Calf development and mother-calf spatial relationships in Southern right whales

Changes in spatial relationships between mother and calf right whales (Eubalaena australis) from birth to the separation of yearling calves from their mothers were observed. During the first few weeks of a calf's life, mother and calf were within close proximity over 90% of the time, and mothers were responsible for maintenance of contact with their infants. Later calves strayed farther and initiated many more leaves and approaches than their quiescent mothers. The mothers still maintained contact with their infants. Just before migration away from the area, pair members resumed close proximity and leaves and approaches by both diminished. Yearling calves, returning to the area with their mothers after six months, stayed close to their mothers and few leaves and approaches by either pair member were recorded. The yearling calves were responsible for maintaining contact as the mothers left them more than approached them. This behaviour on the part of mothers probably contributed to weaning of yearlings and separation after a few weeks in the area.     

Vascular endothelial insulin/IGF-1 signaling controls skin wound vascularization

Type 2 diabetes mellitus affects 6% of western populations and represents a major risk factor for the development of skin complications, of which impaired wound healing, manifested in e.g. "diabetic foot ulcer", is most prominent. Impaired angiogenesis is considered a major contributing factor to these non-healing wounds. At present it is still unclear whether diabetes-associated wound healing and skin vascular dysfunction are direct consequences of impaired insulin/IGF-1 signaling, or secondary due to e.g. hyperglycemia. To directly test the role of vascular endothelial insulin signaling in the development of diabetes-associated skin complications and vascular function, we inactivated the insulin receptor and its highly related receptor, the IGF-1 receptor, specifically in the endothelial compartment of postnatal mice, using the inducible Tie-2CreERT (DKO(IVE)) deleter. Impaired endothelial insulin/IGF-1 signaling did not have a significant impact on endothelial homeostasis in the skin, as judged by number of vessels, vessel basement membrane staining intensity and barrier function. In contrast, challenging the skin through wounding strongly reduced neo-angiogenesis in DKO(IVE) mice, accompanied by reduced granulation tissue formation reduced. These results show that endothelial insulin/IGF signaling is essential for neo-angiogenesis upon wounding, and imply that reduced endothelial insulin/IGF signaling directly contributes to diabetes-associated impaired healing.     

Control of pollen-mediated gene flow in transgenic trees

Pollen elimination provides an effective containment method to reduce direct gene flow from transgenic trees to their wild relatives. Until now, only limited success has been achieved in controlling pollen production in trees. A pine (Pinus radiata) male cone-specific promoter, PrMC2, was used to drive modified barnase coding sequences (barnaseH102E, barnaseK27A, and barnaseE73G) in order to determine their effectiveness in pollen ablation. The expression cassette PrMC2-barnaseH102E was found to efficiently ablate pollen in tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum), pine, and Eucalyptus (spp.). Large-scale and multiple-year field tests demonstrated that complete prevention of pollen production was achieved in greater than 95% of independently transformed lines of pine and Eucalyptus (spp.) that contained the PrMC2-barnaseH102E expression cassette. A complete pollen control phenotype was achieved in transgenic lines and expressed stably over multiple years, multiple test locations, and when the PrMC2-barnaseH102E cassette was flanked by different genes. The PrMC2-barnaseH102E transgenic pine and Eucalyptus (spp.) trees grew similarly to control trees in all observed attributes except the pollenless phenotype. The ability to achieve the complete control of pollen production in field-grown trees is likely the result of a unique combination of three factors: the male cone/anther specificity of the PrMC2 promoter, the reduced RNase activity of barnaseH102E, and unique features associated with a polyploid tapetum. The field performance of the PrMC2-barnaseH102E in representative angiosperm and gymnosperm trees indicates that this gene can be used to mitigate pollen-mediated gene flow associated with large-scale deployment of transgenic trees.     

