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PubMed1995

[Effectiveness of conservative and surgical treatment of lumboischiadic syndrome].

BACKGROUND: Hitherto performed retrospective studies of conservative and surgical treatment of compressive radicular lumboischiadic syndrome did not provide a clear answer to the question which procedure cures the disease more effectively. The reason is that severe types of the disease treated by surgery were compared with therapeutic results of milder forms treated conservatively. The authors compared therefore the effectiveness of both therapeutic procedures in a prospective study with a random selection of patients as regards the therapeutic procedure. METHODS AND RESULTS: In two groups--first group comprising 100 patients with the global syndrome and second group comprising 64 patients with the pure syndrome--the authors enlisted the patients by random selection for conservative or surgical treatment. Early results were assessed three months after treatment. Satisfactory results (cure) were achieved in 50% of the operated patients with the global syndrome, compared with 23.81% treated conservatively (p < 0.01), and improvement was recorded in 77.77% operated patients as compared with 58.69% conservatively treated patients (p < 0.05). In the group with the pure syndrome satisfactory results were achieved in 68.75% operated patients as compared with 21.87% conservatively treated patients (p < 0.001) and improvement in 81.25% patients as compared with 53.12% conservatively treated patients (p < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: The investigation proved a statistically significantly greater effectiveness of the surgical method of treatment of compressive radicular lumboischiadic syndrome as compared with conservative treatment. The second finding was that both methods have a relatively low effectiveness as regards, complete recovery. It is necessary to seek methods to increase the effectiveness of both therapeutic procedures, in particular clearly more effective surgical treatment.

Humans↗
PubMed1996

Thoracolumbar fractures without neurosurgical involvement: surgical or conservative treatment?

The decision whether to treat amyelic thoracolumbar fractures conservatively or by surgical approach depends mainly on radiographic and clinical evaluation of their potential stability. An angle of kyphosis of 20 degrees or more evaluated using the sagittal index (s.i.) described by Farcy et al. in 1990, may be a valid indication for invasine treatment using pedicular systems for correction and stabilization; on the other hand, conservative treatment may be adequate for ensuring satisfactory results in fractures with an angle of less than 20 degrees, which are less likely to become unstable in clinically negative patients. This study confronts the immediate and long-term radiographic and clinical results in 2 groups of patients treated for amyelic thoracolumbar fractures, one treated conservatively, the other surgically; in particular, angle of kyphosis, vertebral compression and clinical conditions (pain and functional impairment) at long-term follow-up were assessed. The study was extended to include an assessment of outcome in relation to the angle of post-traumatic kyphosis in both operated and non-operated patients. Thirty-one patients with a diagnosis of non-neurological thoracolumbar trauma of the segment between D11 and L3 were studied. Twenty patients (group A) were treated conservatively (reduction on Cotrel bed and plaster vest) and 11 (group B) surgically (Diapason instrumentation). The 31 patients were subdivided into 2 groups according to the initial angle of kyphosis calculated using the s.i.: the first consisted of 16 patients (group C) with a s.i. of 20 degrees or more and the other of 15 patients (group D) with a s.i. less than 20 degrees. Six of the 16 group C patients and 5 of the 15 group D patients had been surgically treated. On the basis of the case-material considered, we found that satisfactory short-term radiographic results may be obtained by both conservative and surgical treatment. However, long-term outcome is less favorable in patients treated conservatively because maintainance of the initial improvement of the deformity in the injured segment is not as good as in those treated surgically. This limitation of conservative treatment does not however appear to negatively influence clinical conditions in patients with a s.i. of less than 20 degrees. In other words, although conservative treatment is not as effective as surgery for maintaining radiographic improvement, this does not necessarily signify clinical deterioration in cases with a s.i. of less than 20 degrees in whom the two types of treatment gave similar results.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2026

Integrating Biobanking Into Conservation Practice: The Development and Impact of the EAZA Biobank.

