Hydrological changes in the White Sea during the historical period inferred from analysis of dinocysts

According to available historical evidence, colonization of the White Sea region began in the 9th–8th centuries B.C. [2]. This unique region with ancient residence sites experiences progressively increasing anthropogenic load against the background of natural climatic changes. The intense economic development of the region requires complex ecological and paleogeographic studies aimed at detailed reconstruction of past sedimentation settings. The analysis of dinocysts, which makes it possible to reconstruct various parameters of water masses washing the Arctic shelf, has become a promising method in paleohydrological studies, widely used in recent years [10, 11]. Dinoflagellates, which represent one of the main phytoplankton groups in the Arctic Seas, the White Sea included, form cysts with biopolymer envelopes, which are preserved in sediments. Thus, information on glacial–hydrological conditions is recorded in marine sediments. In the White Sea, this method was first used for the study of bottom sediments only in 2003 [3, 15]. In this communication, we present the first results obtained during the thorough study of dinocysts in bottom sediment cores from the White Sea, which cover the last 250 years. The study of this microfossil group made it possible to reconstruct in detail changes in glacial–hydrological settings in the sea and reveal their relations with known climatic–hydrological events that occurred in neighboring regions during the historical period

Dinoflagellate cysts in the surface sediments of the White Sea

Dinoflagellate cysts were studied in 42 samples from the surface sediments of the White Sea. The total concentration of dinocysts varies from single cysts to 25 000 cyst/g of dry sediments, which reflects the biological productivity in the White Sea waters and the regional particular features of the sedimentation processes. The highest concentrations are observed in silts; they are related to the regions of propagation of the highly productive Barents Sea waters in the White Sea. Generally, the spatial distribution of dinocysts species in the surface sediments corresponds to the distribution of the major types of water masses in the White Sea. The cysts of the relatively warm-water species (Operculodinium centrocarpum, Spiniferites sp.) of North Atlantic origin that dominate in the sediments indicate an intensive intrusion of the Barents Sea water masses to the White Sea along with hydrological dwelling conditions in the White Sea favorable for the development of these species during their vegetation period. The cold-water dinocyst assemblage (Islandinium minutum, Polykrikos sp.) is rather strictly confined to the inner parts of shallow-water bays, firstly, those adjacent to the Onega and Severnaya Dvina river mouths

RegPrecise web services interface: programmatic access to the transcriptional regulatory interactions in bacteria reconstructed by comparative genomics.

Web services application programming interface (API) was developed to provide a programmatic access to the regulatory interactions accumulated in the RegPrecise database (http://regprecise.lbl.gov), a core resource on transcriptional regulation for the microbial domain of the Department of Energy (DOE) Systems Biology Knowledgebase. RegPrecise captures and visualize regulogs, sets of genes controlled by orthologous regulators in several closely related bacterial genomes, that were reconstructed by comparative genomics. The current release of RegPrecise 2.0 includes >1400 regulogs controlled either by protein transcription factors or by conserved ribonucleic acid regulatory motifs in >250 genomes from 24 taxonomic groups of bacteria. The reference regulons accumulated in RegPrecise can serve as a basis for automatic annotation of regulatory interactions in newly sequenced genomes. The developed API provides an efficient access to the RegPrecise data by a comprehensive set of 14 web service resources. The RegPrecise web services API is freely accessible at http://regprecise.lbl.gov/RegPrecise/services.jsp with no login requirements

Differentiation between <I>Yersinia pestis</I> Strains of Altaic-Hissar Group of Non-Main Subspecies by Means of PCR

On the basis of comparison between the genome-wide sequences of Altaic and Hissar strains of non-main subspecies and strains from Talas high-mountain plague focus, identified have been two novel DNA-targets, the usage of which provides for easy rapid subdivision of these closely-related strains of non-main subspecies that fall into separate phylogenetic brunches of plague agent evolution, applying PCR assay. One of the targets is allocated to intergenic region between YPO3333 and YPO3332 genes. In strains of altaica ssp. it contains 122 bps deletion. The other target is YPO2412 gene region which contains 72 bps deletion in Talas strains. Special primers for DNA-targets have been designed. Established have also been test specifications. Efficacy of the method for differentiation between the strains of Altaic-Hissar group of non-main subspecies is validated on 97 Y. pestis strains of various ssp

Фармакотерапия подагры – современные подходы и перспективы

The article discusses modern approaches to the gout treatment, presented in foreign and domestic clinical guidelines. While the use of urate-lowering therapy for gout is a necessary and highly effective strategy, in the case of asymptomatic hyperuricemia, the benefits of this approach are not clear. The safety and efficacy of colchicine, as well as its cardioprotective properties, were noted in comorbid patients suffering from gout and cardiovascular diseases. Comparative data on safety and efficacy of the main urate-lowering drugs, allopurinol and febuxostat, are presented. It has been shown that, according to recent studies, febuxostat is more effective than allopurinol in normalizing serum uric acid levels, is not inferior in its cardio safety and is characterized by a lower incidence of other adverse reactions.В статье рассматриваются современные подходы к терапии подагры, представленные в зарубежных и отечественных клинических рекомендациях. Если применение уратснижающей терапии при подагре является необходимой и высокоэффективной стратегией, то в случае бессимптомной гиперурикемии преимущества такого подхода неочевидны. Отмечены безопасность и эффективность колхицина, а также его кардиопротективные свойства у коморбидных пациентов, страдающих подагрой и сердечно-сосудистыми заболеваниями. Приведены сравнительные данные о безопасности и эффективности основных уратснижающих препаратов – аллопуринола и фебуксостата. Показано, что, согласно последним исследованиям, фебуксостат более эффективно, чем аллопуринол, нормализует уровень мочевой кислоты в сыворотке крови, не уступает ему по кардиобезопасности и характеризуется более низкой частотой возникновения других нежелательных реакций