High-level production of 1,3-propanediol from crude glycerol by <Emphasis Type="Italic">Clostridium butyricum</Emphasis> AKR102a

The aim of this study was to optimize a biotechnological process for the production of 1,3-propanediol (1,3-PD) based on low-quality crude glycerol derived from biodiesel production. Clostridium butyricum AKR102a was used in fed-batch fermentations in 1-L and 200-L scale. The newly discovered strain is characterized by rapid growth, high product tolerance, and the ability to use crude glycerol at the lowest purity directly gained from a biodiesel plant side stream. Using pure glycerol, the strain AKR102 reached 93.7 g/L 1,3-PD with an overall productivity of 3.3 g/(L*h). With crude glycerol under the same conditions, 76.2 g/L 1,3-PD was produced with a productivity of 2.3 g/(L*h). These are among the best results published so far for natural producers. The scale up to 200 L was possible. Due to the simpler process design, only 61.5 g/L 1,3-PD could be reached with a productivity of 2.1 g/(L*h).     

Why do proteins use selenocysteine instead of cysteine?

Selenocysteine is present in a variety of proteins and catalyzes the oxidation of thiols to disulfides and the reduction of disulfides to thiols. Here, we compare the kinetic and thermodynamic properties of cysteine with its selenium-containing analogon, selenocysteine. Reactions of simple selenols at pH 7 are up to four orders of magnitude faster than their sulfur analogs, depending on reaction type. In redox-related proteins, the use of selenium instead of sulfur can be used to tune electrode, or redox, potentials. Selenocysteine could also have a protective effect in proteins because its one-electron oxidized product, the selanyl radical, is not oxidizing enough to modify or destroy proteins, whereas the cysteine-thiyl radical can do this very rapidly.     

Evidence against extracellular exposure of a highly immunogenic region in the C-terminal domain of the simian immunodeficiency virus gp41 transmembrane protein

The generally accepted model for human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) envelope glycoprotein topology includes a single membrane-spanning domain. An alternate model has been proposed which features multiple membrane-spanning domains. Consistent with the alternate model, a high percentage of HIV-1-infected individuals produce unusually robust antibody responses to a region of envelope, the so-called "Kennedy epitope," that in the conventional model should be in the cytoplasm. Here we show analogous, robust antibody responses in simian immunodeficiency virus SIVmac239-infected rhesus macaques to a region of SIVmac239 envelope located in the C-terminal domain, which in the conventional model should be inside the cell. Sera from SIV-infected rhesus macaques consistently reacted with overlapping oligopeptides corresponding to a region located within the cytoplasmic domain of gp41 by the generally accepted model, at intensities comparable to those observed for immunodominant areas of the surface component gp120. Rabbit serum raised against this highly immunogenic region (HIR) reacted with SIV envelope in cell surface-staining experiments, as did monoclonal anti-HIR antibodies isolated from an SIVmac239-infected rhesus macaque. However, control experiments demonstrated that this surface staining could be explained in whole or in part by the release of envelope protein from expressing cells into the supernatant and the subsequent attachment to the surfaces of cells in the culture. Serum and monoclonal antibodies directed against the HIR failed to neutralize even the highly neutralization-sensitive strain SIVmac316. Furthermore, a potential N-linked glycosylation site located close to the HIR and postulated to be outside the cell in the alternate model was not glycosylated. An artificially introduced glycosylation site within the HIR was also not utilized for glycosylation. Together, these data support the conventional model of SIV envelope as a type Ia transmembrane protein with a single membrane-spanning domain and without any extracellular loops.     

Copy number variations of 11 macronuclear chromosomes and their gene expression in Oxytricha trifallax

Genome-wide methylation studies frequently lack adequate controls to estimate proportions of background reads in the resulting datasets. To generate appropriate control pools, we developed technique termed nMETR (non-methylated tag recovery) based on digestion of genomic DNA with methylation-sensitive restriction enzyme, ligation of adapter oligonucleotide and PCR amplification of non-methylated sites associated with genomic repetitive elements. The protocol takes only two working days to generate amplicons for deep sequencing. We applied nMETR for human DNA using BspFNI enzyme and retrotransposon Alu-specific primers. 454-sequencing enabled identification of 1113 nMETR tag sites, of them ~65% were parts of CpG islands. Representation of reads inversely correlated with methylation levels, thus confirming nMETR fidelity. We created software that eliminates background reads and enables to map and annotate individual tags on human genome. nMETR tags may serve as the controls for large-scale epigenetic studies and for identifying unmethylated transposable elements located close to genomic CpG islands.