Changes of 25-OH-Vitamin D during Overwintering at the German Antarctic Stations Neumayer II and III

Purpose

Humans in Antarctica face different environmental challenges, such as low ultra-violet radiation, which is crucial for vitamin D production in humans. Therefore we assessed changes in 25-OH-vitamin D serum concentration during 13 months of overwintering at the German Stations Neumayer II and III (2007–2012). We hypothesized that (i) 25-OH-vitamin D serum concentration would significantly decrease, (ii) changes would be affected by age, gender, baseline (i.e. pre-overwintering) fat mass, baseline 25-OH-vitamin D serum concentration, and station residence, and (iii) our results would not differ from similar previous studies in comparable high latitudes.

Materials & Methods

25-OH-vitamin D serum concentrations were determined before, after, and monthly during the campaigns from venous blood samples of n = 43 participants (28 men, 15 women). Baseline fat mass was determined via bio impedance analysis and body plethysmography. Data were analyzed for change over time, dependency on independent parameters, and after categorization for sufficiency (>50nmol/l), insufficiency (25-50nmol/l), and deficiency (<25nmol/l). Results were compared with data from similar previous studies.

Results

We found a significant decrease of 25-OH-vitamin D with dependency on month. Age, gender, fat mass, and station residence had no influence. Only baseline 25-OH-vitamin D serum concentrations significantly affected subsequent 25-OH-vitamin D values.

Conclusions

Overwinterings at the Antarctic German research stations Neumayer II and III are associated with a decrease in 25-OH-vitamin D serum concentrations, unaffected by age, gender, baseline fat mass, and station residence. Higher baseline vitamin D serum concentrations might protect from subsequent deficiencies. Residence at the Neumayer Stations may lead to lower vitamin D serum concentrations than found in other comparable high latitudes.     

Tau‐targeting passive immunization modulates aspects of pathology in tau transgenic mice

Immunization is increasingly recognized as a suitable therapeutic avenue for the treatment of neurological diseases such as Alzheimer's disease and other tauopathies. Tau is a key molecular player in these conditions and therefore represents an attractive target for passive immunization approaches. We performed such an approach in two independent tau transgenic mouse models of tauopathy, K369I tau transgenic K3 and P301L tau transgenic pR5 mice. The antibodies we used were either specific for full‐length tau or tau phosphorylated at serine 404 (pS404), a residue that forms part of the paired helical filament (PHF)‐1 phosphoepitope that characterizes tau neurofibrillary tangles in tauopathies. Although both pS404 antibodies had a similar affinity, they differed in isotype, and only passive immunization with the IgG2a/κ pS404‐specific antibody resulted in a lower tangle burden and reduced phosphorylation of tau at the PHF1 epitope in K3 mice. In pR5 mice, the same antibody led to a reduced phosphorylation of the pS422 and PHF1 epitopes of tau. In addition, histological sections of the hippocampal dentate gyrus of the immunized pR5 mice displayed reduced pS422 staining intensities. These results show that passive immunization targeting tau can modulate aspects of tau pathology in tau transgenic mouse models, in an antibody isotype‐specific manner.

     

Social preferences based on sexual attractiveness: a female strategy to reduce male sexual attention

Male sexual harassment of females is common across sexually reproducing species and can result in fitness costs to females. We hypothesized that females can reduce unwanted male attention by constructing a social niche where their female associates are more sexually attractive than themselves, thus influencing the decision-making of males to their advantage. We tested this hypothesis in the Trinidadian guppy (Poecilia reticulata), a species with high levels of male sexual harassment. First, we confirmed that non-receptive females were harassed less when they were paired with a more sexually attractive (receptive) female than with another non-receptive female. We then found that, indeed, females exploit this as a strategy to reduce sexual harassment; non-receptive females actively preferred to associate with receptive over non-receptive females. Importantly, when given access only to chemosensory cues, non-receptive females still showed this preference, suggesting that they use information from chemical cues to assess the sexual attractiveness of potential female partners. Receptive females in contrast showed no such preferences. Our results demonstrate that females can decrease male harassment by associating with females that are more sexually attractive than themselves and that they perform active partner choices based on this relative attractiveness. We propose that this strategy is likely to represent an important pathway by which females can construct social niches that influence the decision-making of others to their advantage; in this case, to reduce the sexual harassment they experience.     

Composting for avian influenza virus elimination

Effective sanitization is important in viral epizootic outbreaks to avoid further spread of the pathogen. This study examined thermal inactivation as a sanitizing treatment for manure inoculated with highly pathogenic avian influenza virus H7N1 and bacteriophages MS2 and 6. Rapid inactivation of highly pathogenic avian influenza virus H7N1 was achieved at both mesophilic (35°C) and thermophilic (45 and 55°C) temperatures. Similar inactivation rates were observed for bacteriophage 6, while bacteriophage MS2 proved too thermoresistant to be considered a valuable indicator organism for avian influenza virus during thermal treatments. Guidelines for treatment of litter in the event of emergency composting can be formulated based on the inactivation rates obtained in the study.     

