The tomato Prf complex is a molecular trap for bacterial effectors based on Pto transphosphorylation

The bacteria Pseudomonas syringae is a pathogen of many crop species and one of the model pathogens for studying plant and bacterial arms race coevolution. In the current model, plants perceive bacteria pathogens via plasma membrane receptors, and recognition leads to the activation of general defenses. In turn, bacteria inject proteins called effectors into the plant cell to prevent the activation of immune responses. AvrPto and AvrPtoB are two such proteins that inhibit multiple plant kinases. The tomato plant has reacted to these effectors by the evolution of a cytoplasmic resistance complex. This complex is compromised of two proteins, Prf and Pto kinase, and is capable of recognizing the effector proteins. How the Pto kinase is able to avoid inhibition by the effector proteins is currently unknown. Our data shows how the tomato plant utilizes dimerization of resistance proteins to gain advantage over the faster evolving bacterial pathogen. Here we illustrate that oligomerisation of Prf brings into proximity two Pto kinases allowing them to avoid inhibition by the effectors by transphosphorylation and to activate immune responses

A Geological Itinerary Through the Southern Apennine Thrust-Belt (Basilicata—Southern Italy)

Open access via Springer Compact AgreementPeer reviewedPublisher PD

Impaired photosystem I oxidation induces STN7-dependent phosphorylation of the light-harvesting complex I protein Lhca4 in Arabidopsis thaliana

Reduction of the plastoquinone (PQ) pool is known to activate phosphorylation of thylakoid proteins. In the Arabidopsis thaliana mutants psad1-1 and psae1-3, oxidation of photosystem I (PSI) is impaired, and the PQ pool is correspondingly over-reduced. We show here that, under these conditions, the antenna protein Lhca4 of PSI becomes a target for phosphorylation. Phosphorylation of the mature Lhca4 protein at Thr16 is suppressed in stn7 psad1 and stn7 psae1 double mutants. Thus, under extreme redox conditions, hyperactivation of thylakoid protein kinases and/or reorganization of thylakoid protein complex distribution increase the susceptibility of PSI to phosphorylation

The prolyl hydroxylase enzymes are positively associated with hypoxia-inducible factor-1α and vascular endothelial growth factor in human breast cancer and alter in response to primary systemic treatment with epirubicin and tamoxifen

Introduction: The purpose of the present study was to investigate the relationship of expression of hypoxia inducible factor (HIF)-1α-modifying enzymes prolyl hydroxylase (PHD)1, PHD2 and PHD3 to response of tumours and survival in breast cancer patients enrolled in a phase II trial of neoadjuvant anthracycline and tamoxifen therapy.Methods: The expression of PHD1, PHD2 and PHD3 together with HIF-1α and the HIF-inducible genes vascular endothelial cell growth factor (VEGF) and carbonic anhydrase IX were assessed by immunohistochemistry using a tissue microarray approach in 211 patients with T2-4 N0-1 breast cancer enrolled in a randomised trial comparing single-agent epirubicin versus epirubicin and tamoxifen as the primary systemic treatment.Results: PHD1, PHD2 and PHD3 were detected in 47/179 (26.7%), 85/163 (52.2%) and 69/177 (39%) of tumours at baseline. PHD2 and PHD3 expression was moderate/strong whereas PHD1 expression was generally weak. There was a significant positive correlation between HIF-1α and PHD1 (P = 0.002) and PHD3 (P < 0.05) but not PHD2 (P = 0.41). There was a significant positive relationship between VEGF and PHD1 (P < 0.008) and PHD3 (P = 0.001) but not PHD2 (P = 0.09). PHD1, PHD2 and PHD3 expression was significantly increased after epirubicin therapy (all P < 0.000) with no significant difference in PHD changes between the treatment arms. There was no significant difference in response in tumours that expressed PHDs and PHD expression was not associated with survival.Conclusions: Although expression of the PHDs was not related to response or survival in patients receiving neoadjuvant epirubicin, our data provide the first evidence that these enzymes are upregulated on therapy in breast cancer and that the biological effects independent of HIF make them therapeutic targets. © 2011 Fox et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd

Late-Proterozoic to Paleozoic history of the peri-Gondwana Calabria–Peloritani Terrane inferred from a review of zircon chronology

U–Pb analyses of zircon from ten samples of augen gneisses, eight mafic and intermediate metaigneous rocks and six metasediments from some tectonic domains along the Calabria–Peloritani Terrane (Southern Italy) contribute to knowledge of peri-Gondwanan evolution from Late-Proterozoic to Paleozoic times. All samples were equilibrated under amphibolite to granulite facies metamorphism during the Variscan orogeny. The zircon grains of all considered samples preserve a Proterozoic memory suggestive of detrital, metamorphic and igneous origin. The available data fit a frame involving: (1) Neoproterozoic detrital input from cratonic areas of Gondwana; (2) Pan-African/Cadomian assemblage of blocks derived from East and West African Craton; (3) metamorphism and bimodal magmatism between 535 and 579 Ma, within an active margin setting; (4) rifting and opening of Ordovician basins fed by detrital input from the assembled Cadomian blocks. The Paleozoic basins evolved through sedimentation, metamorphism and magmatism during the Variscan orogeny involving Palaeozoic and pre-Paleozoic blocks. The Proterozoic zircon records decidedly decrease in the high grade metamorphic rocks affected by Variscan pervasive partial melting. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s40064-016-1839-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

