Enzymatic Dehalogenation of Pentachlorophenol by <Emphasis Type="Italic">Pseudomonas fluorescens</Emphasis> of the Microbial Community from Tannery Effluent

Four different bacterial isolates obtained from a stable bacterial consortium were capable of utilizing pentachlorophenol (PCP) as sole carbon and energy source. The consortium was developed by continuous enrichment in the chemostat. The degradation of PCP by bacterial strain was preceded through an oxidative route as indicated by accumulation of tetrachloro-ρ-hydroquinone and dichlorohydroquinone as determined by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Among the four isolates, Pseudomonas fluorescens exhibited maximum degradation capability and enzyme production. PCP-monooxygenase enzyme was extracted from culture extract and fractionated by DEAE-cellulose ion exchange chromatography. The molecular weight of the enzyme, purified from Pseudomonas fluorescens, determined by sodium dodecyl sulphate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) and gel filtration chromatography was found to be 24,000 Da. Received: 22 July 2002 / Accepted: 23 September 2002     

Assay and inhibition of diacylglycerol lipase activity

A series of N-formyl-α-amino acid esters of β-lactone derivatives structurally related to tetrahydrolipstatin (THL) and O-3841 were synthesized that inhibit human and murine diacylglycerol lipase (DAGL) activities. New ether lipid reporter compounds were developed for an in vitro assay to efficiently screen inhibitors of 1,2-diacyl-sn-glycerol hydrolysis and related lipase activities using fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET). A standardized thin layer chromatography (TLC) radioassay of diacylglycerol lipase activity utilizing the labeled endogenous substrate [1″-(14)C]1-stearoyl-2-arachidonoyl-sn-glycerol with phosphorimaging detection was used to quantify inhibition by following formation of the initial product [1″-(14)C]2-arachidonoylglycerol and further hydrolysis under the assay conditions to [1-(14)C]arachidonic acid.     

Synthesis and biological evaluation of estradiol linked pyrrolo[2,1-c][1,4]benzodiazepine (PBD) conjugates as potential anticancer agents

A series of new estradiol linked pyrrolo[2,1-c][1,4]benzodiazepine (E(2)-PBD) conjugates (3a-f, 4a-f and 5a-f) with different linker architectures including a triazole moiety have been designed and synthesized. All the 18 compounds have been evaluated for their anticancer activity and it is observed that some of the compounds particularly 4c-e and 5c,d exhibited significant anticancer activity. The detailed biological aspects relating to the cell cycle effects and tubulin depolymerization activity have been examined with a view to understand the mechanism of action of these conjugates. Among all these conjugates, one of the compound 5c could be considered as the most effective compound particularly against MCF-7 breast cancer cell line.     

Androgen receptor status predicts response to chemotherapy, not risk of breast cancer in Indian women

Voltage gated potassium channels have been extensively studied in relation to cancer. In this review, we will focus on the role of two potassium channels, Ether à-go-go (Eag), Human ether à-go-go related gene (HERG), in cancer and their potential therapeutic utility in the treatment of cancer. Eag and HERG are expressed in cancers of various organs and have been implicated in cell cycle progression and proliferation of cancer cells. Inhibition of these channels has been shown to reduce proliferation both in vitro and vivo studies identifying potassium channel modulators as putative inhibitors of tumour progression. Eag channels in view of their restricted expression in normal tissue may emerge as novel tumour biomarkers.     

A novel LncRNA-based prognostic score reveals TP53-dependent subtype of lung adenocarcinoma with poor survival

The prognostic signatures play an essential role in the era of personalised therapy for cancer patients including lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD). Long noncoding RNA (LncRNA), a relatively novel class of RNA, has shown to play a crucial role in all the areas of cancer biology. Here, we developed and validated a robust LncRNA-based prognostic signature for LUAD patients using three different cohorts. In the discovery cohort, four LncRNAs were identified with 10% false discovery rate and a hazard ratio of >10 using univariate Cox regression analysis. A risk score, generated from the four LncRNAs’ expression, was found to be a significant predictor of survival in the discovery and validation cohort (p = 9.97 × 10 ⁻⁸ and 1.41 × 10 ⁻³, respectively). Further optimisation of four LncRNAs signature in the validation cohort, generated a three LncRNAs prognostic score (LPS), which was found to be an independent predictor of survival in both the cohorts ( p = 1.00 × 10 ⁻⁶ and 7.27 × 10 ⁻⁴, respectively). The LPS also significantly divided survival in clinically important subsets, including Stage I ( p = 9.00 × 10 ⁻⁴ and 4.40 × 10 ⁻², respectively), KRAS wild-type (WT), KRAS mutant ( p = 4.00 × 10 ⁻³ and 4.30 × 10 ⁻², respectively) and EGFR WT ( p = 2.00 × 10 ⁻⁴). In multivariate analysis LPS outperformed, eight previous prognosticators. Further, individual members of LPS showed a significant correlation with survival in microarray data sets. Mutation analysis showed that high-LPS patients have a higher mutation rate and inactivation of the TP53 pathway. In summary, we identified and validated a novel LncRNA signature LPS for LUAD.     

