Mycobacterium tuberculosis interacts with monocyte-macrophages through cell surface molecules including CD14. A soluble form of CD14 (sCD14) exists in human serum, and higher amounts of it are found in tuberculosis. A polymorphism on CD14 gene promoter was associated with increased sCD14 levels in some diseases. To evaluate whether this polymorphism associates with tuberculosis, its clinical forms, and increased sCD14, genotype/allele frequencies in tuberculosis patients were compared with the controls. Results confirmed increased levels of sCD14 in patients with tuberculosis, and those with miliary tuberculosis had the highest levels. sCD14 decreased to normal levels after anti-tuberculosis treatment. No association was found between the CD14 polymorphism and tuberculosis or sCD14 levels. Results suggest that sCD14 may be involved in anti-tuberculosis immune response, but its increase is a consequence of infection rather than a predisposed genetic trait. Measuring sCD14 in tuberculosis may help monitor anti-tuberculosis treatment.

Restoration of native plant communities is a foundational practice in restoration ecology, but land managers and biologists don't often take into account the role of intraspecific variation in establishment of restoration seedings. Although ecologists have known for decades that lack of adaptation to local conditions may interfere with the success of ecological restoration, there is little information about the extent to which species demonstrate adaptive divergence among populations. If adaptive divergence occurs for early establishment, knowing which populations have better germination and early growth can maximize restoration performance. Restoration of California grassland requires species establishment in both riparian and upland habitats. To what degree does local adaptation to these habitats influence early growth traits? In this study, we compared time to germination and early growth rate of riparian, upland, and commercial seed sources of blue wild rye (Elymus glaucus) under contrasting water regimes in a controlled environment. Two hypotheses were tested: 1) plants grown from commercial seeds will outperform plants grown from locally-collected seeds under controlled conditions; and 2) plants will demonstrate local adaptation by high performance of riparian sources under high water treatments and high performance of upland sources under low water treatments. We saw no evidence of local adaptation but did observe population differentiation. Time to germination was significantly shorter for upland seeds. In addition, the rate of shoot growth for upland plants was significantly higher than riparian or commercial plants. Understanding if sourcing from similar microhabitats is more important than sourcing from nearby populations will allow us to develop more successful restoration seedings.

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Análisis microbiológico del tambaquí (Colossoma macropomum) comercializado en la feria municipal de Ariquemes, Estado de Rondônia, Brasil RESUMO O tambaqui (Colossoma macropomum) é um peixe nativo da Região Norte do Brasil, de grande participação na economia do Estado de Rondônia e comumente comercializado nas feiras municipais. Sua avaliação microbiológica é de grande importância, pois faz parte do cardápio da população de forma geral. O pescado é um alimento perecível devido a sua elevada atividade água (aw) e presença de diversas bactérias de deterioração, estando suscetível à contaminação de microrganismos oportunistas e patogênicos, caso as condições higiênico-sanitárias sejam insatisfatórias. O objetivo do estudo foi avaliar a qualidade microbiológica do tambaqui comercializado na feira municipal de Ariquemes, Estado de Rondônia. Dessa forma, foram coletadas 16 amostras provenientes de quatro boxes e submetidas a análises de quantificação de coliformes totais e Staphylococcus aureus, além da avaliação da presença/ausência de Listeria monocytogenes. Os resultados demonstraram que todas as amostras estavam contaminadas por coliformes totais, enquanto que, em relação ao S. aureus, 37,5% apresentaram índice acima do permitido. Não foi detectada a presença de L. monocytogenes. Conclui-se que as amostras de tambaqui analisadas foram expostas a condições higiênico-sanitárias insatisfatórias.

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