Frequency-dependent host selection by parasitic mites: a model and a case study

Previous studies on frequency-dependent food selection (changing food preferences in response to changes in relative food abundance) have focused on predators and parasitoids. These organisms utilize several victims during their lifetime. We introduce the case of parasites which, having accepted a host, do not change it. We propose two alternative models to explain the biased occurrence of parasites on different host types: (1) through the option of rejecting less-preferred hosts prior to accepting one of them; (2) by differential parasite survival on different host types. These models predict that host rejection, but not differential survival, can create frequency-dependent parasitism (FDP). Unlike previously described factors responsible for frequency dependence of food selection, which act through changing the foraging behaviour of individual predators or parasitoids, FDP involves no adjustment of parasite foraging strategy according to previous feeding experience. The mite Hemisarcoptes coccophagus is an obligate parasite of armoured scale insects (Homptera: Diaspididae). Our field data show that H. coccophagus is found more frequently on ovipositing than on young host females. Our model, combining the effects of host rejection and differential survival, is used to estimate the relative contribution of these factors to parasite biased occurrence on different hosts. The contribution of differential survival was dominant in H. coccophagus, and overode any effect of host rejection. Nevertheless, our prediction that FDP may be found in parasites is supported by literature data about a parasitic water mite.     

Developing a tool for noninvasive monitoring of renal allografts

Renal transplantation has emerged as the therapy of choice for many patients with end-stage renal disease. One of the major goals is to tailor immunosuppressive therapy to the individual needs of every patient at every time point post transplant, balancing the risk for rejection and over-immunosuppression. Such individualized treatment will require assays that can detect harmful processes in the allograft early and that can be measured repeatedly. In this review, advantages and disadvantages of current assays to monitor renal allografts noninvasively and how proteomic technology might contribute to the development of novel biomarkers to improve patient management will be discussed.     

Local control of the host immune response performed with mesenchymal stem cells: perspectives for functional intracerebral xenotransplantation

Foetal pig neuroblasts are interesting candidates as a cell source for transplantation, but xenotransplantation in the brain requires the development of adapted immunosuppressive treatments. As systemic administration of high doses of cyclosporine A has side effects and does not protect xenotransplants forever, we focused our work on local control of the host immune responses. We studied the advantage of cotransplanting syngenic mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) with porcine neuroblasts (pNb) in immunocompetent rat striata. Two groups of animals were transplanted, either with pNb alone or with both MSC and pNb. At day 63, no porcine neurons were detected in the striata that received only pNb, while four of six rats transplanted with both pNb and MSC exhibited healthy porcine neurons. Interestingly, 50% of the cotransplanted rats displayed healthy grafts with pNF70+ and TH+ neurons at 120 days post‐transplantation. qPCR analyses revealed a general dwindling of pro‐ and anti‐inflammatory cytokines in the striata that received the cotransplants. Motor recovery was also observed following the transplantation of pNb and MSC in a rat model of Parkinson's disease. Taken together, the present data indicate that the immunosuppressive properties of MSC are of great interest for the long‐term survival of xenogeneic neurons in the brain.     

The Value of Artificial Stimuli in Behavioral Research: Making the Case for Egg Rejection Studies in Avian Brood Parasitism

Experimentation is at the heart of classical and modern behavioral ecology research. The manipulation of natural cues allows us to establish causation between aspects of the environment, both internal and external to organisms, and their effects on animals' behaviors. In recognition systems research, including the quest to understand the coevolution of sensory cues and decision rules underlying the rejection of foreign eggs by hosts of avian brood parasites, artificial stimuli have been used extensively, but not without controversy. In response to repeated criticism about the value of artificial stimuli, we describe four potential benefits of using them in egg recognition research, two each at the proximate and ultimate levels of analysis: (1) the standardization of stimuli for developmental studies and (2) the disassociation of correlated traits of egg phenotypes used for sensory discrimination, as well as (3) the estimation of the strength of selection on parasitic egg mimicry and (4) the establishment of the evolved limits of sensory and cognitive plasticity. We also highlight constraints of the artificial stimulus approach and provide a specific test of whether responses to artificial cues can accurately predict responses to natural cues. Artificial stimuli have a general value in ethological research beyond research in brood parasitism and may be especially critical in field studies involving the manipulation of a single parameter, where other, confounding variables are difficult or impossible to control experimentally or statistically.     

