Aeroecology meets aviation safety: early warning systems in Europe and the Middle East prevent collisions between birds and aircraft

The aerosphere is utilized by billions of birds, moving for different reasons and from short to great distances spanning tens of thousands of kilometres. The aerosphere, however, is also utilized by aviation which leads to increasing conflicts in and around airfields as well as en‐route. Collisions between birds and aircraft cost billions of euros annually and, in some cases, result in the loss of human lives. Simultaneously, aviation has diverse negative impacts on wildlife. During avian migration, due to the sheer numbers of birds in the air, the risk of bird strikes becomes particularly acute for low‐flying aircraft, especially during military training flights. Over the last few decades, air forces across Europe and the Middle East have been developing solutions that integrate ecological research and aviation policy to reduce mutual negative interactions between birds and aircraft. In this paper we 1) provide a brief overview of the systems currently used in military aviation to monitor bird migration movements in the aerosphere, 2) provide a brief overview of the impact of bird strikes on military low‐level operations, and 3) estimate the effectiveness of migration monitoring systems in bird strike avoidance. We compare systems from the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Poland and Israel, which are all areas that Palearctic migrants cross twice a year in huge numbers. We show that the en‐route bird strikes have decreased considerably in countries where avoidance systems have been implemented, and that consequently bird strikes are on average 45% less frequent in countries with implemented avoidance systems in place. We conclude by showing the roles of operational weather radar networks, forecast models and international and interdisciplinary collaboration to create safer skies for aviation and birds.     

An early response to gibberellic Acid not requiring protein synthesis

Cell-free extracts from gibberellic acid-treated barley (Hordeum vulgare L. cv. Himalaya) aleurone layers show phosphorylcholine glyceride transferase activity greater than that from control layers. The increase in activity is not prevented by a mixture of amino acid analogs nor by cordycepin under conditions in which it is demonstrated that the analogs and the cordycepin are entering the cells in effective concentrations. We conclude therefore that the GA₃-dependent increase in phosphorylcholine glyceride transferase activity (which occurs within the first 4 hours of GA₃ treatment) does not require RNA synthesis or protein synthesis.     

Interactions of hydrophobic peptides with lipid bilayers: Monte Carlo simulations with M2delta

We introduce here a novel Monte Carlo simulation method for studying the interactions of hydrophobic peptides with lipid membranes. Each of the peptide's amino acids is represented as two interaction sites: one corresponding to the backbone alpha-carbon and the other to the side chain, with the membrane represented as a hydrophobic profile. Peptide conformations and locations in the membrane and changes in the membrane width are sampled using the Metropolis criterion, taking into account the underlying energetics. Using this method we investigate the interactions between the hydrophobic peptide M2delta and a model membrane. The simulations show that starting from an extended conformation in the aqueous phase, the peptide first adsorbs onto the membrane surface, while acquiring an ordered helical structure. This is followed by formation of a helical-hairpin and insertion into the membrane. The observed path is in agreement with contemporary understanding of peptide insertion into biological membranes. Two stable orientations of membrane-associated M2delta were obtained: transmembrane (TM) and surface, and the value of the water-to-membrane transfer free energy of each of them is in agreement with calculations and measurements on similar cases. M2delta is most stable in the TM orientation, where it assumes a helical conformation with a tilt of 14 degrees between the helix principal axis and the membrane normal. The peptide conformation agrees well with the experimental data; average root-mean-square deviations of 2.1 A compared to nuclear magnetic resonance structures obtained in detergent micelles and supported lipid bilayers. The average orientation of the peptide in the membrane in the most stable configurations reported here, and in particular the value of the tilt angle, are in excellent agreement with the ones calculated using the continuum-solvent model and the ones observed in the nuclear magnetic resonance studies. This suggests that the method may be used to predict the three-dimensional structure of TM peptides.     

Continuum solvent model calculations of alamethicin-membrane interactions: thermodynamic aspects

Alamethicin is a 20-amino acid antibiotic peptide that forms voltage-gated ion channels in lipid bilayers. Here we report calculations of its association free energy with membranes. The calculations take into account the various free-energy terms that contribute to the transfer of the peptide from the aqueous phase into bilayers of different widths. The electrostatic and nonpolar contributions to the solvation free energy are calculated using continuum solvent models. The contributions from the lipid perturbation and membrane deformation effects and the entropy loss associated with peptide immobilization in the bilayer are estimated from a statistical thermodynamic model. The calculations were carried out using two classes of experimentally observed conformations, both of which are helical: the NMR and the x-ray crystal structures. Our calculations show that alamethicin is unlikely to partition into bilayers in any of the NMR conformations because they have uncompensated backbone hydrogen bonds and their association with the membrane involves a large electrostatic solvation free energy penalty. In contrast, the x-ray conformations provide enough backbone hydrogen bonds for the peptide to associate with bilayers. We tested numerous transmembrane and surface orientations of the peptide in bilayers, and our calculations indicate that the most favorable orientation is transmembrane, where the peptide protrudes approximately 4 A into the water-membrane interface, in very good agreement with electron paramagnetic resonance and oriented circular dichroism measurements. The calculations were carried out using two alamethicin isoforms: one with glutamine and the other with glutamate in the 18th position. The calculations indicate that the two isoforms have similar membrane orientations and that their insertion into the membrane is likely to involve a 2-A deformation of the bilayer, again, in good agreement with experimental data. The implications of the results for the biological function of alamethicin and its capacity to oligomerize and form ion channels are discussed.     

