Contrasting Behavioral and Electrophysiological Responses of Eucryptorrhynchus scrobiculatus and E. brandti (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) to Volatiles Emitted from the Tree of Heaven, Ailanthus altissima

Eucryptorrhynchus scrobiculatus and E. brandti (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) are host-specific pests of Ailanthus altissima (Mill.) Swingle (Sapindales: Simaroubaceae), causing extensive damage to the host. There are no effective attractants available for pest management. The main aim of this study was to explore the role of host plant-derived volatiles in the behavioral response of both weevil species. In a field experiment, both weevil species showed positive response to phloem, and there was no preference for phloem associated with healthy or injured trees. Significantly more E. brandti adults responded to the olfactory treatments compared to E. scrobiculatus. In a large-arena experiment, both males and females of E. scrobiculatus significantly preferred phloem from the tree trunk while adults of E. brandti responded in significantly greater numbers to tree limbs than to any other parts of host. Females and males of E. scrobiculatus responded positively to all parts of host tested in the Y-tube bioassay, while E. brandti adults were only attracted by the phloem from healthy and injured trees. There were dissimilar electroantennographic responses to compounds such as 1-hexanol and (1S)-(−)-β-pinene between the two weevil species. This study represents the first report documenting behavioral and electrophysiological responses of E. scrobiculatus and E. brandti to volatiles from various parts of A. altissima and findings may aid efforts to develop attractants

Hydrogen Sulfide Maintains Mesenchymal Stem Cell Function and Bone Homeostasis via Regulation of Ca2+ Channel Sulfhydration

Gaseous signaling molecules such as hydrogen sulfide (H2S) are produced endogenously and mediate effects through diverse mechanisms. H2S is one such gasotrasmitter which regulates multiple signaling pathways in mammalian cells, and abnormal H2S metabolism has been linked to defects in bone homeostasis. Here, we demonstrate that bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMMSCs) produce H2S to regulate their self-renewal and osteogenic differentiation, and H2S deficiency results in defects in BMMSC differentiation. H2S deficiency causes aberrant intracellular Ca2+ influx, due to reduced sulfhydration of cysteine residues on multiple Ca2+ TRP channels. This decreased Ca2+ flux downregulates PKC/Erk-mediated Wnt/β-catenin signaling which controls osteogenic differentiation of BMMSCs. Consistently, H2S-deficient mice display an osteoporotic phenotype, which can be rescued by small molecules which release H2S. These results demonstrate H2S regulates BMMSCs, and restoring H2S levels via non-toxic donors may provide treatments for diseases such as osteoporosis which can arise from H2S deficiencies

Clonal integration promotes the growth of Phragmites australis populations in saline wetlands of the Yellow River Delta

Estuarine wetlands are highly heterogeneous due to strong interactions between freshwater input and seawater intrusion. However, little is known about how clonal plant populations adapt to heterogeneous salinity in soil environments. In the present study, the effects of clonal integration on Phragmites australis populations under salinity heterogeneity were studied using field experiments with 10 treatments in the Yellow River Delta. Clonal integration significantly increased plant height, aboveground biomass, underground biomass, root–shoot ratio, intercellular CO2 concentration, net photosynthetic rate, stomatal conductance, transpiration rate, and stem Na+ content under homogeneous treatment. Under the heterogeneous salt treatment, clonal integration significantly affected total aboveground and underground biomass, photosynthetic traits, and stem Na+ content under different salt gradients. The increase in salt concentration inhibited the physiological activity and growth of P. australis to varying degrees. Compared with the heterogeneous saline environment, clonal integration was more beneficial to P. australis populations in the homogeneous saline habitat. The results of the present study suggest that P. australis prefers homogeneous saline habitats; however, plants can adapt to heterogeneous salinity conditions via clonal integration

Peptide-MHC Cellular Microarray with Innovative Data Analysis System for Simultaneously Detecting Multiple CD4 T-Cell Responses

Peptide:MHC cellular microarrays have been proposed to simultaneously characterize multiple Ag-specific populations of T cells. The practice of studying immune responses to complicated pathogens with this tool demands extensive knowledge of T cell epitopes and the availability of peptide:MHC complexes for array fabrication as well as a specialized data analysis approach for result interpretation. T cell cultures. A novel statistical methodology was also developed to facilitate batch processing of raw array-like data into standardized endpoint scores, which linearly correlated with total Ag-specific T cell inputs. Applying these methods to analyze Influenza A viral antigen-specific T cell responses, we not only revealed the most prominent viral epitopes, but also demonstrated the heterogeneity of anti-viral cellular responses in healthy individuals. Applying these methods to examine the insulin producing beta-cell autoantigen specific T cell responses, we observed little difference between autoimmune diabetic patients and healthy individuals, suggesting a more subtle association between diabetes status and peripheral autoreactive T cells.The data analysis system is reliable for T cell specificity and functional testing. Peptide:MHC cellular microarrays can be used to obtain multi-parametric results using limited blood samples in a variety of translational settings

A Novel Approach of Identifying Immunodominant Self and Viral Antigen Cross-Reactive T Cells and Defining the Epitopes They Recognize

Infection and vaccination can lead to activation of autoreactive T cells, including the activation of cross-reactive T cells. However, detecting these cross-reactive T cells and identifying the non-self and self-antigen epitopes is difficult. The current study demonstrates the utility of a novel approach that effectively accomplishes both. We utilized surface expression of CD38 on newly activated CD4 memory T cells as a strategy to identify type 1 diabetes associated autoreactive T cells activated by influenza vaccination in healthy subjects. We identified an influenza A matrix protein (MP) specific CD4+ T cell clone that cross-recognizes an immunodominant epitope from Glutamic Acid Decarboxylase 65 (GAD65) protein. The sequences of the MP and GAD65 peptides are rather distinct, with only 2 identical amino acids within the HLA-DR binding region. This result suggests that activation of autoreactive T cells by microbial infection under certain physiological conditions can occur amongst peptides with minimum amino acid sequence homology. This novel strategy also provides a new research pathway in which to examine activation of autoreactive CD4+ T cells after vaccination or natural infection

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead