Publications by authors named "Conceicao Santos"

The emergence of bacterial resistance and the increasing restrictions on the use of agrochemicals are boosting the search for novel, sustainable antibiotics. Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) arise as a new generation of antibiotics due to their effectiveness at low doses and biocompatibility. We compared the antimicrobial activity of four promising AMPs (CA-M, BP100, RW-BP100, and 3.

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  • The study investigates how a commercial biostimulant affects olive tree tolerance to drought, focusing on cultivars Arbequina and Galega under varying water conditions.
  • Under water deficit, the biostimulant significantly enhanced plant growth, photosynthesis, and stress protection, especially in Galega, by modulating physiological and molecular responses.
  • The findings suggest that using this biostimulant can improve the resilience and productivity of olive trees, potentially countering challenges posed by climate change.
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  • Facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD) is a rare muscular dystrophy that increases the risk of serious complications during surgery, such as hyperkalemia and rhabdomyolysis.
  • This case report focuses on the anesthetic management of a child with FSHD who underwent an exploratory tympanotomy, highlighting the challenges involved due to the condition.
  • Notably, this is the first documented instance of pediatric general anesthesia for a patient with FSHD that also involved the use of sugammadex for reversing neuromuscular blockade.
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  • The Spotted-Wing Drosophila (Drosophila suzukii), an invasive pest causing harm to soft-skinned fruits, first appeared in Portugal in 2012, prompting this study on its genomic traits in relation to its global spread.
  • Analysis of three Portuguese populations revealed connections to other Southern European populations, indicating a Mediterranean invasion path, while variations in genetic diversity suggest differing colonization histories.
  • The study identified ten genes linked to the pest's invasive success and six genes showing local adaptation, including one related to insecticide resistance, highlighting the need for further research on adaptive traits in these Portuguese populations.
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Bedellia somnulentella Zeller, 1847 (Lepidoptera: Bedelliidae), a global pest of the sweet potato Ipomoea batatas, was recorded in Brazil, but morphological information on the sexual dimorphism of this insect is scarce. The objective was to evaluate morphological characters of sexual dimorphism of B. somnulentella pupae and adults.

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  • The study investigates how photoselective nets (PNs) of different colors affect pollen traits in 'Matua' and 'Tomuri' plant cultivars, focusing on size, fertility, and molecular structure.
  • Results reveal that pollen under PNs was larger but had a lower germination rate, with the pearl PN showing the most significant influence on total soluble proteins and sugars.
  • Raman spectroscopy indicated minor structural changes in pollen but no overall organizational differences, highlighting that both PNs and cultivars impact pollen characteristics.
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Among the several terpenes existing in nature, Citronellal, a monoterpene aldehyde, deserves to be highlighted for its biological properties that have been pointed out in numerous studies. This work aimed to conduct a literature review on its biological properties. Citronellal is a prominent compound in the essential oils of Cymbopogon genus plants.

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This study evaluated levels of replacement of soybean meal by castor bean meal in the finishing crossbred steers on Brachiaria brizantha cv. Marandu pasture during the rainy-dry transition period. Forty Holstein-Zebu crossbred steers with an average initial weight of 395.

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During in vitro maturation (IVM) cumulus-oocyte complexes (COCs) are exposed to conditions that can trigger oxidative stress, thus, reducing oocyte maturation and viability. Aiming to mitigate these detrimental conditions, the effects of IVM medium supplementation with anethole have been tested. Anethole, also known as trans-anethole (1-methoxy-4 [1-propenyl]-benzene), is a naturally occurring phenylpropanoid with various pharmacological properties, including antioxidant effects.

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  • Toxicological analysis of natural compounds is essential for safety assessments, using both simple and complex biological models, like chicken-embryo blood cells which mimic human biological systems.
  • This dataset includes microscopy images of these cells exposed to quercetin, methyl methanesulfonate (MMS), and cadmium chloride (CdCl), offering insights into the effects of various substances on embryonic development and immune responses.
  • The extensive collection of blood smear images can facilitate the training of machine learning algorithms for blood cell detection and classification, contributing to advances in toxicology, immunology, and oncology research.
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The objective of this study was to examine the effect of replacing soybean meal (SBM) with detoxified castor seed meal (DCM) on the intake, digestibility, feeding behavior, and performance of pasture-finished (rainy season) steers supplemented with concentrate at 0.4% of their body weight. Forty ½ Holstein + ½ Zebu steers (initial weight: 283.

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Pseudomonas syringae pv. actinidiae (Psa) is responsible for the kiwifruit bacterial canker, the most severe disease of Actinidia spp. The use in agriculture of antibiotics and cooper-based compounds is increasingly being restricted, demanding for new sustainable alternatives to current agrochemicals.

