Performance of single versus mixed coral species for transplantation to restore degraded reefs

Coral transplantation has become a potential tool for the restoration of coral cover in degraded reef habitats. Yet, very few investigations have attempted to determine whether there is an advantage for at least two species to be used together in coral transplantation. It is hypothesized that corals would perform better in terms of survival and growth when transplanted in mixed‐ than in single‐species plots. Single‐species plots were compared with combinations of two species at several reef sites, using three separate coral species, namely, Porites cylindrica, Pavona frondifera, and Hydnophora rigida. P. cylindrica performed consistently well in terms of survival whether alone or in the presence of another species. In a stressful environment with strong wave action, P. frondifera performed better when mixed with P. cylindrica than when alone. However, this difference was not evident where wave action was weak. The influence of mixing on the growth rates of H. rigida and P. frondifera transplants could not be examined completely because of high mortality because of predation by the starfish Acanthaster planci and the gastropod Drupella sp. Interestingly, the presence of P. cylindrica appeared to minimize the impact of predation on P. frondifera transplants. The setback caused by predation stresses the importance of other factors that influence the outcome of restoration interventions. Future initiatives should take into consideration management measures when selecting sites in relation to wave action and predators, control predator outbreaks, and use coral species, e.g. P. cylindrica that are less susceptible to predation.     

Bacterial remodelling of the host epigenome: functional role and evolution of effectors methylating host histones

The modulation of the chromatin organization of eukaryotic cells plays an important role in regulating key cellular processes including host defence mechanisms against pathogens. Thus, to successfully survive in a host cell, a sophisticated bacterial strategy is the subversion of nuclear processes of the eukaryotic cell. Indeed, the number of bacterial proteins that target host chromatin to remodel the host epigenetic machinery is expanding. Some of the identified bacterial effectors that target the chromatin machinery are ‘eukaryotic‐like’ proteins as they mimic eukaryotic histone writers in carrying the same enzymatic activities. The best‐studied examples are the SET domain proteins that methylate histones to change the chromatin landscape. In this review, we will discuss SET domain proteins identified in the Legionella, Chlamydia and Bacillus genomes that encode enzymatic activities targeting host histones. Moreover, we discuss their possible origin as having evolved from prokaryotic ancestors or having been acquired from their eukaryotic hosts during their co‐evolution. The characterization of such bacterial effectors as modifiers of the host chromatin landscape is an exciting field of research as it elucidates new bacterial strategies to not only manipulate host functions through histone modifications but it may also identify new modifications of the mammalian host cells not known before.     

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.     

基于叶片尺度观测数据的气孔导度模型评价

气孔导度(g)是控制冠层与大气之间能量和水分交换的重要因素。空气湿度是控制植物叶片气孔导度的一个关键环境因子。在过去的十几年中,普遍得到应用的是Ball-Woodrow-Berry(BWB)模型和Leuning模型中气孔导度与湿度的关系。本研究使用一个诊断变量f(H),基于农田叶片水平的光合-气孔导度观测数据,对BWB模型、Leuning模型以及新发展的power-h模型和power-D模型进行了气孔导度模拟效果的比较和评价。结果表明:BWB模型描述的是g和相对湿度(hs)之间的一种线性关系,当空气较为湿润时,模拟结果存在较大的低估;Leuning模型中反映的是g与饱和水汽压差(Ds)的非线性函数,降低了模拟结果的误差,但仍然不能很好地描述g在较湿状况下的显著升高;相比之下,两个新的模型,即Ds的指数函数和(1-hs)的指数函数形式模型能提高模拟结果的精度。这个研究结果也表明基于Ds的模型模拟效果要好于基于hs的模型。     

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).