Isometric force development, isotonic shortening, and elasticity measurements from Ca(2+)-activated ventricular muscle of the guinea pig

Isometric tension and isotonic shortening were measured at constant levels of calcium activation of varying magnitude in mechanically disrupted EGTA-treated ventricular bundles from guinea pigs. The results were as follows: (a) The effect of creatine phosphate (CP) on peak tension and rate of shortening saturated at a CP concentration more than 10 mM; below that level tension was increased and shortening velocity decreased. We interpreted this to mean that CP above 10 mM was sufficient to buffer MgATP(2-) intracellularly. (b) The activated bundles exhibited an exponential stress-strain relationship and the series elastic properties did not vary appreciably with degree of activation or creatine phosphate level. (c) At a muscle length 20 percent beyond just taut, peak tension increased with Ca(2+) concentration over the range slightly below 10(-6) to slightly above 10(-4)M. (d) By releasing the muscle length-active tension curves were constructed. Force declined to 20 percent peak tension with a decrease in muscle length (after the recoil) of only 11 percent at 10(-4)M Ca(2+) and 6 percent at 4x10(-6)M Ca(2+). (e) The rate of shortening after a release was greater at lower loads. At identical loads (relative to maximum force at a given Ca(2+) level), velocity at a given time after the release was less at lower Ca(2+) concentrations; at 10 M(-5), velocity was 72 percent of that at 10(-4)M, and at 4x10(-6)M, active shortening was usually delayed and was 40 percent of the velocity at 10(-4) M. Thus, under the conditions of these experiments, both velocity and peak tension depend on the level of Ca(2+) activation over a similar range of Ca(2+) concentration.     

The long road to recombinase‐mediated plant transformation

The use of site‐specific recombinases to manipulate eukaryotic genomes began nearly three decades ago. Although seemingly parallel efforts were being made in animal and plant systems, the motivation for its development in plants was unique to, at least at the time, crop bioengineering issues. The impetus behind site‐specific deletion in plants was to remove antibiotic resistance genes used during transformation but unnecessary in commercial products. Site‐specific integration in plants was more than academic curiosity of position effects on gene expression, but a necessary step towards developing the serial stacking of DNA to the same chromosome locus – to insure that bioengineered crops can be improved over time through transgene additions without inflating the number of segregating loci. This article is not a review of the literature on site‐specific recombination, but a first person account of the series of events leading to the development of a gene stacking transformation system in plants.     

A propeptide toolbox for secretion optimization of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Flavobacterium meningosepticum</Emphasis> endopeptidase in <Emphasis Type="Italic">Lactococcus lactis</Emphasis>

Background

Lactic acid bacteria are a family of “generally regarded as safe” organisms traditionally used for food fermentation. In recent years, they have started to emerge as potential chassis for heterologous protein production. And more recently, due to their beneficial properties in the gut, they have been examined as potential candidates for mucosal delivery vectors, especially for acid-sensitive enzymes. One such application would be the delivery of gluten-digesting endopeptidases for the treatment of celiac disease. To facilitate these applications, an efficient recombinant protein expression toolbox is required, especially for recombinant protein secretion. While current tools for enhancing protein secretion consist mainly of signal peptides, secretion propeptides have also been observed to play a crucial role for protein secretion and improved yields.

Results

To expand the propeptide library for secretion optimization, we have mined and characterized three naturally occurring propeptides from the sequenced genomes of 109 Lactococcus species. These newly-mined propeptides were introduced after the N-terminal USP45 secretion signal to characterize and compare their effects on the secretion of Escherichia coli thioredoxin (TRX) and Flavobacterium meningosepticum prolyl endopeptidase (Fm PEP) in Lactococcus lactis NZ9000. All three propeptides, along with the positive control LEISSTCDA, improved volumetric secretion yields by 1.4–2.3-folds. However, enhancement of secretion yield is dependent on protein of interest. For TRX, the optimal combination of USP45 signal peptide and LEISSTCDA produced a 2.3-fold increase in secretion yields. Whilst for Fm PEP, propeptide 1 with USP45 signal peptide improved volumetric secretion yields by 2.2-fold compared to a 1.4-fold increase by LEISSTCDA. Similar trends in Fm PEP activity and protein yield also demonstrated minimal effect of the negative charged propeptides on PEP activity and thus folding.

