Search results for "Biochem"

A new haemocyanin in cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis) eggs: sequence analysis and relevance during ontogeny

2014

Abstract Background Haemocyanin is the respiratory protein of most of the Mollusca. In cephalopods and gastropods at least two distinct isoforms are differentially expressed. However, their physiological purpose is unknown. For the common cuttlefish Sepia officinalis, three isoforms are known so far, whereas for only two of them the complete mRNA sequences are available. In this study, we sequenced the complete mRNA of the third haemocyanin isoform and measured the relative expression of all three isoforms during embryogenesis to reveal a potential ontogenetic relevance. Results The cDNA of isoform 3 clearly correlates to the known Sepia officinalis haemocyanin subunits consisting of eight …

2006

Aphids are the leading pests in agricultural crops. A large-scale sequencing of 40,904 ESTs from the pea aphid Acyrthosiphon pisum was carried out to define a catalog of 12,082 unique transcripts. A strong AT bias was found, indicating a compositional shift between Drosophila melanogaster and A. pisum. An in silico profiling analysis characterized 135 transcripts specific to pea-aphid tissues (relating to bacteriocytes and parthenogenetic embryos). This project is the first to address the genetics of the Hemiptera and of a hemimetabolous insect.

Genetic variation in natural populations of the aphid Rhopalosiphum padi as revealed by maternally inherited markers

1996

A survey on 148 clones of the aphid Rhopalosiphum padi from 11 widespread localities has been carried out to study the genetic structure of populations of this species as revealed by mitochondrial DNA restriction site and length polymorphisms as well as by restriction site analysis of a maternally inherited plasmid carried by the aphid eubacterial endosymbiont Buchnera aphidicola. Our results support the existence in the area under study of two main aphid maternal lineages strikingly coincidental with the two main reproductive categories displayed by this species. Those aphid clones possessing an incomplete life cycle that lacks the sexual phase (anholocyclic or androcyclic clones) show mit…

The tiny eukaryote Ostreococcus provides genomic insights into the paradox of plankton speciation

2007

The smallest known eukaryotes, at ≈1-μm diameter, are Ostreococcus tauri and related species of marine phytoplankton. The genome of Ostreococcus lucimarinus has been completed and compared with that of O. tauri . This comparison reveals surprising differences across orthologous chromosomes in the two species from highly syntenic chromosomes in most cases to chromosomes with almost no similarity. Species divergence in these phytoplankton is occurring through multiple mechanisms acting differently on different chromosomes and likely including acquisition of new genes through horizontal gene transfer. We speculate that this latter process may be involved in altering the cell-surface character…

Triterpene glycosides from Blighia welwitschii and evaluation of their antibody recognition capacity in multiple sclerosis

2020

Multiple sclerosis (MS) in a multifactorial autoimmune disease in which reliable biomarkers are needed for therapeutic monitoring and diagnosis. Autoantibodies (autoAbs) are known biomarker candidates although their detection in biological fluids requires a thorough characterization of their associated antigens. Over the past twenty years, a reverse chemical-based approach aiming to screen putative autoantigens has underlined the role of glycans, in particular glucose, in MS. Despite the progress achieved, a lack of consensus regarding the nature of innate antigens as well as difficulties proposing new synthetic glucose-based structures have proved to be obstacles. Here is proposed a strate…

III. Biochemistry of S-layers

1997

During evolution prokaryotes have developed different envelope structures exterior to the cell wall proper. Among these surface components are regularly arranged S-layers and capsules. The structural characterization and the detailed chemical analysis of these surface molecules is a prerequisite to understand their biosynthesis and functional role(s) at the molecular level. Of particular interest are the glycosylated S-layer proteins which belong to the first prokaryotic glycoproteins ever described. Their characterization was performed on strains belonging to the thermophilic Bacillaceae and included structural studies and experiments to learn about the pathways for the glycan biosynthesis…

Changes in lipid composition in tobacco cells treated with cryptogein , an elicitor from Phytophthora cryptogea

1995

Abstract Changes in lipid composition occurred when tobacco cells (Nicotiana tabacum var. Xanthi) were treated with cryptogein, a proteinaceous elicitor from Phytophthora cryptogea. The most striking change was an increase in acylated steryl glycosides and steryl esters levels, certainly resulting from the glycosylation and/or esterification of free sterols. Moreover, in vivo pulse-labelling experiments with [14C]acetate also showed that a progressive decline in the incorporation rate of [14C]acetate into free sterols started with the induction of sesquiterpenoid synthesis and lasted when sesquiterpenoid synthesis stops. This phenomenon was accompanied by a significant increase in the synth…

No exception to the rule: Candidatus Portiera aleyrodidarum cell wall revisited

2014

International audience; Many insect endosymbionts described so far are gram-negative bacteria. Primary endosymbionts are obligatory bacteria usually harboured by insects inside vacuoles in specialized cells called bacteriocytes. This combination produces a typical three-membrane system with one membrane derived from the insect vacuole and the other two from the bacterial gram-negative cell envelope, composed by the cell wall (the outer membrane plus the periplasmic space) and the plasma membrane (the inner membrane). For the last 21 years, the primary endosymbiont of whiteflies 'Candidatus Portiera aleyrodidarum' was considered an exception to this rule. Previous works stated that only two …

Behavior of plant plasma membranes under hydrostatic pressure as monitored by fluorescent environment-sensitive probes.

2010

International audience; We monitored the behavior of plasma membrane (PM) isolated from tobacco cells (BY-2) under hydrostatic pressures up to 3.5 kbar at 30 °C, by steady-state fluorescence spectroscopy using the newly introduced environment-sensitive probe F2N12S and also Laurdan and di-4-ANEPPDHQ. The consequences of sterol depletion by methyl-β-cyclodextrin were also studied. We found that application of hydrostatic pressure led to a marked decrease of hydration as probed by F2N12S and to an increase of the generalized polarization excitation (GPex) of Laurdan. We observed that the hydration effect of sterol depletion was maximal between 1 and 1.5 kbar but was much less important at hig…

Antibiotics accelerate growth at the expense of immunity

2021

Antibiotics have long been used in the raising of animals for agricultural, industrial or laboratory use. The use of subtherapeutic doses in diets of terrestrial and aquatic animals to promote growth is common and highly debated. Despite their vast application in animal husbandry, knowledge about the mechanisms behind growth promotion is minimal, particularly at the molecular level. Evidence from evolutionary research shows that immunocompetence is resource-limited, and hence expected to trade off with other resource-demanding processes, such as growth. Here, we ask if accelerated growth caused by antibiotics can be explained by genome-wide trade-offs between growth and costly immunocompete…