Rapid Enzymatic Response to Compensate UV Radiation in Copepods

Ultraviolet radiation (UVR) causes physical damage to DNA, carboxylation of proteins and peroxidation of lipids in copepod crustaceans, ubiquitous and abundant secondary producers in most aquatic ecosystems. Copepod adaptations for long duration exposures include changes in behaviour, changes in pigmentation and ultimately changes in morphology. Adaptations to short-term exposures are little studied. Here we show that short-duration exposure to UVR causes the freshwater calanoid copepod, Eudiaptomus gracilis, to rapidly activate production of enzymes that prevent widespread collateral peroxidation (glutathione S-transferase, GST), that regulate apoptosis cell death (Caspase-3, Casp-3), and that facilitate neurotransmissions (cholinesterase-ChE). None of these enzyme systems is alone sufficient, but they act in concert to reduce the stress level of the organism. The interplay among enzymatic responses provides useful information on how organisms respond to environmental stressors acting on short time scales

Biological regulation: controlling the system from within

Biological regulation is what allows an organism to handle the effects of a perturbation, modulating its own constitutive dynamics in response to particular changes in internal and external conditions. With the central focus of analysis on the case of minimal living systems, we argue that regulation consists in a specific form of second-order control, exerted over the core (constitutive) regime of production and maintenance of the components that actually put together the organism. The main argument is that regulation requires a distinctive architecture of functional relationships, and specifically the action of a dedicated subsystem whose activity is dynamically decoupled from that of the constitutive regime. We distinguish between two major ways in which control mechanisms contribute to the maintenance of a biological organisation in response to internal and external perturbations: dynamic stability and regulation. Based on this distinction an explicit definition and a set of organisational requirements for regulation are provided, and thoroughly illustrated through the examples of bacterial chemotaxis and the lac-operon. The analysis enables us to mark out the differences between regulation and closely related concepts such as feedback, robustness and homeostasis

Membrane nanotubes physically connect T cells over long distances presenting a novel route for HIV-1 transmission.

Transmission of HIV-1 via intercellular connections has been estimated as 100-1000 times more efficient than a cell-free process, perhaps in part explaining persistent viral spread in the presence of neutralizing antibodies. Such effective intercellular transfer of HIV-1 could occur through virological synapses or target-cell filopodia connected to infected cells. Here we report that membrane nanotubes, formed when T cells make contact and subsequently part, provide a new route for HIV-1 transmission. Membrane nanotubes are known to connect various cell types, including neuronal and immune cells, and allow calcium-mediated signals to spread between connected myeloid cells. However, T-cell nanotubes are distinct from open-ended membranous tethers between other cell types, as a dynamic junction persists within T-cell nanotubes or at their contact with cell bodies. We also report that an extracellular matrix scaffold allows T-cell nanotubes to adopt variably shaped contours. HIV-1 transfers to uninfected T cells through nanotubes in a receptor-dependent manner. These data lead us to propose that HIV-1 can spread using nanotubular connections formed by short-term intercellular unions in which T cells specialize

"Wenecja Milosza"

Materiali del Festival Internazionale "Venezia di Milosz" (direzione: Francesca Fornari - Jarosław Mikołajewski- nell'ambito del Festival Incroci di Civiltà, 2011), con la partecipazione di studiosi, traduttori, editori, poeti e amici di Cz. Milosz, e del figlio del poeta Anthony Milosz