This study evaluated the recognition memory and the levels of DNA damage (blood and hippocampus) in undernourished young Wistar rats. The experiment was conducted along 14-week with rodents divided in control group (CG, n=8) and undernourished group (UG, n=12) which was submitted to caloric restriction. Nutritional status for undernutrition was defined by Body Mass Index (BMI) ≤0.45g/cm 2 and by weighting the organs/tissue (liver, spleen, intestine, peritoneal fat, kidney and encephalon). The Novel Object Recognition Test assessed recognition memory and the Comet Assay evaluated the levels of DNA damage. Student t test, 2-way ANOVA and Pearson's correlation analysis were used and the significance level was of p<0.05. The UG showed lower BMI and organ/tissue weights than CG (p<0.001). In shortterm memory, the recognition rate was higher in the UG (p<0.05), only after 4 weeks. In the long-term memory, again recognition rate was higher in the UG than the CG, after 4 weeks (p<0.001) and 14 weeks (p<0.01). The UG showed decreased levels of DNA damage in the blood (p<0.01) and increased levels in the hippocampus (p<0.01). We concluded in this study that the undernutrition by caloric restriction did not cause impairment in recognition memory, however induced DNA damage in the hippocampus.

Fungi are the most important nutrient cycling organisms in any ecosystem

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Southern giant petrels (Macronectes giganteus) are found in the Antarctic.They build their nests with rock fragments, disturbing large areas during incubation and chick feeding periods; however, their impact on vegetation is unknown. Thus, we aimed to evaluate the effect of Petrel nests and associated breeding activities on the diversity and structure of cryptogam communities of Stinker Point, Elephant Island. We selected 13 nests in February and March 2012 and continue the monitoring in 2018. The area of direct influence of breeding activities was photographed to calculate plant community coverage. The results demonstrated that species richness, community coverage and composition, and beta diversity showed significant differences between active and inactive nests. The linear mixed-effect models revealed that the positive effect of nest area mainly caused variation in community coverage, but had a negative effect on beta diversity. Sphaerophorus globosus (lichen) grew around the inactive nests, sometimes forming a ring up to 1 m in diameter. This ring was then surrounded by the Chorisodontium acyphyllum moss colonized by S. globosus, and a final ring of Sanionia uncinata, colonized by the same lichen. Recently constructed nests are generally surrounded by Prasiola crispa and Sanionia uncinata carpets.

Small conservation areas have been created in many countries usually to protect plants and animals, but no priorities are deserved in protecting fungi. The creation of preservation areas is meeting a new problem: there are only small remaining areas, since exploration is destroying large forests. Applying the technique of the transects in three different areas in Brazil (Pampa and Cerrado biomes and Amazonian Forest), diversity and ecological data were collected for Agaricomycetes fungi, mainly order Agaricales, and compared to the fungi already known and their conservation status to understand how fungi are protected indirectly with the creation of small protected areas. The samples were collected in differents permanent protected areas (APP – permanent protected areas) in river margins in southern Brazil (RPAS), Saint Hilaire Forest in the Universidade de Goiás (MSH - ca. 20 ha) in Goiânia/GO and in the Universidade Federal do Amazonas Protected Forest (Manaus/AM - MUFAM), all located in Brazil.  In MUFAM, 140 specimens were collected in 2014 and 2018 resulting in 47 species.  In MSH 86 specimens were collected in 2019 and 2020 with 31 species identified. In RPAS 278 new species records for the Brazilian Pampa biome were cataloged, 23 new records for the state of Rio Grande do Sul and 4 new registrations for Brazil.  This demonstrates the importance of small forest fragments to fungi preservation and maintenance, being efforts in that direction important in future studies of new conservation areas implementation.

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This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0), which permits reproduction, adaptation, and distribution provided the original author and source are credited. ResumoO gênero Agaricus é um dos mais importantes entre os cogumelos Agaricales, pela produção comercial de várias de suas espécies comestíveis e medicinais. Com vários problemas taxonômicos envolvendo a grande diversidade deste gênero, também cultivado no Brasil, não há, ainda, um trabalho envolvendo as espécies ocorrentes neste país. Levantando dados da literatura e revisando material depositado em herbários, procedeu--se à elaboração de lista e descrições para as espécies citadas. Chave e ilustrações são apresentadas para facilitar a diferenciação das 32 espécies confirmadas para o Brasil.Palavras-chave: lista de espécies, chave dicotômica, taxonomia, distribuição. AbstractThe genus Agaricus is one of the most important among Agaricales, especially by its commercial use as edible and medicinal mushrooms. With lots of taxonomical problems since it is very diverse, there is no work concerning the Brazilian species known up to now in Brazil. By searching bibliographical data and reviewing herbarium collections, we finished a list of 32 species known as occurring in the area. Key and illustrations are provided for each species.Keywords: species list, identification keys, taxonomy, distribution. Introdução O gênero Agaricus L. ex. Fr. pertence à família Agaricaceae (Agaricales, Basidiomycota), apresentando a seguinte combinação de características: há-bito pluteoide ou também chamado de agaricoide, com píleo carnoso, de superfície lisa, fibrilosa, esquamulosa a escamosa, ou com espinhos piramidais, às vezes com o centro (disco central) íntegro e metade marginal rompendo-se para formar escamas; forma muito variável, mas em geral convexo a hemisférico. Lamelas livres e remotas, mas sem colário, brancas a rosadas mas escurecendo somente a partir da maturação dos esporos; estipe central, às vezes com base bulbosa, raro com volva; véu membranoso ou cortinoide presente, às vezes rudimentar ou fugaz, desaparecendo rapidamente ou permanecendo como escamas na superfície; volva geralmente ausente; esporada variando de marrom-púrpura até marrom-escuro ou sépia. Esporos lisos, amarronzados sob o microscópio, de parede grossa, com (às vezes, rudimentares como em A. cam-