Honeybee communication: a signal for danger

Scout honeybees recruit other bees to visit a newly discovered food source through the famous 'waggle dance'. Now a new study reports that other nest mates can induce the dancer to stop advertising, if they have experienced danger at that location.     

MVA recombinants expressing the fusion and hemagglutinin genes of PPRV protects goats against virulent challenge

Peste des Petits Ruminants (PPR) is a highly contagious animal disease caused by the Peste des Petits Ruminants virus (PPRV) belonging to the genus morbillivirus and family Paramyxoviridae. The disease results in high morbidity and mortality in goats, sheep and in some small wild ruminants. The presence of large number of small ruminants reared in endemic areas makes PPR a notorious disease threatening the livelihood of poor farmers. Conventional vaccination using a live, attenuated vaccine gives adequate protection but cannot be used in case of eradication of the disease due to difficulty in differentiation of infected animals from the vaccinated ones.     

Inhibition of RNA-dependent DNA polymerase activity of oncornaviruses by caffeine.

Caffeine was found to inhibit RNA-dependent DNA polymerase activity of Rauscher leukemia virus when endogenous viral RNA and poly(rA)·(dT)_12–18 were used as templates. Similar results were also obtained with purified RNA-dependent DNA polymerase (deoxynucleoside triphosphate; DNA nucleotidyl transferase; EC 2.7.7.7) from avian myeloblastosis virus (AMV) utilizing 70S and 35S RNA of AMV, poly(rA)·(dT)_12–18, globin mRNA and activated calf thymus DNA as templates. The “caffeine effect” was evident only when it was present during the initiation of polymerization reaction. Increasing the template concentration in the reaction mixture partly reversed the effect of caffeine. Of the analogs of caffeine tested, only theophylline inhibited AMV DNA polymerase, whereas aminophylline showed no effect.     

Antioxidant role of zinc in PCB (Aroclor 1254) exposed ventral prostate of albino rats

The ability of zinc to retard oxidative processes has been recognized for many years. Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are persistent and bioaccumulative environmental toxicants. Previous study has indicated that PCBs can have deleterious effects, including oxidative stress, on various aspects of reproduction in male rats. The aim of this study was to determine the antioxidant role of zinc in PCB-exposed ventral prostate of albino rats. A group of 20 rats were treated with Aroclor 1254 (2 mg/kg body weight/day, i.p.) for 30 days. After the PCB treatment, 10 rats were treated as PCB control. The remaining 10 rats were given zinc (Zn SO(4)) (200 mg/kg body weight/day, p.o.) for 10 days. Ventral prostatic enzymatic antioxidants such as superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), glutathione peroxidase (GPx), and glutathione-S-transferase (GST) were estimated in all the groups. Hydrogen peroxide (H(2)O(2)), lipid peroxidation (LPO) and ventral prostatic acid phosphatase (ACP) were also estimated. Serum hormonal profiles such as total tri-iodothyronine (T(3)), thyroxine (T(4)), thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH), testosterone, and estradiol were estimated. Ventral prostatic androgen and estrogen receptors, ventral prostatic zinc content, and serum zinc concentration were also quantified in all the groups. Antioxidant enzymes such as SOD, CAT, GPx, GST, and ACP were decreased while an increase in H(2)O(2) and LPO were observed in PCB-treated animals. Decreased serum total T(3), T(4), testosterone, estradiol and increased TSH were observed in PCB-exposed rats. Ventral prostatic androgen and estrogen receptors were also decreased significantly in PCB-exposed rats. Zinc administration restored to previous levels all parameters except ventral prostatic ACP. These results suggest that PCB induces oxidative stress in rat ventral prostate by decreasing the levels of antioxidant enzymes; the effects could be reversed by the administration of zinc. The adverse effect of PCBs (Aroclor 1254) and zinc on ventral prostate might be due to indirect action through hormonal regulation.     

Genome-wide mapping of copy number variation in humans: comparative analysis of high resolution array platforms

Accurate and efficient genome-wide detection of copy number variants (CNVs) is essential for understanding human genomic variation, genome-wide CNV association type studies, cytogenetics research and diagnostics, and independent validation of CNVs identified from sequencing based technologies. Numerous, array-based platforms for CNV detection exist utilizing array Comparative Genome Hybridization (aCGH), Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) genotyping or both. We have quantitatively assessed the abilities of twelve leading genome-wide CNV detection platforms to accurately detect Gold Standard sets of CNVs in the genome of HapMap CEU sample NA12878, and found significant differences in performance. The technologies analyzed were the NimbleGen 4.2 M, 2.1 M and 3×720 K Whole Genome and CNV focused arrays, the Agilent 1×1 M CGH and High Resolution and 2×400 K CNV and SNP+CGH arrays, the Illumina Human Omni1Quad array and the Affymetrix SNP 6.0 array. The Gold Standards used were a 1000 Genomes Project sequencing-based set of 3997 validated CNVs and an ultra high-resolution aCGH-based set of 756 validated CNVs. We found that sensitivity, total number, size range and breakpoint resolution of CNV calls were highest for CNV focused arrays. Our results are important for cost effective CNV detection and validation for both basic and clinical applications.