Polymer recycling in aqueous two-phase extractions using thermoseparating ethylene oxide–propylene oxide copolymers

This is a study on the recovery and recycling of copolymer in aqueous two-phase systems containing random copolymers of ethylene oxide (EO) and propylene oxide (PO). The random copolymers separate from water solution when heated above the lower critical solution temperature (LCST). The primary phase systems were composed of EOPO copolymer and hydroxypropyl or hydroxyethyl starch. After phase separation the upper EOPO phase was removed and subjected to temperature induced phase separation. Copolymers with different EO/PO compositions have been investigated, EO50PO50 [50% EO and 50% PO (w/w)], EO30PO70 and EO20PO80. The temperature required for thermoseparation decreases when the PO content of the copolymer is increased. The effect on the recovery of copolymer after addition of salts, a second polymer or protein was investigated. The added components increased the recovery of copolymer after thermoseparation, e.g., increased the amount copolymer separated from the water phase after thermoseparation. Recycling of copolymer and measurements of polymer concentrations in the primary top and bottom phases after repeated recycling steps was performed. The fluctuation in polymer concentration of the phases was very small after recycling up to four times. Partitioning of the proteins BSA and lysozyme was studied in primary phase systems after recycling of copolymer. The partition coefficients of total protein and lysozyme was not significantly changed during recycling of copolymer. More than 90% of the copolymer could be recovered in the thermoseparation step by optimising the temperature and time for thermoseparation. In repeated phase partitionings in EOPO–starch systems the EO50PO50 copolymer could be recovered to 77% including losses in primary system and thermoseparation, which is equivalent to a total copolymer reuse of 4.3 times.     

Transmembrane nine proteins in yeast and Arabidopsis affect cellular metal contents without changing vacuolar morphology

Transmembrane nine (TM9) proteins are localized in the secretory pathway of eukaryotic cells and are involved in cell adhesion and phagocytosis. The mechanism by which TM9 proteins operate is, however, not well understood. Here we have utilized elemental profiling by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP‐MS) to further investigate the physiological function of TM9 proteins. Cellular copper contents in Saccharomyces cerevisiae varied depending on the presence of TM9 homologues from both yeast and Arabidopsis thaliana. A yeast tmn1–3 triple mutant lacking all three yeast endogenous TMNs showed altered metal homeostasis with a reduction in the cellular Cu contents to 25% of that in the wild‐type. Conversely, when TMN1 was overexpressed in yeast, cellular Cu concentrations were more than doubled. Both Tmn1p‐GFP and Tmn2p‐GFP fusion proteins localized to the tonoplast. Yeast vacuolar biogenesis was not affected by the lack or presence of TM9 proteins neither in the tmn1–3 triple mutant nor in TM9 overexpressing strains. Heterologous expression in yeast of AtTMN7, a TM9 homologue from Arabidopsis, affected Cu homeostasis similar to the overexpression of TMN1. In Arabidopsis, the two TM9 homologues AtTMN1 and AtTMN7 were ubiquitously expressed. AtTMN7 promoter constructs driving the expression of GFP showed elevated expression of AtTMN7 in the root elongation zone. It is concluded that TM9 homologues from S. cerevisiae and A. thaliana have the ability to affect the intracellular Cu balance. Tmn1p and Tmn2p operate from the yeast vacuolar membrane without influencing vacuolar biogenesis. A new physiological function of the TM9 family coupled to vacuolar Cu homeostasis is proposed.     

Identification of intracellular proteins associated with the EBV-encoded nuclear antigen 5 using an efficient TAP procedure and FT-ICR mass spectrometry

Epstein-Barr virus nuclear antigen 5 (EBNA5) is one of the first viral proteins detected after primary EBV infection and has been shown to be required for efficient transformation of B lymphocytes. EBNA5 is a protein that has many suggested functions but the underlying biology remains to be clarified. To gain further insight into the biological roles of the proposed multifunctional EBNA5, we isolated EBNA5 containing protein complexes using a modified tandem affinity purification (TAP) method and identified the protein components by LC-MS/MS analysis of tryptic digests on a LTQ-FT-ICR mass spectrometer. The modified TAP tag contained a Protein A domain and a StrepTagII sequence separated by two Tobacco Etch Virus protease cleavage sites and was fused to the C-terminus of EBNA5. Our results confirmed the wide applicability of this two-step affinity purification strategy for purification of protein complexes in mammalian cells. A total of 147 novel putative EBNA5 interaction partners were identified, 37 of which were validated with LC-MS/MS in split-tag experiments or in co-immuno precipitates from HEK293 cell extracts. This subgroup included the Bcl2-associated Athanogene 2 (BAG2) co-chaperone involved in protein folding and renaturation, the 26S proteasome subunit 2 involved in regulation of ubiquitin/proteasome protein degradation, and the heterogeneous ribonucleoprotein M (hnRNP M) involved in pre-mRNA processing. These EBNA5 interactors were further verified by co-immunoprecipitations from cell extracts of three EBV-positive lymphoblastoid lines. The combination of the Hsp70, Hsc70, BAG2 and 26S proteasome subunit 2 interactors suggests that EBNA5 might have a functional relationship with protein quality control systems that recognize proteins with abnormal structures and either refold them to normal conformation or target them for degradation. Our study also confirms previously identified interactors including HA95, Hsp70, Hsc70, Hsp27, HAX-1, Prolyl 4-hydroxylase, S3a, and alpha- and beta-tubulin.