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Heritable microbes that exhibit reproductive parasitism are common in insects. One class of these are the male-killing bacteria, which are found in a broad range of insect hosts. Commonly, our knowledge of the incidence of these microbes is based on one or a few sampling sites, and the degree and causes of spatial variation are unclear. In this paper, we examine the incidence of the son-killer microbe Arsenophonus nasoniae across European populations of its wasp host, Nasonia vitripennis. In preliminary work, we noticed two female N. vitripennis producing highly female biased sex ratios in a field study from the Netherlands and Germany. When tested, the brood from Germany was revealed to be infected with A. nasoniae. We then completed a broad survey in 2012, in which fly pupal hosts of N. vitripennis were collected from vacated birds' nests from four European populations, N. vitripennis wasps allowed to emerge and then tested for A. nasoniae presence through PCR assay. We then developed a new screening methodology based on direct PCR assays of fly pupae and applied this to ethanol-preserved material collected from great tit (Parus major) nests in Portugal. These data show A. nasoniae is found widely in European N. vitripennis, being present in Germany, the UK, Finland, Switzerland and Portugal. Samples varied in the frequency with which they carry A. nasoniae, from being rare to being present in 50% of the pupae parasitised by N. vitripennis. Direct screening of ethanol-preserved fly pupae was an effective method for revealing both wasp and A. nasoniae infection, and will facilitate sample transport across national boundaries. Future research should examine the causes of variation in frequency, in particular testing the hypothesis that N. vitripennis superparasitism rates drive the variation in A. nasoniae frequency through providing opportunities for infectious transmission.

Background Natural supplements are widely consumed by the general public, with little evidence of mechanistic support. Tryptophan has gained central attention, being transformed by host and gut microbial enzymes into multiple bioactive metabolites that regulate immunity and mood. Indoles are activators of the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR), crucial for the maintenance of intestinal homeostasis. Tryptophan has been advocated to prevent chronic inflammatory conditions, however the clinical data to support this are missing. Aims To investigate clinical, immune, and metabolic parameters in response to tryptophan supplementation, in healthy subjects on a low tryptophan diet. Methods We performed a randomized, double blind, placebo-controlled crossover study in 20 healthy volunteers (18 - 75 years old). Subjects were instructed to start a low tryptophan diet and then randomly assigned to a 3-week tryptophan supplementation (3g/day) or placebo, in enteric coated capsules. After a 2-week washout period, subjects crossed over to the opposite intervention arm. Questionnaires were used to assess bowel symptoms, anxiety, depression and stress levels (GSRS, HADS and DASS21, respectively). Stool, urine, blood and duodenal aspirates were collected to measure tryptophan metabolites and cytokines. Results Tryptophan supplementation had no changes in gastrointestinal symptoms or behavioral parameters. Compared with placebo, tryptophan increased urinary and plasma levels of indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase/kynurenine (p= 0.002 and p= 0.02, respectively) and indoles (p= 0.001 and p= 0.01, respectively), suggestive of activation of host and microbial metabolic pathways. Urinary and plasma metabolites were higher than in feces (p= Conclusions Tryptophan supplementation in healthy individuals was safe and had a measurable influence on microbial and host metabolism, mainly kynurenine and indole pathways, with known immunomodulatory properties. Tryptophan was metabolized and absorbed in the small intestine, reflected by the high metabolite levels in plasma and urine. Fecal metabolites correlating with clinical parameters reflect subjects’ long-term diet. Further studies are warranted to study tryptophan supplementation in disorders with altered AhR pathways. Funding Agencies CIHR

This work is devoted to the theoretical and numerical analysis of a two-species chemotaxis- Navier-Stokes system with Lotka-Volterra competitive kinetics in a bounded domain of Rd, d = 2, 3. First, we study the existence of global weak solutions and establish a regularity criterion which provides sufficient conditions to ensure the strong regularity of the weak solutions. After, we propose a finite element numerical scheme in which we use a splitting technique obtained by introducing an auxiliary variable given by the gradient of the chemical concentration and applying an inductive strategy, in order to deal with the chemoattraction terms in the two-species equations and prove optimal error estimates. For this scheme, we study the well-posedness and derive some uniform estimates for the discrete variables required in the convergence analysis. Finally, we present some numerical simulations oriented to verify the good behavior of our scheme, as well as to check numerically the optimal error estimates proved in our theoretical analysis.

