Hormonal imprinting takes place at the first encounter of the hormone and receptor, and results in a changed binding capacity and reaction of the cell and its progeny generations. The imprinting effect of three amino acids and their oligopeptides is studied using fluorescent-labelled peptides. Glycine and lysine could provoke positive imprinting (increased binding in the progeny generations) for their own peptides, but alanine could not. Mostly positive imprinting was provoked by glycine and lysine peptides for their own peptides of different chain length. The optimal chain length provoking self-imprinting was four for glycine, two for lysine and three for alanine. Except in this case, alanine was neutral or provoked mostly negative imprinting. After reaching the optimal chain length, there is a decline in binding. Evolutionary conclusions are discussed. 相似文献
Phosphorus (P) is an essential macronutrient to all crops including rice and it plays a key role in various plant activities and development. Low availability of P in the soils negatively, influences rice crop growth and causes significant yield loss. In the present study, we characterized a set of 56 germplasm lines for their tolerance to low soil P by screening them at low soil P and optimum soil P levels along with low soil P tolerant and sensitive check varieties. These lines were genotyped for the presence/absence of tolerant allele with respect to the major low soil P tolerance QTL, Pup1, using a set of locus specific PCR-based markers, viz., K46-1, K46-2, K52 and K46CG-1. High genetic variability was observed for various traits associated with low soil P tolerance. The yield parameters from normal and low soil P conditions were used to calculate stress tolerance indices and classify the genotypes according to their tolerance level. Out of the total germplasm lines screened, 15 lines were found to be tolerant to low soil P condition based on the yield reduction in comparison to the tolerant check, but most of them harbored the complete or partial Pup1 locus. Interestingly, two tolerant germplasm lines, IC216831 and IC216903 were observed to be completely devoid of Pup1 and hence they can be explored for new loci underlying low soil P tolerance.
Background: Colorectal carcinogenesis is believed to be a multi-stage process that originates with a localized adenoma, which linearly progresses to an intra-mucosal carcinoma, to an invasive lesion, and finally to metastatic cancer. This progression model is supported by tissue culture and animal model studies, but it is difficult to reconcile with several well-established observations, principally among these are that up to 25% of early stage (Stage I/II), node-negative colorectal cancer (CRC) develop distant metastasis, and that circulating CRC cells are undetectable in peripheral blood samples of up to 50% of patients with confirmed metastasis, but more than 30% of patients with no detectable metastasis exhibit such cells. The mechanism responsible for this diverse behavior is unknown, and there are no effective means to identify patients with pending, or who are at high risk for, developing metastatic CRC.Novel findings: Our previous studies of human breast and prostate cancer have shown that cancer invasion arises from the convergence of a tissue injury, the innate immune response to that injury, and the presence of tumor stem cells within tumor capsules at the site of the injury. Focal degeneration of a capsule due to age or disease attracts lymphocyte infiltration that degrades the degenerating capsules resulting in the formation of a focal disruption in the capsule, which selectively favors proliferating or “budding” of the underlying tumor stem cells. Our recent studies suggest that lymphocyte infiltration also triggers metastasis by disrupting the intercellular junctions and surface adhesion molecules within the proliferating cell buds causing their dissociation. Then, lymphocytes and tumor cells are conjoined through membrane fusion to form tumor-lymphocyte chimeras (TLCs) that allows the tumor stem cell to avail itself of the lymphocyte''s natural ability to migrate and breach cell barriers in order to intravasate and to travel to distant organs. Our most recent studies of human CRC have detected nearly identical focal capsule disruptions, lymphocyte infiltration, budding cells, and the formation of TLCs. Our studies have further shown that age- and type-matched node-positive and -negative CRC have a significantly different morphological and immunohistochemical profile and that the majority of lymphatic ducts with disseminated cells are located within the mucosa adjacent to morphologically normal appearing epithelial structures that express a stem cell-related marker.New hypothesis: Based on these findings and the growth patterns of budding cells revealed by double immunohistochemistry, we further hypothesize that metastatic spread is an early event of carcinogenesis and that budding cells overlying focal capsule disruptions represent invasion- and metastasis-initiating cells that follow one of four pathways to progress: (1) to undergo extensive in situ proliferation leading to the formation of tumor nests that subsequently invade the submucosa, (2) to migrate with associated lymphocytes functioning as “seeds” to grow in new sites, (3) to migrate and intravasate into pre-existing vascular structures by forming TLCs, or (4) to intravasate into vascular structures that are generated by the budding cells themselves. We also propose that only node-positive cases harbor stem cells with the potential for multi-lineage differentiation and unique surface markers that permit intravasation. 相似文献
Discriminating phylogenetic signal from noise in DNA sequence data is a
difficult problem in phylogenetic inference at higher systematic levels.
