The synthesis of the tripodal phosphine CH3C{CH2P(m-CF3C6H4)2}3 and its rhodium coordination chemistry

The new tripodal phosphine CH₃C{CH₂P(m-CF₃C₆H₄)₂}₃, CF₃PPP, was prepared by reacting CH₃C(CH₂Br)₃ with Li⁺P(m-CF₃C₆H₄)₂⁻, the latter being best obtained by adding Li⁺NⁱPr₂⁻ to PH(m-CF₃C₆H₄)₂. The rhodium complexes [RhCl(CO)(CF₃PPP)], [Rh(LL)(CF₃PPP)](CF₃SO₃) (LL = 2 CO or NBD), [RhX₃(CF₃PPP)], [RhX(MeCN)₃(CF₃PPP)](CF₃SO₃)₂ (X = H and Cl), [RhCl₂(MeCN)(CF₃PPP)](CF₃SO₃) and [Rh(MeCN)₃(CF₃PPP)](CF₃SO₃)₃ were prepared and characterized. The X-ray crystal structure of [Rh(NBD)(CF₃PPP)](CF₃SO₃) is reported. The lower oxygen sensitivity of the CF₃PPP rhodium(I) complexes, relative to the corresponding species with the parent ligand CH₃C(CH₂PPh₂)₃, is attributed to the higher effective nuclear charge on the metal centers caused by the presence of the six CF₃ substituents on the terdentate phosphine. A similar effect may be responsible for the easier hydrolysis of the CF₃PPP-containing, cationic rhodium(III) complexes relative to the corresponding compounds of the parent ligand.     

Ecology of planktonic heterotrophic flagellates. A review.

In aquatic environments heterotrophic flagellates are an important component within the microbial loop and the food web, owing to their involvement in the energy transfer and flux and as an intermediate link between bacteria and primary producers, and greater organisms, such as other protists and metazoan consumers. In the microbial loop heterotrophic flagellates highly contribute to fast biomass and nutrient recycling and to the production in aquatic environments. In fact, these protists consume efficiently viruses, bacteria, cyanobacteria and picophytoplankton, and are grazed mainly by other protists, rotifers and small crustaceans. In this paper the knowledge about these unicellular organisms is reviewed, taking into particular account their ecological relationships and trophic role within the plankton community of marine and freshwater environments.     

Costs and benefits of breeding in human-altered landscapes for the Eagle Owl Bubo bubo

We studied a population of 23–25 Eagle Owl Bubo bubo pairs between 1994 and 2000 in a 1330-km² study plot in the central-eastern Italian Alps. Compared to random sites, territories were located at lower elevation and closer to intensively cultivated-urbanized valley floors. Early laying was associated with low elevation and negatively affected productivity. Diet was dominated by rats, hedgehogs and dormice ( n  = 978 prey items), all of them typical of low-elevation habitats. Higher productivity was associated with a higher proportion of rats in the diet of individual pairs. Low availability of rats resulted in a more diverse diet, in turn associated with low productivity. Territories were occupied every year in a non-random fashion, and those most occupied were characterized by higher productivity and higher occurrence of the favoured prey types in the diet, suggesting they were of superior quality. Eagle Owls also paid a cost associated with nesting near human-altered habitats: the main cause of mortality reported to local authorities was electrocution. This is an increasing cause of death for many European populations and may be a cause for conservation concern. Human persecution is also an important cause of mortality in some parts of the European range. Apart from such costs, the study population appeared to have adapted well to the proximity of humans: estimates of density and productivity were comparable to those recorded elsewhere in Europe. The pattern found in our population also held at higher spatial scales: data from 17 European populations showed density to be highest in low-elevation, human-altered landscapes.     

ROLE OF THE NITROGEN-FIXING BACTERIAL MICROFLORA IN THE EPIPHYTISM OF TILLANDSIA (BROMELIACEAE)

Nitrogen-fixing activity in the phyllosphere of 12 species of Tillandsia from different Mexican habitats was evaluated by the acetylene reduction assay, and nitrogen-fixing microorganisms were isolated and characterized. The leaves from eight of the 12 Tillandsia species examined exhibited nitrogenase activity in enrichment cultures. Among the microorganisms implicated—Agrobacterium, Bacillus, Erwinia, Pseudomonas, Rahnella, Vibrio, and Xanthomonas—only Bacillus megatherium reduced acetylene in pure culture. Our findings suggest that nitrogen fixation in the phyllosphere of the sampled epiphytes occurs under suitable conditions and that most of the bacteria involved are primarily soil and water inhabitants. The results also suggest a relationship between the composition of the nitrogen-fixing microbial communities grown on the leaf and the different development of the leaf area in Tillandsia due to the aerial components (wings) of the trichomes.     

Phytoplankton dynamics in a shallow,hypertrophic reservoir (Lake Arancio,Sicily)

Phytoplankton abundance and composition in the hypertrophic man-made Lake Arancio was analyzed, based on a programme of weekly sampling from May 1990 to November 1991 and supported by measurements of limnological parameters. The highest value of phytoplankton biomass (78 mg l^–1) was observed in October 1990, during a bloom of the desmid Closterium limneticum var. fallax, while the lowest (0.15 mg l^–1) was measured in April 1991. During spring, autumn and winter 1990, species of the genus Closterium dominated the community, in the sequence: C. aciculare, C. limneticum var. fallax, C. limneticum. The summer community was more diverse with the predominance of organisms belonging to Chlorophyceae (Chlamydomonas, Eudorina, Coelastrum) and Cyanophyceae (Microcystis, Anabaena). In spring 1991, there was a long clear-water phase during which small green algae (Ankyra, Oocystis) and cryptomonads dominated. Subsequently, the summer season was characterized by a clear sequence of dominants, drawn, in turns, from species belonging to: Bacillariophyceae, Dinophyceae, Cyanophyceae, Euglenophyceae. The physics of the reservoir and its depth, owing to filling/draining constraints in a summer-arid climate, appeared to play a key role in the dynamics of phytoplankton community.     

