COVID-19 associated liver injury:A general review with special consideration of pregnancy and obstetric outcomes

Liver injury is an increasingly recognized extra-pulmonary manifestation of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2(SARS-CoV-2)infection.Coronavirus disease 2019(COVID-19)associated liver injury(COVALI)is a clinical syndrome encompassing all patients with biochemical liver injury identified in the setting of SARS-CoV-2 infection.Despite profound clinical implications,its pathophysiology is poorly understood.Unfortunately,most information on COVALI is derived from the general population and may not be applicable to individuals under-represented in research,including pregnant individuals.This manuscript reviews:Clinical features of COVALI,leading theories of COVALI,and existing literature on COVALI during pregnancy,a topic not widely explored in the literature.Ultimately,we synthesized data from the general and perinatal populations that demonstrates COVALI to be a hepatocellular transaminitis that is likely induced by systemic inflammation and that is strongly associated with disease severity and poorer clinical outcome,and offered perspective on approaching transaminitis in the potentially COVID-19 positive patient in the obstetric setting.

Sex ratio of mirid populations shifts in response to hostplant co-infestation or altered cytokinin signaling

Herbivore species sharing a host plant often compete. In this study, we show that host plant-mediated interaction between two insect herbivores-a generalist and a specialist-results in a sex ratio shift of the specialist＇s offspring. We studied demographic parameters of the specialist Tupiocoris notatus（Hemiptera： Miridae）when co-infesting the host plant Nicotiana attenuata（Solanaceae） with the generalist leafhopper Empoasca sp.（Hemiptera： Cicadellidae）. We show that the usually female-biased sex ratio of T. notatus shifts toward a higher male proportion in the offspring on plants coinfested by Empoasca sp. This sex ratio change did not occur after oviposition, nor is it due differential mortality of female and male nymphs. Based on pyrosequencing and PCR of bacterial 16 S rRNA amplicons, we concluded that sex ratio shifts were unlikely to be due to infection with Wolbachia or other known sex ratio-distorting endosymbionts. Finally, we used transgenic lines of N.attenuata to evaluate if the sex ratio shift could be mediated by changes in general or specialized host plant metabolites. We found that the sex ratio shift occurred on plants deficient in two cytokinin receptors（irCHK2/3）.Thus, cytokinin-regulated traits can alter the offspring sex ratio of the specialist T.notatus.