Effect of germicidal UVC light on fungi isolated from grapes and raisins

AIMS: To examine how UVC affects the different genera of fungi commonly isolated from grapes, with the aim of understanding changes in mycobiota during grape ripening and possible applications for preventing grape decay during storage. METHODS AND RESULTS: Spores of Aspergillus carbonarius, Aspergillus niger, Cladosporium herbarum, Penicillium janthinellum and Alternaria alternata (between 100-250 spores/plate agar) were UVC irradiated for 0 (control), 10, 20, 30, 60, 300 and 600 s. Plates were incubated at 25 degrees C and colonies were counted daily up to 7 days. Alternaria alternata and Aspergillus carbonarius were the most resistant fungi. Conidial germination in these species was reduced by approx. 25% after 10 s of exposure, compared with greater than 70% reduction for the remaining species tested. Penicillium janthinellum spores were the most susceptible at this wavelength. UVC exposures of 300 s prevented growth of all isolates studied, except for Alternaria alternata. CONCLUSIONS: UVC irradiation plays a major role in selecting for particular fungi that dominate the mycobiota of drying grapes. SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT OF THE STUDY: The UVC irradiation of harvested grapes could prevent germination of contaminant fungi during storage or further dehydration.     

Brazilian green propolis on Helicobacter pylori infection. a pilot clinical study

Recent in vitro studies suggest that propolis and some of its phenolic components are able to inhibit Helicobacter pylori growth. To date, there are no clinical studies. AIMS: To evaluate the effect of Brazilian green propolis on H. pylori-infected individuals. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Eighteen (11 females, 7 males, mean age 47 years) participants were included. Before treatment, all participants were submitted to gastroscopy, and H. pylori infection was confirmed by histology, urease test, and (13)C-urea breath test (UBT). Participants with UBT showing a delta over baseline (DOB) value higher than 4 per thousand were considered positive for H. pylori infection. Twenty drops from an alcoholic preparation of Brazilian green propolis were administered three times a day for 7 days. Clinical evaluation and UBT were performed at 1-3 days and at 40 days after the end of therapy to evaluate H. pylori suppression or eradication, respectively. RESULTS: All participants took all medication and completed the study. Eighty-three percent of the subjects did not succeed in suppressing or eradicating H. pylori. Two participants reached partial suppression after treatment, but became positive again at UBT performed 40 days after treatment. Another participant presented negative at UBT 40 days after treatment, not confirmed by a second UBT performed 100 days after treatment. CONCLUSIONS: Brazilian green propolis used in popular dose showed minimal effect on H. pylori infection. Larger studies with longer duration, larger dose, and different frequency of administration of propolis extract should be undertaken to define its role on H. pylori therapy.     

Complex life cycles of multicellular eukaryotes: new approaches based on the use of model organisms

A wide variety of life cycles can be found in the different groups of multicellular eukaryotes. Here we provide an overview of this variety, and review some of the theoretical arguments that have been put forward to explain the evolutionary stability of different life cycle strategies. We also describe recent progress in the analysis of the haploid-diploid life cycle of the model angiosperm Arabidopsis thaliana and show how new molecular data are providing a means to test some of the theoretical predictions. Finally, we describe an emerging model organism from the brown algae, Ectocarpus siliculosus, and highlight the potential of this system for the investigation of the mechanisms that regulate complex life cycles.     

Time to match; when do homologous chromosomes become closer?

Chromosoma - In most eukaryotes, pairing of homologous chromosomes is an essential feature of meiosis that ensures homologous recombination and segregation. However, when the pairing process...     

Evolution and maintenance of haploid–diploid life cycles in natural populations: The case of the marine brown alga Ectocarpus

The evolutionary stability of haploid–diploid life cycles is still controversial. Mathematical models indicate that niche differences between ploidy phases may be a necessary condition for the evolution and maintenance of these life cycles. Nevertheless, experimental support for this prediction remains elusive. In the present work, we explored this hypothesis in natural populations of the brown alga Ectocarpus. Consistent with the life cycle described in culture, Ectocarpus crouaniorum in NW France and E. siliculosus in SW Italy exhibited an alternation between haploid gametophytes and diploid sporophytes. Our field data invalidated, however, the long‐standing view of an isomorphic alternation of generations. Gametophytes and sporophytes displayed marked differences in size and, conforming to theoretical predictions, occupied different spatiotemporal niches. Gametophytes were found almost exclusively on the alga Scytosiphon lomentaria during spring whereas sporophytes were present year‐round on abiotic substrata. Paradoxically, E. siliculosus in NW France exhibited similar habitat usage despite the absence of alternation of ploidy phases. Diploid sporophytes grew both epilithically and epiphytically, and this mainly asexual population gained the same ecological advantage postulated for haploid–diploid populations. Consequently, an ecological interpretation of the niche differences between haploid and diploid individuals does not seem to satisfactorily explain the evolution of the Ectocarpus life cycle.     

