Studies on the virome of the entomopathogenic fungus Beauveria bassiana reveal novel dsRNA elements and mild hypervirulence.

© 2017 Kotta-Loizou, Coutts. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Kotta-Loizou I, Coutts RHA (2017) 'Studies on the Virome of the Entomopathogenic Fungus Beauveria bassiana Reveal Novel dsRNA Elements and Mild Hypervirulence', PLoS Pathogens, 13(1): e1006183. doi:10.1371/journal.ppat.1006183The entomopathogenic fungus Beauveria bassiana has a wide host range and is used as a biocontrol agent against arthropod pests. Mycoviruses have been described in phytopathogenic fungi while in entomopathogenic fungi their presence has been reported only rarely. Here we show that 21.3% of a collection of B. bassiana isolates sourced from worldwide locations, harbor dsRNA elements. Molecular characterization of these elements revealed the prevalence of mycoviruses belonging to the Partitiviridae and Totiviridae families, the smallest reported virus to date, belonging to the family Narnaviridae, and viruses unassigned to a family or genus. Of particular importance is the discovery of members of a newly proposed family Polymycoviridae in B. bassiana. Polymycoviruses, previously designated as tetramycoviruses, consist of four non-conventionally encapsidated capped dsRNAs. The presence of additional non-homologous genomic segments in B. bassiana polymycoviruses and other fungi illustrates the unprecedented dynamic nature of the viral genome. Finally, a comparison of virus-free and virus-infected isogenic lines derived from an exemplar B. bassiana isolate revealed a mild hypervirulent effect of mycoviruses on the growth of their host isolate and on its pathogenicity against the greater wax moth Galleria mellonella, highlighting for the first time the potential of mycoviruses as enhancers of biocontrol agents.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

Blocking TGF-β signaling pathway preserves mitochondrial proteostasis and reduces early activation of PDGFRβ+ pericytes in aristolochic acid induced acute kidney injury in wistar male rats

The platelet-derived growth factor receptor β (PDGFRβ)+ perivascular cell activation becomes increasingly recognized as a main source of scar-associated kidney myofibroblasts and recently emerged as a new cellular therapeutic target.In this regard, we first confirmed the presence of PDGFRβ+ perivascular cells in a human case of end-stage aristolochic acid nephropathy (AAN) and thereafter we focused on the early fibrosis events of transforming growth factor β (TGFβ) inhibition in a rat model of AAN.Neutralizing anti-TGFβ antibody (1D11) and its control isotype (13C4) were administered (5 mg/kg, i.p.) at Days -1, 0, 2 and 4; AA (15 mg/kg, sc) was injected daily.At Day 5, 1D11 significantly suppressed p-Smad2/3 signaling pathway improving renal function impairment, reduced the score of acute tubular necrosis, peritubular capillaritis, interstitial inflammation and neoangiogenesis. 1D11 markedly decreased interstitial edema, disruption of tubular basement membrane loss of brush border, cytoplasmic edema and organelle ultrastructure alterations (mitochondrial disruption and endoplasmic reticulum edema) in proximal tubular epithelial cells. Moreover, 1D11 significantly inhibited p-PERK activation and attenuated dysregulation of unfolded protein response (UPR) pathways, endoplasmic reticulum and mitochondrial proteostasis in vivo and in vitro.The early inhibition of p-Smad2/3 signaling pathway improved acute renal function impairment, partially prevented epithelial-endothelial axis activation by maintaining PTEC proteostasis and reduced early PDGFRβ+ pericytes-derived myofibroblasts accumulation

Reperfusion injuries after prolonged limb ischemia

Limb revascularisation after prolonged ischemia is often associated with a local worsening of the muscular damage. Oedema, loss of muscle function, muscular necrosis and systemic disorders are the result of a sequence of local cellular events and systemic complications, which begin with the ischemic period and are aggravated by uncontrolled reperfusion. We present a typical case which reminds us that it is not enough to reverse ischemia. We must, futhermore, control the conditions in which reperfusion occurs.SCOPUS: sh.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Advanced Model for SBS of a Randomized Laser Beam and Application to Polarization Smoothing Experiments with Preformed Underdense Plasmas

An advanced statistical model is presented, which describes the SBS of a randomized laser beam interacting with an underdense, expanding plasma. The model accounts for the self-focusing of speckles and for its influence on the speckles SBS reflectivity in the regime where the effect of plasma heating is important. Plasma heating has an important effect on speckle self-focusing and it decreases the SBS threshold and also decreases the SBS reflectivity. The model exhibit a good agreement with the measured SBS levels at the LULI multi-beam facility for a broad range of the laser and plasma parameters and both types of beam smoothing--RPP and PS. Both the model and the experiments confirm that the PS technique allows to control the SBS level more efficiently than RPP

Laser-Plasma Interaction Physics at LULI

Laser-plasma interaction physics is studied in the context of laser fusion using the six-beam laser facility at LULI. Interaction between RPP laser beams and well-characterized preformed plasmas has been performed to study various aspects of stimulated Brillouin and Raman scattering (SBS and SRS), self-focusing and filamentation. Thomson scattering of a short wavelength probe laser beam was used to provide a complete characterization of the plasma (electron temperature, density, flow velocity) and measurements of the density fluctuations associated with ion acoustic waves and electron plasma waves, with temporal, spatial, frequency and wavenumber resolution. Among the different studies, they will present results on the effect of polarization smoothing, target material, multi-species plasmas, and Langmuir decay on parametric instabilities

Bone marrow aspiration as a diagnostic tool for acute toxoplasmosis in a kidney transplant recipient

SCOPUS: ar.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Replantation of Limbs and Limb Extremities

peer reviewe

Studies on laser beam propagation and stimulated scattering in multiple beam experiments

The propagation and stimulated scattering of intense laser beams interacting with underdense plasmas are two important issues for inertial confinement fusion (ICF). The purpose of this work was to perform experiments under well-controlled interaction conditions and confront them with numerical simulations to test the physics included in the codes. Experimental diagnostics include time and space resolved images of incident and SBS light and of SBS-ion acoustic activity. New numerical diagnostics, including similar constraints as the experimental ones and the treatment of the propagation of the light between the emitting area and the detectors, have been developed. Particular care was put to include realistic plasma density and velocity profiles, as well as laser pulse shape in the simulations. In the experiments presented in this paper, the interaction beam was used with a random phase plate (RPP) to produce a statistical distribution of speckles in the focal volume. Stimulated Brillouin Scattering (SBS) was described using a decomposition of the spatial scales which provides a predictive modeling of SBS in an expanding mm-scale plasma. Spatial and temporal behavior of the SBS-ion acoustic waves was found to be in good agreement with the experimental ones for two laser intensities