The role of posttranslational modification in moonlighting glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase structure and function

Glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) is a moonlighting protein exhibiting distinct activities apart from its classical role in glycolysis. Regulation of its moonlighting functions and its subcellular localization may be dependent on its posttranslational modification (PTM). The latter include its phosphorylation, which is required for its role in intermembrane trafficking, synaptic transmission and cancer survival; nitrosylation, which is required for its function in apoptosis, heme metabolism and the immune response; acetylation which is necessary for its modulation of apoptotic gene regulation; and N-acetylglucosamine modification which may induce changes in GAPDH oligomeric structure. These findings suggest a structure function relationship between GAPDH posttranslational modification and its diverse moonlighting activities.

     

State‐dependent cooperation in burying beetles: parents adjust their contribution towards care based on both their own and their partner's size

Handicapping experiments on species with biparental care show that a focal parent increases its contribution when its partner is handicapped. Such results are interpreted as evidence for negotiation, whereby each parent adjusts its amount of care to that of its partner. However, it is currently unclear whether the focal parent responds to a change in its handicapped partner's behaviour or state. To address this gap, we conducted an experiment on the burying beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides where we first generated different‐sized males and females by varying the duration of larval development. We then used a 2 × 2 factorial design in which a small or large male was paired with a small or large female. Small females provided less direct care (food provisioning and interactions with larvae) than large females, and both males and females provided less direct care when paired with a small partner. Thus, the focal parent adjusted its contribution towards care based on both its own state and that of its partner. There was also evidence for negotiation between the two parents as the focal parent adjusted its contribution based on the amount of care by its partner. However, there was no evidence that negotiation accounted for how the focal parent responded to its partner's size. Our results have important implications for our understanding of biparental cooperation as they show that each parent adjusts its contribution not only based on the amount of care provided by its partner but also based on its own state and its partner's state.     

Composite effects of gene determinants on the translation speed and density of ribosomes

Background  

Translation is a central process of life, and its regulation is crucial for cell growth. In this article, focusing on two model organisms, Escherichia coli and Saccharomyces cerevisiae, we study how three major local features of a gene's coding sequence (its adaptation to the tRNA pool, its amino acid charge, and its mRNA folding energy) affect its translation elongation.     

Phylogeny and life cycle of the zoonotic pathogen Vibrio vulnificus

Vibrio vulnificus is a zoonotic pathogen able to cause diseases in humans and fish that occasionally result in sepsis and death. Most reviews about this pathogen (including those related to its ecology) are clearly biased towards its role as a human pathogen, emphasizing its relationship with oysters as its main reservoir, the role of the known virulence factors as well as the clinic and the epidemiology of the human disease. This review tries to give to the reader a wider vision of the biology of this pathogen covering aspects related to its phylogeny and evolution and filling the gaps in our understanding of the general strategies that V. vulnificus uses to survive outside and inside its two main hosts, the human and the eel, and how its response to specific environmental parameters determines its survival, its death, or the triggering of an infectious process.     

Tropaeolaceae: 684. TROPAEOLUM POLYPHYLLUM

Tropaeolum polyphyllum Cav. is illustrated and described. The history of its discovery and its distribution are given; its propagation and cultivation are discussed.     

Ribonucleic acid of Echinococcus granulosus protoscolices

Echinococcus granulosus protoscolices RNA has been characterized in terms of its nucleotide composition, its behavior in sucrose density gradients and methylated albuminkieselguhr columns, its template activity, its biosynthesis kinetics, and the effect of actinomycin D.     

WHO at country level--a little impact,no strategy.

The acid test of WHO''s effect on the world''s health is its impact at country level. Unless it has an impact there, all of its declarations, its debates at the World Health Assembly, its conferences, its pamphlets, its political manouvering in Geneva and the regions, all of these come to nothing. Working as it does through national governments, WHO insists that it has no role in directly managing or delivering health care. Judging WHO''s impact in individual countries is therefore difficult--its approaches are largely indirect, and initiatives may take years to bear fruit. But from the meagre resources that WHO makes available at country level it is clear why its country operations are criticised as the weakest link in an already weak chain of influence from its headquarters in Geneva to the people in its member states. Poorly funded, undertrained, and with no clear strategy to follow, its staff at country level stand little chance of making an impact.     

