Molecular identification of GHS-R and GPR38 in Suncus murinus

We previously identified ghrelin and motilin genes in Suncus murinus (suncus), and also revealed that motilin induces phase III-like strong contractions in the suncus stomach in vivo, as observed in humans and dogs. Moreover, repeated migrating motor complexes were found in the gastrointestinal tract of suncus at regular 120-min intervals. We therefore proposed suncus as a small laboratory animal model for the study of gastrointestinal motility. In the present study, we identified growth hormone secretagogue receptor (GHS-R) and motilin receptor (GPR38) genes in the suncus. We also examined their tissue distribution throughout the body. The amino acids of suncus GHS-R and GPR38 showed high homology with those of other mammals and shared 42% amino acid identity. RT-PCR showed that both the receptors were expressed in the hypothalamus, medulla oblongata, pituitary gland and the nodose ganglion in the central nervous system. In addition, GHS-R mRNA expressions were detected throughout the stomach and intestine, whereas GPR38 was expressed in the gastric muscle layer, lower intestine, lungs, heart, and pituitary gland. These results suggest that ghrelin and motilin affect gut motility and energy metabolism via specific receptors expressed in the gastrointestinal tract and/or in the central nervous system of suncus.     

Defense response of a pepper cultivar cv. Sy-2 is induced at temperatures below 24°C

Temperature is one of the most important environmental factors that influence plant growth and development. Recent studies imply that plants show various responses to non-extreme ambient temperatures. Previously, we have found that a pepper cultivar cv. Sy-2 (Capsicum chinense) shows developmental defects at temperatures below 24°C. In this study, to gain new insights into the temperature sensitivity of cv. Sy-2, temperature-sensitive genes were screened using microarray techniques. At restrictive temperature of 20°C, almost one-fourth of the 411 up-regulated genes were defense related or predicted to be defense related. Further expression analyses of several defense-related genes showed that defense-related genes in cv. Sy-2 were constitutively expressed at temperatures below 24°C. Moreover, accumulation of high level of salicylic acid (SA) in cv. Sy-2 grown at 20°C suggests that the defense response is activated in the absence of pathogens. To confirm that the defense response is induced in cv. Sy-2 below 24°C, we evaluated the resistance to biotrophic bacterial pathogen Xanthomonas campestris pv. vesicatoria and necrotrophic fungal pathogen Cercospora capsici. Cv. Sy-2 showed enhanced resistance to X. campestris pv. vesicatoria, but not to C. capsici.     

Development of multiple-locus variable-number tandem-repeat analysis for rapid genotyping of Ehrlichia ruminantium and its application to infected Amblyomma variegatum collected in heartwater endemic areas in Uganda

The rickettsial bacterium Ehrlichia ruminantium is the causative agent of heartwater, a serious tick-borne disease in ruminants. The genetic diversity of organisms in the field will have implications for cross-protective capacities of any vaccine developed, and for an effective vaccine design strategy proper genotyping and understanding of existing genetic diversity in the field is necessary. We searched for variable-number tandem-repeat (VNTR) loci for use in a multi-locus VNTR analysis (MLVA). Sequencing analysis of 30 potential VNTRs using a panel of 17 reference strains from geographically diverse origins identified 12 VNTRs with allelic profiles differing between strains. Application of MLVA to 38 E. ruminantium-infected Amblyomma variegatum collected from indigenous cattle in 6 different districts of Uganda identified 21 MLVA types. The discriminatory power of MLVA was greater than that of map1 PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis, with which only 6 genotypes were obtained. The high discriminatory power as well as cost- effective performance of MLVA provide the potential for this technique to be applied in the future with respect to optimizing vaccine trials by identifying local strain diversity, and also raise the possibility of exploring the association between E. ruminantium genotypes and phenotypes such as pathological outcome in the ruminant host.     

Evidence of Yersinia pestis DNA from fleas in an endemic plague area of Zambia

Background

Study protocols involving experimental animals often require the monitoring of different parameters not only in anesthetized, but also in free moving animals. Most animal research involves small rodents, in which continuously monitoring parameters such as temperature and heart rate is very stressful for the awake animals or simply not possible. Aim of the underlying study was to monitor heart rate, temperature and activity and to assess inflammation in the heart, lungs, liver and kidney in the early postoperative phase after experimental cardiopulmonary bypass involving 45 min of deep hypothermic circulatory arrest in rats. Besides continuous monitoring of heart rate, temperature and behavioural activity, the main focus was on avoiding uncontrolled death of an animal in the early postoperative phase in order to harvest relevant organs before autolysis would render them unsuitable for the assessment of inflammation.

