124 research outputs found
Phylogenomics of Haloarchaea: The Controversy of the Genera Natrinema-Haloterrigena
The haloarchaeal genera Natrinema and Haloterrigena were described almost simultaneously by two different research groups and some strains studied separately were described as different species of these genera. Furthermore, the description of additional species were assigned to either Natrinema or Haloterrigena, mainly on the basis of the phylogenetic comparative analysis of single genes (16S rRNA gene and more recently rpoB’ gene), but these species were not adequately separated or assigned to the corresponding genus. Some studies suggested that the species of these two genera should be unified into a single genus, while other studies indicated that the genera should remain but some of the species should be reassigned. In this study, we have sequenced or collected the genomes of the type strains of species of Natrinema and Haloterrigena and we have carried out a comparative genomic analysis in order to clarify the controversy related to these two genera. The phylogenomic analysis based on the comparison of 525 translated single-copy orthologous genes and the Overall Genome Relatedness Indexes (i.e., AAI, POCP, ANI, and dDDH) clearly indicate that the species Haloterrigena hispanica, Haloterrigena limicola, Haloterrigena longa, Haloterrigena mahii, Haloterrigena saccharevitans, Haloterrigena thermotolerans, and Halopiger salifodinae should be transferred to the genus Natrinema, as Natrinema hispanicum, Natrinema limicola, Natrinema longum, Natrinema mahii, Natrinema saccharevitans, Natrinema thermotolerans, and Natrinema salifodinae, respectively. On the contrary, the species Haloterrigena turkmenica, Haloterrigena salifodinae, and Haloterrigena salina will remain as the only representative species of the genus Haloterrigena. Besides, the species Haloterrigena daqingensis should be reclassified as a member of the genus Natronorubrum, as Natronorubrum daqingense. At the species level, Haloterrigena jeotgali and Natrinema ejinorense should be considered as a later heterotypic synonyms of the species Haloterrigena (Natrinema) thermotolerans and Haloterrigena (Natrinema) longa, respectively. Synteny analysis and phenotypic features also supported those proposals.España Junta de Andalucía grants US-1263771 [US/JUNTA/FEDER, UE]España FEDER/Ministry of Science and Innovation-State Research Agency projects CGL2017-83385-P and PID2020-118136GB-I0
Using spin to understand the formation of LIGO's black holes
With the detection of four candidate binary black hole (BBH) mergers by the
Advanced LIGO detectors thus far, it is becoming possible to constrain the
properties of the BBH merger population in order to better understand the
formation of these systems. Black hole (BH) spin orientations are one of the
cleanest discriminators of formation history, with BHs in dynamically formed
binaries in dense stellar environments expected to have spins distributed
isotropically, in contrast to isolated populations where stellar evolution is
expected to induce BH spins preferentially aligned with the orbital angular
momentum. In this work we propose a simple, model-agnostic approach to
characterizing the spin properties of LIGO's BBH population. Using measurements
of the effective spin of the binaries, which is LIGO's best constrained spin
parameter, we introduce a simple parameter to quantify the fraction of the
population that is isotropically distributed, regardless of the spin magnitude
distribution of the population. Once the orientation characteristics of the
population have been determined, we show how measurements of effective spin can
be used to directly constrain the underlying BH spin magnitude distribution.
Although we find that the majority of the current effective spin measurements
are too small to be informative, with LIGO's four BBH candidates we find a
slight preference for an underlying population with aligned spins over one with
isotropic spins (with an odds ratio of 1.1). We argue that it will be possible
to distinguish symmetric and anti-symmetric populations at high confidence with
tens of additional detections, although mixed populations may take
significantly more detections to disentangle. We also derive preliminary spin
magnitude distributions for LIGO's black holes, under the assumption of aligned
or isotropic populations
Functional characterization of 40 CYP2B6 allelic variants by assessing efavirenz 8-hydroxylation
Safety of Postoperative Administration of Human Urinary Trypsin Inhibitor in Lung Cancer Patients with Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis
Patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) undergoing pulmonary resection for lung cancer carry risks of acute exacerbations of IPF (AE) postoperatively. Currently, agents which may attenuate AE are actively sought. Urinary trypsin inhibitor, ulinastatin, is a synthetic glycoprotein which may potentially inhibit various inflammatory factors associated with the development and progression of IPF. The present study was done to evaluate the effects of administration of high dose ulinastatin in lung cancer patients with IPF immediately following lung resection.Patients with IPFs radiologically diagnosed on high resolution CT, and histologically diagnosed resectable lung cancers, were eligible for the study. The effects of escalating doses of ulinastatin 3×10(5), 6×10(5), and 9×10(5) units/body/day, administered postoperatively for 3 days were evaluated. The endpoints were safety and feasibility.Nine patients were evaluated, in cohorts of 3 patients per dosage. Postoperative follow up ranged from 3 to 12 months (median 9 months). The postoperative courses were uneventful in all patients. No subjective adverse events such as abdominal symptoms or skin rashes, or objective adverse events as per serum laboratory tests, such as liver or kidney dysfunctions potentially attributable to ulinastatin administration were observed. AE was seen in one patient at 3 months after surgery, but since this occurred shortly after administration of chemotherapy, it was considered to be attributable to the chemotherapy rather than surgery.Ulinastatin administration after lung resection in lung cancer patients with IPF was considered to be safe and feasible. Further study is planned at the highest dose of this study to evaluate efficacy.UMIN.ac.jp/ctr/UMIN000002410
Alicyclobacillus cellulosilyticus sp. nov., a thermophilic, cellulolytic bacterium isolated from steamed Japanese cedar chips from a lumbermill.
Halomicroarcula pellucida gen. nov., sp. nov., non-pigmented transparent colony-forming halophilic archaeon isolated from solar salt, Sel marin de Guerande, France
Acidophilic haloarchaeal strains are isolated from various solar salts
Haloarchaeal strains require high concentrations of NaCl for their growth, with optimum concentrations of 10–30%. They display a wide variety of morphology and physiology including pH range for growth. Many strains grow at neutral to slightly alkaline pH, and some only at alkaline pH. However, no strain has been reported to grow only in acidic pH conditions within the family Halobacteriaceae. In this study, we isolated many halophiles capable of growth in a 20% NaCl medium adjusted to pH 4.5 from 28 commercially available salts. They showed growth at pH 4.0 to 6.5, depending slightly on the magnesium content. The most acidophilic strain MH1-52-1 isolated from an imported solar salt (pH of saturated solution was 9.0) was non-pigmented and extremely halophilic. It was only capable of growing at pH 4.2–4.8 with an optimum at pH 4.4 in a medium with 0.1% magnesium chloride, and at pH 4.0–6.0 (optimum at pH 4.0) in a medium with 5.0% magnesium. The 16S rRNA and DNA-dependent RNA polymerase subunit B' gene sequences demonstrated clearly that the strain MH1-52-1 represents a new genus in the family Halobacteriaceae
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