Regulation of the Expression of the Myosin Heavy Chain (MYH) Gene myh14 in Zebrafish Development

Marine Biotechnology - The human sarcomeric myosin heavy chain gene MYH14 contains an intronic microRNA, miR-499. Our previous studies demonstrated divergent genomic organization and expression...     

Assessing antigen specific HLA-DR+ antibody secreting cell (DR+ASC) responses in whole blood in enteric infections using an ELISPOT technique

Antibody secreting cells (ASCs) generate antibodies in an antigen-specific manner as part of the adaptive immune response to infections, and these cells increase their surface expression of HLA-DR. We have studied this parameter (HLA-DR+ ASC) in patients with recent diarrheal infection using immuno-magnetic cell sorting and an enzyme linked immunospot (ELISPOT) technique that requires only one milliliter of blood. We validated this approach in adult patients with cholera (n = 15) or ETEC diarrhea (n = 30) on days 2, 7 and 30 after showing clinical symptom at the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b) hospital in Dhaka, and we compared responses to age-matched healthy controls (n = 7). We found that HLA-DR+ ASC (DR+ASC) responses specific both for T cell-dependent (cholera toxin B subunit), and T cell-independent (lipopolysaccharide) antigens were elevated at day 7 after showing clinical cholera symptom. Similarly, DR+ASCs were elevated against both heat-labile toxin and colonization factors following ETEC infection. We observed significant correlations between antigen-specific DR+ASC responses and antigen-specific, gut homing ASC and plasma antibody responses. This study demonstrates that a simple ELISPOT procedure allows determination of antigen-specific ASC responses using a small volume of whole blood following diarrhea. This technique may be particularly useful in studying DR+ASC responses in young children and infants, either following infection or vaccination.     

Biochemical and morphological attributes of broiler kidney in response to dietary glucocorticoid,dexamethasone

Glucocorticoids (GCs) initiate oxidative stress and cause renal damage which lead to hypertension, heart failure and ultimately death. The current study aimed to investigate the alterations in serum biochemical parameters i.e. HDL and LDL; gross anatomy, histomorphology and histomorphometry of broiler kidney in response to dietary GC, dexamethasone (DEX). Day old chicks (DOCs) were randomly assigned into four groups: control and three treatment groups (T1, T2 and T3). The control group was fed commercial broiler type ration and the treated groups were fed commercial broiler type ration containing GC (Dexamethasone @ 3, 5 and 7 mg/kg in T1, T2 and T3 group respectively). To measure the biochemical parameters, blood samples were collected on days 7, 14, 21, and 28 of the experiment. For histological investigation, kidney (left) samples were collected from the individual birds after sacrificing on days 7, 14, 21, and 28 of the experiment. Histomorphological alterations of the kidney were assessed by routine hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining. Biochemical analysis showed significantly increased serum HDL and LDL level compared to the control. In gross study, dark congested kidney was found with significantly decreased weight, length and width. Treatment with DEX augmented congestion, inflammation and fibrosis in kidney, as evidence by histomorphometric study. Extensively degenerated and atrophied glomeruli, degenerated tubular epithelium with distorted tubules and inter tubular empty spaces were seen. Percentage of atrophied glomeruli increased significantly and maximum percentage of glomerular atrophy was seen at day 28. These changes were found more explicitly in the higher dose group. Histomorphometric study also revealed significant decrease in the diameter of glomerulus. The findings of this study suggest that DEX may alter the serum biochemical parameters as well as kidney gross and histomorphology.     

Individual and Combined Effects of Arsenic and Lead on Behavioral and Biochemical Changes in Mice

Arsenic (As) toxicity has caused an environmental tragedy affecting millions of people in the world. Little is known about the toxic effects of As on neurobehavioral and biochemical changes in vivo. Along this line of metal toxicity, co-exposure of lead (Pb) could aggravate the situation in the host. The present study was designed to explore the combined effects of As and Pb on behavioral changes like anxiety, spatial memory and learning impairment, and blood indices related to organ dysfunction. Exposure of mice to As (10 mg/kg body weight), Pb (10 mg/kg body weight), and As + Pb via drinking water significantly decreased the time spent exploring the open arms while it increased the time spent in the closed arms compared to control mice in the elevated plus maze. The mean latency time of the control group to find the platform decreased significantly during the learning for 7 days compared to all three treated groups in the Morris water maze test, and the As-exposed group spent significantly less time in the desired quadrant as compared to the control group in the probe trial. Both metals posed an anxiety-like behavior and deficits in spatial memory and learning, and also altered blood indices related to liver and kidney dysfunction, and a combined exposure of these metals inhibited the individual accumulation of As and Pb. Taken together, these data suggest that As has more toxic effects on neurobehavioral and biochemical changes than Pb, and there may be antagonism in the effects and accumulation between these two toxicants.     

