Current Frontiers and Perspectives in Cell Biology

A numerous internationally renowned authors in the pages of this book present the views of the fields of cell biology and their own research results or review of current knowledge. Chapters are divided into five sections that are dedicated to cell structures and functions, genetic material, regulatory mechanisms, cellular biomedicine and new methods in cell biology. Multidisciplinary and often quite versatile approach by many authors have imposed restrictions of this classification, so it is certain that many chapters could belong to the other sections of this book. The current frontiers, on the manner in which they described in the book, can be a good inspiration to many readers for further improving, and perspectives which are highlighted can be seen in many areas of fundamental biology, biomedicine, biotechnology and other applications of knowledge of cell biology. The book will be very useful for beginners to gain insight into new area, as well as experts to find new facts and expanding horizons

Dichotomic role of NAADP/two-pore channel 2/Ca2+ signaling in regulating neural differentiation of mouse embryonic stem cells

Poster Presentation - Stem Cells and Pluripotency: abstract no. 1866The mobilization of intracellular Ca2+stores is involved in diverse cellular functions, including cell proliferation and differentiation. At least three endogenous Ca2+mobilizing messengers have been identified, including inositol trisphosphate (IP3), cyclic adenosine diphosphoribose (cADPR), and nicotinic adenine acid dinucleotide phosphate (NAADP). Similar to IP3, NAADP can mobilize calcium release in a wide variety of cell types and species, from plants to animals. Moreover, it has been previously shown that NAADP but not IP3-mediated Ca2+increases can potently induce neuronal differentiation in PC12 cells. Recently, two pore channels (TPCs) have been identified as a novel family of NAADP-gated calcium release channels in endolysosome. Therefore, it is of great interest to examine the role of TPC2 in the neural differentiation of mouse ES cells. We found that the expression of TPC2 is markedly decreased during the initial ES cell entry into neural progenitors, and the levels of TPC2 gradually rebound during the late stages of neurogenesis. Correspondingly, perturbing the NAADP signaling by TPC2 knockdown accelerates mouse ES cell differentiation into neural progenitors but inhibits these neural progenitors from committing to the final neural lineage. Interestingly, TPC2 knockdown has no effect on the differentiation of astrocytes and oligodendrocytes of mouse ES cells. Overexpression of TPC2, on the other hand, inhibits mouse ES cell from entering the neural lineage. Taken together, our data indicate that the NAADP/TPC2-mediated Ca2+signaling pathway plays a temporal and dichotomic role in modulating the neural lineage entry of ES cells; in that NAADP signaling antagonizes ES cell entry to early neural progenitors, but promotes late neural differentiation.postprin

Water productivity indices of the soybean grown on silty clay soil under sprinkler irrigation

The objective of this research was to compare the effects of different irrigation treatments on soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] productivity and water use efficiency on experimental fields of the Maize Research Institute of Zemun Polje(Serbia), in 2007 and 2008. Four irrigation levels were investigated: full irrigation (I100), 65% and 40% of I100 (I65 and I40) and a rain-fed (I0) system. The crop water use efficiency (CWUE, also known as crop water productivity –CWP), irrigation water use efficiency (IWUE) and evapotranspiration water use efficiency (ETWUE) were used to assess the water productivity of each studied treatment. The efficiency of the same treatment differed between the years as it depended on seasonal water availability, weather conditions and their impact on seed yields. Maximum and minimum yields were obtained in the I65 and I0 treatments, averaging 3.41 t ha–1 and 2.26 t ha–1, respectively. Water use efficiency values were influenced by the irrigation levels. In general, CWUE values increased with the increased level of irrigation. In both growing seasons, IWUE and ETWUE decreased with increasing the seasonal water consumption and irrigation depth. On average, treatments I40 and I65 resulted in similar or higher CWUE and ETWUE than I100, in both growing seasons. I65 resulted in the highest IWUE, averaged over the two seasons, while I100 had the lowest IWUE. I65 could be proper for the soybean irrigated in Vojvodina when there is no water shortage and I45 could be used as a good basis for reduced sprinkler irrigation strategy development under water shortage