1,107 results match your criteria: "Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences[Affiliation]"

A total of 1,724 beef and 2,941 dairy cattle older than one year from 66 beef and 67 dairy farms in the Czech Republic were examined for the presence of rumen and liver fluke eggs in 2019-2022. Out of 227 positive animals, all were positive for paramphistome and five for fasciolid eggs. Molecular analysis of the ITS2 rDNA revealed the presence of Calicophoron daubneyi (Dinnik, 1962) and Fasciola hepatica Linnaeus, 1758.

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Recent examinations of some marine fishes from off the southern coast of Iraq revealed the presence of five species of Philometra Costa, 1845 (Nematoda: Philometridae): Philometra arabiensis sp. n. (males and females) from the ovary of the shrimp scad Alepes djedaba (Forsskål) (Carangidae, Carangiformes), Philometra psettoditis Moravec, Walter et Yuniar, 2012 (females) from the body cavity of the Indian halibut Psettodes erumei (Bloch et Schneider) (Psettodidae, Pleuronectiformes), Philometra terapontis Moravec, Gopalakrishnan, Rajkumar, Saravanakumar et Kaliyamoorthy, 2011 (female) from the ovary of the jarbua terapon Terapon jarbua (Forsskål) (Terapontidae, Centrarchiformes), Philometra sp.

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To examine the suitability of fish scales as potential tracers of nutrient pollution, we analysed the nitrogen and carbon stable isotope values (δN and δC) in scales of a generalist fish species, roach Rutilus rutilus, collected from 22 Czech reservoirs covering wide gradients of catchment land use and nutrient enrichment. Using generalised additive mixed models in the first step and generalised linear mixed models in the second step, we evaluated the response of roach scale stable isotope values to catchment land use variables (percentage of agricultural land and human population density) and in-reservoir water quality variables. Roach scale δN values varied by 15 ‰ among the reservoirs and were strongly, linearly, and positively associated with the percentage of agricultural land in the reservoir catchments, pointing to agriculture as the dominant source of nitrogen pollution in the investigated systems.

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Indian cultural influence is remarkable in present-day Mainland Southeast Asia (MSEA), and it may have stimulated early state formation in the region. Various present-day populations in MSEA harbor a low level of South Asian ancestry, but previous studies failed to detect such ancestry in any ancient individual from MSEA. In this study, we discovered a substantial level of South Asian admixture (ca.

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Tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV) is a major cause of neurological infections in many regions of central, eastern and northern Europe and northern Asia. In approximately 15% of cases, TBEV infections lead to the development of severe encephalitis or meningitis. The main route of TBEV transmission is tick bites; however, ingestion of dairy products from infected animals (goats, cattle and sheep) is also a frequent cause of the disease.

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Planktonic ciliate species form multiple trophic guilds and are central components of freshwater food webs. Progress in molecular analytical tools has opened new insight into ciliate assemblages. However, high and variable 18S rDNA copy numbers, typical for ciliates, make reliable quantification by amplicon sequencing extremely difficult.

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New directions in the experimental therapy of tick-borne encephalitis.

Antiviral Res

February 2023

Laboratory of Emerging Viral Diseases, Veterinary Research Institute, Brno, Czech Republic; Institute of Parasitology, Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic; Institute of Experimental Biology, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic. Electronic address:

Tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) is a potentially fatal disease common in much of Europe and Asia. There is no specific therapy for the treatment of TBE patients. However, several efforts are being made to develop small molecules that specifically interfere with the life cycle of TBE virus.

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Bacteriophages as a Strategy to Protect Potato Tubers against and Soft Rot.

Microorganisms

November 2022

Department of Food Preservation, Faculty of Food and Biochemical Technology, University of Chemistry and Technology, Prague, 166 28 Prague, Czech Republic.

The protective effect of bacteriophage suspensions (Ds3CZ + Ds20CZ and PcCB7V + PcCB251) on phytopathogenic bacteria causing soft rot of potato tubers, namely Dickeya dianthicola (D50, D200) and Pectobacterium carotovorum (P87, P224), was observed in ex vivo and in vitro experiments. Ex vivo tests were performed (with air access) on potato slices, on cylindrical cuts from the center of the tubers, and directly in whole potato tubers. In vitro experiments were carried out in a liquid medium using RTS-8 bioreactors, where bacterial growth was monitored as optical density.

