Neurospora tetraspora D. Garcia, Stchigel & Guarro (= Gelasinospora tetrasperma Dowding) as a first record to Egypt

An interesting isolate of homothallic, ascosporic filamentous fungus having 4-spored asci, was recovered once from a non-rhizosphere soil sample collected from a grapevine plantation in the village of El-Khawaled, Sahel-Saleem city, Assiut. It was isolated on DYM agar plate at 25°C in June 2008. The isolate was identified phenotypically and genotypically as Neurospora tetraspora (= Gelasinospora tetrasperma) and was deposited in the culture collection of Assiut University Mycological Centre as AUMC no. 6784 and ITS gene sequence of the strain was deposited at the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) and assigned a GenBank accession number JQ425383. N. tetraspora is being recorded in the current work for the first time in Egypt. By this addition, the genus is now known in Egypt by four species. A key is provided for the four species. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.116560

Mycological and enzymatic studies on fresh beef meat sold in Taiz City, Yemen

The mycological analysis of 30 fresh beef meat samples on Czapek’s agar at 7º and 28ºC revealed that, heavily contamination with moulds was observed especially at 28ºC. A total of 234 and 400 colonies ⁄ 450 g meat were collected on both temperatures, respectively. Sixty-seven species belonging to 20 genera were identified. Members of Aspergillus, Mucor, Penicillium and Trichoderma were the most prevalent fungi. At 7°C was highly spoilage by yeasts fungi, while filamentous fungi predominated at 28°C. The ability of the common fungal isolates to produce protease and lipase enzymes revealed that most of them were positive. Among 152 isolates tested, 103 (67.8%) and 96 (63.2%) could respectively produce these enzymes. Because the deteriorative effects of the above fungi, food should be frequently and routinely analyzed. Also, it is essential to store the meat at lower temperature immediately after slaughtering and during transport and storage to reduce or prevent mould growth. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.103723

Potential antiviral effects of pantethine against SARS-CoV-2

Abstract SARS-CoV-2 interacts with cellular cholesterol during many stages of its replication cycle. Pantethine was reported to reduce total cholesterol levels and fatty acid synthesis and potentially alter different processes that might be involved in the SARS-CoV-2 replication cycle. Here, we explored the potential antiviral effects of pantethine in two in vitro experimental models of SARS-CoV-2 infection.Pantethine reduced the infection of cells by SARS-CoV-2 in both preinfection and postinfection treatment regimens. Accordingly, cellular expression of the viral spike and nucleocapsid proteins was substantially reduced, and we observed a significant reduction in viral copy numbers in the supernatant of cells treated with pantethine. In addition, pantethine inhibited the infection-induced increase in TMPRSS2 and HECT E3 ligase expression in infected cells as well as the increase in antiviral interferon-beta response and inflammatory gene expression in Calu-3a cells. Our results demonstrate that pantethine, which is well tolerated in humans, was very effective in controlling SARS-CoV-2 infection and might represent a new therapeutic drug that can be repurposed for the prevention or treatment of COVID-19 and long COVID syndrome

