Genetic manipulation of carotenoid biosynthesis: strategies, problems and achievements

Carotenoids, some of which are provitamin A, have a range of diverse biological functions and actions, especially in relation to human health. For example, carotenoids are known to be crucial for normal vision and have been associated with reducing the risk of several degenerative diseases including cancer. The putative advantage of modifying and engineering the carotenoid biosynthetic pathways is obvious: to provide sources for the isolation of desired carotenoids or to generate food plants with increased carotenoid content. This article reviews the studies of carotenoid production in heterologous microorganisms and the engineering of crop plants using manipulated carotenoid biosynthesis.     

Affinity-based proteomic profiling: problems and achievements

Affinity chromatography becomes a more and more popular method used in proteomic studies for separation of various groups of proteins (subproteomes). The review highlights the role of affinity chromatography fractionation for proteomic profiling of the most of intensively studied groups of proteins including cyclic nucleotide-binding proteins, protein kinases (kinomes), phosphoproteins, glycoproteins, ubiquitinated proteins. Special attention is paid to the use of affinity chromatography for the characterization of small-molecule protein targets. The latter is especially important for the elucidation of direct protein targets of potential drug substances for evaluation of their possible side-effects or additional pharmacological application.     

"Brain reading": achievements, perspectives and ethical problems

The new trend in brain research designated as brain reading is considered. This research deals with decoding the informational content of the brain processing via its physiological parameters. Such studies are based on rather complicated methods of mathematical analysis. Single records rather than averaged data are used to reveal their content. Three main streams of studies are distinguished, i.e. the object classification, the emotion recognition and brainotyping. Particularly, the studies directed to recognizing the type of thinking via EEG spectra, carried out in the author's laboratory, are reviewed. The possible outcome of the brain reading technique is considered. Finally it is argued that in the future, the broad application of this technique needs to be controlled with some ethical rules.     

Malaria sporozoites: survival, transmission and disease control

A basic fact in malariology is that human malaria infections result from the bite of an infective anopheline mosquito. Without sporozoite transmission there is no malaria. Here, John Beier highlights our understanding of sporozoite biology from the perspective of how sporozoites develop and survive in mosquitoes, how they are transmitted during bloodfeeding, and how key elements in sporozoite-vector relationships present new opportunities for tackling critical questions relevant for disease control.     

Malaria vaccines--progress and problems.

Developing a vaccine against malaria is a major priority of the WHO. A decade of research exploiting the techniques of molecular biology has yielded a series of potentially protective vaccines. However, progress has been frustrated by the complexity of the parasite's life cycle and the antigenic diversity exhibited by each stage. Although candidate vaccines are now entering human trials, questions still arise concerning the nature of a successful malaria vaccine and who will benefit from it.     

Malaria control priorities and constraints

Each year, there are still between 300-500 million clinical cases of malaria and over one million deaths due to the disease, 90% of which occur in Africa south of the Sahara. In all continents, malaria risk is highest in remote rural areas where poverty abounds, population densities are low and the quality and coverage of the health services are poor or in existent. A sustained impact on the malaria burden can only be achieved through the cost-effective use of current tools, by including malaria in health sector development and inter-sectorial action, by mobilizing malaria control within communities and by investing in new and more effective tools. This paper highlights some of the constraints faced by countries in controlling malaria and outlines the priority activities that are being carried out to address these constraints within both communities and the health services. It aims to be set the scene for the papers of this Centenary book which address some of these issues in more detail.     

Malaria vector analysis and control

Antivector measures in malaria control should aim for a cost-effective reduction of the transmission potential ideally to below the critical level for sustained transmission. The available measures include those that decrease vector abundance, vector-human contact and vector survival rate or that increase the length of the sporogonic cycle. These have widely different impact on malaria transmission, as shown by epidemiological modelling. Direct modification of vector receptivity to Plasmodium is also hypothetically attainable by the use of transmission-blocking vaccines or by genetic manipulation and replacement of the vector population. Vector analysis constitutes the essential prerequisite for basic malaria epidemiology as well as for the development, planning and evaluation of antivector measures. The rationale, the problems and the perspectives of vector analysis are reviewed here by Mario Coluzzi, on the basis of his experience with Afrotropical and Mediterranean malaria vectors.     

Rooting molecular trees: problems and strategies

In constructing phylogenies from molecular data both the composition of the ingroup and the choice of outgroup can strongly affect the chances of obtaining the correct topology. This is because tree topology and uneven rates of molecular evolution affect the ability of tree-building algorithms to find the correct tree. Outgroups can be added in one of two ways, either to a single sister clade (preferably the closest) or through addition of single taxa from different clades. On theoretical and empirical grounds the former strategy is shown to be much more beneficial, both in terms of redressing balance and reducing stemminess. For parsimony to perform well some selection of sequence data, through omission or weighting, is also often necessary to reduce levels of homoplasy.