The neonicotinoid insecticide Imidacloprid repels pollinating flies and beetles at field-realistic concentrations

Neonicotinoids are widely used systemic insecticides which, when applied to flowering crops, are translocated to the nectar and pollen where they may impact upon pollinators. Given global concerns over pollinator declines, this potential impact has recently received much attention. Field exposure of pollinators to neonicotinoids depends on the concentrations present in flowering crops and the degree to which pollinators choose to feed upon them. Here we describe a simple experiment using paired yellow pan traps with or without insecticide to assess whether the commonly used neonicotinoid imidacloprid repels or attracts flying insects. Both Diptera and Coleoptera exhibited marked avoidance of traps containing imidacloprid at a field-realistic dose of 1 μg L-1, with Diptera avoiding concentrations as low as 0.01 μg L-1. This is to our knowledge the first evidence for any biological activity at such low concentrations, which are below the limits of laboratory detection using most commonly available techniques. Catch of spiders in pan traps was also slightly reduced by the highest concentrations of imidacloprid used (1 μg L-1), but catch was increased by lower concentrations. It remains to be seen if the repellent effect on insects occurs when neonicotinoids are present in real flowers, but if so then this could have implications for exposure of pollinators to neonicotinoids and for crop pollination. © 2013 Easton, Goulson

Location of chlorogenic acid biosynthesis pathway and polyphenol oxidase genes in a new interspecific anchored linkage map of eggplant

© Gramazio et al.; licensee BioMed Central. 2014. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated

An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for detection of avian influenza virus subtypes H5 and H7 antibodies

BACKGROUND: Avian influenza virus (AIV) subtypes H5 and H7 attracts particular attention because of the risk of their potential pathogenicity in poultry. The haemagglutination inhibition (HI) test is widely used as subtype specific test for serological diagnostics despite the laborious nature of this method. However, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs) are being explored as an alternative test method. H5 and H7 specific monoclonal antibodies were experimentally raised and used in the development of inhibition ELISAs for detection of serological response specifically directed against AIV subtypes H5 and H7. The ELISAs were evaluated with polyclonal chicken anti-AIV antibodies against AIV subtypes: H1N2, H5N2, H5N7, H7N1, H7N7, H9N9, H10N4 and H16N3. RESULTS: Both the H5 and H7 ELISA proved to have a high sensitivity and specificity and the ELISAs detected H5 and H7 antibodies earlier during experimental infection than the HI test did. The reproducibility of the ELISA’s performed at different times was high with Pearson correlation coefficients of 0.96-0.98. CONCLUSIONS: The ELISAs are a potential alternative to the HI test for screening of large amounts of avian sera, although only experimental sera were tested in this study

Leaf colour as a signal of chemical defence to insect herbivores in wild cabbage (Brassica Oleracea)

Leaf colour has been proposed to signal levels of host defence to insect herbivores, but we lack data on herbivory, leaf colour and levels of defence for wild host populations necessary to test this hypothesis. Such a test requires measurements of leaf spectra as they would be sensed by herbivore visual systems, as well as simultaneous measurements of chemical defences and herbivore responses to leaf colour in natural host-herbivore populations. In a large-scale field survey of wild cabbage (Brassica oleracea) populations, we show that variation in leaf colour and brightness, measured according to herbivore spectral sensitivities, predicts both levels of chemical defences (glucosinolates) and abundance of specialist lepidopteran (Pieris rapae) and hemipteran (Brevicoryne brassicae) herbivores. In subsequent experiments, P. rapae larvae achieved faster growth and greater pupal mass when feeding on plants with bluer leaves, which contained lower levels of aliphatic glucosinolates. Glucosinolate-mediated effects on larval performance may thus contribute to the association between P. rapae herbivory and leaf colour observed in the field. However, preference tests found no evidence that adult butterflies selected host plants based on leaf coloration. In the field, B. brassicae abundance varied with leaf brightness but greenhouse experiments were unable to identify any effects of brightness on aphid preference or performance. Our findings suggest that although leaf colour reflects both levels of host defences and herbivore abundance in the field, the ability of herbivores to respond to colour signals may be limited, even in species where performance is correlated with leaf colour

Pyrethroids and Nectar Toxins Have Subtle Effects on the Motor Function, Grooming and Wing Fanning Behaviour of Honeybees (Apis mellifera)

Sodium channels, found ubiquitously in animal muscle cells and neurons, are one of the main target sites of many naturally-occurring, insecticidal plant compounds and agricultural pesticides. Pyrethroids, derived from compounds found only in the Asteraceae, are particularly toxic to insects and have been successfully used as pesticides including on flowering crops that are visited by pollinators. Pyrethrins, from which they were derived, occur naturally in the nectar of some flowering plant species. We know relatively little about how such compounds—i.e., compounds that target sodium channels—influence pollinators at low or sub-lethal doses. Here, we exposed individual adult forager honeybees to several compounds that bind to sodium channels to identify whether these compounds affect motor function. Using an assay previously developed to identify the effect of drugs and toxins on individual bees, we investigated how acute exposure to 10 ng doses (1 ppm) of the pyrethroid insecticides (cyfluthrin, tau-fluvalinate, allethrin and permethrin) and the nectar toxins (aconitine and grayanotoxin I) affected honeybee locomotion, grooming and wing fanning behaviour. Bees exposed to these compounds spent more time upside down and fanning their wings. They also had longer bouts of standing still. Bees exposed to the nectar toxin, aconitine, and the pyrethroid, allethrin, also spent less time grooming their antennae. We also found that the concentration of the nectar toxin, grayanotoxin I (GTX), fed to bees affected the time spent upside down (i.e., failure to perform the righting reflex). Our data show that low doses of pyrethroids and other nectar toxins that target sodium channels mainly influence motor function through their effect on the righting reflex of adult worker honeybees

