Mallomonas acaroides Perty emend. Ivanov bloom in the Calcescu subalpine lake of the Pagang Mountains, Romania

Mallomonas acaroides Perty emend. Ivanov bloom in the Calcescu subalpine lake of the Parang Mountains, Romania. Plankton samples collected in autumn 1992 from the glacial Calcescu Lake, located at an altitude of 1924 m in the Parang Mountains, southern Carpathians, revealed an unexpected bloom of Mallomonas acaroides var. acaroides. according to TEM observations the population was very uniform, exhibited individuals with elongated, ellipsoidal to almost cylindrical cells bearing all over their surface outstandingly long, slender bristles, with helmet shaped tips. Bristles lacking helmet shaped tips, with gradually tapering distal ends and recurved proximal teeth were also present, but very rare. Most individuals possessed very thin, poorly silicified, imbricated scales, mostly without or with rudimentary meshwork on the shield. This is the first record of such Mallomonas bloom in a Romanian alpine lake, very similar with that documented by Kristiansen in a Bulgarian mountain lake

Adatok a Baláta-tó algaflórájához

Halász (1943) és Uherkovich (1978) 177 faj előfordulását közölte a Baláta-tóból. 1991-ben, valamint 1995-1996-ban végzett vizsgálataink során további 137 taxon került elő, melyek közül számos faj egyúttal Magyarország flórájára nézve is új. A flóra különösen gazdag Desmidiales és Synurophyceae fajokban. A talált fajok egy része kizárólag savas vizekben, lápokon fordul elő, mások kevésbé specializáltak, sőt néhány alkalikus, hipertróf vizekből is előkerül. Mindezek alapján a Baláta-tó átmeneti lápnak minősíthető. Vizsgálataink megerősítik Boros (1924) századeleji megállapítását, amely szerint a Baláta-tó és a Rétyi Nyír (Erdély, Kovászna megye) között igen nagy a florisztuikai hasonlóság

Interaction between p22(phox) and Nox4 in the endoplasmic reticulum suggests a unique mechanism of NADPH oxidase complex formation.

The p22(phox) protein is an essential component of the phagocytic- and inner ear NADPH oxidases but its relationship to other Nox proteins is less clear. We have studied the role of p22(phox) in the TGF-beta1-stimulated H2O2 production of primary human and murine fibroblasts. TGF-beta1 induced H2O2 release of the examined cells, and the response was dependent on the expression of both Nox4 and p22(phox). Interestingly, the p22(phox) protein was present in the absence of any detectable Nox/Duox expression, and the p22(phox) level was unaffected by TGF-beta1. On the other hand, Nox4 expression was dependent on the presence of p22(phox), establishing an asymmetrical relationship between the two proteins. Nox4 and p22(phox) proteins localized to the endoplasmic reticulum and their distribution was unaffected by TGF-beta1. We used a chemically induced protein dimerization method to study the orientation of p22(phox) and Nox4 in the endoplasmic reticulum membrane. This technique is based on the rapamycin-mediated heterodimerization of the mammalian FRB domain with the FK506 binding protein. The results of these experiments suggest that the enzyme complex produces H2O2 into the lumen of the endoplasmic reticulum, indicating that Nox4 contributes to the development of the oxidative milieu within this organelle

IL28B and IL10R -1087 polymorphisms are protective for chronic genotype 1 HCV infection and predictors of response to interferon-based therapy in an East-Central European cohort.

BACKGROUND: Previous studies have shown that single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) in IL28B and IL10R are associated with sustained virological response (SVR) in chronic hepatitis C patients treated with pegilated interferon plus ribavirin (P/R). The present study extends our earlier investigations on a large East-Central European cohort. The allele frequencies of IL28B and IL10R in genotype 1 HCV infection were compared with that of healthy controls for the purpose of examining the relationship between the polymorphisms and the SVR to P/R treatment. METHODS: A total of 748 chronic HCV1 infected patients (365 male, 383 female; 18-82 years) and 105 voluntary blood donors as controls were enrolled. Four hundred and twenty HCV patients were treated with P/R for 24-72 weeks, out of them 195 (46.4%) achieved SVR. The IL28 rs12979860 SNP was determined using Custom Taqman SNP Genotyping Assays. The IL10R -1087 (also known as IL10R -1082 (rs1800896) promoter region SNP was determined by RT-PCR and restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis. RESULTS: The IL28B CC genotype occurred with lower frequency in HCV patients than in controls (26.1% vs 51.4%, p<0.001). P/R treated patients with the IL28B CC genotype achieved higher SVR rate, as compared to patients with CT (58.6% vs 40.8%, p=0.002). The prevalence of IL10R -1087 GG genotype was lower in patients than in controls (31.8 % vs 52.2%, p<0.001). Among patients achieving SVR, the IL10R -1087 GG genotype occurred with higher frequency than the AA (32.0% vs 17.4%, p=0.013). The IL28B T allele plus IL10R A allele combination was found with higher prevalence in patients than in controls (52% vs 20.7%, p<0.001). The IL28B CC plus IL10R A allele combination occurred with higher frequency among patients with SVR than in non-responders (21.3% vs 12.8%, p=0.026). Both the IL28B CC plus IL10R GG and the IL28B CC plus IL10R A allele combinations occurred with lower frequency in patients than in controls. CONCLUSIONS: In our HCV1 patients, both the IL28B CC and IL10R GG genotypes are associated with clearance of HCV. Moreover, distinct IL28B and IL10R allele combinations appear to be protective against chronic HCV1 infection and predictors of response to P/R therapy

Monitoring methionine sulfoxide with stereospecific mechanism-based fluorescent sensors

Methionine can be reversibly oxidized to methionine sulfoxide (MetO) under physiological and pathophysiological conditions, but its use as a redox marker suffers from the lack of tools to detect and quantify MetO within cells. In this work, we created a pair of complementary stereospecific genetically-encoded mechanism-based ratiometric fluorescent sensors of MetO by inserting a circularly yellow fluorescent protein between yeast methionine sulfoxide reductases and thioredoxins. The two sensors, named MetSOx and MetROx for their ability to detect S and R-forms of MetO, respectively, were utilized for targeted analysis of protein oxidation, regulation and repair, as well as for monitoring MetO in bacterial and mammalian cells, analyzing compartment-specific changes in MetO, and examining responses to physiological stimuli

Synthetic Cathinones—Prevalence and Motivations for Use

This book chapter reviews the prevalence and motivations for use of synthetic cathinones with respect to their availability, legal status, numbers and seized amounts

Recent occurrence of Mallomonas intermedia Kisselev (Synurophyceae, Chrysophyta) in Transylvania (Romania), based on scanning electron microscopy

Plankton samples collected from a yellow watered bog pool of the mesotrophic “Călăţele Pădurii” peat bog (Romanian Western Mountains, Transylvania), exhibited an outstandingly rich Mallomonas population. The observations carried out by light and scanning electron microscopy revealed that the population belongs to Mallomonas intermedia Kisselev. Based on the presence of lance head bristles, distributed all over the cell armour (except few anterior collar, unilaterally serrated ones), it became evident that the population belong to the nominate variety (var. intermedia). Mallomonas intermedia var. saliceaensis formerly described from Transylvania differs by the type variety by the presence of exclusively serrated bristles. The present finding proved that Mallomonas intermedia could not be properly identified at infraspecific level solely based on the ultra structure of scales, without knowing the structure of bristles too