Thermoregulation of the \u3ci\u3epap\u3c/i\u3e Operon: Evidence for the Involvement of RimJ, the N-terminal Acetylase of Ribosomal Protein S5

Our previous work showed that pap pilin gene transcription is subject to a thermoregulatory control mechanism under which pap pilin is not transcribed at a low temperature (23°C) (L. B. Blyn, B. A. Braaten, C. A. White-Ziegler, D. H. Rolfson, and D. A. Low, EMBO J. 8:613-620, 1989). In order to isolate genes involved in this temperature regulation of gene expression, chromosomal mini-TnlO (mTnlO) mutations that allowed transcription of the pap pilin gene at 23°C were identified, and the locus was designated tcp, for thermoregulatory control of pap (C. A. White-Ziegler, L. B. Blyn, B. A. Braaten, and D. A. Low, J. Bacteriol. 172:1775-1782, 1990). In the present study, quantitative analysis showed that the tcp mutations restore pap pilin transcription at 23°C to levels similar to those measured at 37°C. By in vivo recombination, the tcp mutations were mapped to phage E4H1OS of the Kohara library of the Escherichia coli chromosome (Y. Kohara, K. Akiyama, and K. Isono, Cell 50:495-508, 1987). The tcp locus was cloned by complementation, in which a 1.3-kb DNA fragment, derived from the Kohara phage, was shown to restore thermoregulation to the mTnlO mutants. DNA sequencing revealed two open reading frames (ORFs) encoding proteins with calculated molecular masses of 22.7 and 20.3 kDa. The sequence of the 22.7-kDa ORF was identical to that of rimJ, the N-terminal acetylase of the ribosomal protein S5. The gene encoding the 20.3-kDa ORF, designated g20.3 here, did not display significant homology to any known. DNA or protein sequence. On the basis of Northern (RNA) blot data, rimj and g20.3 are located within the same operon. Two of the mTnlO transposons in the thermoregulatory mutants were inserted within the coding region of rimi, indicating that the RimJ protein plays an important role in the temperature regulation ofpap pilin gene transcription. However, rimj itself is not thermoregulated, since rim. transcripts were detected at both 23 and 37°C. Disruption of the g20.3 gene by insertion and deletion mutagenesis did not affect thermoregulation of the pap operon, suggesting that, although g20.3 lies within the same operon as rimj, it does not play a role in thermoregulation

H-NS Controls \u3ci\u3epap\u3c/i\u3e and \u3ci\u3edaa\u3c/i\u3e Fimbrial Transcription in \u3ci\u3eEscherichia coli\u3c/i\u3e in Response to Multiple Environmental Cues

A comparative study was completed to determine the influence of various environmental stimuli on the transcription of three different fimbrial operons in Escherichia coli and to determine the role of the histone-like protein H-NS in this environmental regulation. The fimbrial operons studied included the pap operon, which encodes pyelonephritis-associated pili (P pili), the daa operon, which encodes F1845 fimbriae, and the fan operon, which encodes K99 fimbriae. Using lacZYA transcriptional fusions within each of the fimbrial operons, we tested temperature, osmolarity, carbon source, rich medium, oxygen levels, pH, amino acids, solid medium, and iron concentration for their effects on fimbrial gene expression. Low temperature, high osmolarity, glucose as a carbon source, and rich medium repressed transcription of all three operons. High iron did not alter transcription of any of the operons tested, whereas the remaining stimuli had effects on individual operons. For the pap and daa operons, introduction of the hns651 mutation relieved the repression, either fully or partially, due to low temperature, glucose as a carbon source, rich medium, and high osmolarity. Taken together, these data indicate that there are common environmental cues that regulate fimbrial transcription in E. coli and that H-NS is an important environmental regulator for fimbrial transcription in response to several stimuli

Control theory for principled heap sizing

We propose a new, principled approach to adaptive heap sizing based on control theory. We review current state-of-the-art heap sizing mechanisms, as deployed in Jikes RVM and HotSpot. We then formulate heap sizing as a control problem, apply and tune a standard controller algorithm, and evaluate its performance on a set of well-known benchmarks. We find our controller adapts the heap size more responsively than existing mechanisms. This responsiveness allows tighter virtual machine memory footprints while preserving target application throughput, which is ideal for both embedded and utility computing domains. In short, we argue that formal, systematic approaches to memory management should be replacing ad-hoc heuristics as the discipline matures. Control-theoretic heap sizing is one such systematic approach

