Differential Response to Water Balance and Bunch Load Generates Diversity of Bunch Production Profiles Among Oil Palm Crosses (Elaeis guineensis)

Oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) produces bunches throughout the year, following annual cycles marked by a peak season, with genetic diversity regarding the regularity of the annual profile of bunch production. The aim of this study was to understand this diversity among a set of oil palm crosses. We hypothesized that this diversity originated from differential responses to water balance and bunch load. Seven crosses with different production cycles were studied during 6 years in Benin, where dry seasons are marked. Phenological stages of phytomer development were recorded from leaf appearance to bunch harvest. Inequality in the distribution over the months of the year of phytomers at each stage was quantified using the Gini coefficient. We found that annual variations in the rate of early abortions, sex ratio, time between leaf opening and appearance of female inflorescence (AFI) and time between AFI and flowering strongly contributed to the diversity in production profile among crosses. To a lesser extent, annual variations in the time of bunch maturation also generated diversity in the production profile. Sex ratio was positively correlated with water balance and negatively with bunch load when leaves were around axil number -25 (approximately 29 months before harvest). Early abortions were positively correlated with bunch load when leaves were at axil number 10 (approximately 9 months before harvest). Correlations varied among crosses, indicating differential responses of crosses to variations in water balance and bunch load, which eventually created significant diversity among crosses regarding the regularity of bunch production profiles.     

Characterization of a surrogate murine antibody to model anti-human CD3 therapies

Fc-modified anti-human CD3ε monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) are in clinical development for the treatment of autoimmune diseases. These next generation mAbs have completed clinical trials in patients with type-1 diabetes and inflammatory bowel disease demonstrating a narrow therapeutic window. Lowered doses are ineffective, yet higher pharmacologically-active doses cause an undesirable level of adverse events. Thus, there is a critical need for a return to bench research to explore ways of improving clinical outcomes. Indeed, we recently reported that a short course of treatment affords synergy, providing long-term disease amelioration when combining anti-mouse CD3 and anti-mouse tumor necrosis factor mAbs in experimental arthritis. Such strategies may widen the window between risk and benefit; however, to more accurately assess experimentally the biology and pharmacology, reagents that mimic the current development candidates were required. Consequently, we engineered an Fc-modified anti-mouse CD3ε mAb, 2C11-Novi. Here, we report the functional characterization of 2C11-Novi demonstrating that it does not bind FcγR in vitro and elicits little cytokine release in vivo, while maintaining classical pharmacodynamic effects (CD3-TCR downregulation and T cell killing). Furthermore, we observed that oral administration of 2C11-Novi ameliorated progression of remitting-relapsing experimental autoimmune encephalitis in mice, significantly reducing the primary acute and subsequent relapse phase of the disease. With innovative approaches validated in two experimental models of human disease, 2C11-Novi represents a meaningful tool to conduct further mechanistic studies aiming at exploiting the immunoregulatory properties of Fc-modified anti-CD3 therapies via combination therapy using parenteral or oral routes of administration.     

Mixing Nulliparous and Multiparous Women in Randomised Controlled Trials of Preeclampsia Prevention Is Debatable: Evidence from a Systematic Review

Background

Nulliparity is a major risk factor of preeclampsia investigated in numerous trials of its prevention.

Objective

We aimed to assess whether these trials considered nulliparity in subject selection or analysis of results.

Search Strategy

01 April 2013 search of MEDLINE via PubMed, EMBASE and the Cochrane Library. 01 April 2013 search of trials registered in Clinicaltrials.gov.

Selection Criteria

Randomised controlled trials and metaanalyses of preeclampsia prevention with no restriction to period of publication or language. Metaanalyses were selected to fully identify relevant trials.

Data Collection and Analysis

One reader appraised each selected article/registered protocol using a pretested, standardized data abstraction form developed in a pilot test. For each article, he recorded whether both nulliparous and multiparous were included and, in case of mixed populations, whether randomisation was stratified, and whether subgroup analyses had been reported. For registered protocols, he only assessed whether it was planned to include mixed populations.

Main Results

88 randomised controlled trials were identified, representing 83,396 included women. In 58 of the 88 articles identified (65.9%), preeclampsia was the primary outcome. In 31 of these (53.4%), the investigation combined nulliparous and multiparous women; only two reports in 31 (6.5%) stated that randomisation was stratified on parity and only four (12.9%) described a subgroup analysis by parity. Of the 30 registered trials, 20 (66.6%) planned to include both nulliparous and multiparous women.