Rituximab in immunologic glomerular diseases

Experimental data suggest that the B-cell antigen CD20 may play a significant role in the pathogenesis of many diseases including glomerular diseases. These and other findings underpin the central concept of B-cell-depleting therapies that target CD20 antigen as treatments for lupus nephritis, idiopathic membranous nephropathy, focal segmental glomerulosclerosis, cryglobulinemic glomerulonephritis, antibody mediated renal allograft rejection and recurrent glomerulonephritis in renal allograft. Use of rituximab as a B-cell depleting therapy has been associated with clinical improvement and has emerged as a possible adjunct or alternative treatment option in this field of nephrology.     

Mechanism of indoleamine 2, 3-dioxygenase inhibiting cardiac allograft rejection in mice

Indoleamine 2, 3-dioxygenase (IDO)-mediated regulation of tryptophan metabolism plays an important role in immune tolerance in transplantation, but it has not been elucidated which mechanism specifically induces the occurrence of immune tolerance. Our study revealed that IDO exerts immunosuppressive effects through two pathways in mouse heart transplantation, ‘tryptophan depletion’ and ‘tryptophan metabolite accumulation’. The synergism between IDO⁺DC and TC (tryptophan catabolic products) has stronger inhibitory effects on T lymphocyte proliferation and mouse heart transplant rejection than the two intervention factors alone, and significantly prolong the survival time of donor-derived transplanted skin. This work demonstrates that the combination of IDO⁺DC and TC can induce immune tolerance to a greater extent, and reduce the rejection of transplanted organs.     

Errors in egg-laying by female Common Cuckoo Cuculus canorus in nests of its common host

Dozens of studies have documented that brood parasites are well adapted to a brood parasitic lifestyle but not all parasitism events are successful. Co-evolution between brood parasites and their hosts is a dynamic process so it is reasonable to expect that a female brood parasite may commit errors during egg deposition by laying her eggs outside the laying period of the host, with consequent impacts on her fitness. Using an extensive dataset from a long-term study, we evaluated egg-laying patterns and errors related to the timing of egg-laying in the Common Cuckoo Cuculus canorus (hereafter ‘Cuckoo’). Specifically, we tested whether the Cuckoo avoids laying before or on the day of host clutch initiation to reduce the risk of rejection of parasitic eggs, whether laying errors will be more frequent in periods with a lack of active host nests, and whether the laying errors will be more frequent in periods with intense Cuckoo parasitism and a consequent lack of suitable host nests. We found that about one-third of Cuckoo eggs were laid on the host clutch initiation day or 1 day before, and the percentage of Cuckoo eggs laid decreased thereafter. Surprisingly, the probability of Cuckoo egg acceptance by the hosts was not affected by the egg-laying stage of the host clutch. Errors in the timing of egg-laying with fatal consequences (i.e. those precluding Cuckoo hatching because of laying in incubated or deserted clutches) were recorded in about 5% of cases. Only laying date of a Cuckoo egg had a significant effect on the probability of errors, which increased during the breeding season. This may be related to the higher number of deserted and incubated host nests at the site at the end of the breeding season. Errors in egg-laying may be attributed to young and inexperienced females but also impaired body condition or intraspecific competition may cause this behaviour. Future studies, which will test these possible explanations, will help to understand better the mechanism of co-evolutionary arms races and differences between host specialist and generalist brood parasites in various host–parasite systems.     

