Temporal trends of land-use favourability for the strongly declining little bustard: assessing the role of protected areas.

The little bustard (Tetrax tetrax) is a steppe bird strongly and negatively influenced by agricultural intensification in Europe. Here, we use the little bustard as a model species to examine how favourability (relative occurrence likelihood of a species based on environmental characteristics, such as habitat availability) varies regionally with degree of protection in north-western Spain. The Natura2000 network is one of the main biodiversity conservation tools of the European Union, aiming to protect areas hosting species of conservation concern from unfavourable land-use changes. The network covers many landscapes across the continent, including farmland. Additionally, we examine the relationship between trends in land-use favourability and little bustard population trends over a decade in the Nature Reserve of Lagunas de Villafáfila, a protected area also in the Natura2000 network where active and intense management focused on steppe bird conservation is carried out. Favourability was much greater in Villafáfila than in both protected areas with lower degree of protection and in non-protected areas. Land-use favourability increased slightly between 2011 and 2020 both in and out of protected areas, whereas little bustard populations declined sharply in that period, even in Villafáfila. Spatial variations in little bustard abundance within Villafáfila depended on social attraction (increasing with the number of neighbouring males) but not significantly on small-scale variations in land-use favourability. These results suggest that land-use management in Natura2000 areas needs to be more conservation-focused, favouring natural and seminatural habitats and traditional farming practices to improve land-use favourability for little bustards and other steppe birds. Additional factors, such as field-level agricultural management or social interaction variables that may cause an Allee effect, should be incorporated in little bustard favourability models to improve their use in conservation planning.

Rhodium-/Iridium-Catalyzed Hydroamination for the Synthesis of 1,2-, 1,3-, or 1,4-Diamines.

An Ir-catalyzed regioselective hydroamination of allyl amines using aryl amines and catalyst-controlled regiodivergent hydroamination of allylic and homoallylic amines with aniline nucleophiles are reported. The directed hydroamination reactions afford a variety of 1,2-, 1,3-, and 1,4-diamines in good to excellent yields and high regio- and chemoselectivities. Mechanistic investigations suggests that the reactions are proceeding through an oxidative addition into the ArHN-H bond and that the observed regioselectivity is due to the selective formation of a 5- or 6-membered metalacyclic intermediate, depending on the catalyst employed.

Can current farmland landscapes feed declining steppe birds? Evaluating arthropod abundance for the endangered little bustard (Tetrax tetrax) in cereal farmland during the chick-rearing period: Variations between habitats and localities.

Agriculture intensification threatens farmland bird populations because, among other reasons, it reduces the availability of food resources required to rear their offspring. In our study, we sampled and analyzed total arthropod abundance, biomass and richness, and orthopteran and coleopteran abundance and biomass in different agricultural habitats (alfalfa fields, stubble fields, grazed fields, and field margins) across 4 study localities with different levels of agriculture abandonment-intensification, comparing between areas used and not used by one of the most threatened farmland birds in Europe, the little bustard (Tetrax tetrax), during the chick-rearing season. Field margins were the taxonomically richest habitat, while alfalfa fields presented significantly higher total arthropod abundance and biomass than other habitats. All arthropod variables were the highest in the localities with clear conservation-focused agrarian management, and the lowest in the most intensive one. Areas used by little bustards had higher orthopteran and coleopteran abundance and biomass than nonused areas, except for coleopteran biomass in grazed fields. These results highlight the relevance of these arthropods for the species, the importance of dry alfalfa fields as food reservoirs in this critical time of year, the food scarcity in sites where agrarian management disregards farmland bird conservation, and the role of stubbles as providers of food resources during the chick-rearing season in areas used by the species. The adequate management of alfalfa fields and stubbles to provide those key resources seems crucial to improve little bustard breeding success.

ESTUDIO DE LA EXPRESIÓN DE GENES QUE CODIFICAN PARA PUTATIVAS PROTEÍNAS PR EN YUCA (Manihot esculenta Crantz) / Studying the Expression of Genes Coding for Putative PR Proteins in Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz)

RESUMEN Posterior al reconocimiento de agentes patógenos las plantas activan una serie de cascadas de señalización que culminan con la activación de factores de transcripción. Esto genera una concomitante reprogramación de la expresión génica que incluye la activación de la transcripción de los genes PR (relacionados con patogenicidad). Las proteínas PR son conocidas por poseer actividad antimicrobiana y evitan la posterior colonización del patógeno. En este estudio se empleó una aproximación bioinformática para identificar el repertorio de posibles proteínas PR en el genoma de yuca. Adicionalmente, se evaluó la expresión de nueve genes PR a lo largo del tiempo en variedades de yuca resistentes y susceptibles en respuesta a la inoculación con la bacteria Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. manihotis (Xam) mediante RT-PCR. Se encontró que varios genes PR fueron inducidos producto de la herida que se realiza durante el proceso de inoculación. Con el fin de evaluar cuantitativamente la contribución real de la infección bacteriana en la expresión de estos genes, se llevó a cabo una RT-PCR en tiempo real (QRT, Quantitative Real-Time PCR). Se encontró que en la variedad resistente el gen que codifica para MePR1 (Manes06G026900.1) presentó una inducción en su expresión a diferentes tiempos post-inoculación, lo cual no se observó en la variedad susceptible. De esta manera, este gen se constituye en un excelente marcador para evaluar la respuesta molecular de resistencia en plantas de yuca.

ABSTRACT Once pathogens are perceived by plants a signal transduction pathway is activated leading to the induction of transcription factors, which in turn reprogram the host gene expression including the transcription of PR (Pathogenesis-Related) genes. The PR proteins are well known for their antimicrobial activity and for contributing to arrest the invasion of pathogens. In this work, a bioinformatics approach was used to identify the repertoire of possible PR proteins in the cassava genome. Additionally, the expression of nine PR genes was evaluated over a time course in resistant and susceptible cassava varieties in response to inoculation with the bacterium Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. manihotis (Xam) by semiquantitative RT-PCR. It was found that several PR genes were induced as a result of the wound that is made during the inoculation process. In order to evaluate quantitatively the real contribution of the bacterial infection in the expression of the genes, a Real Time RT-PCR (qRT, quantitative Real-Time PCR) was carried out. In the resistant variety the gene coding for MePR1 (Manes06G026900) was induced at different post-inoculation times, which was not observed in the susceptible variety. Therefore, this gene constitutes an excellent marker to evaluate the molecular resistance response in cassava plants.

Differentiation and Identification of Cachaça Wood Extracts Using Peptide-Based Receptors and Multivariate Data Analysis.

It is becoming increasingly important to differentiate complex mixtures, especially in forensics. Cachaça, the most popular alcoholic beverage in Brazil, is made from distilled and fermented sugar cane juice. It contains a mixture of naturally occurring polyphenols known as tannins, whose composition is dictated by the type of wood used to age the beverage. These tannins can be differentiated in an Indicator Displacement Assay (IDA) using peptide-based ternary sensing ensembles. This investigation demonstrates a technique for fingerprinting the identity of the woods used to age cachaças. Unknown cachaça samples were tested against a training set of Brazilian woods in addition to oaks from different countries. Results obtained from the analysis showed that 62.5% of the samples were correctly identified. Furthermore, four samples anonymously added to the pool of unknowns from the training set were identified with 100% accuracy, emphasizing both the promising results obtained from this method of differentiation and the importance of analyzing same-age samples.

Hydrodynamic study of plasma amplifiers for soft-x-ray lasers: a transition in hydrodynamic behavior for plasma columns with widths ranging from 20 µm to 2 mm.

Plasma-based seeded soft-x-ray lasers have the potential to generate high energy and highly coherent short pulse beams. Due to their high density, plasmas created by the interaction of an intense laser with a solid target should store the highest amount of energy density among all plasma amplifiers. Our previous numerical work with a two-dimensional (2D) adaptive mesh refinement hydrodynamic code demonstrated that careful tailoring of plasma shapes leads to a dramatic enhancement of both soft-x-ray laser output energy and pumping efficiency. Benchmarking of our 2D hydrodynamic code in previous experiments demonstrated a high level of confidence, allowing us to perform a full study with the aim of the way for 10-100 µJ seeded soft-x-ray lasers. In this paper, we describe in detail the mechanisms that drive the hydrodynamics of plasma columns. We observed transitions between narrow plasmas, where very strong bidimensional flow prevents them from storing energy, to large plasmas that store a high amount of energy. Millimeter-sized plasmas are outstanding amplifiers, but they have the limitation of transverse lasing. In this paper, we provide a preliminary solution to this problem.