Biologie Aujourd''hui最新文献

{"title":"[Ecological engineering, a science by and for the living].","authors":"Mélanie Béhé,&nbsp;Eliane Bou Orm,&nbsp;Léa Hahn,&nbsp;Adrien Palenstijn","doi":"10.1051/jbio/2020010","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1051/jbio/2020010","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>In the 1960s, the concept of ecological engineering was theorized by Howard Odum, who showed the possibility of controlling the evolutionary trajectories of ecosystems by influencing their natural dynamics. H. Odum gave the definition of ecological engineering as \"human manipulation of the environment using small amounts of additional energy to control systems in which the main sources of energy still come from natural sources\". Since then, this definition has evolved, and several are currently used. The discipline then diversified, currently counting no less than 15 different fields of application, notably landscape architecture, phytoremediation, urban planning, agro-engineering, etc. Bibliometry concerning ecological engineering clearly shows the importance of this discipline worldwide. We notice its continuous evolution since 1995 with an almost exponential increase of the number of publications each year, with more than 6,500 publications in total coming from all continents.</p>","PeriodicalId":39068,"journal":{"name":"Biologie Aujourd''hui","volume":"214 3-4","pages":"97-103"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"38745978","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"[ER stress and NAFLD].","authors":"Floriane Lachkar,&nbsp;Alexandra Papaioannou,&nbsp;Pascal Ferré,&nbsp;Fabienne Foufelle","doi":"10.1051/jbio/2020007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1051/jbio/2020007","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a highly prevalent pathology associated with obesity. It encompasses a spectrum of hepatic disorders ranging from steatosis to non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), which may lead to cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress has been widely involved to drive in NAFLD progression through the activation of the unfolded protein response (UPR). While transient UPR activation can boost hepatic ER functions, its continuous activation upon a chronic ER stress contributes to lipid accumulation, inflammation and hepatocyte death, which are determinant factors for the progression to more severe stages. The aim of this review is to describe the mechanisms through which the UPR can take part in the transition from a healthy to a diseased liver and to report on possible ways of pharmacological manipulation against these pathological mechanisms.</p>","PeriodicalId":39068,"journal":{"name":"Biologie Aujourd''hui","volume":"214 1-2","pages":"15-23"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1051/jbio/2020007","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"38254268","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"[Phenotypic plasticity: a brief introduction].","authors":"Jean-Michel Gibert","doi":"10.1051/jbio/2020004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1051/jbio/2020004","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Phenotypic plasticity describes the ability of a given genotype to produce different phenotypes in response to distinct environmental conditions. It has major implications in agronomy, animal husbandry and medicine and is also thought to facilitate evolution. Phenotypic plasticity is widely observed in the wild. It is only relatively recently that the mechanisms involved in phenotypic plasticity have been analysed. Thanks to laboratory experiments we understand better how environmental conditions are involved in phenotypic variations. This article introduces major concepts from the phenotypic plasticity field, presents briefly mechanisms involved in phenotypic plasticity and discusses the links between phenotypic plasticity and evolution.</p>","PeriodicalId":39068,"journal":{"name":"Biologie Aujourd''hui","volume":"214 1-2","pages":"25-31"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1051/jbio/2020004","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"38254269","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"La Société de Biologie de Strasbourg : 100 ans au service de la science et de la société.","authors":"Pierre Antony,&nbsp;Sylvie Fournel,&nbsp;Joffrey Zoll,&nbsp;Jean-Marie Mantz,&nbsp;Katia Befort,&nbsp;Dominique Massotte,&nbsp;Philippe Giégé,&nbsp;Jocelyn Céraline,&nbsp;Daniel Metzger,&nbsp;Hubert Becker,&nbsp;Laurence Drouard,&nbsp;Catherine Florentz,&nbsp;Robert Martin,&nbsp;Canan Nébigil,&nbsp;Serge Potier,&nbsp;Adrien Schaefer,&nbsp;Evelyne Schaeffer,&nbsp;Catherine Schuster,&nbsp;Anne Bresson,&nbsp;Eric Quéméneur,&nbsp;Laurence Choulier,&nbsp;Nicolas Matt,&nbsp;Laurent Monassier,&nbsp;Claire Lugnier,&nbsp;Louis Freysz,&nbsp;Jules Hoffmann,&nbsp;Henri Dreyfus,&nbsp;Christophe Romier","doi":"10.1051/jbio/2020018","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1051/jbio/2020018","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Founded in 1919, the Society of Biology of Strasbourg (SBS) is a learned society whose purpose is the dissemination and promotion of scientific knowledge in biology. Subsidiary of the Society of Biology, the SBS celebrated its Centenary on Wednesday, the 16th of October 2019 on the Strasbourg University campus and at the Strasbourg City Hall. This day allowed retracing the various milestones of the SBS, through its main strengths, its difficulties and its permanent goal to meet scientific and societal challenges. The common thread of this day was the transmission of knowledge related to the past, the present, but also the future. At the start of the 21st century, the SBS must continue to reinvent itself to pursue its objective of transmitting scientific knowledge in biology and beyond. Scientific talks performed by senior scientists and former SBS thesis prizes awardees, a round table, and informal discussions reflected the history and the dynamism of the SBS association. All SBS Centennial participants have set the first milestone for the SBS Bicentennial.