A newHottarum (Araceae) species from Borneo

The new speciesH. lucens Bogner differs fromH. truncatum (M. Hotta)Bogner etNicolson: The leaf blades are narrower, the spadix is adnate to the spathe for two third of its length, i.e. with all of its female and half of its male part. The latter has (fertile) stamens only on its front and staminodes on its back side. Further staminodes occur between the male and female flowers.     

应用matK基因鉴别青天葵及其常见混伪品

分析了青天葵及其混伪品matK序列,以期在分子水平建立青天葵及其常见混伪品的鉴别方法。采用一对通用引物对matK基因进行PCR扩增并测序,所得序列用DNAMAN、MEGA等软件进行分析。获得青天葵及其混伪品的matK基因序列长度为587 bp,平均GC含量为32.8%。青天葵的种内遗传距离为0,与混伪品种间遗传距离范围为0.016～0.375。基于matK基因序列构建的NJ聚类树能明显地区别青天葵及其混伪品。因此,应用matK基因序列可以有效鉴别青天葵及其混伪品。     

江津楼梯草, 重庆荨麻科一新种

描述了自重庆南部发现的荨麻科楼梯草一新种,江津楼梯草(Elatostema jiangjinense)。此新种与锐齿楼梯草(E. cyrtandrifolium)近缘,两者的区别在于江津楼梯草的叶在狭侧具2条二级脉,托叶卵形或披针形,以及雄总苞片在顶端具长角状突起。     

Centers of mass and weight distribution in spiders of the family uloboridae

In the Uloboridae, web reduction is accompanied by changes in opisthosomal shape, leg length, and web-monitoring tactics. These morphological changes make reduced-web spiders more cryptic and alter their leg leverage and centers of mass. When compared with the orb-weaver Uloborus glomosus, the irregular, reduced-web spider, Miagrammopes animotus, invests more mass in its prosoma and first legs. However, the latter species' elongate opisthosoma posteriorly shifts this region's center of mass, causing the relative position of its composite center of mass and the distribution of weight between its first and fourth legs to be similar to that of the orb-weaver. Like these species, the opisthosomal center of mass of the triangle-weaver, Hyptiotes cavatus, lies near its midpoint. However, the shorter first legs and rounder, heavier opisthosoma of Hyptiotes posteriorly shift its composite center of mass and distribute more of its weight onto its fourth legs. Consequently, the morphology of M. animotus can be adequately explained by its adaptiveness for web manipulation, balance, and weight distribution and the crypsis that these features confer as an ancillary advantage. In contrast, anatomical changes in H. cavatus are better explained as adaptations for web manipulation and crypsis.     

Globalization and Migration: Post-Colonial Dutch Antillean and Aruban Immigrant Political Incorporation in the Netherlands

For much of its colonial history, the Netherlands experienced little contact with its island possessions in the Caribbean. Subsequent Dutch policy was formulated in the shadow of the Netherlands primary concern with its prosperous colony of Indonesia. The 1985 closing of the oil refineries in Aruba and Curacao, Netherlands Antilles and Aruba’s “status aparte” in 1986 triggered a mass migration from those Dutch “overseas countries” to the Netherlands. These recent migrations of thousands of Dutch post-colonial citizens have added to the Dutch reevaluation of its colonial past and debates about its multicultural democratic future.     

Plagiochila britannica,a new species in the British Isles

Abstract

Plagiochila britannica is described as a new species. It differs from P. porelloides and P. asplenioides in many characters, especially its often more narrowly oval leaves with a more variable, often truncate to bilobed apex and larger cells, its wider antical stem cells and its diploid chromosome number. Differences from P. arctica var intermedia include its more variable leaf apex, generally more dentate leaves often with longer teeth, the greater maximum size of its leaf cells and its wider antical stem cells. Male and female inflorescences and sporophytes are known in P. britannica, which favours base-rich substrata and has been found in Wales, N. England, Scotland and N. Ireland. A key to the nine species of Plagiochila in the British Isles is included.     

H2S and its role in redox signaling

Hydrogen sulfide (H₂S) has emerged as an important gaseous signaling molecule that is produced endogenously by enzymes in the sulfur metabolic network. H₂S exerts its effects on multiple physiological processes important under both normal and pathological conditions. These functions include neuromodulation, regulation of blood pressure and cardiac function, inflammation, cellular energetics and apoptosis. Despite the recognition of its biological importance and its beneficial effects, the mechanism of H₂S action and the regulation of its tissue levels remain unclear in part owing to its chemical and physical properties that render handling and analysis challenging. Furthermore, the multitude of potential H₂S effects has made it difficult to dissect its signaling mechanism and to identify specific targets. In this review, we focus on H₂S metabolism and provide an overview of the recent literature that sheds some light on its mechanism of action in cellular redox signaling in health and disease. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: Thiol-Based Redox Processes.     