Conclusions

Overall, we have characterized three new propeptides for use in L. lactis secretion optimization. From success of these propeptides for improvement of secretion yields, we anticipate this collection to be valuable to heterologous protein secretion optimisation in lactic acid bacteria. We have also demonstrated for the first time, secretion of Fm PEP in L. lactis for potential use as a therapy agent in celiac disease.

     

Exchange of gene activity in transgenic plants catalyzed by the Cre-lox site-specific recombination system

The Cre-lox site-specific recombination system of bacteriophage P1 was used to excise a firefly luciferase (luc) gene which had previously been incorporated into the tobacco genome. The excision event was due to site-specific DNA recombination between two lox sequences flanking the luc gene and was catalyzed by the Cre recombinase introduced by cross-fertilization. Recombination resulted in the fusion of a promoter with a distally located hygromycin phosphotransferase (hpt) coding sequence and the excision event was monitored as a phenotypic change from expression of luc to expression of hpt. The efficiency of recombination was estimated from the exchange of gene activity and confirmed by molecular analysis. The relevance to potential applications of site-specific deletion-fusion events for chromosome engineering are discussed.     

Over-expression of p53 mutants in LNCaP cells alters tumor growth and angiogenesis in vivo

This study has investigated the impact of three specific dominant-negative p53 mutants (F134L, M237L, and R273H) on tumorigenesis by LNCaP prostate cancer cells. Mutant p53 proteins were associated with an increased subcutaneous "take rate" in NOD-SCID mice, and increased production of PSA. Tumors expressing F134L and R273H grew slower than controls, and were associated with decreased necrosis and apoptosis, but not hypoxia. Interestingly, hypoxia levels were increased in tumors expressing M237L. There was less proliferation in F134L-bearing tumors compared to control, but this was not statistically significant. Angiogenesis was decreased in tumors expressing F134L and R273H compared with M237L, or controls. Conditioned medium from F134L tumors inhibited growth of normal human umbilical-vein endothelial cells but not telomerase-immortalized bone marrow endothelial cells. F134L tumor supernatants showed lower levels of VEGF and endostatin compared with supernatants from tumors expressing other mutants. Our results support the possibility that decreased angiogenesis might account for reduced growth rate of tumor cells expressing the F134L p53 mutation.     

Stability of containerized urban street trees

Trees are usually grown in containers in the nursery until they reach a certain size, whereupon they are transplanted to a permanent location. Infrastructure development has often led to the removal of large trees. To maintain lush foliage and trees of a size that benefit urban ecology, trees can be grown in containers. Containerized trees can be moved from one location to another, and this relocation does not require root pruning or crown-size reduction. The drawback to having trees in containers is the small and confined volume of the container, which limits tree root development and thus affects containerized tree stability. The objective of this study was to understand the failure mechanisms for and the effect of the root dimensions on the stability of containerized trees. Therefore, small-scale stability model tests were conducted which were verified using numerical and analytical models. The results identified two failure modes that were likely to occur: tree overturning and container overturning. The mode of failure was dependent on the root dimensions. When the trees had extended their roots deep into the container, the whole container would overturn in the event of failure due to increased root confinement and shear resistance of the soil. On the other hand, the main failure mechanism when there was shallow root development was the uplifting of the tree from the container while the container remained upright. The results from numerical and analytical models were consistent with those obtained during the small-scale model stability tests.     

