Medicago truncatula mtpt4 mutants reveal a role for nitrogen in the regulation of arbuscule degeneration in arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiosis

Plants acquire essential mineral nutrients such as phosphorus (P) and nitrogen (N) directly from the soil, but the majority of the vascular plants also gain access to these mineral nutrients through endosymbiotic associations with arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi. In AM symbiosis, the fungi deliver P and N to the root through branched hyphae called arbuscules. Previously we identified MtPT4, a Medicago truncatula phosphate transporter located in the periarbuscular membrane that is essential for symbiotic phosphate transport and for maintenance of the symbiosis. In mtpt4 mutants arbuscule degeneration occurs prematurely and symbiosis fails. Here, we show that premature arbuscule degeneration occurs in mtpt4 mutants even when the fungus has access to carbon from a nurse plant. Thus, carbon limitation is unlikely to be the primary cause of fungal death. Surprisingly, premature arbuscule degeneration is suppressed if mtpt4 mutants are deprived of nitrogen. In mtpt4 mutants with a low N status, arbuscule lifespan does not differ from that of the wild type, colonization of the mtpt4 root system occurs as in the wild type and the fungus completes its life cycle. Sulphur is another essential macronutrient delivered to the plant by the AM fungus; however, suppression of premature arbuscule degeneration does not occur in sulphur-deprived mtpt4 plants. The mtpt4 arbuscule phenotype is strongly correlated with shoot N levels. Analyses of an mtpt4-2 sunn-1 double mutant indicates that SUNN, required for N-mediated autoregulation of nodulation, is not involved. Together, the data reveal an unexpected role for N in the regulation of arbuscule lifespan in AM symbiosis.     

Design and synthesis of pyridone inhibitors of non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase

Next generation NNRTIs are sought which possess both broad spectrum antiviral activity against key mutant strains and a high genetic barrier to the selection of new mutant viral strains. Pyridones were evaluated as an acyclic conformational constraint to replace the aryl ether core of MK-4965 (1) and the more rigid indazole constraint of MK-6186 (2). The resulting pyridone compounds are potent inhibitors of HIV RT and have antiviral activity in cell culture that is superior to other next generation NNRTI’s.     

Tricyclic aminopyrimidine histamine H4 receptor antagonists

This report discloses the development of a series of tricyclic histamine H(4) receptor antagonists. Starting with a low nanomolar benzofuranopyrimidine HTS hit devoid of pharmaceutically acceptable properties, we navigated issues with metabolism and solubility to furnish a potent, stable and water soluble tricyclic histamine H(4) receptor antagonist with desirable physiochemical parameters which demonstrated efficacy a mouse ova model.     

High-throughput Saccharification Assay for Lignocellulosic Materials

Polysaccharides that make up plant lignocellulosic biomass can be broken down to produce a range of sugars that subsequently can be used in establishing a biorefinery. These raw materials would constitute a new industrial platform, which is both sustainable and carbon neutral, to replace the current dependency on fossil fuel. The recalcitrance to deconstruction observed in lignocellulosic materials is produced by several intrinsic properties of plant cell walls. Crystalline cellulose is embedded in matrix polysaccharides such as xylans and arabinoxylans, and the whole structure is encased by the phenolic polymer lignin, that is also difficult to digest ¹. In order to improve the digestibility of plant materials we need to discover the main bottlenecks for the saccharification of cell walls and also screen mutant and breeding populations to evaluate the variability in saccharification ². These tasks require a high throughput approach and here we present an analytical platform that can perform saccharification analysis in a 96-well plate format. This platform has been developed to allow the screening of lignocellulose digestibility of large populations from varied plant species. We have scaled down the reaction volumes for gentle pretreatment, partial enzymatic hydrolysis and sugar determination, to allow large numbers to be assessed rapidly in an automated system.This automated platform works with milligram amounts of biomass, performing ball milling under controlled conditions to reduce the plant materials to a standardised particle size in a reproducible manner. Once the samples are ground, the automated formatting robot dispenses specified and recorded amounts of material into the corresponding wells of 96 deep well plate (Figure 1). Normally, we dispense the same material into 4 wells to have 4 replicates for analysis. Once the plates are filled with the plant material in the desired layout, they are manually moved to a liquid handling station (Figure 2). In this station the samples are subjected to a mild pretreatment with either dilute acid or alkaline and incubated at temperatures of up to 90°C. The pretreatment solution is subsequently removed and the samples are rinsed with buffer to return them to a suitable pH for hydrolysis. The samples are then incubated with an enzyme mixture for a variable length of time at 50°C. An aliquot is taken from the hydrolyzate and the reducing sugars are automatically determined by the MBTH colorimetric method.     

