Decapod crustaceans is an animal group whose functional characteristics make it an ideal model for many neurophysiological studies, from basic cellular function to integrative and the so-called superior brain functions. Olfaction and chemical detection are two faces of detection of water-dissolved compounds that are determinant for the survival of the individual as well as the species. Olfaction in particular, shares many anatomical commonalities with insects but also with vertebrates. The elaborated coding and the integration process of olfactory information seem both basic and highly complex to identify and differentiate unknown dissolved molecules that participate in mating, mating selection, and agonistic encounters. Not a single compound or a mixture of compounds associated with winning or losing agonistic encounters have been isolated. When two size-matched unknown winners or two size-matched unknown losers are paired a new winner emerges, which implies new coding/decoding and integrative processes have occurred. We do not know what these processes are, but pinpoint to the more important events in these relationships quite important in the maintenance of territoriality, access to food and mate, etc.
Circadian rhythms are significant in coordinating and adjusting daily behavioural and physiological activities from bacteria to humans. The molecular component of the circadian rhythms in D. melanogaster is widely studied. This system is made up of transcriptional-translational autoregulatory feedback loops. Recent studies reveal there is a general homologue of circadian genes found within the molecular clock; however, the results shown in other holometabolous insects could somewhat differ from that of D. melanogaster. There has been tremendous progress in the identification of genes over the years, which regulates transcription has broadened the scope of our understanding revealing cellular and molecular mechanisms, yet the roles these genes play in holometabolous insects are not well discussed. In this review, we tend to prefer to display an outline of the present comprehension of the roles circadian rhythms play in holometabolous insects.
Over the last decade, the relevance of the pituitary-bone axis has been recognized. Oxytocin (OXT), arginine vasopressin (AVP), growth hormone (GH), follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), adrenocorticotrophic hormone (ACTH) and prolactin have a dominant action on the skeleton as demonstrated by the fact that genetically modified mice lacking their ligands or receptors exhibit a skeletal phenotype, although the primary target organs remain unaltered. Unraveling these new mechanisms of action of the pituitary hormones has paved the way for new therapeutic opportunities in the treatment of osteoporosis. Here, we summarize the action and interaction of OXT and AVP, closely related small peptides that modulate reciprocal secretion and receptor expression on bone cells, in the physiologic context of the skeletal homeostasis.
To consider the utility of array-comparative genomic hybridization patients with apparently isolated congenital anomalies, 109 patients whose indication for testing was a birth defect without other concerns about syndromes or intellectual disability were selected from 1766 analyses conducted from 2009 to 2017. Twenty-nine had copy number variants more likely to contribute to the birth defect and another 80 were potentially contributory. Defects of the central nervous (23 patients), cardiovascular (20), digestive (19), and pulmonary (9) systems predominated with some high prevalence variants, traditionally reported as benign, recurring in particular anomaly cases. This small number of anomaly-associated copy number variants does not provide a definitive answer to the title question. However, the value of further studies is supported by consideration of the polygenic inheritance/multifactorial determination of congenital malformations, their derivation from common developmental fields, and their possible prediction by determination of copy number variant profiles.
Seaweed polysaccharides isolated from the cell walls of various species of algae, possess immunomodulatory, anti-inflammatory, antiviral, antitumor, antithrombotic, anticoagulant and antioxidant bioactivities. Within the group of polysaccharides extracted from algae there are the phycocolloids. Colloids are extracted compounds that form colloidal solutions, an intermediate state between a solution and a suspension; they can be used commercially as thickeners, gelling agents and stabilizers for suspensions and emulsions. Hydrocolloids are carbohydrates that when dissolved in water form viscous solutions. Sulfated galactans (e.g. agars, carrageenans, porphyrans) can be obtained from red algae, (e.g. ulvans) from green algae, alginates and other sulfated polysaccharides (e.g. ascophyllan, laminaran and fucoidan) are obtained from selected brown algae. The historic origin of the main phycocolloids and other seaweed polysaccharides (e.g. agar, carrageenan, alginic acid - alginates), their chemistry, uses and bioactivities are described in this review.
