Disentangling the effects of spring anomalies in climate and net primary production on body size of temperate songbirds

Body size is implicated in individual fitness and population dynamics. Mounting interest is being given to the effects of environmental change on body size, but the underlying mechanisms are poorly understood. We tested whether body size and body condition are related to ambient temperature (heat maintenance hypothesis), or/and explained by variations in primary production (food availability hypothesis) during the period of body growth in songbirds. We also explored whether annual population‐level variations of mean body size are due to changes of juvenile growth and/or size‐dependent mortality during the first year. For 41 species, from 257 sites across France, we tested for relationships between wing length (n = 107 193) or body condition (n = 82 022) and local anomalies in temperature, precipitation and net primary production (NDVI) during the breeding period, for juveniles and adults separately. Juvenile body size was best explained by primary production: wings were longer in years with locally high NDVI, but not shorter in years with low NDVI. Temperature showed a slightly positive effect. Body condition and adult wing length did not covary with any of the other tested variables. We found no evidence of climate‐driven size‐dependent mortality for the breeding season. In our temperate system, local climatic anomalies explained little of the body size variation. A large part of wing length variance was site‐specific, suggesting that avian size was more dependent on local drivers than global ones. Net primary production influenced juvenile size the most through effects on body growth. We suggest that, during the breeding season in temperate systems, thermoregulatory mechanisms are less involved in juvenile growth than food assimilation.     

CRISPR/Cas9-mediated efficient targeted mutagenesis has the potential to accelerate the domestication of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Coffea canephora</Emphasis>

Genome editing, which is an unprecedented technological breakthrough, has provided a valuable means of creating targeted mutations in plant genomes. In this study, we developed a genomic web tool to identify all gRNA target sequences in the coffee genome, along with potential off-targets. In all, 8,145,748 CRISPR guides were identified in the draft genome of Coffea canephora corresponding to 5,338,568 different sequences and, of these, 4,655,458 were single, and 514,591 were covering exons. The proof of concept was established by targeting the phytoene desaturase gene (CcPDS) using the Agrobacterium tumefaciens transformation technique and somatic embryogenesis as the plant regeneration method. An analysis of the RNA-guided genome-editing events showed that 22.8% of the regenerated plants were heterozygous mutants and 7.6% were homozygous mutants. Mutation efficiency at the target site was estimated to be 30.4%. We demonstrated that genome editing by the CRISPR/Cas9 method is an efficient and reliable way of knocking out genes of agronomic interest in the coffee tree, opening up the way for coffee molecular breeding. Our results also showed that the use of somatic embryogenesis, as the method for regenerating genome-edited plants, could restrict the choice of targeted genes to those that are not essential to the embryo development and germination steps.     

ArfGAP1 restricts Mycobacterium tuberculosis entry by controlling the actin cytoskeleton

The interaction of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) with pulmonary epithelial cells is critical for early stages of bacillus colonization and during the progression of tuberculosis. Entry of Mtb into epithelial cells has been shown to depend on F‐actin polymerization, though the molecular mechanisms are still unclear. Here, we demonstrate that mycobacterial uptake into epithelial cells requires rearrangements of the actin cytoskeleton, which are regulated by ADP‐ribosylation factor 1 (Arf1) and phospholipase D1 (PLD1), and is dependent on the M3 muscarinic receptor (M₃R). We show that this pathway is controlled by Arf GTPase‐activating protein 1 (ArfGAP1), as its silencing has an impact on actin cytoskeleton reorganization leading to uncontrolled uptake and replication of Mtb. Furthermore, we provide evidence that this pathway is critical for mycobacterial entry, while the cellular infection with other pathogens, such as Shigella flexneri and Yersinia pseudotuberculosis, is not affected. Altogether, these results reveal how cortical actin plays the role of a barrier to prevent mycobacterial entry into epithelial cells and indicate a novel role for ArfGAP1 as a restriction factor of host–pathogen interactions.     

