Inherited macrocytic anaemias in the house mouse

Journal of Genetics - The geneW in the mouse has no measurable effect on the blood in heterozygotes, regardless of the amount of variegation present. Mice heterozygous forW V have macrocytic red...     

Investigation of specific substitutions in virulence genes characterizing phenotypic groups of low-virulence field strains of Listeria monocytogenes

Several models have shown that virulence varies from one strain of Listeria monocytogenes to another, but little is known about the cause of low virulence. Twenty-six field L. monocytogenes strains were shown to be of low virulence in a plaque-forming assay and in a subcutaneous inoculation test in mice. Using the results of cell infection assays and phospholipase activities, the low-virulence strains were assigned to one of four groups by cluster analysis and then virulence-related genes were sequenced. Group I included 11 strains that did not enter cells and had no phospholipase activity. These strains exhibited a mutated PrfA; eight strains had a single amino acid substitution, PrfAK220T, and the other three had a truncated PrfA, PrfADelta174-237. These genetic modifications could explain the low virulence of group I strains, since mutated PrfA proteins were inactive. Group II and III strains entered cells but did not form plaques. Group II strains had low phosphatidylcholine phospholipase C activity, whereas group III strains had low phosphatidylinositol phospholipase C activity. Several substitutions were observed for five out of six group III strains in the plcA gene and for one out of three group II strains in the plcB gene. Group IV strains poorly colonized spleens of mice and were practically indistinguishable from fully virulent strains on the basis of the above-mentioned in vitro criteria. These results demonstrate a relationship between the phenotypic classification and the genotypic modifications for at least group I and III strains and suggest a common evolution of these strains within a group.     

Dispersal potential of native and exotic predatory ladybirds as measured by a computer-monitored flight mill

The performance of three species of predatory ladybirds was compared in a flight mill and the effect of diet on their flight parameters was tested. The invasive ladybird Harmonia axyridis Pallas (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) outperformed Cryptolaemus montrouzieri Mulsant (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) and Adalia bipunctata (L.) (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) in terms of flight distance, duration and velocity. Harmonia axyridis flew at least two times further, needed three times less breaks and flew two times faster than C. montrouzieri and A. bipunctata fed the same diet. Ladybirds reared on eggs of Ephestia kuehniella (Zeller) (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) performed better than their counterparts reared on natural prey (aphids for H. axyridis and A. bipunctata, mealybugs for C. montrouzieri). The findings of this study indicate that comparative flight studies can be useful to identify candidate biocontrol agents with pronounced dispersal abilities and thus can yield significant evidence to be used in an environmental risk assessment. However, it also demonstrates that variability related to mass rearing conditions should not be ignored when standardizing a risk assessment procedure for candidate biocontrol agents.     

Gestational diabetes mellitus epigenetically affects genes predominantly involved in metabolic diseases

Offspring exposed to gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) have an increased risk for chronic diseases, and one promising mechanism for fetal metabolic programming is epigenetics. Therefore, we postulated that GDM exposure impacts the offspring’s methylome and used an epigenomic approach to explore this hypothesis. Placenta and cord blood samples were obtained from 44 newborns, including 30 exposed to GDM. Women were recruited at first trimester of pregnancy and followed until delivery. GDM was assessed after a 75-g oral glucose tolerance test at 24–28 weeks of pregnancy. DNA methylation was measured at > 485,000 CpG sites (Infinium HumanMethylation450 BeadChips). Ingenuity Pathway Analysis was conducted to identify metabolic pathways epigenetically affected by GDM. Our results showed that 3,271 and 3,758 genes in placenta and cord blood, respectively, were potentially differentially methylated between samples exposed or not to GDM (p-values down to 1 × 10⁻⁰⁶; none reached the genome-wide significance levels), with more than 25% (n = 1,029) being common to both tissues. Mean DNA methylation differences between groups were 5.7 ± 3.2% and 3.4 ± 1.9% for placenta and cord blood, respectively. These genes were likely involved in the metabolic diseases pathway (up to 115 genes (11%), p-values for pathways = 1.9 × 10⁻¹³ < p < 4.0 × 10⁻⁰³; including diabetes mellitus p = 4.3 × 10⁻¹¹). Among the differentially methylated genes, 326 in placenta and 117 in cord blood were also associated with newborn weight. Our results therefore suggest that GDM has epigenetic effects on genes preferentially involved in the metabolic diseases pathway, with consequences on fetal growth and development, and provide supportive evidence that DNA methylation is involved in fetal metabolic programming.     

Conversion of aliphatic nitriles by the arylacetonitrilase from <Emphasis Type="Italic">Pseudomonas fluorescens</Emphasis> EBC191

The conversion of aliphatic nitriles by the arylacetonitrilase from Pseudomonas fluorescens EBC191 (NitA) was analyzed. The nitrilase hydrolysed a wide range of aliphatic mono- and dinitriles and showed a preference for unsaturated aliphatic substrates containing 5–6 carbon atoms. In addition, increased reaction rates were also found for aliphatic nitriles carrying electron withdrawing substituents (e.g. chloro- or hydroxy-groups) close to the nitrile group. Aliphatic dinitriles were attacked only at one of the nitrile groups and with most of the tested dinitriles the monocarboxylates were detected as major products. In contrast, fumarodinitrile was converted to the monocarboxylate and the monocarboxamide in a ratio of about 65:35. Significantly different relative amounts of the two products were observed with two nitrilase variants with altered reaction specifities. NitA converted some aliphatic substrates with higher rates than 2-phenylpropionitrile, which is one of the standard substrates for arylacetonitrilases. This indicated that the traditional classification of nitrilases as “arylacetonitrilases”, “aromatic” or “aliphatic” nitrilases might require some corrections. This was also suggested by the construction of some variants of NitA which were modified in an amino acid residue which was previously suggested to be essential for the conversion of aliphatic substrates by a homologous nitrilase.     

An improved neutral landscape model for recreating real landscapes and generating landscape series for spatial ecological simulations

Many studies have assessed the effect of landscape patterns on spatial ecological processes by simulating these processes in computer‐generated landscapes with varying composition and configuration. To generate such landscapes, various neutral landscape models have been developed. However, the limited set of landscape‐level pattern variables included in these models is often inadequate to generate landscapes that reflect real landscapes. In order to achieve more flexibility and variability in the generated landscapes patterns, a more complete set of class‐ and patch‐level pattern variables should be implemented in these models. These enhancements have been implemented in Landscape Generator (LG), which is a software that uses optimization algorithms to generate landscapes that match user‐defined target values. Developed for participatory spatial planning at small scale, we enhanced the usability of LG and demonstrated how it can be used for larger scale ecological studies. First, we used LG to recreate landscape patterns from a real landscape (i.e., a mountainous region in Switzerland). Second, we generated landscape series with incrementally changing pattern variables, which could be used in ecological simulation studies. We found that LG was able to recreate landscape patterns that approximate those of real landscapes. Furthermore, we successfully generated landscape series that would not have been possible with traditional neutral landscape models. LG is a promising novel approach for generating neutral landscapes and enables testing of new hypotheses regarding the influence of landscape patterns on ecological processes. LG is freely available online.