Comparison of carbon footprint and water scarcity footprint of milk protein produced by cellular agriculture and the dairy industry

The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment - This paper studies the carbon footprint and water scarcity footprint (WSF) of a milk protein, beta-lactoglobulin, produced by cellular...     

E. coli O104:H4: social media and the characterization of an emerging pathogen

The 2011 German E. coli O104:H4 outbreak resulted in thousands of cases of enterohaemorrhagic illness, with approximately 25% of these progressing to develop haemolytic uraemic syndrome (HUS). This high rate of progression to HUS was the first indicator that the bacterial cause of illness was not a typical enterohaemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC) strain. Collaborative bioinformatic analysis while the outbreak was still in progress indicated that the O104:H4 strain was in fact an enteroaggregative E. coli (EAEC) strain which had acquired genes for the production of Shiga - like toxin.     

The response of resistant kiwifruit (Actinidia chinensis) to armoured scale insect (Diaspididae) feeding

The responses of five experimental genotypes and one commercial variety of kiwifruit (Actinidia chinensis) to attack by two polyphagous, congeneric armoured scale insect pests (Hemiberlesia rapax and H. lataniae) are described. H. lataniae feeding elicits a response in the bark and fruit of all but one of the experimental genotypes, leading to the development of wound periderm over a 4–5 week period, and death of the insect. The response, which differs slightly between tissue types and genotypes, consists of wound periderm formation in a bowl shape beneath and around the insect, preventing its stylet from reaching normal unmodified parenchyma tissue. Wound periderm cell walls become suberised and cells beneath the insect become filled with phenolic compounds. In some cases, cells beneath the insect become hypertrophic or undergo lysis, exhibiting characteristics of a hypersensitive-like response. The remaining genotype showed no physical change in tissue structure in response to H. lataniae feeding, and the insects survived but were substantially reduced in size. These results suggest that both physical and chemical plant resistance responses are involved. In contrast, H. rapax elicited no observable histological response from any of the genotypes and the insects developed normally on bark and fruit. Both insect species developed normally on leaf petioles and these exhibit only slight cell wall thickening in response to their feeding. This unusual plant defensive response to a sucking insect has similarities to simple types of gall formation in response to insect and pathogen attack and has characteristics of resistance gene-mediated models of plant defence.     

Diversity and functional analysis of luxS genes in Vibrios from marine sponges Mycale laxissima and Ircinia strobilina

Sponges harbor highly diverse and dense microbial communities, providing an environment in which bacterial signaling may be important. Quorum sensing (QS) is a cell density-dependent signaling process that bacteria employ to coordinate and regulate their gene expression. Previous studies have found that bacteria isolated from sponges are able to produce acyl-homoserine lactones (AHLs), an important class of QS molecules found in proteobacteria. Autoinducer-2 (AI-2) is a second class of QS molecule, and is considered to be an interspecies signal. However, AI-2 signaling has not been reported in sponge bacterial symbionts. In this study, degenerate primers were designed based on known Vibrio luxS sequences to amplify the luxS genes encoding AI-2 synthases of several Vibrio isolates from marine sponges Mycale laxissima and Ircinia strobilina. All the vibrios isolated from these two sponges had luxS genes and were able to produce signals with AI-2 activity as detected using a biological reporter. A novel group of luxS sequences was found, thus extending the known diversity of luxS genes. One isolate was chosen for further analysis of its luxS gene by expression of the gene in Escherichia coli DH5α and by characterization of the profile of AI-2 activity. This work provides the first information about luxS genes and AI-2 activity in sponge-associated bacterial communities.     

A procedural approach to remembering personal identification numbers among older adults

This study investigated whether a motor skill learning intervention could provide better memory for personal identification numbers (PINs) as compared to a control group. Younger (ages 18 to 40) and older (ages 61 to 92) participants were randomly assigned to conditions. All participants received three days of training consisting of 12 blocks of 12 trials each. Participants were tested immediately after training, after four days, and after seven days. Dependent measures were errors, latencies, and number of correct responses per minute. Younger participants were less error prone, faster, and produced more correct responses than older participants. Training condition (motor skill-based versus control training) had no significant effect on any of the dependent variables. Testing time had a significant effect on latency, and the effect of testing time on latency interacted with age group. In a second study, six older individuals diagnosed as having mild cognitive impairment (MCI) were trained using the motor skill learning intervention. Their performance was compared with that of the younger and older motor skill groups from the first experiment. The results showed that the older MCI group was significantly slower, more error prone, and produced fewer correct responses per minute than the older, normal group. Thus the presence of diagnosed MCI significantly impairs memory for PINs beyond the impairment expected from normal aging.