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The emergence of plant pathogens is often associated with waves of unique evolutionary and epidemiological events. Xanthomonas hortorum pv. gardneri is one of the major pathogens causing bacterial spot disease of tomatoes. After its first report in the 1950s, there were no formal reports on this pathogen until the 1990s, despite active global research on the pathogens that cause tomato and pepper bacterial spot disease. Given the recently documented global distribution of X. hortorum pv. gardneri, our objective was to examine genomic diversification associated with its emergence. We sequenced the genomes of X. hortorum pv. gardneri strains collected in eight countries to examine global population structure and pathways of emergence using phylodynamic analysis. We found that strains isolated post-1990 group by region of collection and show minimal impact of recombination on genetic variation. A period of rapid geographic expansion in X. hortorum pv. gardneri is associated with acquisition of a large plasmid conferring copper tolerance by horizontal transfer and coincides with the burgeoning hybrid tomato seed industry through the 1980s. The ancestry of X. hortorum pv. gardneri is consistent with introduction to hybrid tomato seed production and dissemination during the rapid increase in trade of hybrid seeds. [Figure: see text] Copyright © 2024 The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.

Abstract: This article analyses the abolition of slavery and the transition to free labour in late nineteenth-century Puerto Rico, seeking to understand the terms and timing of Puerto Rican abolition and the nature of society in its wake. Especially important in Puerto Rico, it argues, was the intertwined nature of slavery and other forms of forced labour as well as the predominance of foreign merchants and planters in the island's economy, which created multi-class alliances between working-class Puerto Ricans and creole elites. These class dynamics interacted with events in the metropole to influence the terms of labour on the island.

A significant limitation of numerous current genetic engineering therapy approaches is their limited control over the strength, timing, or cellular context of their therapeutic effect. Synthetic gene/genetic circuits are synthetic biology approaches that can control the generation, transformation, or depletion of a specific DNA, RNA, or protein and provide precise control over gene expression and cellular behavior. They can be designed to perform logical operations by carefully selecting promoters, repressors, and other genetic components. Patent search was performed in Espacenet, resulting in 38 selected patents with 15 most frequent international classifications. Patent embodiments were categorized into applications for the delivery of therapeutic molecules, treatment of infectious diseases, treatment of cancer, treatment of bleeding, and treatment of metabolic disorders. The logic gates of selected genetic circuits are described to comprehensively demonstrate their therapeutic applications. Synthetic gene circuits can be customized for precise control of therapeutic interventions, leading to personalized therapies that respond specifically to individual patient needs, enhancing treatment efficacy and minimizing side effects. They can be highly sensitive biosensors that provide real-time therapy by accurate monitoring various biomarkers or pathogens and appropriately synthesizing a therapeutic molecule. Synthetic gene circuits may also lead to the development of advanced regenerative therapies and to implantable biodevices that produce on-demand bioactive molecules. However, this technology faces challenges for commercial profitability. The genetic circuit designs need adjustments for specific applications, and may have disadvantages like toxicity from multiple regulators, homologous recombination, context dependency, resource overuse, and environmental variability.

The use of wastewater in agricultural practices poses a potential risk for the spread of foodborne diseases. Therefore, this study aimed to characterize the bacterial biodiversity in rhizospheric soil, irrigation water, and lettuce crops in three municipalities adjacent to the Bogotá River, Colombia. Samples were collected in Mosquera, Funza, and Cota municipalities, including rhizospheric soil, lettuce leaves, and irrigation water. The total DNA extraction was performed to analyze bacterial diversity through high-throughput sequencing of the 16S ribosomal RNA genes, utilizing the Illumina HiSeq 2500 PE 300 sequencing platform. A total of 198 genera from the rhizospheric soil were detected including a higher abundance of zOTUs such as Bacillus, Streptomyces, and clinically relevant genera such as Mycobacterium and Pseudomonas. In lettuce, the detection of 26 genera of endophytic bacteria showed to Proteobacteria and Firmicutes as the predominant phyla, with Staphylococcus and Bacillus as the most abundant genera. Notably, Funza's crops exhibited the highest abundance of endophytes, approximately 50 %, compared to Cota (20 %). Furthermore, the most abundant bacterial genera in the irrigation water were Flavobacterium and Pseudomonas. The most prevalent Enterobacteriaceae were Serratia, Enterobacter, Citrobacter, Klebsiella, Yersinia, Shigella, Escherichia, and Erwinia. The Bacillus genus was highly enriched in both rhizospheric soils and lettuce crops, indicating its significant contribution as the main endophytic bacterium.

