The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of starvation and refeeding on the growth and food intake of gilthead seabream (Sparus aurata) and seabass (Dicentrarchus labrax) and on the growth and nitrogen uptake of glasswort (Salicornia europaea) in a polyculture aquaponic system under 12 ppt salinity for 75 days. Nine small-scale autonomous aquaponic systems were used, each containing 10 gilthead seabreams (average weight of 6.33 ± 0.73 g and average length of 5.73 ± 0.72 cm) and 10 seabasses (5.82 ± 0.77 g and 6.35 ± 0.45 cm), as well as five glasswort plants. Three fish feeding treatments were performed, a control (A), in which fish were fed daily until satiation, and two fasting treatments for 4 (B) and 7 days (C). Fish growth performance was significantly lower (p < 0.05) in the C treatment for both species compared to treatments A and B. Food consumption (FC) and feed conversion ratio (FCR) were significantly higher (p < 0.05) in treatment C. Glasswort growth performance was significantly higher in treatment C (p < 0.05). The results showed that the 4-day food-deprived fish were similar to the control fish by achieving partial compensatory growth. The more extended fasting period (7 days) resulted in significantly lower growth performance. The lipid and nitrogen retention levels in both species were significantly lower in food-deprived fish than in the control fish both before and during compensatory growth. The results suggest that a feeding schedule involving starvation-refeeding cycles is a promising feed management option for these species in polyculture aquaponic systems. The effect of food deprivation was also significantly beneficial (p < 0.05) for the growth performance of glasswort compared to the control treatment.

Lipid droplets (LDs) are spherical organelles that localize in the cytosol of eukaryotic cells. Different proteins are embedded on the surface of LDs, so LDs play a vital role in the physiological activities of cells. The dysregulation of LDs is associated with various human diseases, such as diabetes and obesity. Therefore, it is essential to develop a fluorescent dye that labels LDs to detect and monitor illnesses. In this study, we developed the compound BDAA12C for staining LDs in cells. BDAA12C exhibits excellent LD specificity and low toxicity, enabling us to successfully stain and observe the fusion of LDs in A549 cancer cells. Furthermore, we also successfully distinguished A549 cancer cells and MRC-5 normal cells in a co-culture experiment and in normal and tumour tissues. Interestingly, we found different localizations of BDAA12C in well-fed and starved A549 cancer cells and consequently illustrated the transfer of fatty acids (FAs) from LDs to mitochondria to supply energy for β-oxidation upon starvation. Therefore, BDAA12C is a promising LD-targeted probe for cancer diagnosis and tracking lipid trafficking within cells.

The short-term impact of famines on death and disease is well documented, but estimating their potential long-term impact is difficult. We used the setting of the man-made Ukrainian Holodomor famine of 1932-1933 to examine the relation between prenatal famine and adult type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). This ecological study included 128,225 T2DM cases diagnosed from 2000 to 2008 among 10,186,016 male and female Ukrainians born from 1930 to 1938. Individuals who were born in the first half-year of 1934, and hence exposed in early gestation to the mid-1933 peak famine period, had a greater than twofold likelihood of T2DM compared with that of unexposed controls. There was a dose-response relationship between severity of famine exposure and increase in adult T2DM risk.

Glioma is the most common malignant tumor in the brain, accounting for over 80% of all primary intracranial tumors. The current clinical treatment has shown certain limitations. Although M1 type microglia can secrete various pro-inflammatory cytokines and are expected to be used for glioma treatment, direct use of microglia may lead to overactivation and trigger immune storms. Therefore, we first found that serum starvation can stimulate the transformation of microglia into M1 type. Subsequently, we found through comparative experiments that the inhibitory effect of microglial cell lysis medium on glioma cells was stronger than that of microglial cell culture medium. Finally, we successfully prepared sodium alginate hydrogel loaded with microglia lysis solution to achieve sustained inhibitory effect on the growth of glioma and avoid its proliferation.

UNASSIGNED: Nausea and vomiting occur in more than 70% of pregnant women,1 and only 2% of these females progress into hyperemesis gravidarum (HG).2 HG is the persistent and excessive vomiting before the 22nd week of gestation. HG patients can develop life-threatening electrolyte disturbances or thromboembolism. Pulmonary embolism (PE) is a thromboembolism that blocks and stops blood flow to an artery in the lung. Both HG and PE increase morbidity and mortality in pregnant patients. HG patients developing PE are reported only in two patients with fatal outcomes in the literature. We report a case of PE in a hospitalized HG patient with a better outcome.
UNASSIGNED: A 26-year-old previously healthy gravida 3 and para 2 patient was admitted to the Women Wellness and Research Center with HG at 10 weeks of gestation. She developed nausea and vomiting at 6 weeks of gestation and was treated in the emergency department, where she was started on intravenous (IV) fluids for hydration, an antiemetic, and deltaparin for prevention of deep venous thrombosis (DVT), as she was pregnant and dehydrated. She was on potassium replacement therapy for hypokalemia. The patient was improving; still had vomiting, but less frequent. On day 3, following admission, the patient suddenly developed hemoptysis, chest pain, and palpitation. She was tachycardic (120 bpm) and tachypneic (30 breaths per minute). She was feeling dizzy, and her oxygen saturation (Spo2) was around 95%. Her chest was clear on examination. Computerized tomographic pulmonary angiography showed bilateral PE. She was admitted to the highdependency unit. The patient was tachypneic and tachycardic and required non-invasive ventilation. A therapeutic dose of enoxaparin (1 mg/kg) was started and supplemented with fentanyl plus paracetamol for analgesia, continued IV fluids, and promethazine.Her respiratory symptoms and tachycardia improved by day 6, she was transferred to the ward from there and discharged home by day 10, on enoxaparin therapeutic dose (1 mg/kg), and follow up in outpatient clinics showed no issues, and she is doing fine.
UNASSIGNED: HG is a severe clinical disease in pregnancy where patients have intractable nausea and vomiting with increased morbidity and even mortality. These patients frequently present with ketonuria, dehydration, electrolyte abnormalities, and a weight loss of 7%. Rarely, these patients\' present with severe vitamin deficiency, causing a neurological emergency called Wernicke\'s encephalopathy. The occurrence of DVT is one of the main risk factors due to prothrombotic conditions in pregnancy in combination with dehydration in these patients. The occurrence of PE is reported in two cases of HG in the post-mortem. Our patient developed bilateral PE, a medical emergency due to immobility, dehydration, and prothrombotic predominance during pregnancy. PE was detected early and managed, leading to a better outcome.
UNASSIGNED: HG should be diagnosed early, followed by admission of the patient to the hospital. Our patient with HG was complicated by a rare bilateral PE due to a combination of pregnancy, dehydration, and immobility, despite DVT prophylaxis with a favorable outcome. Clinicians should have an index of suspicion for DVT and PE in these dehydrated pregnant patients. A high index of suspicion, early diagnosis, and management by a multidisciplinary team are key for better outcomes of PE in our HG patient.

The influence and mechanisms of starvation on the bacterial mobile performance in porous media with different nutrition conditions are not well understood. The present study systematically investigated the impacts of starvation on the mobility and attachment of both Gram-negative and Gram-positive strains in porous media without and with nutrients on surfaces in both simulated and real water samples. We found that regardless of strain types and water chemistries, starvation would greatly inhibit bacterial attachment onto bare porous media without nutrients yet could significantly enhance cell attachment onto porous media with nutrients on their surfaces. The mechanisms driving the opposite transport behaviors induced by starvation in porous media without and with nutrients were totally different. We found that the starvation process decreased cell motility and increased repulsive force between bacteria and porous media via decreasing cell sizes and zeta potentials, reducing EPS secretion and cell hydrophobicity, thus increasing transport/inhibiting attachment of bacteria in porous media without nutrients on sand surfaces. In contrast, through strengthening the positive chemotactic response of bacteria to nutrients, the starvation process greatly enhanced bacterial attachment onto porous media with nutrients on sand surfaces. Clearly, via modification of the nutrient conditions in porous media, the mobility/attachment performance of bacteria could be regulated.

Catabolite repression is a mechanism of selectively utilizing preferred nutrient sources by redirecting the metabolic pathways. Therefore, it prevents non-essential energy expenditure by repressing the genes and proteins involved in the metabolism of other less favored nutrient sources. Catabolite repressor protein (CRP) is a chief mediator of catabolite repression in microorganisms. In this context, we investigated the role of CRP in starvation tolerance, at both cell physiology and molecular level, by comparing the growth, survival, competitive fitness, maintenance rate, and gene and protein expression of wild type (WT) and ∆crp of Salmonella Typhimurium, under nutrient-rich and minimal medium condition. The ∆crp shows slow growth upon the arrival of nutrient-limiting conditions, poor survival under prolong-starvation, and inability to compete with its counterpart WT strain in nutrient-rich [Luria broth (LB)] and glucose-supplemented M9 minimal medium. Surprisingly, we observed that the survival and competitive fitness of ∆crp are influenced by the composition of the growth medium. Consequently, compared to the glucose-supplemented M9 medium, ∆crp shows faster death and a higher maintenance rate in the LB medium. The comparative gene and protein expression studies of WT and ∆crp in LB medium show that ∆crp has partial or complete loss of repression from CRP-controlled genes, resulting in a high abundance of hundreds of proteins in ∆crp compared to WT. Subsequently, the addition of metabolizable sugar or fresh nutrients to the competing culture showed extended survival of ∆crp. Therefore, our results suggest that CRP-mediated gene repression improves starvation tolerance and competitive fitness of Salmonella Typhimurium by adapting its cellular maintenance rate to environmental conditions.IMPORTANCESalmonella Typhimurium is a master at adapting to chronic starvation conditions. However, the molecular mechanisms to adapt to such conditions are still unknown. In this context, we have evaluated the role of catabolite repressor protein (CRP), a dual transcriptional regulator, in providing survival and competitive fitness under starvation conditions. Also, it showed an association between CRP and nutrient composition. We observed that Δcrp growing on alternate carbon sources has lower survival and competitive fitness than Δcrp growing on glucose as a carbon source. We observed that this is due to the loss of repression from the glucose and CRP-controlled genes, resulting in elevated cellular metabolism (a high maintenance rate) of the Δcrp during growth in a medium having a carbon source other than glucose (e.g., Luria broth medium).

BACKGROUND: Energy homeostasis is vital for insects to survive food shortages. This study investigated the starvation tolerance of Spodoptera frugiperda, which invaded China in 2019, focusing on its storage protein family, crucial for energy balance. 10 storage protein family members were identified and their expression patterns at different development stages and under different starvation stress were analyzed.
RESULTS: We used qPCR to evaluate the expression levels of storage protein family members under various larval instars and starvation conditions. We discovered that, among above 10 members, only 2 storage proteins, SfSP8 and SfSP7 showed significant upregulation in response to starvation stress. Notably, SfSP8 upregulated markedly after 24 h of fasting, whereas SfSP7 exhibited a delayed response, with significant upregulation observed only after 72 h of starvation. Then we significantly reduced the starvation tolerance of larvae through RNAi-mediated knockdown of SfSP8 and also altered the starvation response of SfSP7 from a late to an early activation pattern. Finally, we constructed transgenic Drosophila melanogaster with heterologous overexpressing SfSP8 revealed that the starvation tolerance of the transgenic line was significantly stronger than that of wild-type lines.
CONCLUSIONS: SfSP8 was the core storage protein member that mediated the starvation tolerance of larvae of S. frugiperda. Our study on the novel function of storage proteins in mediating larval starvation tolerance of S. frugiperda is conducive to understanding the strong colonization of this terrible invasive pest.

BACKGROUND: The human oral and nasal cavities can act as reservoirs for opportunistic pathogens capable of causing acute infection. These microbes asymptomatically colonize the human oral and nasal cavities which facilitates transmission within human populations via the environment, and they routinely possess clinically significant antibiotic resistance genes. Among these opportunistic pathogens, the Klebsiella genus stands out as a notable example, with its members frequently linked to nosocomial infections and multidrug resistance. As with many colonizing opportunistic pathogens, the essential transmission factors influencing the spread of Klebsiella species among both healthy and diseased individuals remain unclear.
RESULTS: Here, we explored a possible explanation by investigating the ability of oral and nasal Klebsiella species to outcompete their native microbial community members under in vitro starvation conditions, which could be analogous to external hospital environments or the microenvironment of mechanical ventilators. When K. pneumoniae and K. aerogenes were present within a healthy human oral or nasal sample, the bacterial community composition shifted dramatically under starvation conditions and typically became enriched in Klebsiella species. Furthermore, introducing K. pneumoniae exogenously into a native microbial community lacking K. pneumoniae, even at low inoculum, led to repeated enrichment under starvation. Precise monitoring of K. pneumoniae within these communities undergoing starvation indicated rapid initial growth and prolonged viability compared to other members of the microbiome. K. pneumoniae strains isolated from healthy individuals\' oral and nasal cavities also exhibited resistance to multiple classes of antibiotics and were genetically similar to clinical and gut isolates. In addition, we found that in the absence of Klebsiella species, other understudied opportunistic pathogens, such as Peptostreptococcus, increased in relative abundance under starvation conditions.
CONCLUSIONS: Our findings establish an environmental and microbiome community circumstance that allows for the enrichment of Klebsiella species and other opportunistic pathogens. Klebsiella\'s enrichment may hinge on its ability to quickly outgrow other members of the microbiome. The ability to outcompete other commensal bacteria and to persist under harsh environmental conditions could be an important factor that contributes to enhanced transmission in both commensal and pathogenic contexts. Video Abstract.

The application of ANAMMOX technology is constrained by sluggish growth and difficulty in enriching ANAMMOX bacteria. Long-term starvation of functioning bacteria due to limited substrate supply makes the steady operation of ANAMMOX reactors more difficult. Re-examining the start-up and recovery performance of the ANAMMOX reactor and identifying its resistance mechanism are important from the standpoint of long-term starvation. By inoculating nitrifying and denitrifying sludge under various operating circumstances, the ANAMMOX reactors were successfully started. Under various start-up procedures, the tolerance mechanism and recovery performance were examined. The outcomes demonstrated that the denitrifying sludge-inoculated reactor operated steadily with a high substrate concentration and low flow rate. After 85 days of operation, the removal efficiencies of NH4+-N, NO2--N, and total nitrogen reached 98.7%, 99.3%, and 89.3%, respectively. After 144 days of starvation and 30 days of recovery, the better nitrogen removal performance was achieved at a low substrate concentration and high flow rate, and the removal efficiencies were 99.8% （NH4+-N）, 99.8% （NO2--N）, and 93.6% （total nitrogen）. During the starvation, extracellular polymeric substances wrapped the ANAMMOX bacteria and kept them intact to resist long-term starvation stress. The expression of nirS, hzsA, and hdh genes ensured the synthesis of nitrite/nitric oxide oxidoreductase, hydrazine synthase, and hydrazine dehydrogenase to maintain ANAMMOX activity. There was no significant difference in the relative abundance of ANAMMOX bacteria before and after starvation recovery. Candidatus Kuenenia had better anti-hunger ability, and the relative abundance increased by more than 86% after 30 days of recovery, confirming its tolerance to long-term starvation.