Toward understanding grapevine responses to climate change: a multistress and holistic approach.

Recent research has extensively covered the effects of climate change factors, such as elevated CO2, rising temperatures and water deficit, on grapevine (Vitis spp.) biology. However, the assessment of the impacts of multiple climate change-related stresses on this crop remains complex due to the large number of interactive effects among environmental factors and the regulatory mechanisms that underlie these effects.

Chemical activation of ABA signaling in grapevine through the iSB09 and AMF4 ABA receptor agonists enhances water use efficiency.

Grapevine (Vitis vinifera L.) is the world's third most valuable horticultural crop, and the current environmental scenario is massively shifting the grape cultivation landscape. The increase in heatwaves and drought episodes alter fruit ripening, compromise grape yield and vine survival, intensifying the pressure on using limited water resources.

Murine colon cancer derived cells exhibit heterogeneous resistance profiles against an oncolytic virus.

Oncolytic virotherapy has shown efficacy in various animal models and a few human cancers. However, there are still significant limitations for the implementation of these therapies. One such limitation is the emergence of cellular resistances, which may appear rapidly considering the high genetic heterogeneity of most tumors.

Low Silver/Copper Exchange in a Copper-Phosphate Enzyme Nanoflower Hybrid Extremely Enhanced Antimicrobial Efficacy against Multidrug Resistant Bacteria.

Infections caused by bacteria that are resistant to many drugs are a major threat to public health in many countries around the world. Here we demonstrate the creation of heterogeneous catalytic nanomaterials with outstanding antimicrobial properties against several superbugs. We have shown that replacing a small amount of copper in a generated copper-phosphate-enzyme nanoflower hybrid with silver drastically increases the antimicrobial capacity of the nanomaterial.

Targeted phage hunting to specific clinical isolates is an efficient antibiotic resistance and infection control strategy.

is one of the most threatening multi-drug-resistant pathogens today, with phage therapy being a promising alternative for personalized treatments. However, the intrinsic capsule diversity in spp. poses a substantial barrier to the phage host range, complicating the development of broad-spectrum phage-based treatments.

Genetic diversity and cross-species transmissibility of bat-associated picornaviruses from Spain.

Background: Emerging zoonotic diseases arise from cross-species transmission events between wild or domesticated animals and humans, with bats being one of the major reservoirs of zoonotic viruses. Viral metagenomics has led to the discovery of many viruses, but efforts have mainly been focused on some areas of the world and on certain viral families.

Methods: We set out to describe full-length genomes of new picorna-like viruses by collecting feces from hundreds of bats captured in different regions of Spain.

Activation of the yeast Retrograde Response pathway by adaptive laboratory evolution with S-(2-aminoethyl)-L-cysteine reduces ethanol and increases glycerol during winemaking.

Background: Global warming causes an increase in the levels of sugars in grapes and hence in ethanol after wine fermentation. Therefore, alcohol reduction is a major target in modern oenology. Deletion of the MKS1 gene, a negative regulator of the Retrograde Response pathway, in Saccharomyces cerevisiae was reported to increase glycerol and reduce ethanol and acetic acid in wine.

DepoScope: Accurate phage depolymerase annotation and domain delineation using large language models.

Bacteriophages (phages) are viruses that infect bacteria. Many of them produce specific enzymes called depolymerases to break down external polysaccharide structures. Accurate annotation and domain identification of these depolymerases are challenging due to their inherent sequence diversity.

Mapping mutational fitness effects across the coxsackievirus B3 proteome reveals distinct profiles of mutation tolerability.

RNA viruses have notoriously high mutation rates due to error-prone replication by their RNA polymerase. However, natural selection concentrates variability in a few key viral proteins. To test whether this stems from different mutation tolerance profiles among viral proteins, we measured the effect of >40,000 non-synonymous mutations across the full proteome of coxsackievirus B3 as well as >97% of all possible codon deletions in the nonstructural proteins.

Computer-aided design and implementation of efficient biosynthetic pathways to produce high added-value products derived from tyrosine in .

Developing efficient bioprocesses requires selecting the best biosynthetic pathways, which can be challenging and time-consuming due to the vast amount of data available in databases and literature. The extension of the shikimate pathway for the biosynthesis of commercially attractive molecules often involves promiscuous enzymes or lacks well-established routes. To address these challenges, we developed a computational workflow integrating enumeration/retrosynthesis algorithms, a toolbox for pathway analysis, enzyme selection tools, and a gene discovery pipeline, supported by manual curation and literature review.

The ethylene-responsive transcription factor ERF024 is a novel regulator of climacteric fruit ripening in melon.

Fruit ripening is an essential developmental stage in Angiosperms triggered by hormonal signals such as ethylene, a major player in climacteric ripening. Melon is a unique crop showing both climacteric and non-climacteric cultivars, offering an ideal model for dissecting the genetic mechanisms underpinning this process. The major quantitative trait locus ETHQV8.

Fighting Infantis: bacteriophage-driven cleaning and disinfection strategies for broiler farms.

