Control of the growth of Alicyclobacillus acidoterrestris in industrialized orange juice using rosemary essential oil and nisin

The use of rosemary essential oil (RO) and its combination with nisin (RO+N) in preventing the multiplication of Alicyclobacillus acidoterrestris in orange juice was evaluated. The minimum inhibitory and bactericidal concentrations (MIC and MBC) for RO were both 125 μg ml⁻¹ while RO+N displayed a synergistic effect. The use of RO and RO+N at concentrations of 1, 4 and 8× MIC in orange juice for 96 h was evaluated in terms of their sporicidal effectiveness. With regard to the action against A. acidoterrestris spores, RO at 8× MIC was sporostatic, whereas RO+N at 1× MIC was sporicidal. Morphological changes in the structure of the micro-organism after treatment were also observed by microscopy. Furthermore, flow cytometric analysis showed that most cells were damaged or killed after treatment. In general, the antioxidant activity after addition of RO+N decreased with time. The results demonstrate that using the combination of RO and nisin can prevent the A. acidoterrestris growth in orange juice.     

A phylogenetic analysis of species in the Bufo crucifer group (Anura: Bufonidae), based on indolealkylamines and proteins from skin secretions

This research tested the utility of two classes of skin secretion compounds to the phylogeny of the Bufo crucifer group. Skin secretions from specimens of nine populations of B. crucifer group were obtained and submitted to qualitative analysis. We observed a clear difference in the composition of the skin secretion molecules obtained from the species of Bufo studied. Fifty-nine molecules, 16 indolealkylamines and 43 proteins, were used as characters, and 39 of these were parsimonious informative. The tree topology of the skin secretion combined data showed areas of congruence and conflict when compared to an mtDNA phylogeny of the B. crucifer group. We used the Templeton test to evaluate the heterogeneity between the skin secretion and mtDNA data. Although not recommended, we performed a combined analysis with the two partitions. The skin secretion characters from the species of Bufo studied have phylogenetic signal. These data are indicative, at least as a preliminary study, of the phylogenetic relationships among the B. crucifer group taxa.     

Multilocus and morphological analysis of south-eastern Iberian Wall lizards (Squamata,Podarcis)

The phylogenetic relationships among the wall lizards of the Podarcis hispanicus complex that inhabit the south-east (SE) of the Iberian Peninsula and other lineages of the complex remain unclear. In this study, four mitochondrial and two nuclear markers were used to study genetic relationships within this complex. The phylogenetic analyses based on mtDNA gene trees constructed with ML and BI, and a species tree using *BEAST support three divergent clades in this region: the Valencia, Galera and Albacete/Murcia lineages. These three lineages were also corroborated in species delimitation analyses based on mtDNA using bPTP, mPTP, GMYC, ABGD and BAPS. Bayesian inference species delimitation method (BPP) based on both nuclear data and a combined data set (mtDNA + nuclear) showed high posterior probabilities for these three SE lineages (≥0.94) and another Bayesian analysis (STACEY) based on combined data set recovered the same three groups in this region. Divergence time dating of the species tree provided an estimated divergence of the Galera lineage from the other SE group (Podarcis vaucheri, (Albacete/Murcia, Valencia)) at 12.48 Ma. During this period, the Betic–Rifian arc was isolated, which could have caused the isolation of the Galera form distributed to the south of the Betic Corridor. Although lizards from the Albacete/Murcia and Galera lineage are morphologically similar, they clearly represent distinct genetic lineages. The noteworthy separation of the Galera lineage enables us to conclude that this lineage must be considered as a new full species.     

Altered Intracellular Localization of SOD1 in Leukocytes from Patients with Sporadic Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

Several lines of evidence support the hypothesis of a toxic role played by wild type SOD1 (WT-SOD1) in the pathogenesis of sporadic amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (SALS). In this study we investigated both distribution and expression profile of WT-SOD1 in leukocytes from 19 SALS patients and 17 healthy individuals. Immunofluorescence experiments by confocal microscopy showed that SOD1 accumulates in the nuclear compartment in a group of SALS subjects. These results were also confirmed by western blot carried out on soluble nuclear and cytoplasmic fractions, with increased nuclear SOD1 level (p<0.05). In addition, we observed the presence of cytoplasmic SOD1 aggregates in agreement with an increased amount of the protein recovered by the insoluble fraction. A further confirmation of the overall increased level of SOD1 has been obtained from single cells analysis using flow cytometry as cells from SALS patients showed an higher SOD1 protein content (p<0.05). These findings add further evidence to the hypothesis of an altered WT-SOD1 expression profile in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from patients with ALS suggesting that WT-SOD1 species with different degrees of solubility could be involved in the pathogenesis of the disease.     

The Redox Biochemistry of Protein Sulfenylation and Sulfinylation

Controlled generation of reactive oxygen species orchestrates numerous physiological signaling events (Finkel, T. (2011) Signal transduction by reactive oxygen species. J. Cell Biol. 194, 7–15). A major cellular target of reactive oxygen species is the thiol side chain (RSH) of Cys, which may assume a wide range of oxidation states (i.e. −2 to +4). Within this context, Cys sulfenic (Cys-SOH) and sulfinic (Cys-SO₂H) acids have emerged as important mechanisms for regulation of protein function. Although this area has been under investigation for over a decade, the scope and biological role of sulfenic/sulfinic acid modifications have been recently expanded with the introduction of new tools for monitoring cysteine oxidation in vitro and directly in cells. This minireview discusses selected recent examples of protein sulfenylation and sulfinylation from the literature, highlighting the role of these post-translational modifications in cell signaling.