Lethal and sub-lethal effects of insecticides on natural enemies of citrus scale pests

Laboratory trials were conducted to test the side-effects of the insecticides chlorpyrifos-methyl, buprofezin, pyriproxifen, spinosad and a narrow range mineral oil on Aphytis melinus DeBach, Coccophagus lycimnia Walker (Hymenoptera: Aphelinidae) and Leptomastix dactylopii Howard (Hymenoptera: Encyrtidae). The effects of chlorpyrifos-methyl, spinosad and pyriproxifen were also investigated in semi-field conditions on L. dactylopii. Contact toxicity on adult female parasitoids after 24, 48 and 72 h, the effects on their fertility as well as the sex ratio of the progeny were measured. In the laboratory trials chlorpyrifos-methyl and spinosad caused 100% mortality on all tested parasitoids just 24 h after the treatment. According to the IOBC classification, the mineral oil was slightly harmful on L. dactylopii; buprofezin was harmful on C. lycimnia, and slightly harmful on L. dactylopii and A. melinus; pyriproxifen resulted moderately harmful on C. lycimnia and slightly harmful on L. dactylopii and A. melinus. The progeny production of each L. dactylopii surviving female treated with buprofezin was not affected by the treatment while in the case of A. melinus it was significantly reduced. C. lycimnia females treated with pyriproxifen did not produce any progeny. In semi-field conditions the tested insecticides were less harmful to L. dactylopii adults but, although none of them influenced the progeny production of the survived females, the longevity was negatively affected.     

Investigation of Synaptic Tagging/Capture and Cross-capture using Acute Hippocampal Slices from Rodents

Synaptic tagging and capture (STC) and cross-tagging are two important mechanisms at cellular level that explain how synapse-specificity and associativity is achieved in neurons within a specific time frame. These long-term plasticity-related processes are the leading candidate models to study the basis of memory formation and persistence at the cellular level. Both STC and cross-tagging involve two serial processes: (1) setting of the synaptic tag as triggered by a specific pattern of stimulation, and (2) synaptic capture, whereby the synaptic tag interacts with newly synthesized plasticity-related proteins (PRPs). Much of the understanding about the concepts of STC and cross-tagging arises from the studies done in CA1 region of the hippocampus and because of the technical complexity many of the laboratories are still unable to study these processes. Experimental conditions for the preparation of hippocampal slices and the recording of stable late-LTP/LTD are extremely important to study synaptic tagging/cross-tagging. This video article describes the experimental procedures to study long-term plasticity processes such as STC and cross-tagging in the CA1 pyramidal neurons using stable, long-term field-potential recordings from acute hippocampal slices of rats.     

Changes in the activities of S-adenosylmethionine synthetase isozymes from rat liver with dietary methionine

The activities of S-adenosylmethionine synthetase isozymes in liver were measured after rats received a diet containing excess methionine. The activity of the alpha-form increased with increasing methionine content in the diet, and reached 4-5 fold after 6 days on a 3% methionine diet. However, the activity of the beta-form showed only a 1.5 fold increase. The activity of the gamma-form in kidney showed no significance change.     

Role of NRF2 cascade in determining the differential response of cervical cancer cells to anticancer drugs: an in vitro study

Molecular Biology Reports - Cervical cancers are usually treatable if detected in early stages by a combination of therapies. However, the prognosis of cervical cancer patients with metastasis...     

Phosphorylation of multifunctional nucleolar protein nucleophosmin (NPM1) by aurora kinase B is critical for mitotic progression

The functional association of NPM1 with Aurora kinases is well documented. Surprisingly, although NPM1 is a well characterized phosphoprotein, it is unknown whether it is a substrate of Aurora kinases. We have found that Aurora kinases A and B can phosphorylate NPM1 at a single serine residue, Ser125, in vitro and in vivo. Phosphorylated-S125-NPM1 (pS125-NPM1) localizes to the midbody region during late cytokinesis where it colocalizes with Aurora B. The overexpression of mutant (S125A) NPM1 resulted in the deregulation of centrosome duplication and mitotic defects possibly due to cytokinesis failure. These data suggest that Aurora kinase B-mediated phosphorylation of NPM1 plays a critical role during mitosis, which could have wider implications in oncogenesis.