Molecular characterization of an elicitor-responsive Armadillo repeat gene (GhARM) from cotton (Gossypium hirsutum)

Only a few Armadillo (ARM) repeat proteins have been characterized in plants where they appear to have diverse functions, including the regulation of defence responses. In this study, the identification, cloning and characterization of a gene, encoding an ARM repeat protein (GhARM), is described. GhARM exists as multiple copies in cotton, with an 1713 bp ORF encoding 570 amino acids. The predicted protein contains three consecutive ARM repeats within an Armadillo-type fold, with no other distinguishing domains. Sequence alignments and phylogenetic analysis revealed that GhARM has a high homology with other ARM proteins in plants. The predicted three dimensional model of GhARM displayed a characteristic right-handed superhelical twist. In silico analysis of the promoter sequence revealed that it contains several defence- and hormone-responsive cis-regulatory elements. Expression of GhARM was significantly down-regulated in response to treatment with a V. dahliae elicitor suggesting that GhARM may function as a negative-regulator of cotton defence signalling against V. dahliae. To date, GhARM is the only ARM repeat gene that has been completely sequenced and characterized in cotton.     

Unbiased Selective Isolation of Protein N-terminal Peptides from Complex Proteome Samples Using Phospho Tagging (PTAG) and TiO2-based Depletion

A positional proteomics strategy for global N-proteome analysis is presented based on phospho tagging (PTAG) of internal peptides followed by depletion by titanium dioxide (TiO(2)) affinity chromatography. Therefore, N-terminal and lysine amino groups are initially completely dimethylated with formaldehyde at the protein level, after which the proteins are digested and the newly formed internal peptides modified with the PTAG reagent glyceraldhyde-3-phosphate in nearly perfect yields (> 99%). The resulting phosphopeptides are depleted through binding onto TiO(2), keeping exclusively a set of N-acetylated and/or N-dimethylated terminal peptides for analysis by liquid chromatography-tandem MS. Analysis of peptides derivatized with differentially labeled isotopic analogs of the PTAG reagent revealed a high depletion efficiency (> 95%). The method enabled identification of 753 unique N-terminal peptides (428 proteins) in N. meningitidis and 928 unique N-terminal peptides (572 proteins) in S. cerevisiae. These included verified neo-N termini from subcellular-relocalized membrane and mitochondrial proteins. The presented PTAG approach is therefore a novel, versatile, and robust method for mass spectrometry-based N-proteome analysis and identification of protease-generated cleavage products.     

Temporal Expectation and Attention Jointly Modulate Auditory Oscillatory Activity in the Beta Band

The neural response to a stimulus is influenced by endogenous factors such as expectation and attention. Current research suggests that expectation and attention exert their effects in opposite directions, where expectation decreases neural activity in sensory areas, while attention increases it. However, expectation and attention are usually studied either in isolation or confounded with each other. A recent study suggests that expectation and attention may act jointly on sensory processing, by increasing the neural response to expected events when they are attended, but decreasing it when they are unattended. Here we test this hypothesis in an auditory temporal cueing paradigm using magnetoencephalography in humans. In our study participants attended to, or away from, tones that could arrive at expected or unexpected moments. We found a decrease in auditory beta band synchrony to expected (versus unexpected) tones if they were unattended, but no difference if they were attended. Modulations in beta power were already evident prior to the expected onset times of the tones. These findings suggest that expectation and attention jointly modulate sensory processing.     

