Drosophilid Assemblages at Different Urbanization Levels in the City of Porto Alegre, State of Rio Grande do Sul, Southern Brazil

The present study analyzed the drosophilid assemblages in different levels of urbanization in the city of Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Collections were carried out in 2008 in three different environments: a highly urbanized area????Jardim Botanico,?? a forested area with intermediary urbanization????Parque Gabriel Knijnik,?? and in a relatively well-preserved forested area, although threatened by the urban growth????Morro Santana.?? In Jardim Botanico, 36 species belonging to four genera were found, with high abundance of exotic species as Drosophila simulans Sturtevant and Zaprionus indianus (Gupta). In Parque Gabriel Knijnik, 33 species that belonged to four genera were found, with higher abundances of native species belonging to the Drosophila tripunctata species group and Drosophila willistoni species subgroup, and lower abundance of exotic species. As for Morro Santana, 32 species and three genera were found, with higher abundances of native groups, low representativeness of exotic species, and absence of Zaprionus indianus. The analysis of the Jaccard index showed higher similarity in the species composition between samples collected in summer and autumn, and between samples collected in winter and spring. On the other hand, the Morisita index differentiated Jardim Botanico from the other two studied sites. Our results show that Morro Santana is an important area of native biodiversity, reinforcing, therefore, the inclusion of this area in the project for the creation of an ecological corridor as proposed by the Ministry of the Environment of Brazil.     

Clinical features and predictors for disease natural progression in adults with Pompe disease: a nationwide prospective observational study

Background

Due partly to physicians’ unawareness, many adults with Pompe disease are diagnosed with great delay. Besides, it is not well known which factors influence the rate of disease progression, and thus disease outcome. We delineated the specific clinical features of Pompe disease in adults, and mapped out the distribution and severity of muscle weakness, and the sequence of involvement of the individual muscle groups. Furthermore, we defined the natural disease course and identified prognostic factors for disease progression.

Methods

We conducted a single-center, prospective, observational study. Muscle strength (manual muscle testing, and hand-held dynamometry), muscle function (quick motor function test), and pulmonary function (forced vital capacity in sitting and supine positions) were assessed every 3–6 months and analyzed using repeated-measures ANOVA.

Results

Between October 2004 and August 2009, 94 patients aged between 25 and 75 years were included in the study. Although skeletal muscle weakness was typically distributed in a limb-girdle pattern, many patients had unfamiliar features such as ptosis (23%), bulbar weakness (28%), and scapular winging (33%). During follow-up (average 1.6 years, range 0.5-4.2 years), skeletal muscle strength deteriorated significantly (mean declines of ?1.3% point/year for manual muscle testing and of ?2.6% points/year for hand-held dynamometry; both p<0.001). Longer disease duration (>15 years) and pulmonary involvement (forced vital capacity in sitting position <80%) at study entry predicted faster decline. On average, forced vital capacity in supine position deteriorated by 1.3% points per year (p=0.02). Decline in pulmonary function was consistent across subgroups. Ten percent of patients declined unexpectedly fast.

Conclusions

Recognizing patterns of common and less familiar characteristics in adults with Pompe disease facilitates timely diagnosis. Longer disease duration and reduced pulmonary function stand out as predictors of rapid disease progression, and aid in deciding whether to initiate enzyme replacement therapy, or when.

     

Autoantibody systems in rheumatoid arthritis: specificity, sensitivity and diagnostic value

This review focuses on the mechanisms of stress response in the synovial tissue of rheumatoid arthritis. The major stress factors, such as heat stress, shear stress, proinflammatory cytokines and oxidative stress, are discussed and reviewed, focusing on their potential to induce a stress response in the synovial tissue. Several pathways of stress signalling molecules are found to be activated in the synovial membrane of rheumatoid arthritis; of these the most important examples are heat shock proteins, mitogen-activated protein kinases, stress-activated protein kinases and molecules involved in the oxidative stress pathways. The expression of these pathways in vitro and in vivo as well as the consequences of stress signalling in the rheumatoid synovium are discussed. Stress signalling is part of a cellular response to potentially harmful stimuli and thus is essentially involved in the process of synovitis. Stress signalling pathways are therefore new and promising targets of future anti-rheumatic therapies.     

