Use of the parallax-quench method to determine the position of the active-site loop of cholesterol oxidase in lipid bilayers

To elucidate the cholesterol oxidase-membrane bilayer interaction, a cysteine was introduced into the active site lid at position-81 using the Brevibacterium enzyme. To eliminate the possibility of labeling native cysteine, the single cysteine in the wild-type enzyme was mutated to a serine without any change in activity. The loop-cysteine mutant was then labeled with acrylodan, an environment-sensitive fluorescence probe. The fluorescence increased and blue-shifted upon binding to lipid vesicles, consistent with a change into a more hydrophobic, i.e., lipid, environment. This acrylodan-labeled cholesterol oxidase was used to explore the pH, ionic strength, and headgroup dependence of binding. Between pH 6 and 10, there was no significant change in binding affinity. Incorporation of anionic lipids (phosphatidylserine) into the vesicles did not increase the binding affinity nor did altering the ionic strength. These experiments suggested that the interactions are primarily driven by hydrophobic effects not ionic effects. Using vesicles doped with either 5-doxyl phosphatidylcholine, 10-doxyl phosphatidylcholine, or phosphatidyl-tempocholine, quenching of acrylodan fluorescence was observed upon binding. Using the parallax method of London [Chattopadhyay, A., and London, E. (1987) Biochemistry 26, 39-45], the acrylodan ring is calculated to be 8.1 +/- 2.5 A from the center of the lipid bilayer. Modeling the acrylodan-cysteine residue as an extended chain suggests that the backbone of the loop does not penetrate into the lipid bilayer but interacts with the headgroups, i.e., the choline. These results demonstrate that cholesterol oxidase interacts directly with the lipid bilayer and sits on the surface of the membrane.     

Pollination efficiencies of three bee (Hymenoptera: Apoidea) species visiting rabbiteye blueberry

Inadequate bee pollination limits rabbiteye blueberry, Vaccinium ashei Reade, production in the some areas of the southeastern United States. Honey bees, Apis mellifera L., are currently the only manageable pollinators available for pollinating V. ashei. However, a new adaptable pollinator for rabbiteye blueberry, Osmia ribifloris Cockerell, was successfully reared and flown in captivity. The bee nested successfully in wooden shelters and conferred superior fruit set to 2-yr-old potted, rabbiteye blueberry bushes. Pollination efficiency or the percentage of blueberry flowers to set fruit after being visited once by a female O. ribifloris was comparable to that of the female blueberry bee Habropoda laboriosa (F.) and worker honey bees. Interestingly, honey bees once thought to be inefficient pollinators of rabbiteye blueberry were found to be very efficient, especially for 'Climax' and 'Premier' flowers.     

Out of Africa and back again: nested cladistic analysis of human Y chromosome variation

We surveyed nine diallelic polymorphic sites on the Y chromosomes of 1,544 individuals from Africa, Asia, Europe, Oceania, and the New World. Phylogenetic analyses of these nine sites resulted in a tree for 10 distinct Y haplotypes with a coalescence time of approximately 150,000 years. The 10 haplotypes were unevenly distributed among human populations: 5 were restricted to a particular continent, 2 were shared between Africa and Europe, 1 was present only in the Old World, and 2 were found in all geographic regions surveyed. The ancestral haplotype was limited to African populations. Random permutation procedures revealed statistically significant patterns of geographical structuring of this paternal genetic variation. The results of a nested cladistic analysis indicated that these geographical associations arose through a combination of processes, including restricted, recurrent gene flow (isolation by distance) and range expansions. We inferred that one of the oldest events in the nested cladistic analysis was a range expansion out of Africa which resulted in the complete replacement of Y chromosomes throughout the Old World, a finding consistent with many versions of the Out of Africa Replacement Model. A second and more recent range expansion brought Asian Y chromosomes back to Africa without replacing the indigenous African male gene pool. Thus, the previously observed high levels of Y chromosomal genetic diversity in Africa may be due in part to bidirectional population movements. Finally, a comparison of our results with those from nested cladistic analyses of human mtDNA and beta-globin data revealed different patterns of inferences for males and females concerning the relative roles of population history (range expansions) and population structure (recurrent gene flow), thereby adding a new sex-specific component to models of human evolution.      