Introduction: is a bacterium that can cause food-borne infections and is responsible for the most common gastrointestinal illnesses. The emergence of multi-drug resistant (MDR) strains worldwide is a major threat, representing a major challenge in public health. To reduce its incidence, the One Health approach is required, and the development of new biocontrol protocols will help prevent or eliminate the spread of .

Functional antibody responses targeting the Spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron XBB.1.5 in elderly nursing home residents following Wuhan-Hu-1-based mRNA booster vaccination.

The immune effector mechanisms involved in protecting against severe COVID-19 infection in elderly nursing home residents following vaccination or natural infection are not well understood. Here, we measured SARS-CoV-2 Spike (S)-directed functional antibody responses, including neutralizing antibodies (NtAb) and antibody Fc-mediated NK cell activity (degranulation and IFNγ production), against the Wuhan-Hu-1, BA.4/5 (for NtAb), and Omicron XBB.

Prediction of Klebsiella phage-host specificity at the strain level.

Phages are increasingly considered promising alternatives to target drug-resistant bacterial pathogens. However, their often-narrow host range can make it challenging to find matching phages against bacteria of interest. Current computational tools do not accurately predict interactions at the strain level in a way that is relevant and properly evaluated for practical use.

Up-regulation of Retrograde Response in yeast increases glycerol and reduces ethanol during wine fermentation.

Nutrient signaling pathways play a pivotal role in regulating the balance among metabolism, growth and stress response depending on the available food supply. They are key factors for the biotechnological success of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae during food-producing fermentations. One such pathway is Retrograde Response, which controls the alpha-ketoglutarate supply required for the synthesis of amino acids like glutamate and lysine.

DetSpace: a web server for engineering detectable pathways for bio-based chemical production.

Tackling climate change challenges requires replacing current chemical industrial processes through the rational and sustainable use of biodiversity resources. To that end, production routes to key bio-based chemicals for the bioeconomy have been identified. However, their production still remains inefficient in terms of titers, rates, and yields; because of the hurdles found when scaling up.

Infection through Hybridization to Enhance an Incompatible Insect Technique-Based Suppression of in Eastern Spain.

The emergence of insecticide resistance in arbovirus vectors is putting the focus on the development of new strategies for control. In this regard, the exploitation of endosymbionts is receiving increasing attention due to its demonstrated effectiveness in reducing the vectorial capacity of mosquitoes. Here, we describe the establishment of a naïve infection in a wild population of eastern Spain through a hybridization approach to obtain males capable of sterilizing wild females.

Exploring large-scale gene coexpression networks in peach ( L.): a new tool for predicting gene function.

Peach is a model for genetics and genomics, however, identifying and validating genes associated to peach breeding traits is a complex task. A gene coexpression network (GCN) capable of capturing stable gene-gene relationships would help researchers overcome the intrinsic limitations of peach genetics and genomics approaches and outline future research opportunities. In this study, we created four GCNs from 604 Illumina RNA-Seq libraries.

Capsules and their traits shape phage susceptibility and plasmid conjugation efficiency.

Bacterial evolution is affected by mobile genetic elements like phages and conjugative plasmids, offering new adaptive traits while incurring fitness costs. Their infection is affected by the bacterial capsule. Yet, its importance has been difficult to quantify because of the high diversity of confounding mechanisms in bacterial genomes such as anti-viral systems and surface receptor modifications.

Gut Microbiota Is Not Essential for Survival and Development in , but Affects Uric Acid Storage.

Cockroaches harbor two coexisting symbiotic systems: the obligate endosymbiont , and a complex gut microbiota. is the only bacterium present in the eggs, as the gut microbiota is acquired by horizontal transmission after hatching, mostly through coprophagy. , a cosmopolitan omnivorous cockroach living in intimate association with humans, is an appropriate model system for studying whether the gut microbiota is essential for the cockroach's survival, development, or welfare.

NAC61 regulates late- and post-ripening osmotic, oxidative, and biotic stress responses in grapevine.

During late- and post-ripening stages, grape berry undergoes profound biochemical and physiological changes whose molecular control is poorly understood. Here, we report the role of NAC61, a grapevine NAC transcription factor, in regulating different processes involved in berry ripening progression. NAC61 is highly expressed during post-harvest berry dehydration and its expression pattern is closely related to sugar concentration.

SelenzymeRF: updated enzyme suggestion software for unbalanced biochemical reactions.

Selenzyme is a retrobiosynthesis tool that suggests candidate enzymes for user query reactions. Enzyme suggestions are based on identical reactions, as well as similar reactions, since enzymes are often capable of promiscuous substrate binding. Selenzyme is a user-friendly, widely used web-tool for ranking enzymes based on reaction similarity and additional features, including the phylogenetic distance between the source species of the enzyme and the intended host.

Optimized Recovery of Viral DNA and RNA from Blood Plasma for Viral Metagenomics.

Metagenomics is vastly improving our ability to discover new viruses, as well as their possible associations with disease. However, metagenomics has also changed our understanding of viruses in general. This is because we can find viruses in healthy hosts in the absence of disease, which changes the perspective of viruses as mere pathogens and offers a new perspective in which viruses function as important components of ecosystems.