Immunoglobulin G galactosylation and sialylation are associated with pregnancy-induced improvement of rheumatoid arthritis and the postpartum flare: results from a large prospective cohort study

Introduction  

Improvement of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) during pregnancy has been causatively associated with increased galactosylation of immunoglobulin G (IgG) N-glycans. Since previous studies were small, did not include the postpartum flare and did not study sialylation, these issues were addressed in the present study.     

Multispectral fingerprinting for improved in vivo cell dynamics analysis

Background  

Tracing cell dynamics in the embryo becomes tremendously difficult when cell trajectories cross in space and time and tissue density obscure individual cell borders. Here, we used the chick neural crest (NC) as a model to test multicolor cell labeling and multispectral confocal imaging strategies to overcome these roadblocks.     

S/T Phosphorylation of DLL1 Is Required for Full Ligand Activity In Vitro but Dispensable for DLL1 Function In Vivo during Embryonic Patterning and Marginal Zone B Cell Development

Interaction of Notch receptors with Delta- and Serrate-type ligands is an evolutionarily conserved mechanism that mediates direct communication between adjacent cells and thereby regulates multiple developmental processes. Posttranslational modifications of both receptors and ligands are pivotal for normal Notch pathway function. We have identified by mass spectrometric analysis two serine and one threonine phosphorylation sites in the intracellular domain of the mouse Notch ligand DLL1. Phosphorylation requires cell membrane association of DLL1 and occurs sequentially at the two serine residues. Phosphorylation of one serine residue most likely by protein kinase B primes phosphorylation of the other serine. A DLL1 variant, in which all three identified phosphorylated serine/threonine residues are mutated to alanine and valine, was more stable than wild-type DLL1 but had reduced relative levels on the cell surface and was more effectively cleaved in the extracellular domain. In addition, the mutant variant activated Notch1 significantly less efficient than wild-type DLL1 in a coculture assay in vitro. Mice, however, whose endogenous DLL1 was replaced with the phosphorylation-deficient triple mutant developed normally, suggesting compensatory mechanisms under physiological conditions in vivo.     

Comparing genomic prediction accuracy from purebred,crossbred and combined purebred and crossbred reference populations in sheep

Background

The accuracy of genomic prediction depends largely on the number of animals with phenotypes and genotypes. In some industries, such as sheep and beef cattle, data are often available from a mixture of breeds, multiple strains within a breed or from crossbred animals. The objective of this study was to compare the accuracy of genomic prediction for several economically important traits in sheep when using data from purebreds, crossbreds or a combination of those in a reference population.

Methods

The reference populations were purebred Merinos, crossbreds of Border Leicester (BL), Poll Dorset (PD) or White Suffolk (WS) with Merinos and combinations of purebred and crossbred animals. Genomic breeding values (GBV) were calculated based on genomic best linear unbiased prediction (GBLUP), using a genomic relationship matrix calculated based on 48 599 Ovine SNP (single nucleotide polymorphisms) genotypes. The accuracy of GBV was assessed in a group of purebred industry sires based on the correlation coefficient between GBV and accurate estimated breeding values based on progeny records.

Results

The accuracy of GBV for Merino sires increased with a larger purebred Merino reference population, but decreased when a large purebred Merino reference population was augmented with records from crossbred animals. The GBV accuracy for BL, PD and WS breeds based on crossbred data was the same or tended to decrease when more purebred Merinos were added to the crossbred reference population. The prediction accuracy for a particular breed was close to zero when the reference population did not contain any haplotypes of the target breed, except for some low accuracies that were obtained when predicting PD from WS and vice versa.

