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Plants under salt stress require additional energy supply to fuel salt tolerance mechanisms and growth. Bandehagh and Taylor (2020) establish that plants must strike a balance between energy supply and demand to maintain growth and development during salt stress. This review (1) summaries how salt stress affects different physiological and biochemical process altering the abundance of different metabolites that are feeding into regular and alternative respiratory pathways and shunts; (monomeric complex I, dimeric complex III and I + III2 supercomplex) found to be higher in halophyte mitochondria in comparison with glycophyte, implying efficient electron transfer from complex I to complex III in halophyte mitochondria. Further, the stability of ATP synthase (complex V) also found to be higher in halophyte suggesting halophyte mitochondria better equipped to supply additional ATP required to support salt stress response.Synthesis of organic compatible solutes is an important component for plant salt stress tolerance. In this regard, proline plays an important role in protecting plants from under salinity conditions and showed that salt tolerance is associated with changes in lipid metabolic processes. They also discovered the important role of phosphatidylserine (PS) in mediating enzyme activity, and exogenous application of PS alleviated the effects of NaCl tissue toxicity. The results showed that the superior K + retention ability in both mature and elongation zone of rice root is the key trait conferring its differential salinity stress tolerance. They suggested that besides the superior ability to activate root H + -ATPase pump operation, this key trait is also related to the reduced sensitivity of K + efflux channels to reactive oxygen species and the lower upregulation in OsGORK and higher upregulation of OsAKT1.A key trait long recognized to improve salinity tolerance in many plants is the maintenance of a low Na + /K + ratio. Transient expression experiment showed that JcHDZ07 is a nuclear-localized protein.In improving Na + exclusion ability to maintain root ion homeostasis to ensure a relatively 9 low shoot Na + concentration under saline conditions; 2) maintaining a high shoot sugar content under saline conditions which is enabled by protecting photosystems structures, enhancing photosynthetic performance and sucrose synthetase activity, and inhibiting sucrose degradation. Further, authors suggested that targeting the key genes related to the regulatory mechanisms could provide opportunities to breed more salt tolerant sweet sorghum.Overall, we hope this special issue of benefit to plant breeders and land managers by delivering novel information and insights on the salinity stress response, signalling and adaptive mechanisms operating in plants.

A cellulose hydrolysate from Aspen wood, containing mainly glucose, was fermented into ethanol by a thermotolerant strain MSN77 of Zymomonas mobilis. The effect of the hydrolysate concentration on fermentation parameters was investigated. Growth parameters (specific growth rate and biomass yield) were inhibited at high hydrolysate concentrations. Catabolic parameters (specific glucose uptake rate, specific ethanol productivity and ethanol yield) were not affected. These effects could be explained by the increase in medium osmolality. The results are similar to those described for molasses based media. Strain MSN77 could efficiently ferment glucose from Aspen wood up to a concentration of 60 g/l. At higher concentration, growth was inhibited.

Heat stress (HS) dramatically impairs the growth performance of broiler chickens, mainly as a consequence of reduced feed intake due to the loss of appetite. This study was aimed at evaluating the alterations induced by chronic HS conditions on the morphological and morphometric features of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract and on the expression of some enteroendocrine cells (EECs) involved in the regulation of feed intake in chickens. Three hundred male chickens (Ross 308) were divided into two experimental groups and raised either in thermoneutral environment for the whole fattening period (0-41 days) (TNT group) or subjected to chronic HS conditions (30 °C for 24 h/day) from 35 to 41 days (HS group). Samples of proventriculus, duodenum, jejunum and cecum were collected from 24 broilers (12/group). Haematoxylin-eosin was used for the morphometric evaluations, while immunohistochemistry was applied for the evaluation of EECs expressing ghrelin (GHR), cholecystokinin (CCK), neuropeptide Y (NPY), glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), and serotonin (5-HT). In the proventriculus, HS reduced total wall thickness and mucous layer height (P ≤ 0.01) as well as mean diameter, circumference, and area of the compound tubular glands (P ≤ 0.001) with respect to TNT. The small intestine of HS birds was characterised by decreased villous height and total thickness (duodenum, P ≤ 0.01; jejunum, P ≤ 0.001), whereas crypt depth and width were reduced only in the jejunum (P ≤ 0.01). HS had negligible effects on the morphological aspects of the cecum. In the proventriculus, an increase in GHR and NPY EECs was observed in response to HS (P ≤ 0.001). Similarly, the small intestine villi of the HS group showed greater GLP-1 (P ≤ 0.05), 5-HT (P ≤ 0.001) and CCK (P ≤ 0.01) EECs. Moreover, the expression of 5-HT EECs was higher in the duodenal (P ≤ 0.01) and jejunal (P ≤ 0.01) crypts of HS birds, whereas GLP-1 and CCK EECs increased only in jejunal crypts (P ≤ 0.05). Finally, 5-HT EEC expression was increased in the cecum of HS group (P ≤ 0.01). In conclusion, these outcomes demonstrate that chronic HS induces morphometric alterations not only in the small intestine but also in a key organ such as the proventriculus. Furthermore, HS conditions affect the presence and distribution of EECs, suggesting that some GI peptides and biogenic amine may be implicated in the regulation of appetite and voluntary feed intake in heat-stressed broiler chickens.

