Search results for "Elements"
showing 10 items of 799 documents
Widespread transcriptional gene inactivation initiated by a repair intermediate of 8-oxoguanine.
2016
DNA damage can significantly modulate expression of the affected genes either by direct structural interference with transcription components or as a collateral outcome of cellular repair attempts. Thus, DNA glycosylases of the base excision repair (BER) pathway have been implicated in negative transcriptional response to several spontaneously generated DNA base modifications, including a common oxidative DNA base modification 8-oxoguanine (8-oxoG). Here, we report that single 8-oxoG situated in the non-transcribed DNA strand of a reporter gene has a pronounced negative effect on transcription, driven by promoters of various strength and with different structural properties, including viral…
Guanine 6-O-Methylation Pattern within the Dioxin Responsive Element of theCYP1A1 Enhancer Shows Two Critical Guanines for AhR/ARNT Binding
2006
The core-recognition motif for TCDD-liganded AhR/ARNT complex of the dioxin-responsive element (DRE) contains four guanine residues, three on the antisense (5'-T T / A GCGTG-3') and one on the sense (5'-CACGC A / T A-3') strand. It has been reported that, in methylation-protection and methylation-interference assays, the TCDD-liganded AhR/ARNT contacts all four guanine residues. On the other hand, it is known that some anticancer drugs, and various environmental and workplace chemicals, including strongly human carcinogenic nitrosoamines, lead to the highly miscoding 6-O-methylation of guanine. In the present study, we have investigated whether specific methylation of guanine at the 6-O-pos…
Granulometry, mineralogy and trace elements of marine sediments from the Gulf of Milazzo (NE Sicily): evaluation of anthropogenic impact
2010
Granulometry, mineralogy, and trace element concentrations are determined in marine sediments from thirty-six sampling sites in the littoral environment of the Gulf of Milazzo (NE Sicily). Sediment samples were collected in August 2008, along 18 seaward transects, at water depths of ‐10, ‐20 and ‐30 m, by using a Van Veen grab. Grain-size analysis shows predominance of sand (56%) and silt (35%) fractions with respect to clay (7%) and gravel (2%) fractions. Bulk mineralogical analysis documents the presence of quartz, micas, feldspars, calcite, and chlorite, which reflect erosion processes affecting the Kabilian-Calabrian Units. Concentrations of most trace elements in the deeper sediments w…
Selective MicroRNA-Offset RNA Expression in Human Embryonic Stem Cells
2015
Small RNA molecules, including microRNAs (miRNAs), play critical roles in regulating pluri-potency, proliferation and differentiation of embryonic stem cells. miRNA-offset RNAs (moRNAs) are similar in length to miRNAs, align to miRNA precursor (pre-miRNA) loci and are therefore believed to derive from processing of the pre-miRNA hairpin sequence. Recent next generation sequencing (NGS) studies have reported the presence of moRNAs in human neurons and cancer cells and in several tissues in mouse, including pluripotent stem cells. In order to gain additional knowledge about human moRNAs and their putative development-related expression, we applied NGS of small RNAs in human embryonic stem cel…
Trace elements in hair of urban schoolboys: a diagnostic tool in environmental risk assessment.
2011
Hair analysis may represent a means to quantify the relationship between human exposure to metal contamination and the environmental conditions of workplaces or residence sites. Hair are stable and their composition does not change over short time period. Furthermore, sampling procedure is very easy, requires no specific professional skills, is painless and non-invasive. 334 hair samples were collected from Caucasian children 11-13 years old, of both genders, without colored or treated hair, living in several Sicilian towns characterized by different geochemical environments: urban (Palermo), volcanic (Etna), mining area (Antillo-Fiumedinisi), industrial site (Pace del Mela), uncontamined a…
Trace Element Concentration and Stable Isotope Ratio Analysis in Blueberries and Bilberries: A Tool for Quality and Authenticity Control
2021
Vaccinium genus berries—wild bilberries (Vaccinium myrtillus L.) and cultivated highbush blueberries (Vaccinium corymbosum L.)—are consumed worldwide, and their consumption has a trend of stable increase. Thus, considering their wide use in ethnomedicine, for juice and jam production, as functional food, as well as their use in preparations of extracts which have application potential in pharmaceutical and cosmetics industries, studies regarding the composition of these berries are of special importance. The aim of this study is to characterise the elemental and isotopic composition, as well as variation in element concentration in bilberries gathered from different sites in Northern Europe…
Sea urchin coelomocytes as a novel cellular biosensor of environmental stress: a field study in the Tremiti Island Marine Protected Area, Southern Ad…
2007
The aim of the present study was to investigate on the suitability of the sea urchin as a sentinel organism for the assessment of the macro-zoobenthos health state in bio-monitoring programmes. A field study was carried out during two oceanographic campaigns using immuno-competent cells, the coelomocytes, from sea urchins living in a marine protected area. In particular, coelomocytes subpopulations ratio and heat shock protein 70 (HSC70) levels were measured in specimens of Paracentrotus lividus (Lamark, 1816) collected in two sampling sites, namely Pianosa and Caprara Islands, both belonging to the Tremiti Island Marine Protected Area (MPA) in the Southern Adriatic Sea, Italy. By density g…
Major and trace elements in Boletus aereus and Clitopilus prunulus growing on volcanic and sedimentary soils of Sicily (Italy)
2017
The aim of this study was to determine and compare the content of 28 elements (Ag, Al, As, Ba, Be, Bi, Ca, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, K, Li, Mg, Mn, Mo, Na, Ni, Pb, Rb, Sb, Se, Sr, Tl, U, V and Zn) in fruiting bodies of Boletus aereus Bull. and Clitopilus prunulus P. Kumm collected from eleven unpolluted sites of Sicily (Italy) and, also to relate the abundance of chemical elements in soil with their concentration in mushrooms. Median concentrations of the most abundant elements in Boletus aereus ranged from 31,290 μg/g (K) to 107 μg/g (Zn) in caps and from 24,009 μg/g (K) to 57 μg/g (Zn) in stalks with the following abundance order: K > Na > Ca > Mg > Fe > Al > Rb > Zn. The s…
New Results from the NUMEN Project
2020
NUMEN aims at accessing experimentally driven information on Nuclear Matrix Elements (NME) involved in the half-life of the neutrinoless double beta decay (0νββ), by high-accuracy measurements of the cross sections of Heavy Ion (HI) induced Double Charge Exchange (DCE) reactions. First evidence about the possibility to get quantitative information about NME from experiments is found for the (18O,18Ne) and (20Ne,20O) reactions. Moreover, to infer the neutrino average masses from the possible measurement of the half-life of 0νββ decay, the knowledge of the NME is a crucial aspect. The key tools for this project are the high resolution Superconducting Cyclotron beams and the MAGNEX magnetic sp…
Assessing soil contamination and temporal trends of heavy metal contents in greenhouses on semiarid land
2018
Information about the behavior and temporal evolution of heavy metals in agricultural soils is limited, particularly about greenhouse soils on semiarid lands, indeed it nonexistent. Western Almería (Southern Spain) is a semiarid land where some 30,000 ha are occupied by greenhouses with high productivity. As these greenhouses are fundamental to the socioeconomic development of this area, they should be maintained and well conserved. However, there are indications that long-term intensive agriculture with considerable agrochemicals use can deteriorate soil quality, which in turn, would reduce productivity and food quality. This study was conducted to investigate soil contamination and the te…