Which characteristic of Natto: appearance, odor, or taste most affects preference for Natto

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: In Japan, consumption of Natto, a fermented bean dish, is recommended because of its high quality protein, digestibility in the gut and its preventive effect on blood clot formation due to high vitamin K content. However, consumption of Natto in Kansai and the Chugoku area (the western part of Honshu) is less than that in the other areas of Japan probably because of a "food related cultural inhibition". In this study, we determined which characteristic of Natto (appearance, odor or taste) most affect subjects' perception of sensory attributes by observation of brain hemodynamics in relation to subjects' preference for Natto. FINDINGS: In this experiment, we defined each subject's changes in brain hemodynamics as (+) or () corresponding to an increase or a decrease in total hemoglobin concentration after stimuli compared to that before stimuli. As a result, there was no relation between preference for Natto and change in brain hemodynamics by the stimuli of "looking at" or "smelling", while there was a significant relationship between preference and stimulus of "ingestion"; (+) : ()=21:15 in the subjects of the "favorite" group and (+): ()=30:7 in the subjects of the "nonfavorite" group (P=0.034). CONCLUSION: This result indicated that characteristic "taste" of Natto most affects preference for Natto.     

The effects of elevated light on Photosystem II function: A thermoluminescence study

We have used the technique of thermoluminescence (TL) to investigate high-light-induced chlorophyll fluorescence quenching phenomena in barley leaves, and have shown it to be a powerful tool in such investigations. TL measurements were taken from wild-type and chlorina f2 barley leaves which had been dark-adapted or exposed to 20 min illumination of varying irradiance or given varying periods of recovery following strong irradiance. We have found strong evidence that there is a sustained trans-thylakoid pH in leaves following illumination, and that this pH gives rise to quenching of chlorophyll fluorescence which has previously been identified as a slowly-relaxing component of antenna-related protective energy dissipation; we have identified a state of the PS II reaction centre resulting from high light treatments which is apparently able to perform normal charge separation and electron transport but which is non-photochemically quenched, in that the application of a light pulse of high irradiance cannot cause the formation of a high fluorescent state; and we have provided evidence that a transient state of the PS II reaction centre is formed during recovery from such high light treatments, in which electron transport from Q_Ato Q_Bis apparently impaired.     

Analysis of p53 "latency" and "activation" by fluorescence correlation spectroscopy. Evidence for different modes of high affinity DNA binding

The concept that the tumor suppressor p53 is a latent DNA-binding protein that must become activated for sequence-specific DNA binding recently has been challenged, although the "activation" phenomenon has been well established in in vitro DNA binding assays. Using electrophoretic mobility shift assays and fluorescence correlation spectroscopy, we analyzed the binding of "latent" and "activated" p53 to double-stranded DNA oligonucleotides containing or not containing a p53 consensus binding site (DNAspec or DNAunspec, respectively). In the absence of competitor DNA, latent p53 bound DNAspec and DNAunspec with high affinity in a sequence-independent manner. Activation of p53 by the addition of the C-terminal antibody PAb421 significantly decreased the binding affinity for DNAunspec and concomitantly increased the binding affinity for DNAspec. The net result of this dual effect is a significant difference in the affinity of activated p53 for DNAspec and DNAunspec, which explains the activation of p53. High affinity nonspecific DNA binding of latent p53 required both the p53 core domain and the p53 C terminus, whereas high affinity sequence-specific DNA binding of activated p53 was mediated by the p53 core domain alone. The data suggest that high affinity nonspecific DNA binding of latent and high affinity sequence-specific binding of activated p53 to double-stranded DNA differ in their requirement for the C terminus and involve different structural features of the core domain. Because high affinity nonspecific DNA binding of latent p53 is restricted to wild type p53, we propose that it relates to its tumor suppressor functions.     

