Plant virus infection development as affected by heavy metal stress

The work was focused on the investigation of possible dependencies between the development of viral infection in plants and the presence of high heavy metal concentrations in soil. Field experiments have been conducted in order to study the development of systemic tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) infection in Lycopersicon esculentum L. cv. Miliana plants under effect of separate salts of heavy metals Cu, Zn and Pb deposited in soil. As it is shown, simultaneous effect of viral infection and heavy metals in tenfold maximum permissible concentration leads to decrease of total chlorophyll content in experiment plants mainly due to the degradation of chlorophyll a. The reduction of chlorophyll concentration under the combined influence of both stress factors was more serious comparing to the separate effect of every single factor. Plants' treatment with toxic concentrations of lead and zinc leaded to slight delay in the development of systemic TMV infection together with more than twofold increase of virus content in plants that may be an evidence of synergism between these heavy metal's and virus' effects. Contrary, copper although decreased total chlorophyll content but showed protective properties and significantly reduced amount of virus in plants.     

Ground state intermolecular proton transfer in the supersystems thymine–(H2O)n and thymine–(CH3OH)n, n = 1,2: a theoretical study

Twelve binary and eight ternary supersystems between thymine and methanol, and water were investigated in the ground state at the B3LYP and MP2 levels of theory using B3LYP/6-311 + + G(d,p) basis functions. The thermodynamics of complex formations and the mechanisms of intermolecular proton transfers were clarified in order to find out the most stable H-boned system. It was established that the energy barriers of the water/methanol-assisted proton transfers are several times lower than those of the intramolecular proton transfers in the DNA/RNA bases. The X-ray powder spectra of thymine, and this precrystallized from water and methanol showed that water molecules are incorporated in the crystal lattice of thymine forming H-bridges between thymine molecules. Figure Intermolecular H-bonding of thymine     

Patterns of molecular and phenotypic diversity in pearl millet [<Emphasis Type="Italic">Pennisetum glaucum</Emphasis>(L.) R. Br.] from West and Central Africa and their relation to geographical and environmental parameters

Background  

The distribution area of pearl millet in West and Central Africa (WCA) harbours a wide range of climatic and environmental conditions as well as diverse farmer preferences and pearl millet utilization habits which have the potential to lead to local adaptation and thereby to population structure. The objectives of our research were to (i) assess the geographical distribution of genetic diversity in pearl millet inbreds derived from landraces, (ii) assess the population structure of pearl millet from WCA, and (iii) identify those geographical parameters and environmental factors from the location at which landraces were sampled, as well as those phenotypic traits that may have affected or led to this population structure. Our study was based on a set of 145 inbred lines derived from 122 different pearl millet landraces from WCA.     

Investigation of the intermolecular proton transfer in the supersystems adenine-methanol/ethanol/i-propanol: MP2 and DFT levels study

Twelve H-bonded supersystems constructed between the adenine tautomers and methanol, ethanol, and i-propanol were studied at the B3LYP and MP2 levels of theory using 6-311G(d,p) and 6-311++G(d,p) basis functions. The thermodynamic parameters of the complex formations were calculated in order to estimate the exact stability of the supersystems. It was proven that the calculated energy barriers of the alcohol-assisted proton transfers are about 60% lower than those of the intramolecular proton transfers in adenine found earlier (Gu and Leszczynski in J Phys Chem A 103:2744–2750, 1999). Figure H-bonded complex between i-propanol and adenine     

Genotypes and haplotypes in the insulin-like growth factors, their receptors and binding proteins in relation to plasma metabolic levels and mammographic density

Background

Chronic inflammatory diseases including inflammatory bowel disease (IBD; Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis), psoriasis and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) afflict millions of people worldwide, but their pathogenesis is still not well understood. It is also not well known if distinct changes in gene expression characterize these diseases and if these patterns can discriminate between diseased and control patients and/or stratify the disease. The main focus of our work was the identification of novel markers that overlap among the 3 diseases or discriminate them from each other.

Methods

Diseased (n = 13, n = 15 and n = 12 in IBD, psoriasis and RA respectively) and healthy patients (n = 18) were recruited based on strict inclusion and exclusion criteria; peripheral blood samples were collected by clinicians (30 ml) in Venous Blood Vacuum Collection Tubes containing EDTA and peripheral blood mononuclear cells were separated by Ficoll gradient centrifugation. RNA was extracted using Trizol reagent. Gene expression data was obtained using TaqMan Low Density Array (TLDA) containing 96 genes that were selected by an algorithm and the statistical analyses were performed in Prism by using non-parametric Mann-Whitney U test (P-values < 0.05).

Results

Here we show that using a panel of 96 disease associated genes and measuring mRNA expression levels in peripheral blood derived mononuclear cells; we could identify disease-specific gene panels that separate each disease from healthy controls. In addition, a panel of five genes such as ADM, AQP9, CXCL2, IL10 and NAMPT discriminates between all samples from patients with chronic inflammation and healthy controls. We also found genes that stratify the diseases and separate different subtypes or different states of prognosis in each condition.

Conclusions

These findings and the identification of five universal markers of chronic inflammation suggest that these diseases have a common background in pathomechanism, but still can be separated by peripheral blood gene expression. Importantly, the identified genes can be associated with overlapping biological processes including changed inflammatory response. Gene panels based on such markers can play a major role in the development of personalized medicine, in monitoring disease progression and can lead to the identification of new potential drug targets in chronic inflammation.     

<Emphasis FontCategory="NonProportional">permGPU</Emphasis>: Using graphics processing units in RNA microarray association studies

Background  

Many analyses of microarray association studies involve permutation, bootstrap resampling and cross-validation, that are ideally formulated as embarrassingly parallel computing problems. Given that these analyses are computationally intensive, scalable approaches that can take advantage of multi-core processor systems need to be developed.