The Microbiome of the Red Sea Coral Stylophora pistillata Is Dominated by Tissue-Associated Endozoicomonas Bacteria

Endozoicomonas bacteria were found highly associated with the coral Stylophora pistillata, and these bacteria are also ubiquitously associated with diverse corals worldwide. Novel Endozoicomonas-specific probes revealed that Endozoicomonas bacteria were abundant in the endodermal tissues of S. pistillata and appear to have an intimate relationship with the coral.     

Subdural Haematoma and Effusion in Infancy

Analysis of 116 cases of subdural haematoma and effusion in infancy showed that in 40% trauma was involved and in 5% meningitis was an aetiological factor; in the remainder there was no known antecedent disease. Apart from retinal or subhyaloid haemorrhages there were no clinical features pathognomonic of the condition, though vomiting was the commonest presenting symptom and a tense fontanelle the commonest finding on examination. Treatment by subdural pleural shunt operation, which allows the fluid to drain into the chest, where it is absorbed, was found to be effective, and there is no longer any justification for the older method of removal of the subdural membrane by craniotomy.     

Induction and recovery of copy number variation in banana through gamma irradiation and low‐coverage whole‐genome sequencing

Traditional breeding methods are hindered in bananas due to the fact that major cultivars are sterile, parthenocarpic, triploid and thus clonally propagated. This has resulted in a narrow genetic base and limited resilience to biotic and abiotic stresses. Mutagenesis of in vitro propagated bananas is one method to introduce novel alleles and broaden genetic diversity. We previously established a method for the induction and recovery of single nucleotide mutations generated with the chemical mutagen EMS. However, officially released mutant banana varieties have been created using gamma rays, a mutagen that can produce large genomic insertions and deletions (indels). Such dosage mutations may be important for generating observable phenotypes in polyploids. In this study, we establish a low‐coverage whole‐genome sequencing approach in triploid bananas to recover large genomic indels caused by treatment with gamma irradiation. We first evaluated the commercially released mutant cultivar ‘Novaria’ and found that it harbours multiple predicted deletions, ranging from 0.3 to 3.8 million base pairs (Mbp). In total, predicted deletions span 189 coding regions. To evaluate the feasibility of generating and maintaining new mutations, we developed a pipeline for mutagenesis and screening for copy number variation in Cavendish bananas using the cultivar ‘Williams’. Putative mutations were recovered in 70% of lines treated with 20 Gy and 60% of the lines treated with 40 Gy. While deletion events predominate, insertions were identified in 20 Gy‐treated material. Based on these results, we believe this approach can be scaled up to support large breeding projects.     

Survival and the HL-A System in Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia

The relation between the HL-A antigens and survival has been studied in 58 patients with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia. Patients with the HL-A9 antigen had the best estimated median survival times, the highest ratio of survivors to non-survivors, and the lowest median age at diagnosis. The data suggest that resistance to acute lymphoblastic leukaemia may be associated with the HL-A9 antigen.     

Icreased drug permeability in Chinese hamster ovary cells in the presence of cyanide

In this report we investigated whether the modulation of drug permeability in Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells was an energy-dependent process. We observed that (1) in the absence of glucose, metabolic inhibitors such as cyanide, azide, and dinitrophenol stimulated the uptake of [³H]colchicine and other drug; (2) cyanide-induced stimulation of drug uptake could be prevented by the presence of metabolizable sugars such as glucose and ribose; (3) cyanide-treated cells were fully viable; (4) on the addition of cyanide and glucose the kinetics of drug permeability changes were very rapid. These data are consistent with the hypothesis that an energy-dependent membrane barrier against the uptake of a variety of drugs was operative in CHO cells.The nature of this energy-dependent membrane barrier was examined in colchicine-resistant mutants (CH^RC4 and CH^RC5 cells) previously characterized as membrane mutants with greatly reduced drug permeability (Ling and Thompson, (1974) J. Cell Physiol. 83, 103–116). The mutants were more refractile to the cyanide-induced stimulation of drug permeability but more sensitive to the glucose prevention cyanide-induction. In the presence of cyadine, the uptake rate of [³H] colchicine by CH^RC4 cells increased by about 100-fold and approached a rate similar to that of wild-type cells. These results suggest that the colchicine-resistant mutants may be altered in their energy-dependent modulation of drug permeability.     

Karyotype variation of CHO host cell lines over time in culture characterized by chromosome counting and chromosome painting

Genomic rearrangements are a common phenomenon in rapidly growing cell lines such as Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells, a feature that in the context of production of biologics may lead to cell line and product instability. Few methods exist to assess such genome wide instability. Here, we use the population distribution of chromosome numbers per cell as well as chromosome painting to quantify the karyotypic variation in several CHO host cell lines. CHO‐S, CHO‐K1 8 mM glutamine, and CHO‐K1 cells adapted to grow in media containing no glutamine were analyzed over up to 6 months in culture. All three cell lines were clearly distinguishable by their chromosome number distribution and by the specific chromosome rearrangements that were present in each population. Chromosome Painting revealed a predominant karyotype for each cell line at the start of the experiment, completed by a large number of variants present in each population. Over time in culture, the predominant karyotype changed for CHO‐S and CHO‐K1, with the diversity increasing and new variants appearing, while CHO‐K1 0 mM Gln preferred chromosome pattern increased in percent of the population over time. As control, Chinese hamster lung fibroblasts were shown to also contain an increasing number of variants over time in culture.     

Life cycle assessment capacity roadmap (section 1): decision-making support using LCA

When life cycle assessment (LCA) results do not show a clear and certain environmental preference of one choice over one or several alternatives, current methods are limited in their ability to inform decision-makers. To address this and related cross-cutting issues, a group of LCA practitioners has been working on a roadmap for capacity development in LCA. The roadmap is identifying common needs for development in LCA, which can then be addressed by the broader LCA community. The roadmap document on decision-making support, having undergone a public comment period, outlines the current state as well as needs and milestones to ensure progress continues apace. The roadmap document, available for download, covers five main areas of development: (1) performance measures of confidence, which identify the acceptable uncertainty for study results, while minimizing expenditures; (2) selection of impact categories, an area with multiple existing methods. The roadmap suggests codifying these methods and identifying their suitability to various applications; (3) normalization; while several methods of normalization are in use, the method with the greatest acceptance in the LCA community (i.e., relying on total or per capita regional emissions/extractions) has a number of methodological drawbacks; (4) weighting, which is a form of multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA). The broader MCDA field can enrich LCA by providing studied methods of assessing trade-offs; and (5) visualization of results. Many other LCA capacity needs would benefit from documentation. These include but are not limited to the following: addressing ill-characterized uncertainty, life cycle inventory data needs, data format needs, and tool capabilities. Other roadmapping groups are forming and are looking for practitioners to support the effort.