Conclusions

This study demonstrates that crossbred animals can be used for genomic prediction of purebred animals using 50 k SNP marker density and GBLUP, but crossbred data provided lower accuracy than purebred data. Including data from distant breeds in a reference population had a neutral to slightly negative effect on the accuracy of genomic prediction. Accounting for differences in marker allele frequencies between breeds had only a small effect on the accuracy of genomic prediction from crossbred or combined crossbred and purebred reference populations.     

First bacterial chalcone isomerase isolated from Eubacterium ramulus

The human fecal anaerobe Eubacterium ramulus is capable of degrading various flavonoids, including the flavone naringenin. The first step in the proposed degradation pathway is the isomerization of naringenin to the corresponding chalcone. Cell-free extracts of E. ramulus displayed chalcone isomerase activity. The enzyme from E. ramulus was purified to homogeneity. Its apparent molecular mass was estimated to be 136 and 129 kDa according to gel filtration and native polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, respectively. Chalcone isomerase is composed of one type of subunit of 30 kDa. The purified enzyme catalyzed the isomerization of naringenin chalcone, isoliquiritigenin, and butein, three chalcones that differ in their hydroxylation pattern. N-bromosuccinimide, but also naringenin and phloretin, inhibited the purified enzyme considerably. This is the first report on a bacterial chalcone isomerase. The physiological function of the purified enzyme is unclear, but an involvement in the conversion of the flavanone naringenin to the chalcone is proposed.     

The small-subunit ribosomal RNA gene sequences from the hypotrichous ciliates Oxytricha nova and Stylonychia pustulata

We have determined the complete nucleotide sequence of the small- subunit ribosomal RNA genes for the ciliate protozoans Stylonychia pustulata and Oxytricha nova. The sequences are homologous and sufficiently similar that these organisms must be closely related. In a phylogeny inferred from comparisons of several eukaryotic small-subunit ribosomal RNAs, the divergence of the ciliates from the eukaryotic line of descent is seen to coincide with the radiation of the plants, the animals, and the fungi. This radiation is preceded by the divergence of the slime mold, Dictyostelium discoideum.      

Investigation into diseases in free-ranging ring-necked pheasants (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Phasianus colchicus</Emphasis>) in northwestern Germany during population decline with special reference to infectious pathogens

The population of ring-necked pheasants (Phasianus colchicus) is decreasing all over Germany since the years 2008/2009. Besides impacts of habitat changes caused by current rates of land conversion, climatic influences or predators, a contribution of infectious pathogens needs also to be considered. Infectious and non-infectious diseases in free-living populations of ring-necked pheasants have been scarcely investigated so far. In the present study, carcasses of 258 deceased free-ranging pheasants of different age groups, predominantly adult pheasants, collected over a period of 4 years in the states of Lower Saxony, North Rhine–Westphalia and Schleswig-Holstein, were examined pathomorphologically, parasitologically, virologically and bacteriologically, with a focus set on infectious pathogens. A periocular and perinasal dermatitis of unknown origin was present in 62.3% of the pheasants. Additional alterations included protozoal cysts in the skeletal musculature (19.0%), hepatitis (21.7%), enteritis (18.7%), gastritis (12.6%), and pneumonia (11.7%). In single cases, neoplasms (2.6%) and mycobacteriosis (1.7%) occurred. Further findings included identification of coronaviral DNA from trachea or caecal tonsils (16.8%), siadenoviral DNA (7.6%), avian metapneumoviral RNA (6.6%), and infectious bursal disease viral RNA (3.7%). Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) on herpesvirus, avian influenza virus (AIV), paramyxovirus type 1 (PMV-1), avian encephalomyelitis virus (AEV), and chlamydia were negative. Based on the present results, there is no indication of a specific pathogen as a sole cause for population decline in adult pheasants. However, an infectious disease can still not be completely excluded as it may only affect reproduction effectivity or a certain age group of pheasants (e.g., chicks) which were not presented in the study.