The complete mitochondrial genome of human parasitic roundworm, Ascaris lumbricoides

The genome length of the Ascaris lumbricoides, human parasitic roundworm, is 14,281 bp with a nucleotide composition of 22.1% A, 49.8% T, 7.8% C, and 20.3% G. The genome consists of 12 protein-coding genes, 2 rRNA genes, 22 tRNA genes, and 1 control region.     

Evaluation of a high throughput toxicity biosensor and comparison with a Daphnia magna bioassay

A high throughput toxicity biosensor has been designed and constructed using recombinant Escherichia coli cells, containing stress specific promoters (recA, fabA, or katG) or constitutive promoters (lac) fused to luciferase genes originating from Vibrio fisheri. These genetically engineered cells were immobilized in 96 well plates. By optimizing cell immobilization conditions and the strains' response specificity to toxic chemicals, bioluminescent outputs decreased or increased dose-dependently upon adding test chemicals. However, to date the toxicity data obtained using this biosensor have not been compared with the results of other toxicity tests. Phenolics were chosen to evaluate the correlation between the LD50 and the EC50 (GC2) or EC120 (DPD2540) of Daphnia magna and E. coli, respectively. Toxicity data obtained from constitutive strains by bioluminescent level decrements were compared with the results from D. magna as a standard. LD50 values were used as parameters of D. magna toxicity and EC50 of EC120 values were used for the immobilized biosensor. In the DPD2540 test, phenolics, membrane damaging toxic chemicals, for testing immobilized stress specific bacterial strains trigger dose-dependant bioluminescence increase within specific concentration. Although the stress specific responsiveness from the strains could not be compared with D. magna's LD50 values, these responses offer additional information, such as upon the mode of toxic action in the sample, in addition to the cellular toxicity results as indicated by the EC50. This novel high throughput toxicity biosensor can be implemented to investigate the toxicity of any other soluble materials, and can be used as a standardization tool for the evaluation of toxicity.     

Rainfall manipulation experiments as simulated by terrestrial biosphere models: Where do we stand?

Changes in rainfall amounts and patterns have been observed and are expected to continue in the near future with potentially significant ecological and societal consequences. Modelling vegetation responses to changes in rainfall is thus crucial to project water and carbon cycles in the future. In this study, we present the results of a new model‐data intercomparison project, where we tested the ability of 10 terrestrial biosphere models to reproduce the observed sensitivity of ecosystem productivity to rainfall changes at 10 sites across the globe, in nine of which, rainfall exclusion and/or irrigation experiments had been performed. The key results are as follows: (a) Inter‐model variation is generally large and model agreement varies with timescales. In severely water‐limited sites, models only agree on the interannual variability of evapotranspiration and to a smaller extent on gross primary productivity. In more mesic sites, model agreement for both water and carbon fluxes is typically higher on fine (daily–monthly) timescales and reduces on longer (seasonal–annual) scales. (b) Models on average overestimate the relationship between ecosystem productivity and mean rainfall amounts across sites (in space) and have a low capacity in reproducing the temporal (interannual) sensitivity of vegetation productivity to annual rainfall at a given site, even though observation uncertainty is comparable to inter‐model variability. (c) Most models reproduced the sign of the observed patterns in productivity changes in rainfall manipulation experiments but had a low capacity in reproducing the observed magnitude of productivity changes. Models better reproduced the observed productivity responses due to rainfall exclusion than addition. (d) All models attribute ecosystem productivity changes to the intensity of vegetation stress and peak leaf area, whereas the impact of the change in growing season length is negligible. The relative contribution of the peak leaf area and vegetation stress intensity was highly variable among models.     

Trypsin induces tumour necrosis factor-alpha secretion from a human leukemic mast cell line

Trypsin activating both proteinase-activated receptor (PAR) 2 and PAR4 plays an important role in inflammation. We have investigated the potential of trypsin to induce TNF-alpha secretion from the human leukemic mast cell line (HMC-1). HMC-1 cells co-express both PAR2 and PAR4, and their agonist trypsin signals to HMC-1 cells. Trypsin (100 nm), SLIGKV-NH(2) (100 microm, corresponding to the PAR2 tethered ligand), or GYPGQV-NH(2) (100 microm, corresponding to the PAR4 tethered ligand) induced tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha secretion from HMC-1 cells. TNF-alpha secretion by trypsin was significantly blocked by pretreatment with 50 microm PD098059, MEK-1 inhibitor. Furthermore, trypsin stimulated the activation of extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) in HMC-1 cells without any detectable activation of c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) and p38 MAP kinase homologue. These results show that trypsin may induce TNF-alpha secretion following activation of ERK via both PAR2 and PAR4 on HMC-1 cells.     

Enhanced immunodetection of cell-free synthesized erythropoietin under denaturing conditions

A monoclonal antibody produced by hydridoma cell line, ATCC HB8209, was used to detect and purify erythropoietin synthesized in a cell-free system. The antibody was raised against the N-terminal 20 residues of erythropoietin. It retained anti-erythropoietin activity in 6 M urea in which most of the cell-free synthesized erythropoietin became soluble and gave an enhanced activity of the antibody.     

Comparative embryogenesis of Mecoptera and Lepidoptera with special reference to the abdominal prolegs

The eruciform larvae of holometabolous insects are primarily characterized by bearing a varying number of abdominal prolegs in addition to three pairs of thoracic legs. However, whether the prolegs are evolutionarily homologous among different insect orders is still a disputable issue. We examined the embryonic features and histological structure of the prolegs of the scorpionfly Panorpa byersi Hua and Huang (Mecoptera: Panorpidae) and the Oriental armyworm Mythimna separata (Walker) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) to investigate whether the prolegs are homologous between these two holometabolous insect orders. In the scorpionfly, paired lateral process primordia arise on abdominal segments I–VIII (A1–A8) in line with the thoracic legs in early embryonic stages, but degenerate into triangular protuberances in later stages, and paired medial processes appear along the midventral line before dorsal closure and eventually develop into unjointed, cone‐shaped prolegs. Histological observation showed that the lumina of the prolegs are not continuous with the hemocoel, differing distinctly from that of the basic appendicular plan of thoracic legs. These results suggest that the prolegs are likely secondary outgrowths in Mecoptera. In the armyworm, lateral process primordia appear on A1–A10 in alignment with the thoracic legs in the early embryonic stages, although only the rudiments on A3–A6 and A10 develop into segmented prolegs with the lumina continuous with the hemocoel and others degenerate eventually, suggesting that the prolegs are true segmental appendages serially homologous with the thoracic legs in Lepidoptera. Therefore, we conclude that the larval prolegs are likely not evolutionarily homologous between Mecoptera and Lepidoptera. J. Morphol. 277:585–593, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.