at their implementation in the regulatory bio-surveillance. SYNAQUA will test the metabarcoding approach focusing on two bioindicators, diatoms, and aquatic oligochaetes, which are used in freshwater biomonitoring in France and Switzerland. To go towards the renewal of current biomonitoring practices, SYNAQUA will (1) bring together different actors: scientists, environmental managers, consulting firms, and biotechnological companies, (2) apply this approach on a large scale to demonstrate its relevance, (3) propose robust and reliable tools, and (4) raise public awareness and train the various actors likely to use these new tools. Biomonitoring approaches based on such environmental genomic tools should address the European need for reliable, higher-throughput monitoring to improve the protection of aquatic environments under multiple pressures, guide their restoration, and follow their evolution.

Wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) are the main sources of a broad spectrum of pharmaceuticals found in freshwater ecosystems. These pollutants raise environmental health concerns because of their highly bioactive nature and their chronic releases. Despite this, pharmaceuticals' effects on aquatic environments are poorly defined. Biofilms represent a major part of the microbial life in rivers and streams. They can drive key metabolic cycles and their organizations reflect exposures to changing chemical, physical, and biological constraints. This study estimated the concentrations, over a 3-year period, of ten pharmaceuticals and five nutrients in a river contaminated by a conventional WWTP fed by urban and hospital wastewaters. Variations in these concentrations were related to biofilm bacterial community dynamics. Rock biofilms had developed over defined periods and were harvested at four locations in the river from the up- and downstream WWTP discharge point. Pharmaceuticals were found in all locations in concentrations ranging from not being detected to 192 ng L -1 . Despite the high dilution factor of the WWTP effluents by the receiving river, pharmaceuticals were found more concentrated downstream than upstream the WWTP. Shifts in bacterial community structures linked to the environmental emission of pharmaceuticals were superior to seasonal community changes. A community structure from a site located downstream but close to the WWTP was more strongly associated with high pharmaceutical loads and different from those of biofilm samples from the WWTP upstream or far downstream sites. These latter sites were more strongly associated with high nutrient contents. Low environmental concentrations of pharmaceuticals can thus be transferred from WWTP effluents to a connected stream and induce bacterial aquatic community changes over time.

High-throughput sequencing of sedimentary DNA (sed-DNA) was utilized to reconstruct the temporal dynamics of microbial eukaryotic communities (MECs) at a centennial scale in two re-oligotrophicated lakes that were exposed to different levels of phosphorus enrichment. The temporal changes within the MECs were expressed in terms of richness, composition and community structure to investigate their relationships with two key forcing factors (i.e., nutrient enrichment and climate warming). Various groups, including Apicomplexa, Cercozoa, Chrysophyceae, Ciliophora, Chlorophyceae and Dinophyceae, responded to phosphorus enrichment levels with either positive or negative impacts on their richness and relative abundance. For both lakes, statistical modelling demonstrated that phosphorus concentration ([P]) was a dominant contributor to MECs modifications before the 1980s; after the mid-80s, the contribution of air temperature changes increased and potentially surpassed the contribution of [P]. Co-occurrence network analysis revealed that some clusters of taxa (i.e., modules) composed mainly of Dinophyceae and unclassified Alveolata were strongly correlated to air temperature in both lakes. Overall, our data showed that sed-DNA constitutes a precious archive of information on past biodiversity changes, allowing the study of the dynamics of numerous eukaryotic groups that were not traditionally considered in paleo-reconstructions., (© 2017 Society for Applied Microbiology and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

In this study, we evaluated the driving forces exerted by a large set of environmental and biological parameters on the spatial and temporal dynamics of archaeal community structure in two neighbouring peri-alpine lakes that differ in terms of trophic status. We analysed monthly data from a 2-year sampling period at two depths corresponding to the epi- and hypolimnetic layers. The archaeal communities seemed to be mainly composed of ammonia-oxidizing archaea belonging to the thaumarchaeotal phylum. The spatio-temporal dynamics of these communities were very similar in the two lakes and were characterized by (1) disparities in archaeal community structure in both time and space and (2) no seasonal reproducibility between years. The archaeal communities were regulated by a complex combination of abiotic factors, including temperature, nutrients, chlorophyll a and dissolved oxygen, and biotic factors such as heterotrophic nanoflagellates and ciliates. However, in most cases, these factors explained < 52% of the variance in archaeal community structure, while we showed in a previous study that these factors explained 70-90% of the temporal variance for bacteria. This suggests that Bacteria and Archaea may be influenced by different factors and could occupy different ecological niches despite similar spatio-temporal dynamics., (© 2013 Federation of European Microbiological Societies. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Mangroves are threatened ecosystems that provide numerous ecosystem services, especially through their wide biodiversity, and their bioremediation capacity is a challenging question in tropical areas. In a mangrove in Mayotte, we studied the potential role of microbial biofilm communities in removing nutrient loads from pre-treated wastewater. Microbial community samples were collected from tree roots, sediments, water, and from a colonization device, and their structure and dynamics were compared in two areas: one exposed to sewage and the other not. The samples from the colonization devices accurately reflected the natural communities in terms of diversity. Communities in the zone exposed to sewage were characterized by more green algae and diatoms, higher bacteria densities, as well as different compositions. In the area exposed to sewage, the higher cell densities associated with specific diversity patterns highlighted adapted communities that may play a significant role in the fate of nutrients., (Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The results of IVF in cases of tubal sterility are compared with those of surgery (macro- or micro-surgery, coelio-surgery). This analysis includes a continuous series of 1051 attempted pregnancies in 640 women (with or mixed tubal sterility with or without endometriosis). After an average 1.64 attempts per patient, 220 women had achieved 241 pregnancies (pregnancy rate: 22.9% per puncture, 34.3% per woman). Of these 241 pregnancies, there were 172 (71.8%) which continued to term, 57 (23.6%) miscarriages and 11 (4.6%) ectopic pregnancies. The pregnancies carried to term were single pregnancies in 129 cases (74.6%), twin pregnancies in 37 cases (21.4%) and triple pregnancies in 7 cases (4%). The indication of coelio-surgery (or microsurgery) is justified in young women with no history of genital tuberculosis, tubal plasty or ectopic pregnancy and presenting with purely tubal sterility with a good prognosis. Restoration of patency after tubal sterilization remains a good indication for microsurgery in young women. In all other cases, indication is for IVF from the outset.

The authors report thirty cases in which they diagnosed a cyst of the choroid plexus antenatally between the 18th and the 36th week of amenorrhoea (mean 21 weeks). Choroid plexus cysts show up in some pictures as round or oval cysts clearly visible in the region of the choroid plexus. They appear in the lateral cerebral ventricles. They frequently occur between the 15th and 25th week of amenorrhoea (0.6 to 2.5% of pregnancies), unilaterally or bilaterally (46%) either on the right of left side and varying in size (3 to 20 mm). These characteristics do not influence the way they evolve. If a single choroid plexus cyst is found a control ultrasound should be carried out four weeks later. 96% of them have disappeared by the end of the second trimester; but if they do persist in the third trimester (4%) they are not necessarily pathological. On the other hand if a choroid plexus cyst is associated with some other morphological biometric abnormality antenatal chromosome testing should be carried out because trisomy 18 is more common in this situation (4.8%) than in the general population.