HSV‐1 Glycoproteins Are Delivered to Virus Assembly Sites Through Dynamin‐Dependent Endocytosis

Herpes simplex virus‐1 (HSV‐1) is a large enveloped DNA virus that belongs to the family of Herpesviridae. It has been recently shown that the cytoplasmic membranes that wrap the newly assembled capsids are endocytic compartments derived from the plasma membrane. Here, we show that dynamin‐dependent endocytosis plays a major role in this process. Dominant‐negative dynamin and clathrin adaptor AP180 significantly decrease virus production. Moreover, inhibitors targeting dynamin and clathrin lead to a decreased transport of glycoproteins to cytoplasmic capsids, confirming that glycoproteins are delivered to assembly sites via endocytosis. We also show that certain combinations of glycoproteins colocalize with each other and with the components of clathrin‐dependent and ‐independent endocytosis pathways. Importantly, we demonstrate that the uptake of neutralizing antibodies that bind to glycoproteins when they become exposed on the cell surface during virus particle assembly leads to the production of non‐infectious HSV‐1. Our results demonstrate that transport of viral glycoproteins to the plasma membrane prior to endocytosis is the major route by which these proteins are localized to the cytoplasmic virus assembly compartments. This highlights the importance of endocytosis as a major protein‐sorting event during HSV‐1 envelopment.      

Solvent as a competitive inhibitor for Candida antarctica lipase B

In enzyme-catalyzed reactions, the choice of solvent often has a marked effect on the reaction outcome. In this paper, it is shown that solvent effects could be explained by the ability of the solvent to act as a competitive inhibitor to the substrate. Experimentally, the effect of six solvents, 2-pentanone, 3-pentanone, 2-methyl-2-pentanol, 3-methyl-3-pentanol, 2-methylpentane and 3-methylpentane, was studied in a solid/gas reactor. As a model reaction, the CALB-catalyzed transacylation between methyl propanoate and 1-propanol, was studied. It was shown that both ketones inhibited the enzyme activity whereas the tertiary alcohols and the hydrocarbons did not. Alcohol inhibition constants, K(i)(I) were changed to "K(i)", determined in presence of 2-pentanone, 3-pentanone, and 3-methyl-3-pentanol, confirmed the marked inhibitory character of the ketones and an absence of inhibition of 3-methyl-3-pentanol. The molecular modeling study was performed on three solvents, 2-pentanone, 2-methyl-2-pentanol and 2-methyl pentane. It showed a clear inhibitory effect for the ketone and the tertiary alcohol, but no effect for the hydrocarbon. No change in enzyme conformation was seen during the simulations. The study led to the conclusion that the effect of added organic component on lipase catalyzed transacylation could be explained by the competitive inhibitory character of solvents towards the first binding substrate methyl propanoate.     

Involvement of transient receptor potential proteins in cardiac hypertrophy

Cardiac hypertrophy is an adaptive process that occurs in response to increased physical stress on the heart. Hypertrophy, which may be induced by hypertension among other factors, is characterized by an increase in left ventricular mass and an associated increase in force production capacity. However, as sustained cardiac hypertrophy may lead to heart failure and sudden death, an understanding of the molecular processes involved in both the onset and consequences of hypertrophy is of significant importance. Calcium is a key player in the process underlying the development of cardiac hypertrophy. Recently, several Transient Receptor Potential proteins (TRPs), including calcium-permeable and calcium-regulated ion channels, have been shown to be related to various aspects of cardiac hypertrophy. TRPs are implicated in the development of cardiac hypertrophy (TRPC1, TRPC3, TRPC6), the electrophysiological perturbations associated with hypertrophy (TRPM4) and the progression to heart failure (TRPC7). This review describes the major characteristics of cardiac hypertrophy and focuses on the roles of TRPs in the physiological processes underlying hypertrophy.     

Decreased capacity of recombinant 45/47-kDa molecules (Apa) of Mycobacterium tuberculosis to stimulate T lymphocyte responses related to changes in their mannosylation pattern.

The Apa molecules secreted by Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Mycobacterium bovis, or BCG have been identified as major immunodominant antigens. Mass spectrometry analysis indicated similar mannosylation, a complete pattern from 1 up to 9 hexose residues/mole of protein, of the native species from the 3 reference strains. The recombinant antigen expressed in M. smegmatis revealed a different mannosylation pattern: species containing 7 to 9 sugar residues/mole of protein were in the highest proportion, whereas species bearing a low number of sugar residues were almost absent. The 45/47-kDa recombinant antigen expressed in E. coli was devoid of sugar residues. The proteins purified from M. tuberculosis, M. bovis, or BCG have a high capacity to elicit in vivo potent delayed-type hypersensitivity (DTH) reactions and to stimulate in vitro sensitized T lymphocytes of guinea pigs immunized with living BCG. The recombinant Apa expressed in Mycobacterium smegmatis was 4-fold less potent in vivo in the DTH assay and 10-fold less active in vitro to stimulate sensitized T lymphocytes than the native proteins. The recombinant protein expressed in Escherichia coli was nearly unable to elicit DTH reactions in vivo or to stimulate T lymphocytes in vitro. Thus the observed biological effects were related to the extent of glycosylation of the antigen.