Effects of B group vitamins and choline chloride on the development and protein synthesis in the male larvae of Pimpla turionellae L. (Hym., Ichneumonidae)

The effects on the development and protein levels in the larvae of male Pimpla turionellae L. of different amounts of B group vitamins namely thiamin, riboflavin, Ca-pantothenate, nicotinic acid, pyridoxine-HCl, folic acid and biotin and a growth factor choline chloride in the meridic diet were investigated. Among the vitamins tested, choline chloride and biotin were found to have quantitatively critical values in the diet and increased amounts of nicotinic acid and folic acid individually in the control diet showed positive effects on development and protein levels. A decrease in the levels of Ca-pantothenate and pridoxine-HCl caused decreases in protein levels, whereas variations in the levels of thamin and riboflavin did not have any significant effect.     

The Open AUC Project

Progress in analytical ultracentrifugation (AUC) has been hindered by obstructions to hardware innovation and by software incompatibility. In this paper, we announce and outline the Open AUC Project. The goals of the Open AUC Project are to stimulate AUC innovation by improving instrumentation, detectors, acquisition and analysis software, and collaborative tools. These improvements are needed for the next generation of AUC-based research. The Open AUC Project combines on-going work from several different groups. A new base instrument is described, one that is designed from the ground up to be an analytical ultracentrifuge. This machine offers an open architecture, hardware standards, and application programming interfaces for detector developers. All software will use the GNU Public License to assure that intellectual property is available in open source format. The Open AUC strategy facilitates collaborations, encourages sharing, and eliminates the chronic impediments that have plagued AUC innovation for the last 20 years. This ultracentrifuge will be equipped with multiple and interchangeable optical tracks so that state-of-the-art electronics and improved detectors will be available for a variety of optical systems. The instrument will be complemented by a new rotor, enhanced data acquisition and analysis software, as well as collaboration software. Described here are the instrument, the modular software components, and a standardized database that will encourage and ease integration of data analysis and interpretation software.     

The implementation of SOMO (SOlution MOdeller) in the UltraScan analytical ultracentrifugation data analysis suite: enhanced capabilities allow the reliable hydrodynamic modeling of virtually any kind of biomacromolecule

The interpretation of solution hydrodynamic data in terms of macromolecular structural parameters is not a straightforward task. Over the years, several approaches have been developed to cope with this problem, the most widely used being bead modeling in various flavors. We report here the implementation of the SOMO (SOlution MOdeller; Rai et al. in Structure 13:723–734, 2005) bead modeling suite within one of the most widely used analytical ultracentrifugation data analysis software packages, UltraScan (Demeler in Modern analytical ultracentrifugation: techniques and methods, Royal Society of Chemistry, UK, 2005). The US-SOMO version is now under complete graphical interface control, and has been freed from several constraints present in the original implementation. In the direct beads-per-atoms method, virtually any kind of residue as defined in the Protein Data Bank (e.g., proteins, nucleic acids, carbohydrates, prosthetic groups, detergents, etc.) can be now represented with beads whose number, size and position are all defined in user-editable tables. For large structures, a cubic grid method based on the original AtoB program (Byron in Biophys J 72:408–415, 1997) can be applied either directly on the atomic structure, or on a previously generated bead model. The hydrodynamic parameters are then computed in the rigid-body approximation. An extensive set of tests was conducted to further validate the method, and the results are presented here. Owing to its accuracy, speed, and versatility, US-SOMO should allow to fully take advantage of the potential of solution hydrodynamics as a complement to higher resolution techniques in biomacromolecular modeling.     

Assessment of river condition at a large spatial scale using predictive models

1. RIVPACS-type predictive models were developed at a relatively large spatial scale for the Australian state called New South Wales (NSW, 801 428 km²). Aquatic macroinvertebrate samples and physical and chemical data were collected from 250 reference sites (little affected by human activities) and 23 test sites (with known human impacts) throughout NSW in autumn and spring 1995 and identified mostly to family level. Reference sites were grouped based on their macroinvertebrate data using classification (UPGMA) and ordination techniques. Relationships between macroinvertebrate and environmental data were established using principal axis correlations and stepwise multiple discriminant function analysis. models for predicting invertebrate assemblages were developed separately for edge and riffle habitats for autumn and spring data sets and for combined autumn and spring data sets. 2. Sites in the lowland sections of the western flowing rivers were characterized by low taxonomic richness and were distinct from the sites in the eastern part of the state. Sites on the western slopes of the Great Dividing Range in southern and northern NSW mostly fell into separate groups. In eastern NSW, site groups did not represent a north, central and south division. Sites on highland streams, coastal fringe streams and large rivers mostly formed distinct groups, but most of the sites on east-flowing rivers fell into large site groups that did not have clear geographic boundaries. 3. Environmental variables that were strongly correlated with ordinations of macroinvertebrate presence/absence at sites were water temperature, altitude, longitude and maximum distance from source. The predictor variables determined by DFA for the six models created included alkalinity, altitude, location (longitude and/or latitude), stream size and substratum composition. These are generally in common with the variables determined for other large geographic areas in Australia and the United Kingdom. 4. Model outputs from reference sites suggest that, among the six models, the riffle model combining autumn and spring is likely to give the most reliable predictions. The combined edge model also performed well but refinements are needed for single season models to provide reliable outputs. 5. Combined season models both for riffles and for edges detected biological impairment at all but one of the test sites. Single season riffle models also detected impairment while single season edge models characterized sites as unimpaired despite other models’ indications of impaired fauna. Riffle models may be more sensitive than edge models but the sampling of riffles is often limited by flow. Edge habitats are available at most sites but there may be few riffles in floodplain rivers. Available resources, desired model sensitivity, and river type should be considered jointly to determine the most useful habitat to sample.     

Combined drought and heat stresses trigger different sets of miRNAs in contrasting potato cultivars

Functional & Integrative Genomics - MicroRNAs are small, non-coding RNAs that are responsible for regulation of gene expression during plant growth and development. Although there are many...