Expression profiling of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Crambe abyssinica</Emphasis>under arsenate stress identifies genes and gene networks involved in arsenic metabolism and detoxification

Background  

Arsenic contamination is widespread throughout the world and this toxic metalloid is known to cause cancers of organs such as liver, kidney, skin, and lung in human. In spite of a recent surge in arsenic related studies, we are still far from a comprehensive understanding of arsenic uptake, detoxification, and sequestration in plants. Crambe abyssinica, commonly known as 'abyssinian mustard', is a non-food, high biomass oil seed crop that is naturally tolerant to heavy metals. Moreover, it accumulates significantly higher levels of arsenic as compared to other species of the Brassicaceae family. Thus, C. abyssinica has great potential to be utilized as an ideal inedible crop for phytoremediation of heavy metals and metalloids. However, the mechanism of arsenic metabolism in higher plants, including C. abyssinica, remains elusive.     

A yeast's eye view of mammalian reproduction: cross-species gene co-expression in meiotic prophase

Background  

Meiotic prophase is a critical stage in sexual reproduction. Aberrant chromosome recombination during this stage is a leading cause of human miscarriages and birth defects. However, due to the experimental intractability of mammalian gonads, only a very limited number of meiotic genes have been characterized. Here we aim to identify novel meiotic genes important in human reproduction through computational mining of cross-species and cross-sex time-series expression data from budding yeast, mouse postnatal testis, mouse embryonic ovary, and human fetal ovary.     

Calculation of accurate small angle X-ray scattering curves from coarse-grained protein models

Background  

Genome sequencing projects have expanded the gap between the amount of known protein sequences and structures. The limitations of current high resolution structure determination methods make it unlikely that this gap will disappear in the near future. Small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) is an established low resolution method for routinely determining the structure of proteins in solution. The purpose of this study is to develop a method for the efficient calculation of accurate SAXS curves from coarse-grained protein models. Such a method can for example be used to construct a likelihood function, which is paramount for structure determination based on statistical inference.     

Chronic exposure to inhaled anesthetics increases cholesterol content in Acholeplasma laidlawii

Acholeplasma laidlawii cells were grown in cholesterol-enriched medium and exposed continuously to either air (control), 4.0 vol.% halothane in air at 1 atm pressure (4% atm halothane), or 80% cyclopropane in oxygen for 24 h at 37°C. Cells grown in the presence of 4% atm halothane or 80% cyclopropane had approximately twice as much membrane cholesterol content/mg protein as the control cells. Cells grown in an anesthetic environment also tended to have a higher membrane cholesterol/phospholipid molar ratio compared to control cells. Membranes isolated from halothane-exposed cells grown in a cholesterol-enriched medium were more ordered at 37°C (measurements were made with no anesthetic present) than membranes from control cells grown in an identically enriched medium. This difference in membrane physical state between control and anesthetic-exposed cells decreased as the temperature decreased, and disappeared at approx. 23°C. Continuous exposure of A. laidlawii to 4% atm halothane or 80% cyclopropane for 24 h did not markedly affect membrane fatty acid composition, either in cells grown on an unsupplemented medium or in cells grown in a medium enriched in myristic, palmitic or stearic acids. These results further support the hypothesis that an increased membrane cholesterol content may play a role in the tolerance or dependence that develops after chronic exposure to anesthetic agents.     

UDP-Gal: <Emphasis Type="Italic">N</Emphasis>-acetylglucosamine β 1–4 galactosyltransferase expressing live attenuated parasites as vaccine for visceral leishmaniasis

As compared to cutaneous leishmaniasis, vaccination against visceral leishmaniasis (VL) has received limited attention. In this study, we demonstrate for the first time that an UDP-Galactose: N-acetylglucosamine β 1–4 galactosyltransferase (GenBank Accession No. EF159943) expressing attenuated LD clonal population (A-LD) is able to confer protection against the experimental challenge with the virulent LD AG83 parasite. A-LD was also effective in established leishmania infection. The vaccinated animals showed both cell mediated (in vitro T-cell proliferation, and DTH response) and humoral responses (Th1 type). These results demonstrate the potential of the attenuated clones as an immunotherapeutic and immunoprophylactic agent against visceral leishmaniasis.