Conclusion

Parity is largely ignored in randomised controlled trials of preeclampsia prevention, which raises difficulties in interpreting the results.     

Multiple Sclerosis in the Mount Etna Region: Possible Role of Volcanogenic Trace Elements

Background

Trace elements have been hypothesised to be involved in the pathogenesis of Multiple Sclerosis and volcanic degassing is the major natural sources of trace elements. Both incidence of Multiple Sclerosis in Catania and volcanic activity of Mount Etna have been significantly increased during the last 30 years. Due to prevailing trade winds direction, volcanic gases from Etna summit craters are mostly blown towards the eastern and southern sectors of the volcano.

Objective

To evaluate the possible association between Multiple Sclerosis and exposure to volcanogenic trace elements.

Methods

We evaluated prevalence and incidence of Multiple Sclerosis in four communities (47,234 inhabitants) located in the eastern flank and in two communities (52,210 inhabitants) located in the western flank of Mount Etna, respectively the most and least exposed area to crater gas emissions.

Results

A higher prevalence was found in the population of the eastern flank compared to the population of the western one (137.6/100,000 versus 94.3/100,000; p-value 0.04). We found a borderline significantly higher incidence risk during the incidence study period (1980–2009) in the population of the eastern flank 4.6/100,000 (95% CI 3.1–5.9), compared with the western population 3.2/100,000 (95% CI 2.4–4.2) with a RR of 1.41 (95% CI 0.97–2.05; p-value 0.06). Incidence risks have increased over the time in both populations reaching a peak of 6.4/100,000 in the eastern flank and of 4.4/100.000 in the western flank during 2000–2009.

Conclusion

We found a higher prevalence and incidence of Multiple Sclerosis among populations living in the eastern flank of Mount Etna. According to our data a possible role of TE cannot be ruled out as possible co-factor in the MS pathogenesis. However larger epidemiological study are needed to confirm this hypothesis.     

Expansion in CD39+ CD4+ Immunoregulatory T Cells and Rarity of Th17 Cells in HTLV-1 Infected Patients Is Associated with Neurological Complications

HTLV-1 infection is associated with several inflammatory disorders, including the neurodegenerative condition HTLV-1-associated myelopathy/tropical spastic paraparesis (HAM/TSP). It is unclear why a minority of infected subjects develops HAM/TSP. CD4⁺ T cells are the main target of infection and play a pivotal role in regulating immunity to HTLV and are hypothesized to participate in the pathogenesis of HAM/TSP. The CD39 ectonucleotidase receptor is expressed on CD4⁺ T cells and based on co-expression with CD25, marks T cells with distinct regulatory (CD39⁺CD25⁺) and effector (CD39⁺CD25⁻) function. Here, we investigated the expression of CD39 on CD4⁺ T cells from a cohort of HAM/TSP patients, HTLV-1 asymptomatic carriers (AC), and matched uninfected controls. The frequency of CD39⁺ CD4⁺ T cells was increased in HTLV-1 infected patients, regardless of clinical status. More importantly, the proportion of the immunostimulatory CD39⁺CD25⁻ CD4⁺ T-cell subset was significantly elevated in HAM/TSP patients as compared to AC and phenotypically had lower levels of the immunoinhibitory receptor, PD-1. We saw no difference in the frequency of CD39⁺CD25⁺ regulatory (Treg) cells between AC and HAM/TSP patients. However, these cells transition from being anergic to displaying a polyfunctional cytokine response following HTLV-1 infection. CD39⁻CD25⁺ T cell subsets predominantly secreted the inflammatory cytokine IL-17. We found that HAM/TSP patients had significantly fewer numbers of IL-17 secreting CD4⁺ T cells compared to uninfected controls. Taken together, we show that the expression of CD39 is upregulated on CD4⁺ T cells HAM/TSP patients. This upregulation may play a role in the development of the proinflammatory milieu through pathways both distinct and separate among the different CD39 T cell subsets. CD39 upregulation may therefore serve as a surrogate diagnostic marker of progression and could potentially be a target for interventions to reduce the development of HAM/TSP.     

