Leaf glandular trichomes in Empetrum nigrum: morphology,histochemistry, ultrastructure and secondary metabolites

The morphology, histochemistry and ultrastructure of the glandular trichomes on Empetrumnigrum leaves have been studied and more than a third of the metabolites were identified. Samples of the leaves were fixed and processed for light and electron microscopy. Glandular trichomes are situated on the inner surface of the rolled leaves. They have a clavate head and a short stalk. Histochemical tests and fluorescent microscopy demonstrate differentiated staining of the various cell types in the glandular trichome for proteins, pectins, lipids, tannins and phenylpropanoids. During secretion, the secretory cells contain rough and smooth endoplasmic reticulum, Golgi stacks with large vesicles, diversiform leucoplasts in contact with a reticular sheath and opaque deposits in the vacuoles. There are ultrastructural and functional differences between the secretory cells in the trichome head: synthesis of hydrophilic substances predominately occurs in the upper and middle secretory cells, whereas synthesis of lipophilic compounds takes place in the middle and lower secretory cells. Gas chromatography–mass spectrometry was used to determine the content of metabolites in the methanol extracts from the leaves. Many phenolic compounds (phenolic acids, bibenzyls, catechins, flavanones and flavan‐3‐ols) as well as several terpenoids were found. Two chalcones (2′,4′‐dimethoxydihydrochalcone and 2′,4′,6′‐trihydroxydihydrochalcone), one bibenzyl (batatasin III), one flavanone (7‐hydroxyflavanone) and 8 terpenoids (including phytol, α‐tocopherol, ß‐sitosterol, α‐amyrin, uvaol, oleanolic acid, ursolic acid and dehydroursolic acid) were identified in E. nigrum leaf extracts. The total yield of phenolic compounds is five to six times higher than the yield of terpenoids. It has been established that chalcones have no hydroxyl groups in ring B whereas bibenzyls have a hydroxyl group in the 3‐position in ring B. On the basis of the histochemistry, fluorescent microscopy, ultrastructure and chemical analysis, it may be concluded that synthesis and accumulation of phenolic substances and terpenoids takes place in the clavate glandular trichomes. Secondary metabolites synthesized in the trichomes protect leaf tissues from viruses, bacteria and pathogenic fungi.     

Matrix proteins of enveloped viruses: a case study of Influenza A virus M1 protein

Influenza A virus, a member of the Orthomyxoviridae family of enveloped viruses, is one of the human and animal top killers, and its structure and components are therefore extensively studied during the last decades. The most abundant component, M1 matrix protein, forms a matrix layer (scaffold) under the viral lipid envelope, and the functional roles as well as structural peculiarities of the M1 protein are still under heavy debate. Despite multiple attempts of crystallization, no high resolution structure is available for the full length M1 of Influenza A virus. The likely reason for the difficulties lies in the intrinsic disorder of the M1 C-terminal part preventing diffraction quality crystals to be grown. Alternative structural methods including synchrotron small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS), atomic force microscopy, cryo-electron microscopy/tomography are therefore widely applied to understand the structure of M1, its self-association and interactions with the lipid membrane and the viral nucleocapsid. These methods reveal striking similarities in the behavior of M1 and matrix proteins of other enveloped RNA viruses, with the differences accompanied by the specific features of the viral lifecycles, thus suggesting common interaction principles and, possibly, common evolutional ancestors. The structural information on the Influenza A virus M1 protein obtained to the date strongly suggests that the intrinsic disorder in the C-terminal domain has important functional implications.     

Liquid chromatography method for simultaneous analysis of amino acids and biogenic amines in biological fluids with simultaneous gradient of pH and acetonitrile

A liquid chromatography method for simultaneous analysis of amino acids, polyamines, catecholeamines and metanephrines in human body fluids after derivatization with 9-fluorenylmethyloxycarbonyl chloride was developed. The chromatographic behavior of analytes at different pH of mobile phase was studied. Successful baseline resolution of all analyzed compounds was achieved using simultaneous gradient of pH and organic modifier in reverse phase mode of HPLC within 36 min. The repeatability of the proposed procedure in respect of retention time and peak area, expressed as RSD, ranges from 0.06 to 1.64% and 0.4 to 7.6%, respectively. The method linearity in the range of 1-200 microM for amino acids and in the range of 0.1-20 microM for polyamines, catecholeamines and metanephrines was found to be with correlation coefficients higher than 0.994. The limit of quantification (LOQ) was assessed to be in the range of 2.6-10 pmol for amino acids and 2-4 pmol for polyamines, catecholeamines and metanephrines.     

Structural insights into apoptotic DNA degradation by CED-3 protease suppressor-6 (CPS-6) from Caenorhabditis elegans

Endonuclease G (EndoG) is a mitochondrial protein that traverses to the nucleus and participates in chromosomal DNA degradation during apoptosis in yeast, worms, flies, and mammals. However, it remains unclear how EndoG binds and digests DNA. Here we show that the Caenorhabditis elegans CPS-6, a homolog of EndoG, is a homodimeric Mg²⁺-dependent nuclease, binding preferentially to G-tract DNA in the optimum low salt buffer at pH 7. The crystal structure of CPS-6 was determined at 1.8 Å resolution, revealing a mixed αβ topology with the two ββα-metal finger nuclease motifs located distantly at the two sides of the dimeric enzyme. A structural model of the CPS-6-DNA complex suggested a positively charged DNA-binding groove near the Mg²⁺-bound active site. Mutations of four aromatic and basic residues: Phe¹²², Arg¹⁴⁶, Arg¹⁵⁶, and Phe¹⁶⁶, in the protein-DNA interface significantly reduced the DNA binding and cleavage activity of CPS-6, confirming that these residues are critical for CPS-6-DNA interactions. In vivo transformation rescue experiments further showed that the reduced DNase activity of CPS-6 mutants was positively correlated with its diminished cell killing activity in C. elegans. Taken together, these biochemical, structural, mutagenesis, and in vivo data reveal a molecular basis of how CPS-6 binds and hydrolyzes DNA to promote cell death.     