Comparative proteomic approach to identify proteins involved in flooding combined with salinity stress in soybean

Salinity together with waterlogging or flooding, a condition that occurs frequently in the field, can cause severe damage to crops. Combined flooding and salinity decreases the growth and survival of plants more than either stress alone. We report here the first proteomic analysis to investigate the global effects of saline flooding on multiple metabolic pathways. Soybean seedlings at the emergence (VE) stage were treated with 100 mM NaCl and flooded with water or 100 mM sodium chloride solution for 2 days. Proteins were extracted from hypocotyl and root samples and analyzed by two-dimensional gel electrophoresis followed by MALDI-TOF, MALDI-TOF/TOF mass spectrometry or immunoblotting. A total of 43 reproducibly resolved, differentially expressed protein spots visualized by Coomassie brilliant blue staining were identified by MALDI-TOF MS. Identities of several proteins were also validated by MS/MS analysis or immunoblot analysis. Twenty-nine proteins were upregulated, eight proteins were downregulated and six spots were newly induced. The identified proteins include well-known salt and flooding induced proteins as well as novel proteins expressed by the salinity-flooding combined stress. The comparative analysis identified changes at the proteome level that are both specific and part of a common or shared response. The identification of such differentially expressed proteins provides new targets for future studies that will allow assessment of their physiological roles and significance in the response of glycophytes to a combination of flooding and salinity.     

MPDB 1.0: a medicinal plant database of Bangladesh

The term of medicinal plants include a various types of plants used in herbalism with medicinal activities. These plants are considered as rich resources of ingredients which can be used as complementary and alternative medicines and, also in drug developments and synthesis. In addition, some plants regarded as valuable origin of nutrition. Thus, all these plants are recommended as therapeutic agents. Information related to medicinal plants and herbal drugs accumulated over the ages are scattered and unstructured which make it prudent to develop a curated database for medicinal plants. MPDB 1.0 database is dedicated to provide the first window to find the plants around Bangladesh claimed to have medicinal and/or nutritive values by accumulating data from the published literatures. This database contains 406 medicinal plants with their corresponding scientific, family and local names as well as utilized parts for treatment from different districts of Bangladesh. Information regarding ailments is available for 353 plants. In addition, we have found active compounds for 78 plants with their corresponding PubMed ID.

Availability

www.medicinalplantbd.net     

Conserved antigenic sites between MERS-CoV and Bat-coronavirus are revealed through sequence analysis

Background

MERS-CoV is a newly emerged human coronavirus reported closely related with HKU4 and HKU5 Bat coronaviruses. Bat and MERS corona-viruses are structurally related. Therefore, it is of interest to estimate the degree of conserved antigenic sites among them. It is of importance to elucidate the shared antigenic-sites and extent of conservation between them to understand the evolutionary dynamics of MERS-CoV.

Results

Multiple sequence alignment of the spike (S), membrane (M), enveloped (E) and nucleocapsid (N) proteins was employed to identify the sequence conservation among MERS and Bat (HKU4, HKU5) coronaviruses. We used various in silico tools to predict the conserved antigenic sites. We found that MERS-CoV shared 30 % of its S protein antigenic sites with HKU4 and 70 % with HKU5 bat-CoV. Whereas 100 % of its E, M and N protein’s antigenic sites are found to be conserved with those in HKU4 and HKU5.

Conclusion

This sharing suggests that in case of pathogenicity MERS-CoV is more closely related to HKU5 bat-CoV than HKU4 bat-CoV. The conserved epitopes indicates their evolutionary relationship and ancestry of pathogenicity.

     

Inhibitory effects of methylglyoxal on light-induced stomatal opening and inward K+ channel activity in Arabidopsis

Methylglyoxal (MG) is a reactive aldehyde derived by glycolysis. In Arabidopsis, MG inhibited light-induced stomatal opening in a dose-dependent manner. It significantly inhibited both inward-rectifying potassium (K(in)) channels in guard-cell protoplasts and an Arabidopsis K(in) channel, KAT1, heterologously expressed in Xenopus oocytes. Thus it appears that MG inhibition of stomatal opening involves MG inhibition of K(+) influx into guard cells.     

A Putative Leucine-Rich Repeat Receptor-Like Kinase of Jute Involved in Stress Response

A putative leucine-rich repeat receptor-like protein kinase (LRR-RLK) gene together with its 5′ and 3′ untranslated regions of jute (Corchorus olitorius L.) has been identified and sequenced. The gene is 3,371 bp long containing two exons and one intron. The coding sequence of the gene is 2,879 bp long encoding a peptide of 957 amino acids. The predicted protein contains several domains and motifs characteristic of a transmembrane protein kinase. It is complete with domains for an N-terminal leucine-rich repeat and a protein kinase core, an active site for serine/threonine protein kinase, an ATP binding conserved site and a transmembrane region. Expression of the gene is induced by low temperature, high salt concentration, dehydration, abscisic acid treatment, and fungal infection, suggesting the involvement of the gene in multiple stress response pathways in jute (C. olitorius L.). A possible mechanism of the role of the gene in signal transduction and environmental stress response is discussed. To date, LRR-RLK is the only jute gene which has been completely sequenced and characterized.