Digital, El objetivo del estudio fue determinar la resistencia antimicrobiana de 176 cepas de Escherichia. coli aisladas de órganos de pollos broiler. Las cepas fueron desafiadas con antibióticos betalactámicos, quinolonas y fluoroquinolonas, observándose resistencia a antibióticos betalactámicos (97.7%) y a quinolonas (86.7%). El 71.6% de los aislados también expresaron fenotípicamente la producción de betalactamasas de espectro extendido (ESLB). Mediante PCR se determinaron genes de resistencia para betalactámicos blaTEM, blaSHV, blaCTX-M1 y Amp-C y genes de resistencia para quinolonas qnrA, qnrB, qnrS. Se encontraron los genes Amp-C (74%), blaCTX-M (65%), blaSHV (65%), blaTEM (50%), qnrB (86.4%) y qnrS (11.9%). No se evidenció el gen qnrA en las muestras analizadas. Los resultados obtenidos revelaron un gran porcentaje de resistencia a los antibióticos estudiados y la presencia de genes de resistencia en aislados de aves para consumo humano, lo cual constituye un riesgo para la salud pública., The aim of this study was to determine the antimicrobial resistance of 176Escherichia coli strains isolated from broiler chicken organs. The strains were challengedwith beta-lactam, quinolones and fluoroquinolones, observing resistance to beta-lactamantibiotics (97.7%) and quinolones (86.7%). The results showed that 71.6% of the isolatesphenotypically expressed the production of extended spectrum beta-lactamases (ESLB).By PCR, resistance genes for beta-lactams blaTEM, blaSHV, blaCTX-M1 and Amp-Cand resistance genes for quinolones qnrA, qnrB, qnrS were determined. The genes Amp-C (74%), blaCTX-M (65%), blaSHV (65%), blaTEM (50%), qnrB (86.4%) and qnrS (11.9%)were found. The qnrA gene was not evident in the samples analysed. The results obtainedrevealed a large percentage of resistance to the studied antibiotics and the presence ofresistance genes in isolates from poultry for human consumption, which constitutes arisk for Public Health., Ciencias exactas, Ciencias agropecuarias

In terrestrial snails, thermal selection acts on shell coloration. However, the biological relevance of small differences in the intensity of shell pigmentation and the associated thermodynamic, physiological, and evolutionary consequences for snail diversity within the course of environmental warming are still insufficiently understood. To relate temperature‐driven internal heating, protein and membrane integrity impairment, escape behavior, place of residence selection, water loss, and mortality, we used experimentally warmed open‐top chambers and field observations with a total of >11,000 naturally or experimentally colored individuals of the highly polymorphic species Theba pisana (O.F. MÜller, 1774). We show that solar radiation in their natural Mediterranean habitat in Southern France poses intensifying thermal stress on increasingly pigmented snails that cannot be compensated for by behavioral responses. Individuals of all morphs acted neither jointly nor actively competed in climbing behavior, but acted similarly regardless of neighbor pigmentation intensity. Consequently, dark morphs progressively suffered from high internal temperatures, oxidative stress, and a breakdown of the chaperone system. Concomitant with increasing water loss, mortality increased with more intense pigmentation under simulated global warming conditions. In parallel with an increase in mean ambient temperature of 1.34°C over the past 30 years, the mortality rate of pigmented individuals in the field is, currently, about 50% higher than that of white morphs. A further increase of 1.12°C, as experimentally simulated in our study, would elevate this rate by another 26%. For 34 T. pisana populations from locations that are up to 2.7°C warmer than our experimental site, we show that both the frequency of pigmented morphs and overall pigmentation intensity decrease with an increase in average summer temperatures. We therefore predict a continuing strong decline in the frequency of pigmented morphs and a decrease in overall pigmentation intensity with ongoing global change in areas with strong solar radiation., We simulated environmental warming for 1.12°C in the Mediterranean, and related temperature‐driven internal heating, protein and membrane integrity impairment, escape behavior, place of residence selection, water loss, and mortality in a total of >11,000 naturally or experimentally colored individuals of the highly polymorphic land snail species Theba pisana. These molecular and physiological responses lead to elevated mortality in naturally pigmented morphs by 26%. By comparing the situation in 35 Mediterranean T. pisana populations, we show that both the frequency of pigmented morphs and overall pigmentation intensity decrease with an increase in average summer temperatures.

