Proteome profile of peripheral myelin in healthy mice and in a neuropathy model

Proteome and transcriptome analyses aim at comprehending the molecular profiles of the brain, its cell-types and subcellular compartments including myelin. Despite the relevance of the peripheral nervous system for normal sensory and motor capabilities, analogous approaches to peripheral nerves and peripheral myelin have fallen behind evolving technical standards. Here we assess the peripheral myelin proteome by gel-free, label-free mass-spectrometry for deep quantitative coverage. Integration with RNA-Sequencing-based developmental mRNA-abundance profiles and neuropathy disease genes illustrates the utility of this resource. Notably, the periaxin- deficient mouse model of the neuropathy Charcot-Marie-Tooth 4F displays a highly pathological myelin proteome profile, exemplified by the discovery of reduced levels of the monocarboxylate transporter MCT1/SLC16A1 as a novel facet of the neuropathology. This work provides the most comprehensive proteome resource thus far to approach development, function and pathology of peripheral myelin, and a straightforward, accurate and sensitive workflow to address myelin diversity in health and disease

Rickettsia Phylogenomics: Unwinding the Intricacies of Obligate Intracellular Life

BACKGROUND: Completed genome sequences are rapidly increasing for Rickettsia, obligate intracellular alpha-proteobacteria responsible for various human diseases, including epidemic typhus and Rocky Mountain spotted fever. In light of phylogeny, the establishment of orthologous groups (OGs) of open reading frames (ORFs) will distinguish the core rickettsial genes and other group specific genes (class 1 OGs or C1OGs) from those distributed indiscriminately throughout the rickettsial tree (class 2 OG or C2OGs). METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We present 1823 representative (no gene duplications) and 259 non-representative (at least one gene duplication) rickettsial OGs. While the highly reductive (approximately 1.2 MB) Rickettsia genomes range in predicted ORFs from 872 to 1512, a core of 752 OGs was identified, depicting the essential Rickettsia genes. Unsurprisingly, this core lacks many metabolic genes, reflecting the dependence on host resources for growth and survival. Additionally, we bolster our recent reclassification of Rickettsia by identifying OGs that define the AG (ancestral group), TG (typhus group), TRG (transitional group), and SFG (spotted fever group) rickettsiae. OGs for insect-associated species, tick-associated species and species that harbor plasmids were also predicted. Through superimposition of all OGs over robust phylogeny estimation, we discern between C1OGs and C2OGs, the latter depicting genes either decaying from the conserved C1OGs or acquired laterally. Finally, scrutiny of non-representative OGs revealed high levels of split genes versus gene duplications, with both phenomena confounding gene orthology assignment. Interestingly, non-representative OGs, as well as OGs comprised of several gene families typically involved in microbial pathogenicity and/or the acquisition of virulence factors, fall predominantly within C2OG distributions. CONCLUSION/SIGNIFICANCE: Collectively, we determined the relative conservation and distribution of 14354 predicted ORFs from 10 rickettsial genomes across robust phylogeny estimation. The data, available at PATRIC (PathoSystems Resource Integration Center), provide novel information for unwinding the intricacies associated with Rickettsia pathogenesis, expanding the range of potential diagnostic, vaccine and therapeutic targets

Gas Breakdown and Discharge Formation in High-Power Impulse Magnetron Sputtering

Gas Breakdown and Discharge Formation in High-Power Impulse Magnetron Sputterin

Movement of luminous group spots on target and size modification of micro particles during cathodic vacuum arc deposition

Movement of luminous group spots on target and size modification of micro particles during cathodic vacuum arc depositio

The influence of superimposed DC current on electrical and spectroscopic characteristics of HiPIMS discharge

