83 research outputs found
Street crossing behavior in younger and older pedestrians: an eye- and head-tracking study
The essential mycobacterial genes, fabG1 and fabG4, encode 3-oxoacyl-thioester reductases that are functional in yeast mitochondrial fatty acid synthase type 2
Mycobacterium tuberculosis represents a severe threat to human health worldwide. Therefore, it is important to expand our knowledge of vital mycobacterial processes, such as that effected by fatty acid synthase type 2 (FASII), as well as to uncover novel ones. Mycobacterial FASII undertakes mycolic acid biosynthesis, which relies on a set of essential enzymes, including 3-oxoacyl-AcpM reductase FabG1/Rv1483. However, the M. tuberculosis genome encodes four additional FabG homologs, designated FabG2–FabG5, whose functions have hitherto not been characterized in detail. Of the four candidates, FabG4/Rv0242c was recently shown to be essential for the survival of M. bovis BCG. The present work was initiated by assessing the suitability of yeast oar1Δ mutant cells lacking mitochondrial 3-oxoacyl-ACP reductase activity to act as a surrogate system for expressing FabG1/MabA directed to the mitochondria. Mutant yeast cells producing this targeted FabG1 variant were essentially wild type for all of the chronicled phenotype characteristics, including respiratory growth on glycerol medium, cytochrome assembly and lipoid acid production. This indicated that within the framework of de novo fatty acid biosynthesis in yeast mitochondria, FabG1 was able to act on shorter (C4) acyl substrates than was previously proposed (C8–20) during mycolic acid biosynthesis in M. tuberculosis. Thereafter, FabG2–FabG5 were expressed as mitochondrial proteins in the oar1Δ strain, and FabG4 was found to complement the mutant phenotype and contain high levels of 3-oxoacyl-thioester reductase activity. Hence, like FabG1, FabG4 is also an essential, physiologically functional 3-oxoacyl-thioester reductase, albeit the latter’s involvement in mycobacterial FASII remains to be explored
Gravitational waves from single neutron stars: an advanced detector era survey
With the doors beginning to swing open on the new gravitational wave
astronomy, this review provides an up-to-date survey of the most important
physical mechanisms that could lead to emission of potentially detectable
gravitational radiation from isolated and accreting neutron stars. In
particular we discuss the gravitational wave-driven instability and
asteroseismology formalism of the f- and r-modes, the different ways that a
neutron star could form and sustain a non-axisymmetric quadrupolar "mountain"
deformation, the excitation of oscillations during magnetar flares and the
possible gravitational wave signature of pulsar glitches. We focus on progress
made in the recent years in each topic, make a fresh assessment of the
gravitational wave detectability of each mechanism and, finally, highlight key
problems and desiderata for future work.Comment: 39 pages, 12 figures, 2 tables. Chapter of the book "Physics and
Astrophysics of Neutron Stars", NewCompStar COST Action 1304. Minor
corrections to match published versio
A C. elegans Model for Mitochondrial Fatty Acid Synthase II: The Longevity-Associated Gene W09H1.5/mecr-1 Encodes a 2-trans-Enoyl-Thioester Reductase
Our recognition of the mitochondria as being important sites of fatty acid biosynthesis is continuously unfolding, especially in light of new data becoming available on compromised fatty acid synthase type 2 (FASII) in mammals. For example, perturbed regulation of murine 17β-HSD8 encoding a component of the mitochondrial FASII enzyme 3-oxoacyl-thioester reductase is implicated in polycystic kidney disease. In addition, over-expression in mice of the Mecr gene coding for 2-trans-enoyl-thioester reductase, also of mitochondrial FASII, leads to impaired heart function. However, mouse knockouts for mitochondrial FASII have hitherto not been reported and, hence, there is a need to develop alternate metazoan models such as nematodes or fruit flies. Here, the identification of Caenorhabditis elegans W09H1.5/MECR-1 as a 2-trans-enoyl-thioester reductase of mitochondrial FASII is reported. To identify MECR-1, Saccharomyces cerevisiae etr1Δ mutant cells were employed that are devoid of mitochondrial 2-trans-enoyl-thioester reductase Etr1p. These yeast mutants fail to synthesize sufficient levels of lipoic acid or form cytochrome complexes, and cannot respire or grow on non-fermentable carbon sources. A mutant yeast strain ectopically expressing nematode mecr-1 was shown to contain reductase activity and resemble the self-complemented mutant strain for these phenotype characteristics. Since MECR-1 was not intentionally targeted for compartmentalization using a yeast mitochondrial leader sequence, this inferred that the protein represented a physiologically functional mitochondrial 2-trans-enoyl-thioester reductase. In accordance with published findings, RNAi-mediated knockdown of mecr-1 in C. elegans resulted in life span extension, presumably due to mitochondrial dysfunction. Moreover, old mecr-1(RNAi) worms had better internal organ appearance and were more mobile than control worms, indicating a reduced physiological age. This is the first report on RNAi work dedicated specifically to curtailing mitochondrial FASII in metazoans. The availability of affected survivors will help to position C. elegans as an excellent model for future pursuits in the emerging field of mitochondrial FASII research
The enzymology of mitochondrial fatty acid beta-oxidation and its application to follow-up analysis of positive neonatal screening results
Information searching on the Web: the cognitive difficulties experienced by older users in modifying unsuccessful information searches
The present study addressed age-related differences in performances and strategies developed by web users while searching for information. Ten older and 10 younger adults had to search for information with Google and to answer 9 questions varying in complexity: from simple ones (participants needed to use keywords provided in the questions) to impossible ones (no answer existed). The results showed that older participants had lower performances than younger ones; age-related differences were more particularly marked as the question complexity increased. Regression analyses showed that processing speed and cognitive flexibility accounted for a large part of the variance in performances. The younger and older participants also differed in the strategies they developed while searching for information. The older participants tended to focus on the evaluation of the results provided by Google. In contrast, the younger participants tended to plan and regulate their activity, this last strategy provided better performances
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