Использование арахисового масла в качестве присадки к дизельному топливу

Abstract. As part of the environmental requirements for reducing the toxicity of exhaust gases of internal combustion engines, including diesel engines of tractor and combine harvesters, great attention is paid to various ways of reducing harmful substances in the exhaust gases combustion products. The problem of using energy-saving resources, including renewable energy, various types of alternative fuels is currently solved. In several ways these include using vegetable oils from various agricultural crops, one of which is peanut oil. Its use can help to solve two urgent problems: reducing the toxicity of exhaust gases of internal combustion engines. (Research objective) To analyze the properties of peanut oil as an additive to diesel fuel and evaluate the performance of a diesel engine using this type of fuel. (Materials and methods) The properties of peanut oil differ from those of diesel fuel by higher viscosity and lower heat value. To compensate for these shortcomings, kerosene has been added to the mixture of diesel fuel with peanut oil. In cold climatic conditions, the use of pure peanut oil is difficult, since its cloud point is 3.3 degrees Celsius, which is 20 degrees higher than that of diesel fuel. In the blend composition, the cloud point of the fuel decreases, which makes it possible to use it in colder conditions. (Results and discussion) The authors have conducted a study on the tractor engine D-120 coupled with a brake balancer installation without additional engine adjustments. As a result, they have obtained the characteristics of the engine working on fuel with the addition of peanut oil. The authors have compared the results of the engine operation on pure and mixed diesel fuel, revealed indicators of operating efficiency and toxicity of exhaust gases. (Conclusions) It has been proved experimentally that the addition of peanut oil to diesel fuel leads to a decrease in the specific effective fuel consumption, and also reduces the emission of soot and nitrogen oxides, while the engine power decreases slightly.Реферат. В рамках экологических требований к снижению токсичности отработанных газов двигателей внутреннего сгорания, в том числе тракторных и комбайновых дизелей, большое внимание уделяют различным способам снижения вредных веществ в продуктах сгорания топлива. Решается задача использования энергосберегающих ресурсов, в том числе возобновляемых источников энергии, различных альтернативных видов топлива. К ним относятся растительные масла сельскохозяйственных культур, в том числе арахисовое. (Цель исследования) Проанализировать свойства арахисового масла как добавки к дизельному топливу и оценить показатели работы дизеля на топливе с добавками арахисового масла. (Материалы и методы) Арахисовое масло отличается от дизельного топлива более высокой вязкостью и меньшей теплотой сгорания. В смесь дизельного топлива с арахисовым маслом добавляли керосин для компенсации этих недостатков. В холодных климатических условиях использование арахисового масла в чистом виде затруднено, так как для него температура помутнения составляет 3,3 градуса Цельсия, что на 20 градусов выше, чем у дизельного топлива. В смесевом составе температура помутнения топлива понижается, что позволяет использовать его в более холодных условиях. (Результаты и обсуждение) Провели исследование на тракторном двигателе Д-120 в паре с тормозной балансирной установкой без дополнительных регулировок двигателя. Получили характеристики двигателя при работе на топливе с добавкой арахисового масла. Сравнили результаты работы двигателя на чистом дизельном топливе и смесевом, выявили показатели эффективности работы и токсичности отработанных газов. (Выводы) Экспериментально доказали, что добавка арахисового масла к дизельному топливу сокращает удельный эффективный расход топлива, а также уменьшает выброс сажи и оксидов азота, при этом мощность двигателя снижается незначительно

Xylanase and β-xylosidase production by Aspergillus ochraceus: new perspectives for the application of wheat straw autohydrolysis liquor

The xylanase biosynthesis is induced by its substrate—xylan. The high xylan content in some wastes such as wheat residues (wheat bran and wheat straw) makes them accessible and cheap sources of inducers to be mainly applied in great volumes of fermentation, such as those of industrial bioreactors. Thus, in this work, the main proposal was incorporated in the nutrient medium wheat straw particles decomposed to soluble compounds (liquor) through treatment of lignocellulosic materials in autohydrolysis process, as a strategy to increase and undervalue xylanase production by Aspergillus ochraceus. The wheat straw autohydrolysis liquor produced in several conditions was used as a sole carbon source or with wheat bran. The best conditions for xylanase and β-xylosidase production were observed when A. ochraceus was cultivated with 1% wheat bran added of 10% wheat straw liquor (produced after 15 min of hydrothermal treatment) as carbon source. This substrate was more favorable when compared with xylan, wheat bran, and wheat straw autohydrolysis liquor used separately. The application of this substrate mixture in a stirred tank bioreactor indicated the possibility of scaling up the process to commercial production.This work was supported by Fundacao de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado de Sao Paulo (FAPESP/Brazil), Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cientifico e Tecnologico (CNPq/Brazil), National System for Research on Biodiversity (SISBIOTA-Brazil, CNPq 563260/2010-6/FAPESP no. 2010/52322-3), and Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia (FCT/Portugal)