Recording Large-scale Neuronal Ensembles with Silicon Probes in the Anesthetized Rat

Large scale electrophysiological recordings from neuronal ensembles offer the opportunity to investigate how the brain orchestrates the wide variety of behaviors from the spiking activity of its neurons. One of the most effective methods to monitor spiking activity from a large number of neurons in multiple local neuronal circuits simultaneously is by using silicon electrode arrays^1-3.Action potentials produce large transmembrane voltage changes in the vicinity of cell somata. These output signals can be measured by placing a conductor in close proximity of a neuron. If there are many active (spiking) neurons in the vicinity of the tip, the electrode records combined signal from all of them, where contribution of a single neuron is weighted by its ''electrical distance''. Silicon probes are ideal recording electrodes to monitor multiple neurons because of a large number of recording sites (+64) and a small volume. Furthermore, multiple sites can be arranged over a distance of millimeters, thus allowing for the simultaneous recordings of neuronal activity in the various cortical layers or in multiple cortical columns (Fig. 1). Importantly, the geometrically precise distribution of the recording sites also allows for the determination of the spatial relationship of the isolated single neurons⁴. Here, we describe an acute, large-scale neuronal recording from the left and right forelimb somatosensory cortex simultaneously in an anesthetized rat with silicon probes (Fig. 2).     

Permanent genetic resources added to Molecular Ecology Resources Database 1 December 2010-31 January 2011

This article documents the addition of 238 microsatellite marker loci to the Molecular Ecology Resources Database. Loci were developed for the following species: Alytes dickhilleni, Arapaima gigas, Austropotamobius italicus, Blumeria graminis f. sp. tritici, Cobitis lutheri, Dendroctonus ponderosae, Glossina morsitans morsitans, Haplophilus subterraneus, Kirengeshoma palmata, Lysimachia japonica, Macrolophus pygmaeus, Microtus cabrerae, Mytilus galloprovincialis, Pallisentis (Neosentis) celatus, Pulmonaria officinalis, Salminus franciscanus, Thais chocolata and Zootoca vivipara. These loci were cross-tested on the following species: Acanthina monodon, Alytes cisternasii, Alytes maurus, Alytes muletensis, Alytes obstetricans almogavarii, Alytes obstetricans boscai, Alytes obstetricans obstetricans, Alytes obstetricans pertinax, Cambarellus montezumae, Cambarellus zempoalensis, Chorus giganteus, Cobitis tetralineata, Glossina fuscipes fuscipes, Glossina pallidipes, Lysimachia japonica var. japonica, Lysimachia japonica var. minutissima, Orconectes virilis, Pacifastacus leniusculus, Procambarus clarkii, Salminus brasiliensis and Salminus hilarii.     

The crystal structure of 6-epi-desacetyllaurenobiolide,a germacra-1(10),4-diene-12,8α-olide from Montanoa grandiflora

A chloroform extract of Montanoa grandiflora afforded a novel 6β-hydroxy-germacradien-8,12-olide. Its structure was shown to be 6-epi-desacetyllaurenobiolide by spectral studies, chemical transformations and single crystal X-ray diffraction. The X-ray data demonstrate that the ten-membered ring exists in the crystal in the highly unusual [₁₅D⁵,₁D¹⁴] conformation, in which the methyl group at C-4 is α-oriented and the methyl group at C-10 is β-oriented. The two double bonds are approximately parallel rather than crossed.     

Acetylcholine Release Induced by the Volatile Anesthetic Sevoflurane in Rat Brain Cortical Slices

1. We have investigated the effect of the volatile anesthetic sevoflurane on acetylcholine (ACh) release from rat brain cortical slices. 2. The release of [3H]-ACh into the incubation fluid was studied after labeling the tissue ACh with [methyl-3H]-choline chloride. 3. We observed that sevoflurane induced an increase on the release of ACh that was dependent on incubation time and anesthetic concentration. The sevoflurane-induced ACh release was not blocked by tetrodotoxin (TTX) and therefore was independent of sodium channels. In addition, the sevoflurane effect was not blocked by ethylene glycol-bis(beta-aminoethyl ether (EGTA) or cadmium (Cd2+), thus independent of extracellular calcium. 4. The sevoflurane-induced ACh release was inhibited by 1,2-bis (2-aminophenoxy) ethane-N,N,N',N'-tetra-acetic acid (BAPTA-AM), suggesting the involvement of intracellular calcium-sensitive stores in the process. Dantrolene, an inhibitor of ryanodine receptors, had no effect but 2-aminoethoxydiphenylborate (2-APB), a membrane-permeable inhibitor of inositol 1,4,5-triphosphate receptor inhibited the sevoflurane-induced release of ACh. 5. It is concluded that sevoflurane-induced release of ACh in brain cortical slices involves the mobilization of calcium from IP3-sensitive calcium stores.