Revealing the latent mobilization capability of the staphylococcal bacteriocinogenic plasmid pRJ9

Plasmid pRJ9 is a non-self-mobilizable bacteriocinogenic plasmid from Staphylococcus aureus. Despite this feature, DNA sequencing and RT-PCR experiments showed that it presents a Mob region with three genes (mobCAB), transcribed as an operon. In silico analysis of the Mob proteins encoded by pRJ9 showed that they present all the conserved functional features reported until present as being essential for plasmid mobilization. Moreover, they showed a high identity to Mob proteins encoded by mobilizable plasmids from Staphylococcus spp., especially to those encoded by plasmid pRJ6, which presents four mob genes (mobCDAB). A putative oriT region was also found upstream of the pRJ9 mob operon. pRJ9 could only be successfully mobilized by pGO1 when pRJ6 was present in the same strain. Further experiments showed that the pRJ9 oriT can be recognized by the pRJ6 Mob proteins, confirming its functionality. As pRJ9 does not possess a mobD gene while pRJ6 does, the absence of this gene was believed to be responsible for its lack of mobilization. However, conjugation experiments with a donor strain carrying also mobD cloned into an S. aureus vector showed that pRJ9 does not become mobilized even in the presence of the protein MobD encoded by pRJ6. Therefore, the reasons for pRJ9 failure to be mobilized are presently unknown.     

Fluorescence decrease of conjugated polymers by the catalytic activity of horseradish peroxidase and its application in phenolic compounds detection

We report the fluorescence decrease of the water-soluble π-π-conjugated polymer poly(2-methoxy-5-propyloxy sulfonate phenylene vinylene, MPS-PPV) by the catalytic activity of horseradish peroxidase in the presence of H(2)O(2). MPS-PPV acts as a donor substrate in the catalytic cycle of horseradish peroxidase where the electron-deficient enzymatic intermediates compounds I and II can subtract electrons from the polymer leading to its fluorescence decrease. The addition of phenolic drug acetaminophen to the former solution favors the decrease of the polymer fluorescence, which indicates the peroxidase-catalyzed co-oxidation of MPS-PPV and acetaminophen. The encapsulation of horseradish peroxidase within polyacrylamide microgels allows the isolation of intermediates compound I and compound II from the polymer, leading to a fluorescence decrease that is only due to the product of biocatalytic acetaminophen oxidation. This system could be used to develop a new device for phenolic compounds detection.     

Comparative proteomic analysis of Fasciola hepatica juveniles and Schistosoma bovis schistosomula

Protein interactions between host and parasites can influence the infection success and severity. The aim of this investigation was to identify the proteins from two trematodes potentially localized at the host-parasite interface. We performed the proteomic profiles from in vivo obtained immature lung stage Schistosoma bovis schistosomula and in vitro excysted juveniles from Fasciola hepatica, parasites of ruminants and man usually giving rise to chronic infections. Proteomes from those parasites were obtained after digestion with trypsin and the peptides generated were identified by mass spectrometry, both before and after parasites' treatment with 70% methanol. The comparison of the two proteome sets from each parasite and between them, the analysis of their relative abundance and of their potential exposure to the host from living parasites, together with the specific immunolocalization of two of the identified molecules, show that this approach could assist in the identification of parasite exposed proteins and in the definition of molecules common for the two parasites with potential interaction with the host. Further characterization of these molecules could guide to define new common anti-parasitic targets and potential vaccine candidates.     

On the representability of complete genomes by multiple competing finite-context (Markov) models

A finite-context (Markov) model of order k yields the probability distribution of the next symbol in a sequence of symbols, given the recent past up to depth k. Markov modeling has long been applied to DNA sequences, for example to find gene-coding regions. With the first studies came the discovery that DNA sequences are non-stationary: distinct regions require distinct model orders. Since then, Markov and hidden Markov models have been extensively used to describe the gene structure of prokaryotes and eukaryotes. However, to our knowledge, a comprehensive study about the potential of Markov models to describe complete genomes is still lacking. We address this gap in this paper. Our approach relies on (i) multiple competing Markov models of different orders (ii) careful programming techniques that allow orders as large as sixteen (iii) adequate inverted repeat handling (iv) probability estimates suited to the wide range of context depths used. To measure how well a model fits the data at a particular position in the sequence we use the negative logarithm of the probability estimate at that position. The measure yields information profiles of the sequence, which are of independent interest. The average over the entire sequence, which amounts to the average number of bits per base needed to describe the sequence, is used as a global performance measure. Our main conclusion is that, from the probabilistic or information theoretic point of view and according to this performance measure, multiple competing Markov models explain entire genomes almost as well or even better than state-of-the-art DNA compression methods, such as XM, which rely on very different statistical models. This is surprising, because Markov models are local (short-range), contrasting with the statistical models underlying other methods, where the extensive data repetitions in DNA sequences is explored, and therefore have a non-local character.