Increased resilience and a regime shift reversal through repeat mass coral bleaching.

Ecosystems are substantially changing in response to ongoing climate change. For example, coral reefs have declined in coral dominance, with some reefs undergoing regime shifts to non-coral states. However, reef responses may vary through multiple heat stress events, with the rarity of long-term ecological datasets rendering such understanding uncertain.

Assessment of Patient-Derived Xenograft Growth and Antitumor Activity: The NCI PDXNet Consensus Recommendations.

Although patient-derived xenografts (PDX) are commonly used for preclinical modeling in cancer research, a standard approach to in vivo tumor growth analysis and assessment of antitumor activity is lacking, complicating the comparison of different studies and determination of whether a PDX experiment has produced evidence needed to consider a new therapy promising. We present consensus recommendations for assessment of PDX growth and antitumor activity, providing public access to a suite of tools for in vivo growth analyses. We expect that harmonizing PDX study design and analysis and assessing a suite of analytical tools will enhance information exchange and facilitate identification of promising novel therapies and biomarkers for guiding cancer therapy.

Dietary selenium and mercury intakes from fish consumption during pregnancy: Seychelles Child Development Study Nutrition Cohort 2.

Some health agencies have issued precautionary principle fish advisories to pregnant women based on the presence of methylmercury (MeHg) in fish that could possibly be harmful to the developing fetus. Fish, however, is a rich source of selenium (Se) and other nutrients essential for normal brain development. Selenium is also thought to have a key role in alleviating MeHg toxicity.

Optimization of Xylooligosaccharides Production by Native and Recombinant Xylanase Hydrolysis of Chicken Feed Substrates.

Poultry production faces several challenges, with feed efficiency being the main factor that can be influenced through the use of different nutritional strategies. Xylooligosaccharides (XOS) are functional feed additives that are attracting growing commercial interest due to their excellent ability to modulate the composition of the gut microbiota. The aim of the study was to apply crude and purified fungal xylanases, from as well as a recombinant glycoside hydrolase family 10 xylanase, derived from T6, as additives to locally produced chicken feeds.

Enhanced production of a recombinant xylanase (XT6): optimization of production and purification, and scaled-up batch fermentation in a stirred tank bioreactor.

The endoxylanase XT6 produced by Geobacillus stearothermophilus is a desirable candidate for industrial applications. In this study, the gene encoding XT6 was cloned using the pET-28a expression vector and expressed in Escherichia coli BL21 (DE3) cells. Recombinant XT6 production was improved by optimizing cell lysis (sonication, chemical, and enzymatic lysis) and expression conditions.