Genetic population structure of Natterer's bats explained by mating at swarming sites and philopatry

During autumn 'swarming', large numbers of temperate bats chase each other in and around underground sites. Swarming has been proposed to be a mating event, allowing interbreeding between bats from otherwise isolated summer colonies. We studied the population structure of the Natterer's bat (Myotis nattereri), a swarming species in northern England, by sampling bats at seven sites in two swarming areas and at 11 summer colonies. Analysis of molecular variance (amova) and genetic assignment analyses showed that the swarming areas (60 km apart) support significantly different populations. A negative correlation was found between the distance of a summer colony from a swarming area and the assignment of bats to that area. High gene diversity was found at all sites (HE = 0.79) suggesting high gene flow. This was supported by a low FST (0.017) among summer colonies and the absence of isolation by distance or substructure among colonies which visit one swarming area. The FST, although low, was significantly different from zero, which could be explained by a combination of female philopatry and male-mediated gene flow through mating at swarming sites with bats from other colonies. Modelling suggested that if effective size of the summer colonies (Ne) was low to moderate (10-30), all mating must occur at the swarming sites to account for the observed FST. If the Ne was higher (50), in addition to random mating during swarming, there may be nonrandom mating at swarming sites or some within-colony mating. Conservation of swarming sites that support potentially large populations is discussed.     

In vitro adventitious root induction in Antirrhinum majus L.

A broadly applicable method for the successful induction of root systems in a number of cultivars of A. majus has been determined. This involves a double filter-paper bridge with a liquid medium for root induction and allows the transfer of culture-grown plantlets to a glasshouse environment with minimal disturbance to the plant as a whole. 100% survival of transferred plantlets has been achieved with the inclusion of a few simple precautions upon shoot transfer and during the initial stages of plant establishment in vivo.     

Evolution and Multiplicity of Arginine Decarboxylases in Polyamine Biosynthesis and Essential Role in Bacillus subtilis Biofilm Formation

Arginine decarboxylases (ADCs; EC 4.1.1.19) from four different protein fold families are important for polyamine biosynthesis in bacteria, archaea, and plants. Biosynthetic alanine racemase fold (AR-fold) ADC is widespread in bacteria and plants. We report the discovery and characterization of an ancestral form of the AR-fold ADC in the bacterial Chloroflexi and Bacteroidetes phyla. The ancestral AR-fold ADC lacks a large insertion found in Escherichia coli and plant AR-fold ADC and is more similar to the lysine biosynthetic enzyme meso-diaminopimelate decarboxylase, from which it has evolved. An E. coli acid-inducible ADC belonging to the aspartate aminotransferase fold (AAT-fold) is involved in acid resistance but not polyamine biosynthesis. We report here that the acid-inducible AAT-fold ADC has evolved from a shorter, ancestral biosynthetic AAT-fold ADC by fusion of a response regulator receiver domain protein to the N terminus. Ancestral biosynthetic AAT-fold ADC appears to be limited to firmicute bacteria. The phylogenetic distribution of different forms of ADC distinguishes bacteria from archaea, euryarchaeota from crenarchaeota, double-membraned from single-membraned bacteria, and firmicutes from actinobacteria. Our findings extend to eight the different enzyme forms carrying out the activity described by EC 4.1.1.19. ADC gene clustering reveals that polyamine biosynthesis employs diverse and exchangeable synthetic modules. We show that in Bacillus subtilis, ADC and polyamines are essential for biofilm formation, and this appears to be an ancient, evolutionarily conserved function of polyamines in bacteria. Also of relevance to human health, we found that arginine decarboxylation is the dominant pathway for polyamine biosynthesis in human gut microbiota.     

The neural bases of social intention understanding: the role of interaction goals

Decoding others' intentions is a crucial aspect of social cognition. Neuroimaging studies suggest that inferring immediate goals engages the neural system for action understanding (i.e. mirror system), while the decoding of long-term intentions requires the system subserving the attribution of mental states (i.e. mentalizing). A controversial issue, stimulated by recent inconsistent results, concerns whether the two systems are concurrently vs. exclusively involved in intention understanding. This issue is particularly relevant in the case of social interactions, whose processing has been mostly, but not uncontroversially, associated with the mentalizing system. We tested the alternative hypothesis that the relative contribution of the two systems in intention understanding may also depend on the shared goal of interacting agents. To this purpose, 27 participants observed social interactions differing in their cooperative vs. affective shared goal during functional-Magnetic-Resonance-Imaging. The processing of both types of interactions activated the right temporo-parietal junction involved in mentalizing on action goals. Additionally, whole-brain and regions-of-interest analyses showed that the action understanding system (inferior prefrontal-parietal cortex) was more strongly activated by cooperative interactions, while the mentalizing-proper system (medial prefrontal cortex) was more strongly engaged by affective interactions. These differences were modulated by individual differences in empathizing. Both systems can thus be involved in understanding social intentions, with a relative weighting depending on the specific shared goal of the interaction.     