The electrical characteristics and spectroscopic properties have been comprehensively investigated in a DC superimposed high power impulse magnetron sputtering (DC-HiPIMS) deposition system in this paper. The influence of superimposed DC current on the variation of target and substrate currentw aveforms, active species and electron temperatures with pulse voltages are focused. The peak target currents in DC-HiPIMS are lower than in HiPIMS. The time scales of the two main discharge processes like ionization and gas rarefaction in DC-HiPIMS are analyzed. When the pulse voltage is higher than 600 V, the gas rarefaction effect becomes apparent. Overall, the ionization process is found to be dominant in the initial similar to 00 mu s during each pulse. The active species of Ar and Cr in DC-HiPIMS are higher than in HiPIMS unless that the pulse voltage reaches 900 V. However, the ionization degree in HiPIMS exceeds that in DC-HiPIMS at around 600 V. The electron temperature calculated by modified Boltzmann plot method based on corona model has a precipitous increase from 0.87 to 25.0 eV in HiPIMS, but varies mildly after the introduction of the superimposed DC current. Additionally, the current from plasma flowing to the substrate is improved when a DC current is superimposed with HiPIMS. (c) 2018 Author(s)

The influence of superimposed DC current on electrical and spectroscopic characteristics of HiPIMS discharge

The electrical characteristics and spectroscopic properties have been comprehensively investigated in a DC superimposed high power impulse magnetron sputtering (DC-HiPIMS) deposition system in this paper. The influence of superimposed DC current on the variation of target and substrate current waveforms, active species and electron temperatures with pulse voltages are focused. The peak target currents in DC-HiPIMS are lower than in HiPIMS. The time scales of the two main discharge processes like ionization and gas rarefaction in DC-HiPIMS are analyzed. When the pulse voltage is higher than 600 V, the gas rarefaction effect becomes apparent. Overall, the ionization process is found to be dominant in the initial ∼100 μs during each pulse. The active species of Ar and Cr in DC-HiPIMS are higher than in HiPIMS unless that the pulse voltage reaches 900 V. However, the ionization degree in HiPIMS exceeds that in DC-HiPIMS at around 600 V. The electron temperature calculated by modified Boltzmann plot method based on corona model has a precipitous increase from 0.87 to 25.0 eV in HiPIMS, but varies mildly after the introduction of the superimposed DC current. Additionally, the current from plasma flowing to the substrate is improved when a DC current is superimposed with HiPIMS

Discharge state transition and cathode fall thickness evolution during chromium HiPIMS discharge

The temporal evolutions of target voltage and current waveforms under different pulse voltage and working pressure conditions were studied during Cr high power impulse magnetron sputtering discharges. Target voltage and current characteristics demonstrated that when the pulse width was set as 200 mu s, HiPIMS discharge went through a four-stage sequence during each pulse, Townsend discharge, glow discharge, afterglow, and pulse-off stages. A discharge state transition in the glow discharge stage happened at high pulse voltage and working pressure conditions. Furthermore, the dependence of reduced cathode fall thickness pdcon pulse voltage, working pressure, and normalized current density j/p(2) was presented. It was found that gas rarefaction leads to a change of relationship between pd(c) and j/p(2). A noticeable increase of the cathode fall thickness caused by gas rarefaction has been found. Published by AIP Publishing

Stress reduction mechanism of diamond-like carbon films incorporated with different Cu contents

Cu incorporated diamond-like carbon (Cu-DLC) films were deposited on Si/glass substrate by a hybrid ion beam deposition system, which consists of a direct current (DC) magnetron sputtering of Cu target and a linear ion source. The Cu concentration (from 0.1 to 39.7 at.%) in the Cu-DLC films was controlled by varying the sputtering current. The dependence of residual stress, microstructure and atomic bond structure upon Cu concentration was investigated systematically. Results indicated that the nanoscale Cu particles began to evolve from the carbon matrix in the Cu concentration range of 2.6-7.0 at.%. The residual stress of the Cu-DLC films (less than 0.60 GPa) showed a significant reduction compared with that of the pure carbon film (2.0 GPa). Theoretical calculations revealed that the formation of antibonding between Cu and C and the relaxation of distorted bond angles and bond length accounted for the significant reduction of residual stress caused by Cu incorporation. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved