Low nitric oxide concentrations in exhaled gas and nasal airways of mammals without paranasal sinuses

To investigatewhether relevant levels of nasal nitric oxide (NO) are produced in theabsence of paranasal sinuses, we studied 17 healthy baboons, mammalswithout any paranasal sinuses. The animals were anesthetized withketamine hydrochloride and breathed spontaneously. While the baboonsbreathed through a face mask (mouths closed) connected to a respirator,NO concentrations in exhaled gas were sampled from the expiratory limband analyzed by chemiluminescence. While the animals were breathingambient air, nasal gas was sampled via a thin plastic tube and analyzed for NO concentrations by chemiluminescence. Mean NO concentration inthe exhaled gas was 1.00 ± 0.59 parts/billion, and NO release was4.28 ± 2.72 nl/min. A NO concentration of 4.79 ± 2.08 parts/billion was found in the nasal gas (NO release: 7.18 ± 3.13 nl/min). An age-dependent increase in nasal NO levelswas not observed. Exhaled and nasal NO concentrations in baboons weremarkedly lower than in mammals with paranasal sinuses, suggesting thatparanasal sinuses might be an anatomic requirement for production ofrelevant nasal NO levels.

     

Urea: An intermediate of aerobic and anaerobic purine degradation in Rhodopseudomonas capsulata

Abstract A mutant strain ( pur ^-) defective in utilization of purines was isolated from Rhodopseudomonas capsulata . In the mutant, the loss of purine utilization correlated with urease deficiency. In contrast to the wild-type strain, the mutant catalyzed release of urea from purines. The nitrogen of the purine ring was completely liberated as urea indicating that the latter compound is an intermediate of the purine degradation pathway in Rps. capsulata . The degradation pattern was identical under aerobic and anaerobic conditions.     

Molecular classification of zebrafish retinal ganglion cells links genes to cell types to behavior

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Switching industrial production processes from complex to defined media: method development and case study using the example of Penicillium chrysogenum

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Filamentous fungi are versatile cell factories and widely used for the production of antibiotics, organic acids, enzymes and other industrially relevant compounds at large scale. As a fact, industrial production processes employing filamentous fungi are commonly based on complex raw materials. However, considerable lot-to-lot variability of complex media ingredients not only demands for exhaustive incoming components inspection and quality control, but unavoidably affects process stability and performance. Thus, switching bioprocesses from complex to defined media is highly desirable. RESULTS: This study presents a strategy for strain characterization of filamentous fungi on partly complex media using redundant mass balancing techniques. Applying the suggested method, interdependencies between specific biomass and side-product formation rates, production of fructooligosaccharides, specific complex media component uptake rates and fungal strains were revealed. A 2-fold increase of the overall penicillin space time yield and a 3-fold increase in the maximum specific penicillin formation rate were reached in defined media compared to complex media. CONCLUSIONS: The newly developed methodology enabled fast characterization of two different industrial Penicillium chrysogenum candidate strains on complex media based on specific complex media component uptake kinetics and identification of the most promising strain for switching the process from complex to defined conditions. Characterization at different complex/defined media ratios using only a limited number of analytical methods allowed maximizing the overall industrial objectives of increasing both, method throughput and the generation of scientific process understanding.     

Elektronenmikroskopische Untersuchung zur Feinstruktur der endotrophen Tabakmykorrhiza

Zusammenfassung 1. Es wurde die Ultrastruktur der endotrophen Tabakmykorrhiza untersucht. 2. Wie bei den meisten obligaten und gewissen nicht obligaten Parasiten wird in dieser Pilz-Wirt-Gemeinschaft bei der Penetration eine Papille gebildet. Wie dort sind die intracellulären Stadien durch eine extrahaustoriale Matrix und extrahaustoriale Membran vom Wirtsprotoplasten getrennt. Der Pilz bildet schließlich Verzweigungen, die sog. Arbuskeln. Der Pilzinhalt wird vom Wirt resorbiert. Als Reste verbleiden die von extrahaustorialem Matrix-Material umgebenen, kompakte Klumpen bildenden Pilzwände im Wirtscytoplasma. 4. Im Arbuskelstadium bildet der Pilz komplette Septen und ist somit wahrscheinlich gegen völlige und schnelle Degeneration geschützt. 5. Als Reaktion auf den Pilzbefall kommt es zu einer Vermehrung des Wirtscytoplasmas und zu einer Akkumulierung von Organellen in der Nachbarschaft des Pilzes.

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Electron microscopy study on the fine structure of the endotrophic mycorrhiza of tobacco

Summary 1. The ultrastructure of the endotrophic mycorrhiza of tobacco was investigated. 2. During penetration of the host wall a papilla is formed as is observed in plants infected with obligate and certain non-obligate parasites. Similarly the intracellular stages of the fungus are separated from host protoplast by an extrahaustorial matrix and extrahaustorial membrane. 3. The fungus finally produces arbuscules (branching of haustoria). The content of the fungus is completely absorbed by the host. The remaining fungal walls form compact clusters in the host cytoplasm, which are surrounded by matrix material. 4. In the arbuscule stage the fungus forms complete septa and probably in this way is protected from complete and quick degeneration by the host. 5. The host reaction to the infection is an increase in host cytoplasm and an accumulation of organelles near the fungus.

     

Comparison of data science workflows for root cause analysis of bioprocesses

Root cause analysis (RCA) is one of the most prominent tools used to comprehensively evaluate a biopharmaceutical production process. Despite of its widespread use in industry, the Food and Drug Administration has observed a lot of unsuitable approaches for RCAs within the last years. The reasons for those unsuitable approaches are the use of incorrect variables during the analysis and the lack in process understanding, which impede correct model interpretation. Two major approaches to perform RCAs are currently dominating the chemical and pharmaceutical industry: raw data analysis and feature-based approach. Both techniques are shown to be able to identify the significant variables causing the variance of the response. Although they are different in data unfolding, the same tools as principal component analysis and partial least square regression are used in both concepts. Within this article we demonstrate the strength and weaknesses of both approaches. We proved that a fusion of both results in a comprehensive and effective workflow, which not only increases better process understanding. We demonstrate this workflow along with an example. Hence, the presented workflow allows to save analysis time and to reduce the effort of data mining by easy detection of the most important variables within the given dataset. Subsequently, the final obtained process knowledge can be translated into new hypotheses, which can be tested experimentally and thereby lead to effectively improving process robustness.