2,787 research outputs found
Scorpion Biodiversity and Interslope Divergence at “Evolution Canyon”, Lower Nahal Oren Microsite, Mt. Carmel, Israel
BACKGROUND: Local natural laboratories, designated by us as the "Evolution Canyon" model, are excellent tools to study regional and global ecological dynamics across life. They present abiotic and biotic contrasts locally, permitting the pursuit of observations and experiments across diverse taxa sharing sharp microecological subdivisions. Higher solar radiation received by the "African savannah-like" south-facing slopes (AS) in canyons north of the equator than by the opposite "European maquis-like" north-facing slopes (ES) is associated with higher abiotic stress. Scorpions are a suitable taxon to study interslope biodiversity differences, associated with the differences in abiotic factors (climate, drought), due to their ability to adapt to dry environments. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Scorpions were studied by the turning stone method and by UV light methods. The pattern observed in scorpions was contrasted with similar patterns in several other taxa at the same place. As expected, the AS proved to be significantly more speciose regarding scorpions, paralleling the interslope patterns in taxa such as lizards and snakes, butterflies (Rhopalocera), beetles (families Tenebrionidae, Dermestidae, Chrysomelidae), and grasshoppers (Orthoptera). CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Our results support an earlier conclusion stating that the homogenizing effects of migration and stochasticity are not able to eliminate the interslope intra- and interspecific differences in biodiversity despite an interslope distance of only 100 m at the "EC" valley bottom. In our opinion, the interslope microclimate selection, driven mainly by differences in insolance, could be the primary factor responsible for the observed interslope pattern
Precursors of Cytochrome Oxidase in Cytochrome-Oxidase-Deficient Cells of Neurospora crassa
Three different cell types of Neurospora crassa deficient in cytochrome oxidase were studied: the nuclear mutant cni-1, the cytoplasmic mutant mi-1 and copper-depleted wild-type cells.
* 1.
The enzyme-deficient cells have retained a functioning mitochondrial protein synthesis. It accounted for 12–16% of the total protein synthesis of the cell. However, the analysis of mitochondrial translation products by gel electrophoresis revealed that different amounts of individual membrane proteins were synthesized. Especially mutant cni-1 produced large amounts of a small molecular weight translation product, which is barely detectable in wild-type.
* 2.
Mitochondrial preparations of cytochrome-oxidase-deficient cells were examined for precursors of cytochrome oxidase. The presence of polypeptide components of cytochrome oxidase in the mitochondria was established with specific antibodies. On the other hand, no significant amounts of heme a could be extracted.
* 3.
Radioactively labelled components of cytochrome oxidase were isolated by immunoprecipitation and analysed by gel electrophoresis. All three cell types contained the enzyme components 4–7, which are translated on cytoplasmic ribosomes. The mitochondrially synthesized components 1–3 were present in mi-1 mutant and in copper-depleted wild-type cells. In contrast, components 2 and 3 were not detectable in the nuclear mutant cni-1. Both relative and absolute amounts of these polypeptides in the enzyme-deficient cells were quite different from those in wild-type cells.
* 4.
The components of cytochrome oxidase found in the enzyme-deficient cells were tightly associated with the mitochondrial membranes.
* 5.