用噬菌体展示筛选Gal-α-1,3-Gal的模拟肽

猪心移植是解决心脏移植供体少的有效方法.由于猪心血管内皮细胞表面抗原半乳糖-α-1,3-半乳糖（Gal-α-1,3-Gal）,能与人体内预存的天然抗体结合产生超急性排斥反应（HAR）,而无法应用于临床.为了解决这一难题, 应用噬菌体展示技术,筛选出一个能与抗B型血单克隆抗体（mAB anti-B) 特异性结合的阳性噬菌体克隆,应用酶联免疫吸附测定(ELISA)和竞争性ELISA结果表明,所获得的阳性噬菌体克隆能特异性地与mAB anti-B结合,并且这种结合可被蜜二糖（具有Gal-α-1,6-Glc的结构)所竞争抑制.由此推测,筛选到的噬菌体阳性克隆很可能就结合在蜜二糖与mAB anti-B结合的位点.同时,进行了阳性噬菌体克隆的抑制猪红细胞凝集活性试验,试验结果表明,此阳性克隆不仅可抑制Gal-α-1,3-Gal与抗体的结合, 也可抑制Gal-α-1,3-Gal与西非单叶豆凝集素（GS-I-B4）的结合.此噬菌体阳性克隆测序后,得小肽序列为CCWLLRQPVRFVRSIRS.鉴于以上的结果,认为此小肽可以作为Gal-α-1,3-Gal的模拟肽,同时有望开发成抗猪器官异种移植超急性排斥反应的新药.     

高等植物自花花粉的识别与拒绝

高等植物在长期的进化过程中,通过雌蕊识别并拒绝遗传上相近的花粉,防止近亲繁殖、保持遗传多样性,该机制被称为植物自交不亲和性。植物自交不亲和性已成为当今国内外研究的热点。近年来,芸薹属孢子体自交不亲和性、S-RNase调节的配子体自交不亲和性以及罂粟花科配子体自交不亲和性研究比较深入。最近的研究表明,泛素介导的蛋白酶体蛋白质降解途径参与芸薹属孢子体自交不亲和性和S-RNase调节的配子体自交不亲和性反应。另一种蛋白质降解途径,即半胱-天冬胺酸特异的蛋白酶介导的细胞程序化死亡似乎参与罂粟花科配子体自交不亲和性。本文回顾了3种自交不亲和性研究的最新进展,并就其自交不亲和性机制作进一步讨论。     

人α-半乳糖苷酶、α-1,2-岩藻糖转移酶cDNA序列转染克服异种移植超急性排斥反应

半乳糖α 1,3 半乳糖抗原是引起异种器官移植超急性排斥反应 (hyperacuterejection ,HAR)的主要抗原 .α 半乳糖苷酶和α 1,2 岩藻糖转移酶基因可以以不同的方式降低半乳糖α 1,3 半乳糖抗原在内皮细胞表面的表达量 .将人α 半乳糖苷酶基因和α 1,2 岩藻糖转移酶基因单独或连接在一起导入猪血管内皮细胞PEDSV .15中 ,检测细胞表面的抗原及异种天然抗体对细胞杀伤作用 .结果表明α 半乳糖苷酶基因可以将猪血管内皮细胞表面的半乳糖α 1,3 半乳糖抗原清除 74 13%,而α 1,2 岩藻糖转移酶基因也可以清除 4 7 75 %的细胞表面异种抗原 ,但二者都不能达到完全清除的目的 .当α 半乳糖苷酶和α 1,2 岩藻糖转移酶双基因在内皮细胞内共表达时 ,则可以基本清除半乳糖α 1,3 半乳糖抗原 .抗原的减少也可以相应地减弱内皮细胞对异种天然抗体介导的杀伤作用的敏感性 ,尤其是双基因共表达时细胞基本不被杀伤 .结果表明 ,α 半乳糖苷酶基因和α 1,2 岩藻糖转移酶基因可以有效地清除血管内皮细胞表面的半乳糖α 1,3 半乳糖抗原 ,克服HAR的发生 ,为下一步进行动物实验 ,探讨克服异种移植HAR提供了技术途径