The transportome of the endophyte Serendipita indica in free life and symbiosis with Arabidopsis and its expression in moderate salinity

Serendipita indica is an endophytic root symbiont fungus that enhances the growth of various plants under different stress conditions, including salinity. Here, the functional characterization of two fungal Na⁺/H⁺ antiporters, SiNHA1 and SiNHX1 has been carried out to study their putative role in saline tolerance. Although their gene expression does not respond specifically to saline conditions, they could contribute, together with the previously characterized Na⁺ efflux systems SiENA1 and SiENA5, to relieve Na⁺ from the S. indica cytosol under this stressed condition. In parallel, an in-silico study has been carried out to define its complete transportome. To further investigate the repertoire of transporters expressed in free-living cells of S. indica and during plant infection under saline conditions, a comprehensive RNA-seq approach was taken. Interestingly, SiENA5 was the only gene significantly induced under free-living conditions in response to moderate salinity at all the tested time points, revealing that it is one of the main salt-responsive genes of S. indica. In addition, the symbiosis with Arabidopsis thaliana also induced SiENA5 gene expression, but significant changes were only detected after long periods of infection, indicating that the association with the plant somehow buffers and protects the fungus against the external stress. Moreover, the significant and strongest induction of the homologous gene SiENA1 occurred during symbiosis, regardless the exposure to salinity. The obtained results suggest a novel and relevant role of these two proteins during the establishment and maintenance of fungus-plant interaction.

Identifying and preventing burnout in young oncologists, an overwhelming challenge in the COVID-19 era: a study of the Spanish Society of Medical Oncology (SEOM)

BACKGROUND

Young oncologists are at particular risk of professional burnout, and this could have a significant impact on their health and care of their patients. The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has forced rapid changes in professionals' jobs and training, with the consequent physical and psychological effects. We aimed to characterize burnout levels and determinants in young oncologists, and the effects of the pandemic on their training and health.

METHODS

Two online surveys were conducted among oncology residents and young oncology specialists in Spain. The first addressed professional burnout and its determinants before the COVID-19 pandemic, while the second analyzed the impact of the pandemic on health care organization, training, and physical and psychological health in the same population.

RESULTS

In total, 243 respondents completed the first survey, and 263 the second; 25.1% reported significant levels of professional burnout. Burnout was more common among medical oncology residents (28.2%), mainly in their second year of training. It was significantly associated with a poor work-life balance, inadequate vacation time, and the burnout score. Nearly three-quarters of respondents (72%) were reassigned to COVID-19 care and 84.3% of residents missed part of their training rotations. Overall, 17.2% of this population reported that they had contracted COVID-19, 37.3% had scores indicating anxiety, and 30.4% moderate to severe depression. Almost a quarter of young oncologists (23.3%) had doubts about their medical vocation.

CONCLUSIONS

Burnout affects a considerable number of young oncologists. The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on causes of burnout, making it even more necessary to periodically monitor it to define appropriate detection and prevention strategies.

PDBe: Protein Data Bank in Europe

The Protein Data Bank in Europe (PDBe; pdbe.org) is a partner in the Worldwide PDB organization (wwPDB; wwpdb.org) and as such actively involved in managing the single global archive of biomacromolecular structure data, the PDB. In addition, PDBe develops tools, services and resources to make structure-related data more accessible to the biomedical community. Here we describe recently developed, extended or improved services, including an animated structure-presentation widget (PDBportfolio), a widget to graphically display the coverage of any UniProt sequence in the PDB (UniPDB), chemistry- and taxonomy-based PDB-archive browsers (PDBeXplore), and a tool for interactive visualization of NMR structures, corresponding experimental data as well as validation and analysis results (Vivaldi).