Management of Severe Pyogenic Spinal Infections: The 2SICK Study by the EANS Spine Section.

Background Context: Spondylodiscitis management presents significant clinical challenges, particularly in critically ill patients, where the risks and benefits of surgical intervention must be carefully balanced. The optimal timing of surgery in this context remains a subject of debate.

Purpose: This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of early surgery versus delayed surgery or conservative management in critically ill patients with de novo pyogenic spondylodiscitis.

Deciphering Pteronia's evolution in the Cape Floristic Region: A comprehensive study disputes polyploid deficiency and affirms diploid radiation.

The Greater Cape Floristic Region (GCFR) is renowned for its exceptional biodiversity, accommodating over 11 000 plant species, notable degree of endemism, and substantial diversification within limited plant lineages, a phenomenon ascribed to historical radiation events. While both abiotic and biotic factors contribute to this diversification, comprehensive genomic alterations, recognized as pivotal in the diversification of angiosperms, are perceived as uncommon. This investigation focuses on the genus Pteronia, a prominent representative of the Asteraceae family in the GCFR.

Diploid and tetraploid cytotypes of the flagship Cape species Dicerothamnus rhinocerotis (Asteraceae): variation in distribution, ecological niche, morphology and genetics.

Background And Aims: The Greater Cape Floristic Region is one of the world's biodiversity hotspots and is considered poor in polyploids. To test this assumption, ploidy variation was investigated in a widespread Cape shrub, Dicerothamnus rhinocerotis (renosterbos, Asteraceae). The aim was to elucidate the cytotype distribution and population composition across the species range, and to assess differences in morphology, environmental niches and genetics.

Efficiency of interlaminar uniportal endoscopic lumbar discectomy.

Aim: Prospective evaluation of the results of endoscopic lumbar discectomy.

Methods: 95 patients were consecutively enrolled in the study between 2017 and 2021. We monitored low back pain and sciatica according to the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS), the limitations in daily activities (Oswestry Disability Index, ODI), overall satisfaction according to a 0-100 % scale, and the rate of surgical complications and reoperations.

New estimates of genome size in Orthoptera and their evolutionary implications.

Animal genomes vary widely in size, and much of their architecture and content remains poorly understood. Even among related groups, such as orders of insects, genomes may vary in size by orders of magnitude-for reasons unknown. The largest known insect genomes were repeatedly found in Orthoptera, e.

The relationship between transposable elements and ecological niches in the Greater Cape Floristic Region: A study on the genus (Asteraceae).

Non-coding repetitive DNA (repeatome) is an active part of the nuclear genome, involved in its structure, evolution and function. It is dominated by transposable elements (TEs) and satellite DNA and is prone to the most rapid changes over time. The TEs activity presumably causes the global genome reorganization and may play an adaptive or regulatory role in response to environmental challenges.

Inconsistent expression of the gigas effect in polyploid Oxalis.

Premise: It is well-known that whole genome duplication (WGD) has played a significant role in the evolution of plants. The best-known phenotypic effect of WGD is the gigas effect, or the enlargement of polyploid plant traits. WGD is often linked with increased weediness, which could be a result of fitness advantages conferred by the gigas effect.

Integrative Study of Genotypic and Phenotypic Diversity in the Eurasian Orchid Genus .

Knowledge of population variation across species' ranges is a prerequisite for correctly assessing the overall variability of any group of organisms and provides an invaluable basis for unraveling evolutionary history, optimizing taxonomy and devising effective conservation strategies. Here, we examine the genus , which represents a relatively recently delimited monophyletic genus of orchids, for which a detailed study of its overall variability was lacking. We applied a suite of biosystematic methods, consisting of flow cytometry, multivariate and geometric morphometrics, and analysis of genomic SNP data, to identify phylogenetic lineages within the genus, to delineate phenotypic variation relevant to these lineages, and to identify potential cryptic taxa within lineages.

On the Origin of Tetraploid Vernal Grasses () in Europe.

Polyploidy has played a crucial role in the evolution of many plant taxa, namely in higher latitudinal zones. Surprisingly, after several decades of an intensive research on polyploids, there are still common polyploid species whose evolutionary history is virtually unknown. Here, we addressed the origin of sweet vernal grass () using flow cytometry, DNA sequencing, and in situ hybridization-based cytogenetic techniques.

Repeat proliferation and partial endoreplication jointly shape the patterns of genome size evolution in orchids.

Although the evolutionary drivers of genome size change are known, the general patterns and mechanisms of plant genome size evolution are yet to be established. Here we aim to assess the relative importance of proliferation of repetitive DNA, chromosomal variation (including polyploidy), and the type of endoreplication for genome size evolution of the Pleurothallidinae, the most species-rich orchid lineage. Phylogenetic relationships between 341 Pleurothallidinae representatives were refined using a target enrichment hybrid capture combined with high-throughput sequencing approach.

Polyploid evolution: The ultimate way to grasp the nettle.