Vaccination promises to be the most sustainable means of preventing and managing disease outbreaks in aquaculture. Fish vaccines should be efficient, potent and safe, and should not have adverse effects on humans or the environment. Although vaccination for fish includes immersion and oral delivery routes, injection delivery is currently the most widely applied method industry wide. This is effective for highly valued fish species; however, injection vaccination is not practical for species of lower value or for diseases affecting fish at small sizes. Under these circumstances, oral and immersion delivery holds the greatest promise, but requires antigens to be efficiently taken up through mucosal surfaces. Oral delivery of vaccines in the feed is difficult due to challenges in delivering a consistent and adequate dosage, potential for degradation of antigens in the gastrointestinal tract, and risks of developing oral tolerance. Immersion delivery of killed antigens (bacterins) or live attenuated vaccines is more common and much less stressful than injection delivery. This method involves dipping or bathing fish in a vaccine solution for a period of time to allow antigen uptake across mucosal surfaces resulting in stimulation of both a mucosal and systemic immune response. This review discusses multiple delivery methods for vaccination of fish with primary emphasis on immersion delivery and the factors affecting efficacy such as dose, duration of protection, delivery time, size at first vaccination, booster regimes, and storage requirements. All of which must be optimized before a vaccine is commercialized. Such criteria have been evaluated for a recently developed live attenuated immersion vaccine, Flavobacterium psychrophilum 259-93-B.17 grown in iron limiting medium (called B.17-ILM) that protects trout and salmon against coldwater disease (CWD). This vaccine requires a booster immunization but protects rainbow trout for at least 24 weeks with a relative percent survival of 70%. A vaccine dose as low as ~ 105 cfu/mL has been shown to provide significant protection following pathogen challenge, and fish as small as 0.5 g can be administered the vaccine by immersion and protected from CWD. This review highlights aquaculture vaccines and emphasizes the potential to utilize live attenuated vaccines and mucosal vaccination (immersion) for aquaculture, but it is clear that a better understanding of antigen uptake mechanisms could aid in designing and optimizing future vaccines for fish. As newer developments in vaccine production and processing technologies, storage technologies and novel delivery strategies become available for aquaculture, it is likely that immersion vaccination will be the method of choice for most fish farmers.
The goal of gene therapy is to deliver as many copies of a functional gene to a patient that lacks this protein. There have been some recent successes in rescuing some types of blindness and red blood cell disorders. Current lentivirus-based vectors can only accommodate around 10 kilobases of foreign DNA. Also, integration of the vector is random, so transcription of a given gene can vary several-fold depending on the chromosomal architecture where insertion occurs. We constructed a P1 Artificial Chromosome (PAC) shuttle vector that has a greater than 150 kilobase insert size limit and remains as an episome in human cells. We previously demonstrated that a PAC clone containing the p53 gene was transcribed and translated when transiently introduced into p53 homozygous null Saos-2 human osteosarcoma cells. Furthermore, the apoptotic pathway was triggered in some of the cells. A Saos-2 cell line that overexpresses the bcl-2 cDNA was generated using G418 selection so that the effects of different lipofection reagents on copy number and transcription and translation levels of p53 could be studied. EndoFectin Max resulted in a several-fold higher transfection efficiency than Lipofectamine 3000. Seven stable cell lines were generated from each transfection procedure using puromycin and G418 selection. Unfortunately, only 7 of 13 cell lines contained measurable levels of p53 cDNA when total RNA was subjected to reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). A PAC clone containing the green fluorescent gene from Pontellina plumata that is expressed from the strong cytomegalovirus promoter is being constructed to investigate whether Lipofectamine 3000 or EndoFectin Max maximizes transfection efficiency, plasmid copy number, and transcription and translation levels in the continuous cell lines HEK293, KG1 and Saos-2.