Mangiferin, a natural compound isolated from Mangifera indica L, was incorporated in glycerosomes, ethosomes and alternatively in glycerol-ethanol phospholipid vesicles (glycethosomes). Actually, only glycethosomes were able to stably incorporate the mangiferin that was loaded at increasing concentrations (2, 4, 6, 8 mg/mL). The morphology, size distribution, rheological properties, surface charge and entrapment efficiency of prepared vesicles were deeply measured. All vesicles were mainly spherical, oligolamellar, small in size (~145 nm) and negatively charged (~-40 mV), as confirmed by cryo-TEM observation and dynamic laser light scattering measurements. The higher concentration of mangiferin (8 mg/mL) allowed an increase of vesicle mean diameter up to ~288 nm. The entrapment efficiency was inversely proportional to the amount of loaded mangiferin. In vitro studies performed by using human abdominal skin, underlined that, the dose-dependent ability of vesicles to promote mangiferin retention in epidermis. In addition, glycethosomes were highly biocompatible and showed a strong ability to protect in vitro the fibroblasts against damages induced by hydrogen peroxide. In vivo results underlined the superior ability of mangiferin loaded glycethosomes respect to the mangiferin dispersion to promote the heal of the wound induced by TPA, confirming their potential application for the treatment of psoriasis or other skin disorders.

Research to date has suggested that both individual marine species and ecological processes are expected to exhibit diverse responses to the environmental effects of climate change. Evolutionary responses can occur on rapid (ecological) timescales, and yet studies typically do not consider the role that adaptive evolution will play in modulating biological responses to climate change. Investigations into such responses have typically been focused at particular biological levels (e.g., cellular, population, community), often lacking interactions among levels. Since all levels of biological organisation are sensitive to global climate change, there is a need to elucidate how different processes and hierarchical interactions will influence species fitness. Therefore, predicting the responses of communities and populations to global change will require multidisciplinary efforts across multiple levels of hierarchy, from the genetic and cellular to communities and ecosystems. Eventually, this may allow us to establish the role that acclimatisation and adaptation will play in determining marine community structures in future scenarios.

The official involvement of Italy in Antarctic research dates back to 1985, when Mario Zucchelli Station (the former Terra Nova Bay Station) was established in Terra Nova Bay. Italy joined the Antarctic Treaty in 1987. This article is an overview of the wide-ranging research in marine biology performed in the last three decades by the author's team in the Ross Sea. Fundamental questions have been addressed, related to cold adaptations--with special attention to the molecular bases--evolved by marine organisms along with progressive cooling in this geographic area, also analysed in comparison with other important areas, such as the Peninsula, the Weddell Sea, the sub-Antarctic and the Arctic. The basic stepping stone of this research was the integration of ecophysiology with molecular aspects, in the general framework of biodiversity, adaptation and evolution. Investigations have addressed a number of Ross Sea taxa, comprising fish, birds, urchins, whales, seals and bacteria. Its significance has special meaning in view of the control that Antarctica exerts on the world climate and ocean circulation, which has awakened great interest in the evolutionary biology of the organisms that live there.