Mutation in the VP2 gene of P1-2A capsid protein increases the thermostability of virus-like particles of foot-and-mouth disease virus serotype O

Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is an economically important, global disease of cloven-hoofed animals. The conventional vaccine could bring down the incidence of disease in many parts of the world but has many limitations and in India, the disease is enzootic. More promisingly, the alternate vaccine candidates, virus-like particles (VLPs) are as immunogenic as a native virus but are more labile to heat than the live virus capsids. To produce stable VLPs, a single amino acid residue was mutated at 93 and 98 positions at VP2 inter-pentamer region of the P1-2A gene of FMD virus serotype O (IND/R2/75). The mutated capsid protein was expressed in insect cells and characterized for temperature and varying pH stability. Out of S93Y, S93F, S93C, S93H, and Y98F mutant, VLPs, S93Y, S93F, and Y98F showed improved stability at 37 °C for 75 days compared to wild capsid, which was evaluated by sandwich ELISA. Further, the stability analysis of purified VLPs either by differential scanning fluorescence (DSF) stability assay at different temperatures and pH conditions or by dissociation kinetics showed that the Y98F mutant VLPs were more stable than S93Y, S93F, S93C, and S93H mutant and wild-type VLPs. Immunization of guinea pigs with Y98F VLPs induced neutralizing antibodies and 60% of the animals were protected from the FMDV “O” 100 GPID₅₀ challenge virus.

     

Light-Induced Changes in Phosphorylation Status of Low Molecular Weight Wheat Nuclear Proteins

A large number of polypeptides were phosphorylated when in vitro protein phosphorylation was carried out in nuclei isolated from dark-grown seedlings. For studying the effect of light, dark-grown seedlings were exposed to light and the isolated nuclear proteins phosphorylated in vitro. Although 4 h of white light was sufficient to alter the phosphorylation status of at least two polypeptides of 19 and 17 kD but the effect of light was more pronounced after irradiation for 8 h or more, leading to virtual disappearance of a 19 kD and emergence of a 17 kD phosphopolypeptide. Studies using norflurazon, a bleaching herbicide, indicate that, in addition to 19 and 17 kD phosphopolypeptides, another 21 kD phosphopolypeptide may be involved in the de-etiolation process. However, the nature of the photoreceptor involved in these light-induced changes in nuclear protein phosphorylation remains to be established.     

Epigenetic Activation of Antibacterial Property of an Endophytic Streptomyces coelicolor Strain AZRA 37 and Identification of the Induced Protein Using MALDI TOF MS/MS

The endophytic Streptomyces coelicolor strain AZRA 37 was isolated from the surface sterilized root of Azadirachta indica A. Juss., commonly known as neem plant in India. Since only a few reports are available regarding epigenetic modulations of microbial entities, S. coelicolor was treated with different concentrations of 5-azacytidine for this purpose and evaluated for its antibacterial potential against five human pathogenic bacteria (Aeromonas hydrophila IMS/GN11, Enterococcus faecalis IMS/GN7, Salmonella typhi MTCC 3216, Shigella flexneri ATCC 12022 and Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 25923). The crude extract obtained from cultures treated with 25 μM concentration of 5-azacytidine, was found effective against all five pathogenic bacteria tested while the untreated control was only active against 3 pathogenic bacteria. HPLC analysis of crude compounds from treated cultures showed a greater number of compounds than that of the control. Extraction of whole cell protein and its SDS PAGE analysis showed an additional major protein band in 25 μM 5-azacytidine treated culture and MALDI TOF MS/MS analysis revealed that this protein belongs to the porin family.     

Zinc Levels Modulate Lifespan through Multiple Longevity Pathways in Caenorhabditis elegans

Zinc is an essential trace metal that has integral roles in numerous biological processes, including enzymatic function, protein structure, and cell signaling pathways. Both excess and deficiency of zinc can lead to detrimental effects on development and metabolism, resulting in abnormalities and disease. We altered the zinc balance within Caenorhabditis elegans to examine how changes in zinc burden affect longevity and healthspan in an invertebrate animal model. We found that increasing zinc levels in vivo with excess dietary zinc supplementation decreased the mean and maximum lifespan, whereas reducing zinc levels in vivo with a zinc-selective chelator increased the mean and maximum lifespan in C. elegans. We determined that the lifespan shortening effects of excess zinc required expression of DAF-16, HSF-1 and SKN-1 proteins, whereas the lifespan lengthening effects of the reduced zinc may be partially dependent upon this set of proteins. Furthermore, reducing zinc levels led to greater nuclear localization of DAF-16 and enhanced dauer formation compared to controls, suggesting that the lifespan effects of zinc are mediated in part by the insulin/IGF-1 pathway. Additionally, zinc status correlated with several markers of healthspan in worms, including proteostasis, locomotion and thermotolerance, with reduced zinc levels always associated with improvements in function. Taken together, these data support a role for zinc in regulating both development and lifespan in C. elegans, and that suggest that regulation of zinc homeostasis in the worm may be an example of antagonistic pleiotropy.     