Processes, which affect and may control the production of enzyme precursors or their assembly to a functional cytochrome oxidase are discussed
Sub-Sets of Cancer Stem Cells Differ Intrinsically in Their Patterns of Oxygen Metabolism
PMCID: PMC3640080This 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
Quiescience as a mechanism for cyclical hypoxia and acidosis
Tumour tissue characteristically experiences fluctuations in substrate supply. This unstable microenvironment drives constitutive metabolic changes within cellular populations and, ultimately, leads to a more aggressive phenotype. Previously, variations in substrate levels were assumed to occur through oscillations in the hæmodynamics of nearby and distant blood vessels. In this paper we examine an alternative hypothesis, that cycles of metabolite concentrations are also driven by cycles of cellular quiescence and proliferation. Using a mathematical modelling approach, we show that the interdependence between cell cycle and the microenvironment will induce typical cycles with the period of order hours in tumour acidity and oxygenation. As a corollary, this means that the standard assumption of metabolites entering diffusive equilibrium around the tumour is not valid; instead temporal dynamics must be considered
Incorporating expression data in metabolic modeling: a case study of lactate dehydrogenase
Integrating biological information from different sources to understand
cellular processes is an important problem in systems biology. We use data from
mRNA expression arrays and chemical kinetics to formulate a metabolic model
relevant to K562 erythroleukemia cells. MAP kinase pathway activation alters
the expression of metabolic enzymes in K562 cells. Our array data show changes
in expression of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) isoforms after treatment with
phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA), which activates MAP kinase signaling. We
model the change in lactate production which occurs when the MAP kinase pathway
is activated, using a non-equilibrium, chemical-kinetic model of homolactic
fermentation. In particular, we examine the role of LDH isoforms, which
catalyze the conversion of pyruvate to lactate. Changes in the isoform ratio
are not the primary determinant of the production of lactate. Rather, the total
concentration of LDH controls the lactate concentration.Comment: In press, Journal of Theoretical Biology. 27 pages, 9 figure
Diffuse-Charge Dynamics in Electrochemical Systems
The response of a model micro-electrochemical system to a time-dependent
applied voltage is analyzed. The article begins with a fresh historical review
including electrochemistry, colloidal science, and microfluidics. The model
problem consists of a symmetric binary electrolyte between parallel-plate,
blocking electrodes which suddenly apply a voltage. Compact Stern layers on the
electrodes are also taken into account. The Nernst-Planck-Poisson equations are
first linearized and solved by Laplace transforms for small voltages, and
numerical solutions are obtained for large voltages. The ``weakly nonlinear''
limit of thin double layers is then analyzed by matched asymptotic expansions
in the small parameter , where is the
screening length and the electrode separation. At leading order, the system
initially behaves like an RC circuit with a response time of
(not ), where is the ionic diffusivity, but nonlinearity
violates this common picture and introduce multiple time scales. The charging
process slows down, and neutral-salt adsorption by the diffuse part of the
double layer couples to bulk diffusion at the time scale, . In the
``strongly nonlinear'' regime (controlled by a dimensionless parameter
resembling the Dukhin number), this effect produces bulk concentration
gradients, and, at very large voltages, transient space charge. The article
concludes with an overview of more general situations involving surface
conduction, multi-component electrolytes, and Faradaic processes.Comment: 10 figs, 26 pages (double-column), 141 reference
Cellular adaptations to hypoxia and acidosis during somatic evolution of breast cancer