For protein-coding genes, noise at synonymous (silent) positions can be
filtered by deleting entire codon positions or types of change at a codon
position. This method is not appropriate for replacement sites, because
changes at each site within a codon may not be independent. This research
presents a method using information from protein structure to evaluate
variation in replacement sites. Analysis of the correlation of amino acid
variation with protein structure identified rapidly evolving codons in the
COIII gene. In a series of phylogenetic analyses attempting to recover a
known set of vertebrate relationships, downweighting these labile codons
produced the most accurate results. Structural correlates of variable and
invariant residues identified in this study can be used to increase the
accuracy of models used for phylogenetic inference. Viewing amino acid
variation within a phylogenetic framework provided insight into residue
changes important in the secondary and tertiary structures of the molecule,
changes that were correlated between pairs of neighboring residues or
between residues in neighboring helices.
相似文献
Atypical scrapie was first identified in Norwegian sheep in 1998 and has subsequently been identified in many countries. Retrospective studies have identified cases predating the initial identification of this form of scrapie, and epidemiological studies have indicated that it does not conform to the behaviour of an infectious disease, giving rise to the hypothesis that it represents spontaneous disease. However, atypical scrapie isolates have been shown to be infectious experimentally, through intracerebral inoculation in transgenic mice and sheep. The first successful challenge of a sheep with 'field' atypical scrapie from an homologous donor sheep was reported in 2007.
Results
This study demonstrates that atypical scrapie has distinct clinical, pathological and biochemical characteristics which are maintained on transmission and sub-passage, and which are distinct from other strains of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies in the same host genotype.
Conclusions
Atypical scrapie is consistently transmissible within AHQ homozygous sheep, and the disease phenotype is preserved on sub-passage. 相似文献
Neuronal calcium sensor-1 (NCS-1) interacts with many membranes and cytosolic proteins, both in a Ca2+-dependent and in a Ca2+-independent manner, and its physiological role is governed by its N-terminal myristoylation. To understand the role of myristoylation
in altering Ca2+ response and other basic biophysical properties, we have characterized the Ca2+ filling pathways in both myristoylated (myr) and non-myristoylated (non-myr) forms of NCS-1. We have observed that Ca2+ binds simultaneously to all three active EF-hands in non-myr NCS-1, whereas in the case of myr NCS-1, the process is sequential,
where the second EF-hand is filled first, followed by the third and fourth EF-hands. In the case of myr NCS-1, the observed
sequential Ca2+ binding process becomes more prominent in the presence of Mg2+. Besides, the analysis of 15N-relaxation data reveals that non-myr NCS-1 is more dynamic than myr NCS-1. The overall molecular tumbling correlation time
increases by approximately 20% upon myristoylation. Comparing the apo forms of non-myr NCS-1 and myr NCS-1, we found the possibility
of existence of some substates, which are structurally closer to the holo form of the protein. There are more such substates
in the case of non-myr NCS-1 than in the case of the myr NCS-1, suggesting that the former accesses larger volumes of conformational
substates compared with the latter. Further, the study reveals that the possibility of Ca2+ binding simultaneously to different parts of the protein is more favourable in non-myr NCS-1 than in myr NCS-1. 相似文献
Stevioside is a diterpenoid glycoside consisting of an aglycone (steviol) and three glucose molecules. It is commonly used as an anti-hyperglycemic food because of its non-caloric property. Therefore, it is of interest to document the interactions of stevioside with AKT & PPAR-γ proteins using Autodock Vina PyRx docking techniques. Results of the docking studies indicate that stevioside had more than two hydrogen bond interactions with the AKT and PPAR γ protein for further consideration. 相似文献