The mucus and mucins of the goblet cells and enterocytes provide the first defense line of the gastrointestinal tract and interact with the immune system

The gastrointestinal tract is covered by mucus that has different properties in the stomach, small intestine, and colon. The large highly glycosylated gel-forming mucins MUC2 and MUC5AC are the major components of the mucus in the intestine and stomach, respectively. In the small intestine, mucus limits the number of bacteria that can reach the epithelium and the Peyer\u27s patches. In the large intestine, the inner mucus layer separates the commensal bacteria from the host epithelium. The outer colonic mucus layer is the natural habitat for the commensal bacteria. The intestinal goblet cells secrete not only the MUC2 mucin but also a number of typical mucus components: CLCA1, FCGBP, AGR2, ZG16, and TFF3. The goblet cells have recently been shown to have a novel gate-keeping role for the presentation of oral antigens to the immune system. Goblet cells deliver small intestinal luminal material to the lamina propria dendritic cells of the tolerogenic CD103+ type. In addition to the gel-forming mucins, the transmembrane mucins MUC3, MUC12, and MUC17 form the enterocyte glycocalyx that can reach about a micrometer out from the brush border. The MUC17 mucin can shuttle from a surface to an intracellular vesicle localization, suggesting that enterocytes might control and report epithelial microbial challenge. There is communication not only from the epithelial cells to the immune system but also in the opposite direction. One example of this is IL10 that can affect and improve the properties of the inner colonic mucus layer. The mucus and epithelial cells of the gastrointestinal tract are the primary gate keepers and controllers of bacterial interactions with the host immune system, but our understanding of this relationship is still in its infancy

Sex pheromones and attractants in the Eucosmini and Grapholitini (Lepidoptera, Tortricidae)

The geometric isomers (E,E)-, (E,Z)-, (Z,E)-, and (Z,Z)-8,10-dodecadien-1- yl acetate were identified as sex pheromone components or sex attractants in the tribes Eucosmini and Grapholitini of the tortricid subfamily Olethreutinae. Species belonging to the more ancestral Tortricinae were not attracted. Each one isomer was behaviourally active in males of Cydia and Grapholita (Grapholitini), either as main pheromone compound, attraction synergist or attraction inhibitor. Their reciprocal attractive/antagonistic activity in a number of species enables specific communication with these four compounds. Pammene, as well as other Grapholita and Cydia responded to the monoenic 8- or 10-dodecen-1-yl acetates. Of the tribes Olethreutini and Eucosmini, Hedya, Epiblema, Eucosma, and Notocelia trimaculana were also attracted to 8,10-dodecadien-1-yl acetates, but several other Notocelia to 10,12-tetradecadien-1-yl acetates. The female sex pheromones of C. fagiglandana, C. pyrivora, C. splendana, Epiblema foenella and Notocelia roborana were identified. (E,E)- and (E,Z)-8,10-dodecadien-1-yl acetate are produced via a common E9 desaturation pathway in C. splendana. Calling C. nigricana and C. fagiglandana females are attracted to wingfanning males