Search results for " life science"
showing 10 items of 12151 documents
Assortative mating by size without a size-based preference: the female-sooner norm as a mate-guarding criterion.
2013
7 pages; International audience; The study of size-assortative mating, or homogamy, is of great importance in speciation and sexual selection. However, the proximate mechanisms that lead to such patterns are poorly understood. Homogamy is often thought to come from a directional preference for larger mates. However, many constraints affect mating preferences and understanding the causes of size assortment requires a precise evaluation of the pair formation mechanism. Mate-guarding crustaceans are a model group for the study of homogamy. Males guard females until moult and reproduction. They are also unable to hold a female during their own moult and tend to pair with females closer to moult…
The cork viewed from the inside
2015
International audience; Cork is the natural material stripped from the outer bark of cork oak. It is still the most used stopper to seal wine bottles and to preserve wine during storage. Cork stoppers are sorted in different classes according to apparent defects, named lenticels, which can be related to the cork macroporosity. The more lenticels there are, the worst cork quality is. The present work aims at investigating defects analysis of cork stoppers from two classes by comparing images recorded by digital photography and neutron imaging. Surface analysis of defects obtained from photography leads to more surface defects in class 4 (6.7%) than in class 0 (4.1%). Neutron radiography and …
Optimizing MRI contrast with B1 pulses using optimal control theory
2016
The variety of achievable contrasts by MRI makes it a highly flexible and valuable diagnostic tool. Contrast results from relaxation time differences, which are intrinsic properties of each tissue. Using optimal control theory, one can control the obtained contrast by applying excitation pulses that bring the magnetization in a user-defined target state. Simulation results are presented to illustrate the feasibility and the flexibility of using optimal contrast pulses. The robustness to experimental variable parameters such as field inhomogeneities is also studied. Finally, an in-vitro contrast experiment is performed on a small-animal MRI showing a reasonable match with the simulation resu…
CO-74: Altérations majeures du sphingophospholipidome des lipoprotéines de haute densité (HDL) de patients avec syndrome métabolique et glycémie norm…
2016
Rationnel Les phospholipides et sphingolipides jouent un role primordial dans la fonctionnalite et le role anti-atherogene des HDL. Ces proprietes sont alterees chez les patients porteurs d'un syndrome metabolique avant meme l'apparition d'une hyperglycemie. Nous avons donc recherche si les HDL de ces patients presentaient des anomalies de leur sphingophospholipidome. Patients et Methodes Par chromatographie liquide couplee a la spectrometrie de masse en tandem, nous avons quantifie 80 especes moleculaires des principales classes de phospholipides et sphingolipides des HDL2 et HDL3, chez 26 patients avec un syndrome metabolique et une glycemie a jeun nor-male (14 hommes, 12 femmes, âge moye…
The montrachet study
2016
National audience; Summary The Montrachet Study (Maculopathy Optic Nerve nuTRition neurovAsCular and HEarT diseases) is a population‐based derived from the 3C Study performed in Dijon. In 2009–2011, 1153 participants from the 3 Cities Study, aged 75 years or more, had an initial eye examination. Apart from the old age of this population, the main interest is that information on cardiovascular and neurologic diseases and a large comprehensive database (blood samples, genetic testing, cognitive tests, MRI) were available. Our first results showed us that despite the high prevalence of self‐reported eye diseases in this elderly population, visual impairment was low and increased with age. Thes…
Phospholipase activities associated with the tonoplast from Acer pseudoplatanus cells: identification of a phospholipase A1 activity
1995
In higher plants, the lipolytic enzymes and their physiological functions are not well characterized [1]. Most reports demonstrated that phospholipid catabolism in plants is achieved by the concerted actions of membrane-bound enzymes including phospholipase D, phosphatidate phosphatase, lipolytic acyl hydrolases and lipoxygenases [1,2]. With the exception of the phospholipase D, the literature on plant phospholipases is still very limited. We previously reported that tonoplast from Acer pseudoplatanus cells contains small amounts of phosphatidc acid and lysophospholipids, which were produced together with free fatty acids, particularly after addition of Ca2+[3]. These data suggested the pos…
The Recent Development of a Sweet-Tasting Brazzein and its Potential Industrial Applications
2016
International audience; Brazzein is a small heat- and pH-stable sweet-tasting protein isolated from the West African plant, Pentadiplandra brazzeana. Brazzein combines a highly sweet potency, a long history of human consumption, and a remarkable stability, giving it great potential as a natural sweetener. Due to the difficulties of obtaining brazzein from its natural source, several efforts have been made to express brazzein using various heterologous expression systems. This chapter describes the biochemical, structural, sensory, and physiological properties of brazzein. We will summarize the current knowledge of the structure-activity relationship of brazzein. The biotechnological product…
Generation of oxysterols formed by free radicals and enzymes by electrochemical oxidation
2016
International audience; It is commonly accepted that cholesterol oxide derivatives, also named oxysterols, are 27 carbon-atom molecules deriving either from enzymatic and non-enzymatic oxidation of cholesterol. Most of these compounds can be synthesized by more or less difficult and time consuming chemical reactions, and some of them have been discovered before the identification of the enzymes [mainly cytochrome P450 enzymes (CYP enzymes)] involved in their biosynthesis. A wide range of biological activities depends on oxysterols. Some oxysterols are also involved in the synthesis of cholesterol metabolites which have various properties. The paper by Weber et al. in this issue of European …
Genomic characterization of a local epidemic Pseudomonas aeruginosa reveals specific features of the widespread clone ST395
2017
International audience; Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a ubiquitous opportunistic pathogen with several clones being frequently associated with outbreaks in hospital settings. ST395 is among these so-called 'international' clones. We aimed here to define the biological features that could have helped the implantation and spread of the clone ST395 in hospital settings. The complete genome of a multidrug resistant index isolate (DHS01) of a large hospital outbreak was analysed. We identified DHS01-specific genetic elements, among which were identified those shared with a panel of six independent ST395 isolates responsible for outbreaks in other hospitals. DHS01 has the fifth largest chromosome of …
Constitutive activation of MexT by amino acid substitutions results in MexEF-OprN overproduction in clinical isolates of Pseudomonas aeruginosa
2018
ABSTRACT When overproduced, the multidrug efflux system MexEF-OprN increases the resistance of Pseudomonas aeruginosa to fluoroquinolones, chloramphenicol, and trimethoprim. In this work, we demonstrate that gain-of-function mutations in the regulatory gene mexT result in oligomerization of the LysR regulator MexT, constitutive upregulation of the efflux pump, and increased resistance in clinical isolates.