Nucleotide sequence of a chromosomal mercury resistance determinant from a Bacillus sp. with broad-spectrum mercury resistance.

A 13.5-kilobase HindIII fragment, bearing an intact mercury resistance (mer) operon, was isolated from chromosomal DNA of broad-spectrum mercury-resistant Bacillus sp. strain RC607 by using as a probe a clone containing the mercury reductase (merA) gene. The new clone, pYW33, expressed broad-spectrum mercury resistance both in Escherichia coli and in Bacillus subtilis, but only in B. subtilis was the mercuric reductase activity inducible. Sequencing of a 1.8-kilobase mercury hypersensitivity-producing fragment revealed four open reading frames (ORFs). ORF1 may code for a regulatory protein (MerR). ORF2 and ORF4 were associated with cellular transport function and the hypersensitivity phenotype. DNA fragments encompassing the merA and the merB genes were sequenced. The predicted Bacillus sp. strain RC607 MerA (mercuric reductase) and MerB (organomercurial lyase) were similar to those predicted from Staphylococcus aureus plasmid pI258 (67 and 73% amino acid identities, respectively); however, only 40% of the amino acid residues of RC607 MerA were identical to those of the mercuric reductase from gram-negative bacteria. A 69-kilodalton polypeptide was isolated and identified as the merA gene product by examination of its amino-terminal sequence.     

Teratocarcinoma differentiation: plasminogen activator activity associated with embryoid body formation.

Changes in plasminogen activator activity have been examined as a clonal line of mouse embryonal carcinoma cells aggregate and differentiate to form cystic embryoid bodies in vitro. Within the first 10 days of study, the pluripotent embryonal carcinoma cells aggregate; a layer of endodermal cells appears on the outside of the aggregate forming an embryoid body; a basement membrane forms between the outer layer of endodermal cells and the internal cells; a cyst forms within the embryoid body; and the internal cells assume a columnar appearance along the inner portion of the basement membrane. After the formation of the endodermal layer, there is a rise in intracellular plasminogen activator activity. This rise continues for up to 25 days in culture, providing that the three-dimensional integrity of the embryoid bodies is maintained by culturing them on bacterial petri dishes. Selective removal of the outer endodermal layer of cells reduces the plasminogen activatory activity of the resulting embryoid body cores. Intracellular and secreted plasminogen activator activity of simple embryoid bodies composed of only two cell types can be increased by culturing the embryoid bodies in dbcAMP, theophylline, or cholera toxin. These results suggest that the embryoid body endodermal cells are the source of a cAMP-inducible plasminogen activator activity.     

Predominance of a versatile-peroxidase-encoding gene, mnp4, as demonstrated by gene replacement via a gene targeting system for Pleurotus ostreatus

Pleurotus ostreatus (the oyster mushroom) and other white rot filamentous basidiomycetes are key players in the global carbon cycle. P. ostreatus is also a commercially important edible fungus with medicinal properties and is important for biotechnological and environmental applications. Efficient gene targeting via homologous recombination (HR) is a fundamental tool for facilitating comprehensive gene function studies. Since the natural HR frequency in Pleurotus transformations is low (2.3%), transformed DNA is predominantly integrated ectopically. To overcome this limitation, a general gene targeting system was developed by producing a P. ostreatus PC9 homokaryon Δku80 strain, using carboxin resistance complemented by the development of a protocol for hygromycin B resistance protoplast-based DNA transformation and homokaryon isolation. The Δku80 strain exhibited exclusive (100%) HR in the integration of transforming DNA, providing a high efficiency of gene targeting. Furthermore, the Δku80 strains produced showed a phenotype similar to that of the wild-type PC9 strain, with similar growth fitness, ligninolytic functionality, and capability of mating with the incompatible strain PC15 to produce a dikaryon which retained its resistance to the corresponding selection and was capable of producing typical fruiting bodies. The applicability of this system is demonstrated by inactivation of the versatile peroxidase (VP) encoded by mnp4. This enzyme is part of the ligninolytic system of P. ostreatus, being one of the nine members of the manganese-peroxidase (MnP) gene family, and is the predominantly expressed VP in Mn(2+)-deficient media. mnp4 inactivation provided a direct proof that mnp4 encodes a key VP responsible for the Mn(2+)-dependent and Mn(2+)-independent peroxidase activity under Mn(2+)-deficient culture conditions.     

