Commitment to the First Cortical Reorganization During Conjugation in Stylonychia mytilus: An Argument for Homology with Cortical Development During Binary Fission

The asexual nature of the first cortical reorganization of conjugation in Stylonychia was analyzed by comparing the effect of amputation performed at different stages of early conjugation to that performed on vegetative cells at different stages of the cell cycle. Amputation of vegetative cells delineated a point of commitment to binary fission at 0.51–0.57 of the cell cycle. Cells amputated before this point were induced to undergo the regenerative mode of asexual development, but those amputated after this point continued with binary fission. In parallel, during conjugation a similar commitment was made around the time of formation of tight mating-pairs: early conjugants amputated around this time might undergo regeneration, and those operated on after this stage continued with the first cortical reorganization as in typical conjugants. The two mates of a pair might differ in their response to amputation, suggesting that the timing of commitment to the first cortical reorganization is not related to the events of conjugation, but rather is individually determined in the vegetative cycle of the cells before they pair up in mating. These observations provide support for the notion that the first cortical reorganization of conjugants is homologous to the asexual mode of cortical development in dividers, according to the theory of developmental heterochrony in the sexual reproduction of hypotrichs. The timing of commitment to the first cortical reorganization was found to temporally correlate with the entrance of the micronuclei into meiosis. Since the first cortical reorganization can proceed without the micronucleus, this raises the possibility that initiation of micronuclear meiosis is closely coupled with, and may be determined by, the commitment to the first cortical reorganization.     

甾体1，4-脱氢和11α-羟基化反应的两种不同微生物转化

Two kinds of micro-organism, Arthrobacter sp. AX86(1,4-dehdrogenator)and Absidia sp. A28(11α-hydroxylator) were used in this experiment. Two different fermentation techniques were performed to accomplish the multiple conversional reactions for producing 16β-methyl-11α, 17α, 21-trihydroxy-1,4-pregnadiene-3,20-dione (Ⅲ) from 16β-methyl-3β, 17α,21-trihydroxy-5α-pregnane-20-one-21-acetate(1) 1)To produce product(Ⅲ)by means of a two-step fermentation method which were independently performed first by Arthrobacter and next by Abslaia, and 2)the product was obtained by a sequential fermentation system of aforesaid two micro-organisms in a single fermentor without isolation of the intermediates from the mixture. Our results showed that in both fermentation systems high yield of product was obtained. However, according to the technical simplicity, shorter duration of fermentation cycle and efficient yield of product, the second method is better than the first one.     

地塞美松中间体的C1,4脱氢和11α-羟基化

地塞美松 (Ｄｅｘａｍｅｔｈａｓｏｎｅ)为高效肾上腺皮质激素药物 ,临床上广泛使用。开拓用梯可吉宁 (Ｔｉｇｏｇｅｎｉｎ)为起始原料生产从化学结构和合成技术上讲较为合理 ,而且适合于资源综合利用[1] 。在合成过程中 ,除了Ａ环需引入Ｃ1,2 和Ｃ4 ,5两个双键 (含Ｃ-3 羟基氧化 )外 ,还需用微生物法在Ｃ-11位引入羟基。国外常采用化学法脱氢 ,然后再用霉菌 11α 羟基化[2 ,3 ] 。本文报道用两类微生物菌种 ,节杆菌 (Ａｒｔｈｒｏｂａｃｔｅｒｓｐ .)ＡＸ86和绿僵菌 (Ｍｅｔａｒｈｉｚｉｕｍｓｐ .)Ｍ 88,混合转化一步完成脱氢和羟基化反应…     

Potential for Controlling Cholera Using a Ring Vaccination Strategy: Re-analysis of Data from a Cluster-Randomized Clinical Trial

IntroductionVaccinating a buffer of individuals around a case (ring vaccination) has the potential to target those who are at highest risk of infection, reducing the number of doses needed to control a disease. We explored the potential vaccine effectiveness (VE) of oral cholera vaccines (OCVs) for such a strategy.ConclusionsThese findings suggest that high-level protection can be achieved if individuals living close to cholera cases are living in a high coverage ring. Since this was an observational study including participants who had received two doses of vaccine (or placebo) in the clinical trial, further studies are needed to determine whether a ring vaccination strategy, in which vaccine is given quickly to those living close to a case, is feasible and effective.

Trial registration

ClinicalTrials.gov {"type":"clinical-trial","attrs":{"text":"NCT00289224","term_id":"NCT00289224"}}NCT00289224     

Pea aphid clonal resistance to the endophagous parasitoid Aphidius ervi

The physiological mechanism of resistance to the endophagous braconid Aphidius ervi Haliday (Hymenoptera, Braconidae) by a pink clone (PC) of Acyrthosiphon pisum (Harris) (Homoptera, Aphididae) has been investigated. Comparative data on parasitoid development and associated host biochemical changes in the resistant PC aphids and in a susceptible green clone (GC) of A. pisum are reported. When the PC aphids were attacked as early 4th instars, the developing parasitoid larvae showed a strongly reduced increase in size, compared to those synchronously developing in GC aphids, and were unable to produce a regular mummy. In contrast, parasitism of 2nd instar PC aphids, allowed completion of parasitoid development, but adults had a prolonged developmental time, due to a longer duration of parasitoid’s final (3rd) instar. In all cases, teratocytes, cells deriving from the A. ervi serosal membrane, and the proteins abundantly synthesised by them, were never found in the haemolymph of parasitised PC aphids. Host castration, as demonstrated by total protein incorporation into reproductive tissues, was total in the majority of early (2nd instar) parasitised host aphids, while it was limited when later instars (4th) of PC aphids were parasitised. This is partly due to the absence of the cytolytic activity of teratocytes on host embryos, which, through their persistence, may compete for nutritional resources with the developing parasitoid larvae. In parasitised PC aphids, this competitive effect is further aggravated for the parasitoid by the absence of the regulated amino acid titre increase in the host haemolymph, which is regularly observed in GC aphids. Failure of teratocyte development in the PC clone of the pea aphid is, then, the major functional constraint accounting for the reduction/inhibition of A. ervi larval growth. The reported results allow to assess in vivo the role of teratocytes in the host physiological redirection and nutritional exploitation by the parasitoid, and to integrate and validate the proposed physiological model of host-parasitoid interactions in the system A. pisum-A.ervi.     

Grouping of multiple-lentigines/LEOPARD and Noonan syndromes on the PTPN11 gene

Multiple-lentigines (ML)/LEOPARD (multiple lentigines, electrocardiographic-conduction abnormalities, ocular hypertelorism, pulmonary stenosis, abnormal genitalia, retardation of growth, and sensorineural deafness) syndrome is an autosomal dominant condition--characterized by lentigines and café au lait spots, facial anomalies, cardiac defects--that shares several clinical features with Noonan syndrome (NS). We screened nine patients with ML/LEOPARD syndrome (including a mother-daughter pair) and two children with NS who had multiple café au lait spots, for mutations in the NS gene, PTPN11, and found, in 10 of 11 patients, one of two new missense mutations, in exon 7 or exon 12. Both mutations affect the PTPN11 phosphotyrosine phosphatase domain, which is involved in <30% of the NS PTPN11 mutations. The study demonstrates that ML/LEOPARD syndrome and NS are allelic disorders. The detected mutations suggest that distinct molecular and pathogenetic mechanisms cause the peculiar cutaneous manifestations of the ML/LEOPARD-syndrome subtype of NS.