Regulator Vulnerabilities to Political Pressure and Political Tie Intensity: The Moderating Effects of Regulatory and Political Distance

This study applies the institution-based view and neo-institutional theory in addressing how managerial perceptions of regulator vulnerabilities to political pressure, and institutional distance, influence intensification of political ties. Our analysis of 181 wholly owned foreign subsidiary (WOFSs) operating in the Philippines suggests that managerial perceptions of regulator vulnerability to political pressures positively enhance the intensification of political ties. Our results also reveal that regulatory distance and, more importantly, the simultaneous presence of political and regulatory distance diminish the positive relationship between managerial perceptions of regulator vulnerability to political pressures and a WOFS’s propensity to enhance the intensification of political ties. Managerial implications and future research directions are discusse

Sorting Signals, N-Terminal Modifications and Abundance of the Chloroplast Proteome

Characterization of the chloroplast proteome is needed to understand the essential contribution of the chloroplast to plant growth and development. Here we present a large scale analysis by nanoLC-Q-TOF and nanoLC-LTQ-Orbitrap mass spectrometry (MS) of ten independent chloroplast preparations from Arabidopsis thaliana which unambiguously identified 1325 proteins. Novel proteins include various kinases and putative nucleotide binding proteins. Based on repeated and independent MS based protein identifications requiring multiple matched peptide sequences, as well as literature, 916 nuclear-encoded proteins were assigned with high confidence to the plastid, of which 86% had a predicted chloroplast transit peptide (cTP). The protein abundance of soluble stromal proteins was calculated from normalized spectral counts from LTQ-Obitrap analysis and was found to cover four orders of magnitude. Comparison to gel-based quantification demonstrates that ‘spectral counting’ can provide large scale protein quantification for Arabidopsis. This quantitative information was used to determine possible biases for protein targeting prediction by TargetP and also to understand the significance of protein contaminants. The abundance data for 550 stromal proteins was used to understand abundance of metabolic pathways and chloroplast processes. We highlight the abundance of 48 stromal proteins involved in post-translational proteome homeostasis (including aminopeptidases, proteases, deformylases, chaperones, protein sorting components) and discuss the biological implications. N-terminal modifications were identified for a subset of nuclear- and chloroplast-encoded proteins and a novel N-terminal acetylation motif was discovered. Analysis of cTPs and their cleavage sites of Arabidopsis chloroplast proteins, as well as their predicted rice homologues, identified new species-dependent features, which will facilitate improved subcellular localization prediction. No evidence was found for suggested targeting via the secretory system. This study provides the most comprehensive chloroplast proteome analysis to date and an expanded Plant Proteome Database (PPDB) in which all MS data are projected on identified gene models

Design concepts for the Cherenkov Telescope Array CTA: an advanced facility for ground-based high-energy gamma-ray astronomy

Ground-based gamma-ray astronomy has had a major breakthrough with the impressive results obtained using systems of imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes. Ground-based gamma-ray astronomy has a huge potential in astrophysics, particle physics and cosmology. CTA is an international initiative to build the next generation instrument, with a factor of 5-10 improvement in sensitivity in the 100 GeV-10 TeV range and the extension to energies well below 100 GeV and above 100 TeV. CTA will consist of two arrays (one in the north, one in the south) for full sky coverage and will be operated as open observatory. The design of CTA is based on currently available technology. This document reports on the status and presents the major design concepts of CTA

How is the economic crisis socially assessed?

Based on the Social Representation Theory, the purpose of this article is to explore how lay-people consider both the economic crisis and risk, and to link these social representations to behavior. The article offers an original approach with the articulation of two studies about the social construction of risk and crises. It also contributes to the development of research methods for studying the connections between representations and practical implications. Based on this, the impact of the social representation of the crisis on the perceived ability to act is approached. The first study focuses on free-association tasks, with two distinct target terms: ‘risk’ and ‘crisis’. The structural approach, with a prototypical analysis, allowed the identification of two different representations: (1) for risk, ‘danger’ is the central element; (2) for crisis, ‘economy’ and ‘money’ constitute the main components of the representation. The second study investigates the links between the two previously detected structures and their relations with the perceived ability to act in a financial crisis context. Some aspects of social knowledge were found to have an impact on perceived ability to act

Robust image analysis with sparse representation on quantized visual features

10.1109/TIP.2012.2219543IEEE Transactions on Image Processing223860-871IIPR