Re-localization of nuclear DNA helicase II during the growth period of bovine oocytes

Nuclear DNA helicase II (NDH II) is the bovine homolog of human RNA helicase A. The aim of this study was to compare NDH II localization between somatic cells (bovine embryonal fibroblasts) and female germ cells (oocytes), with the main focus on the dynamic changes in the redistribution of NDH II during the growth phase of the bovine oocytes. The fine granular staining of NDH II was spread in the whole nucleoplasm of fibroblasts, excluding the reticulated nucleoli. In contrast, the large reticulated nucleoli of the growing oocytes isolated from early antral follicles exhibited strong positivity for NDH II together with the immunostaining signals of upstream binding factor (UBF) and RNA polymerase I subunit (PAF53), documenting the high synthetic activity of these nucleoli. At the time of termination of oocyte growth, NDH II was preferentially located at the nucleolar periphery together with proteins of fibrillar centres. In fully grown oocytes, NDH II was still present in the thin periphery shell around the compact nucleolar core. The semiquantitative RT-PCR revealed that the average signal of NDH II mRNA in fully grown oocytes was only at 40% level in comparison with growing oocytes. Western blot analysis further confirmed that a 140 kD NDH II protein was abundant in growing oocytes, while the signal was substantially weaker in fully grown oocytes. The significant decrease in NDH II gene expression and in NDH II mRNA translation correlates with a termination of the oocyte growth. Altogether, the results demonstrate that NDH II expression parallels the activity of ribosomal RNA biosynthesis in the bovine growing oocytes.     

Does probabilistic modelling of linkage disequilibrium evolution improve the accuracy of QTL location in animal pedigree?

Background

Since 2001, the use of more and more dense maps has made researchers aware that combining linkage and linkage disequilibrium enhances the feasibility of fine-mapping genes of interest. So, various method types have been derived to include concepts of population genetics in the analyses. One major drawback of many of these methods is their computational cost, which is very significant when many markers are considered. Recent advances in technology, such as SNP genotyping, have made it possible to deal with huge amount of data. Thus the challenge that remains is to find accurate and efficient methods that are not too time consuming. The study reported here specifically focuses on the half-sib family animal design. Our objective was to determine whether modelling of linkage disequilibrium evolution improved the mapping accuracy of a quantitative trait locus of agricultural interest in these populations. We compared two methods of fine-mapping. The first one was an association analysis. In this method, we did not model linkage disequilibrium evolution. Therefore, the modelling of the evolution of linkage disequilibrium was a deterministic process; it was complete at time 0 and remained complete during the following generations. In the second method, the modelling of the evolution of population allele frequencies was derived from a Wright-Fisher model. We simulated a wide range of scenarios adapted to animal populations and compared these two methods for each scenario.

Results

Our results indicated that the improvement produced by probabilistic modelling of linkage disequilibrium evolution was not significant. Both methods led to similar results concerning the location accuracy of quantitative trait loci which appeared to be mainly improved by using four flanking markers instead of two.

Conclusions

Therefore, in animal half-sib designs, modelling linkage disequilibrium evolution using a Wright-Fisher model does not significantly improve the accuracy of the QTL location when compared to a simpler method assuming complete and constant linkage between the QTL and the marker alleles. Finally, given the high marker density available nowadays, the simpler method should be preferred as it gives accurate results in a reasonable computing time.     

Novel lipophilic 7H-pyrido[1,2,3-de]-1,4-benzoxazine-6-carboxylic acid derivatives as potential antitumor agents: improved synthesis and in vitro evaluation

A convenient route for the synthesis of some acyloxymethyl esters and carboxamides of levofloxacin (LV) with modulated lipophilicity is described. The synthesized compounds were evaluated in vitro for their growth inhibitory effect in five human cancer cell lines. The most efficient LV derivatives (ester 2e and amide 4d) displayed IC(50) values in the 0.2-2.2 μM range, while IC(50) values for parent LV ranged between 70 and 622 μM depending on the cell line. The esters displayed no in vivo toxicity up to 80 mg/kg when administered intraperitoneally. This study thus shows that LV analogs displayed antitumor efficacy, at least in vitro, a feature that appeared to be independent from the lipophilicity of the grafted substituent.     

