Neutron RBE for primate spinal cord treated with clinical regimens.

The RBEs of high-energy neutrons given in 9 or 12 fractions for cervical spinal cord injury in rhesus monkeys was determined using photons at 2.2 Gy per fraction as the reference radiation. Because the dose-response functions were not parallel, the RBE was not constant but rather increased with dose or, equivalently, with the probability of myelopathy. This required the development of a novel method of determining the RBE versus level of response. The RBE is presented as a function of probability of myelopathy from 0.1 to 99%. At a 50% incidence of myelopathy, the RBE (+/- 1 SE) was 5.22 +/- 0.15. A difference in the histopathology of lesions induced by photon and neutron treatments was observed.     

The essential Escherichia coli msgB gene, a multicopy suppressor of a temperature-sensitive allele of the heat shock gene grpE, is identical to dapE.

The grpE gene product is one of three Escherichia coli heat shock proteins (DnaK, DnaJ, and GrpE) that are essential for both bacteriophage lambda DNA replication and bacterial growth at all temperatures. In an effort to determine the role of GrpE and to identify other factors that it may interact with, we isolated multicopy suppressors of the grpE280 point mutation, as judged by their ability to reverse the temperature-sensitive phenotype of grpE280. Here we report the characterization of one of them, designated msgB. The msgB gene maps at approximately 53 min on the E. coli chromosome. The minimal gene possesses an open reading frame that encodes a protein with a predicted size of 41,269 M(r). This open reading frame was confirmed the correct one by direct amino-terminal sequence analysis of the overproduced msgB gene product. Genetic experiments demonstrated that msgB is essential for E. coli growth in the temperature range of 22 to 37 degrees C. Through a sequence homology search, MsgB was shown to be identical to N-succinyl-L-diaminopimelic acid desuccinylase (the dapE gene product), which participates in the diaminopimelic acid-lysine pathway involved in cell wall biosynthesis. Consistent with this finding, the msgB null allele mutant is viable only when the growth medium is supplemented with diaminopimelic acid. These results suggest that GrpE may have a previously unsuspected function(s) in cell wall biosynthesis in E. coli.     

Brain glutamate metabolism during metabolic alkalosis and acidosis.

Glutamate modifies ventilation by altering neural excitability centrally. Metabolic acid-base perturbations may also alter cerebral glutamate metabolism locally and thus affect ventilation. Therefore, the effect of metabolic acid-base perturbations on central nervous system glutamate metabolism was studied in pentobarbital-anesthetized dogs under normal acid-base conditions and during isocapnic metabolic alkalosis and acidosis. Cerebrospinal fluid transfer rates of radiotracer [13N]ammonia and of [13N]glutamine synthesized de novo via the reaction glutamate+NH3-->glutamine in brain glia were measured during normal acid-base conditions and after 90 min of acute isocapnic metabolic alkalosis and acidosis. Cerebrospinal fluid [13N]ammonia and [13N]glutamine transfer rates decreased in metabolic acidosis. Maximal glial glutamine efflux rate jm equals 85.6 +/- 9.5 (SE) mumol.l-1 x min-1 in all animals. No difference in jm was observed in metabolic alkalosis or acidosis. Mean cerebral cortical glutamate concentration was significantly lower in acidosis [7.01 +/- 0.45 (SE) mumol/g brain tissue] and tended to be larger in alkalosis, compared with 7.97 +/- 0.89 mumol/g in normal acid-base conditions. There was a similar change in cerebral cortical gamma-aminobutyric acid concentration. Within the limits of the present method and measurements, the results suggest that acute metabolic acidosis but not alkalosis reduces glial glutamine efflux, corresponding to changes in cerebral cortical glutamate metabolism. These results suggest that glutamatergic mechanisms may contribute to central respiratory control in metabolic acidosis.     

Explanations for weight loss after ileojejunal bypass in gross obesity.

Twenty grossly obese patients underwent ileojejunal bypass operations. Measurements of calories lost in faeces showed that the malabsorption could not account for the weight loss. Furthermore, the malabsorption was not decreased two years after bypass, when weight was no longer being lost. Dietary restriction is therefore largely responsible for the weight loss and increased food intake for weight maintenance.     

Reconfiguration of a Multi-oscillator Network by Light in the Drosophila Circadian Clock

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Prevention of kidney ischemia/reperfusion-induced functional injury, MAPK and MAPK kinase activation, and inflammation by remote transient ureteral obstruction.

