Segnalazione di piante nuove,inedite, o notevoli per la regione marchigiana. III

Abstract

A report about new or interesting plants in the Marche region. III. — The authors report about the occurrence in the Marche of 61 entities of specific or infraspecific rank, 22 of which are new or unpublished concerning the region, while the remaining 39 have been previously very little or imprecisely mentioned; as to the latter new localities and stations are shown or general information on the distribution over the Marche district has been supplied. Out of the first 22 entities, 18 (Fumaria muralis subsp. muralis, Cardamine flexuosa, Lunaria annua subsp. pachyrhiza, Colutea arborescens subsp. gallica, Astragalus monspessulanas subsp. illyricus, Cornus sanguinea subsp. australis, Galium verrucosum, Hedypnois rhagadioloides subsp. tubaeformis, Andryala tenuifolia, Sonchus asper subsp. glaucescens, Rheichardia picroides var. maritima, Podospermum canum, Scorzonera austriaca, S. hirsuta, Bidens frondosa, Guizotia abyssinica, Ambrosia elatior, A. trifida) are, as far as the authors know, quite new or unpublished concerning the Marche, while 4 (Rumex angiocarpus, Trifolium repens subsp. prostratum, Epilobium lanceolatum, Picris hieracioides subsp. spinulosa) are generally reported in Middle Italy or over the whole Italian territory by the general Floras, but till now have not been mentioned in works dealing with regional flora.     

Nota Su A Cer Lobelii Ten

Summary

Acer Lobelii Ten. has often been considered as a variety of Acer platanoides, the A. clears this doubtful position and points to the characters which differentiate A. Lobelii from other similar species.

A. Lobelii and A. cappadocicum (Acer laetum), belonging to the same series Picta, have a great affinity while great differences exist in the case of A. platanoides.

A. Lobelii has thicker leaves than A. platanoides which have whole lobes, the fruits are smaller and the calix is extremely hairy, petiole red on the lower side. The twigs are covered by a very whithe bloom. The bark of adult branches is bright green in colour and smooth, sometimes with white streaks while that of A. platanoides is grey or greyish-brown.

The bark of the trunks of A. Lobelii is also smooth with few orizontal fissures and ash-white in colour, A. platanoides has instead a bark with fine vertical fissures and which is grey in colour.

The two maples differ also for some biological characters: A. Lobelii freely produces root shoots while A. platanoides does not; in the former the flowers appear at the same time as the leaves while in the latter the leaves appear after the flowers.

The vegetation area of A. Lobelii is restricted to the Mediterranean basin and it can be considered exclusive of Italy where it grows in some places in Campania, Lucania and Calabria.

The whole of the morphological, dendrological and physiological characters point to the fact that A. Lobelii Ten. can not be considered as a variety of A. platanoides but as a definite species. Furthermore A. Lobelii, as A. cappadocicum, has to be considered as a relict of the tertiary era, while A. platanoides belongs to a following period.     

Triglyceride‐to‐HDL‐cholesterol Ratio and Metabolic Syndrome as Contributors to Cardiovascular Risk in Overweight Patients

Insulin resistance increases cardiovascular risk of obese patients. Triglyceride to high‐density lipoprotein cholesterol ratio (TG/HDL) ≥3.0 (in mg/dl) is a marker of insulin resistance in overweight persons. We aimed at assessing cardiovascular risk profile in 301 overweight elderly Neapolitan outpatients, according to TG/HDL ratio and metabolic syndrome (MS), diagnosed by National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) and International Diabetes Federation (IDF) criteria. TG/HDL ratio was ≥3.0 in 97 patients (group A) and <3.0 in 204 (group B). Overall, 93–97% of group A patients and 38–51% of group B patients had MS, depending on the diagnostic criterion. Group A patients with MS had significantly higher waist‐to‐hip ratio, total and non‐HDL cholesterol than group B patients with MS. In group B, MS and non‐MS patients had similar waist‐to‐hip ratio, blood pressure, total and non‐HDL cholesterol. Ten year coronary risk, calculated by the Framingham equations (n = 243), was 10.3 ± 5% in group B, non‐MS patients; 13.1 ± 6% in group B, MS patients; 19.9 ± 8% in group A (F = 32.8; P < 0.001). At the multiple regression analysis, TG/HDL ratio was associated with coronary risk (r² = 0.227) more closely than gender, blood pressure, waist‐to‐hip ratio, non HDL cholesterol, and MS considered as a whole. A separate regression analysis showed that the logarithmically transformed TG/HDL ratio, an index of the HDL cholesterol esterification rate, is also associated with coronary risk (r² = 0.252). Thus, TG/HDL ratio could help to characterize high‐risk overweight patients deserving a special therapeutic effort. Cardiovascular risk profile of insulin‐sensitive patients, identified by lower values of this parameter, is only moderately affected by MS.     