Modification by chemical and physical methods is widely used to improve features of the starch polymer important for industrial applications. In this review it was shown, that thermally generated radicals studied by Electron Paramagnetic Resonance (EPR) spectroscopy may serve as sensitive detectors of the changes occurring in the polymer structure and properties upon modification. Results obtained by using two types of radicals, relatively stable and short-lived ones, and two methods of modification, phosphorylation and high pressure treatment, were presented. Significance of the following experimental factors: optimal heating parameters, correctly prepared reference samples, sufficient amount of modifying agent, controlled moisture on the effectiveness of this method was evidenced. The proposed approach enables distinction between two types of phosphorus bonded as terminating or bridging polymer chains. Moreover, EPR data of the short-lived radicals reflect correctly the starch granule architecture and its changes caused by applied treatment.
One of the main unsolved problems of theoretical biology is the search for a mechanism of progressive evolutionary transformations. Neo-Darwinism could not explain morphophysiological complication of organisms, and, moreover, the cause of this complication. Palaeobotanist S.V. Meyen suggested the hypothesis of phytospreading, according to which new “advanced” high rank taxa appear in the equatorial belt. Later, the representatives of these taxa migrate to the middle latitudes during warming. If to supplement this hypothesis with the inverse process, which is caused by cooling, then the new hypothesis of reversible or repeated phytospreading (biospreading) can bring us closer to an understanding the mechanism of progressive evolutionary changes. The main role in this case is played by heterochrony and hybridization as a result of convergence of ancestral equatorial species and their changed descendants, which have “returned” from the middle latitudes.
Triptolide induced the death of cells of lipopolysaccharide (LPS)- treated macrophage-like cell line J774.1/JA-4 cells through apoptosis but not through activation during incubation at 37oC for 4 h. This phenomenon was dependent on the dose and the time of addition of triptolide; and prior or simultaneous addition to LPS was needed, suggesting mal-regulation of LPS-signaling cascades. LPS rapidly induced phosphorylation of p38 MAP kinase, JNK and Erk1/2 within 15 min of its addition, and then dephosphorylation of them followed by 60 min. However, the addition of triptolide, but not endothall, inhibited this dephosphorylation of phospho-p38 and phosphor-JNK in these cells, suggesting that MKP-1 was involved in the dephosphorylation of these phosphoproteins. Triptolide inhibited the synthesis of MKP-1 mRNA and protein induced by LPS. Compared with our previous studies, where a protein synthesis inhibitor, cycloheximide (CHX), induced rapid apoptotic cell death in LPS-treated macrophages through sustained phosphorylation of p38, triptolide seemed to induce cell death of LPS-treated macrophages by inhibition of MKP-1 induction.
Colcemid, a drug initially for arresting cells at mitotic stage, was found to inhibit the rejoining of nucleotide excision repair (NER) in cells exposed to UV irradiation. Subsequent studies reveal not only colcemid but the chemicals which cause oxidative stress have the similar inhibitory effect on gap filling of NER. The inhibitory effect has been correlated to the base excision repair (BER) of oxidative DNA damage and was proposed to result from the competition between BER and NER for common components such as PCNA in the gap filling step. The proposition was supported by the observation that overexpression of PCNA attenuates the oxidative stress-induced inhibition of gap filling of NER. Considering the roles of PCNA in both repairing of oxidative DNA damage and translesion DNA synthesis, a model is proposed. Lastly, the chemistry of colcemid in causing oxidative stress is briefly reviewed.
Histamine is a bioactive amine that affects a wide range of biological activities in the human body. In this review, we discuss the active components of spices and herbs that can inhibit histidine decarboxylase (HDC), an enzyme that catalyzes synthesis of histamine. We screened 21 spices and 122 medicinal plants by carrying out inhibition assays with recombinant human HDC. Among spices, flavonoid glycosides of allspice, quercetin 3-O-b-D-glucuronide 6-methyl ester and quercetin 3-O (2-O-galloyl) glucoside, at 1 mM inhibited HDC by 64 and 55%, respectively. Among medicinal plants, ellagitannins of meadowsweet, rugosin D, rugosin A, rugosin A methyl ester, and tellimagrandin II inhibited HDC significantly with Ki values of approximately 0.35-1 mM. These results indicate that plant components are promising sources for novel inhibitors of HDC.
