Pathogenicity of the H1N1 influenza virus enhanced by functional synergy between the NPV100I and NAD248N pair

By comparing and measuring covariations of viral protein sequences from isolates of the 2009 pH1N1 influenza A virus (IAV), specific substitutions that co-occur in the NP-NA pair were identified. To investigate the effect of these co-occurring substitution pairs, the V100I substitution in NP and the D248N substitution in NA were introduced into laboratory-adapted WSN IAVs. The recombinant WSN with the covarying NPV100I-NAD248N pair exhibited enhanced pathogenicity, as characterized by increased viral production, increased death and inflammation of host cells, and high mortality in infected mice. Although direct interactions between the NPV100I and NAD248N proteins were not detected, the RNA-binding ability of NPV100I was increased, which was further strengthened by NAD248N, in expression-plasmid- transfected cells. Additionally, the NAD248N protein was frequently recruited within lipid rafts, indirectly affecting the RNA-binding ability of NP as well as viral release. Altogether, our data indicate that the covarying NPV100I-NAD248N pair obtained from 2009 pH1N1 IAV sequence information function together to synergistically augment viral assembly and release, which may explain the observed enhanced viral pathogenicity. © 2019 Kim et al.11Ysciescopu

New and noteworthy lichen-forming and lichenicolous fungi 8

Six new for science species of lichen-forming fungi from Republic of Korea, Eastern Asia, i. e.: Bacidina jasonhuri J. P. Halda, S. Y. Kondr. et L. Lőkös, Gyalidea koreana J. P. Halda, S. Y. Kondr. L. Lőkös et Hur, G. pisutii J. P. Halda, S. Y. Kondr. L. Lőkös et Hur, G. poeltii S. Y. Kondr. L. Lőkös, J. P. Halda et Hur, G. Vězdae S. Y. Kondr. L. Lőkös, J. P. Halda et Hur, and Porpidia ulleungdoensis S. Y. Kond. L. Lőkös et J. P. Halda, as well as two new species from Japan (Fauriea yonaguniensis S. Y. Kondr. M. Moriguchi et Yoshik. Yamam. and Laundonia ryukyuensis S. Y. Kondr. M. Moriguchi et Yoshik. Yamam.), and one new species Lecanora orlovii S. Y. Kondr. et L. Lőkös from Ukraine are described, illustrated and compared with closely related taxa

Phylogeny and taxonomy of Polyozosia, Sedelnikovaea and Verseghya of the Lecanoraceae (Lecanorales, lichen-forming Ascomycota)

From the combined phylogenetic analysis of multi-locus sequence data of the Lecanoraceae including two nuclear protein-coding markers (RPB2 and RPB1), the internal transcribed spacer and a fragment of the mitochondrial small subunit, found that the originally monotypic eastern Asian genus Verseghya is positioned within the Verseghya-Lecidella-Pyrrhospora clade of the Lecanoraceae and includes one more taxon Verseghya thysanophora widely distributed in Northern Hemisphere. The genus Lecidella forming the Lecidella-Glaucomaria subclade within the same Verseghya-Lecidella-Pyrrhospora clade of the Lecanoraceae found to have tendency to be polyphyletic after including the recently described eastern Asian taxon Lecidella mandshurica into phylogenetic analysis of the Lecanoraceae. It is shown that Lecidella mandshurica was previously recorded from China sub Lecidella aff. elaeochroma. The originally monotypic eastern Asian genus Sedelnikovaea forming a monophyletic branch within the Sedelnikovaea-Lecanoropsis subclade and being in out-position to the Rhizoplaca-Protoparmeliopsis s. str. clade of the Lecanoraceae found to include three more taxa, i.e. Sedelnikovaea marginalis, S. pseudogyrophorica, and S. subdiscrepans. The Eurasian Protoparmeliopsis bolcana, and the eastern Asian P. kopachevskae, are illustrated for the first time as being positioned within the Protopameliopsis branch of the Lecanoraceae, while the South Korean ‘Protoparmeliopsis’ chejuensis found to be positioned in separate monophyletic branch from all other branches of the Rhizoplaca-Protoparmeliopsis s. l. clade of the Lecanoraceae. The genus Polyozosia A. Massal. as earlier name for the former Myriolecis branch of the Lecanoraceae is accepted as far the type species of the latter genus, i.e. P. poliophaea, found to be positioned within this branch. The Polyozosia robust monophyletic branch is positioned in the outermost position in the Rhizoplaca-Protoparmeliopsis s. str. clade of the Lecanoraceae. Position and species content of the accepted genera Glaucomaria, Lecanoropsis, Omphalodina, Polyozosia, and Straminella are discussed in separate nrITS and mtSSU, and combined phylogeny based on concatenated sequences of nrITS, mtSSU, RPB2 and RPB1 genes. Fourty new combinations are proposed: Glaucomaria bicincta, G. carpinea, G. leptyrodes, G. lojkaeana, G. subcarpinea, G. sulphurea, G. swartzii, G. swartzii subsp. caulescens, G. swartzii subsp. nylanderi, Lecanoropsis anopta, L. macleanii, Omphalodina chrysoleuca, O. huashanensis, O. opiniconensis, O. phaedrophthalma, O. pseudistera, Palicella anakeestiicola, Polyozosia albescens, P. andrewii, P. contractula, P. crenulata, P. dispersa, P. hagenii, P. perpruinosa, P. populicola, P. pruinosa, P. reuteri, P. sambuci, P. semipallida, P. straminea, P. thuleana, Sedelnikovaea marginalis, S. pseudogyrophorica, S. subdiscrepans, Straminella bullata, S. burgaziae, S. conizaeoides, S. densa, S. maheui, S. varia, and Verseghya thysanophora. Validation of one name as Polyozosia perpruinosa Fröberg ex S. Y. Kondr. L. Lőkös et Farkas is also proposed