In this paper we develop a numerical scheme for approximating a $d$-dimensional chemotaxis-Navier-Stokes system, $d=2,3$, modeling cellular swimming in incompressible fluids. This model describes the chemotaxis-fluid interaction in cases where the chemical signal is consumed with a rate proportional to the amount of organisms. We construct numerical approximations based on the Finite Element method and analyze some error estimates and convergence towards weak solutions. In order to construct the numerical scheme, we use a splitting technique to deal with the chemo-attraction term in the cell-density equation, leading to introduce a new variable given by the gradient of the chemical concentration. Having the equivalent model, we consider a fully discrete Finite Element approximation which is well-posed and it is mass-conservative. We obtain uniform estimates and analyze the convergence of the scheme. Finally, we present some numerical simulations to verify the good behavior of our scheme, as well as to check numerically the error estimates proved in our theoretical analysis.

Digital, El objetivo de la presente investigación fue determinar el porcentaje de sensibilidad o resistencia de cepas de E. coli aisladas de pollo de engorde asintomático frente a 18 antibióticos comunes utilizados en avicultura y medicina humana; a su vez, cepas productoras de betalactamasas de espectro extendido (BLEES), procedentes de granja o plantas de beneficio de la zona avícola de Santander, Colombia. Se determinó la circulación de cepas resistentes a betalactámicos, cefalosporinas, aminoglucósidos, quinolonas y sulfonamidas, así como antibióticos de amplio uso en ambientes ajenos a las granjas. Se aislaron 46 cepas de E. coli del contenido de bolsas de Fabricio de 100 pollos de engorde entre 2 y 6 semanas de edad (20 procedentes de una granja avícola y 80 de una planta de sacrificio) en Santander, Colombia. Las muestras fueron cultivadas en agar McConkey. Se realizaron pruebas de sensibilidad a las cepas aisladas con 18 antimicrobianos. El 91% de las cepas fueron resistentes a la ampicilina y el 80% a las cefalosporinas; así mismo, al enfrentar las cepas con la asociación de antibióticos con inhibidores de betalactamasas (ampicilina sulbactam y amoxacilina/ácido clavulánico), se encontró 30% de resistencia. Se utilizó la prueba del doble disco para evaluar la presencia de cepas de E. coli productoras de betalactamasas de espectro extendido (BLEES) confirmando su presencia en el 63% de las muestras. Se evidencia la presencia de cepas de E. coli en aves de engorde asintomáticas, con alta resistencia antimicrobiana, incluyendo expresión de BLEES., The aim of this study was to determine the percentage of sensitivity or resistance of strains of E. coli isolated from asymptomatic broiler chicken against 18 common antibiotics used in poultry and in human medicine. In addition, strains that produce extended-spectrum beta-lactamases (ESBL) from a farm or slaughterhouses in the poultry area of Santander, Colombia. The circulation of strains resistant to beta-lactams, cephalosporins, aminoglycosides, quinolones and sulfonamides was determined, as well as antibiotics widely used in other non-farm environments. The content of the bursa of Fabricius was cultivated in McConkey agar obtaining 46 strains of E. coli. Susceptibility tests (n=18) were conducted to the isolated strains, and 91% of the strains were resistant to ampicillin and 80% to cephalosporins. The association of antibiotics with beta-lactamase inhibitors (ampicillin sulbactam and amoxicillin / clavulanic acid) showed 30% resistance. The double disc test was used to evaluate the presence of strains of E. coli producing extendedspectrum beta-lactamases (ESBL) confirming its presence in 63% of the samples. Results showed the presence of E. coli strains in asymptomatic chicken broilers with high antimicrobial resistance, including expression of ESBL., Ciencias básicas biomédicas, epidemiología, salud pública, enfermedades infecciosas, enfermedades no transmisibles epidemiología, salud y desarrollo, discapacidad

We consider a chemo-repulsion model with quadratic production in a bounded domain. Firstly, we obtain global in time weak solutions, and give a regularity criterion (which is satisfied for $1D$ and $2D$ domains) to deduce uniqueness and global regularity. After, we study two cell-conservative and unconditionally energy-stable first-order time schemes: a (nonlinear and positive) Backward Euler scheme and a linearized coupled version, proving solvability, convergence towards weak solutions and error estimates. In particular, the linear scheme does not preserve positivity and the uniqueness of the nonlinear scheme is proved assuming small time step with respect to a strong norm of the discrete solution. This hypothesis is reduced to small time step in $nD$ domains ($n\le 2$) where global in time strong estimates are proved. Finally, we show the behavior of the schemes through some numerical simulations.