Assessment of movements and habitat use of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Salmo opimus</Emphasis> in Fırnız stream,river Ceyhan of Turkey using radio telemetry techniques

This study was carried out to provide information about movement and habitat use by an endemic Salmonid species (Salmo opimus Turan et al. Ichthyol Explor Freshw 23: 219–236, Turan et al. 2012) in F?rn?z Stream, a tributary of River Ceyhan in Turkey, using manual tracking as a radio telemetry technique. During the study, 19 of the 23 tagged trout were relocated by eight to 20 times (mean: 15 relocations per fish) in F?rn?z Stream. The time between the tracking surveys and relocations varied from 21 to 44 days (mean: 30 days) and the mean distance between relocations was 151 m (26 to 881 m). Tagged trout showed a distribution within a distance of 9350 m in F?rn?z Stream. 95% of the relocations clustered at a distance of 4500 m, while 75 and 50% of them were distributed at a distance of 1935 m and 1488 m, respectively. The linear home range of the individual ranged from 199 to 5087 m (mean 792 m), whereas mean 95% Kernel Density Home Range (KDHR), 75% KDHR, and mean core range (50% KDHR), were 632 m, 477 m and 290 m, respectively. The depths and velocities of the locations where tagged trout occurred varied from 20 to 185 cm (mean depth: 43 cm) and 11 to 240 cm/s (mean velocity: 45.9 cm/s). There was no correlation between fish size and depth and fish size and velocity. Hydropower stations and trout farms negatively affected movement of the brown trout in the stream. The fish passage in F?rn?z Hydropower Station (HPP) is inefficient due to low water mark downstream. Thus, all the obstructions that prevent fish movements must be arranged to enable fish passage in F?rn?z Stream in order to preserve the brown trout population in the stream.     

Lattice-based cryptosystems for the security of resource-constrained IoT devices in post-quantum world: a survey

Cluster Computing - The concept of the Internet of Things (IoT) arises due to the change in the characteristics and numbers of smart devices. Communication of things makes it important to ensure...     

The three-dimensional structure of in vitro reconstituted <Emphasis Type="Italic">Xenopus laevis</Emphasis> chromosomes by EM tomography

We have studied the in vitro reconstitution of sperm nuclei and small DNA templates to mitotic chromatin in Xenopus laevis egg extracts by three-dimensional (3D) electron microscopy (EM) tomography. Using specifically developed software, the reconstituted chromatin was interpreted in terms of nucleosomal patterns and the overall chromatin connectivity. The condensed chromatin formed from small DNA templates was characterized by aligned arrays of packed nucleosomal clusters having a typical 10-nm spacing between nucleosomes within the same cluster and a 30-nm spacing between nucleosomes in different clusters. A similar short-range nucleosomal clustering was also observed in condensed chromosomes; however, the clusters were smaller, and they were organized in 30- to 40-nm large domains. An analysis of the overall chromatin connectivity in condensed chromosomes showed that the 30–40-nm domains are themselves organized into a regularly spaced and interconnected 3D chromatin network that extends uniformly throughout the chromosomal volume, providing little indication of a systematic large-scale organization. Based on their topology and high degree of interconnectedness, it is unlikely that 30–40-nm domains arise from the folding of local stretches of nucleosomal fibers. Instead, they appear to be formed by the close apposition of more distant chromatin segments. By combining 3D immunolabeling and EM tomography, we found topoisomerase II to be randomly distributed within this network, while the stable maintenance of chromosomes head domain of condensin was preferentially associated with the 30–40-nm chromatin domains. These observations suggest that 30–40-nm domains are essential for establishing long-range chromatin associations that are central for chromosome condensation. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi ) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

The effect of vitamin E and selenium combination in repairing fluoride-induced DNA damage to NRK-52E cells

Molecular Biology Reports - Prolonged and excessive fluoride exposure can lead to fluorosis. The kidney is one of the organs that are injured mostly due to fluoride-induced damage. Fluoride can...     

Myrtucommulone‐A Induces both Extrinsic and Intrinsic Apoptotic Pathways in Cancer Cells

Myrtucommulone‐A is the active compound derived from Myrtus communis. The molecular targets of myrtucommulone‐A is widely unknown, which impedes its potential therapeutic use. In this study, we demonstrated the cytotoxicity of MC‐A and its potential to induce apoptosis in cancer cells. Myrtucommulone‐A was also found to be antiproliferative and strongly inhibited cancer cell migration. Eighty four apoptotic pathway genes were used to assess the effect of myrtucommulone‐A on cancer cells. Myrtucommulone‐A mediated an increase in apoptotic genes including Fas, FasL, Gadd45a, Tnf, Tnfsf12, Trp53, and caspase 4. The increase in myrtucommulone‐A dose (25 μM versus 6.25 μM) also upregulated the expression of genes, which are involved mainly in apoptosis, regulation of apoptosis, role of mitochondria in apoptotic signaling, cytokine activity, and tumor necrosis factor signaling. Our data indicate that myrtucommulone‐A could be utilized as a potential therapeutic compound with its molecular targets in apoptotic pathways.     

