Root Structure Indicates the Ability of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Heracleum sosnowskyi</Emphasis> To Absorb Resources Quickly under Optimum Soil Conditions

The structure of the root systems and roots of the invasive plant Heracleum sosnowskyi and the local species H. sibiricum have been compared in three habitats of the southern taiga subzone by the standard methods of plant morphology and anatomy. Differences in the structure of the root systems and roots of H. sosnowskyi and H. sibiricum ensuring the ability of the invasive species to absorb resources under optimum soil conditions have been revealed. These are the occurrence frequency of ephemeral roots, the number of orders of root branching, the size of absorbing roots, and the development of xylem elements.     

Unrecognised cardiovascular disease in type 2 diabetes: is it time to act earlier?

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the most significant prognostic factor in individuals with type 2 diabetes (T2D). However, a significant number of individuals may develop CVD that does not present with the classic angina-related or heart failure symptoms. In these cases, CVD may seem to be ‘silent’ or ‘asymptomatic’, but may be more accurately characterised as unrecognised diabetic cardiac impairment. An initial step to raise awareness of unrecognised CVD in individuals with T2D would be to reach a consensus regarding the terminology used to describe this phenomenon. By standardising the terminologies, and agreeing on the implementation of an efficient screening program, it is anticipated that patients will receive an earlier diagnosis and appropriate and timely treatment. Given the availability of anti-diabetic medications that have been shown to concomitantly reduce CV risk and mortality, it is imperative to improve early identification and initiate treatment as soon as possible in order to enable as many patients with T2D as possible to benefit.     

Effect of Panavir on influenza A virus reproduction]

Mitogenic properties of panavir, as well as its effect on the grippe virus reproduction in cell systems in vitro and the effect on the survival of mice with the experimental grippe infection were studied. It was shown that panavir had no cytotoxic action whereas it was characterized by pronounced mitogenic activity and subsequently could be considered as a perspective immunomodulator. Under in vitro conditions with the use of relatively high doses for the cell contamination with the grippe virus, panavir lowered the virus production in the cell systems. When the contaminating doses were low, panavir inhibited the virus production detected at the early stages of the infection. In the in vivo studies on mice with the experimental grippe infection panavir showed antigrippe activity against both the romantadine resistant and the remantadine nonresistant populations of the grippe A virus.     

“Microbiological aging” by Mechnikov. How to interpret these ideas today?

Mechnikov’s hypothesis that the key to prolongation of life lies in the introduction of useful microflora to the gut was not proved. Any microflora needs nutrition and perceives the human body only as a nutrient substrate. Destruction of the basement membranes, that delimit the epithelium contacting with aggressive microbiological environment from the deeper parts of the body, can lead to chronic inflammatory diseases and aging of the skin as a consequence of invasion of microorganisms. At the ultrastructural level this has been shown by the example of prostatitis and skin aging changes. Coupled with the penetration of germs, a flux of immune cells may cause autoimmune reactions due to abrupt changes in the molecular design during intermembrane transport. Thus, the physiological process of macroorganism aging can be viewed as a consequence of its microbiological destruction.     

Association of T-786C polymorphism of endothelial nitric oxide synthase 3 gene with the functional state of the myocardium in patients with ischemic heart disease combined with type 2 diabetes mellitus

The association of polymorphism T-786C of the endothelial NO-synthase gene NOS3 with the functional state of the left ventricle (LV) was studied among residents of the West Siberian region with ischemic heart disease (IHD), including that combined with diabetes mellitus type 2 (DMT2). Carriers of genotype–786TT had the greatest ejection fraction of the left ventricle in the group of patients without DMT2 (p = 0.012). This dependence was not revealed in the group of patients with IHD combined with DMT2. In the group with genotype–786TC, the frequency of left ventricular hypertrophy was higher among patients with DMT2 than patients without it (p = 0.025). There was no association between NOS3T–786C polymorphism and the severity of functional class of heart failure in both the groups.     

The E3 ubiquitin ligase NEDD4 is an LC3-interactive protein and regulates autophagy

The MAP1LC3/LC3 family plays an essential role in autophagosomal biogenesis and transport. In this report, we show that the HECT family E3 ubiquitin ligase NEDD4 interacts with LC3 and is involved in autophagosomal biogenesis. NEDD4 binds to LC3 through a conserved WXXL LC3-binding motif in a region between the C2 and the WW2 domains. Knockdown of NEDD4 impaired starvation- or rapamycin-induced activation of autophagy and autophagosomal biogenesis and caused aggregates of the LC3 puncta colocalized with endoplasmic reticulum membrane markers. Electron microscopy observed gigantic deformed mitochondria in NEDD4 knockdown cells, suggesting that NEDD4 might function in mitophagy. Furthermore, SQSTM1 is ubiquitinated by NEDD4 while LC3 functions as an activator of NEDD4 ligase activity. Taken together, our studies define an important role of NEDD4 in regulation of autophagy.     

Integrated metagenomic and metaproteomic analyses of marine biofilm communities

Metagenomic and metaproteomic analyses were utilized to determine the composition and function of complex air–water interface biofilms sampled from the hulls of two US Navy destroyers. Prokaryotic community analyses using PhyloChip-based 16S rDNA profiling revealed two significantly different and taxonomically rich biofilm communities (6,942 taxa) in which the majority of unique taxa were ascribed to members of the Gammaproteobacteria, Alphaproteobacteria and Clostridia. Although metagenomic sequencing indicated that both biofilms were dominated by prokaryotic sequence reads (> 91%) with the majority of the bacterial reads belonging to the Alphaproteobacteria, the Ship-1 metagenome harbored greater organismal and functional diversity and was comparatively enriched for sequences from Cyanobacteria, Bacteroidetes and macroscopic eukaryotes, whereas the Ship-2 metagenome was enriched for sequences from Proteobacteria and microscopic photosynthetic eukaryotes. Qualitative liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry metaproteome analyses identified 678 unique proteins, revealed little overlap in species and protein composition between the ships and contrasted with the metagenomic data in that ~80% of classified and annotated proteins were of eukaryotic origin and dominated by members of the Bacillariophyta, Cnidaria, Chordata and Arthropoda (data deposited to the ProteomeXchange, identifier PXD000961). Within the shared metaproteome, quantitative ¹⁸O and iTRAQ analyses demonstrated a significantly greater abundance of structural proteins from macroscopic eukaryotes on Ship-1 and diatom photosynthesis proteins on Ship-2. Photosynthetic pigment composition and elemental analyses confirmed that both biofilms were dominated by phototrophic processes. These data begin to provide a better understanding of the complex organismal and biomolecular composition of marine biofilms while highlighting caveats in the interpretation of stand-alone environmental ‘-omics’ datasets.