16 research outputs found
Expression of the Arabidopsis Sigma Factor SIG5 Is Photoreceptor and Photosynthesis Controlled
Two collections of Arabidopsis GAL4 enhancer trap lines were screened for
light-intensity dependent reporter gene activation. Line N9313 was isolated
for its strong light-intensity regulation. The T-DNA element trapped distant
enhancers of the SIG5 promoter, which drives expression of a sigma factor
involved in regulation of chloroplast genes for photosystem II core proteins.
The T-DNA insertion 715 bp upstream of the transcription initiation site
splits the promoter in a distal and proximal part. Both parts are sensitive to
blue and red light and depend on photosynthetic electron transport activity
between photosystem II and the plastoquinone pool. The mainblue-light
sensitivity is localized within a 196-bp sequence (–887 to –691 bp) in the
proximal promoter region It is preferentially CRY1 and PHYB controlled. Type-I
and type-II phytochromes mediate red-light sensitivity via various promoter
elements spread over the proximal and distal upstream region. This work
characterizes SIG5 as an anterograde control factor of chloroplast gene
expression, which is controlled by chloroplast signals in a retrograde manner.
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The role of economics in ecosystem based management:The case of the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive; first lessons learnt and way forward
The EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) sets out a plan of action relating to marine environmental policy and in particular to achieving ‘good environmental status’ (GES) in European marine waters by 2020. Article 8.1 (c) of the Directive calls for ‘an economic and social analysis of the use of those waters and of the cost of degradation of the marine environment’. The MSFD is ‘informed’ by the Ecosystem Approach to management, with GES interpreted in terms of ecosystem functioning and services provision. Implementation of the Ecosystem Approach is expected to be by adaptive management policy and practice. The initial socio-economic assessment was made by maritime EU Member States between 2011 and 2012, with future updates to be made on a regular basis. For the majority of Member States, this assessment has led to an exercise combining an analysis of maritime activities both at national and coastal zone scales, and an analysis of the non-market value of marine waters. In this paper we examine the approaches taken in more detail, outline the main challenges facing the Member States in assessing the economic value of achieving GES as outlined in the Directive and make recommendations for the theoretically sound and practically useful completion of the required follow-up economic assessments specified in the MSFD
Mobile Air Quality Studies (MAQS) - an international project
Due to an increasing awareness of the potential hazardousness of air pollutants, new laws, rules and guidelines have recently been implemented globally. In this respect, numerous studies have addressed traffic-related exposure to particulate matter using stationary technology so far. By contrast, only few studies used the advanced technology of mobile exposure analysis. The Mobile Air Quality Study (MAQS) addresses the issue of air pollutant exposure by combining advanced high-granularity spatial-temporal analysis with vehicle-mounted, person-mounted and roadside sensors. The MAQS-platform will be used by international collaborators in order 1) to assess air pollutant exposure in relation to road structure, 2) to assess air pollutant exposure in relation to traffic density, 3) to assess air pollutant exposure in relation to weather conditions, 4) to compare exposure within vehicles between front and back seat (children) positions, and 5) to evaluate "traffic zone"- exposure in relation to non-"traffic zone"-exposure. Primarily, the MAQS-platform will focus on particulate matter. With the establishment of advanced mobile analysis tools, it is planed to extend the analysis to other pollutants including including NO2, SO2, nanoparticles, and ozone
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A New PqsR Inverse Agonist Potentiates Tobramycin Efficacy to Eradicate Pseudomonas aeruginosa Biofilms
Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PA) infections can be notoriously difficult to treat and are often accompanied by the development of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Quorum sensing inhibitors (QSI) acting on PqsR (MvfR) – a crucial transcriptional regulator serving major functions in PA virulence – can enhance antibiotic efficacy and eventually prevent the AMR. An integrated drug discovery campaign including design, medicinal chemistry-driven hit-to-lead optimization and in-depth biological profiling of a new QSI generation is reported. The QSI possess excellent activity in inhibiting pyocyanin production and PqsR reporter-gene with IC50 values as low as 200 and 11 × 10−9 m, respectively. Drug metabolism and pharmacokinetics (DMPK) as well as safety pharmacology studies especially highlight the promising translational properties of the lead QSI for pulmonary applications. Moreover, target engagement of the lead QSI is shown in a PA mucoid lung infection mouse model. Beyond that, a significant synergistic effect of a QSI-tobramycin (Tob) combination against PA biofilms using a tailor-made squalene-derived nanoparticle (NP) formulation, which enhance the minimum biofilm eradicating concentration (MBEC) of Tob more than 32-fold is demonstrated. The novel lead QSI and the accompanying NP formulation highlight the potential of adjunctive pathoblocker-mediated therapy against PA infections opening up avenues for preclinical development
Precipitation with polyethylene glycol followed by washing and pelleting by ultracentrifugation enriches extracellular vesicles from tissue culture supernatants in small and large scales
