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- Food Choice, Nutrition, and Public HealthPublication . Santos, Mariana; Assunção, RicardoMaintaining a healthy diet throughout life helps prevent all forms of malnutrition, thereby reducing the risk of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and related conditions . Dietary habits, lifestyle choices, and social factors significantly influence our health. Recently, we have seen shifts in food consumption patterns driven by various factors. These include the increased availability of processed foods, rapid urbanization, and changing lifestyles. The types, amounts, and frequency of consumed foods and beverages define dietary patterns, which have been evolving in recent decades due to the emergence of new or adapted eating habits. Common examples of dietary patterns include the ‘Western dietary pattern’ and the ‘Mediterranean dietary pattern’. Other significant patterns are the ‘prudent dietary pattern’, which emphasizes a high intake of vegetables, fruits, legumes, whole grains, fish, and seafood, and the ‘vegetarian/plant-based dietary pattern’, which entirely omits meat and animal products. Understanding the individual motives that drive certain food choices is crucial for changing consumption habits, promoting healthier behaviors, and fostering sustainability. This Editorial introduces the Special Issue “Food Choice, Nutrition, and Public Health” and highlights key topics on this subject.
- Surveying genetic markers of antibiotic resistance and genomic background in Chlamydia trachomatis: insights from a multiplex NGS-based approach in clinical strains from PortugalPublication . Lodhia, Zohra; da Silva, Jorge Costa; Correia, Cristina; Cordeiro, Dora; João, Inês; Carreira, Teresa; Schäfer, Sandra; Aliyeva, Elzara; Portugal, Clara; Monge, Isabel; Gonçalves, Elsa; Matos, Susana; Dias, Ana Paula; Côrte-Real, Rita; Carpinteiro, Dina; Duarte, Sílvia; Vieira, Luís; Gomes, João Paulo; Borges, Vítor; Borrego, Maria JoséObjectives: To survey genetic markers of potential antimicrobial resistance (AMR) to macrolides and fluoroquinolones among Chlamydia trachomatis–positive samples from the collection of the Portuguese National Reference Laboratory for Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs), and explore a multiplex PCR approach coupled with NGS to provide complementary information regarding a strain’s genomic backbone. Methods: A total of 502 C. trachomatis–positive samples, mostly anorectal exudates, were subjected to PCR and sequencing of five targets, including loci potentially driving AMR (23S rRNA, gyrA and parC) and loci potentially informative about a strain’s genomic backbone with emphasis on differentiation of lymphogranuloma venereum (LGV)/non-LGV and L2/L2b (a 9 bp insertion in pmpH, a 74 bp insertion upstream from CT105 and the polymorphic CT442). Results: No samples evidenced 23S rRNA mutations recognizably linked to macrolide resistance. Three samples harboured the Ser83Ile mutation in GyrA putatively driving fluoroquinolone resistance: two recombinant L2-L2b/D-Da (0.4%) and one L2 (0.2%). The screened regions in pmpH, upstream CT105 and CT442 were fully concordant with LGV/non-LGV differentiation. As expected, the pmpH L2b-specific genetic trait locus was detected in all L2b and recombinant L2-L2b/D-Da ompA genotypes, but also in 96.0% of L2 specimens, which also likely possess an L2b genomic backbone. The insertion upstream from CT105 exhibited full LGV specificity, constituting a promising target for the development of rapid LGV diagnostic assays. Conclusions: This study contributes to enhancing the knowledge of C. trachomatis molecular epidemiology, suggesting that the known genetic determinants of AMR are not disseminated in clinical C. trachomatis strains, and presents an exploratory approach that can be suitable for LGV/non-LGV and L2/L2b genomic background differentiation.