Les échos de la phase aquitano-burdigalienne dans la coupe de Dellaca Bianca (Val Scrivia,bassin Liguro-piémontais,Italie)

The geologic section of the Torrente Scrivia in 061 the vicinity of Rigoroso is generally reported as an conformable sequence in Oligocene and Miocene strata.In fact, it has suffered important reworkingsduring Lower Miocene and this event is not only evident in sedimentology but also in paleontology. Locally, these events reflect tectonic motions more strongly marked in the north-eastern part of the ligurian piemontese basin.Consequently, the result is that the geologicsection concerned could not be satisfactory referring to Lower Miocene.     

Surprising longhorned beetle (Coleoptera, Cerambycidae) richness along an Italian alpine valley

In this paper we report about 88 longhorned beetles (Cerambycidae) species found in 6929 hectares and distributed along an altitudinal gradient of 1500 m of an Italian alpine valley (Val Genova, central-eastern Italian Alps). The species richness, result merging data from sixty years (1947-2007) of entomological surveys, corresponds to the 32% of the Italian cerambycid fauna confirming the high richness/surface ratio, probably unique in the Alps. The effect of thirteen environmental variables was tested on the species richness, but only the elevation resulted able to affect it. The species richness decrease with altitude not gradually, but experience a strong step above 1700 m a.s.l.. The highest species richness (average values of 42 species) was recorded at the lowest and mid elevations (between 800 and 1600 m a.s.l.). The species turnover along the altitudinal gradient is low suggesting moderate habitat turnover along the valley.One of the eighty-eight observed species, Tragosoma depsarium,is classified near threatened by the IUCN. Our data suggest that the wilderness of the valley close to the suitable management of grasslands and forests, help to support high level of cerambycids diversity. This biodiversity is good indicators of health of the wood saproxylic assemblages, as well an important food source for many vertebrate predators.     

COMT Val158Met moderates the link between rank and aggression in a non‐human primate

The COMT Val¹⁵⁸Met polymorphism is one of the most widely studied genetic polymorphisms in humans implicated in aggression and the moderation of stressful life event effects. We screened a wild primate population for polymorphisms at the COMT Val¹⁵⁸Met site and phenotyped them for aggression to test whether the human polymorphism exists and is associated with variation in aggressive behavior. Subjects were all adults from 4 study groups (37 males, 40 females) of Assamese macaques (Macaca assamensis) in their natural habitat (Phu Khieo Wildlife Sanctuary, Thailand). We collected focal animal behavioral data (27 males, 36 females, 5964 focal hours) and fecal samples for non‐invasive DNA analysis. We identified the human COMT Val¹⁵⁸Met polymorphism (14 Met/Met, 41 Val/Met and 22 Val/Val). Preliminary results suggest that COMT genotype and dominance rank interact to influence aggression rates. Aggression rates increased with rank in Val/Val, but decreased in Met/Met and Val/Met individuals, with no significant main effect of COMT genotype on aggression. Further support for the interaction effect comes from time series analyses revealing that when changing from lower to higher rank position Val/Val individuals decreased, whereas Met/Met individuals increased their aggression rate. Contradicting the interpretation of earlier studies, we show that the widely studied Val¹⁵⁸Met polymorphism in COMT is not unique to humans and yields similar behavioral phenotypes in a non‐human primate. This study represents an important step towards understanding individual variation in aggression in a wild primate population and may inform human behavioral geneticists about the evolutionary roots of inter‐individual variation in aggression.     

Discovery of the selective sphingomyelin synthase 2 inhibitors with the novel structure of oxazolopyridine

Sphingomyelin synthase (SMS) is a key enzyme in sphingomyelin biosynthetic pathway, whose activity is highly related to the atherosclerosis progression. SMS2 could serve as a promising therapeutic target for atherosclerosis. Based on the structure of lead compound D2, a series of oxazolopyridine derivatives were designed, synthesized, and their inhibitory activities against purified SMS1 and SMS2 enzymes were evaluated respectively. The representative molecules QY4 and QY16 possess micromolar inhibitory activities against SMS2 and excellent isoform preferences over SMS1, qualified to be selected as potential molecules in further discovery of specific SMS2 inhibitors.     

A contribution to the history of Rumex alpinus in the Italian central Alps. A palaeobotanical study from Val Febbraro, Valle Spluga

The archaeological site of Lavazzé at 2108 m a.s.l., and the summer farming site of Borghetto Sotto at 1897 m a.s.l., have been studied using pollen analysis. The pollen diagrams reflect human disturbance from the Bronze and Neolithic ages respectively. The name Lavazzé is also used as a local name for Rumex alpinus. At both sites, significant values of R. alpinus, up to about 10% of total terrestrial pollen, have been recorded, from about 2400 b.p. (ca 360 cal b.c.) onwards, although Lavazzé is above the present-day known local limit for R. alpinus. Written sources document local growth and cultivation of the species at 1300 m. It was used for various purposes in the past, and the high values are interpreted as reflecting former intensive local growth. Local cultivation at higher altitudes should not be excluded. Use of R. alpinus is known as far north as Scotland and Finland, and the species ought to be regarded as an apophyte and/or a naturalised crop.     