Abstract The present study modeled the adsorption process of the drug diclofenac sodium on activated charcoal. For this purpose, a mass balance-based model was used considering a fixed bed column. The mass transfer rate in the solid phase was represented by a driving force model proposed in this study, and a gamma exponent with a range of 0 > γ ≤ 2 was assigned to the model. Different isotherms were adopted to represent the equilibrium at the solid/liquid interface: the Langmuir, Freundlich, Sips and Redlich-Peterson isotherms. The modeling was approached from the perspective of Bayesian statistics, and the Markov chain Monte Carlo method was used for parameter estimation. Model validation was performed with experimental data obtained under different operating conditions of initial concentration ($C_{0

ABSTRACT Transovarial transmission is the most reliable way of passing on essential nutrient-providing endosymbionts from mothers to offspring. However, not all endosymbiotic microbes follow the complex path through the female host tissues to oocytes on their own. Here, we demonstrate an unusual transmission strategy adopted by one of the endosymbionts of the planthopper Trypetimorpha occidentalis (Hemiptera: Tropiduchidae) from Bulgaria. In this species, an Acetobacteraceae endosymbiont is transmitted transovarially within deep invaginations of cellular membranes of an ancient endosymbiont Sulcia—strikingly resembling recently described plant virus transmission. However, in males, Acetobacteraceae colonizes the same bacteriocytes as Sulcia but remains unenveloped. Then, the unusual endobacterial localization of Acetobacteraceae observed in females appears to be a unique adaptation to maternal transmission. Further, the symbiont’s genomic features, including encoding essential amino acid biosynthetic pathways and its similarity to a recently described psyllid symbiont, suggest a unique combination of the ability to horizontally transmit among species and confer nutritional benefits. The close association with Acetobacteraceae symbiont correlates with the so-far-unreported level of genomic erosion of ancient nutritional symbionts of this planthopper. In Sulcia, this is reflected in substantial changes in genomic organization, reported for the first time in the symbiont renowned for its genomic stability. In Vidania, substantial gene loss resulted in one of the smallest genomes known, at 108.6 kb. Thus, the symbionts of T. occidentalis display a combination of unusual adaptations and genomic features that expand our understanding of how insect–microbe symbioses may transmit and evolve.IMPORTANCEReliable transmission across host generations is a major challenge for bacteria that associate with insects, and independently established symbionts have addressed this challenge in different ways. The facultatively endobacterial localization of Acetobacteraceae symbiont, enveloped by cells of ancient nutritional endosymbiont Sulcia in females but not males of the planthopper Trypetimorpha occidentalis, appears to be a unique adaptation to maternal transmission. Acetobacteraceae’s genomic features indicate its unusual evolutionary history, and the genomic erosion experienced by ancient nutritional symbionts demonstrates the apparent consequences of such close association. Combined, this multi-partite symbiosis expands our understanding of the diversity of strategies that insect symbioses form and some of their evolutionary consequences.

In this study, the formulation of doughs was investigated using varying percentages of Agaricus bisporus flour, with the aim of utilizing mushroom stem fragments, typically considered production waste. The stem residues were collected from a mushroom cultivation facility, cleaned, and washed to remove impurities. The material was then subjected to two different drying methods: conventional dehydration and freeze-drying. After drying, the material was ground to produce mushroom flour. Doughs were formulated with different proportions of this flour and analyzed for texture profile, color, nutritional value, phenolic content, antioxidant activity, and sensory characteristics. The inclusion of mushroom flour resulted in darker doughs, particularly when the flour was obtained through conventional dehydration due to oxidation processes. This substitution also affected texture parameters, leading to increased hardness and reduced elasticity in most treatments compared to the control sample. In addition, cohesiveness progressively decreased from 0.35 in the control to 0.14 in the sample made with 100% dehydrated flour and 0.20 in the sample made with 100% freeze-dried flour, resulting in brittle doughs. The most significant impact on nutritional value was an increase in protein, fat, and dietary fiber levels, reaching values over 5% of crude fiber in the sample to which 50% of dehydrated mushroom flour was added. Additionally, mushroom flours exhibited a high proportion of phenolic compounds, reaching values near 700 mg gallic acid/100 g in the flour from freeze-dried samples and 320 mg gallic acid/100 g in the flour from dehydrated samples. These values reflect a higher content of phenolic compounds in products made with mushroom flours and an increased antioxidant capacity compared to the control sample. Sensory evaluation showed that the texture remained unaffected; however, flavor perception was altered at a 50% mushroom flour substitution. In terms of external appearance, only the 25% freeze-dried mushroom flour formulation was statistically similar to the control, while all other treatments were rated lower.

Abstract The present work is concerned with the use of a Response Surface Model of the reduced flexibility matrix for structural damage identification. A Response Surface Model (RSM) is fitted with the aim at providing a polynomial relationship between nodal cohesion parameters, used to describe the damage field within the structure, and elements of the reduced flexibility matrix. A design of experiment built on combinations of a relatively small number of nodal cohesion parameters is used to fit the RSM. The damage identification problem is formulated within the Bayesian framework and the Delayed Rejection Adaptive Metropolis method is used to sample the posterior probability density function of the uncertain cohesion parameters. Numerical simulations addressing damage identification in plates were carried out in order to assess the proposed approach, which succeeded in the identification of the different damage profiles considered. Besides, the use of a RSM, instead of a FEM of the structure, resulted in reductions of up almost 78% in the required computational cost.