Zoological biobanks are becoming essential tools in conservation, offering a means to preserve genetic material and support in situ population management amid accelerating biodiversity loss. With rapid advances in genomics, cryopreservation, and assisted reproduction technologies, biobanks enable a proactive approach to providing insurance against genetic erosion and facilitating future research, supplementation, and genetic rescue. However, to be effective, zoological biobanks must be purposefully designed, strategically integrated into conservation frameworks such as the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF), and regularly evaluated for coverage and impact. Using the EAZA Biobank as an example, we outline the structure, development, and collaborative foundations that have enabled its rapid growth, built on community support and conservation impact. Leveraging EAZA's institutional network and data-sharing platforms such as ZIMS, the Biobank employs a decentralized, four-hub model of zoological institutions storing samples. A gap analysis, integrating threat status, breeding programs, genomic data repositories, and phylogenetic diversity, highlights current sampling strengths and deficiencies and guides future collection priorities. The integration of specimen-specific genomic data and the EAZA Biobank Cryonetwork of institutions with expertise in storing and generating gametes and cell lines will expand the Biobank's role in population management and conservation. Zoological biobanks must now evolve alongside advances in biotechnology and genomics. Sample collection strategies should serve conservation needs and anticipate future applications in genomics, cryobiology, and conservation medicine, linking biospecimens with the wealth of data generated from them. This approach should be scalable beyond EAZA, forming the foundation of a global standardized biobanking framework. Ultimately, zoological biobanks are not merely repositories of the past-they are essential infrastructures shaping the future potential of species conservation.

EAZA↗
PubMed2004

The effectiveness of plant conservation: a case study of Opole Province, southwest Poland.

This work presents a method of assessing plant conservation effectiveness in a given region, which takes into account the legal, species-centered protection, ecosystem conservation, ex situ conservation, restorations and translocations, reintroductions, and monitoring. In order to illustrate the conservation effectiveness, both legally protected species of plants and threatened species were examined. The conservation effectiveness of legally protected species was estimated to have a low value of 23.328 points (pts) according to the methods of calculation. Habitat conservation is insufficient for these species. Almost 40% of all localities are deprived of any ecosystem protection. The conservation effectiveness of the threatened group of species scored a very low value of 13.46 pts. The major reason for this result is a very low level of species protection. Less than 30% of the threatened taxa are under legal preservation and some species from the Orobanche and Cuscuta genera are treated as harmful organisms, which it is obligatory to control within the province territory. Almost 30% of all localities of threatened species are deprived of any ecosystem protection and only 10% lie inside nature reserves. It is suggested that the conclusion of this investigation be used in the preparation and realization of the regional floristic diversity preservation strategy.

Conservation of Natural Resources↗
PubMed2006

Developmental expression and phylogenetic conservation of alternatively spliced forms of the C-terminal binding protein corepressor.

The C-terminal binding protein (CtBP) is an evolutionarily conserved transcriptional corepressor found in multicellular eukaryotes. Multiple forms of the protein are typically found in animal cells, produced from separate genes and by alternative splicing. CtBP isoforms have also been implicated in cytoplasmic functions, including Golgi fission and vesicular trafficking. All forms of CtBP contain a conserved core domain that is homologous to alpha-hydroxyacid dehydrogenases, and a subset of isoforms (CtBP(L)) contain extensions at the C terminus. Despite distinct developmental profiles and knockout phenotypes in the mouse, the properties of different isoforms of the protein are found to be similar in many transcriptional assays. We have investigated the expression and conservation of distinct isoforms of the CtBP protein in insects and found that the expression of multiple, developmentally regulated isoforms is widely conserved. In a variety of Drosophila species, the relative abundance of CtBP(L) to CtBP(S) drops sharply after embryogenesis, revealing a conserved developmental shift. Despite the overall lower levels of this isoform, bioinformatic analysis reveals that exons encoding the C-terminal extension in CtBP(L) are conserved from Diptera to Coleoptera, suggesting that the CtBP(L) isoform contributes an important, evolutionarily conserved function.

Alcohol Oxidoreductases↗
PubMed2005

The impact of landsat satellite monitoring on conservation biology.

Landsat 7's recent malfunctioning will result in significant gaps in long-term satellite monitoring of Earth, affecting not only the research of the Earth science community but also conservation users of these data. To determine whether or how important Landsat monitoring is for conservation and natural resource management, we reviewed the Landsat program's history with special emphasis on the development of user groups. We also conducted a bibliographic search to determine the extent to which conservation research has been based on Landsat data. Conservation biologists were not an early user group of Landsat data because a) biologists lacked technical capacity--computers and software--to analyze these data; b) Landsat's 1980s commercialization rendered images too costly for biologists' budgets; and c) the broad-scale disciplines of conservation biology and landscape ecology did not develop until the mid-to-late 1980s. All these conditions had changed by the 1990s and Landsat imagery became an important tool for conservation biology. Satellite monitoring and Landsat continuity are mandated by the Land Remote Sensing Act of 1992. This legislation leaves open commercial options. However, past experiments with commercial operations were neither viable nor economical, and severely reduced the quality of monitoring, archiving and data access for academia and the public. Future satellite monitoring programs are essential for conservation and natural resource management, must provide continuity with Landsat, and should be government operated.

Biology↗
PubMed2005

Evolutionary conservation of bacterial operons: does transcriptional connectivity matter?

In the literature, it has been frequently suggested that the connectivity of a protein, i.e., the number of proteins with which it interacts, is inversely correlated with the rate of evolution. We attempted to extrapolate from proteins to operons by testing the hypothesis that operons with high transcriptional connectivity, i.e., operons that are controlled through interactions with many transcription factors, are evolutionarily more conserved at the structure and sequence levels than low-connectivity operons. With Escherichia coli used as reference, two structural- and two sequence-conservation measures were determined for 82 groups of homologous operons from 30 completely-sequenced bacterial genomes. In E. coli, large operons tend to be regulated by more transcription factors than either smaller operons or single genes. Large E. coli operons that are regulated by single transcription factors were found to be regulated by activators more frequently than by repressors. Levels of sequence conservation and structural conservation of operons were found to be independent of each other, i.e., structurally conserved operons may be divergent in sequence, and vice versa. Transcriptional connectivity was found to influence neither sequence nor structural conservation of operons. Although this finding seems to contradict the situation in genes, a critical review of the literature indicates that although gene connectivity is frequently touted as a factor in determining rates of evolution, only a very small fraction of the variability in degrees of evolutionary conservation is explainable by this factor.

Bacteria↗
PubMed2004

Hot regions in protein--protein interactions: the organization and contribution of structurally conserved hot spot residues.

Structurally conserved residues at protein-protein interfaces correlate with the experimental alanine-scanning hot spots. Here, we investigate the organization of these conserved, computational hot spots and their contribution to the stability of protein associations. We find that computational hot spots are not homogeneously distributed along the protein interfaces; rather they are clustered within locally tightly packed regions. Within the dense clusters, they form a network of interactions and consequently their contributions to the stability of the complex are cooperative; however the contributions of independent clusters are additive. This suggests that the binding free energy is not a simple summation of the single hot spot residue contributions. As expected, around the hot spot residues we observe moderately conserved residues, further highlighting the crucial role of the conserved interactions in the local densely packed environment. The conserved occurrence of these organizations suggests that they are advantageous for protein-protein associations. Interestingly, the total number of hydrogen bonds and salt bridges contributed by hot spots is as expected. Thus, H-bond forming residues may use a "hot spot for water exclusion" mechanism. Since conserved residues are located within highly packed regions, water molecules are easily removed upon binding, strengthening electrostatic contributions of charge-charge interactions. Hence, the picture that emerges is that protein-protein associations are optimized locally, with the clustered, networked, highly packed structurally conserved residues contributing dominantly and cooperatively to the stability of the complex. When addressing the crucial question of "what are the preferred ways of proteins to associate", these findings point toward a critical involvement of hot regions in protein-protein interactions.

Binding Sites↗
PubMed2026

Genetic structure and selection signatures of Beijing-You chicken populations provide insight into breed conservation.