Telomerase Activity Impacts on Epstein-Barr Virus Infection of AGS Cells

The Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is transmitted from host-to-host via saliva and is associated with epithelial malignancies including nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) and some forms of gastric carcinoma (GC). Nevertheless, EBV does not transform epithelial cells in vitro where it is rapidly lost from infected primary epithelial cells or epithelial tumor cells. Long-term infection by EBV, however, can be established in hTERT-immortalized nasopharyngeal epithelial cells. Here, we hypothesized that increased telomerase activity in epithelial cells enhances their susceptibility to infection by EBV. Using HONE-1, AGS and HEK293 cells we generated epithelial model cell lines with increased or suppressed telomerase activity by stable ectopic expression of hTERT or of a catalytically inactive, dominant negative hTERT mutant. Infection experiments with recombinant prototypic EBV (rB95.8), recombinant NPC EBV (rM81) with increased epithelial cell tropism compared to B95.8, or recombinant B95.8 EBV with BZLF1-knockout that is not able to undergo lytic replication, revealed that infection frequencies positively correlate with telomerase activity in AGS cells but also partly depend on the cellular background. AGS cells with increased telomerase activity showed increased expression mainly of latent EBV genes, suggesting that increased telomerase activity directly acts on the EBV infection of epithelial cells by facilitating latent EBV gene expression early upon virus inoculation. Thus, our results indicate that infection of epithelial cells by EBV is a very selective process involving, among others, telomerase activity and cellular background to allow for optimized host-to-host transmission via saliva.     

A comparative study of byssogenesis on zebra and quagga mussels: the effects of water temperature, salinity and light-dark cycle

The quagga mussel (Dreissena rostriformis bugensis) and zebra mussel (Dreissena polymorpha) are invasive freshwater bivalves in Europe and North America. The distribution range of both Dreissena species is still expanding and both species cause major biofouling and ecological effects, in particular when they invade new areas. In order to assess the effect of temperature, salinity and light on the initial byssogenesis of both species, 24 h re-attachment experiments in standing water were conducted. At a water temperature of 25°C and a salinity of 0.2 psu, the rate of byssogenesis of D. polymorpha was significantly higher than that of D. rostriformis bugensis. In addition, byssal thread production by the latter levelled out between 15°C and 25°C. The rate of byssogenesis at temperatures<25°C was similar for both species. Neither species produced any byssal threads at salinities of 4 psu or higher. At a salinity of 1 psu and a water temperature of 15°C, D. polymorpha produced significantly more byssal threads than D. rostriformis bugensis. There was no significant effect of the length of illumination on the byssogenesis of either species. Overall, D. polymorpha produced slightly more byssal threads than D. rostriformis bugensis at almost all experimental conditions in 24 h re-attachment experiments, but both species had essentially similar initial re-attachment abilities. The data imply that D. rostriformis bugensis causes biofouling problems identical to those of D. polymorpha.     

Changes in lipid, protein and pigment concentrations in nitrogen-stressed Chlorella minutissima cultures

Many changes occur in the biochemical composition of microalgae in response to stress conditions. In the present study, two nitrogen-stressed Chlorella minutissima strains (MACC 360 and 452) were placed in media containing a range of nitrogen concentrations (7–700?mg?L^?1 N). Biomass, chlorophyll a and b, carotenoid, protein and lipid concentrations were monitored over 15?days. There was lower biomass accumulation in nitrogen-deficient treatments while lipid yields increased to 40–46% DW in response to nitrogen deficiency. Chlorophyll concentrations initially recovered in response to the nitrogen spike with maximum concentrations recorded on days?6–8 and decreased thereafter as nitrogen became limiting. In comparison, proteins recovered faster with maximum concentrations recorded on day?4. Carotenoid concentrations did not increase in response to the nitrogen spike.     

Estimation of shadow prices of soil organic carbon depletion and freshwater depletion for use in LCA

The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment - The interpretation of differences between alternative systems in life cycle assessment (LCA) can be problematic when different impact categories...     

Finding a most parsimonious or likely tree in a network with respect to an alignment

Journal of Mathematical Biology - Phylogenetic networks are often constructed by merging multiple conflicting phylogenetic signals into a directed acyclic graph. It is interesting to explore...     

Applying a socio-ecological green network framework to Xi’an City,China

Landscape and Ecological Engineering - Green–blue space loss and fragmentation are particularly acute in Chinese cities due to rapid urbanization, large ring-road system and the following...