Hydroxycarbamide Decreases Sickle Reticulocyte Adhesion to Resting Endothelium by Inhibiting Endothelial Lutheran/Basal Cell Adhesion Molecule (Lu/BCAM) through Phosphodiesterase 4A Activation

Vaso-occlusive crises are the main acute complication in sickle cell disease. They are initiated by abnormal adhesion of circulating blood cells to vascular endothelium of the microcirculation. Several interactions involving an intricate network of adhesion molecules have been described between sickle red blood cells and the endothelial vascular wall. We have shown previously that young sickle reticulocytes adhere to resting endothelial cells through the interaction of α₄β₁ integrin with endothelial Lutheran/basal cell adhesion molecule (Lu/BCAM). In the present work, we investigated the functional impact of endothelial exposure to hydroxycarbamide (HC) on this interaction using transformed human bone marrow endothelial cells and primary human pulmonary microvascular endothelial cells. Adhesion of sickle reticulocytes to HC-treated endothelial cells was decreased despite the HC-derived increase of Lu/BCAM expression. This was associated with decreased phosphorylation of Lu/BCAM and up-regulation of the cAMP-specific phosphodiesterase 4A expression. Our study reveals a novel mechanism for HC in endothelial cells where it could modulate the function of membrane proteins through the regulation of phosphodiesterase expression and cAMP-dependent signaling pathways.     

GO Explorer: A gene-ontology tool to aid in the interpretation of shotgun proteomics data

Background  

Spectral counting is a shotgun proteomics approach comprising the identification and relative quantitation of thousands of proteins in complex mixtures. However, this strategy generates bewildering amounts of data whose biological interpretation is a challenge.     

Unanticipated Effects of Stand Dynamism on Amazonian Tree Diversity

We assessed a general hypothesis of tropical tree diversity that predicts that species richness will be positively correlated with stand dynamism. Our analysis was based one of the largest and longest-running datasets on Amazonian trees (≥10 cm diameter at breast height), with data collected over a 23-yr period within 66 1 ha plots spanning a large (1000 km²) landscape. Within these plots, maximum tree-species richness (329 species/ha) and Fisher's α values (227.5) were among the highest ever recorded. Contrary to the diversity-dynamism concept, tree species richness in our landscape was significantly and negatively associated with stand dynamism (measured as the mean rate of annual tree turnover). Because of this unexpected finding, we critically re-evaluated the relationship between stand dynamism and tree diversity across the Amazon basin and the tropics as a whole. With the inclusion of additional data we found that the relationship between stand dynamism and tree diversity becomes non-significant at larger spatial scales.     

<Emphasis Type="Italic">Pseudomonas aeruginosa</Emphasis> Cystic Fibrosis isolates of similar RAPD genotype exhibit diversity in biofilm forming ability <Emphasis Type="Italic">in vitro</Emphasis>

Background  

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is considered to grow in a biofilm in cystic fibrosis (CF) chronic lung infections. Bacterial cell motility is one of the main factors that have been connected with P. aeruginosa adherence to both biotic and abiotic surfaces. In this investigation, we employed molecular and microscopic methods to determine the presence or absence of motility in P. aeruginosa CF isolates, and statistically correlated this with their biofilm forming ability in vitro.     

The effects of an experimental drought on the ecophysiology and fruiting phenology of a tropical rainforest palm

据预测,人为气候变化将季节性地增加平均温度和降雨。热带雨林物种将如何应对这种气候变化仍不确定。本研究分析了对澳大利 亚昆士兰北部丹特里雨林的一种澳大利亚特有棕榈(Normambya normanbyi)进行4年降雨实验的影响,目的是了解模拟降雨减少对物种生理 过程和果实物候的影响。我们考察了这种本地丰富的棕榈的果实物候和生理生态学特性,以确定该物种对干旱的生态响应。2015年5月, 通过排涝实验,降低了约30%的土壤水分有效性。我们总共监测了8年(2009–2018年)的月度果实活性,包括排涝实验开始之前的4年。在最 近几年的研究中,我们测量了干、湿两季幼嫩和成熟叶片的光合速率、气孔导度和碳稳定同位素等生理参数。研究结果表明,所有棕榈树 的月度果实活性主要受光周期、平均太阳辐射和平均温度的驱动。然而,暴露于较低土壤水分的植株,其果实活性、光合速率和气孔导度 均显著下降。我们还发现这些生理表现受到排涝实验、季节以及两者的相互作用的影响。2018年观察到排涝实验的棕榈的果实活力有所恢复,土壤浅层水分也有所增加(与前几年相比)。我们的研究结果表明,像N. normanbyi 这样的棕榈树对未来的气候变化非常敏感,建议对其 进行长期监测,以确定其对种群规模的影响。     

Habitat Fragmentation and Ecological Traits Influence the Prevalence of Avian Blood Parasites in a Tropical Rainforest Landscape

In the tropical rainforests of northern Australia, we investigated the effects of habitat fragmentation and ecological parameters on the prevalence of blood-borne parasites (Plasmodium and Haemoproteus) in bird communities. Using mist-nets on forest edges and interiors, we sampled bird communities across six study sites: 3 large fragments (20–85 ha) and 3 continuous-forest sites. From 335 mist-net captures, we recorded 28 bird species and screened 299 bird samples with PCR to amplify and detect target DNA. Of the 28 bird species sampled, 19 were infected with Plasmodium and/or Haemoproteus and 9 species were without infection. Over one third of screened birds (99 individuals) were positive for Haemoproteus and/or Plasmodium. In forest fragments, bird capture rates were significantly higher than in continuous forests, but bird species richness did not differ. Unexpectedly, we found that the prevalence of the dominant haemosporidian infection, Haemoproteus, was significantly higher in continuous forest than in habitat fragments. Further, we found that ecological traits such as diet, foraging height, habitat specialisation and distributional ranges were significantly associated with blood-borne infections.