Identification of an \u3ci\u3eEscherichia coli\u3c/i\u3e Genetic Locus Involved in Thermoregulation of the \u3ci\u3epap\u3c/i\u3e Operon

We previously showed, using a single-copy papBAp-lac fusion (previously designated papBA-lac), that pyelonephritis-associated pili (pap) pilin gene transcription is subject to both phase variation and thermoreg- ulatory control mechanisms (L. B. Blyn, B. A. Braaten, C. A. White-Ziegler, D. H. Rolfson, and D. A. Low, EMBO J. 8:613-620, 1989). At 37°C, Escherichia coli strains carrying the papBAp-lac fusion displayed both Lac\u27 and Lac- colony phenotypes. In contrast, at 23°C, colonies displayed a uniform Lac- phenotype, suggesting that pilin was not transcribed at this temperature. In this study, a strain carrying the papBAp-lac fusion was subjected to mini-TnlO (mTnlO) mutagenesis to isolate mutants that could initiate transcription of pilin at the nonpermissive temperature. Two classes of thermoregulatory mutants were identified in which the mTnlO mutation was linked to the mutant phenotype. Class I mutants displayed a phase variation phenotype at both 37°C and 23°C, whereas class II mutants displayed a uniform Lac\u27 colony phenotype at both temperatures. Preliminary analysis of these mutants showed that the mTnlO insertions in the class I mutants were chromosomally located, whereas the mTnlO insertions in the class II mutants were located within the papBAp-lac fusion phage. Southern blot analysis of the class I mutants demonstrated that mTnlO was present in the same 5.9-kilobase Sall DNA fragment in each mutant. Two of the class I mTnlO mutations were mapped to approximately 23.4 min on the E. coli K-12 chromosome. The locus defined by the class I mTnlO mutations was designated tcp, for thermoregulatory control ofpap. Analysis of phase transition rates of the class I mutants showed that the phase-off (Lac-)\u3e phase-on (Lac\u27) transition rates were higher than those observed with the nonmutant E. coli strain

Field scale soil health scenarios. Vermont Payment for Ecosystem Services Technical Report #2

This report illustrates how changes in management on Vermont farms can influence soil health metrics at the field scale. We’ve used regionally relevant science-based scenarios to demonstrate how selected soil health metrics that are associated with ecosystem services could change on farms in response to management practices at the field scale. These field scale management scenarios demonstrate that many practices in use by farmers in Vermont can have positive impacts on the soil health indicators of interest to the Vermont Soil Health & Payment for Ecosystem Services Working Group. The scenarios document potential for tradeoffs among soil health properties. Specifically, some of the scenarios illustrate how bulk density and compaction can worsen in instances when other soil health properties improve. Long-term research that measures multiple indicators of soil health and ecosystem services on recommended soil health management practices in Vermont is needed to support the evidence-base for soil health and ecosystem services incentive programs

Phase-Variation of Pyelonephritis-Associated Pili in \u3ci\u3eEscherichia coli\u3c/i\u3e: Evidence for Transcriptional Regulation

The regulation of pyelonephritis-associated pill (pap) pflin gene transcription has been examined using two operons (pap-17 and pap-21) isolated from the pyelonephritogenic Escherichia coli strain C1212. DNA sequence analysis and E.coli minicell analysis were used to map two genes (papB and papl) within the pilin regulatory regions of both pap-17 and pap-21, and the protein products of these genes were identified. Pilin transcription, initiated at the papBA promoter, was monitored by constructing single copy operon fusions with lacZYA in E.coli K-12. Inocula- tion of E.coli (pap\u27-lac) strains onto solid M9 minimal medium containing glycerol and the Lac indicator X-gal (M9-Glycerol) yielded both Lac\u27 and Lac- colony phenotypes. The Lac\u27 (\u27phase on\u27) and Lac- (\u27phase off\u27) phenotypes were heritable since reinoculation of M9-Glycerol with bacteria picked from Lac\u27 colonies gave rise to a much higher fraction of Lac\u27 colonies than reinoculation of M9-Glycerol with bacteria picked from Lac- colonies. Measurement of phase transition rates for E.coli (pap17\u27-lac) inoculated onto M9-Gly- cerol showed that the Lac - -Lac+ transition frequency (1.57 x 10-4/cell/generation) was reduced 35-fold when cells were inoculated onto minimal medium containing glucose (M9-Glucose). However, the Lac+-Lac- transition frequency obtained using M9-Glycerol (2.60 x 10-2/cell/generation) was 1.4-fold lower compared to results obtained with M9-Glucose. In contrast, lowering the incubation temperature of E.coli (pap17\u27-lac) cultures from 37°C to 23\u27C caused all cells to shift to the Lac- state. Together, our results strongly indicate that pap pfli phase-variation is transcriptionally regulated and show that phase-variation is responsive to changes in the bacterial environment