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Agricultural systems are in need of low-cost, safe antibiotics to protect crops from pests and diseases. Peptaibiotics, a family of linear, membrane-active, amphipathic polypeptides, have been shown to exhibit antibacterial, antifungal, and antiviral activity, and to be inducers of plant resistance against a wide range of phytopathogens. Peptaibiotics belong to the new generation of alternatives to agrochemicals, aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and the One Health approach toward ensuring global food security and safety.

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  • Anthropogenic factors like climate change are significantly influencing insect behavior and survival, particularly in pests, though specific impacts on certain pests remain under-researched.
  • One such pest, which poses a threat to soft-skinned small fruits, is facing challenges from cold temperatures, causing issues like dehydration and immune system stress.
  • The review discusses this pest's adaptive strategies for surviving cold seasons, including behaviors, reproductive adaptations, and metabolic changes, while also considering how ongoing climate change may enhance its spread and what measures can be taken to mitigate this issue.
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  • The production of blueberries is facing challenges due to drought, nutrient scarcity, phytopathogens, and costly fertilization, highlighting the need for improved resilience and sustainable agriculture.
  • This study utilized a metagenomic approach to analyze the microbial community in the rhizosphere of blueberry plants, isolating both epiphytic and endophytic microorganisms to identify beneficial native organisms.
  • Findings indicated a diverse native microbial community with potential for mycorrhizal relationships and plant growth promotion, suggesting future research should focus on these isolates to enhance resilience against environmental stressors like climate change.
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The spotted-wing drosophila () is a polyphagous pest that causes severe damage and economic losses to soft-skinned fruit production. Current control methods are dominated by inefficient cultural practices and broad-spectrum insecticides that, in addition to having toxic effects on non-target organisms, are becoming less effective due to acquired resistance. The increasing awareness of the real impact of insecticides on health and the environment has promoted the exploration of new insecticidal compounds, addressing novel molecular targets.

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Owing to the potentially harmful adverse effects of current anti-inflammatory drugs, there is a need to identify new alternative substances. Thus, this study aimed to perform a phytochemical analysis of to identify compounds responsible for its anti-inflammatory activity. Several fractions of the extract were obtained and evaluated in an anti-inflammatory assay using fresh human blood.

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The ground beetle, Neoaulacoryssus speciosus (Coleoptera: Carabidae) is of high relevance to field because it has been recorded as a pest of seeds and young plants of vegetables and other crops and a predator in agricultural crops, forest and weeds in Brazil. However, natural habitat changes are increasing agriculture and forest insect outbreaks in urban areas. A N.

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As a polyphagous pest, Drosophila suzukii has a variety of host fruits available for feeding and oviposition, but how the nutritional geometry of different hosts influences its metabolism is still poorly understood. This work aimed to evaluate how D. suzukii metabolic and transcriptional pathways are influenced by feeding on different host fruits, and how sex influences these responses.

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Environmental stress triggered by climate change can alter the plant’s metabolite profile, which affects its physiology and performance. This is particularly important in medicinal species because their economic value depends on the richness of their phytocompounds. We aimed to characterize how water deficit modulated the medicinal species Melia azedarach’s lipophilic profile and antioxidant status.

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Light composition modulates plant growth and defenses, thus influencing plant-pathogen interactions. We investigated the effects of different light-emitting diode (LED) red (R) (665 nm) and blue (B) (470 nm) light combinations on performance by evaluating biometric parameters, chlorophyll a fluorescence, gas exchange and photosynthesis-related gene expression. Moreover, the influence of light on the infection by pv.

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Disease resistance in plants depends on a molecular dialogue with microbes that involves many known chemical effectors, but the time course of the interaction and the influence of the environment are largely unknown. The outcome of host-pathogen interactions is thought to reflect the offensive and defensive capabilities of both players. When plants interact with Pseudomonas syringae, several well-characterized virulence factors contribute to early bacterial pathogenicity, including the type III secretion system (T3SS), which must be activated by signals from the plant and environment to allow the secretion of virulence effectors.

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Background: Fire blight is a destructive disease of pome trees, caused by , leading to high losses of chain-of-values fruits. Major outbreaks were registered between 2010 and 2017 in Portugal, and the first molecular epidemiological characterization of those isolates disclosed a clonal population with different levels of virulence and susceptibility to antimicrobial peptides.

Methods: This work aimed to further disclose the genetic characterization and unveil the phenotypic diversity of this population, resorting to MLSA, growth kinetics, biochemical characterization, and antibiotic susceptibility.

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Bacterial canker of the kiwifruit caused by the etiological agent Pseudomonas syringae pv. actinidiae is the most severe disease in kiwifruit production. Since 2008 a hypervirulent Psa biovar 3 has spread rapidly worldwide.

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In this study, we evaluated the feeding behavior of Girolando steers on Brachiaria brizantha cultivar Marandu pastures. Twenty-two animals with an average initial weight of 209.09 ± 8.

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