The approximate entropy of the electromyographic signals of tremor correlates with the osmotic fragility of human erythrocytes

Background  

The main problem of tremor is the damage caused to the quality of the life of patients, especially those at more advanced ages. There is not a consensus yet about the origins of this disorder, but it can be examined in the correlations between the biological signs of aging and the tremor characteristics.     

Analysis of transient phosphorylation-dependent protein-protein interactions in living mammalian cells using split-TEV

Background  

Regulated protein-protein interactions (PPIs) are pivotal molecular switches that are important for the regulation of signaling processes within eukaryotic cells. Cellular signaling is altered in various disease conditions and offers interesting options for pharmacological interventions. Constitutive PPIs are usually mediated by large interaction domains. In contrast, stimulus-regulated PPIs often depend on small post-translational modifications and are thus better suited targets for drug development. However, the detection of modification-dependent PPIs with biochemical methods still remains a labour- and material-intensive task, and many pivotal PPIs that are potentially suited for pharmacological intervention most likely remain to be identified. The availability of methods to easily identify and quantify stimulus-dependent, potentially also transient interaction events, is therefore essential. The assays should be applicable to intact mammalian cells, optimally also to primary cells in culture.     

Variation in homeodomain DNA binding revealed by high-resolution analysis of sequence preferences

Most homeodomains are unique within a genome, yet many are highly conserved across vast evolutionary distances, implying strong selection on their precise DNA-binding specificities. We determined the binding preferences of the majority (168) of mouse homeodomains to all possible 8-base sequences, revealing rich and complex patterns of sequence specificity and showing that there are at least 65 distinct homeodomain DNA-binding activities. We developed a computational system that successfully predicts binding sites for homeodomain proteins as distant from mouse as Drosophila and C. elegans, and we infer full 8-mer binding profiles for the majority of known animal homeodomains. Our results provide an unprecedented level of resolution in the analysis of this simple domain structure and suggest that variation in sequence recognition may be a factor in its functional diversity and evolutionary success.     

Heat-shock responsive genes identified and validated in Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) liver, head kidney and skeletal muscle using genomic techniques

Background

The Mongolian gerbils are a good model to mimic the Helicobacter pylori -associated pathogenesis of the human stomach. In the current study the gerbil-adapted strain B8 was completely sequenced, annotated and compared to previous genomes, including the 73 supercontigs of the parental strain B128.

Results

The complete genome of H. pylori B8 was manually curated gene by gene, to assign as much function as possible. It consists of a circular chromosome of 1,673,997 bp and of a small plasmid of 6,032 bp carrying nine putative genes. The chromosome contains 1,711 coding sequences, 293 of which are strain-specific, coding mainly for hypothetical proteins, and a large plasticity zone containing a putative type-IV-secretion system and coding sequences with unknown function. The cag -pathogenicity island is rearranged such that the cag A-gene is located 13,730 bp downstream of the inverted gene cluster cag B- cag 1. Directly adjacent to the cag A-gene, there are four hypothetical genes and one variable gene with a different codon usage compared to the rest of the H. pylori B8-genome. This indicates that these coding sequences might be acquired via horizontal gene transfer. The genome comparison of strain B8 to its parental strain B128 delivers 425 unique B8-proteins. Due to the fact that strain B128 was not fully sequenced and only automatically annotated, only 12 of these proteins are definitive singletons that might have been acquired during the gerbil-adaptation process of strain B128.

Conclusion

Our sequence data and its analysis provide new insight into the high genetic diversity of H. pylori -strains. We have shown that the gerbil-adapted strain B8 has the potential to build, possibly by a high rate of mutation and recombination, a dynamic pool of genetic variants (e.g. fragmented genes and repetitive regions) required for the adaptation-processes. We hypothesize that these variants are essential for the colonization and persistence of strain B8 in the gerbil stomach during inflammation.