ABSTRACT In recent years, pig husbandry has gained ground in comparison to production of ruminant animals. In Tanzania more than 90 per cent of the country’s two million pigs are kept by small-scale farmers under both confined and free-roaming management systems as a sole enterprise in urban areas or as a component of a mixed crop-livestock system. Major constraints include poor management due to lack of knowledge by farmers, inadequate nutrition and limited veterinary services which result in heavy disease burdens. At least 10 species of endo-parasites have been identified in Tanzania’s pig stock. Mange mites, ticks, lice and fleas infest a large proportion of pigs. Some five species of trypanosomes are blood parasites mainly in the northern part of the country. Constraints imposed by these parasites must be mitigated in order to improve the productivity of pigs in the country. This paper reviews the national literature on the subject.
In the budding yeasts, centromere (CEN) DNA is confined within a short region of chromosome called point centromere. Yarrowia lipolytica forms budding-type yeast cells as well as mycelial cells depending on their growth conditions, thus imposing the interest on CEN architecture among distantly related budding yeasts. A canonical centromere-determining element (CDE) III site had been identified in Y. lipolytica CENs. Interestingly, CEN1 region contained two closely associated CDEIII sites, separated by 338 bp. To extend the similarity with canonical CENs in budding yeasts, we searched CDEI site(s) in CEN1 for their capacity to be bound by the purified Y. lipolytica transcription factor, Cbf1 protein. We found one or more possible Cbf1-binding sites at the outward region of one CDEIII site in CEN1. The strongest binding-site of Cbf1, a potential CDEI site, is involved in approximately 400 bp including the nearest CDEIII site. These results showed that the CDEI-CDEII-CDEIII architecture in budding yeast CEN is conserved in Y. lipolytica CEN1, but that the CDEII is longer with possible multiplication of CDEI sites.
Extremophilic microbes, Pseudomonas syzgii, from the ultrapure water of computer circuit fabrication facilities, crystallize semiconductor matter around themselves while remaining biologically active in a novel form of biochips. The search for extremophilic organisms with similar abilities was extended to volcanic rock from “wellness” water filters. A volcanic rock material called Taicho stone was identified as harboring subterranean Sphingomonas species known to selectively destroy monoaromatic pollutants. They are also water-flow re-activated and productive of substantial exopolymeric substances related to the claimed multiple health-related benefits of its filtered water. Attempts to convert these Sphingomonas sp. from the stone host to germanium oxide crystalline host began with the filtered water aggressively corroding germanium substrata, as with Pseudomonas syzgii. Although semiconductors have not yet stably incorporated these biota, their roles in accelerating superficial biocorrosion suggests their additional utility as non-abrasive biochemical/ mechanical polishing aids. Recognizing that extraterrestrial exobiology has posited numerous similar microbes occluded in minerals, the possibilities for functional organism-based biochip fabrication are diverse when successful semiconductor incorporation and communication are achieved. The results suggest that the best sources for organism-based biochip production will be from endolithic media.
Eucalyptus is grown worldwide for a variety of products. We previously described their general importance for energy products and now update their various applications and potential as short-term and likely long-term medically related products. Many products currently derived from petrochemicals can be produced from Eucalyptus biomass. Eucalyptus bioproducts, which may be classified as naturally occurring, generated by biochemical processes, or as the result of thermochemical processes, have a broad and exciting range of applications.
A precise cellular response to both internal and external stimuli is crucial for the normal growth and development of all organisms. Almost all such responses are now known to be carried out by signal transduction pathways that involve signaling molecules such as receptors, second messengers, modifiers, effectors such as kinases, transcription factors, etc. Of critical importance are the modifiers such as scaffold proteins that impart spatial and temporal regulatory features to the response. A-Kinase Anchoring Proteins (AKAPs) are one such well-studied scaffold proteins that bind to cAMP-dependent protein kinase (PKA) and an array of signaling proteins. AKAPs are known to amplify, accelerate, localize and bring about specificity to the response. The AKAP-PKA complex is well studied and it has been found that regulatory subunits of PKA bind to the amphipathic helix of the AKAPs via their dimerization and docking (D/D) domains with what is commonly referred to as the RII-fold. This domain and fold is a characteristic feature of all the known regulatory subunits of PKA. However, recently, some molecules with an RII-fold have become known to bind to the amphipathic helices of AKAPs via their D/D-like domains; among others, these include several sperm proteins such as ropporin, AKAP-associated sperm protein (ASP), Sperm Protein-17 (SP-17) and fibrosheathin II (FSII) and others like DPY-30, RSP9, RSP11 and Myc-Binding Protein-1. The list of these types of proteins is growing and is referred to here as the atypical RII proteins (R2D2 proteins).
Peptide hormones are conserved in living organisms to modulate homeostasis. To elucidate molecular mechanisms in the synthesis, secretion, and functions of peptide hormones, model organisms have been used. Caenorhabditis elegans, one of model organisms, is a good tool since: 1) genome size of the worm is small with over 40% homology to human genome, 2) numerous genetics methods are available, and 3) the worms are transparent throughout the life cycle, so that the secretion of peptide hormones can be followed at cellular level in living preparations by Green Fluorescent Protein tagged peptides. This review reports the structures, physiological functions, and secretion of insulin-like peptides, one family of peptide hormones, with our latest findings in the model organism, Caenorhabditis elegans.
The purpose of this article is to inform on the current initiatives being taken in South Africa by the Department of Health, Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF), South African Animal Health Association (SAAHA) as well as other professional and private bodies to implement veterinary antimicrobial stewardship holistically where veterinary, medical and environmental professionals work together to tackle the increasing problem of antimicrobial resistance. Initiatives taken by the National Department of Health are discussed, as well as actions taken by the veterinary profession and the animal health industry. It can be seen that common actions unite all these bodies in following antimicrobial stewardship, such as the implementation of a national antimicrobial use and resistance use program, awareness campaigns on prudent antimicrobial use to the public, limiting the use of antimicrobials by practising good hygiene and pre-registration requirements for all anti-microbials, be they for human or veterinary use. This article also serves as a follow-up article to previous research undertaken on the volumes of antimicrobials used in food animals by the author.
BACKGROUND:Factor V (FV) B-domain contains an acidic region (FV-AR2) and a basic region (FV-BR), which interact with each other and maintain FV in a procofactor form; removal of either region via deletion/proteolysis results in an active FVa molecule. Tissue factor pathway inhibitor type-1 (TFPI) and type-2 (TFPI2) each contain a C-terminus basic segment homologous to FV-BR; this region in TFPI (and predicted in TFPI2) binds to FV-AR2 in platelet FVa (that lacks FV-BR) with high affinity and inhibits FVa function.OBJECTIVES:To understand molecular interactions between FV-AR2 with FV-BR, TFPI-BR and TFPI2-BR.METHODS:Circular dichroism (CD) and molecular modeling approaches.RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS:CD experiments reveal the presence of ∼20% helical content in both FV-AR2 and FV-BR but each lacks beta-sheet. Predicted structures of FV-AR2 and FV-BR, obtained using threading (I-TASSER), are consistent with the CD data and have compact folds with hydrophobic residues in the interior and charged residues on the surface. Scores from QMEAN and ModFOLD servers indicate a very high probability for each structure to be native. Predicted models of Kunitz domain-3 of TFPI and TFPI2 each with C-terminal basic tail are consistent with known homologous structures. Docking experiments using ClusPro indicate that the acidic groove of FV-AR2 has high shape complementarity to accommodate the conserved basic residues in FV-BR (1002-RKKKK-1006), TFPI-BR (256-RKRKK-260) or TFPI2-BR (191-KKKKK-195). Further, similar electrostatic interactions occur in each case. These models, in the absence of experimentally determined structures, provide a guiding point for proper mutagenesis studies in FV, TFPI and TFPI2.