Evolutionary patterns of the mitochondrial genome in the Moorish gecko, Tarentola mauritanica

A previous study on the evolutionary patterns of Tarentola mauritanica demonstrated that low levels of mitochondrial diversity observed in the European populations relative to nuclear markers were consistent with a selective sweep hypothesis. In order to unravel the mitochondrial evolutionary history in this European population and two other lineages of T. mauritanica (Iberian and North African clades), variation within 22 nearly complete mitogenomes was analyzed. Surprisingly, each clade seems to have a distinct evolutionary history; with both the European and Iberian clades presenting a decrease of polymorphism, which in the former is consistent with departure from neutrality of the mtDNA (positive or background selection), but in the latter seems to be the result of a bottleneck after a population expansion. The pattern exhibited by the North African clade seems to be a consequence of adaptation to certain mtDNA variants by positive selection.     

BDNF VAL66MET polymorphism and memory decline across the spectrum of Alzheimer's disease

The brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) Val66Met (rs6265) polymorphism has been shown to moderate the extent to which memory decline manifests in preclinical Alzheimer's disease (AD). To date, no study has examined the relationship between BDNF and memory in individuals across biologically confirmed AD clinical stages (i.e., Aβ+). We aimed to understand the effect of BDNF on episodic memory decline and clinical disease progression over 126 months in individuals with preclinical, prodromal and clinical AD. Participants enrolled in the Australian Imaging, Biomarkers and Lifestyle (AIBL) study who were Aβ + (according to positron emission tomography), and cognitively normal (CN; n = 238), classified as having mild cognitive impairment (MCI; n = 80), or AD (n = 66) were included in this study. Cognition was evaluated at 18 month intervals using an established episodic memory composite score over 126 months. We observed that in Aβ + CNs, Met66 was associated with greater memory decline with increasing age and were 1.5 times more likely to progress to MCI/AD over 126 months. In Aβ + MCIs, there was no effect of Met66 on memory decline or on disease progression to AD over 126 months. In Aβ + AD, Val66 homozygotes showed greater memory decline, while Met66 carriers performed at a constant and very impaired level. Our current results illustrate the importance of time and disease severity to clinicopathological models of the role of BDNF Val66Met in memory decline and AD clinical progression. Specifically, the effect of BDNF on memory decline is greatest in preclinical AD and reduces as AD clinical disease severity increases.     

Association of the Ile50Val Polymorphism of the Interleukin-4 Receptor Gene IL4RA with Chronic Viral Hepatitis

The Ile50Val polymorphism of the IL4RA gene was tested for association with chronic viral hepatitis and the character of its progression (the stage of hepatic fibrosis). In total, 61 patients were examined. The control group was a random sample of Tomsk residents (N = 128). Genotyping was based on RFLP analysis. The allele and genotype frequencies of the Ile50Val polymorphism did not significantly differ between the patients and the controls. However, a significant difference in genotype frequency distribution was observed for the patients with different stages of hepatic fibrosis. The frequency of heterozygotes Ile/Val in patients without signs of fibrosis was lower than in the control group (7.1% vs. 51.6%, P = 0.002), while the frequency of the homozygous genotypes was higher. In addition, this subgroup significantly differed in genotype frequency distribution from subgroups of patients with early or severe fibrosis (P = 0.035 and P = 0.004, respectively).__________Translated from Molekulyarnaya Biologiya, Vol. 39, No. 3, 2005, pp. 379–384.Original Russian Text Copyright © 2005 by Goncharova, Friedin, Dunaeva, E.V. Beloborodova, E.I. Beloborodova, Puzyrev.     

Insights on the structural perturbations in human MTHFR Ala222Val mutant by protein modeling and molecular dynamics

Methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) protein catalyzes the only biochemical reaction which produces methyltetrahydrofolate, the active form of folic acid essential for several molecular functions. The Ala222Val polymorphism of human MTHFR encodes a thermolabile protein associated with increased risk of neural tube defects and cardiovascular disease. Experimental studies have shown that the mutation does not affect the kinetic properties of MTHFR, but inactivates the protein by increasing flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD) loss. The lack of completely solved crystal structure of MTHFR is an impediment in understanding the structural perturbations caused by the Ala222Val mutation; computational modeling provides a suitable alternative. The three-dimensional structure of human MTHFR protein was obtained through homology modeling, by taking the MTHFR structures from Escherichia coli and Thermus thermophilus as templates. Subsequently, the modeled structure was docked with FAD using Glide, which revealed a very good binding affinity, authenticated by a Glide XP score of ?10.3983 (kcal mol^?1). The MTHFR was mutated by changing Alanine 222 to Valine. The wild-type MTHFR-FAD complex and the Ala222Val mutant MTHFR-FAD complex were subjected to molecular dynamics simulation over 50 ns period. The average difference in backbone root mean square deviation (RMSD) between wild and mutant variant was found to be ~.11 Å. The greater degree of fluctuations in the mutant protein translates to increased conformational stability as a result of mutation. The FAD-binding ability of the mutant MTHFR was also found to be significantly lowered as a result of decreased protein grip caused by increased conformational flexibility. The study provides insights into the Ala222Val mutation of human MTHFR that induces major conformational changes in the tertiary structure, causing a significant reduction in the FAD-binding affinity.