The adaptation process of a species to a new environment is a significant area of study in biology. As part of natural selection, adaptation is a mutation process which improves survival skills and reproductive functions of species. Here, we investigate this process by combining the idea of incompetence with evolutionary game theory. In the sense of evolution, incompetence and training can be interpreted as a special learning process. With focus on the social side of the problem, we analyze the influence of incompetence on behavior of species. We introduce an incompetence parameter into a learning function in a single-population game and analyze its effect on the outcome of the replicator dynamics. Incompetence can change the outcome of the game and its dynamics, indicating its significance within what are inherently imperfect natural systems.
Export of cell surface pilins in Gram-positive bacteria likely occurs by the translocation of unfolded precursor polypeptides; however, how the unfolded pilins gain their native conformation is presently unknown. Here, we present physiological studies to demonstrate that the FimA pilin of Actinomyces oris contains two disulfide bonds. Alanine substitution of cysteine residues forming the C-terminal disulfide bridge abrogates pilus assembly, in turn eliminating biofilm formation and polymicrobial interaction. Transposon mutagenesis of A. oris yielded a mutant defective in adherence to Streptococcus oralis, and revealed the essential role of a vitamin K epoxide reductase (VKOR) gene in pilus assembly. Targeted deletion of vkor results in the same defects, which are rescued by ectopic expression of VKOR, but not a mutant containing an alanine substitution in its conserved CXXC motif. Depletion of mdbA, which encodes a membrane-bound thiol-disulfide oxidoreductase, abrogates pilus assembly and alters cell morphology. Remarkably, overexpression of MdbA or a counterpart from Corynebacterium diphtheriae, rescues the Δvkor mutant. By alkylation assays, we demonstrate that VKOR is required for MdbA reoxidation. Furthermore, crystallographic studies reveal that A. oris MdbA harbors a thioredoxin-like fold with the conserved CXXC active site. Consistently, each MdbA enzyme catalyzes proper disulfide bond formation within FimA in vitro that requires the catalytic CXXC motif. Because the majority of signal peptide-containing proteins encoded by A. oris possess multiple Cys residues, we propose that MdbA and VKOR constitute a major folding machine for the secretome of this organism. This oxidative protein folding pathway may be a common feature in Actinobacteria. 相似文献
Assessment of non-HLA variants alongside standard HLA testing was previously shown to improve the identification of potential coeliac disease (CD) patients. We intended to identify new genetic variants associated with CD in the Polish population that would improve CD risk prediction when used alongside HLA haplotype analysis. DNA samples of 336 CD and 264 unrelated healthy controls were used to create DNA pools for a genome wide association study (GWAS). GWAS findings were validated with individual HLA tag single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) typing of 473 patients and 714 healthy controls. Association analysis using four HLA-tagging SNPs showed that, as was found in other populations, positive predicting genotypes (HLA-DQ2.5/DQ2.5, HLA-DQ2.5/DQ2.2, and HLA-DQ2.5/DQ8) were found at higher frequencies in CD patients than in healthy control individuals in the Polish population. Both CD-associated SNPs discovered by GWAS were found in the CD susceptibility region, confirming the previously-determined association of the major histocompatibility (MHC) region with CD pathogenesis. The two most significant SNPs from the GWAS were rs9272346 (HLA-dependent; localized within 1 Kb of DQA1) and rs3130484 (HLA-independent; mapped to MSH5). Specificity of CD prediction using the four HLA-tagging SNPs achieved 92.9%, but sensitivity was only 45.5%. However, when a testing combination of the HLA-tagging SNPs and the MSH5 SNP was used, specificity decreased to 80%, and sensitivity increased to 74%. This study confirmed that improvement of CD risk prediction sensitivity could be achieved by including non-HLA SNPs alongside HLA SNPs in genetic testing. 相似文献
Ab initio calculations have been carried out to characterize the structure and energetics of a silver(I) complex with the
cytosine-adenine DNA base pair and an aqua ligand in the coordination sphere of Ag. In addition, we have also studied analogous
complexes with Cu(I) and Au(I), and structures in which adenine has been replaced by purine in order to investigate the structural
role of the adenine amino group. The calculations revealed that all metal-modified structures are dominated by the metal-base
interactions, while the water-metal ion interaction and many-body interligand repulsion are less important contributions.
