Understanding a community’s shared vision for public health is key to supporting change

Research published in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior explores how social norms and culture influence food preferences, physical activity behaviors and future hopes for community development

Peer-Reviewed Publication

ELSEVIER

 

AUDIO: CORRESPONDING AUTHOR CATHERINE E. SANDERS, PHD, DISCUSSES THE RESULTS OF CDC’S HIGH OBESITY PROGRAM IMPLEMENTED IN FIVE RURAL SOUTHERN COUNTIES BY THE UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA. RESEARCHERS IDENTIFY THE CHALLENGES OF AND SOLUTIONS FOR ADDRESSING HEALTHY EATING AND PHYSICAL ACTIVITY PRACTICES IN COMMUNITIES WHERE THOSE PRACTICES COUNTER CULTURAL NORMS. view more 

CREDIT: JOURNAL OF NUTRITION EDUCATION AND BEHAVIOR

Philadelphia, April 11, 2023 – The prevalence of obesity in rural communities goes beyond food choice and geography to include issues such as class, culture and identity; however, these issues are often not taken into account in policy, systems and environmental (PSE) change programs developed for community members. This study in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, published by Elsevier, explores the influence of factors beyond food and fitness, such as race relations, generational influences, physical activity social norms, and shared community goals with regard to PSE initiatives.

"Culture is a really big part of history and history is a really big part of rural communities. So, we wanted to examine the relationship between lack of access from the built environment as well as how culture and cultural identity interact," says corresponding author Catherine E. Sanders, PhD, currently Assistant Professor and Extension Specialist of Food Systems Communication at North Carolina State University. "Cultural differences and expectations, including norms around physical activity and body size, may influence obesity prevalence and effectiveness of programs implemented by health professionals."

The research was conducted by Dr. Sanders during her doctoral program at the University of Georgia in the Department of Agricultural Leadership, Education and Communication along with co-investigators Alexa Lamm, PhD, Alison Berg, PhD, RDN, LD, and Nekeisha Randall, MAL.

Researchers looked at data from a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) funded project, Healthier Together, where university and coalition members used grant funding to create shared-use community gardens, work with food pantries for greater access to healthy food options, install grab and go coolers, and build walking trails to encourage physical activity. The project was the result of a partnership between the University of Georgia Colleges of Public Health, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Family and Consumer Sciences, and Environment and Design as well as UGA Extension. This PSE project was started in 2018 in five rural counties in Georgia where adult obesity prevalence exceeds 40%. The research team interviewed 39 community coalition members who were instrumental in implementing the project in these counties.

Key themes emerging from the study include:

• The challenge of addressing healthy eating and physical activity practices in communities where those practices counter cultural norms.
• The impact of food availability on communities where grocery stores with less healthy but more affordable options are prevalent.
• The importance of relationship building in collective action. Participants cited improvements in community cohesion and shared goals from those of different backgrounds and cultures through their involvement in the Healthier Together project.

"Overall, community coalition members just wanted people to see value in the change initiative. They wanted to lower obesity rates, but some of the interesting findings related to culture included the slowness of change and how rural communities should help us qualify successes. They recognized you're not going to come in and have change overnight because of community traditions," states Sanders. "Knowing the strong influence that culture has on food choice and physical activity, health practitioners should be encouraged to create interventions in alignment with the cultural norms of the communities they serve. Working with this in mind will help create more effective and sustainable programs with long-term success."

 

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JOURNAL

Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior

DOI

10.1016/j.jneb.2022.10.011 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Data/statistical analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Qualitative Exploration of Cultural Influence on a Rural Health-Promotion Initiative

Stopping storms from creating dangerous urban geysers

Expelled from sewer systems during intense rainstorms, massive water jets can cause significant flooding and damage

Peer-Reviewed Publication

AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF PHYSICS

 

IMAGE: SIMULATION OF A STORM GEYSER LIFE CYCLE. view more 

CREDIT: LI ET AL.

WASHINGTON, April 11, 2023 – During intense rainstorms, residents of urban areas rely on stormwater sewers to keep streets and homes from flooding. But in some cases, air pockets in sewers combine with fast-moving water to produce waterspouts that can reach dozens of feet high and last for several minutes. These so-called storm geysers can flood the surrounding area, cause damage to nearby structures, injure bystanders, and compromise drainage pipes.

