Envelope diversity, characteristics of V3 region and predicted co-receptor usage of human immunodeficiency viruses infecting north indians

Subtypes of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 circulating in 21 north Indian patients were characterized based on the partial sequence of the gp120 envelope protein. A majority of viruses (85.7%, 18/21) were subtype C, while 14.3% (3/21) were subtype A. Sequence analysis revealed that the V3 region was highly conserved compared with V4 and V5. The predicted use of co-receptors indicated exclusive usage of R5, except for two subtype A viruses (AIIMS279 and AIIMS281). Our results demonstrate conservation within the V3 loop of subtype C viruses, and suggest the emergence of non-clade C viruses in the north Indian population.     

Increasement of Heterologous Expression of Recombinant Vit v 1 in Pichia pastoris KM71 by Nonionic Detergents as a Cost-effective Approach

Applied Biochemistry and Microbiology - Vit v 1 as a lipid-transfer protein is a major allergen of grapes (Vitis vinifera) that elicits food allergy in many patients in Iran. Todays, recombinant...     

Free radical scavenging behavior of folic acid: evidence for possible antioxidant activity

The free radical scavenging properties and possible antioxidant activity of folic acid are reported. Pulse radiolysis technique is employed to study the one-electron oxidation of folic acid in homogeneous aqueous solution. The radicals used for this study are CCl₃O₂^•, N₃^•, SO₄^•−, Br₂^•−, √OH, and O^•−. All these radicals react with folic acid under ambient condition at an almost diffusion-controlled rate producing two types of transients. The first transient absorption maximum is around 430 nm, which decays, and a simultaneous growth at around 390 nm is observed. Considering the chemical structure of folic acid, the absorption maximum at 430 nm has been assigned to a phenoxyl radical. The latter one is proposed to be a delocalized molecular radical. A permanent product has been observed in the oxidation of folic acid with CCl₃O₂^• and N₃^• radicals, with a broad absorption band around 370–400 nm. The bimolecular rate constants for all the radical-induced oxidation reactions of folic acid have been measured. Folic acid is seen to scavenge these radicals very efficiently. In the reaction of thiyl radicals with folic acid, it has been observed that folic acid can not only scavenge thiyl radicals but can also repair these thiols at physiological pH. While carrying out the lipid peroxidation study, in spite of the fact that folic acid is considerably soluble in water, we observed a significant inhibition property in microsomal lipid peroxidation. A suitable mechanism for oxidation of folic acid and repair of thiyl radicals by folic acid has been proposed.     

Cell-to-cell and phloem-mediated transport of potato virus X. The role of virions

Movement-deficient potato virus X (PVX) mutants tagged with the green fluorescent protein were used to investigate the role of the coat protein (CP) and triple gene block (TGB) proteins in virus movement. Mutants lacking either a functional CP or TGB were restricted to single epidermal cells. Microinjection of dextran probes into cells infected with the mutants showed that an increase in the plasmodesmal size exclusion limit was dependent on one or more of the TGB proteins and was independent of CP. Fluorescently labeled CP that was injected into epidermal cells was confined to the injected cells, showing that the CP lacks an intrinsic transport function. In additional experiments, transgenic plants expressing the PVX CP were used as rootstocks and grafted with nontransformed scions. Inoculation of the PVX CP mutants to the transgenic rootstocks resulted in cell-to-cell and systemic movement within the transgenic tissue. Translocation of the CP mutants into sink leaves of the nontransgenic scions was also observed, but infection was restricted to cells close to major veins. These results indicate that the PVX CP is transported through the phloem, unloads into the vascular tissue, and subsequently is transported between cells during the course of infection. Evidence is presented that PVX uses a novel strategy for cell-to-cell movement involving the transport of filamentous virions through plasmodesmata.     

GC-1 mRHBDD1 knockdown spermatogonia cells lose their spermatogenic capacity in mouse seminiferous tubules

Background  

Apoptosis is important for regulating spermatogenesis. The protein mRHBDD1 (mouse homolog of human RHBDD1)/rRHBDD1 (rat homolog of human RHBDD1) is highly expressed in the testis and is involved in apoptosis of spermatogonia. GC-1, a spermatogonia cell line, has the capacity to differentiate into spermatids within the seminiferous tubules. We constructed mRHBDD1 knockdown GC-1 cells and evaluated their capacity to differentiate into spermatids in mouse seminiferous tubules.     