Polyploidy is one of the major forces of plant evolution and widespread mixed-ploidy species offer an opportunity to evaluate its significance. We therefore selected the cosmopolitan species Urtica dioica (stinging nettle), examined its cytogeography and pattern of absolute genome size, and assessed correlations with bioclimatic and ecogeographic data (latitude, longitude, elevation). We evaluated variation in ploidy level using an extensive dataset of 7012 samples from 1317 populations covering most of the species' distribution area.

The large genome size variation in the Hesperis clade was shaped by the prevalent proliferation of DNA repeats and rarer genome downsizing.

Background And Aims: Most crucifer species (Brassicaceae) have small nuclear genomes (mean 1C-value 617 Mb). The species with the largest genomes occur within the monophyletic Hesperis clade (Mandáková et al., Plant Physiology174: 2062-2071; also known as Clade E or Lineage III).

Diversity in genome size and GC content shows adaptive potential in orchids and is closely linked to partial endoreplication, plant life-history traits and climatic conditions.

In angiosperms, genome size and nucleobase composition (GC content) exhibit pronounced variation with possible adaptive consequences. The hyperdiverse orchid family possessing the unique phenomenon of partial endoreplication (PE) provides a great opportunity to search for interactions of both genomic traits with the evolutionary history of the family. Using flow cytometry, we report values of both genomic traits and the type of endoreplication for 149 orchid species and compare these with a suite of life-history traits and climatic niche data using phylogeny-based statistics.

Sweet vernal grasses (Anthoxanthum) colonized African mountains along two fronts in the Late Pliocene, followed by secondary contact, polyploidization and local extinction in the Pleistocene.

High tropical mountains harbour remarkable and fragmented biodiversity thought to a large degree to have been shaped by multiple dispersals of cold-adapted lineages from remote areas. Few dated phylogenetic/phylogeographic analyses are however available. Here, we address the hypotheses that the sub-Saharan African sweet vernal grasses have a dual colonization history and that lineages of independent origins have established secondary contact.

Cytotype coexistence in the field cannot be explained by inter-cytotype hybridization alone: linking experiments and computer simulations in the sexual species Pilosella echioides (Asteraceae).

Background: Processes driving ploidal diversity at the population level are virtually unknown. Their identification should use a combination of large-scale screening of ploidy levels in the field, pairwise crossing experiments and mathematical modelling linking these two types of data. We applied this approach to determine the drivers of frequencies of coexisting cytotypes in mixed-ploidy field populations of the fully sexual plant species Pilosella echioides.

Small genomes and large seeds: chromosome numbers, genome size and seed mass in diploid Aesculus species (Sapindaceae).

Background And Aims: Aesculus L. (horse chestnut, buckeye) is a genus of 12-19 extant woody species native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere. This genus is known for unusually large seeds among angiosperms.

The Enigma of Progressively Partial Endoreplication: New Insights Provided by Flow Cytometry and Next-Generation Sequencing.

In many plant species, somatic cell differentiation is accompanied by endoreduplication, a process during which cells undergo one or more rounds of DNA replication cycles in the absence of mitosis, resulting in nuclei with multiples of 2C DNA amounts (4C, 8C, 16C, etc.). In some orchids, a disproportionate increase in nuclear DNA contents has been observed, where successive endoreduplication cycles result in DNA amounts 2C + P, 2C + 3P, 2C + 7P, etc.

A New Species of Cleisostoma (Orchidaceae) from the Hon Ba Nature Reserve in Vietnam: A Multidisciplinary Assessment.

A new species, Cleisostoma yersinii J. Ponert & Vuong, is described and illustrated based on the material collected in the Hon Ba Nature Reserve in southern Vietnam. In addition to conventional (macro)morphological examination we comparatively investigated root and leaf anatomy (using light and fluorescent microscopy), assessed nectar characteristics (using HPLC analysis), determined nuclear genome size (using DNA flow cytometry) and reconstructed phylogenetic relationships (using nrITS sequences).

Evolutionary and Taxonomic Implications of Variation in Nuclear Genome Size: Lesson from the Grass Genus Anthoxanthum (Poaceae).

The genus Anthoxanthum (sweet vernal grass, Poaceae) represents a taxonomically intricate polyploid complex with large phenotypic variation and its evolutionary relationships still poorly resolved. In order to get insight into the geographic distribution of ploidy levels and assess the taxonomic value of genome size data, we determined C- and Cx-values in 628 plants representing all currently recognized European species collected from 197 populations in 29 European countries. The flow cytometric estimates were supplemented by conventional chromosome counts.

Challenges of flow-cytometric estimation of nuclear genome size in orchids, a plant group with both whole-genome and progressively partial endoreplication.

Nuclear genome size is an inherited quantitative trait of eukaryotic organisms with both practical and biological consequences. A detailed analysis of major families is a promising approach to fully understand the biological meaning of the extensive variation in genome size in plants. Although Orchidaceae accounts for ∼10% of the angiosperm diversity, the knowledge of patterns and dynamics of their genome size is limited, in part due to difficulties in flow cytometric analyses.