Early Cenozoic denudation of central west Britain in response to transient and permanent uplift above a mantle plume

Upwelling mantle plumes beneath continental crust are predicted to produce difficult to quantify, modest uplift and denudation. The contribution of permanent and transient components to the uplift is also difficult to distinguish. A pulse of denudation in Britain in the Early Paleogene has been linked, although with some controversy, with the arrival of the proto-Iceland mantle plume. In this contribution we show that combining apatite and zircon (U-Th-Sm)/He and apatite fission track analyses from central west Britain with numerical modeling clearly identifies a pulse of early Cenozoic denudation. The data indicate that rock uplift and denudation were centered on the northern East Irish Sea Basin and 1.0–2.4 km of rocks were removed during the latest Cretaceous-early Paleogene. Uplift and erosion appears to have started a few million years before the earliest magmatism in the region. The regional denudation pattern mirrors the distribution of low-density magmatic rocks that has been imaged in the deep crust. However, the injection of the underplating melt is not enough to account for the total denudation. An additional regional uplift of at least 300 m is required, which is consistent with a transient thermal effect from the hot mantle plume. The rapid exhumation event ceased by ~40 Ma and the data do not require significant Neogene exhumation

Intragroup diffuse light in compact groups of galaxies II. HCG 15, 35 and 51

This continuing study of intragroup light in compact groups of galaxies aims to establish new constraints to models of formation and evolution of galaxy groups, specially of compact groups, which are a key part in the evolution of larger structures, such as clusters. In this paper we present three additional groups (HCG 15, 35 and 51) using deep wide field $B$ and $R$ band images observed with the LAICA camera at the 3.5m telescope at the Calar Alto observatory (CAHA). This instrument provides us with very stable flatfielding, a mandatory condition for reliably measuring intragroup diffuse light. The images were analyzed with the OV\_WAV package, a wavelet technique that allows us to uncover the intragroup component in an unprecedented way. We have detected that 19, 15 and 26% of the total light of HCG 15, 35 and 51, respectively, is in the diffuse component, with colours that are compatible with old stellar populations and with mean surface brightness that can be as low as $28.4 {\rm B mag arcsec^{-2}}$. Dynamical masses, crossing times and mass to light ratios were recalculated using the new group parameters. Also tidal features were analyzed using the wavelet technique.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS. See http://www.eso.org/~cdarocha/publications/DaRochaetal2008_IGL_HCG.pdf for full resolution version. Complementary reference adde

New insights into the structure of early-type galaxies: the Photometric Plane at z~0.3

We study the Photometric Plane (PHP), namely the relation between the effective radius re, the mean surface brightness within that radius e, and the Sersic index n, in optical (R and I) and near-infrared (K) bands for a large sample of early-type galaxies (ETGs) in the rich cluster MS1008-1224 at z=0.306. The PHP relation has an intrinsic dispersion of ~32% in re, and turns out to be independent of waveband. This result is consistent with the fact that internal colour gradients of ETGs can have only a mild dependence on galaxy luminosity (mass). There is no evidence for a significant curvature in the PHP. We show that this can be explained if this relation origins from a systematic variation of the specific entropy of ETGs along the galaxy sequence, as was suggested from previous works. The intrinsic scatter of the PHP is significantly smaller than for other purely photometric relations, such as the Kormendy relation and the photometric Fundamental Plane, which is constructed by using colours in place of velocity dispersions. The scatter does not depend on the waveband and the residuals about the plane do not correlate with residuals of the colour-magnitude relation. Finally, we compare the coefficients of the PHP at z~0.3 with those of ETGs at z~0, showing that the PHP is a valuable tool to constrain the luminosity evolution of ETGs with redshift. The slopes of the PHP do not change significantly with redshift, while the zero-point is consistent with cosmological dimming of the surface brightness in an expanding universe plus the passive fading of galaxy stellar populations with a high formation redshift (z_f >1-2).Comment: 21 pages, 10 figures, MNRAS in pres

Reporters for the analysis of N-glycosylation in Candida albicans

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