MBAT: A scalable informatics system for unifying digital atlasing workflows

Background  

Digital atlases provide a common semantic and spatial coordinate system that can be leveraged to compare, contrast, and correlate data from disparate sources. As the quality and amount of biological data continues to advance and grow, searching, referencing, and comparing this data with a researcher's own data is essential. However, the integration process is cumbersome and time-consuming due to misaligned data, implicitly defined associations, and incompatible data sources. This work addressing these challenges by providing a unified and adaptable environment to accelerate the workflow to gather, align, and analyze the data.     

Peptide N-alkylamides by solid phase synthesis

Three new resins have been developed that allow for the solid phase synthesis of C-terminal peptide N-alkylamides using Boc amino acids, usual side chain protecting groups and hydrogen fluoride cleavage and deprotection. These resins were prepared by reacting the appropriate alkylamine (NH2CH3, NH2CH2CH3, NH2CH2CF3) to Merrifield's 1% divinylbenzene cross-linked chloromethylated polystyrene resin. The application of these resins to the synthesis of C-terminal GnRH N-alkylamides illustrates the versatility of this approach. GnRH analogs were tested for their ability to release LH from cultured rat anterior pituitary cells. [DGlu6, Pro9-NHCH2CH3]-GnRH was synthesized for the first time using the solid phase approach and found to be three times more potent than [DGlu6]-GnRH. Other analogs including [DTrp6, Pro9-NHCH2CH3]-GnRH, [DAla6, Pro9-NHCH2CF3]-GnRH and related peptides were found to be equipotent and to have the same properties (HPLC retention times, amino acid analysis and specific rotation) as the corresponding peptides synthesized using less amenable strategies; yields were equivalent or better than those reported earlier.     

Character displacement in the fighting colours of Hetaerina damselflies

Aggression between species is a seldom-considered but potentially widespread mechanism of character displacement in secondary sexual characters. Based on previous research showing that similarity in wing coloration directly influences interspecific territorial aggression in Hetaerina damselflies, we predicted that wing coloration would show a pattern of character displacement (divergence in sympatry). A geographical survey of four Hetaerina damselfly species in Mexico and Texas showed evidence for character displacement in both species pairs that regularly occurs sympatrically. Hetaerina titia, a species that typically has large black wing spots and small red wing spots, shifted to having even larger black spots and smaller red wing spots at sites where a congener with large red wing spots is numerically dominant (Hetaerina americana or Hetaerina occisa). Hetaerina americana showed the reverse pattern, shifting towards larger red wing spots where H. titia is numerically dominant. This pattern is consistent with the process of agonistic character displacement, but the ontogenetic basis of the shift remains to be demonstrated.     

Ultrastructure of a colonial radiolarian Collozoum inerme and a cytochemical determination of the role of its zooxanthellae

Collozoum inerme (Müller) is a colonial Radiolarian containing numerous cells bound in a common gelatinous matrix. The cells do not possess a skeleton as observed in many unicellular Radiolaria, but the cytoplasmic organization is similar. The cells are multinucleate and a complex system of cellular processes containing mitochondria, Golgi, and numerous vacuoles radiate out from the nuclear region. The endoplasm is connected to the ectoplasm across a double membrane boundary by thin cytoplasmic strands called fusules whose structure resemble those in unicellular Radiolaria. The ectoplasm contains a lacy network of vacuoles containing an osmiophilic substance. Rhizopodia emerge from the ectoplasmic sheath. Some are thin and densely granular. Larger diameter rhizopodia, containing less dense cytoplasm, sequester the zooxanthellae which present a typical dinoflagellate fine structure. Some of the zooxanthellae are apparently cultivated since they are sometimes observed dividing and persist in large numbers when colonies are cultivated under illumination for several weeks in the laboratory. However, colonies maintained in the dark have a decline in number of zooxanthellae and light microscopic examination shows they are being drawn into the ectoplasm of the radiolarian cells. Electron microscopic examination of zooxanthellae drawn into the ectoplasm sheath indicates they are digested. C. inerme is a remarkable example of a simple cellular aggregate that has exploited its colonial habit to culture algae and use them as food thus possibly enhancing the viability of the colony.     

Analysis of water in Autonomous Biological Systems (ABS) samples.

Several soluble components, peptidase and amino acids, and carbon isotopic ratio in the water retrieved from flight experiments of Autonomous Biological Systems (ABS) as well as ground control samples are analyzed to interpret the condition, dynamics, material balance of the ABS ecosystems. Organic carbons in flight samples were found to be more abundant compared with the control ones, which suggested the uniform ecosystems in low gravity might easily dissolve more soluble components. The Mir-1997 flight sample showed higher C/N ratio probably because of the dissolution of carbon-rich plant materials.     

Utility of peptide-protein affinity complexes in proteomics: identification of interaction partners of a tumor suppressor peptide.

We used a N-biotinylated peptide analog of the C-terminal domain of the tumor suppressor protein, p21cip1/waf1 to elucidate peptide/protein interacting partners. The C-terminal domain of p21cip1/waf1 protein spanning 141-160 amino acid residues is known to bind PCNA and this interaction is important in many biological processes including cell-cycle control. This C-terminal 20-mer efficiently extracts PCNA in the presence of a variety of N- or C-terminally attached affinity tags. Using difference silver stained 2D gels combined with in-gel tryptic digests, we identified the difference spots using MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry-based peptide mass fingerprinting followed by a database search using PROFOUND against NCBIs human nonredundant protein sequence data bank. Identified spots include the p48 subunit of chromatin assembly factor-1, the heat shock 70 protein analog BiP, calmodulin, nucleolin and a spot similar in size to dimeric PCNA. In contrast, microcapillary ion-trap LC-MS/MS analysis of a tryptic digest of entire affinity extracts derived from both control and experimental runs followed by database searches using SEQUEST confirmed the presence of most of the above proteins. This strategy also identified hnRNPA1, HPSP90alpha, HSP40 and T-complex protein 1, a protein similar to prothymosin, and a possible allelic variant of the p21cip1/waf1 protein. The use of N-biotinylated peptide derived from the C-terminal domain of p21cip1/waf1 protein in proteomic analysis exemplified here suggests that peptides obtained from intracellular functional screens could also potentially serve as efficient baits to discover new drug targets.