Fauriea, a new genus of the lecanoroid caloplacoid lichens (Teloschistaceae, lichen-forming ascomycetes)

The robust monophyletic branch having the highest level of bootstrap support in the phylogenetical tree of the Teloschistaceae based on combined data set of ITS, LSU nrDNA and 12S SSU mtDNA sequences, which does not belong to any other earlier proposed genera of the subfamily Caloplacoideae, is described as the new genus Fauriea S. Y. Kondr., L. Lőkös et J.-S. Hur, gen. nova for lecanoroid South Korean Caloplaca chujaensis, and newly described Eastern Chinese Fauriea orientochinensis. Descriptions of the new genus Fauriea and the species Fauriea orientochinensis, a comparison with closely related taxa and a discussion of their position are provided. New name Tayloriellina is proposed for the genus of the subfamily Brownlielloideae Tayloriella S. Y. Kondr., Kärnefelt, A. Thell, Elix et Hur (nom. illeg., non Tayloriella Kylin, Rhodomebaceae, Rhodophyta). New combinations for type species of the genera Fauriea and Tayloriellina (i.e.: Fauriea chujaensis (basionym: Caloplaca chujaensis S. Y. Kondr., L. Lőkös et J.-S. Hur), and Tayloriellina erythrosticta (basionym: Lecanora erythrosticta Taylor)) are proposed. Fauriea chejuensis and Biatora pseudosambuci are for the first time recorded for China

Universal Resistances of the Quantum RC circuit

We examine the concept of universal quantized resistance in the AC regime through the fully coherent quantum RC circuit comprising a cavity (dot) capacitively coupled to a gate and connected via a single spin-polarized channel to a reservoir lead. As a result of quantum effects such as the Coulomb interaction in the cavity and global phase coherence, we show that the charge relaxation resistance $R_q$ is identical for weak and large transmissions and it changes from $h/2e^2$ to $h/e^2$ when the frequency (times $\hbar$) exceeds the level spacing of the cavity; $h$ is the Planck constant and $e$ the electron charge. For large cavities, we formulate a correspondence between the charge relaxation resistance $h/e^2$ and the Korringa-Shiba relation of the Kondo model. Furthermore, we introduce a general class of models, for which the charge relaxation resistance is universal. Our results emphasize that the charge relaxation resistance is a key observable to understand the dynamics of strongly correlated systems.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figure

Scale-free energy dissipation and dynamic phase transition in stochastic sandpiles

We study numerically scaling properties of the distribution of cumulative energy dissipated in an avalanche and the dynamic phase transition in a stochastic directed cellular automaton [B. Tadi\'c and D. Dhar, Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 79}, 1519 (1997)] in d=1+1 dimensions. In the critical steady state occurring for the probability of toppling $p\ge p^\star$= 0.70548, the dissipated energy distribution exhibits scaling behavior with new scaling exponents $\tau_E$ and D_E for slope and cut-off energy, respectively, indicating that the sandpile surface is a fractal. In contrast to avalanche exponents, the energy exponents appear to be p- dependent in the region $p^\star \le p <1$, however the product $(\tau_E-1)D_E$ remains universal. We estimate the roughness exponent of the transverse section of the pile as $\chi =0.44\pm 0.04$. Critical exponents characterizing the dynamic phase transition at $p^\star$ are obtained by direct simulation and scaling analysis of the survival probability distribution and the average outflow current. The transition belongs to a new universality class with the critical exponents $\nu_\| =\gamma =1.22 \pm 0.02$, $\beta =0.56\pm 0.02$ and $\nu_\bot = 0.761 \pm 0.029$, with apparent violation of hyperscaling. Generalized hyperscaling relation leads to $\beta + \beta ^\prime = (d-1)\nu_\bot$, where $\beta ^\prime = 0.195 \pm 0.012$ is the exponent governed by the ultimate survival probability