Geographic variation in the maturity and growth schedules of English sole along the U.S. west coast

Logistic regression analyses showed that the maturity v. length relationship for female English sole Pleuronectes vetulus varied significantly among sampling locations from California to British Columbia in June–September. Stepwise analyses found that latitude, bottom gradient, bottom temperature and sediment type were all significant factors. Regression analyses of age at length from subsamples indicated that latitude, maturity and bottom sediment had significant effects on growth. Data from the aged subsamples showed significant differences among age classes in the length v. maturity relationship with older fish attaining maturity at smaller sizes than younger fish. On a coast wide basis the length and age at 50% maturity were c. 230 mm and 4·7 years respectively. Growth rate and length at 50% maturity have decreased substantially relative to observations from the 1950s, but age at 50% maturity has increased.     

Role of Maternal Dietary Peanut Exposure in Development of Food Allergy and Oral Tolerance

Background

The impact of maternal ingestion of peanut during pregnancy and lactation on an offspring’s risk for peanut allergy is under debate.

Objective

To investigate the influence of maternal dietary peanut exposure and breast milk on an offspring’s allergy risk.

Methods

Preconceptionally peanut-exposed C3H/HeJ females were either fed or not fed peanut during pregnancy and lactation. The offsprings’ responses to peanut sensitization or oral tolerance induction by feeding antigen prior to immunization were assessed. We also assessed the impact of immune murine milk on tolerance induction pre- or post-weaning. For antigen uptake studies, mice were gavaged with fluorescent peanut in the presence or absence of immune murine milk; Peyer’s patches were harvested for immunostaining.

Results

Preconceptional peanut exposure resulted in the production of varying levels of maternal antibodies in serum (and breast milk), which were transferred to the offspring. Despite this, maternal peanut exposure either preconceptionally or during pregnancy and lactation, when compared to no maternal exposure, had no impact on peanut allergy. When offspring were fed peanut directly, dose-dependent tolerance induction, unaltered by maternal feeding of peanut, was seen. Although peanut uptake into the gut-associated lymphoid tissues was enhanced by immune milk as compared to naïve milk, tolerance induction was not affected by the co-administration of immune milk either pre- or post-weaning.

Conclusion

Maternal peanut exposure during pregnancy and lactation has no impact on the development of peanut allergy in the offspring. Tolerance to peanut can be induced early, even pre-weaning, by giving moderate amounts of peanut directly to the infant, and this is neither enhanced nor impaired by concurrent exposure to immune milk.     

Generation of CAR T Cells for Adoptive Therapy in the Context of Glioblastoma Standard of Care

Adoptive T cell immunotherapy offers a promising strategy for specifically targeting and eliminating malignant gliomas. T cells can be engineered ex vivo to express chimeric antigen receptors specific for glioma antigens (CAR T cells). The expansion and function of adoptively transferred CAR T cells can be potentiated by the lymphodepletive and tumoricidal effects of standard of care chemotherapy and radiotherapy. We describe a method for generating CAR T cells targeting EGFRvIII, a glioma-specific antigen, and evaluating their efficacy when combined with a murine model of glioblastoma standard of care. T cells are engineered by transduction with a retroviral vector containing the anti-EGFRvIII CAR gene. Tumor-bearing animals are subjected to host conditioning by a course of temozolomide and whole brain irradiation at dose regimens designed to model clinical standard of care. CAR T cells are then delivered intravenously to primed hosts. This method can be used to evaluate the antitumor efficacy of CAR T cells in the context of standard of care.     

Limiting inbreeding in disjunct and isolated populations of a woody shrub

Pollen movements and mating patterns are key features that influence population genetic structure. When gene flow is low, small populations are prone to increased genetic drift and inbreeding, but naturally disjunct species may have features that reduce inbreeding and contribute to their persistence despite genetic isolation. Using microsatellite loci, we investigated outcrossing levels, family mating parameters, pollen dispersal, and spatial genetic structure in three populations of Hakea oldfieldii, a fire‐sensitive shrub with naturally disjunct, isolated populations prone to reduction in size and extinction following fires. We mapped and genotyped a sample of 102 plants from a large population, and all plants from two smaller populations (28 and 20 individuals), and genotyped 158–210 progeny from each population. We found high outcrossing despite the possibility of geitonogamous pollination, small amounts of biparental inbreeding, a limited number of successful pollen parents within populations, and significant correlated paternity. The number of pollen parents for each seed parent was moderate. There was low but significant spatial genetic structure up to 10 m around plants, but the majority of successful pollen came from outside this area including substantial proportions from distant plants within populations. Seed production varied among seven populations investigated but was not correlated with census population size. We suggest there may be a mechanism to prevent self‐pollination in H. oldfieldii and that high outcrossing and pollen dispersal within populations would promote genetic diversity among the relatively small amount of seed stored in the canopy. These features of the mating system would contribute to the persistence of genetically isolated populations prone to fluctuations in size.