Proteomic evaluation and validation of cathepsin D regulated proteins in macrophages exposed to Streptococcus pneumoniae

Macrophages are central effectors of innate immune responses to bacteria. We have investigated how activation of the abundant macrophage lysosomal protease, cathepsin D, regulates the macrophage proteome during killing of Streptococcus pneumoniae. Using the cathepsin D inhibitor pepstatin A, we demonstrate that cathepsin D differentially regulates multiple targets out of 679 proteins identified and quantified by eight-plex isobaric tag for relative and absolute quantitation. Our statistical analysis identified 18 differentially expressed proteins that passed all paired t-tests (α = 0.05). This dataset was enriched for proteins regulating the mitochondrial pathway of apoptosis or inhibiting competing death programs. Five proteins were selected for further analysis. Western blotting, followed by pharmacological inhibition or genetic manipulation of cathepsin D, verified cathepsin D-dependent regulation of these proteins, after exposure to S. pneumoniae. Superoxide dismutase-2 up-regulation was temporally related to increased reactive oxygen species generation. Gelsolin, a known regulator of mitochondrial outer membrane permeabilization, was down-regulated in association with cytochrome c release from mitochondria. Eukaryotic elongation factor (eEF2), a regulator of protein translation, was also down-regulated by cathepsin D. Using absence of the negative regulator of eEF2, eEF2 kinase, we confirm that eEF2 function is required to maintain expression of the anti-apoptotic protein Mcl-1, delaying macrophage apoptosis and confirm using a murine model that maintaining eEF2 function is associated with impaired macrophage apoptosis-associated killing of Streptococcus pneumoniae. These findings demonstrate that cathepsin D regulates multiple proteins controlling the mitochondrial pathway of macrophage apoptosis or competing death processes, facilitating intracellular bacterial killing.     

An efficient and rapid transgenic pollen screening and detection method using flow cytometry

Assaying for transgenic pollen, a major vector of transgene flow, provides valuable information and essential data for the study of gene flow and assessing the effectiveness of transgene containment. Most studies have employed microscopic screening methods or progeny analyses to estimate the frequency of transgenic pollen. However, these methods are time-consuming and laborious when large numbers of pollen grains must be analyzed to look for rare transgenic pollen grains. Thus, there is an urgent need for the development of a simple, rapid, and high throughput analysis method for transgenic pollen analysis. In this study, our objective was to determine the accuracy of using flow cytometry technology for transgenic pollen quantification in practical application where transgenic pollen is not frequent. A suspension of non-transgenic tobacco pollen was spiked with a known amount of verified transgenic tobacco pollen synthesizing low or high amounts of green fluorescent protein (GFP). The flow cytometric method detected approximately 75% and 100% of pollen grains synthesizing low and high amounts of GFP, respectively. The method is rapid, as it is able to count 5000 pollen grains per minute-long run. Our data indicate that this flow cytometric method is useful to study gene flow and assessment of transgene containment.     

Transgene excision in pollen using a codon optimized serine resolvase CinH-<Emphasis Type="Italic">RS2</Emphasis> site-specific recombination system

Transgene escape, a major environmental and regulatory concern in transgenic crop cultivation, could be alleviated by removing transgenes from pollen, the most frequent vector for transgene flow. A transgene excision vector containing a codon optimized serine resolvase CinH recombinase (CinH) and its recognition sites RS2 were constructed and transformed into tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum cv. Xanthi). CinH recombinase recognized 119 bp of nucleic acid sequences, RS2, in pollen and excised the transgene flanked by the RS2 sites. In this system, the pollen-specific LAT52 promoter from tomato was employed to control the expression of CinH recombinase. Loss of expression of a green fluorescent protein (GFP) gene under the control of the LAT59 promoter from tomato was used as an indicator of transgene excision. Efficiency of transgene excision from pollen was determined by flow cytometry (FCM)-based pollen screening. While a transgenic event in the absence of CinH recombinase contained about 70% of GFP-synthesizing pollen, three single-copy transgene events contained less than 1% of GFP-synthesizing pollen based on 30,000 pollen grains analyzed per event. This suggests that CinH-RS2 recombination system could be effectively utilized for transgene biocontainment.