Characterization of contrasting genotypes reveals general physiological and molecular mechanisms of heat-stress adaptation in maize (Zea mays L.)

Physiology and Molecular Biology of Plants - In order to dissect the adaptation response of maize to heat-stress, we characterized and juxtaposed different physio-biochemical parameters for two...     

Expression of CspE by a Psychrotrophic Bacterium Enterobacter ludwigii PAS1, Isolated from Indian Himalayan Soil and In silico Protein Modelling, Prediction of Conserved Residues and Active Sites

Proteome analysis of Enterobacter ludwigii PAS1 provide a powerful set of tool to study the cold shock proteins along with that combination of bioinformatics is useful for interpretation of comparative results from many species. There is a considerable interest in the use of psychrotrophic bacteria for nitrogen fixation, especially at hilly regions, thus better understanding of cold adaptation mechanisms too. The psychrotrophic E. ludwigii PAS1 grown at 30 and 4 °C, isolated from Himalaya soil was undertaken for proteomic responses during optimal and cold shock conditions. Comparative proteomic analyses using two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2-DE) and MALDI-TOF/TOF MS revealed the presence of Cold shock protein E (CspE). Three-dimensional structure of CspE of E. ludwigii PAS1 divulge the presence of five antiparallel β-sheets forming a β-barrel structure with surface exposed aromatic and basic residues that were responsible for nucleic acid binding and also reveals the presence of highly conserved nucleic acid-binding motifs RNP1 and RNP2 in Csp family.     

A study on giant panda recognition based on images of a large proportion of captive pandas

1. As a highly endangered species, the giant panda (panda) has attracted significant attention in the past decades. Considerable efforts have been put on panda conservation and reproduction, offering the promising outcome of maintaining the population size of pandas. To evaluate the effectiveness of conservation and management strategies, recognizing individual pandas is critical. However, it remains a challenging task because the existing methods, such as traditional tracking method, discrimination method based on footprint identification, and molecular biology method, are invasive, inaccurate, expensive, or challenging to perform. The advances of imaging technologies have led to the wide applications of digital images and videos in panda conservation and management, which makes it possible for individual panda recognition in a noninvasive manner by using image‐based panda face recognition method.
2. In recent years, deep learning has achieved great success in the field of computer vision and pattern recognition. For panda face recognition, a fully automatic deep learning algorithm which consists of a sequence of deep neural networks (DNNs) used for panda face detection, segmentation, alignment, and identity prediction is developed in this study. To develop and evaluate the algorithm, the largest panda image dataset containing 6,441 images from 218 different pandas, which is 39.78% of captive pandas in the world, is established.
3. The algorithm achieved 96.27% accuracy in panda recognition and 100% accuracy in detection.
4. This study shows that panda faces can be used for panda recognition. It enables the use of the cameras installed in their habitat for monitoring their population and behavior. This noninvasive approach is much more cost‐effective than the approaches used in the previous panda surveys.

     

pSAT vectors: a modular series of plasmids for autofluorescent protein tagging and expression of multiple genes in plants

Autofluorescent protein tags represent one of the major and, perhaps, most powerful tools in modern cell biology for visualization of various cellular processes in vivo. In addition, advances in confocal microscopy and the development of autofluorescent proteins with different excitation and emission spectra allowed their simultaneous use for detection of multiple events in the same cell. Nevertheless, while autofluorescent tags are widely used in plant research, the need for a versatile and comprehensive set of vectors specifically designed for fluorescent tagging and transient and stable expression of multiple proteins in plant cells from a single plasmid has not been met by either the industrial or the academic communities. Here, we describe a new modular satellite (SAT) vector system that supports N- and C-terminal fusions to five different autofluorescent tags, EGFP, EYFP, Citrine-YFP, ECFP, and DsRed2. These vectors carry an expanded multiple cloning site that allows easy exchange of the target genes between different autofluorescence tags, and expression of the tagged proteins is controlled by constitutive promoters, which can be easily replaced with virtually any other promoter of interest. In addition, a series of SAT vectors has been adapted for high throughput Gateway recombination cloning. Furthermore, individual expression cassettes can be assembled into Agrobacterium binary plasmids, allowing efficient transient and stable expression of multiple autofluorescently tagged proteins from a single vector following its biolistic delivery or Agrobacterium-mediated genetic transformation. Electronic supplementary material Electronic supplementary material is available for this article at and accessible for authorised users.