Characterization of PfiT/PfiA toxin–antitoxin system of Pseudomonas aeruginosa that affects cell elongation and prophage induction

Toxin–antitoxin (TA) systems are small genetic modules usually consisting of two elements—a toxin and an antitoxin. The abundance of TA systems among various bacterial strains may indicate an important evolutionary role. Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which can be found in a variety of niches in nature, is an opportunistic pathogen for various hosts. While P. aeruginosa strains are very versatile and diverse, only a few TA systems were characterized in this species. Here, we describe a newly characterized TA system in P. aeruginosa that is encoded within the filamentous Pf4 prophage. This system, named PfiT/PfiA, is a homologue of the ParE/YefM TA system. It is a type II TA system, in which the antitoxin is a protein that binds the toxic protein and eliminates the toxic effect. PfiT/PfiA carries several typical type II characteristics. Specifically, it constitutes two small genes expressed in a single operon, PfiT inhibits growth and PfiA eliminates this effect, PfiA binds PfiT, and PfiT expression results in elongated cells. Finally, we assigned a novel function to this TA system, where an imbalance between PfiT and PfiA, favouring the toxin, resulted in cell elongation and an increase in virion production.     

A computational model of the human thyroid

The thyroid, the largest gland in the endocrine system, secretes hormones that help promote bodily growth and development. This gland regulates hormonal secretion rate in spite of changes in dietary iodine which is a key ingredient in the hormone's biosynthesis. The thyroid relies on several feedback mechanisms for this regulation, and in this paper we use recent molecular-level and clinical observations to engineer a computational thyroid model. We use simulation and analysis to show that this models captures known aspects of thyroid physiology. We identify features in the model that are responsible for hormonal regulation, and use the model to identify and evaluate competing hypotheses associated with Wolff-Chaikoff escape.     

Evolutionary analysis reveals collective properties and specificity in the C-type lectin and lectin-like domain superfamily

Members of the C-type lectin/C-type lectin-like domain (CTL/CTLD) superfamily share a common fold and are involved in a variety of functions, such as generalized defense mechanisms against foreign agents, discrimination between healthy and pathogen-infected cells, and endocytosis and blood coagulation. In this work we used ConSurf, a computer program recently developed in our lab, to perform an evolutionary analysis of this superfamily in order to further identify characteristics of all or part of its members. Given a set of homologous proteins in the form of multiple sequence alignment (MSA) and an inferred phylogenetic tree, ConSurf calculates the conservation score in every alignment position, taking into account the relationships between the sequences and the physicochemical similarity between the amino acids. The scores are then color-coded onto the three-dimensional structure of one of the homologous proteins. We provide here and at http://ashtoret.tau.ac.il/ approximately sharon a detailed analysis of the conservation pattern obtained for the entire superfamily and for two subgroups of proteins: (a) 21 CTLs and (b) 11 heterodimeric CTLD toxins. We show that, in general, proteins of the superfamily have one face that is constructed mostly of conserved residues and another that is not, and we suggest that the former face is involved in binding to other proteins or domains. In the CTLs examined we detected a region of highly conserved residues, corresponding to the known calcium- and carbohydrate-binding site of the family, which is not conserved throughout the entire superfamily, and in the CTLD toxins we found a patch of highly conserved residues, corresponding to the known dimerization region of these proteins. Our analysis also detected patches of conserved residues with yet unknown function(s).     

Association entropy in adsorption processes

The association of two species to form a bound complex, e.g., the binding of a ligand to a protein or the adsorption of a peptide on a lipid membrane, involves an entropy loss, reflecting the conversion of free translational and rotational degrees of freedom into bound motions. Previous theoretical estimates of the standard entropy change in bimolecular binding processes, DeltaS(o), have been derived from the root-mean-square fluctuations in protein crystals, suggesting DeltaS(o) approximately -50 e.u., i.e., TDeltaS degrees approximately -25 kT = -15 kcal/mol. In this work we focus on adsorption, rather than binding processes. We first present a simple statistical-thermodynamic scheme for calculating the adsorption entropy, including its resolution into translational and rotational contributions, using the known distance-orientation dependent binding (adsorption) potential. We then utilize this scheme to calculate the free energy of interaction and entropy of pentalysine adsorption onto a lipid membrane, obtaining TDeltaS(o) approximately -1.7 kT approximately -1.3 kcal/mol. Most of this entropy change is due to the conversion of one free translation into a bound motion, the rest arising from the confinement of two rotational degrees of freedom. The smaller entropy loss in adsorption compared to binding processes arises partly because a smaller number of degrees of freedom become restricted, but mainly due to the fact that the binding potential is much "softer."     

A New Comparative-Genomics Approach for Defining Phenotype-Specific Indicators Reveals Specific Genetic Markers in Predatory Bacteria

Predatory bacteria seek and consume other live bacteria. Although belonging to taxonomically diverse groups, relatively few bacterial predator species are known. Consequently, it is difficult to assess the impact of predation within the bacterial realm. As no genetic signatures distinguishing them from non-predatory bacteria are known, genomic resources cannot be exploited to uncover novel predators. In order to identify genes specific to predatory bacteria, we developed a bioinformatic tool called DiffGene. This tool automatically identifies marker genes that are specific to phenotypic or taxonomic groups, by mapping the complete gene content of all available fully-sequenced genomes for the presence/absence of each gene in each genome. A putative ‘predator region’ of ~60 amino acids in the tryptophan 2,3-dioxygenase (TDO) protein was found to probably be a predator-specific marker. This region is found in all known obligate predator and a few facultative predator genomes, and is absent from most facultative predators and all non-predatory bacteria. We designed PCR primers that uniquely amplify a ~180bp-long sequence within the predators’ TDO gene, and validated them in monocultures as well as in metagenetic analysis of environmental wastewater samples. This marker, in addition to its usage in predator identification and phylogenetics, may finally permit reliable enumeration and cataloguing of predatory bacteria from environmental samples, as well as uncovering novel predators.