Assessment of Changes in Some Biochemical Traits and Proteomic Profile of UCB-1 Pistachio Rootstock Leaf under Salinity Stress

Journal of Plant Growth Regulation - University of California at Berkeley I or UCB-1 pistachio rootstock is propagated from the cross between Pistacia integerrima male × Pistacia...     

Brushite cement additives inhibit attachment to cell culture beads

Brushite‐forming calcium phosphate cements are of great interest as bone replacement materials because they are resorbable in physiological conditions. Cell‐attached culture beads formed from this material could be of great use for cell therapy. Despite a significant amount of work on optimizing the physicochemical properties of these materials, there are very few studies that have evaluated the capacity of the materials to facilitate cell adhesion. In this study, we have formed resorbable calcium phosphate (brushite) culture beads and for the first time we showed that cell attachment to the surface of the brushite cement (BC) could be inhibited by the presence of an intermediate dicalcium phosphate–citrate complex, formed in the cement as a result of using citric acid, a retardant and viscosity modifier used in many cement formulations. The BC beads formed from the mixture of β‐TCP/orthophosphoric acid using citric acid did not allow cell attachment without further treatment. Ageing of BC beads in serum‐free Dulbecco's Modified Eagle's Medium (DMEM) solution at 37°C for 1 week greatly enhanced the cell adhesion capacity of the material. Scanning electron microscopy, X‐ray diffraction (XRD), and confocal Raman microspectrometry indicated the increased capacity for cell adhesion was due to the changes in phase composition of BC. XRD patterns collected before and after ageing in aqueous solution and a high initial mass loss, suggest the formation of a dicalcium phosphate–citrate complex within the matrix. Since compacts formed from brushite powder supported cell attachment, it was hypothesized that the dicalcium phosphate–citrate complex prevented attachment to the cement surface. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2013; 110: 1487–1494. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Investigation into mechanism of orotidine 5′-monophosphate decarboxylase enzyme by MM-PBSA/MM-GBSA and molecular docking

In this work, we studied the binding affinity of orotidine 5′-monophosphate (OMP) and 6-hydroxy-UMP (BMP) for Saccharomyces cerevisiae orotidine 5′-monophosphate decarboxylase (OMPDC) enzyme by using Molecular Mechanics-Poisson–Boltzmann Surface Area (MM-PBSA) and the Molecular Mechanics-Generalised Born Surface Area (MM-GBSA) calculations. In all simulations, Asp91, which is an important residue in the enzyme active site, was considered in both anionic (present in the native form of the enzyme) and neutral states. A series of 10-ns molecular dynamics simulations were performed for the four OMPDC–ligand complexes, two ligand-free enzymes and two free ligands, followed by MM-PBSA/MM-GBSA calculations on the collected snapshots, and molecular docking calculations using the free enzymes and ligands. The results of MM-PBSA/MM-GBSA calculations indicate that all of the OMPDC–ligand complexes form favourable systems in water, which is in agreement with corresponding experimental data. The results of the MM-PBSA and molecular docking methods also showed that OMPDC–BMP complexes, transition state analogue and inhibitor of the OMPDC enzyme have the highest binding affinities. The fact that in the native anionic state BMP shows a higher binding affinity compared with the substrate suggests the contribution of a transition state stabilisation mechanism in the debatable catalytic mechanism of the OMPDC enzyme.     

Real time UAV path planning by parallel grey wolf optimization with align coefficient on CAN bus

Cluster Computing - Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) path planning is a complex optimization problem, which aims to achieve an optimal or nearly optimal flight path despite various threats and...     

Length‐weight and length‐length relationships of four Alosa species along the southern Caspian Sea coast

This study investigates length‐weight and length‐length relationships of four shad species (Alosa braschnikowi, Alosa caspia, Alosa kessleri, and Alosa saposchnikowii) captured on the southern Caspian Sea coast of Iran. The relationship of total length (TL), fork length (FL) and standard length (SL) and the relationship between total length and body weight are presented.     

Association of IL1R polymorphism with HLA-B27 positive in Iranian patients with ankylosing spondylitis

Ankylosing spondylitis (AS) is one of the most common causes of inflammatory arthritis, with an estimated prevalence of 0.1-0.9%. Genetic factors have been strongly implicated in its aetiology, and heritability as assessed by twin studies has been estimated to be >90%. HLA- B27 is almost essential for inheritance of AS; it is not merely sufficient for explaining the pattern of familial recurrence of the disease. This study's purpose is to investigate the association of ankylosing spondylitis with single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the IL-1 family: IL-1a (-889C/T) rs1800587, IL-1b (-511C/T) rs16944, IL-1b (+3962C/T) rs1143634, IL-1R (Pst-1 1970C/T) rs2234650 and IL-1RA (Mspa-1 11100C/T) rs315952. 99 unrelated Iranian AS patients and 217 healthy control subjects were selected. Cytokine typing was performed by the polymerase chain reaction with sequence-specific primers assay. The allele and genotype frequencies of the polymorphisms were determined: The IL1α rs1800587, IL1β rs16944 and IL1β rs1143634 were not significantly associated with AS. Genotype frequencies at IL1R rs2234650 differed between cases and controls (χ(2)=8.85; p=0.01); the IL1R rs2234650 C/T and T/T genotypes were less common in AS patients than controls. The IL1R rs2234650 C/T genotype was inversely associated with AS comparing with the IL1R rs2234650 C/C genotype (OR=0.48; p=0.005). IL1R rs2234650 C/T genotype was less common in patients than controls (OR=0.37; p=0.02).Furthermore IL1R rs2234650 T allele was strongly associated with HLA-B2702 patients rather than HLA-B2705 but was not associated with HLA-B27 negative patients (OR=0.33; p=0.01). Polymorphisms of IL1α rs1800587, IL1β rs16944 and IL1β rs1143634 were not significantly associated with ankylosing spondylitis but inversely in this study IL1R rs2234650 was significantly associated and carriage of T allele in IL1R rs2234650 seems to be protective, while carriage of C allele result in two fold higher risk of developing AS.