Observer design for differential-algebraic model of an aerobic culture of a recombinant yeast

The mathematical model of an aerobic culture of recombinant yeast presented in work by Zhang et al. (1997) is given by a differential-algebraic system. The classical nonlinear observer algorithms are generally based on ordinary differential equations. In this paper, first we extend the nonlinear observer synthesis to differential-algebraic dynamical systems. Next, we apply this observer theory to the mathematical model proposed in Zhang et al. (1997). More precisely, based on the total cell concentration and the recombinant protein concentration, the observer gives the online estimation of the glucose, the ethanol, the plasmid-bearing cell concentration and a parameter that represents the probability of plasmid loss of plasmid-bearing cells. Numerical simulations are given to show the good performances of the designed observer.Symbols C ₁ activity of pacing enzyme pool for glucose fermentation (dimensionless) - C ₂ activity of pacing enzyme pool for glucose oxidation (dimensionless) - C ₃ activity of pacing enzyme pool for ethanol oxidation (dimensionless) - E ethanol concentration (g/l) - G glucose concentration (g/l) - k _a regulation constant for (g glucose/g cell h^–1) - k _b regulation constant for (dimensionless) - k _c regulation constant for (g glucose/g cell h^–1) - k _d regulation constant for (dimensionless) - K _m1 saturation constant for glucose fermentation (g/l) - K _m2 saturation constant for glucose oxidation (g/l) - K _m3 saturation constant for ethanol oxidation (g/l) - L ( t) time lag function (dimensionless) - p probability of plasmid loss of plasmid-bearing cells (dimensionless) - P recombinant protein concentration (mg/g cell) - q _G total glucose flux culture time (g glucose/g cell h) - t culture time (h) - t _lag lag time (h) - X total cell concentration (g/l) - X ⁺ plasmid-bearing cell concentration (g/l) - Y ^F _{X / G} cell yield for glucose fermentation pathway (g cell/g glucose) - Y ^O _{X / G} cell yield for glucose oxidation pathway (g cell/g glucose) - Y _{X / E} cell yield for ethanol oxidation pathway (g cell/g ethanol) - Y _{E / X} ethanol yield for fermentation pathway based on cell mass (g ethanol·g cell) - ₂ glucoamylase yield for glucose oxidation (units/g cell) - ₃ glucoamylase yield for ethanol oxidation (units/g cell) - µ₁ specific growth rate for glucose fermentation (h^–1) - µ₂ specific growth rate for glucose oxidation (h^–1) - µ₃ specific growth rate for ethanol oxidation (h^–1) - µ_1max maximum specific growth rate for glucose fermentation (h^–1) - µ_2max maximum specific growth rate for glucose oxidation (h^–1) - µ_3max maximum specific growth rate for ethanol oxidation (h^–1)     

Immobilization of <Emphasis Type="BoldItalic">Irpex lacteus</Emphasis> to liquid-core alginate beads and their application to degradation of pollutants

White rot fungi (WRF) are applicable to biodegradation of recalcitrant pollutants. However, excessive biomass growth typical for WRF cultivation can hinder their large scale applications. Therefore, immobilization of Irpex lacteus to liquid-core alginate beads restricting excessive mycelium growth and simultaneously keeping high degradation rate of pollutants was tested. Effective diffusivities of dyes to the beads varied from (2.98 ± 0.69) × 10^?10 to (10.27 ± 2.60) × 10^?10 m²/s. Remazol Brilliant Blue R (RBBR), Reactive Orange 16 (RO16), and Naphthol Blue Black (NBB) were used as model dyes. The immobilized fungus decolorized model dyes when applied both in microwell plates and in fluidized bed reactors. Using the microwell plates, the apparent reaction rate constants ranged from (2.06 ± 0.11) × 10^?2 to (11.06 ± 0.27) × 10^?2 1/h, depending on the dye used and its initial concentration. High initial concentrations negatively affected the dye decolorization rate. No fungal growth outside the beads was observed in fluidized bed reactors and thus no operational problems linked to an excessive biomass growth occurred. When RBBR was decolorized in subsequent batches in the fluidized bed reactor, the apparent reaction rate constant increased from (11.63 ± 0.35) × 10^?2 to (29.26 ± 7.19) × 10^?2 1/h.     

