Towards new sources of resistance to the currant-lettuce aphid (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Nasonovia ribisnigri</Emphasis>)

Domesticated lettuce varieties encompass much morphological variation across a range of crop type groups, with large collections of cultivars and landrace accessions maintained in genebanks. Additional variation not captured during domestication, present in ancestral wild relatives, represents a potentially rich source of alleles that can deliver to sustainable crop production. However, these large collections are difficult and costly to screen for many agronomically important traits. In this paper, we describe the generation of a diversity collection of 96 lettuce and wild species accessions that are amenable to routine phenotypic analysis and their genotypic characterization with a panel of 682 newly developed expressed sequence tag (EST)-linked KASP? single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers that are anchored to the draft Lactuca sativa genome assembly. To exemplify the utility of these resources, we screened the collection for putative sources of resistance to currant-lettuce aphid (Nasonovia ribisnigri) and carried out association analyses to look for potential SNPs linked to resistance.     

A solution approach for deriving alternative fuel station infrastructure requirements

When an alternative fuel is introduced, the infrastructure through which that fuel is made available to the market is often underdeveloped. Transportation service providers relying on such infrastructures are unlikely to adopt alternative fuel vehicles as it may impose long detours for refueling. In this paper, we design and apply a new solution approach to derive minimum infrastructure requirements, in terms of the number of alternative fuel stations. The effectiveness of our approach is demonstrated by applying it to the case of introducing liquefied natural gas (LNG) as a transportation fuel in The Netherlands. From this case, we learn that, depending on the driving range of the LNG trucks and the size of area on which those trucks operate, a minimum of 5–12 LNG fuel stations is necessary to render LNG trucks economically and environmentally beneficial.     

Mutational neighbourhood and mutation supply rate constrain adaptation in Pseudomonas aeruginosa

Understanding adaptation by natural selection requires understanding the genetic factors that determine which beneficial mutations are available for selection. Here, using experimental evolution of rifampicin-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa, we show that different genotypes vary in their capacity for adaptation to the cost of antibiotic resistance. We then use sequence data to show that the beneficial mutations associated with fitness recovery were specific to particular genetic backgrounds, suggesting that genotypes had access to different sets of beneficial mutations. When we manipulated the supply rate of beneficial mutations, by altering effective population size during evolution, we found that it constrained adaptation in some selection lines by restricting access to rare beneficial mutations, but that the effect varied among the genotypes in our experiment. These results suggest that mutational neighbourhood varies even among genotypes that differ by a single amino acid change, and this determines their capacity for adaptation as well as the influence of population biology processes that alter mutation supply rate.     

Endothelin-converting enzyme in human tissues

Our aim was to determine whether the expression of endothelin-converting enzyme in human tissues would correlate with the distribution of its substrate, big endothelin-1, and its product, the mature peptide. Site-directed antisera raised against the conserved C-terminus of the mammalian enzyme were used to measure the immunoreactive enzyme in microsomal fractions prepared from tissue homogenates and to localize staining to the endothelial cells lining large conduit and smaller resistance vessels within cardiac, adrenal, respiratory and brain tissue. The activity of endothelin-converting enzyme was measured and characterized in isolated endothelial cells. This pattern of staining in the vascular endothelium paralleled that of mature endothelin and big endothelin-1, and these peptides were detectable by radioimmunoassay in all tissues examined. Immunoreactive endothelin-converting enzyme localized to other cell types, including bronchial epithelial cells, and to fibres within the glial limitans, neuronal processes and cell bodies of the cerebral cortex. Although perivascular astrocytes in the subcortical white matter displayed intense endothelin-converting enzyme-like immunoreactivity, endothelin staining was not detected. The results suggest that endothelin-converting enzyme has a ubiquitous distribution within the human vascular endothelium and is positioned to catalyse the conversion of big endothelin-1 to the biologically active endothelin-1, which on release may contribute to the maintenance of basal tone in humans. Endothelin-converting enzyme localized to epithelial cells in peripheral tissues or astrocytes within the brain may be upregulated in pathophysiological conditions in which endothelin levels are increased and could represent a further target for therapeutic intervention by enzyme inhibitors. © 1998 Chapman & Hall     

Rethinking the dispersal of Homo sapiens out of Africa

Current fossil, genetic, and archeological data indicate that Homo sapiens originated in Africa in the late Middle Pleistocene. By the end of the Late Pleistocene, our species was distributed across every continent except Antarctica, setting the foundations for the subsequent demographic and cultural changes of the Holocene. The intervening processes remain intensely debated and a key theme in hominin evolutionary studies. We review archeological, fossil, environmental, and genetic data to evaluate the current state of knowledge on the dispersal of Homo sapiens out of Africa. The emerging picture of the dispersal process suggests dynamic behavioral variability, complex interactions between populations, and an intricate genetic and cultural legacy. This evolutionary and historical complexity challenges simple narratives and suggests that hybrid models and the testing of explicit hypotheses are required to understand the expansion of Homo sapiens into Eurasia.     

Tetrameric 1:1 and monomeric 1:3 complexes of silver(I) halides with tri(p-tolyl)-phosphine: A structural and biological study

Silver(I) halides react with tri(p-tolyl)phosphine (tptp, C₂₁H₂₁P) in MeOH/MeCN solutions in 1:1 or 1:3 molar ratios to give complexes of formulae {[AgCl(tptp)]₄} (1) or [AgX(tptp)₃] (X = Cl (2), Br (3), I (4)), respectively. The complexes were characterized by elemental analyses, and FT-IR far-IR, FT-Raman, TG and ¹H, ¹³C, ³¹P NMR spectroscopic techniques. Crystal structures of complexes 2-4 were determined by X-ray diffraction at room temperature (rt). The crystal structure of 1 and 4 was also determined at 100(1) and 140(2) K (lt), respectively. In complex 1 four μ3-Cl ions are bonded with four Ag(I) ions forming a cubane while the coordination sphere of silver(I) ions is completed by one P atom from a terminal tri(p-tolyl)phosphine ligand. In complexes 2-3 one terminal halogen and three P atoms from phosphine ligands form a tetrahedral arrangement around the metal ion. Complexes 1-4 were tested for in vitro cytostatic activity against sarcoma cancer cells (mesenchymal tissue) from the Wistar rat, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH, benzo[a]pyrene) carcinogenesis and against murine leukemia (L1210) and human T-lymphocyte (Molt4/C8 and CEM) cells. The silver(I) complexes 1-4 show strong activity.