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In contrast to the catalytic subunit of telomerase, its RNA subunit (TR) is highly divergent in size, sequence and biogenesis pathways across eukaryotes. Current views on TR evolution assume a common origin of TRs transcribed with RNA polymerase II in Opisthokonta (the supergroup including Animalia and Fungi) and Trypanosomida on one hand, and TRs transcribed with RNA polymerase III under the control of type 3 promoter, found in TSAR and Archaeplastida supergroups (including e.g.

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Serum matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) as a biomarker in paediatric and adult tick-borne encephalitis patients.

Virus Res

January 2023

Department of Infectious Diseases and Preventive Medicine, Veterinary Research Institute, CZ-62100 Brno, Czechia; Institute of Parasitology, Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences, CZ-37005 Ceske Budejovice, Czechia; Department of Experimental Biology, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, CZ-62500 Brno, Czechia. Electronic address:

Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) play an important role in central nervous system infections. We analysed the levels of 8 different MMPs in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of 89 adult patients infected with tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) virus and compared them with the levels in a control group. MMP-9 was the only MMP that showed significantly increased CSF levels in TBE patients.

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Article Synopsis
  • This study investigates the complete sequences of major silk proteins from two moth species within the Pyralidae family and compares their characteristics.
  • It utilizes proteomic analysis alongside genomic and transcriptomic data to identify and analyze silk genes, focusing on their structure, expression, and evolutionary relationships.
  • Key findings reveal significant differences in silk properties, such as hydrophobicity and hygroscopicity, and document a higher number of sericin genes in one species, along with the duplication of sericin gene regions in both species, which sets the stage for further research on silk evolution.
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Aerobic anoxygenic photoheterotrophic (AAP) bacteria represent a functional group of prokaryotic organisms that harvests light energy using bacteriochlorophyll-containing photosynthetic reaction centers. They represent an active and rapidly growing component of freshwater bacterioplankton, with the highest numbers observed usually in summer. Species diversity of freshwater AAP bacteria has been studied before in lakes, but its seasonal dynamics remain unknown.

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Collembola are a group of globally distributed microarthropods that can tolerate low temperature and are active in extremely cold environments. While it is well known that animal diets can shape their microbiota, the microbiota of soil animals is not well described, particularly for animals with limited food resources, such as Collembola active in winter at low temperatures. In this study, we explored the effects of three different food sources; corn litter (agriculture grain residuals), Mongolian oak litter (natural plant residuals), and yeast (common food for Collembola culture), on the microbiota of a winter-active Collembola species, .

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Radiopaque Nanorobots as Magnetically Navigable Contrast Agents for Localized In Vivo Imaging of the Gastrointestinal Tract.

Adv Healthc Mater

March 2023

Future Energy and Innovation Laboratory, Central European Institute of Technology, Brno University of Technology, Purkynova 123, Brno, CZ-61200, Czech Republic.

Article Synopsis
  • Magnetic nanorobots can navigate to hard-to-reach areas in the human body for targeted therapy and diagnosis using wireless control.
  • Most existing imaging techniques struggle to effectively map out the routes for their movement, but the proposed use of radiopaque magnetic nanorobots with microcomputed tomography (microCT) can improve in vivo imaging applications.
  • These nanorobots, made from barium sulfate and magnetite, have shown to be non-toxic and can effectively be controlled within specific regions of the gastrointestinal tract, enhancing current diagnosis methods with better imaging and navigation capabilities.
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Polyenic Antibiotics and Other Antifungal Compounds Produced by Hemolytic Species.

Int J Mol Sci

November 2022

Institute of Immunology and Microbiology, 1st Faculty of Medicine, Charles University, Studničkova 7, 128 00 Prague, Czech Republic.

are of great interest in the pharmaceutical industry as they produce a plethora of secondary metabolites that act as antibacterial and antifungal agents. They may thrive on their own in the soil, or associate with other organisms, such as plants or invertebrates. Some soil-derived strains exhibit hemolytic properties when cultivated on blood agar, raising the question of whether hemolysis could be a virulence factor of the bacteria.

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Unlabelled: Emergence of SARS-CoV-2 variants diminishes the efficacy of vaccines and antiviral monoclonal antibodies. Continued development of immunotherapies and vaccine immunogens resilient to viral evolution is therefore necessary. Using coldspot-guided antibody discovery, a screening approach that focuses on portions of the virus spike that are both functionally relevant and averse to change, we identified human neutralizing antibodies to highly conserved viral epitopes.

