Population genomic evidence for plant glacial survival in Scandinavia

Quaternary glaciations have played a major role in shaping the genetic diversity and distribution of plant species. Strong palaeoecological and genetic evidence supports a postglacial recolonization of most plant species to northern Europe from southern, eastern and even western glacial refugia. Although highly controversial, the existence of small in situ glacial refugia in northern Europe has recently gained molecular support. We used genomic analyses to examine the phylogeography of a species that is critical in this debate. Carex scirpoidea Michx subsp. scirpoidea is a dioecious, amphi‐Atlantic arctic–alpine sedge that is widely distributed in North America, but absent from most of Eurasia, apart from three extremely disjunct populations in Norway, all well within the limits of the Weichselian ice sheet. Range‐wide population sampling and variation at 5,307 single nucleotide polymorphisms show that the three Norwegian populations comprise unique evolutionary lineages divergent from Greenland with high between‐population divergence. The Norwegian populations have low within‐population genetic diversity consistent with having experienced genetic bottlenecks in glacial refugia, and host private alleles that probably accumulated in long‐term isolated populations. Demographic analyses support a single, pre‐Weichselian colonization into Norway from East Greenland, and subsequent divergence of the three populations in separate refugia. Other refugial areas are identified in North‐east Greenland, Minnesota/Michigan, Colorado and Alaska. Admixed populations in British Columbia and West Greenland indicate postglacial contact. Taken together, evidence from this study strongly indicates in situ glacial survival in Scandinavia.     

Label‐free grading and staging of urothelial carcinoma through multimodal fibre‐probe spectroscopy

Urothelial carcinoma (UC) is the most common bladder tumour. Proper treatment requires tumour resection for diagnosing its grade (aggressiveness) and stage (invasiveness). White‐light cystoscopy and histopathological examination are the gold standard procedures for clinical and histopathological diagnostics, respectively. However, cystoscopy is limited in terms of specificity, histology requires long tissue processing, both procedures rely on operator's experience. Multimodal optical spectroscopy can provide a powerful tool for detecting, staging and grading bladder tumours in a fast, reliable and label‐free modality. In this study, we collected fluorescence, Raman and reflectance spectra from 50 biopsies obtained from 32 patients undergoing transurethral resection of bladder tumour using a multimodal fibre‐probe. Principal component analysis allowed distinguishing normal from pathological tissues, as well as discriminating tumour stages and grades. Each individual spectroscopic technique provided high specificity and sensitivity in classifying all tissues; however, a multimodal approach resulted in a considerable increase in diagnostic accuracy (≥95%), which is of paramount importance for tumour grading and staging. The presented method offers the potential for being applied in cystoscopy and for providing an automated diagnosis of UC at the clinical level, with an improvement with respect to current state‐of‐the‐art procedures.      

In situ diode laser fenestration: An ex‐vivo evaluation of irradiation effects on human aortic tissue

The in situ laser fenestration is an interesting option for the endovascular treatment of short‐necked aneurysms with an intraoperative modification of a standard endograft. According to literature evidence, diode laser emitting in the near‐infrared wavelength (810 nm) can be successfully used to fenestrate the endograft fabric. This paper describes a three‐dimensional navigation system for the accurate targeting of the fenestration site, then reports results of an ex vivo study to assess whether the laser operative conditions, which ensure the fabric fenestration, are harmless for the biological tissue surrounding the endoprosthesis. Two hundred twenty‐five samples of human aorta, including healthy specimens and abdominal aortic aneurysm samples, were irradiated ex vivo using a 810 nm diode laser. Energy and pulse duration were varied. Irradiated tissues were fixed in formaldehyde, sectioned and subjected to histological examination. Only 7.5% of the irradiated samples exhibited a thermal damage, which was always confined to the contact point between the laser fiber tip and the aortic wall. These experiments suggest that the diode laser can be safely used for the proposed surgical application.     

Involvement of the Adhesion GPCRs Latrophilins in the Regulation of Insulin Release

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Synthesis of triazole-linked pseudo-starch fragments

Rapid assembly of starch fragment analogues was achieved using 'click chemistry'. Specifically, a pentadecasaccharide and two hexadecasaccharide mimics containing two parallel maltoheptaosyl chains linked via [1,2,3]-triazoles to glucose or maltose core were synthesised using Cu(I)-catalyzed [3+2] dipolar cycloaddition of azidosaccharides and 4,6-di-O-propargylated methyl alpha-d-glucopyranoside and 6,6'- and 4',6'-di-O-propargylated p-methoxyphenyl beta-maltoside.     

Structural and functional fingerprint of the mitochondrial ATP-binding cassette transporter Mdl1 from Saccharomyces cerevisiae

The ATP-binding cassette half-transporter Mdl1 from Saccharomyces cerevisiae has been proposed to be involved in the quality control of misassembled respiratory chain complexes by exporting degradation products generated by the m-AAA proteases from the matrix. Direct functional or structural data of the transport complex are, however, not known so far. After screening expression in various hosts, Mdl1 was overexpressed 100-fold to 1% of total mitochondrial membrane protein in S. cerevisiae. Based on detergent screens, Mdl1 was solubilized and purified to homogeneity. Mdl1 showed a high binding affinity for MgATP (Kd = 0.26 microm) and an ATPase activity with a Km of 0.86 mm (Hill coefficient of 0.98) and a turnover rate of 2.6 ATP/s. Mutagenesis of the conserved glutamate downstream of the Walker B motif (E599Q) or the conserved histidine of the H-loop (H631A) abolished ATP hydrolysis, whereas ATP binding was not affected. Mdl1 reconstituted into liposomes showed an ATPase activity similar to the solubilized complex. By single particle electron microscopy, a first three-dimensional structure of the mitochondrial ATP-binding cassette transporter was derived at 2.3-nm resolution, revealing a homodimeric complex in an open conformation.