High expression levels of the "erythroid/brain" type glucose transporter (GLUT1) in the basal cells of human eye conjunctiva and oral mucosa reconstituted in culture

The expression of the "erythroid/brain" type glucose transporter (GLUT1) seems to be a feature of "barrier" tissues, at least in humans. Recently, we reported that GLUT1 is highly expressed in the basal layers of either "authentic" human epidermis or human epidermis reconstituted in culture and that its expression seems to be related to keratinocyte differentiation. In this paper we demonstrate that GLUT1 is selectively expressed in the basal layers of either eye conjunctiva epithelia or oral mucosa, reconstituted in culture starting from 1-2 mm2 bioptic specimens of normal human tissue. GLUT1 mRNA and protein levels are very high in conjunctiva and oral mucosa, 2-3 times higher than in epidermis reconstituted in culture. Taking into account its localization at the border of tissues not directly vascularized, but metabolically active, GLUT1 could play an important role in controlling the entry of glucose into these firmly guarded tissues.     

红树林生长带与潮汐水位关系的研究

根据海南东寨港林市村,廉江车扳镇那肋村,深圳锦锈中华等３个实验点１０条横断面红树林潮滩高程水准测量,林市村潮汐水位观测,潮汐特征水位及浸淹频率分布计算,参照有关港点潮汐实测或预测报资料,确定红树林外边界为平均海面或稍上,内边界（或林内最大高程）为回归潮平均高高潮位（或大潮平均高潮位）对国内外有关报道进行了评述,指出国内许多红树林文献中使用的“高潮位”,“中潮位”“低潮位”用潮汐学术语表述应为“回归     

Understanding the mechanism of LCAT reaction may help to explain the high predictive value of LDL/HDL cholesterol ratio.

Traditionally, lecithin:cholesterol acyltransferase (LCAT) role in the reverse cholesterol transport (RCT) has been considered "antiatherogenic" as the cholesterol esterification is the prerequisite for the formation of mature high density lipoprotein (HDL) particles and may create a gradient necessary for the flow of unesterified cholesterol (UC) from tissues to plasma. However, newer data suggest that a higher esterification rate is not necessarily protective. Here we review the available data on the role of LCAT in RCT and propose that the LCAT-mediated esterification of plasma cholesterol promotes RCT only in the presence of sufficient concentrations of HDL2 while this reaction may be atherogenic in the presence of high concentration of plasma low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol Thus, the "protective" or potentially "atherogenic" role of LCAT depends on the quality of HDL and concentration of LDL. This hypothesis is consistent with the known high predictive value of LDL/HDL cholesterol ratio.     

Focusing on attention: the effects of working memory capacity and load on selective attention

Background

Working memory (WM) is imperative for effective selective attention. Distractibility is greater under conditions of high (vs. low) concurrent working memory load (WML), and in individuals with low (vs. high) working memory capacity (WMC). In the current experiments, we recorded the flanker task performance of individuals with high and low WMC during low and high WML, to investigate the combined effect of WML and WMC on selective attention.

Methodology/Principal Findings

In Experiment 1, distractibility from a distractor at a fixed distance from the target was greater when either WML was high or WMC was low, but surprisingly smaller when both WML was high and WMC low. Thus we observed an inverted-U relationship between reductions in WM resources and distractibility. In Experiment 2, we mapped the distribution of spatial attention as a function of WMC and WML, by recording distractibility across several target-to-distractor distances. The pattern of distractor effects across the target-to-distractor distances demonstrated that the distribution of the attentional window becomes dispersed as WM resources are limited. The attentional window was more spread out under high compared to low WML, and for low compared to high WMC individuals, and even more so when the two factors co-occurred (i.e., under high WML in low WMC individuals). The inverted-U pattern of distractibility effects in Experiment 1, replicated in Experiment 2, can thus be explained by differences in the spread of the attentional window as a function of WM resource availability.

Conclusions/Significance

The current findings show that limitations in WM resources, due to either WML or individual differences in WMC, affect the spatial distribution of attention. The difference in attentional constraining between high and low WMC individuals demonstrated in the current experiments helps characterise the nature of previously established associations between WMC and controlled attention.     

