Biodiversity of yeasts isolated during spontaneous fermentation of cool climate grape musts

Archives of Microbiology - Biodiversity of native yeasts, especially in winemaking, has hidden potential. In order to use the value of non-Saccharomyces strains in wine production and to minimise...     

Frequency Dependence of Signal Power and Spatial Reach of the Local Field Potential

Despite its century-old use, the interpretation of local field potentials (LFPs), the low-frequency part of electrical signals recorded in the brain, is still debated. In cortex the LFP appears to mainly stem from transmembrane neuronal currents following synaptic input, and obvious questions regarding the ‘locality’ of the LFP are: What is the size of the signal-generating region, i.e., the spatial reach, around a recording contact? How far does the LFP signal extend outside a synaptically activated neuronal population? And how do the answers depend on the temporal frequency of the LFP signal? Experimental inquiries have given conflicting results, and we here pursue a modeling approach based on a well-established biophysical forward-modeling scheme incorporating detailed reconstructed neuronal morphologies in precise calculations of population LFPs including thousands of neurons. The two key factors determining the frequency dependence of LFP are the spatial decay of the single-neuron LFP contribution and the conversion of synaptic input correlations into correlations between single-neuron LFP contributions. Both factors are seen to give low-pass filtering of the LFP signal power. For uncorrelated input only the first factor is relevant, and here a modest reduction (<50%) in the spatial reach is observed for higher frequencies (>100 Hz) compared to the near-DC () value of about . Much larger frequency-dependent effects are seen when populations of pyramidal neurons receive correlated and spatially asymmetric inputs: the low-frequency () LFP power can here be an order of magnitude or more larger than at 60 Hz. Moreover, the low-frequency LFP components have larger spatial reach and extend further outside the active population than high-frequency components. Further, the spatial LFP profiles for such populations typically span the full vertical extent of the dendrites of neurons in the population. Our numerical findings are backed up by an intuitive simplified model for the generation of population LFP.     

Models of the pharmacophoric pattern and affinity trend of methyl 2-(aminomethyl)-1-phenylcyclopropane-1-carboxylate derivatives as σ1 ligands

Sigma-1 (σ₁) affinities of methyl 2-(aminomethyl)-1-phenylcyclopropane-1-carboxylate (MAPCC) derivatives were modelled by the genetic algorithm with linear assignment of hypermolecular alignment of datasets (GALAHAD) and the comparative molecular field analysis (CoMFA)/comparative molecular similarity indices analysis (CoMSIA) methods. GALAHAD was used for deriving the 3D pharmacophore pattern that encompasses the most potent σ₁ ligands within this series. Five MAPCC derivatives with a high σ₁ affinity were used for deriving this model. The obtained model included a nitrogen atom, the hydrophobes and the hydrogen bond acceptor features; it was able to identify other potent σ₁ ligands. On the other hand, CoMFA and CoMSIA methods were used for deriving quantitative structure–activity relationship (QSAR) models. All QSAR models were trained with 17 compounds, after which they were evaluated for predictive ability with additional five compounds. The best QSAR model was obtained by using CoMSIA, including steric, electrostatic and hydrophobic fields, and had a good predictive quality according to both internal and external validation criteria. In general, the models described herein provide meaningful information relevant for the rational design of new σ₁ ligands.     

Interactions of donor sources and media influence the histo‐morphological quality of full‐thickness skin models

Human artificial skin models are increasingly employed as non‐animal test platforms for research and medical purposes. However, the overall histopathological quality of such models may vary significantly. Therefore, the effects of manufacturing protocols and donor sources on the quality of skin models built‐up from fibroblasts and keratinocytes derived from juvenile foreskins is studied. Histo‐morphological parameters such as epidermal thickness, number of epidermal cell layers, dermal thickness, dermo‐epidermal adhesion and absence of cellular nuclei in the corneal layer are obtained and scored accordingly. In total, 144 full‐thickness skin models derived from 16 different donors, built‐up in triplicates using three different culture conditions were successfully generated. In univariate analysis both media and donor age affected the quality of skin models significantly. Both parameters remained statistically significant in multivariate analyses. Performing general linear model analyses we could show that individual medium‐donor‐interactions influence the quality. These observations suggest that the optimal choice of media may differ from donor to donor and coincides with findings where significant inter‐individual variations of growth rates in keratinocytes and fibroblasts have been described. Thus, the consideration of individual medium‐donor‐interactions may improve the overall quality of human organ models thereby forming a reproducible test platform for sophisticated clinical research.     

Overrepresentation of interactions between homologous proteins in interactomes

It is well proved that the probability that a protein interacts with itself is higher than that it interacts with another protein. It has been recently shown that the probability of interaction is also higher for proteins with significant sequence similarity. In this paper we show that proteins sharing identical PFAM domains interact more often than expected by chance in Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Escherichia coli. We also analyze the variety of domain interfaces used by homologous proteins to interact and show that the overrepresentation of interactions between homological proteins is not caused by small number of pairs of identical "sticky domains" shared between interacting proteins.     

Seasonal depth distribution and thermal experience of the non-indigenous round goby Neogobius melanostomus in the Baltic Sea: implications to key trophic relations

Biological Invasions - Native to the Ponto-Caspian region, the benthic round goby (Neogobius melanostomus) has invaded several European inland waterbodies as well as the North American Great Lakes...     

Predation risk affects egg mortality and carry over effects in the larval stages in damselflies

相似文献   

Biochemical characterization of the tobacco 42-kD protein kinase activated by osmotic stress

In tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum), hyperosmotic stress induces rapid activation of a 42-kD protein kinase, referred to as Nicotiana tabacum osmotic stress-activated protein kinase (NtOSAK). cDNA encoding the kinase was cloned and, based on the predicted amino acid sequence, the enzyme was assigned to the SNF1-related protein kinase type 2 (SnRK2) family. The identity of the enzyme was confirmed by immunoprecipitation of the active kinase from tobacco cells subjected to osmotic stress using antibodies raised against a peptide corresponding to the C-terminal sequence of the kinase predicted from the cloned cDNA. A detailed biochemical characterization of NtOSAK purified from stressed tobacco cells was performed. Our results show that NtOSAK is a calcium-independent Ser/Thr protein kinase. The sequence of putative phosphorylation sites recognized by NtOSAK, predicted by the computer program PREDIKIN, resembled the substrate consensus sequence defined for animal and yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) AMPK/SNF1 kinases. Our experimental data confirmed these results, as various targets for AMPK/SNF1 kinases were also efficiently phosphorylated by NtOSAK. A range of protein kinase inhibitors was tested as potential modulators of NtOSAK, but only staurosporine, a rather nonspecific protein kinase inhibitor, was found to abolish the enzyme activity. In phosphorylation reactions, NtOSAK exhibited a preference for Mg(2+) over Mn(2+) ions and an inability to use GTP instead of ATP as a phosphate donor. The enzyme activity was not modulated by 5'-AMP. To our knowledge, these results represent the first detailed biochemical characterization of a kinase of the SnRK2 family.