The Forum: Summer 2000

Summer 2000 journal of the Honors Program at the University of North Dakota. The issue includes stories, poems, essays and art by undergraduate students.https://commons.und.edu/und-books/1043/thumbnail.jp

Biomarker Discovery in Subclinical Mycobacterial Infections of Cattle

BACKGROUND: Bovine tuberculosis is a highly prevalent infectious disease of cattle worldwide; however, infection in the United States is limited to 0.01% of dairy herds. Thus detection of bovine TB is confounded by high background infection with M. avium subsp. paratuberculosis. The present study addresses variations in the circulating peptidome based on the pathogenesis of two biologically similar mycobacterial diseases of cattle. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We hypothesized that serum proteomes of animals in response to either M. bovis or M. paratuberculosis infection will display several commonalities and differences. Sera prospectively collected from animals experimentally infected with either M. bovis or M. paratuberculosis were analyzed using high-resolution proteomics approaches. iTRAQ, a liquid chromatography and tandem mass spectrometry approach, was used to simultaneously identify and quantify peptides from multiple infections and contemporaneous uninfected control groups. Four comparisons were performed: 1) M. bovis infection versus uninfected controls, 2) M. bovis versus M. paratuberculosis infection, 3) early, and 4) advanced M. paratuberculosis infection versus uninfected controls. One hundred and ten differentially elevated proteins (P < or = 0.05) were identified. Vitamin D binding protein precursor (DBP), alpha-1 acid glycoprotein, alpha-1B glycoprotein, fetuin, and serine proteinase inhibitor were identified in both infections. Transthyretin, retinol binding proteins, and cathelicidin were identified exclusively in M. paratuberculosis infection, while the serum levels of alpha-1-microglobulin/bikunin precursor (AMBP) protein, alpha-1 acid glycoprotein, fetuin, and alpha-1B glycoprotein were elevated exclusively in M. bovis infected animals. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: The discovery of these biomarkers has significant impact on the elucidation of pathogenesis of two mycobacterial diseases at the cellular and the molecular level and can be applied in the development of mycobacterium-specific diagnostic tools for the monitoring progression of disease, response to therapy, and/or vaccine based interventions

Data from: Fine-scale spatial and temporal population genetics of Aedes japonicus, a new US mosquito, reveal multiple introductions

The newly introduced mosquito Aedes japonicus has expanded from its original range in Northeastern Asia to twenty-two US states (including Hawaii) plus Canada and northern Europe. Our objectives were to test an earlier hypothesis of multiple introductions of this species to the Northeastern US, and evaluate putative temporal changes in genetic makeup. Using a panel of seven microsatellite loci, we confirmed the existence of two abundant genetic forms in specimens originally collected in 1999-2000 (FST value based on microsatellite data = 0.26) that matches the disjunctive distribution of mitochondrial haplotypes. To examine the distribution of the two genetic â typesâ across Pennsylvania we created a fine-scale genetic map of Ae. japonicus using 439 specimens collected from 54 Pennsylvania counties in 2002-03. We also made direct comparisons between collections in 1999-2000 and new collections made in 2004-2005 obtained from the same areas in the northeastern US. We observed that the strong association between mtDNA haplotype and microsatellite signature seen in 1999-2000 had weakened significantly by 2002 across Pennsylvania, a trend continued to some extent in 2004-2005 in PA, NJ, and NY, indicating that once easily distinguishable separate introductions are merging. The two expanding genetic forms create a complex correlation between spatial and genetic distances. The existence of multiple introductions would be obscured without sampling early and across time with highly polymorphic molecular markers. Our results provide a high-resolution analysis of the spatial and temporal dynamics of a newly introduced disease vector and argue that successive introductions may be a common pattern for invasive mosquitoes

Aej-OldNew.txt

Microsatellite alleles for a comparison over tim

Aej-PA.txt

Microsatellite alleles for fine resolution analysis across Pennsylvania (allele sizes

Aej-PA2.txt

Microsatellite alleles for fine resolution analysis across Pennsylvania (for Phylip

Biomarkers identified in advanced (10 months post infection) <i>M. paratuberculosis</i> infection.

<p>The bar graph represents log ratios of serum proteins (<i>P</i>-value<0.05, EF<2) identified in <i>M. paratuberculosis</i> infected (10 months PI) and control animals. Red bars represent log ratios of serum protein levels in <i>M. paratuberculosis</i> infected animals over time. The black bars represent the temporal trend in log ratios of the same proteins in control animals.</p

List of proteins identified in <i>M. paratuberculosis</i> infected animals at 10 months post-infection and contemporary controls relative to pre-infection.

1<p>117/115: ratio of the fold change of protein among animals at 10 months PI with <i>M. paratuberculosis</i> (117) against pre-infection (115).</p>2<p>116/114: ratio of the fold change of protein at 10 months to follow-up among contemporary controls(116) to pre-infection (114).</p>3<p><i>p</i>-value represent fold ration of the different reporter ions with a significance of <0.05.</p>4<p>Number of peptides represent those identified with 99% confidence in the reporter ion quantification.</p><p>NI: not identified.</p

Dissimilatory reduction of sulfate and zero-valent sulfur at low pH and its significance for bioremediation and metal recovery

Redox transformations of sulfur, involving dissimilatory and assimilatory oxidation and reduction reactions, occurs in water bodies and terrestrial environments worldwide, leading to dynamic cycling of this element throughout the biosphere. In cases where zero-valent (elemental) sulfur, sulfate and other oxidized forms are used as electron acceptor in (primarily) anaerobic microbial metabolisms, the end product is hydrogen sulfide (HS− or H2S, dependent on pH). While neutrophilic and alkalophilic sulfidogenic prokaryotes have been known for many decades, acid-tolerant and acidophilic strains and species have been isolated and characterized only in the past twenty or so years, even though evidence for sulfide generation on these environments was previously well documented. This review outlines the background and current status of the biodiversity and metabolisms of sulfate- and sulfur-reducing prokaryotes that are metabolically active in low pH environments, and describes the developing technologies in which they are being used to remediate acidic waste waters (which are often metal-contaminated) and to recover metal resources.</p

Experimental design used for four iTRAQ analyses with combinations of sera from <i>M. bovis</i> and/or <i>M. paratuberculosis</i> infections in calves.

<p>Shown in each quadrant is the experimental design for either <i>M. bovis</i> or <i>M. paratuberculosis</i> infections. Pre- and post-infection time points at which sera were collected and applied in iTRAQ analyses are identified. Numbers in brackets represent the numbers of sera from each group that was pooled for analysis. Experimental design also included contemporary controls.</p