Variegation is a rare type of mosaicism not fully studied in plants, especially fruits. We examined red and white sections of grape (Vitis vinifera cv. 'Béquignol') variegated berries and found that accumulation of products from branches of the phenylpropanoid and isoprenoid pathways showed an opposite tendency.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe investigated whether a set of phylogeographical tracked emergent events of Orthocoronavirinae were related to developed, urban and polluted environments worldwide. We explored coronavirus records in response to climate (rainfall parameters), population density, CO emission, Human Developmental Index (HDI) and deforestation. We contrasted environmental characteristics from regions with spillovers or encounters of wild Orthocoronavirinae against adjacent areas having best-preserved conditions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe woody nature of grapevine ( L.) has hindered the development of efficient gene editing strategies to improve this species. The lack of highly efficient gene transfer techniques, which, furthermore, are applied in multicellular explants such as somatic embryos, are additional technical handicaps to gene editing in the vine.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe Tocantins-Araguaia Basin is one of the largest river systems in South America, located entirely within Brazilian territory. In the last decades, capital-concentrating activities such as agribusiness, mining, and hydropower promoted extensive changes in land cover, hydrology, and environmental conditions. These changes are jeopardizing the basin's biodiversity and ecosystem services.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOxygen exposure may trigger a series of changes that could be detrimental to the quality white wines. This study evaluated the combined effects of sulfur dioxide, glutathione and light exposure on the chemistry and sensory perception of bottled Sauvignon blanc. The wines were manually bottled into clear bottles, closed with low oxygen transfer rate stoppers, and stored for three months, either exposed or protected from light.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe archaeological record shows that large pre-Inca agricultural systems supported settlements for centuries around the ravines and oases of northern Chile's hyperarid Atacama Desert. This raises questions about how such productivity was achieved and sustained, and its social implications. Using isotopic data of well-preserved ancient plant remains from Atacama sites, we show a dramatic increase in crop nitrogen isotope values (δN) from around AD 1000.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBiological invasion is one of the main threats to native biodiversity. For a species to become invasive, it must be voluntarily or involuntarily introduced by humans into a nonnative habitat. Mammals were among first taxa to be introduced worldwide for game, meat, and labor, yet the number of species introduced in the Neotropics remains unknown.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAn amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAcute ethanol treatment induces neurodegeneration in cultured neurons and can lead to brain damage in animal models. Neuronal cells exposed to ethanol showed an increase in reactive oxygen species (ROS), oxidative damage and mitochondrial impairment contributing to synaptic failure. However, the underlying mechanisms of these events are not well understood.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEffective conservation policies require comprehensive knowledge of biodiversity. However, knowledge shortfalls still remain, hindering possibilities to improve decision making and built such policies. During the last 2 decades, conservationists have made great efforts to allocate resources as efficiently as possible but have rarely considered the idea that if research investments are also strategically allocated, it would likely fill knowledge gaps while simultaneously improving conservation actions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEcological Niche Models (ENMs) have different performances in predicting potential geographic distributions. Here we meta-analyzed the likely effects of climate change on the potential geographic distribution of 1,205 bird species from the Neotropical region, modeled using eight ENMs and three Atmosphere-Ocean General Circulation Models (AOGCM). We considered the variability in ENMs performance to estimate a weighted mean difference between potential geographic distributions for baseline and future climates.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe explored the effects of ultraviolet B radiation (UV-B) on the developmental dynamics of microRNAs and phased small-interfering-RNA (phasi-RNAs)-producing loci by sequencing small RNAs in vegetative and reproductive organs of grapevine ( L.). In particular, we tested different UV-B conditions in -grown plantlets (high-fluence exposition) and in berries from field-grown (radiation filtering) and greenhouse-grown (low- and high-fluence expositions) adult plants throughout fruit development and ripening.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInternational commitments for ecosystem restoration add up to one-quarter of the world's arable land. Fulfilling them would ease global challenges such as climate change and biodiversity decline but could displace food production and impose financial costs on farmers. Here, we present a restoration prioritization approach capable of revealing these synergies and trade-offs, incorporating ecological and economic efficiencies of scale and modelling specific policy options.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFStudies have tested whether model predictions based on species' occurrence can predict the spatial pattern of population abundance. The relationship between predicted environmental suitability and population abundance varies in shape, strength and predictive power. However, little attention has been paid to the congruence in predictions of different models fed with occurrence or abundance data, in particular when comparing metrics of climate change impact.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Climate change is arguably a major threat to biodiversity conservation and there are several methods to assess its impacts on species potential distribution. Yet the extent to which different approaches on species distribution modeling affect species richness patterns at biogeographical scale is however unaddressed in literature. In this paper, we verified if the expected responses to climate change in biogeographical scale-patterns of species richness and species vulnerability to climate change-are affected by the inputs used to model and project species distribution.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUnlabelled: Freshwater ecosystems are the most threatened ecosystems worldwide. Argentinian-protected areas have been established mainly to protect vertebrates and plants in terrestrial ecosystems. In order to create a comprehensive biodiverse conservation plan, it is crucial to integrate both aquatic and terrestrial systems and to include macroinvertebrates.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFlavonols constitute a group of flavonoids with important photoprotective roles in plants. In addition, flavonol content and composition greatly influences fruit quality. We previously demonstrated that the grapevine R2R3-MYB transcription factor (TF) VviMYBF1 promotes flavonol accumulation by inducing the expression of flavonol synthase (), a key step of the initial flavonol pathway.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFConservation priorities that are based on species distribution, endemism, and vulnerability may underrepresent biologically unique species as well as their functional roles and evolutionary histories. To ensure that priorities are biologically comprehensive, multiple dimensions of diversity must be considered. Further, understanding how the different dimensions relate to one another spatially is important for conservation prioritization, but the relationship remains poorly understood.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNiche conservatism, i.e. the retention of a species' fundamental niche through evolutionary time, is cornerstone for biological invasion assessments.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGrapevine organs accumulate anthocyanins in a cultivar-specific and environmentally induced manner. The MYBA1-A2 genes within the berry color locus in chromosome 2 represent the major genetic determinants of fruit color. The simultaneous occurrence of transposon insertions and point mutations in these genes is responsible for most white-skinned phenotypes; however, the red pigmentation found in vegetative organs suggests the presence of additional regulators.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHuman-induced climate change is considered a conspicuous threat to biodiversity in the 21st century. Species' response to climate change depends on their exposition, sensitivity and ability to adapt to novel climates. Exposure to climate change is however uneven within species' range, so that some populations may be more at risk than others.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: In this paper we review the conservation genetics of African savannah elephants, aiming to understand the spatio-temporal research trends and their underlying factors. As such, we explore three questions associated to the conservation genetics and molecular ecology of these elephants: (1) what are the research trends concerning the conservation genetics of ? (2) Do richer countries conduct more research on the genetics of African elephants? (3) Which attributes influence where scholars conduct their research?
Materials And Methods: We examined available peer-reviewed publications from 1993 to 2014 in complementary online databases, including the ISI/Web of Science (WoS), Scopus and Google Scholar (GS), and searched for publications in scientific journals as well as in the reference section of these publications. We analyzed the annual trend of publications in this field of research, including the number of authors, levels of collaboration among authors, year of publication, publishing journal and the countries from where genetic samples were collected.