Nevertheless, the structural role of the water molecule in the complex is quite apparent and in agreement with an earlier
crystallographic study. The metal-modified base pairs exhibit large conformational flexibility toward out-of-plane motions
(propeller twist and buckle), comparable or, in some cases, even larger than that observed in the base pairs without metal
ions. All structures have been optimized within the Hartree-Fock approximation, while interaction energies were evaluated
with the inclusion of electron correlation.
Received: 25 March 1999 / Accepted: 10 June 1999 相似文献
The ubiquitous mitochondrial J-protein Jac1, called HscB in Escherichia coli, and its partner Hsp70 play a critical role in the transfer of Fe-S clusters from the scaffold protein Isu to recipient proteins. Biochemical results from eukaryotic and prokaryotic systems indicate that formation of the Jac1-Isu complex is important for both targeting of the Isu for Hsp70 binding and stimulation of Hsp70's ATPase activity. However, in apparent contradiction, we previously reported that an 8-fold decrease in Jac1's affinity for Isu1 is well tolerated in vivo, raising the question as to whether the Jac1:Isu interaction actually plays an important biological role. Here, we report the determination of the structure of Jac1 from Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Taking advantage of this information and recently published data from the homologous bacterial system, we determined that a total of eight surface-exposed residues play a role in Isu binding, as assessed by a set of biochemical assays. A variant having alanines substituted for these eight residues was unable to support growth of a jac1-Δ strain. However, replacement of three residues caused partial loss of function, resulting in a significant decrease in the Jac1:Isu1 interaction, a slow growth phenotype, and a reduction in the activity of Fe-S cluster-containing enzymes. Thus, we conclude that the Jac1:Isu1 interaction plays an indispensable role in the essential process of mitochondrial Fe-S cluster biogenesis. 相似文献
In the present study, we have performed comparative analysis of different prenyllipids in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii cultures during high light stress under variety of conditions (presence of inhibitors, an uncoupler, heavy water). The obtained results indicate that plastoquinol is more active than α-tocopherol in scavenging of singlet oxygen generated in photosystem II. Besides plastoquinol, also its oxidized form, plastoquinone shows antioxidant action during the stress conditions, resulting in formation of plastoquinone-C, whose level can be regarded as an indicator of singlet oxygen oxidative stress in vivo. The pronounced stimulation of α-tocopherol consumption and α-tocopherolquinone formation by an uncoupler, FCCP, together with the results of additional model system studies, led to the suggestion that α-tocopherol can be recycled in thylakoid membranes under high light conditions from 8a-hydroperoxy-α-tocopherone, the primary oxidation product of α-tocopherol by singlet oxygen. 相似文献
The redox state of plastoquinone-pool in chloroplasts is crucial for driving many responses to variable environment, from short-term effects to those at the gene expression level. In the present studies, we showed for the first time that the plastoquinone-pool undergoes relatively fast oxidation during high light stress of low light-grown Arabidopsis plants. This oxidation was not caused by photoinhibition of photosystem II, but mainly by singlet oxygen generated in photosystem II and non-photochemical quenching in light harvesting complex antenna of the photosystem, as revealed in experiments with a singlet oxygen scavenger and with Arabidopsis npq4 mutant. The latter mechanism suppresses the influx of electrons to the plastoquinone-pool preventing its excessive reduction. The obtained results are of crucial importance in light of the function of the redox state of the plastoquinone-pool in triggering many high light-stimulated physiological responses of plants. 相似文献