Search results for "SCR"
showing 10 items of 11806 documents
De novoassembly of the zucchini genome reveals a whole-genome duplication associated with the origin of theCucurbitagenus
2018
Summary The Cucurbita genus (squashes, pumpkins and gourds) includes important domesticated species such as C. pepo, C. maxima and C. moschata. In this study, we present a high-quality draft of the zucchini (C. pepo) genome. The assembly has a size of 263 Mb, a scaffold N50 of 1.8 Mb and 34 240 gene models. It includes 92% of the conserved BUSCO core gene set, and it is estimated to cover 93.0% of the genome. The genome is organized in 20 pseudomolecules that represent 81.4% of the assembly, and it is integrated with a genetic map of 7718 SNPs. Despite the small genome size, three independent lines of evidence support that the C. pepo genome is the result of a whole-genome duplication: the …
Visual Working Memory Requires Permissive and Instructive NO/cGMP Signaling at Presynapses in the Drosophila Central Brain.
2017
The gaseous second messenger nitric oxide (NO) has been shown to regulate memory formation by activating retrograde signaling cascades from post- to presynapse that involve cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP) production to induce synaptic plasticity and transcriptional changes. In this study, we analyzed the role of NO in the formation of a visual working memory that lasts only a few seconds. This memory is encoded in a subset of ring neurons that form the ellipsoid body in the Drosophila brain. Using genetic and pharmacological manipulations, we show that NO signaling is required for cGMP-mediated CREB activation, leading to the expression of competence factors like the synaptic homer pr…
Coronary Serum Obtained After Myocardial Infarction Induces Angiogenesis and Microvascular Obstruction Repair. Role of Hypoxia-inducible Factor-1A.
2017
Microvascular obstruction (MVO) exerts deleterious effects following acute myocardial infarction (AMI). We investigated coronary angiogenesis induced by coronary serum and the role of hypoxia-inducible factor-1A (HIF-1A) in MVO repair.Myocardial infarction was induced in swine by transitory 90-minute coronary occlusion. The pigs were divided into a control group and 4 AMI groups: no reperfusion, 1minute, 1 week and 1 month after reperfusion. Microvascular obstruction and microvessel density were quantified. The proangiogenic effect of coronary serum drawn from coronary sinus on endothelial cells was evaluated using an in vitro tubulogenesis assay. Circulating and myocardial HIF-1A levels an…
Formation and Characterization of Early Bacterial Biofilms on Different Wood Typologies Applied in Dairy Production
2018
ABSTRACT The main hypothesis of this work was that Sicilian forestry resources are suitable for the production of equipment to be used in cheese making and indigenous milk lactic acid bacteria (LAB) are able to develop stable biofilms providing starter and nonstarter cultures necessary for curd fermentation and cheese ripening, respectively. Hence, the present work was carried out with deproteinized whey to evaluate LAB biofilm formation on different woods derived from tree species grown in Sicily. Microbiological and scanning electron microscopy analyses showed minimal differences in microbial levels and compositions for the neoformed biofilms. The specific investigation of Salmonella spp.…
Discovering discriminative graph patterns from gene expression data
2016
We consider the problem of mining gene expression data in order to single out interesting features characterizing healthy/unhealthy samples of an input dataset. We present an approach based on a network model of the input gene expression data, where there is a labelled graph for each sample. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first attempt to build a different graph for each sample and, then, to have a database of graphs for representing a sample set. Our main goal is that of singling out interesting differences between healthy and unhealthy samples, through the extraction of "discriminative patterns" among graphs belonging to the two different sample sets. Differently from the other…
Identification of novel compounds against three targets of SARS CoV-2 coronavirus by combined virtual screening and supervised machine learning.
2021
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a major threat worldwide due to its fast spreading. As yet, there are no established drugs available. Speeding up drug discovery is urgently required. We applied a workflow of combined in silico methods (virtual drug screening, molecular docking and supervised machine learning algorithms) to identify novel drug candidates against COVID-19. We constructed chemical libraries consisting of FDA-approved drugs for drug repositioning and of natural compound datasets from literature mining and the ZINC database to select compounds interacting with SARS-CoV-2 target proteins (spike protein, nucleocapsid protein, and 2′-o-ribose methyltransferase). Supported by…
Identification of microRNAS differentially regulated by water deficit in relation to mycorrhizal treatment in wheat.
2019
Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) are soil microrganisms that establish symbiosis with plants positively influencing their resistance to abiotic stresses. The aim of this work was to identify wheat miRNAs differentially regulated by water deficit conditions in presence or absence of AMF treatment. Small RNA libraries were constructed for both leaf and root tissues considering four conditions: control (irrigated) or water deficit in presence/absence of mycorrhizal (AMF) treatment. A total of 12 miRNAs were significantly regulated by water deficit in leaves: five in absence and seven in presence of AMF treatment. In roots, three miRNAs were water deficit-modulated in absence of mycorrhizal t…
Temperature-dependent small RNA expression in Drosophila melanogaster
2018
Temperature has a major impact on gene expression in ectotherms. But until recently, it was not clear in which way, if any, small non-coding RNAs such as miRNAs or piRNAs contribute to thermosensitive gene regulation. We have recently shown that temperature-responsive miRNAs in Drosophila drive adaptation to different ambient temperatures on the transcriptome level. Moreover, we demonstrated that higher temperatures lead to a more efficient piRNA-dependent transposon silencing, possibly due to heat-induced unfolding of RNA secondary structures. In this commentary, we will dwell upon particular interesting aspects connected to our findings, hoping that our point of view may encourage other s…
Human neutrophil elastase induces endothelial cell apoptosis by activating the PERK‐CHOP branch of the unfolded protein response
2017
Human neutrophil elastase impacts on atherosclerotic plaque stability by inducing apoptosis in endothelial cells. Our aim was to investigate the proapoptotic mechanism of elastase on endothelial cells and to evaluate the presence of elastase in human plaque material. Human endothelial cells were treated with purified human neutrophil elastase. Apoptosis was assayed by capsase-3/7 activation, TUNEL, and sub-G1 assay. Activation of unfolded protein response (UPR) effector molecules binding Ig protein, soluble X-binding protein-1, protein kinase RNA-like ER kinase (PERK), and C/EBP-homologous protein (CHOP) was analyzed by RT-PCR, immunocytochemistry, and Western blot. Genetic silencing of CHO…
P/CAF-mediated spermidine acetylation regulates histone acetyltransferase activity
2016
Histones and polyamines are important determinants of the chromatin structure. Histones form the core of nucleosome particles and their modification by acetylation of N-terminal tails is involved in chromatin structural changes and transcriptional regulation. Polyamines, including spermidine, are also targets of both cytoplasmic and nuclear acetylation, which in turn alters their affinity for DNA and nucleosomes. Previous studies report the interplay between polyamines metabolism and levels of histone acetylation, but the molecular basis of this effect is still unclear. In this work, we have analyzed the in vitro effect of spermidine on histone H3 acetylation catalyzed by P/CAF, a highly co…