Search results for " cell and molecular biology"
showing 10 items of 69 documents
Cryo-EM structure of ssDNA bacteriophage ΦCjT23 provides insight into early virus evolution.
2022
AbstractThe origin of viruses remains an open question. While lack of detectable sequence similarity hampers the analysis of distantly related viruses, structural biology investigations of conserved capsid protein structures facilitate the study of distant evolutionary relationships. Here we characterize the lipid-containing ssDNA temperate bacteriophage ΦCjT23, which infects Flavobacterium sp. (Bacteroidetes). We report ΦCjT23-like sequences in the genome of strains belonging to several Flavobacterium species. The virion structure determined by cryogenic electron microscopy reveals similarities to members of the viral kingdom Bamfordvirae that currently consists solely of dsDNA viruses wit…
Give me a sample of air and I will tell which species are found from your region : Molecular identification of fungi from airborne spore samples
2017
Fungi are a megadiverse group of organisms, they play major roles in ecosystem functioning and are important for human health, food production and nature conservation. Our knowledge on fungal diversity and fungal ecology is however still very limited, in part because surveying and identifying fungi is time demanding and requires expert knowledge. We present a method that allows anyone to generate a list of fungal species likely to occur in a region of interest, with minimal effort and without requiring taxonomical expertise. The method consists of using a cyclone sampler to acquire fungal spores directly from the air to an Eppendorf tube, and applying DNA barcoding with probabilistic specie…
Ultraviolet radiation accelerates photodegradation under controlled conditions but slows the decomposition of senescent leaves from forest stands in …
2019
Depending on the environment, sunlight can positively or negatively affect litter decomposition, through the ensemble of direct and indirect processes constituting photodegradation. Which of these processes predominate depends on the ecosystem studied and on the spectral composition of sunlight received. To examine the relevance of photodegradation for litter decomposition in forest understoreys, we filtered ultraviolet radiation (UV) and blue light from leaves of Fagus sylvatica and Bettda pendula at two different stages of senescence in both a controlled-environment experiment and outdoors in four different forest stands (Picea abies, Pagus sylvatica, Acer platanoides, Betula pendula). Co…
Interspecific comparison of the performance of soaring migrants in relation to morphology, meteorological conditions and migration strategies.
2012
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.-- et al.
The cytoprotective protein MANF promotes neuronal survival independently from its role as a GRP78 cofactor
2021
Mesencephalic astrocyte-derived neurotrophic factor (MANF) is an endoplasmic reticulum (ER)-stress-regulated protein exhibiting cytoprotective properties through a poorly understood mechanism in various in vitro and in vivo models of neuronal and non-neuronal damage. Although initially characterized as a secreted neurotrophic factor for midbrain dopamine neurons, MANF has recently gained more interest for its intracellular role in regulating the ER homeostasis, including serving as a cofactor of the chaperone glucose-regulated protein 78 (GRP78). We aimed for a better understanding of the neuroprotective mechanisms of MANF. Here we show for the first time that MANF promotes the survival of …
Mitochondrial bioenergetic pathways in blood leukocyte transcriptome decrease after intensive weight loss but are rescued following weight regain in …
2021
Prolonged periods of energy deficit leading to weight loss induce metabolic adaptations resulting in reduced energy expenditure, but the mechanisms for energy conservation are incompletely understood. We examined 42 healthy athletic females (age 27.5 +/- 4.0 years, body mass index 23.4 +/- 1.7 kg/m(2)) who volunteered into either a group dieting for physique competition (n = 25) or a control group (n = 17). The diet group substantially reduced their energy intake and moderately increased exercise levels to induce loss of fat mass that was regained during a voluntary weight regain period. The control group maintained their typical lifestyle habits and body mass as instructed. From the diet g…
Infrared microspectroscopic determination of collagen cross-links in articular cartilage
2017
Collagen forms an organized network in articular cartilage to give tensile stiffness to the tissue. Due to its long half-life, collagen is susceptible to cross-links caused by advanced glycation end-products. The current standard method for determination of cross-link concentrations in tissues is the destructive high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The aim of this study was to analyze the cross-link concentrations nondestructively from standard unstained histological articular cartilage sections by using Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) microspectroscopy. Half of the bovine articular cartilage samples ( n = 27 ) were treated with threose to increase the collagen cross-linking whi…
First international descriptive and interventional survey for cholesterol and non-cholesterol sterol determination by gas- and liquid-chromatography–…
2019
International audience; Serum concentrations of lathosterol, the plant sterols campesterol and sitosterol and the cholesterol metabolite 5alpha-cholestanol are widely used as surrogate markers of cholesterol synthesis and absorption, respectively. Increasing numbers of laboratories utilize a broad spectrum of well-established and recently developed methods for the determination of cholesterol and non-cholesterol sterols (NCS). In order to evaluate the quality of these measurements and to identify possible sources of analytical errors our group initiated the first international survey for cholesterol and NCS. The cholesterol and NCS survey was structured as a two-part survey which took place…
Complete Genome Sequence of an Aquaculture-Associated Phage, FL-1, Infecting Flavobacterium spp
2017
Flavobacterium spp. are abundant and widespread in freshwater environments (1, 2). Despite the prevalence of the members in this genus, the phages infecting Flavobacterium spp. are less known. So far, most of the phages studied in detail infect fish pathogenic members of the genus, such as F. psychrophilum (3). The phage FL-1 and its Flavobacterium sp. host strain B183 were previously isolated from a water sample from a fish farm in Central Finland. Transmission electron microscopy revealed FL-1 to be a member of the family Myoviridae (4). In addition to the isolation host, FL-1 also infects multiple Flavobacterium sp. isolates and strains of the fish pathogen F. columnare, the causative ag…
Maternal Inheritance of a Recessive RBP4 Defect in Canine Congenital Eye Disease
2018
SUMMARY Maternally skewed transmission of traits has been associated with genomic imprinting and oocyte-derived mRNA. We report canine congenital eye malformations, caused by an amino acid deletion (K12del) near the N terminus of retinol-binding protein (RBP4). The disease is only expressed when both dam and offspring are deletion homozygotes. RBP carries vitamin A (retinol) from hepatic stores to peripheral tissues, including the placenta and developing eye, where it is required to synthesize retinoic acid. Gestational vitamin A deficiency is a known risk factor for ocular birth defects. The K12del mutation disrupts RBP folding in vivo, decreasing its secretion from hepatocytes to serum. T…