Ostéologie et affinités de Trematochampsa taqueti (Crocodylia,Mesosuchia) du Sénonien inférieur d'In Beceten (République du Niger)

Among the abundant remains of Mesosuchia that have been yielded by the early Senonian locality of In Beceten (Niger), the most numerous belong to the species Trematochampsa taquetiBuffetaut, 1974. The osteology of this species is described here. This medium-sized crocodilian, with a moderately elongated skull, is characterized, among other features, by its antorbital fenestra, its surangular-quadratojugal articulation, its slightly displaced post-orbital pillar, its teeth with wrinkled enamel, and its amphicoelous vertebrae. In its general outlook, this animal is rather reminiscent of the Goniopholidae, from the Upper Jurassic and the Cretaceous of Laurasia, but it is more primitive than them, and resemblances are probably due to convergence phenomena. The family Trematochampsidae is probably essentially Gondwanian, and could persist until the Senonian thanks to a certain isolation from Laurasia, where more progressive Crocodylia became predominant much earlier than in Africa and South America.     

Four new species of the Genera Eudesme and Sphaerotrichia (Chordariaceae,Heterokontophyta) from the Chinese Coast

Four new species, Eudesme huanghaiensis Ding et Lu, E. qingdaoensis Ding et Lu, E. shandongensis Ding et Lu and Sphaerotrichia huanghaiensis Ding et Lu, from the western Yellow Sea coast of China are described. Eudesme huanghaiensis is mainly characterized by its spherical or sub-spherical sub-cortical cells, its rhizoidal filaments developing from the basal cells of sub-cortex and its broad sub-cortical and medullary layers. E. qingdaoensis is mainly characterized by its long medullary cells, generally hollow center of the medulla, short sub-cortex with only 3–4 cylindrical cells and long, slender and clavate terminal cells of the rhizoidal filaments. E. shandongensis is mainly characterized by its hollow frond, thick cell walls of both medulla and inner sub-cortical layers and the spherical terminal cells of the rhizoid filaments. Sphaerotrichia huanghaiensis is mainly characterized by its cylindrical, sparsely branched frond with acute angle, and its thick 5–6 layered sub-cortex with long assimilating filaments of 6–10 cells. %     

Biotransformation of (RS)-tropic acid in suspension cultures of Coffea arabica,Datura innoxia,Eucalyptus perriniana and Nicotiana tabacum

Suspension cultures of Datura innoxia and Nicotiana tabacum are able to convert (RS)-tropic acid into its glucose esters (2RS)-3-hydroxy-2-phenylpropionyl β-d-glucopyranoside and (2RS)-2-O-(3-hydroxy-2-phenylpropionyl)-d-glucose whereas a cultures of Eucalyptus perriniana converts it into its glucoside (2RS)-3-O-β-d-glucopyranosyl-2-phenylpropionic acid in addition to glucose esters. Suspension cultures of Coffea arabica converts: (RS)-tropic acid into its glucose, sucrose and isotrehalose esters and a small amount of its glucoside; (RS)-2-(4-hydroxyphenyl)propionic acid into its glucose and sucrose esters and a small amount of its glucoside; and (RS)-ethyl 2-(4-hydroxyphenyl)propionate into its gentiobioside. The formation of sucrose esters and linkage of the aglycone to the C-6 position of glucose are characteristic of the biotransformation of carboxylic acids by suspension cultures of C. arabica. The suspension culture of C. arabica selectively converted (R)-tropic acid into its isotrehalose ester on administration of (RS)-tropic acid.     

(7R)-Transtrans-nepetalactone from Nepeta elliptica

The major component of the essential oil from the aerial parts of Nepeta elliptica, gathered in the Kumaun Region of India, has been identified as (7R)-trans,trans-nepetalactone primarily by comparison of its IR spectrum with those of its four (7S)-stereoisomers and its mass spectrum and ¹H and ¹³C NMR spectra with those of its three diastereomers.     

1065. Codonopsis pilosula (Franch.) Nannf. subsp. tangshen (Oliv.) D.Y. Hong: Campanulaceae

Codonopsis pilosula subsp. tangshen is illustrated: its relationships, history and pollination are discussed. Instructions for its successful cultivation are given, and references are given to its use in Traditional Chinese medicine.