A defect in myoblast fusion underlies Carey-Fineman-Ziter syndrome

Multinucleate cellular syncytial formation is a hallmark of skeletal muscle differentiation. Myomaker, encoded by Mymk (Tmem8c), is a well-conserved plasma membrane protein required for myoblast fusion to form multinucleated myotubes in mouse, chick, and zebrafish. Here, we report that autosomal recessive mutations in MYMK (OMIM 615345) cause Carey-Fineman-Ziter syndrome in humans (CFZS; OMIM 254940) by reducing but not eliminating MYMK function. We characterize MYMK-CFZS as a congenital myopathy with marked facial weakness and additional clinical and pathologic features that distinguish it from other congenital neuromuscular syndromes. We show that a heterologous cell fusion assay in vitro and allelic complementation experiments in mymk knockdown and mymk insT/insT zebrafish in vivo can differentiate between MYMK wild type, hypomorphic and null alleles. Collectively, these data establish that MYMK activity is necessary for normal muscle development and maintenance in humans, and expand the spectrum of congenital myopathies to include cell-cell fusion deficits

Molecular Mechanisms Associated with Nicotine Pharmacology and Dependence.

Tobacco dependence is a leading cause of preventable disease and death worldwide. Nicotine, the main psychoactive component in tobacco cigarettes, has also been garnering increased popularity in its vaporized form, as derived from e-cigarette devices. Thus, an understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying nicotine pharmacology and dependence is required to ascertain novel approaches to treat drug dependence. In this chapter, we review the field's current understanding of nicotine's actions in the brain, the neurocircuitry underlying drug dependence, factors that modulate the function of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors, and the role of specific genes in mitigating the vulnerability to develop nicotine dependence. In addition to nicotine's direct actions in the brain, other constituents in nicotine and tobacco products have also been found to alter drug use, and thus, evidence is provided to highlight this issue. Finally, currently available pharmacotherapeutic strategies are discussed, along with an outlook for future therapeutic directions to achieve to the goal of long-term nicotine cessation

Validation of <i>N</i>-myristoyltransferase as Potential Chemotherapeutic Target in Mammal-Dwelling Stages of <i>Trypanosoma cruzi</i>

BACKGROUND:Trypanosoma cruzi causes Chagas disease, an endemic and debilitating illness in Latin America. Lately, owing to extensive population movements, this neglected tropical disease has become a global health concern. The two clinically available drugs for the chemotherapy of Chagas disease have rather high toxicity and limited efficacy in the chronic phase of the disease, and may induce parasite resistance. The development of new anti-T. cruzi agents is therefore imperative. The enzyme N-myristoyltransferase (NMT) has recently been biochemically characterized, shown to be essential in Leishmania major, Trypanosoma brucei, and T. cruzi¸ and proposed as promising chemotherapeutic target in these trypanosomatids. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS:Here, using high-content imaging we assayed eight known trypanosomatid NMT inhibitors, against mammal-dwelling intracellular amastigote and trypomastigote stages and demonstrated that three of them (compounds 1, 5, and 8) have potent anti-proliferative effect at submicromolar concentrations against T. cruzi, with very low toxicity against human epithelial cells. Moreover, metabolic labeling using myristic acid, azide showed a considerable decrease in the myristoylation of proteins in parasites treated with NMT inhibitors, providing evidence of the on-target activity of the inhibitors. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE:Taken together, our data point out to the potential use of NMT inhibitors as anti-T. cruzi chemotherapy

Study of hadronic event-shape variables in multijet final states in pp collisions at √s=7 TeV

Peer reviewe

Nutraceutical therapies for atherosclerosis

Atherosclerosis is a chronic inflammatory disease affecting large and medium arteries and is considered to be a major underlying cause of cardiovascular disease (CVD). Although the development of pharmacotherapies to treat CVD has contributed to a decline in cardiac mortality in the past few decades, CVD is estimated to be the cause of one-third of deaths globally. Nutraceuticals are natural nutritional compounds that are beneficial for the prevention or treatment of disease and, therefore, are a possible therapeutic avenue for the treatment of atherosclerosis. The purpose of this Review is to highlight potential nutraceuticals for use as antiatherogenic therapies with evidence from in vitro and in vivo studies. Furthermore, the current evidence from observational and randomized clinical studies into the role of nutraceuticals in preventing atherosclerosis in humans will also be discussed