An ecological perspective on marine reserves in prey–predator dynamics

This paper describes a prey–predator type fishery model with prey dispersal in a two-patch environment, one of which is a free fishing zone and other is a protected zone. The existence of possible steady states, along with their local stability, is discussed. A geometric approach is used to derive the sufficient conditions for global stability of the system at the positive equilibrium. Relative size of the reserve is considered as control in order to study optimal sustainable yield policy. Subsequently, the optimal system is derived and then solved numerically using an iterative method with Runge–Kutta fourth-order scheme. Numerical simulations are carried out to illustrate the importance of marine reserve in fisheries management. It is noted that the marine protected area enables us to protect and restore multi-species ecosystem. The results illustrate that dynamics of the system is extremely interesting if simultaneous effects of a regulatory mechanism like marine reserve is coupled with harvesting effort. It is observed that the migration of the resource, from protected area to unprotected area and vice versa, is playing an important role towards the standing stock assessment in both the areas which ultimately control the harvesting efficiency and enhance the fishing stock up to some extent.     

Shape-Induced Asymmetric Diffusion in Dendritic Spines Allows Efficient Synaptic AMPA Receptor Trapping

Dendritic spines are the primary postsynaptic sites of excitatory neurotransmission in the brain. They exhibit a remarkable morphological variety, ranging from thin protrusions, to stubby shapes, to bulbous mushroom shapes. The remodeling of spines is thought to regulate the strength of the synaptic connection, which depends vitally on the number and the spatial distribution of AMPA-type glutamate receptors (AMPARs). We present numerical and analytical analyses demonstrating that this shape strongly affects AMPAR diffusion. We report a pronounced suppression of the receptor exit rate out of spines with decreasing neck radius. Thus, mushroomlike spines become highly effective at retaining receptors in the spine head. Moreover, we show that the postsynaptic density further enhances receptor trapping, particularly in mushroomlike spines local exocytosis in the spine head, in contrast to release at the base, provides rapid and specific regulatory control of AMPAR concentration at synapses.     

Syntheses of lipophilic chalcones and their conformationally restricted analogues as antitubercular agents

Lipophilic chalcones and their conformationally restricted analogues were synthesized and evaluated for their antitubercular efficacy against Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Rv strain. Compounds 16, 24, 25a and 25c were found to be active MIC at 60, 30, 3.5 and 7.5 μg-mL^?1. In vitro cytotoxicity of compounds 16, 24, 25a, 25c and 26 in non-cancerous human epithelial kidney cell line (HEK-293) showed that most active compound 25a was approximately 2.85 times selective towards tubercular versus healthy cells whereas compound 24 was found to be 16 times selective.     

Benzimidazole-based antibacterial agents against Francisella tularensis

Francisella tularensis is a highly virulent pathogenic bacterium. In order to identify novel potential antibacterial agents against F. tularensis, libraries of trisubstituted benzimidazoles were screened against F. tularensis LVS strain. In a preliminary screening assay, remarkably, 23 of 2,5,6- and 2,5,7-trisubstituted benzimidazoles showed excellent activity exhibiting greater than 90% growth inhibition at 1 μg/mL. Among those hits, 21 compounds showed MIC₉₀ values in the range of 0.35–48.6 μg/mL after accurate MIC determination. In ex vivo efficacy assays, four of these compounds exhibited 2–3 log reduction in colony forming units (CFU) per mL at concentrations of 10 and 50 μg/mL.     

Total phenolics, flavonoids and antioxidant activity of Saptarangi (Salacia chinensis L.) fruit pulp

Salacia chinensis L. has various beneficial properties including antidiabetic and antioxidant activity. The S. chinensis fruit pulp (SCFP) was extracted with four different solvents (Methanol, ethanol, acetone and water) and was screened for total phenolic content (TPC), total flavonoid content (TFC) and antioxidant activity (AOA). The AOA was assessed by evaluating the 1, 1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) and metal chelating assay. Methanolic SCFP extract exhibited the highest phenolic content (3.20?±?0.12 mg GAE/g FW) whereas, ethanolic extract showed highest flavonoid content (0.31?±?0.68 mg RE/g FW). The methanolic extract possesses highest antioxidant activity towards DPPH (92.44 %), FRAP (1.939 O.D) and metal chelating activity (74.16 %). AOA (DPPH and FRAP) was significantly correlated with TPC. The results indicated that SCFP is a good natural source of antioxidant compounds for use in food and pharmaceutical industry.     