Gene expression profiles of vitrified in vitro- and in vivo-derived bovine blastocysts

Vitrification is becoming a preferred method for pre‐implantation embryo cryopreservation. The objective of this study was to determine the differentially expressed genes of in vivo‐ and in vitro‐produced bovine embryos after vitrification. In vitro‐ (IVF) and in vivo‐derived (IVV) bovine blastocysts were identified as follows: in vitro‐produced fresh (IVF‐F), in vitro‐produced vitrified (IVF‐V), in vivo‐derived fresh (IVV‐F), in vivo‐derived vitrified (IVV‐V). The microarray results showed that 53 genes were differentially regulated between IVF and IVV, and 121 genes were differentially regulated between fresh and vitrified blastocysts (P < 0.05). There were 6, 268, 962, and 17 differentially regulated genes between IVF‐F × IVV‐F, IVF‐V × IVV‐V, IVF‐F × IVF‐V, and IVV‐F × IVV‐V, respectively (P < 0.05). While gene expression was significantly different between fresh and vitrified IVF blastocysts (P < 0.05), it was similar between fresh and vitrified IVV blastocysts. Significantly up‐regulated KEGG pathways included ribosome, oxidative phosphorylation, spliceosome, and oocyte meiosis in the fresh IVF blastocyst samples, while sphingolipid and purine metabolisms were up‐regulated in the vitrified IVF blastocyst. The results showed that in vitro bovine blastocyst production protocols used in this study caused no major gene expression differences compared to those of in vivo‐produced blastocysts. After vitrification, however, in vitro‐produced blastocysts showed major gene expression differences compared to in vivo blastocysts. This study suggests that in vitro‐produced embryos are of comparable quality to their in vivo counterparts. Vitrification of in vitro blastocysts, on the other hand, causes significant up‐regulation of genes that are involved in stress responses. Mol. Reprod. Dev. 79: 613–625, 2012. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Osteoprotegerin positively regulates hematopoietic progenitor cells

Osteoprotegerin (OPG), the soluble decoy receptor of RANKL is released by bone marrow osteoblasts and plays an important role in physiological osteoblastogenesis and pathological bone disease. In earlier studies, we have shown that generated stromal cell lines from the aorta-gonad-mesonephros (AGM)-region serving as good supporters of murine and human hematopoietic progenitor cell (HPC) expansion highly express OPG detected by microarray analysis. Here, we investigated the role of OPG to HPC expansion in vitro. Addition of OPG leads to an enhanced expansion of HPC in liquid culture. In addition, progenitor cell function, measured by colony and cobblestone formation, was increased. The observed effects were partially antagonized by addition of RANKL. In conclusion, these findings suggest an important role of OPG maintaining progenitor cell function in the osteoblastic niche.     

Spatial organization of chromosomes in the salivary gland nuclei of Drosophila melanogaster

Using a computer-based system for model building and analysis, three-dimensional models of 24 Drosophila melanogaster salivary gland nuclei have been constructed from optically or physically sectioned glands, allowing several generalizations about chromosome folding and packaging in these nuclei. First and most surprising, the prominent coiling of the chromosomes is strongly chiral, with right-handed gyres predominating. Second, high frequency appositions between certain loci and the nuclear envelope appear almost exclusively at positions of intercalary heterochromatin; in addition, the chromocenter is always apposed to the envelope. Third, chromosomes are invariably separated into mutually exclusive spatial domains while usually extending across the nucleus in a polarized (Rabl) orientation. Fourth, the arms of each autosome are almost always juxtaposed, but no other relative arm positions are strongly favored. Finally, despite these nonrandom structural features, each chromosome is found to fold into a wide variety of different configurations. In addition, a set of nuclei has been analyzed in which the normally aggregrated centromeric regions of the chromosomes are located far apart from one another. These nuclei have the same architectural motifs seen in normal nuclei. This implies that such characteristics as separate chromosome domains and specific chromosome-nuclear envelope contacts are largely independent of the relative placement of the different chromosomes within the nucleus.     

Drosophila gastrulation: analysis of cell shape changes in living embryos by three-dimensional fluorescence microscopy.

The first event of Drosophila gastrulation is the formation of the ventral furrow. This process, which leads to the invagination of the mesoderm, is a classical example of epithelial folding. To understand better the cellular changes and dynamics of furrow formation, we examined living Drosophila embryos using three-dimensional time-lapse microscopy. By injecting fluorescent markers that visualize cell outlines and nuclei, we monitored changes in cell shapes and nuclear positions. We find that the ventral furrow invaginates in two phases. During the first 'preparatory' phase, many prospective furrow cells in apparently random positions gradually begin to change shape, but the curvature of the epithelium hardly changes. In the second phase, when a critical number of cells have begun to change shape, the furrow suddenly invaginates. Our results suggest that furrow formation does not result from an ordered wave of cell shape changes, contrary to a model for epithelial invagination in which a wave of apical contractions causes invagination. Instead, it appears that cells change their shape independently, in a stochastic manner, and the sum of these individual changes alters the curvature of the whole epithelium.