Mitochondrial dysfunction mediated by quinone oxidation products of dopamine: Implications in dopamine cytotoxicity and pathogenesis of Parkinson's disease

The study has demonstrated that dopamine induces membrane depolarization and a loss of phosphorylation capacity in dose-dependent manner in isolated rat brain mitochondria during extended in vitro incubation and the phenomena are not prevented by oxyradical scavengers or metal chelators. Dopamine effects on brain mitochondria are, however, markedly prevented by reduced glutathione and N-acetyl cysteine and promoted by tyrosinase present in the incubation medium. The results imply that quinone oxidation products of dopamine are involved in mitochondrial damage under this condition. When PC12 cells are exposed to dopamine in varying concentrations (100-400μM) for up to 24h, a pronounced impairment of mitochondrial bio-energetic functions at several levels is observed along with a significant (nearly 40%) loss of cell viability with features of apoptotic nuclear changes and increased activities of caspase 3 and caspase 9 and all these effects of dopamine are remarkably prevented by N-acetyl cysteine. N-acetyl cysteine also blocks nearly completely the dopamine induced increase in reactive oxygen species production and the formation of quinoprotein adducts in mitochondrial fraction within PC12 cells and also the accumulation of quinone products in the culture medium. Clorgyline, an inhibitor of MAO-A, markedly decreases the formation of reactive oxygen species in PC12 cells upon dopamine exposure but has only mild protective actions against quinoprotein adduct formation, mitochondrial dysfunctions, cell death and caspase activation induced by dopamine. The results have indicated that quinone oxidation products and not reactive oxygen species are primarily involved in cytotoxic effects of dopamine and the mitochondrial impairment plays a central role in the latter process. The data have clear implications in the pathogenesis of Parkinson's disease.     

The movement protein of cucumber mosaic virus traffics into sieve elements in minor veins of nicotiana clevelandii

The location of the 3a movement protein (MP) of cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) was studied by quantitative immunogold labeling of the wild-type 3a MP in leaves of Nicotiana clevelandii infected by CMV as well as by using a 3a-green fluorescent protein (GFP) fusion expressed from a potato virus X (PVX) vector. Whether expressed from CMV or PVX, the 3a MP targeted plasmodesmata and accumulated in the central cavity of the pore. Within minor veins, the most extensively labeled plasmodesmata were those connecting sieve elements and companion cells. In addition to targeting plasmodesmata, the 3a MP accumulated in the parietal layer of mature sieve elements. Confocal imaging of cells expressing the 3a-GFP fusion protein showed that the 3a MP assembled into elaborate fibrillar formations in the sieve element parietal layer. The ability of 3a-GFP, expressed from PVX rather than CMV, to enter sieve elements demonstrates that neither the CMV RNA nor the CMV coat protein is required for trafficking of the 3a MP into sieve elements. CMV virions were not detected in plasmodesmata from CMV-infected tissue, although large CMV aggregates were often found in the parietal layer of sieve elements and were usually surrounded by 3a MP. These data suggest that CMV traffics into minor vein sieve elements as a ribonucleoprotein complex that contains the viral RNA, coat protein, and 3a MP, with subsequent viral assembly occurring in the sieve element parietal layer.     

The cDNA cloning and molecular evolution of reptile and pigeon lactate dehydrogenase isozymes

The cDNAs encoding lactate dehydrogenase isozymes LDH-A (muscle) and LDH-B (heart) from alligator and turtle and LDH-A, LDH-B, and LDH-C (testis) from pigeon were cloned and sequenced. The evolutionary relationships among vertebrate LDH isozymes were analyzed. Contrary to the traditional belief that the turtle lineage branched off before the divergence between the lizard/alligator and bird lineages, the turtle lineage was found to be clustered with either the alligator lineage or the alligator-bird clade, while the lizard lineage was found to have branched off before the divergence between the alligator/turtle and bird lineages. The pigeon testicular LDH-C isozyme was evidently duplicated from LDH-B (heart), so it is not orthologous to the mammalian testicular LDH-C isozymes.