Conceptual models of carcinogenesis typically consist of an evolutionary sequence of heritable changes in genes controlling proliferation, apoptosis, and senescence. We propose that these steps are necessary but not sufficient to produce invasive breast cancer because intraductal tumour growth is also constrained by hypoxia and acidosis that develop as cells proliferate into the lumen and away from the underlying vessels. This requires evolution of glycolytic and acid-resistant phenotypes that, we hypothesise, is critical for emergence of invasive cancer. Mathematical models demonstrate severe hypoxia and acidosis in regions of intraductal tumours more than 100 m from the basement membrane. Subsequent evolution of glycolytic and acid-resistant phenotypes leads to invasive proliferation. Multicellular spheroids recapitulating ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) microenvironmental conditions demonstrate upregulated glucose transporter 1 (GLUT1) as adaptation to hypoxia followed by growth into normoxic regions in qualitative agreement with model predictions. Clinical specimens of DCIS exhibit periluminal distribution of GLUT-1 and Na+/H+ exchanger (NHE) indicating transcriptional activation by hypoxia and clusters of the same phenotype in the peripheral, presumably normoxic regions similar to the pattern predicted by the models and observed in spheroids. Upregulated GLUT-1 and NHE-1 were observed in microinvasive foci and adjacent intraductal cells. Adaptation to hypoxia and acidosis may represent key events in transition from in situ to invasive cancer
Rottlerin stimulates apoptosis in pancreatic cancer cells through interactions with proteins of the Bcl-2 family
Rottlerin is a polyphenolic compound derived from Mallotus philipinensis. In the present study, we show that rottlerin decreased tumor size and stimulated apoptosis in an orthotopic model of pancreatic cancer with no effect on normal tissues in vivo. Rottlerin also induced apoptosis in pancreatic cancer (PaCa) cell lines by interacting with mitochondria and stimulating cytochrome c release. Immunoprecipitation results indicated that rottlerin disrupts complexes of prosurvival Bcl-xL with Bim and Puma. Furthermore, siRNA knockdown showed that Bim and Puma are necessary for rottlerin to stimulate apoptosis. We also showed that rottlerin and Bcl-2 and Bcl-xL inhibitor BH3I-2' stimulate apoptosis through a common mechanism. They both directly interact with mitochondria, causing increased cytochrome c release and mitochondrial depolarization, and both decrease sequestration of BH3-only proteins by Bcl-xL. However, the effects of rottlerin and BH3I-2' on the complex formation between Bcl-xL and BH3-only proteins are different. BH3I-2' disrupts complexes of Bcl-xL with Bad but not with Bim or Puma, whereas rottlerin had no effect on the Bcl-xL interaction with Bad. Also BH3I-2', but not rottlerin, required Bad to stimulate apoptosis. In conclusion, our results demonstrate that rottlerin has a potent proapoptotic and antitumor activity in pancreatic cancer, which is mediated by disrupting the interaction between prosurvival Bcl-2 proteins and proapoptotic BH3-only proteins. Thus rottlerin represents a promising novel agent for pancreatic cancer treatment
Dynamic Phase Transition in a Time-Dependent Ginzburg-Landau Model in an Oscillating Field
The Ginzburg-Landau model below its critical temperature in a temporally
oscillating external field is studied both theoretically and numerically. As
the frequency or the amplitude of the external force is changed, a
nonequilibrium phase transition is observed. This transition separates
spatially uniform, symmetry-restoring oscillations from symmetry-breaking
oscillations. Near the transition a perturbation theory is developed, and a
switching phenomenon is found in the symmetry-broken phase. Our results confirm
the equivalence of the present transition to that found in Monte Carlo
simulations of kinetic Ising systems in oscillating fields, demonstrating that
the nonequilibrium phase transition in both cases belongs to the universality
class of the equilibrium Ising model in zero field. This conclusion is in
agreement with symmetry arguments [G. Grinstein, C. Jayaprakash, and Y. He,
Phys. Rev. Lett. 55, 2527 (1985)] and recent numerical results [G. Korniss,
C.J. White, P. A. Rikvold, and M. A. Novotny, Phys. Rev. E (submitted)].
Furthermore, a theoretical result for the structure function of the local
magnetization with thermal noise, based on the Ornstein-Zernike approximation,
agrees well with numerical results in one dimension.Comment: 16 pp. RevTex, 9 embedded ps figure
Thermodynamic Properties of the One-Dimensional Extended Quantum Compass Model in the Presence of a Transverse Field
The presence of a quantum critical point can significantly affect the
thermodynamic properties of a material at finite temperatures. This is
reflected, e.g., in the entropy landscape S(T; c) in the vicinity of a quantum
critical point, yielding particularly strong variations for varying the tuning
parameter c such as magnetic field. In this work we have studied the
thermodynamic properties of the quantum compass model in the presence of a
transverse field. The specific heat, entropy and cooling rate under an
adiabatic demagnetization process have been calculated. During an adiabatic
(de)magnetization process temperature drops in the vicinity of a field-induced
zero-temperature quantum phase transitions. However close to field-induced
quantum phase transitions we observe a large magnetocaloric effect
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