Nucleotide misincorporation, 3'-mismatch extension, and responses to abasic sites and DNA adducts by the polymerase component of bacterial DNA ligase D

DNA ligase D (LigD) participates in a mutagenic pathway of nonhomologous end joining in bacteria. LigD consists of an ATP-dependent ligase domain fused to a polymerase domain (POL) and a phosphoesterase module. The POL domain performs templated and nontemplated primer extension reactions with either dNTP or rNTP substrates. Here we report that Pseudomonas LigD POL is an unfaithful nucleic acid polymerase. Although the degree of infidelity in nucleotide incorporation varies according to the mispair produced, we find that a correctly paired ribonucleotide is added to the DNA primer terminus more rapidly than the corresponding correct deoxyribonucleotide and incorrect nucleotides are added much more rapidly with rNTP substrates than with dNTPs, no matter what the mispair configuration. We find that 3' mispairs are extended by LigD POL, albeit more slowly than 3' paired primer-templates. The magnitude of the rate effect on mismatch extension varies with the identity of the 3' mispair, but it was generally the case that mispaired ends were extended more rapidly with rNTP substrates than with dNTPs. These results lend credence to the suggestion that LigD POL might fill in short 5'-overhangs with ribonucleotides when repairing double strand breaks in quiescent cells. We report that LigD POL can add a deoxynucleotide opposite an abasic lesion in the template strand, albeit slowly. Ribonucleotides are inserted more rapidly at an abasic lesion than are deoxys. LigD POL displays feeble activity in extending a preformed primer terminus opposing an abasic site, but can readily bypass the lesion by slippage of the primer 3' di- or trinucleotide and realignment to the template sequence distal to the abasic site. Covalent benzo[a]pyrene-dG and benzo[c]phenanthrene-dA adducts in the template strand are durable roadblocks to POL elongation. POL can slowly insert a dNMP opposite the adduct, but is impaired in the subsequent extension step.     

Frequency of hemochromatosis gene (HFE) mutations in Russian healthy women and patients with estrogen-dependent cancers

Possible association between the C282Y and H63D mutations in the HFE gene and estrogen-dependent cancer risk was assessed. Genotyping was performed using PCR amplification followed by digestion of products with specific restrictases. In a population of 260 healthy women (permanent residents of the southwest European Russia), mutant allele frequencies at the C282Y and H63D sites were evaluated as 3.3 and 16.3%, respectively. In patients with breast, ovarian, and endometrial cancer, C282Y frequencies were also low (1.0, 1.3, and 3.8%, respectively), and no cancer risk associated with the C282Y mutation was found. Odds ratios for breast cancer risk associated with the H63D mutation increased significantly with age: 0.5 in women below 48 years old, 1.0 in a range of 48-57 years, and 4.4 in older women (P(trend)=0.002). The latter value was statistically significant (95% CI, 1.4-14.1), indicating that women bearing the H63D mutation may be at an increased breast cancer risk at an age above 57 years. Preliminary results obtained in patients with two other estrogen-dependent malignancies revealed the same tendency to OR increase with age in ovarian cancer patients (P(trend)=0.008), but no age-related OR differences in endometrial cancer patients.     

Fe(II) phthalocyanine catalyzed oxidation of dGMP by molecular oxygen

We show that iron(II)-phthalocyanines are able to catalyze guanosine oxidation by molecular oxygen in the presence of reducing agents such as ascorbic acid and 2-mercaptoethanol. The products of 5′-monophosphate-2′-deoxyguanosine (dGMP) oxidation were directly analyzed using the HPLC-ESI/MS method. The main oxidation products were 5′-phospho-2′-deoxy-8-oxo-7,8-dihydroguanine and the 1,N2-glyoxal adduct of the 5′-monophosphate-2′-deoxyguanosine.     

Formation of the nanostructure on a silica surface as mercury(II) ions adsorption sites

The present work investigates the adsorptive interactions of Hg(II) ions with hydroxylated silica, aminopropylsilica and silica chemically modified by β-cyclodextrin in aqueous medium. Batch adsorption studies were carried out with various agitation time and mercury(II) concentration. The maximum adsorption was observed within 15-30 min of agitation. The kinetics of the interactions, tested with model of Lagergren for pseudo-first and pseudo-second order equations, showed better agreement with first order kinetics (k₁ = 3.4 ± 0.2 to 5.9 ± 0.3 min⁻¹). The adsorption data gave good fits with Langmuir isotherms. The results have shown that β-cyclodextrin-containing adsorbent has the largest adsorption specificity to Hg(II) : K_L = 14 400 ± 700 L/mg. “β-Cyclodextrin-” inclusion complexes with ratio 1:1 and super molecules with composition С₄₂H₇₀O₃₅ · 3Hg(NO₃)₂ are formed on the surface of β-cyclodextrin-containing silica.