Findings

We therefore set up a telemetry-based system (Data Science International, DSI?) that continuously monitored the rat's temperature, heart rate and activity in their cages. The data collection using telemetry was combined with an analysis software (Microsoft excel?), a webmail application (GMX) and a text message-service. Whenever an animal's heart rate dropped below the pre-defined threshold of 150 beats per minute (bpm), a notification in the form of a text message was automatically sent to the experimenter's mobile phone. With a positive predictive value of 93.1% and a negative predictive value of 90.5%, the designed surveillance and alarm system proved a reliable and inexpensive tool to avoid uncontrolled death in order to minimize suffering and harvest relevant organs before autolysis would set in.

Conclusions

This combination of a telemetry-based system and software tools provided us with a reliable notification system of imminent death. The system's high positive predictive value helped to avoid uncontrolled death and facilitated timely organ harvesting. Additionally we were able to markedly reduce the drop out rate of experimental animals, and therefore the total number of animals used in our study. This system can be easily adapted to different study designs and prove a helpful tool to relieve stress and more importantly help to reduce animal numbers.     

Equilibrium vitrification of mouse embryos at various developmental stages

Previously, we developed a new method by which 2‐cell mouse embryos can be vitrified in liquid nitrogen in a near‐equilibrium state, and then kept at ?80°C for several days. In the present study, we examined whether or not the method was effective for mouse embryos at other developmental stages. Eight‐cell embryos, morulae, and expanded blastocysts of ICR mice were vitrified with ethylene glycol‐based solutions, named EFSc because of their composition of ethylene glycol (30–40%, v/v) and FSc solution. The FSc solution was PB1 medium containing 30% (w/v) Ficoll PM‐70 plus 1.5 M sucrose. The extent of equilibrium was assessed by examining how well vitrified embryos survived after being kept at ?80°C. When 8‐cell embryos and morulae were vitrified with EFS35c or EFS40c and then kept at ?80°C, the survival rate was high even after 4 days in storage and remained high after re‐cooling in liquid nitrogen. On the other hand, the survival of vitrified‐expanded blastocysts kept at ?80°C was low. Therefore, 8‐cell embryos and morulae can be vitrified in a near‐equilibrium state using the same method as for 2‐cell embryos. A high proportion of C57BL/6J embryos at the 2‐cell, 8‐cell, and morula stages vitrified with EFS35c developed to term after transportation on dry ice, re‐cooling in liquid nitrogen, and transfer to recipients. In conclusion, the near‐equilibrium vitrification method, which is effective for 2‐cell mouse embryos, is also effective for embryos at the 8‐cell and morula stages. The method would enable handy transportation of vitrified embryos using dry ice. Mol. Reprod. Dev. 79: 785–794, 2012. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Increased mobility of double-strand breaks requires Mec1, Rad9 and the homologous recombination machinery

Chromatin mobility is thought to facilitate homology search during homologous recombination and to shift damage either towards or away from specialized repair compartments. However, unconstrained mobility of double-strand breaks could also promote deleterious chromosomal translocations. Here we use live time-lapse fluorescence microscopy to track the mobility of damaged DNA in budding yeast. We found that a Rad52-YFP focus formed at an irreparable double-strand break moves in a larger subnuclear volume than the undamaged locus. In contrast, Rad52-YFP bound at damage arising from a protein-DNA adduct shows no increase in movement. Mutant analysis shows that enhanced double-strand-break mobility requires Rad51, the ATPase activity of Rad54, the ATR homologue Mec1 and the DNA-damage-response mediator Rad9. Consistent with a role for movement in the homology-search step of homologous recombination, we show that recombination intermediates take longer to form in cells lacking Rad9.     

The CCR4-NOT complex is implicated in the viability of aneuploid yeasts

To identify the genes required to sustain aneuploid viability, we screened a deletion library of non-essential genes in the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe, in which most types of aneuploidy are eventually lethal to the cell. Aneuploids remain viable for a period of time and can form colonies by reducing the extent of the aneuploidy. We hypothesized that a reduction in colony formation efficiency could be used to screen for gene deletions that compromise aneuploid viability. Deletion mutants were used to measure the effects on the viability of spores derived from triploid meiosis and from a chromosome instability mutant. We found that the CCR4-NOT complex, an evolutionarily conserved general regulator of mRNA turnover, and other related factors, including poly(A)-specific nuclease for mRNA decay, are involved in aneuploid viability. Defective mutations in CCR4-NOT complex components in the distantly related yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae also affected the viability of spores produced from triploid cells, suggesting that this complex has a conserved role in aneuploids. In addition, our findings suggest that the genes required for homologous recombination repair are important for aneuploid viability.     

