THE STOMATA OF NELUMBO NUCIFERA: FORMATION,DISTRIBUTION AND DEGENERATION

Contrary to earlier reports, well-organized but fewer stomata develop on the lower surface of the leaves of Nelumbo nucifera Willd. during aerial growth. The stomata, however, become obliterated by the readjustment of neighboring epidermal cells. During initial stages of degeneration the guard cells show irregularly thickened walls, disintegrated nuclei, and highly vacuolated cytoplasm. Such abnormal features finally lead to the disappearance of stomata from the lower surface of leaves. The ontogeny, structure and distribution of stomata on leaves, perianth lobes, stamens, receptacles and carpels are described. The stomata are haplocheilic in development and are anomocytic (ranunculaceous) at maturity. The concept of a meristemoid and the significance of this study in taxonomy and phylogeny are discussed.     

Clastogenic effect of the psychotropic drug thioridazine on human chromosomes in vivo

Summary This paper deals with some other population genetic aspects associated with the incidence of a type of primary congenital glaucoma that occurs very frequently in the Gypsy population of Slovakia. In addition to the decreased fertility of affected individuals of Gypsy origin being determined, the relative reproduction fitness and the selection coefficient against this disease were estimated. An increased number of kinship intermarriages in parents of the patients were recorded, namely in the Gypsy group (45.6%). The average inbreeding coefficient for the Gypsy group (F=0.0091) and the non-Gypsy group (F=0.0030) was calculated. Based on the high frequency of primary congenital glaucoma in a relatively small Gypsy subpopulation and on data about their origin, immigration, and settlements in the territory of Slovakia, the authors consider a special case of gene drift—the founder effect—to be the most plausible explanation of the given fact.     

Observing the Temperature Dependent Transition of the GP2 Peptide Using Terahertz Spectroscopy

The GP2 peptide is derived from the Human Epidermal growth factor Receptor 2 (HER2/nue), a marker protein for breast cancer present in saliva. In this paper we study the temperature dependent behavior of hydrated GP2 at terahertz frequencies and find that the peptide undergoes a dynamic transition between 200 and 220 K. By fitting suitable molecular models to the frequency response we determine the molecular processes involved above and below the transition temperature (T _D). In particular, we show that below T _D the dynamic transition is dominated by a simple harmonic vibration with a slow and temperature dependent relaxation time constant and that above T _D, the dynamic behavior is governed by two oscillators, one of which has a fast and temperature independent relaxation time constant and the other of which is a heavily damped oscillator with a slow and temperature dependent time constant. Furthermore a red shifting of the characteristic frequency of the damped oscillator was observed, confirming the presence of a non-harmonic vibration potential. Our measurements and modeling of GP2 highlight the unique capabilities of THz spectroscopy for protein characterization.     

S. cerevisiae Srs2 helicase ensures normal recombination intermediate metabolism during meiosis and prevents accumulation of Rad51 aggregates

We investigated the meiotic role of Srs2, a multi-functional DNA helicase/translocase that destabilises Rad51-DNA filaments and is thought to regulate strand invasion and prevent hyper-recombination during the mitotic cell cycle. We find that Srs2 activity is required for normal meiotic progression and spore viability. A significant fraction of srs2 mutant cells progress through both meiotic divisions without separating the bulk of their chromatin, although in such cells sister centromeres often separate. Undivided nuclei contain aggregates of Rad51 colocalised with the ssDNA-binding protein RPA, suggesting the presence of persistent single-strand DNA. Rad51 aggregate formation requires Spo11-induced DSBs, Rad51 strand-invasion activity and progression past the pachytene stage of meiosis, but not the DSB end-resection or the bias towards interhomologue strand invasion characteristic of normal meiosis. srs2 mutants also display altered meiotic recombination intermediate metabolism, revealed by defects in the formation of stable joint molecules. We suggest that Srs2, by limiting Rad51 accumulation on DNA, prevents the formation of aberrant recombination intermediates that otherwise would persist and interfere with normal chromosome segregation and nuclear division.

