Association between serum cell adhesion molecules with hs-CRP,uric acid and VEGF genetic polymorphisms in subjects with metabolic syndrome

Molecular Biology Reports - Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is associated with a pro-inflammatory state and endothelial dysfunction that places subjects with MetS at a higher risk of atherosclerosis....     

Anti-inflammatory,anti-apoptotic,and antioxidant actions of Middle Eastern Phoenix dactylifera extract on mercury-induced hepatotoxicity in vivo

Molecular Biology Reports - Mercuric chloride (MC) is a complex substance which is capable to produce free radicals. Middle Eastern Phoenix dactylifera (MEPD) is a flowering plant of palm family...     

Phylogenetic Analysis of Clinically Relevant Fusarium Species in Iran

Mycopathologia - Fungi of the genus Fusarium are well known as major plant pathogens but also cause a broad spectrum of human infections. Sixty-three clinical isolates, collected during...     

Reassessment of the status of Lymantria albescens and Lymantria postalba (Lepidoptera: Erebidae: Lymantriinae) as distinct ‘Asian gypsy moth’ species,using both mitochondrial and nuclear sequence data

For regulatory purposes, the name ‘Asian gypsy moth’ refers to a group of closely related Asian Lymantria species and subspecies whose female moths display flight capability, a trait believed to confer enhanced invasiveness relative to the European gypsy moth, Lymantria dispar dispar, whose females are flightless. Lymantria albescens and Lymantria postalba are Asian gypsy moths occurring in the southern Ryukyu Islands and in the northern Ryukyu and adjacent Kyushu and Shikoku Islands of Japan, respectively. Although once considered subspecies of L. dispar, their status as distinct species, relative to the latter, is now well established. While postalba was subsequently considered a subspecies of L. albescens, largely on the basis of differences in forewing ground colour in males, both taxa were later given distinct species status by Pogue & Schaefer (2007) following their revision of the genus Lymantria. Here, we re-examined the validity of this revised status through the sequencing of a large portion of the mitochondrial genome (c. 60%) and multiple nuclear marker genes [elongation factor 1-alpha (Ef-1α), wingless (Wgl), internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS-2), ribosomal protein S5 (RpS5)] in representative specimens of both taxa and other Lymantria species, including L. monacha, L. xylina, L. mathura and members of the L. dispar + L. umbrosa clade. A comparison of the number of substitutions in these genomic regions among the taxa we considered showed lower or equivalent variation between L. albescens and L. postalba compared with subspecies of L. dispar, for mitochondrial and nuclear sequences, respectively. This finding was reflected in the maximum likelihood trees generated independently for mitochondrial and nuclear data, where L. albescens and L. postalba formed, in both analyses, a short-branch sister clade basal to the L. dispar + L. umbrosa clade. We further sequenced three markers [cytochrome c oxydase 1 (COI), EF-1α, Wgl] in multiple L. albescens–L. postalba specimens collected along a south-to-north transect across the Ryukyu Arc and observed no clear distinction among the sampled specimens as a function of taxonomic designation. We conclude that L. albescens and L. postalba form a single species, with postalba representing a darker-winged morph along an apparent south-to-north wing colour cline. Accordingly, L. postalba is relegated to synonymy under L. albescens ( syn.n. ).     

Isolation,Characterization, and Expression Profiling of Nucleoside Diphosphate Kinase Gene from Tall Fescue (Festuca arundinaceous Schreb.) (FaNDPK) under Salt Stress

Plant Molecular Biology Reporter - Fifty tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea Schreb.) half-sib families were screened under salinity stress during germination stage, and five tolerant and five...     

Correction to: Isolation,Characterization, and Expression Profiling of Nucleoside Diphosphate Kinase Gene from Tall Fescue (Festuca arundinacea Schreb.) (FaNDPK) under Salt Stress

Plant Molecular Biology Reporter - The original version of this article unfortunately contained some mistakes in article Title and Table 1.     

Computational prediction and experimental validation of the activator function of C2-β-D-glucopyranosyl-1,3,6,7-tetrahydroxyxanthone on pancreatic and hepatic hexokinase

Abstract

This study identifies and validates hexokinase type 4 (HK4), an isozyme of hexokinase in the liver and pancreas, as an important target of C2-β-D-glucopyranosyl-1,3,6,7-tetrahydroxyxanthone (βdGT), a xanthone glucoside suggested to have antidiabetic property. In the study, we applied the computational pipeline of molecular docking followed by the molecular dynamics simulations to shortlist potential βdGT protein targets. The analysis of protein dynamics and the binding free energy (ΔG) led us to the identification of HK4 as a key βdGT target, whereby the binding mode and domain dynamics suggested the activator function of βdGT. βdGT bound to the allosteric site of the isozyme ～13?Å away from the substrate (glucose)-binding site. The binding free energy of the ligand-protein complex was energetically feasible (ΔG, –41.61?kcal/mol) and the cleft angle deviation between the two (small and large) domains of HK4 revealed differential HK4 dynamics in response to βdGT binding. 3D structure analysis of the isozyme-ligand complex highlighted the role of Arg63, Glu67 and Lys458 in ligand stabilization and hydrophobic interactions mediated by Tyr214 and Met235. Experimental validation of the results of computational analysis confirmed the activator function of βdGT on HK4. The study has implication in diabetes as βdGT may be used to lower the blood glucose level by activating hepatic and pancreatic hexokinase without the risk of hypoglycemia.

Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma     

Randomization inference with general interference and censoring

Interference occurs between individuals when the treatment (or exposure) of one individual affects the outcome of another individual. Previous work on causal inference methods in the presence of interference has focused on the setting where it is a priori assumed that there is “partial interference,” in the sense that individuals can be partitioned into groups wherein there is no interference between individuals in different groups. Bowers et al. (2012, Political Anal, 21, 97–124) and Bowers et al. (2016, Political Anal, 24, 395–403) consider randomization-based inferential methods that allow for more general interference structures in the context of randomized experiments. In this paper, extensions of Bowers et al. that allow for failure time outcomes subject to right censoring are proposed. Permitting right-censored outcomes is challenging because standard randomization-based tests of the null hypothesis of no treatment effect assume that whether an individual is censored does not depend on treatment. The proposed extension of Bowers et al. to allow for censoring entails adapting the method of Wang et al. (2010, Biostatistics, 11, 676–692) for two-sample survival comparisons in the presence of unequal censoring. The methods are examined via simulation studies and utilized to assess the effects of cholera vaccination in an individually randomized trial of 73 000 children and women in Matlab, Bangladesh.