Bacterial endosymbiont localization in Hyalesthes obsoletus, the insect vector of Bois noir in Vitis vinifera

One emerging disease of grapevine in Europe is Bois noir (BN), a phytoplasmosis caused by "Candidatus Phytoplasma solani" and spread in vineyards by the planthopper Hyalesthes obsoletus (Hemiptera: Cixiidae). Here we present the first full characterization of the bacterial community of this important disease vector collected from BN-contaminated areas in Piedmont, Italy. Length heterogeneity PCR and denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis analysis targeting the 16S rRNA gene revealed the presence of a number of bacteria stably associated with the insect vector. In particular, symbiotic bacteria detected by PCR with high infection rates in adult individuals fell within the "Candidatus Sulcia muelleri" cluster in the Bacteroidetes and in the "Candidatus Purcelliella pentastirinorum" group in the Gammaproteobacteria, both previously identified in different leafhoppers and planthoppers. A high infection rate (81%) was also shown for another symbiont belonging to the Betaproteobacteria, designated the HO1-V symbiont. Because of the low level of 16S rRNA gene identity (80%) with the closest relative, an uncharacterized symbiont of the tick Haemaphysalis longicornis, we propose the new name "Candidatus Vidania fulgoroideae." Other bacterial endosymbionts identified in H. obsoletus were related to the intracellular bacteria Wolbachia pipientis, Rickettsia sp., and "Candidatus Cardinium hertigii." Fluorescent in situ hybridization coupled with confocal laser scanning microscopy and transmission electron microscopy showed that these bacteria are localized in the gut, testicles, and oocytes. As "Ca. Sulcia" is usually reported in association with other symbiotic bacteria, we propose that in H. obsoletus, it may occur in a bipartite or even tripartite relationship between "Ca. Sulcia" and "Ca. Purcelliella," "Ca. Vidania," or both.     

Evolutionary origin of autonomic regulation of physiological activities in vertebrate phyla

Proper regulation of physiological activities is crucial for homeostasis in animals. Autonomic regulation of these activities is most developed in mammals, in which a part of peripheral nervous system, termed the autonomic nervous system plays the dominant role. Circulatory activity and digestive activity in vertebrates change in opposite phases to each other. The stage where circulatory activity is high and digestive activity is low is termed the "fight or flight stage" while the stage where circulatory activity is low and digestive activity is high is termed the "rest and digest stage". It has been thought that the autonomic nervous system originated in early vertebrate phyla and developed to its greatest extent in mammals. In this study, we compared the pattern of change of circulatory and digestive activities in several invertebrates and found that the two stages seen in mammals are also present in a wide variety of animals, including evolutionarily early-diverging invertebrate taxa. From this and other arguments we propose a novel possibility that the basic properties of the autonomic nervous system were established very early in metazoan evolution.     

NITRITE UPTAKE TRANSIENTS AND CONSEQUENCES FOR IN VIVO ALGAL NITRATE REDUCTASE ASSAYS

We conducted in vivo nitrate reductase (NR) assays with the commercially important brown seaweed, Laminaria japonica Aresch., and present evidence that significant, sustained nitrite uptake can occur under typical assay conditions. Thus, we caution investigators to determine the importance of nitrite uptake prior to conducting similar in vivo NR assays in this and other algal species. Further, we observed high initial nitrite uptake from sea-water medium supplemented with nitrite at concentrations found in coastal seawater of Qingdao, People's Republic of China. The pattern of initial uptake was unlike that described previously as "surge uptake" or "rapid uptake" in seaweeds, but it was similar to that recently reported for rapid ammonium uptake in phytoplankton. A high initial uptake rate lasted for a few minutes, followed by a rapid decline, a transient increase and a subsequent decline to stable uptake rates after ca. 1 h. This is the first report of such initially high inorganic nitrogen uptake in seaweeds. The significance of nitrite uptake in seaweeds may have been underestimated. Seaweeds may be able to exploit short-duration nitrite pulses, as has been observed for ammonium in phytoplankton populations.     

Frigatebirds, Tropicbirds, and Ciconiida: Excesses of Confidence Probability

Because it is based on a significance test that takes the shape of the tree as given, the Rzhetsky/Nei Confidence Probability (CP) can attribute high "confidence" to groups with little or even literally no support. CP further overestimates confidence in that it takes no account of reliability of alignment, and it shows instability in that drastic changes in results can be produced by small changes in data. Instability can arise when alignment is uncertain, since different alignment strategies can lead to slightly different matrices. Parsimony jackknifing offers a more reliable and stable way of assessing support. To take ambiguities of alignment into account with parsimony jackknifing, we suggest "consensus" and "average" methods of summarizing jackknife results from several alignments. Reanalyzing 12S and 16S rRNA data on pelecaniform birds, we find that CP has overestimated support for the Ciconiida, for placing frigatebirds with condors, and for placing tropicbirds with cormorants.     