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Multidimensional stoichiometric mismatch explains differences in detritivore biomass across three forest types.

J Anim Ecol

February 2023

Key Laboratory for Earth Surface Processes of the Ministry of Education, Institute of Ecology, College of Urban and Environmental Science, Peking University, Beijing, China.

The ecological stoichiometry theory provides a framework to understand organism fitness and population dynamics based on stoichiometric mismatch between organisms and their resources. Recent studies have revealed that different soil animals occupy distinct multidimensional stoichiometric niches (MSNs), which likely determine their specific stoichiometric mismatches and population responses facing resource changes. The goals of the present study are to examine how long-term forest plantations affect multidimensional elemental contents of litter and detritivores and the population size of detritivores that occupy distinct MSNs.

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The predicted global increase in the frequency, severity, and intensity of forest fires includes Central Europe, which is not currently considered as a wildfire hotspot. Because of this, a detailed knowledge of long-term post-fire forest floor succession is essential for understanding the role of wildfires in Central European temperate forests. In this study, we used a space-for-time substitution approach and exploited a unique opportunity to observe successional changes in the physical, chemical, and microbial properties of the forest floor in coniferous forest stands on a chronosequence up to 110 years after fire.

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Alternatives to hazardous insecticides are urgently needed for an environmentally friendly and effective management of insect pests. One such option is the use of entomopathogenic nematodes (EPN). To increase the availability of EPN with potential for biocontrol, we surveyed agricultural soils in the Republic of Rwanda and collected two isolates.

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Article Synopsis
  • - Many species of lepidopterans (like moths and butterflies) create silk for protection, but detailed studies on their silk composition are limited due to the complexity of their genetic makeup.
  • - The study focuses on Yponomeuta cagnagella, an early diverging species, and involved sequencing its genome to identify and analyze its silk genes using advanced DNA sequencing technologies.
  • - The research provides valuable insights into the genes responsible for silk production, their structures, and the morphology of silk glands, contributing to a better understanding of silk's evolution and function in these insects.
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Introduction: Human urine microbiota (UM) research has uncovered associations between composition of microbial communities of the lower urinary tract and various disease states including several reports on the putative link between UM and bladder cancer (BC). The aim of this study was to investigate male UM in patients with BC and controls using catheterised urine specimens unlike in previous studies.

Methods: Urine samples were obtained in theatre after surgical prepping and draping using aseptic catheterisation.

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Selective and reversible disruption of mitochondrial inner membrane protein complexes by lipophilic cations.

Mitochondrion

January 2023

Laboratory for Metabolism and Bioenergetics, Department of Biochemistry, Cell and Molecular Biology, Third Faculty of Medicine, Charles University, Czech Republic. Electronic address:

Triphenylphosphonium (TPP) derivatives are commonly used to target chemical into mitochondria. We show that alkyl-TPP cause reversible, dose- and hydrophobicity-dependent alterations of mitochondrial morphology and function and a selective decrease of mitochondrial inner membrane proteins including subunits of the respiratory chain complexes, as well as components of the mitochondrial calcium uniporter complex. The treatment with alkyl-TPP resulted in the cleavage of the pro-fusion and cristae organisation regulator Optic atrophy-1.

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The interactions of evolutionary forces are difficult to analyse in free-living populations. However, when properly understood, they provide valuable insights into evolutionary biology and conservation genetics. This is particularly important for the interplay of genetic drift and natural selection in immune genes that confer resistance to disease.

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Taking the regular overwintering of spider species in land snail shells as a model, we studied environmental conditions affecting the choice of overwintering sites in three jumping spider species: , , and . The research was conducted at 11 steppe localities on calcareous bedrock with abundant empty shells (mainly and ). We documented 889 shells and collected 186 of them, of which 113 were inhabited by 146 spider individuals (13 species).

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Atmospheric pollution remains one of the growing concerns in the twenty-first century, with particular focus on metal trace elements (MTE) from anthropogenic sources, due to their adverse effects on biota. The concentration and type of MTE in the atmosphere and in the soil are diverse, depending on the origin of pollutants, which can cause diverse detrimental effects on organisms living in the nearby environment. Three sites in Central Serbia with different origins of MTE pollution (urban contamination, smelting, and fly ash area) were assessed, using terrestrial Roman snails (Helix pomatia) as biomarker organisms.

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