Three-dimensional pore space quantification of apple tissue using X-ray computed microtomography

The microstructure and the connectivity of the pore space are important variables for better understanding of the complex gas transport phenomena that occur in plant tissues. In this study, we present an experimental procedure for image acquisition and image processing to quantitatively characterize in 3D the pore space of apple tissues (Malus domestica Borkh.) for two cultivars (Jonagold and Braeburn) taken from the fleshy part of the cortex using X-ray computer microtomography. Preliminary sensitivity analyses were performed to determine the effect of the resolution and the volume size (REV, representative elementary volume analysis) on the computed porosity of apple samples. For comparison among cultivars, geometrical properties such as porosity, specific surface area, number of disconnected pore volumes and their distribution parameters were extracted and analyzed in triplicate based on the 3D skeletonization of the pore space (medial axis analysis). The results showed that microtomography provides a resolution at the micrometer level to quantitatively analyze and characterize the 3D topology of the pore space in apple tissue. The computed porosity was confirmed to be highly dependent of the resolution used, and the minimum REV of the cortical flesh of apple fruit was estimated to be 1.3 mm³. Comparisons among the two cultivars using a resolution of 8.5 μm with a minimum REV cube showed that in spite of the complexity and variability of the pore space network observed in Jonagold and Braeburn apples, the extracted parameters from the medial axis were significantly different (P-value < 0.05). Medial axis parameters showed potential to differentiate the microstructure between the two evaluated apple cultivars.     

hapConstructor: automatic construction and testing of haplotypes in a Monte Carlo framework

SUMMARY: Haplotypes carry important information that can direct investigators towards underlying susceptibility variants, and hence multiple tagging single nucleotide polymorphisms (tSNPs) are usually studied in candidate gene association studies. However, it is often unknown which SNPs should be included in haplotype analyses, or which tests should be performed for maximum power. We have developed a program, hapConstructor, which automatically builds multi-locus SNP sets to test for association in a case-control framework. The multi-SNP sets considered need not be contiguous; they are built based on significance. An important feature is that the missing data imputation is carried out based on the full data, for maximal information and consistency. HapConstructor is implemented in a Monte Carlo framework and naturally extends to allow for significance testing and false discovery rates that account for the construction process and to related individuals. HapConstructor is a useful tool for exploring multi-locus associations in candidate genes and regions. AVAILABILITY: http://www-genepi.med.utah.edu/Genie.     

p42/p44-MAPK and PI3K are sufficient for IL-6 family cytokines/gp130 to signal to hypertrophy and survival in cardiomyocytes in the absence of JAK/STAT activation

The effect of differential signalling by IL-6 and leukaemia inhibitory factor (LIF) which signal by gp130 homodimerisation or LIFRβ/gp130 heterodimerisation on survival and hypertrophy was studied in neonatal rat cardiomyocytes. Both LIF and IL-6 [in the absence of soluble IL-6 receptor (sIL-6Rα)] activated Erk1/2, JNK1/2, p38-MAPK and PI3K signalling peaking at 20 min and induced cytoprotection against simulated ischemia-reperfusion injury which was blocked by the MEK1/2 inhibitor PD98059 but not the p38-MAPK inhibitor SB203580. In the absence of sIL-6R, IL-6 did not induce STAT1/3 phosphorylation, whereas IL-6/sIL-6R and LIF induced STAT1 and STAT3 phosphorylation. Furthermore, IL-6/sIL-6R induced phosphorylation of STAT1 Tyr⁷⁰¹ and STAT3 Tyr⁷⁰⁵ were enhanced by SB203580. IL-6 and pheneylephrine (PE), but not LIF, induced cardiomyocyte iNOS expression and nitric oxide (NO) production. IL-6, LIF and PE induced cardiomyocyte hypertrophy, but with phenotypic differences in ANF and SERCA2 expression and myofilament organisation with IL-6 more resembling PE than LIF. Transfection of cardiomyocytes with full length or truncated chimaeric gp130 cytoplasmic domain/Erythropoietin receptor (EpoR) extracellular domain fusion constructs showed that the membrane proximal Box 1 and Box 2 containing region of gp130 was necessary and sufficient for MAPK and PI3K activation; hypertrophy; SERCA2 expression and iNOS/NO induction in the absence of JAK/STAT activation. In conclusion, IL-6 can signal in cardiomyocytes independent of sIL-6R and STAT1/3 and furthermore, that Erk1/2 and PI3K activation by IL-6 are both necessary and sufficient for induced cardioprotection. In addition, p38-MAPK may act as a negative feedback regulator of JAK/STAT activation in cardiomyocytes.     

Biological insights in the pathogenesis of hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome from proteome profiling of patients' dermal myofibroblasts

Hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (hEDS), mainly characterized by generalized joint hypermobility and its complications, minor skin changes, and apparently segregating with an autosomal dominant pattern, is still without a known molecular basis. Hence, its diagnosis is only clinical based on a strict set of criteria defined in the revised EDS nosology. Moreover, the hEDS phenotypic spectrum is wide-ranging and comprises multiple associated signs and symptoms shared with other heritable or acquired connective tissue disorders and chronic inflammatory diseases. In this complex scenario, we previously demonstrated that hEDS patients' skin fibroblasts show phenotypic features of myofibroblasts, widespread extracellular matrix (ECM) disarray, perturbation of ECM-cell contacts, and dysregulated expression of genes involved in connective tissue architecture and related to inflammatory and pain responses. Herein, the cellular proteome of 6 hEDS dermal myofibroblasts was compared to that of 12 control fibroblasts to deepen the knowledge on mechanisms involved in the disease pathogenesis. Qualitative and quantitative differences were assessed based on top-down and bottom-up approaches and some differentially expressed proteins were proofed by biochemical analyses. Proteomics disclosed the differential expression of proteins principally implicated in cytoskeleton organization, energy metabolism and redox balance, proteostasis, and intracellular trafficking. Our findings offer a comprehensive view of dysregulated protein networks and related pathways likely associated with the hEDS pathophysiology. The present results can be regarded as a starting point for future in-depth investigations aimed to decipher the functional impact of potential bioactive molecules for the development of targeted management and therapies.