Publications

The selective manipulation of Hyp customizable units in DKP substrates allows the generation of a rigid scaffold with four tailor‐made chains which are spatially‐orientated. The key step is a domino radical scission‐oxidation process which allows the generation of N‐substituted DKPs. The versatility of this methodology to produce scaffolds in high optical purity for material and drug discovery is described herein.

Epidemiological studies found that increases in the concentrations of airborne particulate matter (PM) smaller than 10 microns diameter (PM10) in the ambient air due to desert dust outbreaks contribute to global burden of diseases, primarily as a result of increased risk of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. No studies have investigated the possible association between desert dust inhalation and airway inflammation in patients with ischemic heart disease (IHD). Induced sputum was collected in 38 patients and analysed to determine markers of airway inflammation (Transforming Growth Factor-β1 [TGF-β1] and hydroxyproline) concentrations. For the purpose of the investigation, PM10 and reactive gases concentrations measured in the European Air Quality Network implemented in the Canary Islands were also used. We identified Saharan desert dust using meteorology and dust models. Patients affected by smoking, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), asthma, pulmonary abnormalities, acute bronchial or pulmonary disease were excluded. The median of age of patients was 64.71 years (56.35–71.54) and 14 (38.84%) of them were women. TGF-β1 and hydroxyproline in sputum were highly associated to PM10 inhalation from the Saharan desert. According to a regression model, an increase of 1 µg/m3 of PM10 concentrations due to desert dust, results in an increase of 3.84 pg/gwt of TGF-β1 (R2 adjusted= 89.69%) and of 0.80 μg/gwt of hydroxyproline (R2 adjusted= 85.28%) in the sputum of patients. The results of this study indicate that the exposure to high PM10 concentrations due to Saharan dust events are associated with intense inflammatory reaction in the airway mucosae of IHD-patients.

Research on sociality in temperate ground-dwelling squirrels has focused on female philopatry and other life history trade-offs, which are influenced by constraints in the duration of the active growing season. Temperate ground-dwelling squirrels that experience high predation pressure, are large in body size, and have a short active season, show a more complex social organization. In contrast, African ground squirrels are active year-round, suggesting that instead of a short active season, distinct selective pressures influence their social organization. We examined the social organization of Barbary ground squirrels, Atlantoxerus getulus, and compared the social organization of temperate and African ground-dwelling sciurids. Anecdotal accounts on Barbary ground squirrels’ social organization suggested that they were either solitary or gregarious, or live in small family groups. We recorded the group size, composition, cohesion, and genetic relatedness, of the population on the arid island of Fuerteventura, Spain. Our data indicate that females live in small (1–8) all-female kin groups separate from adult males, and that unrelated adult males share sleeping burrows with immature individuals of either sex. We observed sex-biased dispersal with males primarily the dispersing sex and females primarily philopatric. Females sleep solitarily during gestation and lactation and nest either communally or singly after juvenile emergence. During the day, males and females can be active in the same area. Barbary ground squirrels are social because the squirrels share sleeping burrows and show spatiotemporal overlap. Barbary ground squirrels’ social organization resembles that of the closely related Cape ground squirrel rather than that of the temperate ground-dwelling sciurids, although the former are more temperate, seasonal breeders. In addition to describing the social organization of a previously unstudied species, this paper sheds light on the ecological drivers of sociality, and the evolution of distinct social organizations in ground-dwelling sciurids.

Tamoxifen is one of the most frequently used drugs for the treatment of estrogen receptor positive breast cancer, which is the most prevalent form of hormone dependent breast cancer. A few years ago, we developed a fluorescent derivative of tamoxifen formed by the covalent binding of tamoxifen to a common dye biomarker. The new compound, known as FLTX1, showed the pharmacological activity of the tamoxifen moiety and efficient fluorescence properties, which could be used synergistically to improve the effect of the drug. In this paper, we demonstrate that irradiation at the absorption band of FLTX1 can result in fluorescence resonance energy transfer to photosensitizers such as Rose Bengal and Merocyanine 540, activating the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Indeed, the generation of ROS was demonstrated using a colorimetric assay. Since FLTX1 mostly binds estrogen-receptor overexpressing cancer cells, the results obtained are very promising and suggest a new therapeutic strategy combining chemo- and photodynamic therapies.

Two new macrocyclic cembranoids were isolated from the South China Sea soft coral Lobophytum sp. Quantum mechanical–nuclear magnetic resonance (QM–NMR) methods were decisive in their structural elucidation. Better performance in arriving at definitive structures was obtained by QM–NMR methods upon incorporation of 3JHH values. The validity of this approach also supported an alternative conformational proposal versus that obtained by X-ray crystallography.

Background
There is an increasing demand for databases including species trait information for
biodiversity and community ecology studies. The existence of trait databases is useful for
comparative studies within taxa or geographical regions, but there is low availability of
databases for certain organisms. Here we present an open access functional trait database
for spiders from Macaronesia and the Iberian Peninsula, recording several morphological
and ecological traits related to the species life histories, microhabitat and trophic
preferences.

New information
We present a database that includes 12 biological traits for 506 spider species present in
natural forests of the Iberian Peninsula (Spain) and three Macaronesian archipelagoes
(Azores, Madeira and Canary Islands). The functional trait database consists of two
sections:
1. individual-level data for six morphological traits (total body size, prosoma length,
prosoma width, prosoma height, tibia I length and fang length), based on direct
measurements of 2844 specimens of all spider species; and
2. species-level aggregate data for 12 traits (same 6 morphological traits as in the
previous section plus dispersal ability, vertical stratification, circadian activity,
foraging strategy, trophic specialization and colonization status), based on either
the average of the direct measurements or bibliographic searches.
This functional trait database will serve as a data

The genus Dracaena in Macaronesia comprises two threatened species of arborescent monocots that are often associated with one of the most intriguing biogeographic disjunctions: the Rand Flora pattern. Molecular information is, however, largely missing for the Macaronesian Dracaena taxa (“MDT”, hereafter), and the biogeographic or population genetic patterns of this lineage have not yet been thoroughly assessed. To fill this gap, we generated plastid DNA sequence data of 14 Dracaena populations representing the entire natural distribution of MDT (including mainland Morocco and all recognized subspecies), 9 additional populations of subspontaneous origin, and a set of related species of the genus. We performed phylogenetic, biogeographic, and population genetic analyses at different spatial scales and conducted a comparative review on plant haplotype diversity in Macaronesian plants. The results of our phylogenetic analyses indicated the monophyly of the MDT and an origin separate from a clade of geographically distant species that so far were postulated as their closest living relatives (D. cinnabari, D. ombet, D. schizantha, D. serrulata). The results of our phylogeographic analyses indicated that diversification within D. draco occurred throughout the Pleistocene and that wild peripheral populations (Madeira, mainland Morocco) may have a recent origin from Canarian source populations. Recent dispersals, coupled with remarkably low levels of haplotype diversity, probably account for the weak phylogeographic signal observed across wild populations. However, our results suggested that human‐assisted expansion of Dracaena inflates the extant phylogeographic signal by non‐random translocation of a specific subset of haplotypes. Our study demonstrates that many of the previous biogeographic scenarios on MDT are not supported by molecular data. Instead, our results highlight (i) the impact that human activity may have on the phylogeographic pattern of island plants, and (ii) the need of a deeper taxonomic sampling in future investigations on MDT and close relatives.

Protracted volcanic eruptions may exhibit unanticipated intensifications in explosive behaviour and attendant hazards. Santiaguito dome complex, Guatemala, has been characterised by century-long effusion interspersed with frequent, small-to-moderate (<2 km high plumes) gas-and-ash explosions. During 2015–2016, explosions intensified generating hazardous ash-rich plumes (up to 7 km high) and pyroclastic flows. Here, we integrate petrological, geochemical and geophysical evidence to evaluate the causes of explosion intensification. Seismic and infrasound signals reveal progressively longer repose intervals between explosions and deeper fragmentation levels as the seismic energy of these events increased by up to four orders of magnitude. Evidence from geothermobarometry, bulk geochemistry and groundmass microlite textures reveal that the onset of large explosions was concordant with a relatively fast ascent of a deeper-sourced (∼17–24 km), higher temperature (∼960–1020 °C) and relatively volatile-rich magma compared to the previous erupted lavas, which stalled at ∼2 km depth and mingled with the left-over mush that resided beneath the pre-2015 lava dome. We interpret that purging driven by the injection of this deep-sourced magma disrupted the long-term activity, driving a transition from low energy shallow shear-driven fragmentation, to high energy deeper overpressure-driven fragmentation that excavated significant portions of the conduit and intensified local volcanic hazards. Our findings demonstrate the value of multi-parametric approaches for understanding volcanic processes and the triggers for enigmatic shifts in eruption style, with the detection of vicissitudes in both monitoring signals and petrological signatures of the eruptive products proving paramount.

Since 1980, many species and different strains from endophytic genera of Phomopsis, Fusarium, Pestaliopsis and Aspergillus have been studied because of their ability to produce medicinal compounds found in their host plants. Some of these medicinal agents such as Taxol, Brefeldine A, Camptothecin and Podophyllotoxin are being produced in large-scale after an optimization process. However, the potential of fungal endophytes to produce host-like medicinal compounds remains largely unexplored.