Soluble expression and purification of Brucella cell surface protein (BCSP31) of Brucella melitensis and preparation of anti-BCSP31 monoclonal antibodies

Brucella cell surface protein (BCSP31) is potentially useful for diagnosing brucellosis. We aimed to establish a monoclonal antibody (MAb) against Brucella melitensis BCSP31 and to investigate its distribution in diagnosis. Soluble recombinant BCSP31 was successfully expressed and purified. Two MAbs (1F1 and 1E5) against B. melitensis BCSP31, effective in detecting both recombinant and cellular proteins, were obtained and characterized. The MAbs did not react with Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus subtilis, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, or Bacillus aeruginosus, but strongly reacted with BCSP31 and B. melitensis by ELISA and Western blot analysis. We also tested different Brucella species and brucellosis using the prepared anti-BCSP31 MAbs. BCSP31 and anti-BCSP31 MAbs may play important roles in future research in diagnosing brucellosis.     

HDAC1 Regulates the Proliferation of Radial Glial Cells in the Developing Xenopus Tectum

In the developing central nervous system (CNS), progenitor cells differentiate into progeny to form functional neural circuits. Radial glial cells (RGs) are a transient progenitor cell type that is present during neurogenesis. It is thought that a combination of neural trophic factors, neurotransmitters and electrical activity regulates the proliferation and differentiation of RGs. However, it is less clear how epigenetic modulation changes RG proliferation. We sought to explore the effect of histone deacetylase (HDAC) activity on the proliferation of RGs in the visual optic tectum of Xenopus laevis. We found that the number of BrdU-labeled precursor cells along the ventricular layer of the tectum decrease developmentally from stage 46 to stage 49. The co-labeling of BrdU-positive cells with brain lipid-binding protein (BLBP), a radial glia marker, showed that the majority of BrdU-labeled cells along the tectal midline are RGs. BLBP-positive cells are also developmentally decreased with the maturation of the brain. Furthermore, HDAC1 expression is developmentally down-regulated in tectal cells, especially in the ventricular layer of the tectum. Pharmacological blockade of HDACs using Trichostatin A (TSA) or Valproic acid (VPA) decreased the number of BrdU-positive, BLBP-positive and co-labeling cells. Specific knockdown of HDAC1 by a morpholino (HDAC1-MO) decreased the number of BrdU- and BLBP-labeled cells and increased the acetylation level of histone H4 at lysine 12 (H4K12). The visual deprivation-induced increase in BrdU- and BLBP-positive cells was blocked by HDAC1 knockdown at stage 49 tadpoles. These data demonstrate that HDAC1 regulates radial glia cell proliferation in the developing optical tectum of Xenopus laevis.     

Effect of Heterogeneous Investments on the Evolution of Cooperation in Spatial Public Goods Game

Understanding the emergence of cooperation in spatial public goods game remains a grand challenge across disciplines. In most previous studies, it is assumed that the investments of all the cooperators are identical, and often equal to 1. However, it is worth mentioning that players are diverse and heterogeneous when choosing actions in the rapidly developing modern society and researchers have shown more interest to the heterogeneity of players recently. For modeling the heterogeneous players without loss of generality, it is assumed in this work that the investment of a cooperator is a random variable with uniform distribution, the mean value of which is equal to 1. The results of extensive numerical simulations convincingly indicate that heterogeneous investments can promote cooperation. Specifically, a large value of the variance of the random variable can decrease the two critical values for the result of behavioral evolution effectively. Moreover, the larger the variance is, the better the promotion effect will be. In addition, this article has discussed the impact of heterogeneous investments when the coevolution of both strategy and investment is taken into account. Comparing the promotion effect of coevolution of strategy and investment with that of strategy imitation only, we can conclude that the coevolution of strategy and investment decreases the asymptotic fraction of cooperators by weakening the heterogeneity of investments, which further demonstrates that heterogeneous investments can promote cooperation in spatial public goods game.     

Evaluation of Mercury Contamination in Fungi Boletus Species from Latosols,Lateritic Red Earths,and Red and Yellow Earths in the Circum-Pacific Mercuriferous Belt of Southwestern China

For the first time, highly elevated levels of mercury (Hg) have been documented for several species of the edible Fungi genus Boletus growing in latosols, lateritic red earths, and red and yellow earths from the Yunnan province of China. Analysis of Hg concentrations in the genus suggests that geogenic Hg is the dominant source of Hg in the fungi, whereas anthropogenic sources accumulate largely in the organic layer of the forest soil horizon. Among the 21 species studied from 32 locations across Yunnan and 2 places in Sichuan Province, the Hg was found at elevated level in all samples from Yunnan but not in the samples from Sichuan, which is located outside the mercuriferous belt. Particularly abundant in Hg were the caps of fruiting bodies of Boletus aereus (up to 13 mg kg^-1 dry matter), Boletus bicolor (up to 5.5 mg kg^-1 dry matter), Boletus edulis (up to 22 mg kg^-1 dry matter), Boletus luridus (up to 11 mg kg^-1 dry matter), Boletus magnificus (up to 13 mg kg^-1 dry matter), Boletus obscureumbrinus (up to 9.4 mg kg^-1 dry matter), Boletus purpureus (up to 16 mg kg^-1 dry matter), Boletus sinicus (up to 6.8 mg kg^-1 dry matter), Boletus speciosus (up to 4.9mg kg^-1 dry matter), Boletus tomentipes (up to 13 mg kg^-1 dry matter), and Boletus umbriniporus (up to 4.9 mg kg^-1 dry matter). Soil samples of the 0–10 cm topsoil layer from the widely distributed locations had mercury levels ranging between 0.034 to 3.4 mg kg^-1 dry matter. In Yunnan, both the soil parent rock and fruiting bodies of Boletus spp. were enriched in Hg, whereas the same species from Sichuan, located outside the mercuriferous belt, had low Hg concentrations, suggesting that the Hg in the Yunnan samples is mainly from geogenic sources rather than anthropogenic sources. However, the contribution of anthropogenically-derived Hg sequestered within soils of Yunnan has not been quantified, so more future research is required. Our results suggest that high rates of consumption of Boletus spp. from Yunnan can deliver relatively high doses of Hg to consumers, but that rates can differ widely because of large variability in mercury concentrations between species and locations.     

Misacylation of tRNA with methionine in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Accurate transfer RNA (tRNA) aminoacylation by aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases controls translational fidelity. Although tRNA synthetases are generally highly accurate, recent results show that the methionyl-tRNA synthetase (MetRS) is an exception. MetRS readily misacylates non-methionyl tRNAs at frequencies of up to 10% in mammalian cells; such mismethionylation may serve a beneficial role for cells to protect their own proteins against oxidative damage. The Escherichia coli MetRS mismethionylates two E. coli tRNA species in vitro, and these two tRNAs contain identity elements for mismethionylation. Here we investigate tRNA mismethionylation in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. tRNA mismethionylation occurs at a similar extent in vivo as in mammalian cells. Both cognate and mismethionylated tRNAs have similar turnover kinetics upon cycloheximide treatment. We identify specific arginine/lysine to methionine-substituted peptides in proteomic mass spectrometry, indicating that mismethionylated tRNAs are used in translation. The yeast MetRS is part of a complex containing the anchoring protein Arc1p and the glutamyl-tRNA synthetase (GluRS). The recombinant Arc1p–MetRS–GluRS complex binds and mismethionylates many tRNA species in vitro. Our results indicate that the yeast MetRS is responsible for extensive misacylation of non-methionyl tRNAs, and mismethionylation also occurs in this evolutionary branch.