Search results for "AGRICULTURAL AND BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES"
showing 10 items of 1704 documents
Collective Infection of Cells by Viral Aggregates Promotes Early Viral Proliferation and Reveals a Cellular-Level Allee Effect
2018
In addition to the conventional release of free, individual virions, virus dispersal can involve multi-virion assemblies that collectively infect cells. However, the implications of collective infection for viral fitness remain largely unexplored. Using vesicular stomatitis virus, here, we compare the fitness of free versus saliva-aggregated viral particles. We find that aggregation has a positive effect on early progeny production, conferring a fitness advantage relative to equal numbers of free particles in most cell types. The advantage of aggregation resides, at least partially, in increasing the cellular multiplicity of infection. In mouse embryonic fibroblasts, the per capita, short-t…
Study of interaction of antimutagenic 1,4-dihydropyridine AV-153-Na with DNA-damaging molecules and its impact on DNA repair activity
2018
Background1,4-dihydropyridines (1,4-DHP) possesses important biochemical and pharmacological properties, including antioxidant and antimutagenic activities. It was shown that the antimutagenic 1,4-dihydropyridine AV-153-Na interacts with DNA. The aim of the current study was to test the capability of the compound to scavenge peroxynitrite and hydroxyl radical, to test intracellular distribution of the compound, and to assess the ability of the compound to modify the activity of DNA repair enzymes and to protect the DNA in living cells against peroxynitrite-induced damage.MethodsPeroxynitrite decomposition was assayed by UV spectroscopy, hydroxyl radical scavenging—by EPR spectroscopy. DNA b…
Reducing sample size in experiments with animals: historical controls and related strategies
2015
Reducing the number of animal subjects used in biomedical experiments is desirable for ethical and practical reasons. Previous reviews of the benefits of reducing sample sizes have focused on improving experimental designs and methods of statistical analysis, but reducing the size of control groups has been considered rarely. We discuss how the number of current control animals can be reduced, without loss of statistical power, by incorporating information from historical controls, i.e. subjects used as controls in similar previous experiments. Using example data from published reports, we describe how to incorporate information from historical controls under a range of assumptions that mig…
Twitter as a tool for teaching and communicating microbiology: the #micromoocsem initiative
2016
López-Goñi, Ignacio et al.
miRToolsGallery: a tag-based and rankable microRNA bioinformatics resources database portal
2017
Abstract Hundreds of bioinformatics tools have been developed for MicroRNA (miRNA) investigations including those used for identification, target prediction, structure and expression profile analysis. However, finding the correct tool for a specific application requires the tedious and laborious process of locating, downloading, testing and validating the appropriate tool from a group of nearly a thousand. In order to facilitate this process, we developed a novel database portal named miRToolsGallery. We constructed the portal by manually curating > 950 miRNA analysis tools and resources. In the portal, a query to locate the appropriate tool is expedited by being searchable, filterable and …
Expanding the toolbox for Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 : validation of replicative vectors and characterization of a novel set of promoters
2018
Cyanobacteria are promising ‘low-cost’ cell factories since they have minimal nutritional requirements, high metabolic plasticity and can use sunlight and CO2 as energy and carbon sources. The unicellular Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803, already considered the ‘green’ Escherichia coli, is the best studied cyanobacterium but to be used as an efficient and robust photoautotrophic chassis it requires a customized and well-characterized toolbox. In this context, we evaluated the possibility of using three self-replicative vectors from the Standard European Vector Architecture (SEVA) repository to transform Synechocystis. Our results demonstrated that the presence of the plasmid does not lead to an e…
Membrane chaperoning by members of the PspA/IM30 protein family
2017
ABSTRACTPspA, IM30 (Vipp1) and LiaH, which all belong to the PspA/IM30 protein family, form high molecular weight oligomeric structures. For all proteins membrane binding and protection of the membrane structure and integrity has been shown or postulated. Here we discuss the possible membrane chaperoning activity of PspA, IM30 and LiaH and propose that larger oligomeric structures bind to stressed membrane regions, followed by oligomer disassembly and membrane stabilization by protein monomers or smaller/different oligomeric scaffolds.
Consumers' willingness to pay for natural food: Evidence from an artefactual field experiment
2018
Abstract Among foods with credence attributes, food with “natural” components have received in the last years particular attention by consumers. This study applies the BDM incentive compatible mechanism to explore young (18–35 years old) consumers’ interest and willingness to pay for chewing gums having the natural attribute. Our analysis shows that over 68% of consumers are interested in the natural attribute and are willing to pay a price premium. We also find that consumers’ higher age and interest in the environment have significant impacts on consumers’ preferences for the natural attribute.
Consumer interest towards tropical fruit: factors affecting avocado fruit consumption in Italy
2017
Abstract The purpose of this paper is to identify the main factors affecting the consumption of avocado fruit among Italian consumers. In order to respond to the aim of the study, an empirical survey was conducted through the submission of an online questionnaire to 327 consumers. An ordered logit econometric model was adopted to examine the relationship among some explanatory variables and the frequency of consumption of avocado fruit. The findings of this study show that the consumption of avocado fruit is affected by different factors, including fruit consumption habit, neophilia attitudes, and various intrinsic and extrinsic quality attributes (credence attributes in particular). The st…
Early Commissural Diencephalic Neurons Control Habenular Axon Extension and Targeting.
2016
Summary Most neuronal populations form on both the left and right sides of the brain. Their efferent axons appear to grow synchronously along similar pathways on each side, although the neurons or their environment often differ between the two hemispheres [1–4]. How this coordination is controlled has received little attention. Frequently, neurons establish interhemispheric connections, which can function to integrate information between brain hemispheres (e.g., [5]). Such commissures form very early, suggesting their potential developmental role in coordinating ipsilateral axon navigation during embryonic development [4]. To address the temporal-spatial control of bilateral axon growth, we…