Preserving genetic diversity and maintaining population viability are critical yet challenging goals that demand rigorous evaluation of conservation strategies. Beijing-You chicken, as the sole indigenous chicken breed originating from Beijing, China, is currently maintained as four independent populations under distinct conservation programs. How different conservation regimes have shaped its genomic architecture remains largely unknown, limiting evidence-based evaluation. Here, we generated whole-genome resequencing data from 240 individuals representing four Beijing-You chicken populations to assess population structure, genetic diversity, and signatures of selection over decades of conservation. All four populations formed distinct clusters, reflecting measurable differentiation after decades of separate conservation. The differences in genetic diversity were broadly consistent with the variation in effective population size estimates. Runs of homozygosity and linkage disequilibrium decay patterns further characterized each population, with extended values indicating reduced effective population size and increased inbreeding under long-term conservation. We applied the fixation index (FST) and pairwise diversity ratio (&#x3b8;&#x3c0;) methods to identify selection signatures. A total of 171 genes were identified as candidates. These genes were enriched in pathways related to reproduction, growth regulation, and environmental adaptation. These findings highlight patterns of reduced diversity and skewed relatedness, which could arise from management-related factors such as breeding preferences or mating strategies. Still, they are also compatible with neutral processes, including drift and founder effects. Regardless of the underlying cause, integrating scientifically informed conservation strategies with routine genomic monitoring across generations is essential for sustaining genetic diversity in Beijing-You chicken and other indigenous breeds.

Beijing-You chicken↗
PubMed2005

Studies on the cross-clade and cross-species conservation of HIV-1 Gag-specific CD8 and CD4 T cell responses elicited by a clade B DNA/MVA vaccine in macaques.

Here, we evaluate the T cell responses raised by our HIV-1 clade B DNA/MVA vaccine for recognition of a HIV-1 circulating recombinant form (CRF) AG Gag sequence (CRF-02). The cross-clade activity for the AG sequence was better conserved for CD8 than CD4 T cells. CD8 T cells exhibited 75% conservation for height and 83% conservation for breadth, whereas CD4 responses exhibited 45% conservation for height and 50% conservation for breadth. Five CD8 epitopes and 8 CD4 epitopes were mapped. Three of the 5 CD8 epitopes and 2 of the 8 CD4 epitopes were conserved across multiple HIV-1 clades. Impressively, all of the CD8 epitopes and half of the CD4 epitopes have been reported for human infections. Our results demonstrate that the clade B DNA/MVA HIV vaccine elicits T cell responses against epitopes that are conserved in multiple clades and recognized by humans and macaques.

AIDS Vaccines↗
PubMed2002

Protein-DNA interactions: amino acid conservation and the effects of mutations on binding specificity.

We investigate the conservation of amino acid residue sequences in 21 DNA-binding protein families and study the effects that mutations have on DNA-sequence recognition. The observations are best understood by assigning each protein family to one of three classes: (i) non-specific, where binding is independent of DNA sequence; (ii) highly specific, where binding is specific and all members of the family target the same DNA sequence; and (iii) multi-specific, where binding is also specific, but individual family members target different DNA sequences. Overall, protein residues in contact with the DNA are better conserved than the rest of the protein surface, but there is a complex underlying trend of conservation for individual residue positions. Amino acid residues that interact with the DNA backbone are well conserved across all protein families and provide a core of stabilising contacts for homologous protein-DNA complexes. In contrast, amino acid residues that interact with DNA bases have variable levels of conservation depending on the family classification. In non-specific families, base-contacting residues are well conserved and interactions are always found in the minor groove where there is little discrimination between base types. In highly specific families, base-contacting residues are highly conserved and allow member proteins to recognise the same target sequence. In multi-specific families, base-contacting residues undergo frequent mutations and enable different proteins to recognise distinct target sequences. Finally, we report that interactions with bases in the target sequence often follow (though not always) a universal code of amino acid-base recognition and the effects of amino acid mutations can be most easily understood for these interactions.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed2000

Conservation practices in US agriculture and their implication for global climate change.

Increase in the use of conservation practices by agriculture in the United States will enhance soil organic carbon and potentially increase carbon sequestration. This, in turn, will decrease the net emission of carbon dioxide. A number of studies exist that calibrate the contribution of various individual, site-specific conservation practices on changes in soil organic carbon. There is a general absence, however, of a comprehensive effort to measure objectively the contribution of these practices including conservation tillage, the Conservation Reserve Program and conservation buffer strips to an change in soil organic carbon. This paper fills that void. After recounting the evolution of the use of the various conservation practices, it is estimated that organic carbon in the soil in 1998 in the United States attributable to these practices was approximately 12,200,000 metric tons. By 2008, there will be an increase of approximately 25%. Given that there is a significant potential for conservation practices to lead to an increase in carbon sequestration, there are a number of policy options that can be pursued. These include education and technical assistance, financial assistance, research and development, land retirement and regulation and taxes.

Agriculture↗
PubMed2003

Shadoo, a new protein highly conserved from fish to mammals and with similarity to prion protein.

We report evidence from cDNA isolation and expression analysis as well as analyses of genome, expressed sequence tag (EST), cDNA and expression databases for a new gene named SPRN (shadow of prion protein). SPRN comprises two exons, with the open reading frame (ORF) contained within exon 2, and codes for a protein of 130-150 amino acids named Shadoo (Japanese shadow), predicted to be extracellular and GPI-anchored. The SPRN gene was found in fish (zebrafish, Fugu) and mammals (mouse, rat, human). Conservation of order and transcription orientation of two proximal genes between fishes and mammals strongly indicates gene orthology. Sequence comparison shows: a highly conserved N-terminal signal sequence; Arg-rich basic region containing up to six tetrarepeats of consensus XXRG (where X is G, A or S); a hydrophobic region of 20 residues with strong homology to PrP; a less conserved C-terminal domain containing a conserved glycosylation motif; and a C-terminal peptide predicted to be a signal sequence for glycophosphotidylinositol (GPI)-anchor attachment. Fish Shadoos (Sho) show well conserved sequences (identity 54%) over 106 amino acids (zebrafish length), and conservation among the mammalian sequences is very high (identity 81-96%). The fish and mammalian sequences are also well conserved, particularly for zebrafish, to beyond the end of the hydrophobic sequence (identity 41-53%, 78 amino acids, zebrafish length). The overall structure appears closely related to prion proteins (PrPs), although the C-terminal domains of Shos are quite different from those of PrPs, for which conformational changes in mammals are implicated in disease. The structural similarity is particularly interesting given recent reports of three new genes with similarities to PrPs found in Fugu (PrP-like, PrP-461/stPrP-1 and stPrP-2) and other fish, but for which direct evolution to higher vertebrate PrPs is unlikely and for which no other mammalian homologues have been found. Database information indicates expression of SPRN in embryo, brain and retina of mouse and rat, hippocampus of human, and in embryo and retina of zebrafish, and we directly confirmed a strikingly specific expression of the mammalian (human, mouse, rat) transcripts in whole brain. This result together with some common structural features led to the suggestive hypothesis of a possible functional link between mammalian PrP and Sho proteins.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed1998

A strategy for detecting the conservation of folding-nucleus residues in protein superfamilies.

BACKGROUND: Nucleation-growth theory predicts that fast-folding peptide sequences fold to their native structure via structures in a transition-state ensemble that share a small number of native contacts (the folding nucleus). Experimental and theoretical studies of proteins suggest that residues participating in folding nuclei are conserved among homologs. We attempted to determine if this is true in proteins with highly diverged sequences but identical folds (superfamilies). RESULTS: We describe a strategy based on comparisons of residue conservation in natural superfamily sequences with simulated sequences (generated with a Monte-Carlo sequence design strategy) for the same proteins. The basic assumptions of the strategy were that natural sequences will conserve residues needed for folding and stability plus function, the simulated sequences contain no functional conservation, and nucleus residues make native contacts with each other. Based on these assumptions, we identified seven potential nucleus residues in ubiquitin superfamily members. Non-nucleus conserved residues were also identified; these are proposed to be involved in stabilizing native interactions. We found that all superfamily members conserved the same potential nucleus residue positions, except those for which the structural topology is significantly different. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that the conservation of the nucleus of a specific fold can be predicted by comparing designed simulated sequences with natural highly diverged sequences that fold to the same structure. We suggest that such a strategy could be used to help plan protein folding and design experiments, to identify new superfamily members, and to subdivide superfamilies further into classes having a similar folding mechanism.

Algorithms↗
PubMed2001

Conservation practices in U.S. agriculture and their impact on carbon sequestration.

Increase in the use of conservation practices by agriculture in the United States will enhance soil organic carbon and potentially increase carbon sequestration. This, in turn, will decrease the net emission of carbon dioxide. A number of studies exist that calibrate the contribution of various individual, site-specific conservation practices on changes in soil organic carbon. There is a general absence, however, of a comprehensive effort to measure objectively the contribution of these practices including conservation tillage, the Conservation Reserve Program, and conservation buffer strips to an change in soil organic carbon. This paper fills that void. After recounting the evolution of the use of the various conservation practices, it is estimated that organic carbon in the soil in 1998 in the United States attributable to these practices was about 12.2 million metric tons. By 2008, there will be an increase of about 25%. Given that there is a significant potential for conservation practices to lead to an increase in carbon sequestration, there are a number of policy options that can be pursued.

Agriculture↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Monitoring the conservation of grassland habitats, Prairie Ecozone, Canada.

The Prairie Ecozone contains 5% of Canada's land area and represents 16% of the Great Plains of North America. Current estimates indicate that 25-30% of original Canadian grassland habitats remain, largely concentrated in southeastern Alberta and southwestern Saskatchewan with fragments distributed throughout southern Manitoba. The size, distribution and condition of native grasslands serve as valuable indicators of the ecological integrity and the sustainability of those landscape types. With so little native grasslands remaining, areas that conserve grasslands serve as core sites for indicators such as gaps in ecosystem and wildlife habitat protection, i.e. which ecosystems are well-represented, poorly represented or have no representation. Such gap analyses helps to determine where protection efforts need to be placed in the future. Overall, about 3.5% of the Prairie Ecozone of Canada is under some form of conservation area status. This paper reports, relative to the ecoregions and political jurisdictions of the Prairie Ecozone, on the amount and distribution of various types of conservation areas and native grasslands. Relationships between the occurrence of conservation areas and grasslands are presented. Implications for conservation area planning and management are discussed within regional, national and international contexts. The issue of which characteristics of conservation areas should be assessed and monitored to address conservation objectives for sustainability is also discussed.

Canada↗
PubMed2006

Prioritizing global conservation efforts.

One of the most pressing issues facing the global conservation community is how to distribute limited resources between regions identified as priorities for biodiversity conservation. Approaches such as biodiversity hotspots, endemic bird areas and ecoregions are used by international organizations to prioritize conservation efforts globally. Although identifying priority regions is an important first step in solving this problem, it does not indicate how limited resources should be allocated between regions. Here we formulate how to allocate optimally conservation resources between regions identified as priorities for conservation--the 'conservation resource allocation problem'. Stochastic dynamic programming is used to find the optimal schedule of resource allocation for small problems but is intractable for large problems owing to the "curse of dimensionality". We identify two easy-to-use and easy-to-interpret heuristics that closely approximate the optimal solution. We also show the importance of both correctly formulating the problem and using information on how investment returns change through time. Our conservation resource allocation approach can be applied at any spatial scale. We demonstrate the approach with an example of optimal resource allocation among five priority regions in Wallacea and Sundaland, the transition zone between Asia and Australasia.

Algorithms↗
PubMed2000

Recursive use of evolutionary conservation data in molecular modeling of membrane proteins A model of the multidrug H+ antiporter emrE.

Membrane proteins are currently the most biomedically important family of proteins, serving as targets for the majority of pharmaceutical agents. It is also clear that they are invariably abundant in all of the genomes sequence so far, representing up to a third of all open reading frames. Finally, and regrettably, it is clear that they are highly resistant to structural elucidation, representing less than 0.2% of the Protein Data Bank. Recent accomplishments in genome sequencing efforts, however, may help offset this imbalance through the availability of evolutionary conservation data. Herein, we develop a novel approach, utilizing a combination of evolutionary conservation data and global searching molecular dynamics simulations to model membrane proteins, deriving a model for the multidrug H+ antiporter EmrE, a transmembrane four-helix bundle. Structures resulting from an extensive, rotational molecular dynamics search, were evaluated by comparing the residue specific interaction energy and the evolutionary conservation data. Subsequent rounds of molecular dynamics, in which confinement of the search space was undertaken in order to achieve a self consistent result, point to a structure that best satisfies the evolutionary conservation data. As the conservation patterns calculated for each of the helices suggested that the different conservation pattern for helix 3 (as well as being the most conserved) might be due to the oligomeric nature of EmrE, a dodecamer of helices was constructed based on the result of a search of helix 3 as a trimer. The resulting interaction energy per residue in the final model is in reasonable agreement with the evolutionary data and consistent with recent site directed mutagenesis experiments, pointing to the strength of this method as a general tool.

Amino Acid Sequence↗