Dynamics of Physical Interaction between HIV-1 Nef and ASK1: Identifying the Interacting Motif(S)

FasL mediated preferential apoptosis of bystander CTLs while protection of infected CD4⁺T cells remains one of the hallmarks of immune evasion during HIV infection. The property of infected host cells to evade cell-autonomous apoptosis emanates from ability of HIV-1Nef -protein to physically interact with ASK-1 and thereby inhibit its enzymatic activity. The specific domains of HIV-1Nef through which it may interact with ASK1 and thereby impair the ASK1 activity remain unidentified so far and represent a major challenge towards developing clear understanding about the dynamics of this interaction. Using mammalian two hybrid screen in association with site directed mutagenesis and competitive inhibitor peptides, we identified constituent minimal essential domain (152 DEVGEANN 159) through which HIV-1Nef interacts with ASK1 and inhibits its function. Furthermore our study also unravels a novel alternate mechanism underlying HIV-1 Nef mediated ASK1 functional modulation, wherein by potentiating the inhibitory ser⁹⁶⁷ phosphorylation of ASK1, HIV-1Nef negatively modulated ASK1function.     

Genome Sequence of Acinetobacter sp. Strain HA, Isolated from the Gut of the Polyphagous Insect Pest Helicoverpa armigera

In this study, Acinetobacter sp. strain HA was isolated from the midgut of a fifth-instar larva of Helicoverpa armigera. Here, we report the draft genome sequence (3,125,085 bp) of this strain that consists of 102 contigs, 2,911 predicted coding sequences, and a G+C content of 41%.     

The first draft of the pigeonpea genome sequence

Pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan) is an important grain legume of the Indian subcontinent, South-East Asia and East Africa. More than eighty five percent of the world pigeonpea is produced and consumed in India where it is a key crop for food and nutritional security of the people. Here we present the first draft of the genome sequence of a popular pigeonpea variety ??Asha??. The genome was assembled using long sequence reads of 454 GS-FLX sequencing chemistry with mean read lengths of >550?bp and >10-fold genome coverage, resulting in 510,809,477?bp of high quality sequence. Total 47,004 protein coding genes and 12,511 transposable elements related genes were predicted. We identified 1,213 disease resistance/defense response genes and 152 abiotic stress tolerance genes in the pigeonpea genome that make it a hardy crop. In comparison to soybean, pigeonpea has relatively fewer number of genes for lipid biosynthesis and larger number of genes for cellulose synthesis. The sequence contigs were arranged in to 59,681 scaffolds, which were anchored to eleven chromosomes of pigeonpea with 347 genic-SNP markers of an intra-species reference genetic map. Eleven pigeonpea chromosomes showed low but significant synteny with the twenty chromosomes of soybean. The genome sequence was used to identify large number of hypervariable ??Arhar?? simple sequence repeat (HASSR) markers, 437 of which were experimentally validated for PCR amplification and high rate of polymorphism among pigeonpea varieties. These markers will be useful for fingerprinting and diversity analysis of pigeonpea germplasm and molecular breeding applications. This is the first plant genome sequence completed entirely through a network of Indian institutions led by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research and provides a valuable resource for the pigeonpea variety improvement.     

Validation of housekeeping genes as internal control for studying gene expression in rice by quantitative real-time PCR

For accurate and reliable gene expression results, normalization of real-time PCR data is required against a control gene, which displays highly uniform expression in living organisms during various phases of development and under different environmental conditions. We assessed the gene expression of 10 frequently used housekeeping genes, including 18S rRNA, 25S rRNA, UBC, UBQ5, UBQ10, ACT11, GAPDH, eEF-1alpha, eIF-4a, and beta-TUB, in a diverse set of 25 rice samples. Their expression varied considerably in different tissue samples analyzed. The expression of UBQ5 and eEF-1alpha was most stable across all the tissue samples examined. However, 18S and 25S rRNA exhibited most stable expression in plants grown under various environmental conditions. Also, a set of two genes was found to be better as control for normalization of the data. The expression of these genes (with more uniform expression) can be used for normalization of real-time PCR results for gene expression studies in a wide variety of samples in rice.