Atomistic details of effect of disulfide bond reduction on active site of Phytase B from Aspergillus niger: A MD Study

The molecular integrity of the active site of phytases from fungi is critical for maintaining phytase function as efficient catalytic machines. In this study, the molecular dynamics (MD) of two monomers of phytase B from Aspergillus niger, the disulfide intact monomer (NAP) and a monomer with broken disulfide bonds (RAP), were simulated to explore the conformational basis of the loss of catalytic activity when disulfide bonds are broken. The simulations indicated that the overall secondary and tertiary structures of the two monomers were nearly identical but differed in some crucial secondary–structural elements in the vicinity of the disulfide bonds and catalytic site. Disulfide bonds stabilize the β-sheet that contains residue Arg66 of the active site and destabilize the α-helix that contains the catalytic residue Asp319. This stabilization and destabilization lead to changes in the shape of the active–site pocket. Functionally important hydrogen bonds and atomic fluctuations in the catalytic pocket change during the RAP simulation. None of the disulfide bonds are in or near the catalytic pocket but are most likely essential for maintaining the native conformation of the catalytic site.

Abbreviations

PhyB - 2.5 pH acid phophatese from Aspergillus niger, NAP - disulphide intact monomer of Phytase B, RAP - disulphide reduced monomer of Phytase B, Rg - radius of gyration, RMSD - root mean square deviation, MD - molecular dynamics.     

Structure modeling and antidiabetic activity of a seed protein of Momordica charantia in non-obese diabetic (NOD) mice

Momordica charantia is a well known medicinal plant used in the traditional medicinal system for the treatment of various diseases including diabetes mellitus. Recently, a novel protein termed as ADMc1 from the seed extract of M. charantia has been identified and isolated showing significant antihyperglycemic activity in type 1 diabetic rats in which diabetes was induced. However, the structure of this protein has not yet been analyzed. Homology modeling approach was used to generate a high quality protein 3D structure for the amino acid sequence of the ADMc1 protein in this study. The comparative assessment of secondary structures revealed ADMc1 as an all-alpha helix protein with random coils. Tertiary structure predicted on the template structure of Napin of B. Napus (PDB ID: 1SM7) with which the ADMc1 showed significant sequence similarity, was validated using protein structure validation tools like PROCHECK, WHAT_CHECK, VERIFY3D and ProSA. Arrangement of disulfide bridges formed by cysteine residues were predicted by the Dianna 1.1 server. The presence of multiple disulfide bond confers the stable nature of the ADMc1 protein. Further, the biological activity of the ADMc1 was assessed in non-obese diabetic (NOD) mice which are spontaneous model of type 1 diabetes. Significant reduction in the blood glucose levels of NOD mice was observed up to 8 h post administration of the rADMc1 protein. Overall, the structural characterizations with antihyperglycemic activity of this seed protein of Momordica charantia demonstrate its potential as an antidiabetic agent.     

Minocycline,levodopa and MnTMPyP induced changes in the mitochondrial proteome profile of MPTP and maneb and paraquat mice models of Parkinson's disease

Mitochondrial dysfunction is the foremost perpetrator of the nigrostriatal dopaminergic neurodegeneration leading to Parkinson's disease (PD). However, the roles played by majority of the mitochondrial proteins in PD pathogenesis have not yet been deciphered. The present study investigated the effects of 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP) and combined maneb and paraquat on the mitochondrial proteome of the nigrostriatal tissues in the presence or absence of minocycline, levodopa and manganese (III) tetrakis (1-methyl-4-pyridyl) porphyrin (MnTMPyP). The differentially expressed proteins were identified and proteome profiles were correlated with the pathological and biochemical anomalies induced by MPTP and maneb and paraquat. MPTP altered the expression of twelve while combined maneb and paraquat altered the expression of fourteen proteins. Minocycline, levodopa and MnTMPyP, respectively, restored the expression of three, seven and eight proteins in MPTP and seven, eight and eight proteins in maneb- and paraquat-treated groups. Although levodopa and MnTMPyP rescued from MPTP- and maneb- and paraquat-mediated increase in the microglial activation and decrease in manganese-superoxide dismutase expression and complex I activity, dopamine content and number of dopaminergic neurons, minocycline defended mainly against maneb- and paraquat-mediated alterations. The results demonstrate that MPTP and combined maneb and paraquat induce mitochondrial dysfunction and microglial activation and alter the expression of a bunch of mitochondrial proteins leading to the nigrostriatal dopaminergic neurodegeneration and minocycline, levodopa or MnTMPyP variably offset scores of such changes.