Immunological analysis of aconitase in pumpkin cotyledons: the absence of aconitase in glyoxysomes

Aconitase (EC 4.2.1.3) was purified by column chromatography and SDS-PAGE. Specific antibodies for aconitase were prepared after affinity purification of the antiserum with purified aconitase. The antibodies reacted with purified pumpkin aconitase, and with the 98 kDa protein band after electrophoretic fractionation of extracts of pumpkin cotyledons. Immunoblot analysis revealed a protein with similar molecular mass in extracts of several plants. The intensity of the 98 kDa band increased as pumpkin cotyledons developed in darkness, and decreased thereafter upon illumination. Aconitase activity showed a similar pattern. Anion exchange chromatography of a homogenate of pumpkin cotyledons, followed by western blotting, displayed the presence of immunoreactive protein bands only in fractions showing aconitase activity. The results indicate that the antibodies were specific for aconitase. When we investigated the presence of immunoreactive bands after sucrose gradient fractionation, aconitase was detected in the supernatant fractions and in mitochondria, while a very low amount was found in glyoxysomes. These data provide additional proof that aconitase is not localized in glyoxysomes.     

Homology of a 130-kb region enclosing the α-globin gene cluster,the α-locus controlling region,and two non-globin genes in human and mouse

The human -globin gene cluster (30 kb) is embedded in a GC-rich isochore very close to the telomere of Chromosome (Chr) 16p. The -Locus Controlling Region (-LCR) is located upstream of the adult -globin genes and has been shown to be essential for their expression. In this study we have been looking for expressed genes in the region upstream of the -globin cluster to understand the role of the LCR-like element in the expression and replication timing of flanking gene clusters. We show that the upstream -globin region is conserved over a 75-kb range and includes at least two oppositely transcribed non-globin genes, here referred to as Mid1 and Dist1. Complementary DNA sequences of 250 bp and 2.5 kb from Mid1 (coordinate-68) and Dist1 (coordinate-90 to-99), respectively, were isolated from human and mouse. The deduced partial amino acid sequences of these cDNAs are 81% and 95% identical for the Mid1 and Dist1 gene respectively. We have cloned a mouse cosmid contig which includes Dist1, Mid1, and the entire murine -globin cluster. The murine homolog of the -LCR was mapped upstream of the mouse globin genes at approximately the same position as in the human locus. Our results indicate that, in mouse and human, the -globin loci and their flanking sequences are homologous over a range of at least 130 kb. The structural homology of this region in both mammals suggests also a functional one and indicates the mouse as a potential model for studying the role of the -LCR controlling element in the regulation of expression and replication timing of the flanking gene clusters.The nucleotide sequence data reported in this paper have been submitted to GenBank and have been assigned the accession numbers M99623, M99624, M99625, and M99626.     

Discriminating physiological from non-physiological interfaces in structures of protein complexes: A community-wide study

Reliably scoring and ranking candidate models of protein complexes and assigning their oligomeric state from the structure of the crystal lattice represent outstanding challenges. A community-wide effort was launched to tackle these challenges. The latest resources on protein complexes and interfaces were exploited to derive a benchmark dataset consisting of 1677 homodimer protein crystal structures, including a balanced mix of physiological and non-physiological complexes. The non-physiological complexes in the benchmark were selected to bury a similar or larger interface area than their physiological counterparts, making it more difficult for scoring functions to differentiate between them. Next, 252 functions for scoring protein-protein interfaces previously developed by 13 groups were collected and evaluated for their ability to discriminate between physiological and non-physiological complexes. A simple consensus score generated using the best performing score of each of the 13 groups, and a cross-validated Random Forest (RF) classifier were created. Both approaches showed excellent performance, with an area under the Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve of 0.93 and 0.94, respectively, outperforming individual scores developed by different groups. Additionally, AlphaFold2 engines recalled the physiological dimers with significantly higher accuracy than the non-physiological set, lending support to the reliability of our benchmark dataset annotations. Optimizing the combined power of interface scoring functions and evaluating it on challenging benchmark datasets appears to be a promising strategy.     

Quinolinic acid but not MK-801 protects the dopaminergic system from 1-methyl-4- phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine-induced toxicity in goldfish retina

The toxicity of 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine, intravitreally injected in goldfish eye, involves interplexiform retinal neurons and depletes tyrosine hydroxylase immunoreactivity and dopamine levels. This induced neurotoxicity was prevented by the concomitant administration in nontoxic doses (10 μg) of quinolinic acid, an endogenous structural analogue of N-methyl -aspartate with excitotoxic properties. Quinolinic acid is ineffective on the retinal degeneration induced by 1-methyl-4- phenylpyridinium ion. This fact suggests that quinolinic acid inhibits the MAO-B oxidation of 1-methyl-4- phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine. MK-801, a noncompetitive antagonist of glutamate NMDA-receptors, exerts partial protective effects on MPTP-induced delayed toxicity in mammals. In the goldfish eye, MK-801, injected in low concentration, and in conjunction with 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine or 1-methyl-4-phenylpyridinium ion, did not prevent retinal neurodegeneration. Ten μg of MK-801 alone did not affect retinal neurons, while a higher concentration (20 μg) causes the chromatolysis of some photoreceptor nuclei.