Cross-National Analysis of the Associations among Mental Disorders and Suicidal Behavior: Findings from the WHO World Mental Health Surveys

Background

Suicide is a leading cause of death worldwide. Mental disorders are among the strongest predictors of suicide; however, little is known about which disorders are uniquely predictive of suicidal behavior, the extent to which disorders predict suicide attempts beyond their association with suicidal thoughts, and whether these associations are similar across developed and developing countries. This study was designed to test each of these questions with a focus on nonfatal suicide attempts.

Methods and Findings

Data on the lifetime presence and age-of-onset of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th Edition (DSM-IV) mental disorders and nonfatal suicidal behaviors were collected via structured face-to-face interviews with 108,664 respondents from 21 countries participating in the WHO World Mental Health Surveys. The results show that each lifetime disorder examined significantly predicts the subsequent first onset of suicide attempt (odds ratios [ORs] = 2.9–8.9). After controlling for comorbidity, these associations decreased substantially (ORs = 1.5–5.6) but remained significant in most cases. Overall, mental disorders were equally predictive in developed and developing countries, with a key difference being that the strongest predictors of suicide attempts in developed countries were mood disorders, whereas in developing countries impulse-control, substance use, and post-traumatic stress disorders were most predictive. Disaggregation of the associations between mental disorders and nonfatal suicide attempts showed that these associations are largely due to disorders predicting the onset of suicidal thoughts rather than predicting progression from thoughts to attempts. In the few instances where mental disorders predicted the transition from suicidal thoughts to attempts, the significant disorders are characterized by anxiety and poor impulse-control. The limitations of this study include the use of retrospective self-reports of lifetime occurrence and age-of-onset of mental disorders and suicidal behaviors, as well as the narrow focus on mental disorders as predictors of nonfatal suicidal behaviors, each of which must be addressed in future studies.

Conclusions

This study found that a wide range of mental disorders increased the odds of experiencing suicide ideation. However, after controlling for psychiatric comorbidity, only disorders characterized by anxiety and poor impulse-control predict which people with suicide ideation act on such thoughts. These findings provide a more fine-grained understanding of the associations between mental disorders and subsequent suicidal behavior than previously available and indicate that mental disorders predict suicidal behaviors similarly in both developed and developing countries. Future research is needed to delineate the mechanisms through which people come to think about suicide and subsequently progress from ideation to attempts. Please see later in the article for Editors'' Summary     

Genomewide significant linkage to recurrent, early-onset major depressive disorder on chromosome 15q

A genome scan was performed on the first phase sample of the Genetics of Recurrent Early-Onset Depression (GenRED) project. The sample consisted of 297 informative families containing 415 independent affected sibling pairs (ASPs), or, counting all possible pairs, 685 informative affected relative pairs (555 ASPs and 130 other pair types). Affected cases had recurrent major depressive disorder (MDD) with onset before age 31 years for probands or age 41 years for other affected relatives; the mean age at onset was 18.5 years, and the mean number of depressive episodes was 7.3. The Center for Inherited Disease Research genotyped 389 microsatellite markers (mean spacing of 9.3 cM). The primary linkage analysis considered allele sharing in all possible affected relative pairs with the use of the Z(lr) statistic computed by the ALLEGRO program. A secondary logistic regression analysis considered the effect of the sex of the pair as a covariate. Genomewide significant linkage was observed on chromosome 15q25.3-26.2 (Zlr=4.14, equivalent LOD = 3.73, empirical genomewide P=.023). The linkage was not sex specific. No other suggestive or significant results were observed in the primary analysis. The secondary analysis produced three regions of suggestive linkage, but these results should be interpreted cautiously because they depended primarily on the small subsample of 42 male-male pairs. Chromosome 15q25.3-26.2 deserves further study as a candidate region for susceptibility to MDD.