Analysis of Hypoxia and Hypoxia-Like States through Metabolite Profiling

In diverse organisms, adaptation to low oxygen (hypoxia) is mediated through complex gene expression changes that can, in part, be mimicked by exposure to metals such as cobalt. Although much is known about the transcriptional response to hypoxia and cobalt, little is known about the all-important cell metabolism effects that trigger these responses.Herein we use a low molecular weight metabolome profiling approach to identify classes of metabolites in yeast cells that are altered as a consequence of hypoxia or cobalt exposures. Key findings on metabolites were followed-up by measuring expression of relevant proteins and enzyme activities. We find that both hypoxia and cobalt result in a loss of essential sterols and unsaturated fatty acids, but the basis for these changes are disparate. While hypoxia can affect a variety of enzymatic steps requiring oxygen and heme, cobalt specifically interferes with diiron-oxo enzymatic steps for sterol synthesis and fatty acid desaturation. In addition to diiron-oxo enzymes, cobalt but not hypoxia results in loss of labile 4Fe-4S dehydratases in the mitochondria, but has no effect on homologous 4Fe-4S dehydratases in the cytosol. Most striking, hypoxia but not cobalt affected cellular pools of amino acids. Amino acids such as aromatics were elevated whereas leucine and methionine, essential to the strain used here, dramatically decreased due to hypoxia induced down-regulation of amino acid permeases.These studies underscore the notion that cobalt targets a specific class of iron proteins and provide the first evidence for hypoxia effects on amino acid regulation. This research illustrates the power of metabolite profiling for uncovering new adaptations to environmental stress

Defining signatures of peripheral T-cell lymphoma with a targeted 20-marker gene expression profiling assay.

Peripheral T-cell lymphoma comprises a heterogeneous group of mature non-Hodgkin lymphomas. Their diagnosis is challenging, with up to 30% of cases remaining unclassifiable and referred to as "not otherwise specified". We developed a reverse transcriptase-multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification gene expression profiling assay to differentiate the main T-cell lymphoma entities and to study the heterogeneity of the "not specified" category. The test evaluates the expression of 20 genes, including 17 markers relevant to T-cell immunology and lymphoma biopathology, one Epstein-Barr virus-related transcript, and variants of RHOA (G17V) and IDH2 (R172K/T). By unsupervised hierarchical clustering, our assay accurately identified 21 of 21 ALK-positive anaplastic large cell lymphomas, 16 of 16 extranodal natural killer (NK)/T-cell lymphomas, 6 of 6 hepatosplenic T-cell lymphomas, and 13 of 13 adult T-cell leukemia/lymphomas. ALK-negative anaplastic lymphomas (n=34) segregated into one cytotoxic cluster (n=10) and one non-cytotoxic cluster expressing Th2 markers (n=24) and enriched in DUSP22-rearranged cases. The 63 T <sub>FH</sub> -derived lymphomas divided into two subgroups according to a predominant T <sub>FH</sub> (n=50) or an enrichment in Th2 (n=13) signatures. We next developed a support vector machine predictor which attributed a molecular class to 27 of 77 not specified T-cell lymphomas: 17 T <sub>FH</sub> , five cytotoxic ALK-negative anaplastic and five NK/T-cell lymphomas. Among the remaining cases, we identified two cell-of-origin subgroups corresponding to cytotoxic/Th1 (n=19) and Th2 (n=24) signatures. A reproducibility test on 40 cases yielded a 90% concordance between three independent laboratories. This study demonstrates the applicability of a simple gene expression assay for the classification of peripheral T-cell lymphomas. Its applicability to routinely-fixed samples makes it an attractive adjunct in diagnostic practice

Neurospora tetraspora D. Garcia, Stchigel & Guarro (= Gelasinospora tetrasperma Dowding) as a first record to Egypt

An interesting isolate of homothallic, ascosporic filamentous fungus having 4-spored asci, was recovered once from a non-rhizosphere soil sample collected from a grapevine plantation in the village of El-Khawaled, Sahel-Saleem city, Assiut. It was isolated on DYM agar plate at 25°C in June 2008. The isolate was identified phenotypically and genotypically as Neurospora tetraspora (= Gelasinospora tetrasperma) and was deposited in the culture collection of Assiut University Mycological Centre as AUMC no. 6784 and ITS gene sequence of the strain was deposited at the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) and assigned a GenBank accession number JQ425383. N. tetraspora is being recorded in the current work for the first time in Egypt. By this addition, the genus is now known in Egypt by four species. A key is provided for the four species. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.116560