Induction of scavenger receptor class B type I is critical for simvastatin enhancement of high-density lipoprotein-induced anti-inflammatory actions in endothelial cells

Changes in plasma lipoprotein profiles, especially low levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL), are a common biomarker for several inflammatory and immune diseases, including atherosclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis. We examined the effect of simvastatin on HDL-induced anti-inflammatory actions. HDL and sphingosine 1-phosphate (S1P), a bioactive lipid component of the lipoprotein, inhibited TNF alpha-induced expression of VCAM-1, which was associated with NO synthase (NOS) activation, in human umbilical venous endothelial cells. The HDL- but not S1P-induced anti-inflammatory actions were enhanced by a prior treatment of the cells with simvastatin in a manner sensitive to mevalonic acid. Simvastatin stimulated the expression of scavenger receptor class B type I (SR-BI) and endothelial NOS. As for S1P receptors, however, the statin inhibited the expression of S1P(3) receptor mRNA but caused no detectable change in S1P(1) receptor expression. The reconstituted HDL, a stimulator of SR-BI, mimicked HDL actions in a simvastatin-sensitive manner. The HDL- and reconstituted HDL-induced actions were blocked by small interfering RNA specific to SR-BI regardless of simvastatin treatment. The statin-induced expression of SR-BI was attenuated by constitutively active RhoA and small interfering RNA specific to peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-alpha. Administration of simvastatin in vivo stimulated endothelial SR-BI expression, which was accompanied by the inhibition of the ex vivo monocyte adhesion in aortas from TNF alpha-injected mice. In conclusion, simvastatin induces endothelial SR-BI expression through a RhoA- and peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-alpha-dependent mechanism, thereby enhancing the HDL-induced activation of NOS and the inhibition of adhesion molecule expression.     

Direct observation of fat crystallization in a living fly by X-ray diffraction: fat crystallization does not cause the fly's instantaneous death, but ice formation does

A cool-temperate fly, Drosophila triauraria, stores fat, triacylglycerol (TAG), primarily in the fat storage organ, the fat body, and then diapauses to pass the winter in imago stage. TAG crystallization and ice formation taking place in a living fly by lowering temperatures were studied, in order to clarify the relationship between crystallizations and the fly’s death at lower temperatures. X-ray diffraction, a direct non-invasive method, was used to detect the liquid-to-crystal transformations of TAG and water. During cooling, TAG crystallization preceded ice formation. It was also found that ice formation causes the fly to die instantaneously whereas the TAG crystallization does not.     

A male sterility-associated mitochondrial protein in wild beets causes pollen disruption in transgenic plants

In higher plants, male reproductive (pollen) development is known to be disrupted in a class of mitochondrial mutants termed cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS) mutants. Despite the increase in knowledge regarding CMS-encoding genes and their expression, definitive evidence that CMS-associated proteins actually cause pollen disruption is not yet available in most cases. Here we compare the translation products of mitochondria between the normal fertile cytoplasm and the male-sterile I-12CMS(3) cytoplasm derived from wild beets. The results show a unique 12 kDa polypeptide that is present in the I-12CMS(3) mitochondria but is not detectable among the translation products of normal mitochondria. We also found that a mitochondrial open reading frame (named orf129 ) was uniquely transcribed in I-12CMS(3) and is large enough to encode the novel 12 kDa polypeptide. Antibodies against a GST–ORF129 fusion protein were raised to establish that this 12 kDa polypeptide is the product of orf129. ORF129 was shown to accumulate in flower mitochondria as well as in root and leaf mitochondria. As for the CMS-associated protein (PCF protein) in petunia, ORF129 is primarily present in the matrix and is loosely associated with the inner mitochondrial membrane. The orf129 sequence was fused to a mitochondrial targeting pre-sequence, placed under the control of the Arabidopsis apetala3 promoter, and introduced into the tobacco nuclear genome. Transgenic expression of ORF129 resulted in male sterility, which provides clear supporting evidence that ORF129 is responsible for the male-sterile phenotype in sugar beet with wild beet cytoplasm.