Improving the framework for assessment of ecological change in the Arctic: A circumpolar synthesis of freshwater biodiversity

1. Climate warming and subsequent landscape transformations result in rapid ecological change in Arctic freshwaters. Here we provide a synthesis of the diversity of benthic diatoms, plankton, macrophytes, macroinvertebrates, and fish in Arctic freshwaters.2. We developed a multi-organism measure of alpha diversity to characterise circumpolar spatial patterns and their environmental correlates, and we assessed ecoregion-level beta diversity for all organism groups across the Arctic.3. Alpha diversity was lowest at high latitudes and elevations and where dispersal barriers exist. Diversity was positively related to temperature, and both temperature and connectivity limited diversity on high latitude islands. Beta diversity was highly variable among ecoregions for most organism groups, ranging from 0 (complete similarity) to 1 (complete dissimilarity). The high degree of dissimilarity within many ecoregions illustrates the uniqueness of many Arctic freshwater communities.4. Northward range expansion of freshwater taxa into Arctic regions may lead to increased competition for cold-stenothermic and cold-adapted species, and ultimately lead to the extinction of unique Arctic species. Societal responses to predicted impacts include: (1) actions to improve detection of changes (e.g., harmonised monitoring, remote sensing) and engagement with Arctic residents and Indigenous Peoples; and (2) actions to reduce the impact of unwanted changes (e.g., reductions of CO2 emissions, action against the spread of invasive species).5. Current Arctic freshwater monitoring shows large gaps in spatial coverage, while time series data are scarce. Arctic countries should develop an intensified, long-term monitoring programme with routine reporting. Such an approach will allow detection of long-term changes in water quality, biodiversity, and ecosystem services of Arctic freshwaters

Development of a Set of Primers for Drug-Resistance Genes Detection in the Agents of Dangerous Bacterial Infections as Exemplified by <I>Yersinia pestis</I>, <I>Vibrio cholerae</I>, <I>Escherichia coli</I> Strains

A set of primers for detection of genes encoding resistance to streptomycin ( strA, strB ), tetracyclin ( tetA, tetR ), chloramphenicol ( catА ), kanamycin ( npt , aphA ), vankomycin ( sanA ), polymyxin ( pmrD ) has been developed with the aim of rapid and effective detection of drug-resistant strains of dangerous bacterial infections agents. Efficacy of constructed primers has been confirmed against a panel of 40 Yersinia pestis, 49 Vibrio cholerae, and 2 Escherichia coli strains from the State collection of pathogenic bacteria of the RAPI “Microbe”. Drug-resistance genes ntp and catA have been detected in plague agent strains , strA, strB , npt , aphA , tetA and tetR - in cholera agent; strA , tetR , ntp and aphA - in pathogenic strain E. coli О157:H7. Determined is universal character of the designed primers for drug-resistance genes detection in these pathogenic bacteria species

RegPredict: an integrated system for regulon inference in prokaryotes by comparative genomics approach

RegPredict web server is designed to provide comparative genomics tools for reconstruction and analysis of microbial regulons using comparative genomics approach. The server allows the user to rapidly generate reference sets of regulons and regulatory motif profiles in a group of prokaryotic genomes. The new concept of a cluster of co-regulated orthologous operons allows the user to distribute the analysis of large regulons and to perform the comparative analysis of multiple clusters independently. Two major workflows currently implemented in RegPredict are: (i) regulon reconstruction for a known regulatory motif and (ii) ab initio inference of a novel regulon using several scenarios for the generation of starting gene sets. RegPredict provides a comprehensive collection of manually curated positional weight matrices of regulatory motifs. It is based on genomic sequences, ortholog and operon predictions from the MicrobesOnline. An interactive web interface of RegPredict integrates and presents diverse genomic and functional information about the candidate regulon members from several web resources. RegPredict is freely accessible at http://regpredict.lbl.gov

Identification and Intraspecific Typing of Plague Microbe Strains with Their Potential Virulence Determination Using PCR

Developed is the method of identification and intraspecific typing of plague microbe strains along with their potential virulence determination. Intraspecific differentiation and focal attribution of the examined plague microbe strains can be determined by monolocus VNTR-PCR, and main virulence determinants (chromosomal pigmentation region and calcium-dependence plasmid genes) - by multiplex PCR

Exploratory Study of the Long-Term Persistence of <i>Yersinia pestis</i> in the Cells of Soil-Inhabiting Ameba - <i>Acanthamoeba Sp.</i>

Objective of the study is to explore the feasibility of the long-term persistence of Yersinia pestis strains in association with ameba - Acanthamoeba sp. Materials and methods. Investigated has been interaction of ameba - Acanthamoeba sp., isolated from rodent burrows in the Pre-Caspian sandy, Volga-Ural steppe, and Pre-Caspian North-Western steppe natural foci, with 4 strains of Y. pestis of the main subspecies, 1 strain of caucasica and 1 strain of altai subspecies. Results and discussion. It is established that the strains of the main subspecies survive in the cells of ameba at 26 °C and 20 % humidity (modeling of the drought conditions in the natural plague foci) within 2-4 months of experiment, and 10-20 times longer that in pure culture. Two strains of the non-main ssp. have not demonstrated an increase in persistency in association with Acanthamoeba sp., which may occur due to degraded resistance to phagocytosis in the ameba of this specie. Using fluorescent and transmission electronic microscopy, it is determined that the cells of plague agent persist in ameba cells in individual vacuoles, enclosed in endoplasmic reticulum. The data obtained may testify to the possible involvement of ameba Acanthamoeba sp. . into sustainment of Y. pestis in soil biocoenoses of natural plague foci