Search

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.

Nickel ferrite nanoparticles (NiF NPs) have growing applications in biomedical and nanomedicine fields. However, knowledge concerning their ecotoxicity during the early developmental stages of invertebrates, such as gastropods, remains scarce. Thus, the current study aimed to evaluate whether NiF NPs and nickel chloride (NiCl 2 ) induce toxic effects on embryos and newly hatched snails of freshwater species Biomphalaria glabrata (Say, 1818). NiF NPs were synthesized and characterized by multiple techniques, and their ecotoxicity was assessed by Biomphalaria embryotoxicity test (BET) during 144 h of exposure and an acute toxicity test (96 h) using newly hatched snails. NiF NPs induced mortality, developmental delay, reduced hatching rate, and promoted morphological changes in B. glabrata. Also, NiF NPs induced higher toxicity in embryos than in newly hatched B. glabrata. Overall, results showed that the early developmental stages of gastropods are a target group for nanoparticle toxicity in freshwater ecosystems., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

The success of Procamallanus (Spirocamallanus) inopinatus infection in fish involves a complexity of variables. This study aims to evaluate the relationship between abundance of P. (S.) inopinatus with biometric and somatic parameters, sex, relative condition factor (Kn) and hosts diet, as well as to evaluate length relationship of the parasites and the hosts. The fishes were collected by the mesh method and data, length, weight, sex, gonad and liver weight, Gonadosomatic index (GSI) and hepatosomatic index (HSI), Kn and stomach content were recorded. Twenty-seven specimens of P. (S.) inopinatus were collected in the intestine from Serrasalmus rhombeus and 52 from Leporinus friderici. In general, the prevalence, mean intensity and mean abundance of infection was higher in L. friderici. The total abundance was explained by the variables GSI, HSI total length, gonad and liver weight. Fish relative condition factor (kn) and sex were not influenced by the infection, being that the parasite infection did not impair the body condition of the hosts. There is no relationship between host length and parasite length in any of the evaluated fish species. On average, S. rhombeus parasites are 0.69 cm larger than L. friderici parasites.

The utilization of microalgae and fungi on an industrial scale is a challenge for researchers. Based on the question "how fungi have contributed to microalgae research?," we verified the scientific trends on microalgae-fungi consortia focused on biofuels production by searching for articles on the Web of Science and Scopus databases through the terms "microalgae * " or phytoplankton and "fung * ." We found 1,452 articles published between 1950 and 2020; since 2006, the publication numbers have increased rapidly. The articles were published in 12 languages, but most were written in English (96.3%). Among 72 countries, China (360 articles), USA (344), and Germany (155) led the publication rank. Among the 10 most-prolific authors, 8 were Chinese, like 5 of the most-productive institutions, whereas the National Cheng Kung University was on the top of the list. The sources that published the most on the subject were: Bioresource Technology (96), PLoS ONE (28), and Science of the Total Environment (26). The keyword analysis emphasized the magnitude of applications in microalgae-fungi consortia research. Confirming this research question, biofuels appeared as a research trend, especially biodiesel, biogas, and related terms like lipid, lipid accumulation, anaerobic digestion, and biogas upgrading. For 70 years, articles have been published, where China and the United States seem to dominate the research scenario, and biodiesel is the main biofuel derived from this consortium. However, microalgae-based biofuel biorefinery is still a bottleneck on an industrial scale. Recent environmental challenges, such as greenhouse gas mitigation, can be a promising field for that microalgae-fungi application., Competing Interests: 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 © 2022 Lobo-Moreira, Xavier-Santos, Damacena-Silva and Caramori.)