Arf and Rho GAP adapter protein ARAP1 participates in the mobilization of TRAIL-R1/DR4 to the plasma membrane

TRAIL, a ligand of the TNFα family, induces upon binding to its pro-death receptors TRAIL-R1/DR4 and TRAIL-R2/DR5 the apoptosis of cancer cells. Activated receptors incite the formation of the Death-Inducing Signaling Complex followed by the activation of the downstream apoptotic signaling. TRAIL-induced apoptosis is regulated at multiple levels, one of them being the presence and relative number of TRAIL pro- and anti-apoptotic receptors on the cytoplasmic membrane. In a yeast two-hybrid search for proteins that interact with the intracellular part (ICP) of DR4, we picked ARAP1, an adapter protein with ArfGAP and RhoGAP activities. In yeast, DR4(ICP) interacts with the alternatively spliced ARAP1 lacking 11 amino acids from the PH5 domain. Transfected ARAP1 co-precipitates with DR4 and co-localizes with it in the endoplasmic reticulum/Golgi, at the cytoplasmic membrane and in early endosomes of TRAIL-treated cells. ARAP1 knockdown significantly compromises the localization of DR4 at the cell surface of several tumor cell lines and slows down their TRAIL-induced death. ARAP1 overexpressed in HEL cells does not affect their TRAIL-induced apoptosis or the membrane localization of DR4, but it enhances the cell-surface presentation of phosphatidyl serine. Our data indicate that ARAP1 is likely involved in the regulation of the cell-specific trafficking of DR4 and might thus affect the efficacy of TRAIL-induced apoptosis. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

Study of the Serum Copper Levels in Patients with Major Depressive Disorder

Copper may be involved in the pathophysiology of depression. Clinical data on this issue are very limited and not conclusive. The purpose of the study was to determine the copper concentration in the serum of patients with major depressive disorder and to discuss its potential clinical usefulness as a biomarker of the disease. A case–control clinical study included 69 patients with current depressive episode, 45 patients in remission and 50 healthy volunteers. Cu concentration was measured by electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry (ETAAS). The mean serum copper level in depressed patients was slightly lower (by 11 %; not statistically significant) than in the control group. Furthermore, there was no significant difference in Cu²⁺ concentration between depressive episode and remission, nor between remission and control group. In the remission group were observed significant correlations between copper levels and the average number of relapses over the past years or time of remission. There was no correlation between serum copper and severity of depression, as measured by HDRS and MADRS. The obtained results showed no significant differences between the copper concentration in the blood serum of patients (both with current depressive episode and in remission) and healthy volunteers, as well as the lack of correlations between the copper level in the active stage of the disease and clinical features of the population. Our study is the first conducted on such a large population of patients, so the results may be particularly important and reliable source of knowledge about the potential role of copper in depression.     

Association of the leukemia inhibitory factor gene mutation and the antiphospholipid antibodies in the peripheral blood of infertile women

To characterize the impact of the potentially functional mutation--the G to A transition at the position 3400 of the leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF; a pluripotent cytokine that plays a central role in the control of the embryo implantation) gene that leads to the exchange of valine with methionine at codon 64 we evaluated the association of the LIF gene mutation and the levels of antiphospolipid antibodies (aPLs) in the peripheral blood of infertile women (the aPLs examination was part of our routine immunological test during the infertility check-up). Eight infertile mutation-positive women were diagnosed with idiopathic infertility (n=5) and endometriosis (n=3) and their levels of aPLs in serum were compared with 115 infertile women without any LIF gene mutation. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was used for the detection of seven antiphospholipid antibodies; the results were statistically assessed by the Fisher's 2 by 2 exact test to evaluate the association of the LIF gene mutations and aPLs in serum of infertile patients. The presence of aPLs was significantly higher in our study group (100%) than in 30% of aPLs-positives in control infertile patients (p = 0.0035) which indicates that the aPLs are elevated in women with LIF gene mutations.     

Removal of nonionic surfactants from wastewater using a constructed wetland

Removal of nonionic surfactants from municipal wastewater using a constructed wetland with a horizontal subsurface flow was studied in 2009 and 2010. Extraction spectrophotometry with 3′,3″,5′,5″‐tetrabromophenolphthalein ethyl ester and KCl served to determine the analyte concentrations. Triton^® X‐100 was used as a standard to express the nonionic‐surfactant concentrations. Anionic and cationic surfactants were shown not to interfere during the determination. Nonionic surfactants were degraded (to products undeterminable by the method) with a high average efficiency that reached 98.1% in 2009 and 99.1% in 2010, respectively. The average concentration of nonionic surfactants at the inflow was 0.978 mg/l, while it was close to the limit of quantification at the outflow (0.014 mg/l). A significant fraction of nonionic surfactants (38.7%) was already degraded during the pretreatment, and only 14.0% of the nonionic surfactants remained in the interstitial H₂O taken in the vegetation bed at a distance of 1 m from the inflow zone at a 50‐cm depth. Nonionic surfactants were degraded both under aerobic and anaerobic conditions.