The genus <Emphasis Type="Italic">Dentipratulum</Emphasis> (Russulales,Auriscalpiaceae): comparative morphology and SEM imaging spore ornamentation split one into three species

The family Auriscalpiaceae (Russulales) includes species forming pileate, stipitate-pileate, effused-reflexed, and resupinate basidiomata. The resupinate basidiomata are characteristic only for the genus Dentipratulum, described to accommodate Dentipratulum bialoviesense, found in the Bia?owie?a Primeval Forest in Poland and later reported from several locations in Eurasia. The materials assigned to this genus were revised and three distinct morphospecies were detected, including Dentipratulum bialoviesense s. str. and two new species, Dentipratulum khuranae from India and Dentipratulum crystallinum from the Kuril Islands and France. The concept of the genus Dentipratulum is emended to include characters omitted in the original diagnosis (stem-like base of spines, rudimentary subiculum) and found in the novel species (presence of naked or encrusted leptocystidia). All Dentipratulum species are illustrated with pictures of basidiomata, line drawings of micro-morphological characters, and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) micrographs of basidiospores. A key to the genus is provided.     

Levels of Metals in Kidney,Liver, and Muscle Tissue and their Influence on the Fitness for the Consumption of Wild Boar from Western Slovakia

Urine lead level is one of the most employed measures of lead exposure and risk. The urine samples used in this study were obtained from ten healthy male cyclists. Dispersive liquid–liquid microextraction combined with ultraviolet and visible spectrophotometry was utilized for preconcentration, extraction, and determination of lead in urine samples. Optimization of the independent variables was carried out based on chemometric methods in three steps. According to the screening and optimization study, 133 μL of CCl₄ (extracting solvent), 1.34 mL ethanol (dispersing solvent), pH 2.0, 0.00 % of salt, and 0.1 % O,O-diethyl dithiophosphoric (chelating agent) were used as the optimum independent variables for microextraction and determination of lead. Under the optimized conditions, R ² was 0.9991, and linearity range was 0.01–100 μg L^?1. Precision was evaluated in terms of repeatability and intermediate precision, with relative standard deviations being <9.1 and <15.3 %, respectively. The accuracy was estimated using urine samples of cyclists as real samples and it was confirmed. The relative error of ≤5 % was considered significant in the method specificity study. The lead concentration mean for the cyclists was 3.79 μg L^?1 in urine samples. As a result, the proposed method is a robust technique to quantify lead concentrations higher than 11.6 ng L^?1 in urine samples.     

Synthesis,COX-1/2 inhibition activities and molecular docking study of isothiazolopyridine derivatives

One of the main challenges for nowadays medicine is drugs selectivity. In COX-1 and COX-2, the active sites are composed of the same group of amino acids with the exception of the only one residue in position 523, in COX-1 is an isoleucine, while in COX-2 is a valine. Here, we presented a series of isothiazolopyridine/benzisothiazole derivatives substituted differently into an isothiazole ring, which were synthesized and investigated for their potencies to inhibit COX-1 and COX-2 enzymes by colorimetric inhibitor screening assay. All the tested compounds inhibited the activity of COX-1, the effect on COX-2 activity was differential. The mode of binding was characterized by a molecular docking study. Comparing biological activity of the investigated compounds, it was observed that compounds sharing the most similar position to flurbiprofen and meloxicam, representing the two main enzyme subdomains, achieved higher biological activity than others. It is directly related to the fit to the enzyme’s active site, which prevents too early dissociation of the compounds.     

Differential Effect of Jasmonic Acid and Abscisic Acid on Cell Cycle Progression in Tobacco BY-2 Cells

Environmental stress affects plant growth and development. Several plant hormones, such as salicylic acid, abscisic acid (ABA), jasmonic acid (JA), and ethylene play a crucial role in altering plant morphology in response to stress. Developmental regulation often has the cell cycle machinery among its targets. We analyzed the effect of JA and ABA on cell cycle progression in synchronized tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) BY-2 cells. Both compounds were found to prevent DNA replication, keeping the cells in the G1 stage, when applied just before the G1/S transition. However, ABA did not have any effect on subsequent phases of the cell cycle when applied at a later stage, whereas JA effectively prevented mitosis on application during DNA synthesis. This demonstrates that JA treatment can freeze synchronized BY-2 cells in both the G1 and G2 stages of the cell cycle. Jasmonate administered after the S-phase was less effective in decreasing the mitotic index, suggesting that cell sensitivity toward JA is dependent on the cell cycle phase. In cultures detained in the G2-phase, we observed a reduced histone H1 kinase activity of kinases associated with the p13(suc1) protein.     

Expression level of EGFR and MET receptors regulates invasiveness of melanoma cells

Epidermal and hepatocyte growth factors can stimulate invasive abilities of melanoma cells, while treatment with combination of their receptors' (EGFR and MET, respectively) inhibitors reduces viability of these cells, as we have previously shown. Proposed therapy has potential; however, used drugs block more than one goal effectively, what raises the question about the real target of analysed inhibitors. For this reason, we analysed direct involvement of these receptors in the invasion of melanoma cells inducing EGFR and MET up‐ and down‐regulations in examined cells. Results were acquired with assays evaluating cell migration and invasion (scratch wound assay, Transwell filter‐based method and single‐cell tracking). We revealed that cells' motile abilities are increased after EGFR overexpression and decreased following EGFR and MET silencing. This outcome correlates with elevated (EGFR up‐regulation) or reduced (EGFR/MET down‐regulation) number of formed invadopodia, visualized with immunofluorescence, and their rate of proteolytic abilities, evaluated by fluorescent gelatin degradation assay, and gelatin zymography, compared to control cells. Above‐mentioned data indicate that both—EGFR and MET signalling is directly connected with melanoma cells invasion, what establishes these receptors as promising targets for anti‐cancer treatment.     

Ovary cords organization in Hirudo troctina Johnson, 1816 and Limnatis nilotica (Savigny, 1822) (Clitellata,Hirudinea)

In both examined species of Hirudinea there are paired spheroid ovisacs, and within each ovisac two convoluted ovary cords occur. The morphology of the cords is characteristic: their apical end is club-shaped, the central part is narrow and may contain developing oocytes, whereas the basal end of the cord is irregularly shaped and composed of degenerating cells. The ovary cords are built of somatic and germ-line cells; the latter are united into syncytial cysts. Each germ cell in such a cyst has only one stable cytoplasmic bridge connecting it to the central anuclear cytoplasmic mass, the cytophore. Initially all germ-line cells in a given cyst are morphologically identical, then the fates of cells diversify. Most of them become nurse cells and eventually degenerate; the rest continue meiosis, gather macromolecules, cell organelles and nutritive material and become oocytes. The oogenesis found in the species studied should be regarded as meroistic. Previtellogenic oocytes protrude from the cord into the ovisac lumen, whereas the vitellogenic ones float freely in the ovisac lumen. The somatic cells found in the ovary cords are: follicular cells which form the envelope of the cord and are also found among germ cells inside the cord, and one, huge apical cell that always is located at the top of the club-shaped end of the ovary cord. The apical cell has several characteristic features, e.g., it forms long cytoplasmic projections filled with intermediate filaments and it is connected to the neighbouring cells (both somatic and germ-line) via hemidesmosomes. We suggest that the apical cell forms the niche for maintaining germ and somatic stem cells. Generally, the organization of the ovary cords found in both studied species is broadly similar to those described in other hirudiniform leeches studied to date.