Protection against ischemic kidney injury is afforded by 24 h of ureteral obstruction (UO) applied 6 or 8 days prior to the ischemia. Uremia or humoral factors are not responsible for the protection, since unilateral UO confers protection on that kidney but not the contralateral kidney. Prior UO results in reduced postischemic outer medullary congestion and leukocyte infiltration. Prior UO results in reduced postischemic phosphorylation of c-Jun N-terminal stress-activated protein kinase 1/2 (JNK1/2), p38, mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) kinase 4 (MKK4), and MKK3/6. Very few cells stain positively for proliferating cell nuclear antigen after obstruction, indicating that subsequent protection against ischemia is not related to proliferation with increased numbers of newly formed daughter cells more resistant to injury. UO increases the expression of heat shock protein (HSP)-25 and HSP-72. The increased HSP-25 expression persists for 6 or 8 days, whereas HSP-72 does not. HSP-25 expression is increased in the proximal tubule cells in the outer stripe of the outer medulla postobstruction, prior to, and 24 h after ischemia. In LLC-PK(1) renal epithelial cells, adenovirus-expressed human HSP-27 confers resistance to chemical anoxia and oxidative stress. Increased HSP-27 expression in LLC-PK(1) cells results in reduced H(2)O(2)-induced phosphorylation of JNK1/2 and p38. In conclusion, prior transient UO renders the kidney resistant to ischemia. This resistance to functional consequences of ischemia is associated with reduced postischemic activation of JNK, p38 MAP kinases, and their upstream MAPK kinases. The persistent increase in HSP-25 that occurs as a result of UO may contribute to the reduction in phosphorylation of MAPKs that have been implicated in adhesion molecule up-regulation and cell death.     

A high-throughput turbidometric assay for screening inhibitors of Leishmania major protein disulfide isomerase

The use of a high-throughput technique to perform a pilot screen for Leishmania major protein disulfide isomerase (LmPDI) inhibitors identification is reported. In eukaryotic cells, protein disulfide isomerase (PDI) plays a crucial role in protein folding by catalyzing the rearrangement of disulfide bonds in substrate proteins following their synthesis. LmPDI displays similar domain structure organization and functional properties to other PDI family members and is involved in Leishmania virulence. The authors used a method based on the enzyme-catalyzed reduction of insulin in the presence of dithiothreitol. The screen of a small library of 1920 compounds was performed in a 384-well format and led to the identification of 27 compounds with inhibitory activity against LmPDI. The authors further tested the cytotoxicity of these compounds using Jurkat cells as well as their effect on Leishmania donovani amastigotes using high-content analysis. Results show hexachlorophene and a mixture of theaflavin monogallates inhibit Leishmania multiplication in infected macrophages derived from THP-1 cells, although the inhibitory effect on LmPDI enzymatic activity does not necessarily correlate with the antileishmanial activity.     

Engineered Pentafunctional Minicellulosome for Simultaneous Saccharification and Ethanol Fermentation in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Several yeast strains have been engineered to express different cellulases to achieve simultaneous saccharification and fermentation of lignocellulosic materials. However, successes in these endeavors were modest, as demonstrated by the relatively low ethanol titers and the limited ability of the engineered yeast strains to grow using cellulosic materials as the sole carbon source. Recently, substantial enhancements to the breakdown of cellulosic substrates have been observed when lytic polysaccharide monooxygenases (LPMOs) were added to traditional cellulase cocktails. LPMOs are reported to cleave cellulose oxidatively in the presence of enzymatic electron donors such as cellobiose dehydrogenases. In this study, we coexpressed LPMOs and cellobiose dehydrogenases with cellobiohydrolases, endoglucanases, and β-glucosidases in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. These enzymes were secreted and docked onto surface-displayed miniscaffoldins through cohesin-dockerin interaction to generate pentafunctional minicellulosomes. The enzymes on the miniscaffoldins acted synergistically to boost the degradation of phosphoric acid swollen cellulose and increased the ethanol titers from our previously achieved levels of 1.8 to 2.7 g/liter. In addition, the newly developed recombinant yeast strain was also able to grow using phosphoric acid swollen cellulose as the sole carbon source. The results demonstrate the promise of the pentafunctional minicellulosomes for consolidated bioprocessing by yeast.     

A moso bamboo (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Phyllostachys edulis</Emphasis>) miniature inverted-repeat transposable element (MITE): the possible role of a suppressor

Transposable elements (transposons) are fragments of DNA sequences which can move within host genome. Miniature inverted-repeat transposable elements (MITEs) are widespread and high-copy transposable elements in eukaryotic genomes. Tourist-like MITEs are especially abundant in plant kingdom. Earlier genome-wide analysis has shown that MITEs are widely distributed in the moso bamboo genome and preferentially inserted into gene regions. In the present study, in order to examine the potential influence of MITEs on the moso bamboo gene expressions, a highly conserved Tourist-like MITE family, which distributed near genes, was selected as research focus and named PhTst-3 (Phyllostachys edulis Tourist-like element 3). The MITEs’ insertion sites were tested in moso bamboo half-sib seedlings by real-time fluorescence quantitative PCR. Amplification polymorphisms were found in a copy of PhTst-3 (PhTst-3-55) which was located in the intron of PH01002699G0010. This inserted PhTst-3-55 had a significant impact on the gene expression revealed by the real-time fluorescence quantitative PCR. The gene expression levels were four times higher in the absence of PhTst-3-55 than those in the presence of it. This finding suggests that the PhTst-3 located in the intron is involved in the regulation of the gene. In order to examine the impact of PhTst-3-55 on the near genes, the PhTst-3-55 was inserted into a promoter analysis vector, pxk7S2D, between the two promoter sequences. The Agrobacterium-mediated transient expression showed that PhTst-3-55 insertion decreases the expression level of upstream GUS gene and downstream GFP gene. So, PhTst-3-55 can have a silencing role by bidirectionally inhibiting gene expression.