https://research.bangor.ac.uk/portal/files/29192587/untitled.pdf

Comparison of virus concentration methods for the RT-qPCR-based recovery of murine hepatitis virus, a surrogate for SARS-CoV-2 from untreated wastewater.

Detection of SARS-CoV-2 in raw and treated wastewater in Germany – Suitability for COVID-19 surveillance and potential transmission risks

Implementation of environmental surveillance for SARS-CoV-2 virus to support public health decisions: opportunities and challenges.

The United Nations (UN) launched the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development to address an ongoing crisis: human pressure leading to unprecedented environmental degradation, climatic change, social inequality, and other negative planet-wide consequences. This crisis stems from a dramatic increase in human appropriation of natural resources to keep pace with rapid population growth, dietary shifts toward higher consumption of animal products, and higher demand for energy (1, 2). There is an increased recognition that Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are linked to one another (3, 4), and priorities such as food production, biodiversity conservation, and climate change mitigation cannot be considered in isolation (5⇓⇓–8). Hence, understanding those dynamics is central to achieving the vision of the UN 2030 Agenda.



Infectious zoonotic diseases typically emerge as a result of complex interactions between humans and wild and/or domestic animals. Image credit: Pixabay/sasint.



But environmental change also has direct human health outcomes via infectious disease emergence, and this link is not customarily integrated into planning for sustainable development. Currently, 65 countries are engaged in the Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA) and are finalizing a strategic plan for the next five years (the GHSA 2024 Roadmap) to better prevent, detect, and respond to infectious disease outbreaks in alignment with SDGs 2 and 3 on food security and human health. Without an integrated approach to mitigating the disease emergence consequences of environmental change, countries’ abilities to achieve SDGs and GHSA targets will be compromised.

Emerging infectious diseases (EIDs) such as Ebola, influenza, SARS, MERS, and, most recently, coronavirus (2019-nCoV) cause large-scale mortality and morbidity, disrupt trade and travel networks, and stimulate civil unrest (9). When local emergence leads to regional outbreaks or global pandemics, the economic impacts can be devastating: The SARS outbreak in 2003, the H1N1 pandemic in 2009, and … 

[↵][1]1To whom correspondence may be addressed. Email: moreno.dimarco{at}uniroma1.it.

 [1]: #xref-corresp-1-1

https://www.pnas.org/content/pnas/117/8/3888.full.pdf

Opinion: Sustainable development must account for pandemic risk.

https://research.bangor.ac.uk/portal/files/37485369/1_s2.0_S0043135420309398_main.pdf

Making waves: Wastewater-based epidemiology for COVID-19 - approaches and challenges for surveillance and prediction.

Making Waves: Coronavirus detection, presence and persistence in the water environment: State of the art and knowledge needs for public health.

Potential secondary transmission of SARS-CoV-2 via wastewater

Biological invasions remain a major global challenge. Alligatorweed (Alternanthera philoxeroides (Mart.) Griseb.), native to South America, has had profound negative effects on ecosystem function and economy in Australia, North America, and Asia. It is an invasive and primarily aquatic plant that, despite a documented lack of genetic diversity, is unusually adaptive - thriving in both aquatic and terrestrial environments. However, genetic resources for studying this invasive plant are limited. Here, we have assembled the transcriptome of alligatorweed using all publicly available cDNA sequences. The resulting assembly produced over 500K contigs with an average length of ∼700 bases and an N50 of >1000 bases and contains over 100K probable gene-coding sequences. Although this assembly is slightly smaller than the previously published assembly developed from just cold-treated shoot tips, the new assembly is slightly more complete with over 95% of the conserved plant genes being represented as full length transcripts, and only 2.3% of these conserved genes being unrepresented compared to 2.7% missing in the earlier assembly. Resources from the PANTHER database were used to annotate all transcripts containing long open reading frames. Comparisons to several plant species identified gene ontologies that were over- and under-represented in the alligatorweed transcriptome including cellular transport and cytoskeletal processes and cell signaling, which could explain the high growth rate and phenotypic plasticity that make alligatorweed particularly invasive. We also sequenced and assembled a genomic database for alligatorweed using only short read technologies. This assembly produced over ten million contigs with an average length of only 300 bases and an N50 of 451 bases. However, 88% of the transcripts were represented among the genomic contigs, indicating that these contigs could serve as a source for regulatory elements for genes previously shown to be differentially expressed under various conditions. Kmer analysis indicated that 22% of the alligatorweed genome was comprised of repetitive elements. A similarity search against the plant repetitive element database indicated that long terminal repeat containing elements including copia- and gypsy-like elements made up the bulk of the transposons present in the alligatorweed genome. Additionally, we assembled and annotated a full-length chloroplast and a partial mitochondrial genome. Combined, these resources provide a source of gene sequences that should be useful for more complete genomic assemblies and for investigating gene structure and function in this particularly adaptable and invasive species. The results will provide an excellent starting point for many different investigations into the biology and ecology of alligatorweed, strengthen our understanding of the invasiveness, biology and ecology of invasive plants, and will help develop a reasonable management strategy to reduce risk and costs of the impacts.

/pdf/assembly-of-sequences-of-northern-china-alligatorweed-2x2mtmiu.pdf

Assembly of sequences of Northern China alligatorweed identifies processes and gene ontologies associated with invasiveness and provides genomic resources for population and gene regulation studies

Direct mass spectrometry (MS) analysis of human tissue at the molecular level could gain insight into biomarker discovery and disease diagnosis. Detecting metabolite profiles of tissue sample play an important role in understanding the pathological properties of disease development. Because the complex matrices in tissue samples, complicated and time-consuming sample preparation processes are usually required by conventional biological and clinical MS methods. Direct MS with ambient ionization technique is a new analytical strategy for direct sample analysis with little sample preparation, and has been proven to be a simple, rapid, and effective analytical tools for direct analysis of biological tissues. In this work, we applied a simple, low-cost, disposable wooden tip (WT) for loading tiny thyroid tissue, and then loading organic solvents to extract biomarkers under electrospray ionization (ESI) condition. Under such WT-ESI, the extract of thyroid was directly sprayed out from wooden tip to MS inlet. In this work, thyroid tissue from normal and cancer parts were analyzed by the established WT-ESI-MS, showing lipids were mainly detectable compounds in thyroid tissue. The MS data of lipids obtained from thyroid tissues were further analyzed with MS/MS experiment and multivariate variable analysis, and the biomarkers of thyroid cancer were also investigated.

/pdf/direct-mass-spectrometry-analysis-of-biological-tissue-for-90dbul1n.pdf

Dasheng Liu

Papers

Making Waves: Coronavirus detection, presence and persistence in the water environment: State of the art and knowledge needs for public health.

Potential secondary transmission of SARS-CoV-2 via wastewater

Assembly of sequences of Northern China alligatorweed identifies processes and gene ontologies associated with invasiveness and provides genomic resources for population and gene regulation studies

Direct mass spectrometry analysis of biological tissue for diagnosis of thyroid cancer using wooden-tip electrospray ionization