</p>","PeriodicalId":39068,"journal":{"name":"Biologie Aujourd''hui","volume":"214 3-4","pages":"137-148"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"38745983","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"[Role of astrocytic connexins in the regulation of extracellular glutamate levels: implication for the treatment of major depressive episodes].","authors":"Benjamin Portal,&nbsp;Bruno P Guiard","doi":"10.1051/jbio/2020008","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1051/jbio/2020008","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Major depression is a psychiatric disorder relying on different neurobiological mechanisms. In particular, a hypersensitivity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis leading to an excess of cortisol in blood and a deficit in monoaminergic neurotransmission have been associated with mood disorders. In keeping with these mechanisms, currently available antidepressant drugs act by increasing the extracellular levels of monoamines in the synaptic cleft. Since the discovery of the rapid and long-lasting antidepressant effects of ketamine, an NMDA receptor antagonist, a growing attention in psychiatry is paid to the pharmacological tools able to attenuate glutamatergic neurotransmission. Astrocytes play an important role in the excitatory/inhibitory balance of the central nervous system through the regulation of glutamate reuptake and secretion. Interestingly, the release of this excitatory amino acid is controlled, at least in part, by plasma membrane proteins (i.e. connexins) that cluster together to form gap junctions or hemichannels. Preclinical evidence suggests that these functional entities play a critical role in emotional behaviour. After a brief overview of the literature on mood disorders and related treatments, this review describes the role of astrocytes and connexins in glutamatergic neurotransmission and major depression. Moreover, we highlight the arguments supporting the therapeutic potential of connexins blockers but also the practical difficulties to target the hemichannels while maintaining gap junctions intact.</p>","PeriodicalId":39068,"journal":{"name":"Biologie Aujourd''hui","volume":"214 3-4","pages":"71-83"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"38746061","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"[What science can do against biodiversity loss].","authors":"Laureline Boulanger,&nbsp;Amélie Héraud,&nbsp;Dorian Martzloff,&nbsp;Valentin Ropital","doi":"10.1051/jbio/2020013","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1051/jbio/2020013","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The earth is currently facing an unprecedented biodiversity loss, which is taking such proportions that it is sometimes considered to be the sixth mass extinction. Human activities are the main cause of this alarming ecological crisis and threaten this biodiversity yet essential to mankind. It is thus necessary to learn more about the different living species, in order to protect and preserve them. In particular, three key scientific fields give us a better insight on biodiversity and its characteristics: ecology, focusing on living species interacting with their environment; ethology, focusing on animal behaviour; and ecophysiology, linking changes at the physiological scale to environmental changes. Together, they allow us to work in favor of biodiversity, by giving us a better understanding of animal species and their ways of life, thus allowing us to act accordingly.</p>","PeriodicalId":39068,"journal":{"name":"Biologie Aujourd''hui","volume":"214 3-4","pages":"105-108"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"38745979","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"[Spyridon Kanellis, a 19th century daring plagiarist].","authors":"Laurent Gautron","doi":"10.1051/jbio/2020009","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1051/jbio/2020009","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>In 1883, a case of daring plagiarism was revealed during a session of the Biology Society in Paris. This article discusses the details of this plagiarism and the identity of its perpetrator, a physician by the name of Spiridion Kanellis.</p>","PeriodicalId":39068,"journal":{"name":"Biologie Aujourd''hui","volume":"214 3-4","pages":"85-90"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"38746060","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"[Genetics and evolution of developmental plasticity in the nematode C. elegans: Environmental induction of the dauer stage].","authors":"Bénédicte Billard,&nbsp;Clotilde Gimond,&nbsp;Christian Braendle","doi":"10.1051/jbio/2020006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1051/jbio/2020006","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Adaptive developmental plasticity is a common phenomenon across diverse organisms and allows a single genotype to express multiple phenotypes in response to environmental signals. Developmental plasticity is thus thought to reflect a key adaptation to cope with heterogenous habitats. Adaptive plasticity often relies on highly regulated processes in which organisms sense environmental cues predictive of unfavourable environments. The integration of such cues may involve sophisticated neuro-endocrine signaling pathways to generate subtle or complete developmental shifts. A striking example of adaptive plasticity is found in the nematode C. elegans, which can undergo two different developmental trajectories depending on the environment. In favourable conditions, C. elegans develops through reproductive growth to become an adult in three days at 20 °C. In contrast, in unfavourable conditions (high population density, food scarcity, elevated temperature) larvae can adopt an alternative developmental stage, called dauer. dauer larvae are highly stress-resistant and exhibit specific anatomical, metabolic and behavioural features that allow them to survive and disperse. In C. elegans, the sensation of environmental cues is mediated by amphid ciliated sensory neurons by means of G-coupled protein receptors. In favourable environments, the perception of pro-reproductive cues, such as food and the absence of pro-dauer cues, upregulates insulin and TGF-β signaling in the nervous system. In unfavourable conditions, pro-dauer cues lead to the downregulation of insulin and TGF-β signaling. In favourable conditions, TGF-β and insulin act in parallel to promote synthesis of dafachronic acid (DA) in steroidogenic tissues. Synthetized DA binds to the DAF-12 nuclear receptor throughout the whole body. DA-bound DAF-12 positively regulates genes of reproductive development in all C. elegans tissues. In poor conditions, the inhibition of insulin and TGF-β signaling prevents DA synthesis, thus the unliganded DAF-12 and co-repressor DIN-1 repress genes of reproductive development and promote dauer formation. Wild C. elegans have often been isolated as dauer larvae suggesting that dauer formation is very common in nature. Natural populations of C. elegans have colonized a great variety of habitats across the planet, which may differ substantially in environmental conditions. Consistent with divergent adaptation to distinct ecological niches, wild isolates of C. elegans and other nematode species isolated from different locations show extensive variation in dauer induction. Quantitative genetic and population-genomic approaches have identified many quantitative trait loci (QTL) associated with differences in dauer induction as well as a few underlying causative molecular variants. In this review, we summarize how C. elegans dauer formation is genetically regulated and how this trait evolves- both within and between species.</p>","PeriodicalId":39068,"journal":{"name":"Biologie Aujourd''hui","volume":"214 1-2","pages":"45-53"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1051/jbio/2020006","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"38254272","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"[Pharmaceutical biotechnologies: drawing out the genome to develop, improve and personalize therapies and patient care].","authors":"Alix Auter,&nbsp;Aymeric Deplace,&nbsp;Damien Freytag,&nbsp;Marion Kern,&nbsp;Pierre-Grégoire Plasse,&nbsp;Lucas Walther,&nbsp;Dorine Zimmermann","doi":"10.1051/jbio/2020015","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1051/jbio/2020015","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Thanks to high-throughput sequencing with technologies, which allow the reading of more than 100 million bases in one day with reduced cost, our knowledge about prokaryotic, eukaryotic and viral genomes has significantly increased since the 2000s. The multiplication of genetic engineering tools including DNA polymerases, restriction enzymes and genome editing enzymes and the development of other \"omic\" technologies such as transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics, have allowed pharmaceutical biotechnologies to favor the identification and validation of various diagnostic and therapeutic targets underlying the development of targeted therapies. Indeed, these advances have supported a better understanding of pathologies as well as an improvement in their diagnosis, through the identification of biomarkers, considerably favoring more personalized and more efficient patients' care. The orientation towards more targeted treatments was initiated by the development of recombinant proteins, and more recently monoclonal antibodies, which can block protein functions and/or modulate immune responses. Gene therapy is also promising, by inserting a gene into patients' cells to overcome rare diseases and autologous or heterologous cell-based therapies are also under development. Although their history is recent, pharmaceutical biotechnologies are evolving rapidly and offer exciting prospects at the dawn of precision medicine.</p>","PeriodicalId":39068,"journal":{"name":"Biologie Aujourd''hui","volume":"214 3-4","pages":"91-95"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"38745977","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"[The pre-gastrulation embryonic human development: future models and societal concerns].","authors":"Inès Jmel Boyer,&nbsp;Emmanuel García Sánchez","doi":"10.1051/jbio/2020012","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1051/jbio/2020012","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Infertility, early miscarriages and congenital malformations are major public health issues that are frequent and poorly understood. Until now, what is known about early human development originates from two main sources: studies of human embryos and studies of model animals. Although some molecular mechanisms are conserved, there are specific human features. Thus, it is necessary to study model animals that are close to humans in the phylogenetic classification, which led to the use of pre-established primate cell lineages. Currently, the only human embryos available come from In Vitro Fertilization, which leads to important limitations: these embryos are relatively few and must be destroyed after 14 days. This has led researchers to develop new strategies. Several teams used Embryonic Stem Cells or Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells and their in vitro auto-organization properties to recreate \"embryos\" and thereby study their development. These new strategies allow a reduced use of human embryos but new questions arise about the legal status of these new research \"models\". In the future, it would be important to update the different legislations and recommendations of the International Society for Stem Cell Research as science progresses to avoid any failing drift. The respect of recommendations as well as the maintenance of discussions between specialists and the general public will allow a better understanding of early human development and the establishment of innovative strategies to target health challenges.</p>","PeriodicalId":39068,"journal":{"name":"Biologie Aujourd''hui","volume":"214 3-4","pages":"109-113"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"38745980","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}