In Physics of Fluids, by AIP Publishing, researchers from Sichuan University, Ningbo University, University of Alberta, and Hohai University developed a computational model of stormwater piping to study storm geysers. They used this model to understand why storm geysers form, what conditions tend to make them worse, and what city planners can do to prevent them from occurring.

Perhaps the biggest cause of storm geysers is poor city planning. With extreme weather events becoming more common due to climate change, cities can often find themselves unprepared for massive amounts of rain. Growing cities are especially vulnerable. Small cities have small drainage pipes, but new streets and neighborhoods result in added runoff, and those small pipes may not be able to handle the increased volume.

“This can lead to pressurized flow and the potential for air pockets to become entrapped and transported through the pipeline,” said author Jianmin Zhang, of Sichuan University. “These air pockets can ultimately be discharged through maintenance holes, resulting in storm geysers.”

The authors say the best cure for a storm geyser is bigger pipes.

“The most effective preventive measure for newly planned drainage pipelines is to increase the pipeline diameter and improve system design, which reduces the likelihood of full-flow conditions and eliminates storm geysers,” said Zhang.

However, that advice is little help to cities with existing pipeline infrastructure. In these systems, the focus must be on minimizing the potential damage by reducing the height of the geysers, the volume of expelled water, or the resulting damage to the pipeline.

“Scholars have proposed prevention measures such as increasing the maintenance hole diameter, using expansion segments in maintenance holes, installing orifice plates, and adding structures to allow air release while preventing the outflow of water,” said Zhang. “However, these measures often cannot achieve all of the aforementioned objectives simultaneously.”

While their model provides substantial guidance to city planners, the team hopes to expand their work to evaluate a range of prevention measures and identify the best overall solutions.

“We plan to systematically evaluate existing prevention measures that have received significant attention from scholars, analyze their advantages and disadvantages, and propose a comprehensive measure that achieves optimal results,” said Zhang. “Our ultimate goal is to apply this comprehensive approach in practical engineering applications to eliminate storm geysers.”

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The article “Modeling geysers triggered by an air pocket migrating with running water in a pipeline” is authored by Xin Li, Jianmin Zhang, David Z. Zhu, and Shangtuo Qian. It will appear in Physics of Fluids on April 11, 2023 (DOI: 10.1063/5.0138342). After that date, it can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0138342.

ABOUT THE JOURNAL

Physics of Fluids is devoted to the publication of original theoretical, computational, and experimental contributions to the dynamics of gases, liquids, and complex fluids. See https://aip.scitation.org/journal/phf.

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JOURNAL

Physics of Fluids

DOI

10.1063/5.0138342 

ARTICLE TITLE

Modeling geysers triggered by an air pocket migrating with running water in a pipeline

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

11-Apr-2023

 U$A FOR PROFIT HEALTHCARE

Audio-only telehealth remains common at safety net clinics

Trend raises questions about quality of care and equity for low-income patients

Peer-Reviewed Publication

RAND CORPORATION

More than two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, audio-only telehealth visits for both primary care and mental health services remained common at safety net clinics in California,  according to a new RAND Corporation study.

 

Although audio-only visits have declined since their peak early in the pandemic, the study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that in August 2022 audio-only visits still accounted for 1 in 5 primary care visits and 2 in 5 behavioral health visits among people who received care at Federally Qualified Health Centers in California.

 

Researchers say the higher rates of audio-only telehealth in safety net settings raises questions about the quality of care and equity for low-income patients, since the effectiveness  of audio-only telehealth has not been established.

 

“It is likely that these safety net clinics continued to deliver audio-only visits in high volume because of their role in improving access to health services,” said Lori Uscher-Pines, lead author of the study and a senior policy researcher at RAND, a nonprofit research organization.  “Our study raises important questions about what kind of role we want audio-only visits playing in the care of disadvantaged populations and the public in general going forward.”

 

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic prompted many payers to begin reimbursing safety net clinics for telehealth services provided through video or audio-only technology. Previously, the clinics rarely received payment for telehealth services delivered directly to patients.

 

RAND researchers examined the experiences of 30 multisite Federally Qualified Health Centers in California that provide care for 1.3 million lower-income people. Many of the clinics are located in rural areas of the state. The study included information about billable in-person and telehealth (video and audio-only) visits from February 2019 to August 2022.

 

The study found that that number of primary care visits increased by 8.5% from February 2020 to August 2022, while the number of total behavioral visits increased 23% during the same period. The increases are likely the result of being able to widely offer telehealth services, even as the clinics lost staff members.

 

Researchers found that audio-only telehealth visits for primary care services peaked in April 2020, while audio-only visits for behavioral health peaked in March 2021.

 

Within primary care, the decline in audio-only visits from the early pandemic peak appears to coincide with the return of in-person visits rather than growth in video visits.

 

For primary care, the proportion of in-person visits increased from 30% in April 2020 to 71% by August of 2022.  Over the same period, audio-only visits decreased from 67% to 21%, while video visits increased from 4% to 7%.

 

For behavioral health, the proportion of in-person visits increased from 20% in April 2020 to 37% in August 2022. During that period, audio-only visits for behavioral health care decreased from 74% to 39%, while video visits increased from 8% to 23%.  

 

Researchers say that Federally Qualified Health Centers’ continued use of audio-only telehealth may be a result of the clinics and their patients not having access to the technology needed for video telehealth. In addition, since California’s Medicaid program (Medi-Cal) granted permanent payment parity for audio-only visits, there are no financial incentives for the clinics to limit audio-only visits.

 

“It appears likely that audio only visits in these settings will remain widespread in coming years,” Uscher-Price said. “More research is needed on the effectiveness of audio-only visits to inform their use in safety net settings.”

 

Funding for the research was provided by the California Health Care Foundation.

 

Other authors of the study are Colleen M. McCullough, Jessica L. Sousa Sarita D. Lee, Allison J. Ober, Kandice A. Kapinos, all of RAND; and Diana Camacho of the California Health Care Foundation.

 

RAND Health Care promotes healthier societies by improving health care systems in the United States and other countries.

 

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JOURNAL

Journal of the American Medical Association

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Data/statistical analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Changes in In-Person, Audio-Only, and Video Visits in California’s Federally Qualified Health Centers, 2019-2022

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

11-Apr-2023

Tailings dams degrade the upstream variety and abundance of fish species

Peer-Reviewed Publication

KEAI COMMUNICATIONS CO., LTD.

 

IMAGE: A WELL PRESERVED STREAM AFFECTED BY TSD view more 

CREDIT: THE AUTHORS

Streams are complex habitats that can be affected by changes further upstream or downstream. Even small dams and reservoirs can modify significant ecological processes, such as fish migration and colonization.

Tailings storage dams (TSDs) have been known to have an adverse effect on water quality; however, their implications on upstream fish assemblages have yet to be determined.

A team of researchers, led by Gilberto Salvador from the Federal University of Pará, Biological Sciences Institute, postulate there are at least three aspects that need to be considered: life-cycle disruption, species intolerance or tolerance to lentic conditions, and non-native species.

In their latest study conducted in the Rio Doce basin in Brazil, the researchers found that streams flowing into TSDs had fewer catfish species, including fewer armored catfish and fewer small predaceous catfish common to steep-slope streams. The findings are published in Water Biology and Security.

To collect fish, the team used standard methods in 24 sites, half draining to TSDs (dammed) and half free from this impact (undammed). To identify differences between treatments, they used permutational multivariate analysis of variance, or PERMANOVA, to test both environmental variables and the assemblages of fish in each waterbody, and evaluated the biological metrics that most influenced assemblage composition change.

“Despite natural forest cover in most of the catchment area we observed a decrease in these species that rely on stream continuity and high-quality water," explained Salvador. "In comparison, two other widely tolerant species had increased in numbers along with one species commonly found in TSDs."

The team attributed this to re-colonization barriers created by TSDs, as well as colonization sources for tolerant species.

“Our findings underscore the need to consider downstream alterations caused by TSDs when assessing reference conditions for biomonitoring and bioassessment studies," concluded Salvador.