Origins of altruism diversity I: the diverse ecological roles of altruistic strategies and their evolutionary responses to local competition

Nature abounds with a rich variety of altruistic strategies, including public resource enhancement, resource provisioning, communal foraging, alarm calling, and nest defense. Yet, despite their vastly different ecological roles, current theory typically treats diverse altruistic traits as being favored under the same general conditions. Here, we introduce greater ecological realism into social evolution theory and find evidence of at least four distinct modes of altruism. Contrary to existing theory, we find that altruistic traits contributing to "resource-enhancement" (e.g., siderophore production, provisioning, agriculture) and "resource-efficiency" (e.g., pack hunting, communication) are most strongly favored when there is strong local competition. These resource-based modes of helping are "K-strategies" that increase a social group's growth yield, and should characterize species with scarce resources and/or high local crowding caused by low mortality, high fecundity, and/or mortality occurring late in the process of resource-acquisition. The opposite conditions, namely weak local competition (abundant resource, low crowding), favor survival (e.g., nest defense) and fecundity (e.g., nurse workers) altruism, which are "r-strategies" that increase a social group's growth rate. We find that survival altruism is uniquely favored by a novel evolutionary force that we call "sunk cost selection." Sunk cost selection favors helping that prevents resources from being wasted on individuals destined to die before reproduction. Our results contribute to explaining the observed natural diversity of altruistic strategies, reveal the necessary connection between the evolution and the ecology of sociality, and correct the widespread but inaccurate view that local competition uniformly impedes the evolution of altruism.     

Gene Import or Deletion: A Study of the Different Genes in Escherichia coli Strains K12 and O157:H7

By comparing two strains of Escherichia coli (K12 and O157:H7) with an outgroup of Salmonella and Klebsiella species and analyzing the sets of genes which are present or absent in either of the three groups, we study the gene history of K12, in particular, since the respective divergences of these bacteria. Furthermore, by using a compositional method based on context bias, we evaluate not only recently imported genes but also deleted genes. In addition, we examine recent gene duplications in the two E. coli strains. It is found that turnover of DNA is high in E. coli and, more importantly, that turnover is highest for genes of low GC content. Although levels of import are high, most of the imported genes seem to be "junk" or have poorly understood functions. Nevertheless, selected genes do persist, and may even define some E. coli strains as pathogenic. Our results support the conclusion that some of the pathogenic islands in O157:H7 are likely to have been imported in recent time.     

A construction of pooling designs with some happy surprises.

The screening of data sets for "positive data objects" is essential to modern technology. A (group) test that indicates whether a positive data object is in a specific subset or pool of the dataset can greatly facilitate the identification of all the positive data objects. A collection of tested pools is called a pooling design. Pooling designs are standard experimental tools in many biotechnical applications. In this paper, we use the (linear) subspace relation coupled with the general concept of a "containment matrix" to construct pooling designs with surprisingly high degrees of error correction (detection.) Error-correcting pooling designs are important to biotechnical applications where error rates often are as high as 15%. What is also surprising is that the rank of the pooling design containment matrix is independent of the number of positive data objects in the dataset.     

Specific detection of RNA on ultra-thin sections

In this paper, we describe a specific method for ultrastructural detection of RNA. Our method is based in the bromination "in situ" of uridine residues in the RNA, which allows the detection of brominated RNA with specific antibodies against bromo-deoxyuridine. With this method we can achieve high specificity and resolution, and it can be applied to Epon or acrylic resin embedded material.     

High rate of DNA loss in the Drosophila melanogaster and Drosophila virilis species groups