Extracellular vesicles (EVs) provide a complex means of intercellular signalling between cells at local and distant sites, both within and between different organs. According to their cell-type specific signatures, EVs can function as a novel class of biomarkers for a variety of diseases, and can be used as drug-delivery vehicles. Furthermore, EVs from certain cell types exert beneficial effects in regenerative medicine and for immune modulation. Several techniques are available to harvest EVs from various body fluids or cell culture supernatants. Classically, differential centrifugation, density gradient centrifugation, size-exclusion chromatography and immunocapturing-based methods are used to harvest EVs from EV-containing liquids. Owing to limitations in the scalability of any of these methods, we designed and optimised a polyethylene glycol (PEG)based precipitation method to enrich EVs from cell culture supernatants. We demonstrate the reproducibility and scalability of this method and compared its efficacy with more classical EV-harvesting methods. We show that washing of the PEG pellet and the re-precipitation by ultracentrifugation remove a huge proportion of PEG co-precipitated molecules such as bovine serum albumine (BSA). However, supported by the results of the size exclusion chromatography, which revealed a higher purity in terms of particles per milligram protein of the obtained EV samples, PEG-prepared EV samples most likely still contain a certain percentage of other non-EV associated molecules. Since PEG-enriched EVs revealed the same therapeutic activity in an ischemic stroke model than corresponding cells, it is unlikely that such co-purified molecules negatively affect the functional properties of obtained EV samples. In summary, maybe not being the purification method of choice if molecular profiling of pure EV samples is intended, the optimised PEG protocol is a scalable and reproducible method, which can easily be adopted by laboratories equipped with an ultracentrifuge to enrich for functional active EVs
Time travelling with Triticum: An Ecotron experiment to study the wheat of the future
2. Zero hunger3. Good health and well-being12. Responsible consumption and production13. Climate action15. Life on land17. Partnerships for the goal
Was the trip worth it? Consistency between decision and experienced utility assessments of recreational nature visits
This paper assesses the relationship between decision utility and experienced utility of recreational nature visits. The former is measured as the travel cost to reach that site as routinely used by the travel cost method (TCM), and the latter is operationalized through visit-related subjective well-being (SWB). As such, the analysis is a test of convergent validity by examining whether ex ante TCM-based assessment of recreational value reflecting decision utility corresponds to stated ex post SWB, reflecting experienced utility. It explores to what extent utility revealed by counts of nature visits are associated with self-reported, visit-related SWB relating to that same visited site. The analysis uses two existing datasets providing information on (i) 3672 recreational visits to green/blue spaces in England over the course of four years and (ii) 5937 recreational visits to bluespace sites across 14 European countries over one year. Results show a positive association between travel cost and visit-related SWB while controlling for trip frequency and a large set of covariates, suggesting convergent validity of the two utility concepts. A breakdown by travel mode suggests this relationship only holds for trips involving motorized transport and is not present for habitual, chore-like walking visits to the recreational site.Output Status: Forthcoming/Available Onlin
What can indicators of good environmental status tell us about ecosystem services?: Reducing efforts and increasing cost-effectiveness by reapplying biodiversity indicator data
The EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) requires member states to manage their marine ecosystems
with the goal of achieving Good Environmental Status (GES) of all European Seas by 2020. Member states
assess GES according to 11 descriptors set out in the MSFD, and their associated indicators.
An ecosystem service approach is increasingly being advocated to ensure sustainable use of the environment,
and sets of indicators have been defined for ecosystem service assessments. We considered whether a selection of
GES indicators related to biological descriptors, D1 Biodiversity, D2 Non-indigenous species, D4 Food webs and
D6 Seafloor integrity, may provide information relevant to ecosystem services, potentially allowing use of
collected environmental data for more than one purpose. Published lists of indicators for seven selected marine
ecosystem services were compared to 296 biodiversity-related indicators included within the DEVOTOOL catalogue,
established for screening marine biodiversity indicators for the MSFD. We concluded that 64 of these
biodiversity indicators are directly comparable to the ecosystem service indicators under consideration. All 296
biodiversity indicators were then reassessed objectively to decide which of them could be useful as ecosystem
service indicators. To carry out this step in a consistent and transparent manner, guidelines were developed
among the co-authors that helped the decision making process for each individual indicator. 247 biodiversity
indicators were identified as potentially useful ecosystem service indicators. By highlighting the comparability
between ecosystem service and biodiversity indicators it is hoped that future monitoring effort can be used not
only to ensure that GES is attained, but also that ecosystem service provision is maximised. It is recommended
that these indicators should be tested across EU regional seas to see if they are useful in practice, and if ecosystem
service assessments are comparable across regional seas