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Contact the corresponding author: Gilberto Nepomuceno Salvador - curimata_gilbert@hotmail.com

The publisher KeAi was established by Elsevier and China Science Publishing & Media Ltd to unfold quality research globally. In 2013, our focus shifted to open access publishing. We now proudly publish more than 100 world-class, open access, English language journals, spanning all scientific disciplines. Many of these are titles we publish in partnership with prestigious societies and academic institutions, such as the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC).

 

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JOURNAL

Water Biology and Security

DOI

10.1016/j.watbs.2023.100136 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Animals

ARTICLE TITLE

Mine tailings storage dams modify upstream headwater fish assemblages

The people who built Singapore

A tale (almost) as old as CHIJMES; New publication makes known the untold stories behind Singapore’s multi-storied cityscape.

Book Announcement

WORLD SCIENTIFIC

 

IMAGE: COVER FOR "THE HISTORY OF CHARTERED SURVEYORS IN SINGAPORE, THE FIRST HUNDRED YEARS: 1868-1968" view more 

CREDIT: WORLD SCIENTIFIC

Singapore citizens, residents and foreigners working in Singapore experience the splendour and magnificence of the Singapore-built environment every day. When recognising the beauty of the Raffles Hotel, the size and complexity of the Marina Bay Sands complex or the efficiency of Singapore’s built infrastructure, most people associate their creation with the skills of architects and engineers. However, few know of the feats and achievements of the chartered surveyors that made them possible.

The History of Chartered Surveyors in Singapore tells the fascinating histories of individual chartered surveyors in Singapore over the first hundred years since the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors was founded in 1868, and explains the role these individuals played in the development of Singapore. The book will also tell the stories of the pioneer Singaporean Chartered Surveyors from 1941 onwards, many of whom studied overseas but returned to Singapore where they played important roles in the real estate industry over many decades (and still do to this day).

During the period of time covered by this book, the role of the chartered surveyor was integral to the creation of a successful and sustainable urban environment. Chartered surveyors played an important role in the development and transformation of Singapore. The story of these chartered surveyors is largely unrecognised, so the aim of this book is to redress the balance, given that they paved the way for future generations of Singaporeans to become chartered surveyors.

From the second half of the 19th Century through to the 1920s, chartered surveyors in Singapore were mostly British “expatriates” or military personnel with a small number of Eurasians. However, after a period in the 1940s and 1950s when local talent struggled to break through the expatriate stranglehold on the profession, the mix from 1958 onwards was much more diverse, and there have been well-known (and many less well-known) Singaporean chartered surveyors who played a key role in the development of today’s Singapore.

The research conducted to produce this book is solely the work of the author. Furthermore, the views expressed in this book are solely those of the author in his private capacity and do not in any way represent the views of the RICS, the National Heritage Board of Singapore or any Government agencies. However, the author would like to thank the National Heritage Board of Singapore in particular, for their grant assistance and support (along with the National Archives of Singapore) in producing this book.

The History of Chartered Surveyors in Singapore, The First Hundred Years: 1868–1968 retails for US$158/ £140 (hardcover) and is also available in electronic formats. To order or know more about the book, visit http://www.worldscientific.com/worldscibooks/10.1142/13202.

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About the Author

William James (‘Bill’) Jones is a Singapore Permanent Resident. He qualified as a Chartered Valuation Surveyor in 1986 whilst working in private practice in the northwest of England. He joined Royal Dutch Shell Plc in January 2002 and through Shell he came to work, live, and settle permanently in Singapore. In March 2008, he first became directly involved in Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) Singapore activity as the inaugural RICS Singapore Working Group Chair (2008–09) as well as being the RICS Singapore representative on the RICS Asia-Pacific Board, later known as the RICS Asia World Regional Board. He was appointed as the full-time Singapore-based RICS Managing Director for the SE-Asia World Region in October 2011, and later became the RICS Director of Standards for the Asia-Pacific World Region. He became an RICS Fellow in 2012 and continues to work in the property industry in Singapore. He is married with two grown-up children and lives in Pasir Ris. He continues his involvement with RICS as an APC Assessor and Licensed Assessor Trainer and Auditor assessor auditor for the Southeast Asia region as well as being a mentor and counsellor to many RICS APC candidates across the Asia-Pacific region. He is also an elected member of the RICS Governing Council for the period from 2020 to 2022.

About World Scientific Publishing Co.

World Scientific Publishing is a leading international independent publisher of books and journals for the scholarly, research and professional communities. World Scientific collaborates with prestigious organisations like the Nobel Foundation and US National Academies Press to bring high quality academic and professional content to researchers and academics worldwide. The company publishes about 600 books and over 160 journals in various fields annually. To find out more about World Scientific, please visit www.worldscientific.com.

For more information, contact WSPC Communications at communications@wspc.com.

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DOI

10.1142/13202 

Longer shelf life for insulin has major bearing on global health

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF GOTHENBURG

 

IMAGE: GUN FORSANDER, UNIVERSITY OF GOTHENBURG. view more 

CREDIT: PHOTO BY UNIVERSITY OF GOTHENBURG.

An international study shows that it is likely that insulin can be stored at room temperature, and for considerably longer than drug companies have counted on to date. Access to this vital medicine can thereby be significantly improved for the world’s poorest inhabitants. Researchers at the University of Gothenburg are among the scientists presenting these results.

In type 1 diabetes, the insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas are destroyed. Insulin must be given by injection, daily, for the rest of one’s life. Inadequate insulin treatment impairs metabolism, which can lead to eye damage, kidney failure, or other complications in the long term. In many developing countries, insulin is in short supply and often highly expensive. Globally, millions of people have died prematurely due to unequal access to diabetes care.

Since insulin is temperature-sensitive, it should be refrigerated (at 2–8°C) for long-term storage; but families in many developing countries lack refrigerator access. At room temperature (up to 30°C), insulin is usually thought to keep for some four weeks, after which discarding it is recommended.

Quadrupled storage period

For the present study, a University of Gothenburg research team contributed analyses of six types of insulin. Six different families in Nagpur, India, stored the insulin for a period ranging from one to four months in the summer. It was stored either in a box in the coolest room in the home or in clay pots designed to serve as simple cooling systems, with evaporation of water keeping the contents cool.

One of the authors behind the study is Gun Forsander, researcher in pediatrics at Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, and pediatrician at Sahlgrenska University Hospital.

“This study shows that insulin probably has a considerably longer shelf life at room temperature — up to four times as long as was previously believed. The study also showed that the simple solution, with cooling clay pots, can be helpful when the weather’s at its hottest,” Forsander says.

Increased insulin access

Another research team, at the University of Florida in Gainesville, performed concentration determination of insulin according to standard procedure (liquid chromatography) after room-temperature storage in the Indian households.

The results are published in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology. The study was led by Dr Graham D Ogle, director of the ‘Life for a Child’ organization and adjunct professor at the University of Sydney, Australia.

“If our results can be confirmed in larger studies, it may drive a change in the requirement to discard insulin kept outside a fridge after one month. The period when insulin may still be used can potentially, in that case, be extended to three or perhaps even four months. That would have a major bearing on the resource-weak families’ access to insulin,” Ogle says.

 

 

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JOURNAL

The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology

DOI

10.1016/s2213-8587(23)00028-1 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Insulin thermostability in a real-world setting

Male yellow crazy ants are real-life chimeras

Males of the yellow crazy ant have two genomes each in separate cell clusters

Peer-Reviewed Publication

JOHANNES GUTENBERG UNIVERSITAET MAINZ

 

IMAGE: A MALE YELLOW CRAZY ANT (ANOPLOLEPIS GRACILIPES) view more 

CREDIT: PHOTO/©: HUGO DARRAS

The yellow crazy ant, or Anoplolepis gracilipes, has the infamous distinction of being among the worst invasive species in the world. However, this is not the reason for which this particular ant is studied by a team of international researchers. What interests them is how the insects reproduce, because males of this ant have long perplexed scientists. "The results of previous genetic analyses of the yellow crazy ant have shown that the males of this species have two copies of each chromosome. This was highly unexpected, as males usually develop from unfertilized eggs in ants, bees, and wasps – and thus should only have one maternal copy of each chromosome," explained Dr. Hugo Darras, Assistant Professor at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) and lead author of the corresponding article recently published in Science. "With this in view, we decided to investigate this puzzling phenomenon with subsequent experiments."

Two genomes in different cell clusters

The results were quite extraordinary. It had been assumed to date that the males of the yellow crazy ant carried the same two sets of chromosomes in all cells of their body. However, the team was able to demonstrate that this premise was anything but correct. "We discovered that the male ants have maternal and paternal genomes in different cells of their body and are thus chimeras. To put it another way, all males have two genomes, but each cell of their bodies contains only one or the other of the two genomes," summarized Darras. Normally, in a multicellular life form – be this a human, a dog, or a bat – all cells contain identical genetic material.

The research team concludes that male yellow crazy ants are chimeras: they develop from fertilized eggs in which the two parental gametes do not actually fuse. Instead, the maternal and paternal nuclei divide separately within the same egg, meaning that the resultant adult males have both parental DNA sequences but in different body cells. When the gametes do fuse, either a queen or a worker develops from the egg, depending on the genetic information carried by the sperm. It is yet unknown what mechanisms determine whether fusion of the parental gametes takes place or not.

Chimerism and the yellow crazy ant: A mode of reproduction previously unknown to science

Chimeras are individuals whose cells contain different genetic materials. They naturally occur in certain species, such as corals and angler fish, in which separate individuals can merge to become one. Chimerism can also be found in humans and other placenta mammals. During gestation, mother and fetus can exchange a small number of cells so the offspring usually has a few cells that contain the same genetic material as the mother. Such small-scale exchanges also occur between twins in the womb. "In contrast to these known cases, chimerism in the yellow crazy ant does not result from the fusion of two separate individuals or an exchange of cells between them. Instead, this process has its origin within a single fertilized egg. This is unique," concluded Darras. Hence, the development of the male yellow crazy ant appears to contravene one of the fundamental laws of biological inheritance in which all cells of an individual should contain the same genome.

Two male yellow crazy ants (Anoplolepis gracilipes)

A male yellow crazy ant (Anoplolepis gracilipes)

A longitudinal section of the brain of a chimeric male yellow crazy ant with maternal (pink) and paternal (blue) genomes in situ hybridization: The male tissue consists of large cell clusters carrying only maternal or paternal genomes.

CREDIT

photo/©: Hugo Darras

Related links:

• https://www.blogs.uni-mainz.de/fb10-evolutionary-biology/research-groups/group-darras/ – Darras group at the JGU Institute of Organismic and Molecular Evolution
• https://www.blogs.uni-mainz.de/fb10-evolutionary-biology/ – Behavioral Ecology and Social Evolution group at the JGU Institute of Organismic and Molecular Evolution
  
  

Read more:

• https://press.uni-mainz.de/conflict-of-interest-resolved-wax-on-the-body-surface-of-ants-can-simultaneously-optimize-two-essential-requirements/ – press release "Conflict of interest resolved: Wax on the body surface of ants can simultaneously optimize two essential requirements" (5 Sept. 2022)
• https://press.uni-mainz.de/the-advantage-of-genetic-diversity-more-diverse-ant-colonies-raise-more-offspring/ – press release "The advantage of genetic diversity: More diverse ant colonies raise more offspring" (28 Sept. 2021)
• https://press.uni-mainz.de/parasites-as-fountains-of-youth-study-finds-infected-ants-live-much-longer/ – press release "Parasites as fountains of youth: Study finds infected ants live much longer" (27 May 2021)
• https://press.uni-mainz.de/ant-responses-to-social-isolation-resemble-those-of-humans/ – press release "Ant responses to social isolation resemble those of humans" (7 Apr. 2021)
• https://press.uni-mainz.de/communication-and-waterproofing-melting-properties-determine-the-biological-functions-of-the-cuticular-hydrocarbon-layer-of-ants/ – press release "Communication and waterproofing: Melting properties determine the biological functions of the cuticular hydrocarbon layer of ants" (26 Feb. 2020)

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JOURNAL

Science

DOI

10.1126/science.adf0419 

ARTICLE TITLE

Obligate chimerism in male yellow crazy ants

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

6-Apr-2023

Microorganism shows potential as an iron biofertilizer for cucumber plants

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF CÓRDOBA

 

IMAGE: THE RESEARCH TEAM THAT CARRIED OUT THE STUDY view more 

CREDIT: UNVERSITY OF CORDOBA

A UCO study shows that the FO12 strain of the Fusarium oxysporum fungus improves cucumber plants' responses to iron deficiencies, promoting their growth without having to resort to environmentally harmful products

Iron is one of the most abundant elements in the Earth's crust, and a key element for crop nutrition. However, incalcareous soils (very abundant in Spain) it is a challenge for plants to obtain iron from the soil, due to its poor solubility and availability. This is when iron deficiencies appear and plants activate different responses, mainly in their roots, to obtain this nutrient.

The research staff at the María de Maeztu Unit of Excellence – Department of Agronomy, University of Córdoba (DAUCO) – working in the Plant Physiology group have been studying these plant responses for decades and looking for strategies that make iron more available to plants, avert iron chlorosis, and increase crop growth.

In the current context of climate change and the search for environmental conservation, it is essential that these solutions be sustainable, avoiding the abuse of chemically synthesized products that are harmful to the environment.

Along this line falls the latest work led by this group in collaboration with the departments of Agricultural Chemistry, Edaphology and Microbiology; Genetics; and Botany, Ecology and Plant Physiology, as well as with the Department of Genetic Improvement of the Institute of Sustainable Agriculture (IAS – CSIC), in which the potential of a microorganism has been proven (the FO12 strain of the Fusarium oxysporumfungus) as a biofertilizer and iron biostimulant.

Although the Fusarium oxysporum fungus is very harmful to many crops, "the FO12 strain is non-pathogenic (does not cause disease) and has proven to be a biocontrol agent against Verticillium dahliae," explains DAUCO professor Javier Romera. The disease-controlling power of this strain was already known thanks to previous work by the Agroforestry Pathology group, and is likely due to the fact that this strain is capable of activating Induced Systemic Resistance (ISR), a kind of immune system that plants have to defend themselves.

The regulation of this defensive response relies on substances such as ethylene and nitric oxide, which are also involved in activating responses to iron deficiency. "As this fungus already induced defensive responses, we thought it could also induce ones to iron deficiency, and that was the idea behind the study, to prove that it also induces them," says researcher Carlos Lucena.

This study, therefore, proves that the FO12 strain improves iron responses to iron deficiency in cucumber plants in calcareous soils. 24 hours after the inoculation of the roots of cucumber plants with this microorganism, results are already seen: genes related to the response to iron deficiency are activated and, after several days of cultivation, the plant's growth increases.

The study was carried out with cucumber plants grown in nutrient solution, "a more artificial system", and also in pots with calcareous soils, under greenhouse conditions "because the idea is that these microorganisms can be applied as biofertilizers favouring the acquisition of iron in those calcareous soils, where there are more problems", Romera explains. The fungus stimulated iron acquisition and plant growth with both cultivation methods.

The use of this type of microorganisms as a biofertilizer, in addition to promoting environmental sustainability, as these are natural elements that avert the use of chemically synthesized fertilizers, helps to regulate communities of soil microorganisms, as their mere presence makes them occupy niches that other pathogenic fungi that produce diseases would otherwise.

"The ultimate goal is to develop a biostimulant that both protects crops from attack by possible pathogens, as well as to improve the ferric nutrition of plants under adverse conditions", says researcher Miguel Ángel Aparicio. The way to make its use a reality in the field is to analyse its effect on other nutrients, such as phosphorus; optimize the treatment doses; and verify the most suitable conditions for its application in the field.

*This work is part of the Doctoral Thesis of researcher Miguel Ángel Aparicio, carried out thanks to a grant from the University of Córdoba Research Plan.

Aparicio, M.A., Lucena, C., García, M.J. et al. The non-pathogenic strain of Fusarium oxysporum FO12 induces Fe deficiency responses in cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) plants. Planta 257, 50 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00425-023-04079-2 

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JOURNAL

Planta

DOI

10.1007/s00425-023-04079-2 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

The nonpathogenic strain of Fusarium oxysporum FO12 induces Fe deficiency responses in cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) plants