Cultural Tourism Trails as Part of Sustainable Tourism – The Tool of Shaping the Greenways and Protection of Ecosystems in Gorce

Gorce are part of Carpathians – Western Beskidy, Mountains. They are located in Southern Poland, ca. 25km north of High Tatra Mountains. They stretch on approximately 550km². Gorce attract tourists with varying terrain and, most of all, some of the most beautiful open wide views of surrounding mountain chains. The relics of the original Carpathian Forest and the landscape of deeply cut mountain streams are also very valuable. Impressive rock outcroppings and not-yet-explored, numerous caves can also be found here. The phenomenon of Gorce comes from the unique landscape, shaped by both nature and by man, originally for shepherding, then for agriculture, and nowadays – for cultural tourism. Natural-cultural landscape of Gorce is getting more and more appretiation. On the level of voivodship strategies the landscape it should be becoming the basis of understanding between tourism organisations, touroperators, inhabitants and ecologists. Said landscape should be protected in an integrated, wholistic and not particular, manner; according to the ideas of Jan Gwalbert Pawlikowski, Walery Goetel, Zygmunt Novák, Gerard Ciołek, Janusz Bogdanowski and Maria Łuczyńska-Bruzda. An example of combining protection and making the landscape available is the idea of creation of cultural tourism trails not through mechanical setting of trails, but by previously creating the conditions favouring the protection and safety of shared natural and cultural resources, by preparing the corridors of special usage and management of said resources

Insights into the Transposable Mobilome of Paracoccus spp. (Alphaproteobacteria)

Several trap plasmids (enabling positive selection of transposition events) were used to identify a pool of functional transposable elements (TEs) residing in bacteria of the genus Paracoccus (Alphaproteobacteria). Complex analysis of 25 strains representing 20 species of this genus led to the capture and characterization of (i) 37 insertion sequences (ISs) representing 9 IS families (IS3, IS5, IS6, IS21, IS66, IS256, IS1182, IS1380 and IS1634), (ii) a composite transposon Tn6097 generated by two copies of the ISPfe2 (IS1634 family) containing two predicted genetic modules, involved in the arginine deiminase pathway and daunorubicin/doxorubicin resistance, (iii) 3 non-composite transposons of the Tn3 family, including Tn5393 carrying streptomycin resistance and (iv) a transposable genomic island TnPpa1 (45 kb). Some of the elements (e.g. Tn5393, Tn6097 and ISs of the IS903 group of the IS5 family) were shown to contain strong promoters able to drive transcription of genes placed downstream of the target site of transposition. Through the application of trap plasmid pCM132TC, containing a promoterless tetracycline resistance reporter gene, we identified five ways in which transposition can supply promoters to transcriptionally silent genes. Besides highlighting the diversity and specific features of several TEs, the analyses performed in this study have provided novel and interesting information on (i) the dynamics of the process of transposition (e.g. the unusually high frequency of transposition of TnPpa1) and (ii) structural changes in DNA mediated by transposition (e.g. the generation of large deletions in the recipient molecule upon transposition of ISPve1 of the IS21 family). We also demonstrated the great potential of TEs and transposition in the generation of diverse phenotypes as well as in the natural amplification and dissemination of genetic information (of adaptative value) by horizontal gene transfer, which is considered the driving force of bacterial evolution

Przyśpieszona pooperacyjna radioterapia u chorych na zaawansowanego raka krtani

Aim: The aim of study was test effi cacy of accelerated postoperative radiotherapy – concomitant boost in patients with advanced larynx cancer. Methods and Materials: The prospective study included 112 patients with advanced larynx cancer after radical surgical treatment. Patients had postoperative radiation therapy, conventional (C) or accelerated (CB). Results: The 3-year overall survival in CB was 59%, in C – 58% (p=0,2), 3-year locoregional control in CB – 83%, in C – 75% (p=0.01), the 3-year disease free survival was in CB – 72%, C – 66% (p=0.1). Conclusion: Concomitant boost postoperative radition therapy did not improove overall survival, loco-regional control, disease free survival. Patients with close surgical margins, longer interval between surgery and radiation, high level of hemoglobin, T4 had benefi t from accelerated radiotherapy

Schematic structure of the REP modules analyzed in this study.

