Analyses of murine GBP homology clusters based on in silico, in vitro and in vivo studies

The interactions between pathogens and hosts lead to a massive upregulation of antimicrobial host effector molecules. Among these, the 65 kDa guanylate binding proteins (GBPs) are interesting candidates as intricate components of the host effector molecule repertoire. Members of the GBP family are highly conserved in vertebrates. Previous reports indicate an antiviral activity of human GBP1 (hGBP1) and murine GBP2 (mGBP2). We recently demonstrated that distinct murine GBP (mGBP) family members are highly upregulated upon Toxoplasma gondii infection and localize around the intracellular protozoa T. gondii. Moreover, we characterised five new mGBP family members within the murine 65 kDa GBP family. Here, we identified a new mGBP locus named mGbp11. Based on bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC), expressed sequence tag (EST), and RT-PCR analyses this study provides a detailed insight into the genomic localization and organization of the mGBPs. These analyses revealed a 166-kb spanning region on chromosome 3 harboring five transcribed mGBPs (mGbp1, mGbp2, mGbp3, mGbp5, and mGbp7) and one pseudogene (pseudomGbp1), as well as a 332-kb spanning region on chromosome 5 consisting of six transcribed mGBPs (mGbp4, mGbp6, mGbp8, mGbp9, mGbp10, and mGbp11), and one pseudogene (pseudomgbp2). Besides the strikingly high homology of 65% to 98% within the coding sequences, the mGBPs on chromosome 5 cluster also exhibit a highly homologous exon-intron structure whereas the mGBP on chromosome 3 reveals a more divergent exon-intron structure. This study details the comprehensive genomic organization of mGBPs and suggests that a continuously changing microbial environment has exerted evolutionary pressure on this gene family leading to multiple gene amplifications. A list of links for this article can be found in the Availability and requirements section

Preliminary Assessment of the Efficacy of a T-Cell–Based Influenza Vaccine, MVA-NP+M1, in Humans

A single vaccination with MVA-NP+M1 boosts T-cell responses to conserved influenza antigens in humans. Protection against influenza disease and virus shedding was demonstrated in an influenza virus challenge study

Low-luminosity type IIP supernovae: SN 2005cs and SN 2020cxd as very low-energy iron core-collapse explosions

SN 2020cxd is a representative of the family of low-energy, underluminous Type IIP supernovae (SNe), whose observations and analysis were recently reported by Yang et al. (2021). Here we re-evaluate the observational data for the diagnostic SN properties by employing the hydrodynamic explosion model of a 9 MSun red supergiant progenitor with an iron core and a pre-collapse mass of 8.75 Msun. The explosion of the star was obtained by the neutrino-driven mechanism in a fully self-consistent simulation in three dimensions (3D). Multi-band light curves and photospheric velocities for the plateau phase are computed with the one-dimensional radiation-hydrodynamics code STELLA, applied to the spherically averaged 3D explosion model as well as spherisized radial profiles in different directions of the 3D model. We find that the overall evolution of the bolometric light curve, duration of the plateau phase, and basic properties of the multi-band emission can be well reproduced by our SN model with its explosion energy of only 0.7x10^50 erg and an ejecta mass of 7.4 Msun. These values are considerably lower than the previously reported numbers, but they are compatible with those needed to explain the fundamental observational properties of the prototype low-luminosity SN 2005cs. Because of the good compatibility of our photospheric velocities with line velocities determined for SN 2005cs, we conclude that the line velocities of SN 2020cxd are probably overestimated by up to a factor of about 3. The evolution of the line velocities of SN 2005cs compared to photospheric velocities in different explosion directions might point to intrinsic asymmetries in the SN ejecta.Comment: 13 pages + Appendix, 9 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA