Life Sciences Commons^™

Review Of The Physical And Chemical Properties Of Seagrass Soils, Nerea Piñeiro-Juncal, Oscar Serrano, Miguel Ángel Mateo, Elena Diaz-Almela, Carmen Leiva-Dueñas, Antonio Martinez-Cortizas

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Seagrasses are a polyphyletic group of angiosperms that colonized marine environments more than 30 million years ago and currently inhabit coastal soft and rocky substrates in all continents except Antarctica. Due to their evolution from terrestrial plants, seagrasses have belowground organs that interact with the substrate, transforming it through chemo-physical processes analogous to terrestrial soil formation. Although seagrass substrates provide valuable ecosystem services including carbon and coastal stabilization, they have been largely regarded as sediments by marine scientists and neglected in soil science research. However, over the last decades, the increasing interest in carbon accumulation by seagrasses has generated multiple …

Legacy Metal Contamination Is Reflected In The Fish Gut Microbiome In An Urbanised Estuary, Alessandra L. Suzzi, Michael Stat, Geoff R. Macfarlane, Justin R. Seymour, Nathan L. R. Williams, Troy F. Gaston, Md Rushna Alam, Megan J. Huggett

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Estuaries are critical habitats subject to a range of stressors requiring effective management. Microbes are gaining recognition as effective environmental indicators, however, the response of host associated communities to stressors remains poorly understood. We examined microbial communities from seawater, sediments and the estuarine fish Pelates sexlineatus, in Australia's largest urbanised estuary, and hypothesised that anthropogenic contamination would be reflected in the microbiology of these sample types. The human faecal markers Lachno3 and HF183 were not detected, indicating negligible influence of sewage, but a gradient in copy numbers of the class 1 integron (intI-1), which is often used as …

Distribution And Export Of Particulate Organic Carbon In East Antarctic Coastal Polynyas, Lavenia Ratnarajah, Viena Puigcorbé, Sébastien Moreau, Montserrat Roca-Martí, Julie Janssens, Matthew Corkill, Luis Duprat, Cristina Genovese, Jan Lieser, Pere Masqué, Delphine Lannuzel

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Polynyas represent regions of enhanced primary production because of the low, or absent, sea-ice cover coupled with the proximity of nutrient sources. However, studies throughout the Southern Ocean suggest elevated primary production does not necessarily result in increased carbon export. Three coastal polynyas in East Antarctica and an off-shelf region were visited during the austral summer from December 2016 to January 2017 to examine the vertical distribution and concentration of particulate organic carbon (POC). Carbon export was also examined using thorium-234 (²³⁴Th) as a proxy at two of the polynyas. Our results show that concentrations and integrated POC …

Editorial: Tropicalization In Seagrasses: Shifts In Ecosystem Function, Glenn A. Hyndes, Jessie C. Jarvis, Kenneth L. Heck

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Seagrass meadows form highly productive and diverse ecosystems that provide a range of ecosystem services along coasts of most continents (Barbier et al., 2011; Nordlund et al., 2016), yet they continue to experience large losses through direct and indirect human disturbances (Waycott et al., 2009; Duarte et al., 2018). Like other coastal ecosystems, including coral reefs and kelp forests, seagrasses are showing strong negative responses to elevated ocean temperatures and heatwaves, in which rising temperatures exceed their thresholds for survival [...].

Maturity Stage At Harvest Influences Antioxidant Phytochemicals And Antibacterial Activity Of Jujube Fruit (Ziziphus Mauritiana Lamk. And Ziziphus Spina-Christi L.), Adhbah R. H. Aldhanhani, Zienab F. R. Ahmed, Nikolaos Tzortzakis, Zora Singh

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Fruits of the genus Ziziphus are known for their medicinal and nutritional value. Thus, this study aimed to investigate the influence of different maturity stages (unripe, half-ripe, and ripe fruit) at harvest on the physicochemical characteristics, phytochemical composition, antioxidants, and antibacterial activities of Ziziphus mauritiana and Ziziphus spina-christi fruits. In both plant species, the unripe fruits had significantly higher (P < 0.05) phenolic and flavonoid content and antioxidant and antibacterial activity compared with ripe fruits. At all maturity stages, these features were significantly higher (P < 0.05) in Z. spina-christi fruits than in Z. mauritiana fruits. Regardless of the species, 13 phenolic compounds were identified and quantified in the fruit extracts. For both species, the concentration of individual phenolic compounds changed with fruit maturity. Among the phenolic compounds, the gallic acid, 4-hydroxybenzoic acid, salicylic acid, catechin, and rutin levels were significantly higher (P < 0.05) in Z. spina-christi fruits than those for Z. mauritiana fruits, whereas vanillic acid and quercetin showed the opposite trend. Additionally, trans-cinnamic acid was only detected in Z. spina-christi fruits. In conclusion, the mature unripe jujube fruit, especially in Z. spina-christi, was shown to be a promising source of various naturally occurring compounds of significant interest owing to its pharmacological and therapeutic properties as an antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and analgesic.

Wildfires Enhance Phytoplankton Production In Tropical Oceans, Dongyan Liu, Chongran Zhou, John K. Keesing, Oscar Serrano, Axel Werner, Yin Fang, Yingjun Chen, Pere Masque, Janine Kinloch, Aleksey Sadekov, Yan Du

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Wildfire magnitude and frequency have greatly escalated on a global scale. Wildfire products rich in biogenic elements can enter the ocean through atmospheric and river inputs, but their contribution to marine phytoplankton production is poorly understood. Here, using geochemical paleo-reconstructions, a century-long relationship between wildfire magnitude and marine phytoplankton production is established in a fire-prone region of Kimberley coast, Australia. A positive correlation is identified between wildfire and phytoplankton production on a decadal scale. The importance of wildfire on marine phytoplankton production is statistically higher than that of tropical cyclones and rainfall, when strong El Niño Southern Oscillation coincides with …

Long-Term Patterns Of An Interconnected Core Marine Microbiota, Anders K. Krabberød, Ina M. Deutschmann, Marit F. M. Bjorbækmo, Vanessa Balagué, Caterina R. Giner, Isabel Ferrera, Esther Garcés, Ramon Massana, Josep M. Gasol, Ramiro Logares

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Background Ocean microbes constitute ~ 70% of the marine biomass, are responsible for ~ 50% of the Earth’s primary production and are crucial for global biogeochemical cycles. Marine microbiotas include core taxa that are usually key for ecosystem function. Despite their importance, core marine microbes are relatively unknown, which reflects the lack of consensus on how to identify them. So far, most core microbiotas have been defined based on species occurrence and abundance. Yet, species interactions are also important to identify core microbes, as communities include interacting species. Here, we investigate interconnected bacteria and small protists of the core pelagic …

Non-Charismatic Waterbodies And Ecosystem Disservices: Mine Pit Lakes Are Underrepresented In The Literature, Rachele Bernasconi, Mark A. Lund, Melanie L. Blanchette

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Pit lakes are one of the greatest legacies of open-cut mining. Despite the potential hazards of these lakes, they represent newly formed ecosystems with great scientific and ecological potential. Although thousands of pit lakes occur on every inhabited continent, with more being created, the microbial ecology of pit lakes is relatively under-researched. We evaluated the current state of microbial research in pit lakes by performing a Web of Science search and creating a literature database. Study lakes were categorized according to location and water quality (pH and conductivity) which is a key community and environmental concern. Research technology employed in …

Spectrophotometric Methods For Measurement Of Antioxidant Activity In Food And Pharmaceuticals, Marios C. Christodoulou, Jose C. Orellana Palacios, Golnaz Hesami, Shima Jafarzadeh, José M. Lorenzo, Rubén Domínguez, Andres Moreno, Milad Hadidi

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

In recent years, there has been a growing interest in the application of antioxidants in food and pharmaceuticals due to their association with beneficial health effects against numerous oxidative-related human diseases. The antioxidant potential can be measured by various assays with specific mechanisms of action, including hydrogen atom transfer, single electron transfer, and targeted scavenging activities. Understanding the chemistry of mechanisms, advantages, and limitations of the methods is critical for the proper selection of techniques for the valid assessment of antioxidant activity in specific samples or conditions. There are various analytical techniques available for determining the antioxidant activity of biological …

Comparison Of Protein Extraction Protocols And Allergen Mapping From Black Soldier Fly Hermetia Illucens, Utpal Bose, James A. Broadbent, Angéla Juhász, Shaymaviswanathan Karnaneedi, Elecia B. Johnston, Sally Stockwell, Keren Byrne, Vachiranee Limviphuvadh, Sebastian Maurer-Stroh, Andreas L. Lopata, Michelle L. Colgrave

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Exploration of important insect proteins — including allergens — and proteomes can be limited by protein extraction buffer selection and the complexity of the proteome. Herein, LC-MS/MS-based proteomics experiments were used to assess the protein extraction efficiencies for a suite of extraction buffers and the effect of ingredient processing on proteome and allergen detection. Discovery proteomics revealed that SDS-based buffer yields the maximum number of protein groups from three types of BSF samples. Bioinformatic analysis revealed that buffer composition and ingredient processing could influence allergen detection. Upon applying multi-level filtering criteria, 33 putative allergens were detected by comparing the detected …

Is The Reputation Of Eucalyptus Plantations For Using More Water Than Pinus Plantations Justified?, Donald A. White, Shiqi Ren, Daniel S. Mendham, Francisco Balocchi-Contreras, Richard P. Silberstein, Dean Meason, Andrés Iroumé, Pablo Ramirez De Arellano

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

The effect of Eucalyptus plantations on water balance is thought to be more severe than for commercial alternatives such as Pinus species. Although this perception is firmly entrenched, even in the scientific community, only four direct comparisons of the effect on the water balance of a Eucalyptus species and a commercial alternative have been published. One of these, from South Africa, showed that Eucalyptus grandis caused a larger and more rapid reduction in streamflow than Pinus patula. The other three, one in South Australia and two in Chile, did not find any significant difference between the annual evapotranspiration of E. …

Contrasting Particle Fluxes And Composition In A Submarine Canyon Affected By Natural Sediment Transport Events And Bottom Trawling, Sarah Paradis, Marta Arjona-Camas, Miguel Goñi, Albert Palanques, Pere Masqué, Pere Puig

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Submarine canyons are important conduits of sediment and organic matter to deep-sea environments, mainly during high-energy natural events such as storms, river floods, or dense shelf water cascading, but also due to human activities such as bottom trawling. The contributions of natural and trawling-induced sediment and organic matter inputs into Palamós Canyon (NW Mediterranean) were assessed from three instrumented moorings deployed in the axis and northern flank of the canyon covering the trawling closure (February) and the trawling season (March-December) of 2017. During the trawling closure, large sediment fluxes with high contents of labile marine organic matter content were registered …

Sediment Accumulation And Carbon Burial In Four Hadal Trench Systems, Kazumasa Oguri, Pere Masqué, Matthias Zabel, Heather A. Stewart, Gillian Mackinnon, Ashley A. Rowden, Peter Berg, Frank Wenzhöfer, Ronnie N. Glud

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Hadal trenches are considered to act as depocenters for organic material, although pathways for the material transport and deposition rates are poorly constrained. Here we assess focusing, deposition and accumulation of material and organic carbon in four hadal trench systems underlying different surface ocean productivities; the eutrophic Atacama and Kuril-Kamchatka trenches, the mesotrophic Kermadec trench and the oligotrophic Mariana Trench. The study is based on the distributions of naturally occurring ²¹⁰Pb_ex, ¹³⁷Cs and total organic carbon from recovered sediment cores and by applying previously quantified benthic mineralization rates. Periods of steady deposition and discreet mass-wasting deposits were …

Species Traits And Geomorphic Setting As Drivers Of Global Soil Carbon Stocks In Seagrass Meadows, H. Kennedy, J. F. Pagès, D. Lagomasino, A. Arias-Ortiz, P. Colarusso, J. W. Fourqurean, M. N. Githaiga, J. L. Howard, D. Krause-Jensen, T. Kuwae, Paul S. Lavery, P. I. Macreadie, N. Marbà, Pere Masqué, I. Mazarrasa, T. Miyajima, Oscar Serrano, C. M. Duarte

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Our knowledge of the factors that can influence the stock of organic carbon (OC) that is stored in the soil of seagrass meadows is evolving, and several causal effects have been used to explain the variation of stocks observed at local to national scales. To gain a global-scale appreciation of the drivers that cause variation in soil OC stocks, we compiled data on published species-specific traits and OC stocks from monospecific and mixed meadows at multiple geomorphological settings. Species identity was recognized as an influential driver of soil OC stocks, despite their large intraspecific variation. The most important seagrass species …

Ridinilazole: A Novel, Narrow-Spectrum Antimicrobial Agent Targeting Clostridium (Clostridioides) Difficile, Deirdre A. Collins, Thomas V. Riley

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Clostridium (Clostridioides) difficile infection (CDI) remains an urgent threat to patients in health systems worldwide. Recurrent CDI occurs in up to 30% of cases due to sustained dysbiosis of the gut microbiota which normally protects against CDI. Associated costs of initial and recurrent episodes of CDI impose heavy financial burdens on health systems. Vancomycin and metronidazole have been the mainstay of therapy for CDI for many years; however, these agents continue to cause significant disruption to the gut microbiota and thus carry a high risk of recurrence for CDI patients. Treatment regimens are now turning towards novel narrow spectrum antimicrobial …

Status Of Barking Owl Ninox Connivens In South-West Australia, Robert A. Davis, Leo Joseph, Ronald E. Johnstone

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Barking Owl Ninox connivens has two recognised subspecies in Australia: N. c. connivens and N. c. peninsularis. N. c. connivens currently includes the isolated south-west Australian population, which is separated from eastern populations by the Nullarbor Plain and from N. c. peninsularis to the north. N. c. connivens in south-west Australia occurs from near Perth in the north, east to Northam and south-east to Katanning and Bremer Bay; it has been treated subspecifically as N. c. addendaMathews, 1912, but this name is not currently in use. Given concern over the apparent rarity of the south-west Australian population, we sought to …

Esculin Hydrolysis Negative And Tcda-Only Producing Strains Of Clostridium (Clostridioides) Difficile From The Environment In Western Australia, Nirajmohan Shivaperumal, Daniel R. Knight, Korakrit Imwattana, Grace O. Androga, Barbara J. Chang, Thomas V. Riley

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Background and Aims: Clostridium (Clostridiodes) difficile clade 3 ribotype (RT) 023 strains that fail to produce black colonies on bioMérieux ChromID agar have been reported, as well as variant strains of C. difficile that produce only toxin A. We have recently isolated strains of C. difficile from the environment in Western Australia (WA) with similar characteristics. The objective of this study was to characterize these strains. It was hypothesized that a putative β-glucosidase gene was lacking in these strains of C. difficile, including RT 023, leading to white colonies. Methods and Results: A total of 17 environmental isolates of C. …

Whole-Genome Sequencing Links Clostridium (Clostridioides) Difficile In A Single Hospital To Diverse Environmental Sources In The Community, Su-Chen Lim, Deirdre Collins, Korakrit Imwattana, Daniel R. Knight, Sicilia Perumalsamy, Natasza M.R. Hain-Saunders, Papanin Putsathit, David Speers, Thomas Riley

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Aims

To investigate if Clostridium (Clostridioides) difficile infection (CDI), traditionally thought of as hospital-acquired, can be genomically linked to hospital or community environmental sources, and to define possible importation routes from the community to the hospital.

Methods and Results

In 2019, C. difficile was isolated from 89/300 (29.7%) floor and 96/300 (32.0%) shoe sole samples at a tertiary hospital in Western Australia. Non-toxigenic C. difficile ribotype (RT) 010 predominated among floor (96.6%) and shoe sole (73.2%) isolates, while toxigenic RT 014/020 was most prevalent among contemporaneous clinical cases (33.0%) at the hospital. Whole-genome sequencing and high-resolution core genome …

Proteome Phenotypes Discriminate The Growing Location And Malting Traits In Field-Grown Barley, Mahya Bahmani, Angéla Juhász, James Broadbent, Utpal Bose, Mitchell G. Nye-Wood, Ian B. Edwards, Michelle L. Colgrave

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Barley is one of the key cereal grains for malting and brewing industries. However, climate variability and unprecedented weather events can impact barley yield and end-product quality. The genetic background and environmental conditions are key factors in defining the barley proteome content and malting characteristics. Here, we measure the barley proteome and malting characteristics of three barley lines grown in Western Australia, differing in genetic background and growing location, by applying liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS). Using data-dependent acquisition LC-MS, 1571 proteins were detected with high confidence. Quantitative data acquired using sequential window acquisition of all theoretical (SWATH) MS on barley …

Increased Extent Of Waterfowl Grazing Lengthens The Recovery Time Of A Colonizing Seagrass (Halophila Ovalis) With Implications For Seagrass Resilience, Caitlyn M. O’Dea, Paul S. Lavery, Chanelle L. Webster, Kathryn M. Mcmahon

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Herbivore distributions and abundance are shifting because of climate change, leading to intensified grazing pressure on foundation species such as seagrasses. This, combined with rapidly increasing magnitudes of change in estuarine ecosystems, may affect seagrass resilience. While the overall resilience of seagrasses is generally well-studied, the timeframes of recovery has received comparatively little attention, particularly in temperate estuaries. We investigated how the recovery time (RT) of seagrass is affected by simulated grazing in a southwestern Australian estuary. Whilst excluding swans, we simulated different grazing intensities (25, 50, 75, and 100 % removal from 1 m2 plots) at four locations in …

Digestibility Of Wheat Alpha-Amylase/Trypsin Inhibitors Using A Caricain Digestive Supplement, Angéla Juhász, Mitchell G. Nye-Wood, Gregory J. Tanner, Michelle L. Colgrave

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Wheat is a major source of nutrition, though in susceptible people it can elicit inappropriate immune responses. Wheat allergy and non-celiac wheat sensitivity are caused by various wheat proteins, including alpha-amylase trypsin inhibitors (ATIs). These proteins, like the gluten proteins which can cause celiac disease, are incompletely digested in the stomach such that immunogenic epitopes reach the lower digestive system where they elicit the undesirable immune response. The only completely effective treatment for these immune reactions is to eliminate the food trigger from the diet, though inadvertent or accidental consumption can still cause debilitating symptoms in susceptible people. One approach …

Guidelines For Model Adaptation: A Study Of The Transferability Of A General Seagrass Ecosystem Dynamic Bayesian Networks Model, Paula Sobenko Hatum, Kathryn Mcmahon, Kerrie Mengersen, Paul Pao Yen Wu

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

In general, it is not feasible to collect enough empirical data to capture the entire range of processes that define a complex system, either intrinsically or when viewing the system from a different geographical or temporal perspective. In this context, an alternative approach is to consider model transferability, which is the act of translating a model built for one environment to another less well-known situation. Model transferability and adaptability may be extremely beneficial—approaches that aid in the reuse and adaption of models, particularly for sites with limited data, would benefit from widespread model uptake. Besides the reduced effort required to …

Targeting Paleovalley-Related Ferricrete Units In Yilgarn Craton Using High-Resolution Aeromagnetic Data And Spatial Machine Learning, Hassan Talebi, Jelena Markov, Walid Salama, Alex Otto, Vasek Metelka, Ravi Anand, Dave Cole

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

The ferricrete units (Fe oxide cemented colluvial-alluvial sediment) of the Yilgarn Craton in Western Australia formed during the humid tropical and sub-tropical climates of the Cenozoic. Ferricretes are generally developed on long-lived paleodrainage systems and are products of the ferruginisation of detritus provided by the continuous erosion of upslopes. These iron-rich accumulations can become Au-enriched, as is the case in several locations previously discovered in the Yilgarn Craton; many of these host economic secondary gold deposits (e.g., Moolart Well, Mt Gibson, and Bulchina), typically occurring downslope of low saprolite hills and near paleovalleys (i.e., inset-valleys). Inset-valleys are a common paleotopographic …

Urban Sprawl And Microclimate In The Ga East Municipality Of Ghana, Kwasi Frimpong, Darko Eugene Atiemo, E. J. Van Etten

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Climatic elements such as temperature and rainfall provide great and unquantifiable benefits to human health. However, rapid urban sprawl has the tendency to undermine these health consequences. The relationship between urban sprawl and microclimate in the Ga East Municipality has been assessed to present the extent of sprawl that inhibit temperature and rainfall in recent times. Methodologically, satellite imagery and meteorological data (minimum and maximum temperature and rainfall) from 1990 to 2020 were used. The results indicate that rapid urban sprawl in recent times has significantly undermined the local climate through land use and land cover changes. There was strong …

The Mosaic Oat Genome Gives Insights Into A Uniquely Healthy Cereal Crop, Nadia Kamal, Nikos Tsardakas Renhuldt, Johan Bentzer, Heidrun Gundlach, Georg Haberer, Angéla Juhász, Thomas Lux, Utpal Bose, Jason A. Tye-Din, Daniel Lang, Nico Van Gessel, Ralf Reski, Yong Bi Fu, Peter Spégel, Alf Ceplitis, Axel Himmelbach, Amanda J. Waters, Wubishet A. Bekele, Michelle L. Colgrave, Mats Hansson, Nils Stein, Klaus F.X. Mayer, Eric N. Jellen, Peter J. Maughan, Nicholas A. Tinker, Martin Mascher, Olof Olsson, Manuel Spannagl, Nick Sirijovski

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Cultivated oat (Avena sativa L.) is an allohexaploid (AACCDD, 2n = 6x = 42) thought to have been domesticated more than 3,000 years ago while growing as a weed in wheat, emmer and barley fields in Anatolia1,2. Oat has a low carbon footprint, substantial health benefits and the potential to replace animal-based food products. However, the lack of a fully annotated reference genome has hampered efforts to deconvolute its complex evolutionary history and functional gene dynamics. Here we present a high-quality reference genome of A. sativa and close relatives of its diploid (Avena longiglumis, AA, 2n = 14) and tetraploid …

Bridge To The Future: Important Lessons From 20 Years Of Ecosystem Observations Made By The Ozflux Network, Jason Beringer, Caitlin E. Moore, Jamie Cleverly, David I. Campbell, Helen Cleugh, Martin G. De Kauwe, Miko U. F. Kirschbaum, Anne Griebel, Sam Grover, Alfredo Huete, Lindsay B. Hutley, Johannes Laubach, Tom Van Niel, Stefan K. Arndt, Alison C. Bennett, Lucas A. Cernusak, Derek Eamus, Cacilia M. Ewenz, Jordan P. Goodrich, Mingkai Jiang, Nina Hinko-Najera, Peter Isaac, Sanaa Hobeichi, Jürgen Knauer, Georgia R. Koerber, Michael Liddell, Xuanlong Ma, Craig Macfarlane, Ian D. Mchugh, Belinda E. Medlyn, Wayne S. Meyer, Alexander J. Norton, Jyoteshna Owens, Andy Pitman, Elise Pendall, Suzanne M. Prober, Ram L. Ray, Natalia Restrepo-Coupe, Sami W. Rifai, David Rowlings, Louis Schipper, Richard P. Silberstein, Lina Teckentrup, Sally E. Thompson, Anna M. Ukkola, Aaron Wall, Ying-Ping Wang, Tim J. Wardlaw, William Woodgate

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

In 2020, the Australian and New Zealand flux research and monitoring network, OzFlux, celebrated its 20^th anniversary by reflecting on the lessons learned through two decades of ecosystem studies on global change biology. OzFlux is a network not only for ecosystem researchers, but also for those ‘next users’ of the knowledge, information and data that such networks provide. Here, we focus on eight lessons across topics of climate change and variability, disturbance and resilience, drought and heat stress and synergies with remote sensing and modelling. In distilling the key lessons learned, we also identify where further research is needed …

Evaluation Of The Major Seed Storage Proteins, The Conglutins, Across Genetically Diverse Narrow-Leafed Lupin Varieties, Arineh Tahmasian, Angéla Juhász, James A. Broadbent, Mitchell G. Nye-Wood, Thao T. Le, Michelle L. Colgrave

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Lupin seeds have an excellent nutritional profile, including a high proportion of protein and dietary fiber. These qualities make lupin seeds an ideal candidate to help meet the growing global demand for complementary sources of protein. Of consequence to this application, there are nutritional and antinutritional properties assigned to the major lupin seed storage proteins—referred to as α-, β-, δ- and γ-conglutins The variation in the abundance of these protein families can impact the nutritional and bioactive properties of different lupin varieties. Hence, exploring the conglutin protein profiles across a diverse range of lupin varieties will yield knowledge that can …

A Most Unusual Tail: Scoliosis In A Wild Australian Skink, And Reported Incidences And Suggested Causes Of Similar Malformations Amongst Squamates, Philip W. Bateman, Robyn Benken, Ryan Glowacki, Robert A. Davis

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Malformations of vertebrae potentially occur across many taxa, particularly in Testudines, which are susceptible to kyphosis (dorsoventral curvature of the spine). Such malformations may stem from either genetic or environmental origins, and their prevalence and associated impacts on survival remain poorly understood. However, scoliosis (sideways curvature of the spine) is rarely reported and especially so in wild lizards. We report here on the first known case of scoliosis in a wild Australian lizard, the skink Ctenotus fallens, from Perth, Western Australia. This occurrence is the first of 805 individuals captured in a natural population monitored annually for the past 11 …

Comparison Of Flavonoid Intake Assessment Methods Using Usda And Phenol Explorer Databases: Subcohort Diet, Cancer And Health-Next Generations—Max Study, Fabian Lanuza, Nicola P. Bondonno, Raul Zamora-Ros, Agnetha Linn Rostgaard-Hansen, Anne Tjønneland, Rikard Landberg, Jytte Halkjær, Cristina Andres-Lacueva

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Flavonoids are bioactive plant compounds that are widely present in the human diet. Estimating flavonoid intake with a high degree of certainty is challenging due to the inherent limitations of dietary questionnaires and food composition databases. This study aimed to evaluate the degree of reliability among flavonoid intakes estimated using four different approaches based on the two most comprehensive flavonoid databases, namely, United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Phenol Explorer (PE). In 678 individuals from the MAX study, a subcohort of the Diet, Cancer and Health-Next Generations cohort, dietary data were collected using three 24-h diet recalls over 1 …

Differential Effects Of Speech And Language Therapy And Rtms In Chronic Versus Subacute Post-Stroke Aphasia: Results Of The Northstar-Ca Trial, Anna Zumbansen, Heike Kneifel, Latifa Lazzouni, Anja Ophey, Sandra E. Black, Joyce L. Chen, Dylan Edwards, Thomas Funck, Alexander Erich Hartmann, Wolf Dieter Heiss, Franziska Hildesheim, Sylvain Lanthier, Paul Lespérance, George Mochizuki, Caroline Paquette, Elizabet Rochon, Ilona Rubi-Fessen, Jennie Valles, Susan Wortman-Jutt, Alexander Thiel

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Background & objective: Contralesional 1-Hz repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) over the right pars triangularis combined with speech-language therapy (SLT) has shown positive results on the recovery of naming in subacute (5–45 days) post-stroke aphasia. NORTHSTAR-CA is an extension of the previously reported NORTHSTAR trial to chronic aphasia (>6 months post-stroke) designed to compare the effectiveness of the same rTMS protocol in both phases. Methods: Sixty-seven patients with left middle cerebral artery infarcts (28 chronic, 39 subacute) were recruited (01-2014 to 07-2019) and randomized to receive rTMS (N = 34) or sham stimulation (N = 33) with SLT for …