     

Pyrimidine Pool Disequilibrium Induced by a Cytidine Deaminase Deficiency Inhibits PARP-1 Activity,Leading to the Under Replication of DNA

Genome stability is jeopardized by imbalances of the dNTP pool; such imbalances affect the rate of fork progression. For example, cytidine deaminase (CDA) deficiency leads to an excess of dCTP, slowing the replication fork. We describe here a novel mechanism by which pyrimidine pool disequilibrium compromises the completion of replication and chromosome segregation: the intracellular accumulation of dCTP inhibits PARP-1 activity. CDA deficiency results in incomplete DNA replication when cells enter mitosis, leading to the formation of ultrafine anaphase bridges between sister-chromatids at “difficult-to-replicate” sites such as centromeres and fragile sites. Using molecular combing, electron microscopy and a sensitive assay involving cell imaging to quantify steady-state PAR levels, we found that DNA replication was unsuccessful due to the partial inhibition of basal PARP-1 activity, rather than slower fork speed. The stimulation of PARP-1 activity in CDA-deficient cells restores replication and, thus, chromosome segregation. Moreover, increasing intracellular dCTP levels generates under-replication-induced sister-chromatid bridges as efficiently as PARP-1 knockdown. These results have direct implications for Bloom syndrome (BS), a rare genetic disease combining susceptibility to cancer and genomic instability. BS results from mutation of the BLM gene, encoding BLM, a RecQ 3’-5’ DNA helicase, a deficiency of which leads to CDA downregulation. BS cells thus have a CDA defect, resulting in a high frequency of ultrafine anaphase bridges due entirely to dCTP-dependent PARP-1 inhibition and independent of BLM status. Our study describes previously unknown pathological consequences of the distortion of dNTP pools and reveals an unexpected role for PARP-1 in preventing DNA under-replication and chromosome segregation defects.     

The Health System and Population Health Implications of Large-Scale Diabetes Screening in India: A Microsimulation Model of Alternative Approaches

Background

Like a growing number of rapidly developing countries, India has begun to develop a system for large-scale community-based screening for diabetes. We sought to identify the implications of using alternative screening instruments to detect people with undiagnosed type 2 diabetes among diverse populations across India.

Methods and Findings

We developed and validated a microsimulation model that incorporated data from 58 studies from across the country into a nationally representative sample of Indians aged 25–65 y old. We estimated the diagnostic and health system implications of three major survey-based screening instruments and random glucometer-based screening. Of the 567 million Indians eligible for screening, depending on which of four screening approaches is utilized, between 158 and 306 million would be expected to screen as “high risk” for type 2 diabetes, and be referred for confirmatory testing. Between 26 million and 37 million of these people would be expected to meet international diagnostic criteria for diabetes, but between 126 million and 273 million would be “false positives.” The ratio of false positives to true positives varied from 3.9 (when using random glucose screening) to 8.2 (when using a survey-based screening instrument) in our model. The cost per case found would be expected to be from US$5.28 (when using random glucose screening) to US$17.06 (when using a survey-based screening instrument), presenting a total cost of between US$169 and US$567 million. The major limitation of our analysis is its dependence on published cohort studies that are unlikely fully to capture the poorest and most rural areas of the country. Because these areas are thought to have the lowest diabetes prevalence, this may result in overestimation of the efficacy and health benefits of screening.

Conclusions

Large-scale community-based screening is anticipated to produce a large number of false-positive results, particularly if using currently available survey-based screening instruments. Resource allocators should consider the health system burden of screening and confirmatory testing when instituting large-scale community-based screening for diabetes.     

Online control of cell culture redox potential prevents antibody interchain disulfide bond reduction

The phenomenon of monoclonal antibody (mAb) interchain disulfide bond reduction during manufacturing processes continues to be a focus of the biotechnology industry due to the potential for loss of product, increased complexity of purification processes, and reduced stability of the drug product. We hypothesized that antibody reduction can be mitigated by controlling the cell culture redox potential and subsequently established a threshold redox potential above which the mAb remained intact and below which there were significant and highly variable amounts of reduced mAb. Using this knowledge, we developed three control schemes to prevent mAb reduction in the bioreactor by controlling the cell culture redox potential via an online redox probe. These control methodologies functioned by increasing the concentration of dissolved oxygen (DO), copper (II) (Cu), or both DO and Cu to maintain the redox potential above the threshold value. Using these methods, we were able to demonstrate successful control of antibody reduction. Importantly, the redox control strategies did not significantly impact the cell growth, viability, mAb production, or product quality attributes including aggregates, C-terminal lysine, high mannose, deamidation, and glycation. Our results demonstrate that controlling the cell culture redox potential is a simple and effective method to prevent mAb reduction.