Habitat use under predation risk: hunting, roads and human dwellings influence the spatial behaviour of roe deer

Wildlife populations are subjected to increasing pressure linked to human activities, which introduce multiple stressors. Recently, in addition to direct effects, it has been shown that indirect (non-lethal) effects of predation risk are predominant in many populations. Predation risk is often structured in space and time, generating a heterogeneous “landscape of fear” within which animals can minimize risks by modifying their habitat use. Furthermore, for ungulates, resource quality seems to be positively correlated with human-related sources of risk. We studied the trade-off between access to resources of high-quality and risk-taking by contrasting habitat use of roe deer during daytime with that during nighttime for 94 roe deer in a hunted population. Our first hypothesis was that roe deer should avoid human disturbance by modifying their habitat use during daytime compared to nighttime. Our results supported this, as roe deer mainly used open fields during nighttime, but used more forested habitats during daytime, when human disturbance is higher. Moreover, we found that diel patterns in habitat use were influenced by hunting disturbance. Indeed, the roe deer decreased their use of high-crops during daytime, an important source of cover and food, during the hunting season. The proximity of roads and dwellings also affected habitat use, since roe deer used open fields during daytime to a greater extent when the distance to these sources of disturbance was higher. Hence, our results suggest that roe deer resolve the trade-off between the acquisition of high-quality resources and risk avoidance by modifying their habitat use between day and night.     

The IRP1-HIF-2α Axis Coordinates Iron and Oxygen Sensing with Erythropoiesis and Iron Absorption

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Highlights? Derepression of HIF-2α mRNA in Irp1^?/? mice causes age-dependent polycythemia ? HIF-2α hyperactivity is observed in multiple tissues of Irp1^?/? mice ? The mRNA regulons of IRP1 and IRP2 are separable in vivo ? The IRP1-HIF-2α axis is a therapeutic target for hematologic or oncologic disorders     

Ultrasensitivity in Phosphorylation-Dephosphorylation Cycles with Little Substrate

Cellular decision-making is driven by dynamic behaviours, such as the preparations for sunrise enabled by circadian rhythms and the choice of cell fates enabled by positive feedback. Such behaviours are often built upon ultrasensitive responses where a linear change in input generates a sigmoidal change in output. Phosphorylation-dephosphorylation cycles are one means to generate ultrasensitivity. Using bioinformatics, we show that in vivo levels of kinases and phosphatases frequently exceed the levels of their corresponding substrates in budding yeast. This result is in contrast to the conditions often required by zero-order ultrasensitivity, perhaps the most well known means for how such cycles become ultrasensitive. We therefore introduce a mechanism to generate ultrasensitivity when numbers of enzymes are higher than numbers of substrates. Our model combines distributive and non-distributive actions of the enzymes with two-stage binding and concerted allosteric transitions of the substrate. We use analytical and numerical methods to calculate the Hill number of the response. For a substrate with phosphosites, we find an upper bound of the Hill number of , and so even systems with a single phosphosite can be ultrasensitive. Two-stage binding, where an enzyme must first bind to a binding site on the substrate before it can access the substrate''s phosphosites, allows the enzymes to sequester the substrate. Such sequestration combined with competition for each phosphosite provides an intuitive explanation for the sigmoidal shifts in levels of phosphorylated substrate. Additionally, we find cases for which the response is not monotonic, but shows instead a peak at intermediate levels of input. Given its generality, we expect the mechanism described by our model to often underlay decision-making circuits in eukaryotic cells.

Authors Summary

Dose-response curves are said to be ultrasensitive when they are sigmoidal rather than hyperbolic and often underlay cellular decision-making circuits. Zero-order ultrasensitivity is a well-known mechanism to generate sigmoidal curves in phosphorylation cycles, but one of its assumptions often implies that the substrate is more abundant than the modifying enzymes. We show that this assumption is unlikely to always hold in vivo, and we present a general model that generates ultrasensitivity when the enzymes are in excess of their substrate. The model combines conformational allosteric transitions of the substrate with two-stage binding of the enzymes: the enzymes bind first to a docking site on the substrate and then to the substrate''s phosphosites. Ultrasensitivity is generated because the kinase can bind to the fully phosphorylated form of the substrate (at its docking site) and sequester the substrate away from the phosphatase and, similarly, the phosphatase can bind to the fully dephosphorylated form of the substrate and sequester the substrate away from the kinase. The number of kinase-phosphatase competitions for the substrate determines the degree of ultrasensitivity. Finally, we show that this model can generate non-monotonic responses that peak at intermediate levels of input.     

Polymorphism and genetic diversity of Isospora parnaitatiaiensis Silva,Rodrigues, Lopes,Berto, Luz,Ferreira & Lopes, 2015 (Eimeriidae) from antbirds (Thamnophilidae) in Brazil

Systematic Parasitology - Isospora parnaitatiaiensis Silva, Rodrigues, Lopes, Berto, Luz, Ferreira & Lopes, 2015 was identified from a new host, the plain antvireo Dysithamnus mentalis...