Interaction of l-lysine and soluble elastin with the semicarbazide-sensitive amine oxidase in the context of its vascular-adhesion and tissue maturation functions

The copper-containing quinoenzyme semicarbazide-sensitive amine oxidase (EC 1.4.3.21; SSAO) is a multifunctional protein. In some tissues, such as the endothelium, it also acts as vascular-adhesion protein 1 (VAP-1), which is involved in inflammatory responses and in the chemotaxis of leukocytes. Earlier work had suggested that lysine might function as a recognition molecule for SSAO/VAP-1. The present work reports the kinetics of the interaction of l-lysine and some of its derivatives with SSAO. Binding was shown to be saturable, time-dependent but reversible and to cause uncompetitive inhibition with respect to the amine substrate. It was also specific, since d-lysine, l-lysine ethyl ester and ε-acetyl-l-lysine, for example, did not bind to the enzyme. The lysine-rich protein soluble elastin bound to the enzyme relatively tightly, which may have relevance to the reported roles of SSAO in maintaining the extracellular matrix (ECM) and in the maturation of elastin. Our data show that lysyl residues are not oxidized by SSAO, but they bind tightly to the enzyme in the presence of hydrogen peroxide. This suggests that binding in vivo of SSAO to lysyl residues in physiological targets might be regulated in the presence of H₂O₂, formed during the oxidation of a physiological SSAO substrate, yet to be identified.     

The manipulative complexity of Lower Paleolithic stone toolmaking

Background

Early stone tools provide direct evidence of human cognitive and behavioral evolution that is otherwise unavailable. Proper interpretation of these data requires a robust interpretive framework linking archaeological evidence to specific behavioral and cognitive actions.

Methodology/Principal Findings

Here we employ a data glove to record manual joint angles in a modern experimental toolmaker (the 4^th author) replicating ancient tool forms in order to characterize and compare the manipulative complexity of two major Lower Paleolithic technologies (Oldowan and Acheulean). To this end we used a principled and general measure of behavioral complexity based on the statistics of joint movements.

Conclusions/Significance

This allowed us to confirm that previously observed differences in brain activation associated with Oldowan versus Acheulean technologies reflect higher-level behavior organization rather than lower-level differences in manipulative complexity. This conclusion is consistent with a scenario in which the earliest stages of human technological evolution depended on novel perceptual-motor capacities (such as the control of joint stiffness) whereas later developments increasingly relied on enhanced mechanisms for cognitive control. This further suggests possible links between toolmaking and language evolution.     

Synergistic effect of trichostatin A and 5‐aza‐2′‐deoxycytidine on growth inhibition of pancreatic endocrine tumour cell lines: A proteomic study

Our research group recently reported that pancreatic endocrine cancer cell lines are sensitive to the HDAC inhibitor trichostatin A (TSA). In the present paper, we show that the combined treatment of pancreatic endocrine tumour cell lines with TSA and the DNA methyltransferase inhibitor 5‐aza‐2′‐deoxycytidine (DAC) determines a strong synergistic inhibition of proliferation mainly due to apoptotic cell death. Proteomic analysis demonstrates that the modulation of specific proteins correlates with the antiproliferative effect of the drugs. A schematic network clarifies the most important targets or pathways involved in pancreatic endocrine cancer growth inhibition by single or combined drug treatments, which include proteasome, mitochondrial apoptotic pathway and caspase related proteins, p53 and Ras related proteins. A comparison between the patterns of proteins regulated by TSA or DAC in endocrine and ductal pancreatic cancer cell lines is also presented.     

Cloning and characterization of a DNA polymerase β gene from Trypanosoma cruzi

A gene coding for a DNA polymerase β from the Trypanosoma cruzi Miranda clone, belonging to the TcI lineage, was cloned (Miranda Tcpolβ), using the information from eight peptides of the T. cruzi β-like DNA polymerase purified previously. The gene encodes for a protein of 403 amino acids which is very similar to the two T. cruzi CL Brener (TcIIe lineage) sequences published, but has three different residues in highly conserved segments. At the amino acid level, the identity of TcI-polβ with mitochondrial polβ and polβ-PAK from other trypanosomatids was between 68–80% and 22–30%, respectively. Miranda Tc-polβ protein has an N-terminal sequence similar to that described in the mitochondrial Crithidia fasciculata polβ, which suggests that the TcI-polβ plays a role in the organelle. Northern and Western analyses showed that this T. cruzi gene is highly expressed both in proliferative and non-proliferative developmental forms. These results suggest that, in addition to replication of kDNA in proliferative cells, this enzyme may have another function in non-proliferative cells, such as DNA repair role similar to that which has extensively been described in a vast spectrum of eukaryotic cells.