<p>The color-coded keys show the species and strain of origin of each plasmid (circles) and identified direct repeats (DRs), inverted repeats (IRs) as well as predicted DnaA and IHF binding sites (mixed shapes). The sequences of the iteron-like DRs are presented next to the relevant diagrams with a consensus sequence shown for DRs of plasmids with related REP modules. Blue arrows indicate the <i>rep</i> genes and their transcriptional orientation. Specific motifs identified within the aa sequences of the Rep proteins are indicated by colored rounded bars. A+T and G+C indicate DNA regions of lower or higher than average G+C content, respectively. The components of the REP modules are not shown to scale.</p

Plasmids of Carotenoid-Producing <i>Paracoccus</i> spp. (<i>Alphaproteobacteria</i>) - Structure, Diversity and Evolution

<div><p>Plasmids are components of many bacterial genomes. They enable the spread of a large pool of genetic information via lateral gene transfer. Many bacterial strains contain mega-sized replicons and these are particularly common in <i>Alphaproteobacteria</i>. Considerably less is known about smaller alphaproteobacterial plasmids. We analyzed the genomes of 14 such plasmids residing in 4 multireplicon carotenoid-producing strains of the genus <i>Paracoccus</i> (<i>Alphaproteobacteria</i>): <i>P. aestuarii</i> DSM 19484, <i>P. haeundaensis</i> LG P-21903, <i>P. marcusii</i> DSM 11574 and <i>P. marcusii</i> OS22. Comparative analyses revealed mosaic structures of the plasmids and recombinational shuffling of diverse genetic modules involved in (i) plasmid replication, (ii) stabilization (including toxin-antitoxin systems of the <i>relBE</i>/<i>parDE</i>, <i>tad</i>-<i>ata</i>, <i>higBA</i>, <i>mazEF</i> and <i>toxBA</i> families) and (iii) mobilization for conjugal transfer (encoding relaxases of the Mob_Q, Mob_P or Mob_V families). A common feature of the majority of the plasmids is the presence of AT-rich sequence islets (located downstream of <i>exc1</i>-like genes) containing genes, whose homologs are conserved in the chromosomes of many bacteria (encoding e.g. RelA/SpoT, SMC-like proteins and a retron-type reverse transcriptase). The results of this study have provided insight into the diversity and plasticity of plasmids of <i>Paracoccus</i> spp., and of the entire <i>Alphaproteobacteria</i>. Some of the identified plasmids contain replication systems not described previously in this class of bacteria. The composition of the plasmid genomes revealed frequent transfer of chromosomal genes into plasmids, which significantly enriches the pool of mobile DNA that can participate in lateral transfer. Many strains of <i>Paracoccus</i> spp. have great biotechnological potential, and the plasmid vectors constructed in this study will facilitate genetic studies of these bacteria. </p> </div

The plasmids containing the DIY cassettes constructed in this study.

<p>A. pKRP-DIY plasmids. B. pVIV mobilizable shuttle vectors. The plasmids contain DIY_AES7 and DIY_MOS6 cassettes composed of REP modules (of plasmids pAES7 and pMOS6, respectively), a Km^r gene and a MOB module derived from BHR plasmid RK2. B – BamHI, E – EcoRI, H – HindIII, K – KpnI, P – PstI, Sc – SacI, Sh – SphI, Sl – SalI, Sm – SmaI, X – XbaI. </p

Distribution of the REP modules analyzed in this study in the <i>Paracoccus</i> spp. genomes.

<p>A specific DNA probe (fragment of a <i>rep</i> gene amplified by PCR and DIG-labeled) was prepared for each analyzed REP module and used in dot blot hybridization analysis with total DNA isolated from 20 strains of <i>Paracoccus</i> spp. The results are presented as a matrix. The relatedness of the tested <i>Paracoccus</i> strains is shown beneath by a phylogenetic tree based on their 16S rDNA sequences. The tree was constructed by the neighbor-joining algorithm with Kimura corrected distances. The statistical support for the internal nodes was determined by 1000 bootstrap replicates and values of >50% are shown. The <i>Paracoccus</i> strains from which the plasmids were isolated are denoted by red text. </p

Comparison of the structure and G+C sequence profile of <i>P. marcusii</i> plasmids pMARC1 and pMOS7.

<p>Arrows show the transcriptional orientation of the genes and the color code indicates their predicted functions (as shown in <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0080258#pone-0080258-g001" target="_blank">Figure 1</a>). Shaded areas connect homologous DNA regions. The PI regions (with indicated G+C content) are marked by yellow rectangles and dashed lines. The plot shows the G+C content of pMARC1 and pMOS7 sequences (the average values are given to the right).</p