We recently proposed that patterns of evolution of non-LTR retrotransposable elements can be used to study patterns of spontaneous mutation. Transposition of non-LTR retrotransposable elements commonly results in creation of 5' truncated, "dead-on-arrival" copies. These inactive copies are effectively pseudogenes and, according to the neutral theory, their molecular evolution ought to reflect rates and patterns of spontaneous mutation. Maximum parsimony can be used to separate the evolution of active lineages of a non-LTR element from the fate of the "dead-on-arrival" insertions and to directly assess the relative frequencies of different types of spontaneous mutations. We applied this approach using a non-LTR element, Helena, in the Drosophila virilis group and have demonstrated a surprisingly high incidence of large deletions and the virtual absence of insertions. Based on these results, we suggested that Drosophila in general may exhibit a high rate of spontaneous large deletions and have hypothesized that such a high rate of DNA loss may help to explain the puzzling dearth of bona fide pseudogenes in Drosophila. We also speculated that variation in the rate of spontaneous deletion may contribute to the divergence of genome size in different taxa by affecting the amount of superfluous "junk" DNA such as, for example, pseudogenes or long introns. In this paper, we extend our analysis to the D. melanogaster subgroup, which last shared a common ancestor with the D. virilis group approximately 40 MYA. In a different region of the same transposable element, Helena, we demonstrate that inactive copies accumulate deletions in species of the D. melanogaster subgroup at a rate very similar to that of the D. virilis group. These results strongly suggest that the high rate of DNA loss is a general feature of Drosophila and not a peculiar property of a particular stretch of DNA in a particular species group.      

Identification of the erythropoietin receptors of erythroleukemic cells

Erythropoietin (epo) is the physiologic regulator of red blood cell development. We have demonstrated the presence of epo receptors on two erythroleukemia cell lines, IW32 and IW201. IW32 produces epo constitutively while IW201 is a nonproducing cell line. Neither cell lines respond to epo to differentiate. In this study, we have shown that these cells bound 125I-epo specifically. Binding could be displaced by the presence of unlabeled epo but not by insulin or epidermal growth factor. In contrast to that found in epo responsive cells isolated from Friend virus infected mouse spleen, which were reported to contain both "high" and "low" affinity receptors, our finding indicated only a single class of "low" affinity receptors with apparent dissociation constants of 1.7 nM and 2.0 nM for IW32 and IW201 cell lines, respectively. It is suggested that the absence of "high" affinity receptors may account for the lack of responsiveness of these cells to epo.     

The epidermal-growth-control theory of stem elongation: an old and a new perspective

The botanist G. Kraus postulated in 1867 that the peripheral cell layers determine the rate of organ elongation based on the observation that the separated outer and inner tissues of growing stems spontaneously change their lengths upon isolation from each other. Here, we summarize the modern version of this classical concept, the "epidermal-growth-control" or "tensile skin" theory of stem elongation. First, we present newly acquired data from sunflower hypocotyls, which demonstrate that the expansion of the isolated inner tissues is not an experimental artefact, as recently claimed, but rather the result of metabolism-independent cell elongation caused by the removal of the growth-controlling peripheral walls. Second, we present data showing that auxin-induced elongation of excised stem segments is attributable to the loosening of the thick epidermal walls, which provides additional evidence for the "epidermal-growth-control concept". Third, we show that the cuticle of aerial organs can be thin and mechanically weak in seedlings raised at high humidity, but thick and mechanically important for organs growing under relatively dry air conditions. Finally, we present a modified model of the "tensile skin-theory" that draws attention to the mechanical and physiological roles of (a) the thickened, helicoidal outer cell walls, (b) the mechanical constraint of a cuticle, and (c) the interactions among outer and inner cell layers as growth is coordinated by hormonal signals.     

Multiple classes of MSL binding sites target dosage compensation to the X chromosome of Drosophila

MSL complexes bind hundreds of sites along the single male X chromosome to achieve dosage compensation in Drosophila. Previously, we proposed that approximately 35 "high-affinity" or "chromatin entry" sites (CES) might nucleate spreading of MSL complexes in cis to paint the X chromosome. This was based on analysis of the first characterized sites roX1 and roX2. roX transgenes attract MSL complex to autosomal locations where it can spread long distances into flanking chromatin. roX1 and roX2 also produce noncoding RNA components of the complex. Here we identify a third site from the 18D10 region of the X chromosome. Like roX genes, 18D binds full and partial MSL complexes in vivo and encompasses a male-specific DNase I hypersensitive site (DHS). Unlike roX genes, the 510 bp 18D site is apparently not transcribed and shows high affinity for MSL complex and spreading only as a multimer. While mapping 18D, we discovered MSL binding to X cosmids that do not carry one of the approximately 35 high-affinity sites. Based on additional analyses of chromosomal transpositions, we conclude that spreading in cis from the roX genes or the approximately 35 originally proposed "entry sites" cannot be the sole mechanism for MSL targeting to the X chromosome.