Functional Analysis of the Phycomyces carRA Gene Encoding the Enzymes Phytoene Synthase and Lycopene Cyclase

Phycomyces carRA gene encodes a protein with two domains. Domain R is characterized by red carR mutants that accumulate lycopene. Domain A is characterized by white carA mutants that do not accumulate significant amounts of carotenoids. The carRA-encoded protein was identified as the lycopene cyclase and phytoene synthase enzyme by sequence homology with other proteins. However, no direct data showing the function of this protein have been reported so far. Different Mucor circinelloides mutants altered at the phytoene synthase, the lycopene cyclase or both activities were transformed with the Phycomyces carRA gene. Fully transcribed carRA mRNA molecules were detected by Northern assays in the transformants and the correct processing of the carRA messenger was verified by RT-PCR. These results showed that Phycomyces carRA gene was correctly expressed in Mucor. Carotenoids analysis in these transformants showed the presence of ß-carotene, absent in the untransformed strains, providing functional evidence that the Phycomyces carRA gene complements the M. circinelloides mutations. Co-transformation of the carRA cDNA in E. coli with different combinations of the carotenoid structural genes from Erwinia uredovora was also performed. Newly formed carotenoids were accumulated showing that the Phycomyces CarRA protein does contain lycopene cyclase and phytoene synthase activities. The heterologous expression of the carRA gene and the functional complementation of the mentioned activities are not very efficient in E. coli. However, the simultaneous presence of both carRA and carB gene products from Phycomyces increases the efficiency of these enzymes, presumably due to an interaction mechanism

Proteome from patients with metabolic syndrome is regulated by quantity and quality of dietary lipids

Background: Metabolic syndrome is a multi-component disorder associated to a high risk of cardiovascular disease. Its etiology is the result of a complex interaction between genetic and environmental factors, including dietary habits. We aimed to identify the target proteins modulated by the long-term consumption of four diets differing in the quality and quantity of lipids in the whole proteome of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC). Results: A randomized, controlled trial conducted within the LIPGENE study assigned 24 MetS patients for 12 weeks each to 1 of 4 diets: a) high-saturated fatty acid (HSFA), b) high-monounsaturated fatty acid (HMUFA), c) low-fat, high-complex carbohydrate diets supplemented with placebo (LFHCC) and d) low-fat, high-complex carbohydrate diets supplemented with long chain (LC) n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) (LFHCC n-3). We analyzed the changes induced in the proteome of both nuclear and cytoplasmic fractions of PBMC using 2-D proteomic analysis. Sixty-seven proteins were differentially expressed after the long-term consumption of the four diets. The HSFA diet induced the expression of proteins responding to oxidative stress, degradation of ubiquitinated proteins and DNA repair. However, HMUFA, LFHCC and LFHCC n-3 diets down-regulated pro-inflammatory and oxidative stress-related proteins and DNA repairing proteins. Conclusion: The long-term consumption of HSFA, compared to HMUFA, LFHCC and LFHCC n-3, seems to increase the cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors associated with metabolic syndrome, such as inflammation and oxidative stress, and seem lead to DNA damage as a consequence of high oxidative stress

A922 Sequential measurement of 1 hour creatinine clearance (1-CRCL) in critically ill patients at risk of acute kidney injury (AKI)

Meeting abstrac

Combination of searches for heavy spin-1 resonances using 139 fb−1 of proton-proton collision data at s = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

A combination of searches for new heavy spin-1 resonances decaying into different pairings of W, Z, or Higgs bosons, as well as directly into leptons or quarks, is presented. The data sample used corresponds to 139 fb−1 of proton-proton collisions at = 13 TeV collected during 2015–2018 with the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. Analyses selecting quark pairs (qq, bb, , and tb) or third-generation leptons (τν and ττ) are included in this kind of combination for the first time. A simplified model predicting a spin-1 heavy vector-boson triplet is used. Cross-section limits are set at the 95% confidence level and are compared with predictions for the benchmark model. These limits are also expressed in terms of constraints on couplings of the heavy vector-boson triplet to quarks, leptons, and the Higgs boson. The complementarity of the various analyses increases the sensitivity to new physics, and the resulting constraints are stronger than those from any individual analysis considered. The data exclude a heavy vector-boson triplet with mass below 5.8 TeV in a weakly coupled scenario, below 4.4 TeV in a strongly coupled scenario, and up to 1.5 TeV in the case of production via vector-boson fusion

Performance and calibration of quark/gluon-jet taggers using 140 fb⁻¹ of pp collisions at √s=13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

The identification of jets originating from quarks and gluons, often referred to as quark/gluon tagging, plays an important role in various analyses performed at the Large Hadron Collider, as Standard Model measurements and searches for new particles decaying to quarks often rely on suppressing a large gluon-induced background. This paper describes the measurement of the efficiencies of quark/gluon taggers developed within the ATLAS Collaboration, using √s=13 TeV proton–proton collision data with an integrated luminosity of 140 fb-1 collected by the ATLAS experiment. Two taggers with high performances in rejecting jets from gluon over jets from quarks are studied: one tagger is based on requirements on the number of inner-detector tracks associated with the jet, and the other combines several jet substructure observables using a boosted decision tree. A method is established to determine the quark/gluon fraction in data, by using quark/gluon-enriched subsamples defined by the jet pseudorapidity. Differences in tagging efficiency between data and simulation are provided for jets with transverse momentum between 500 GeV and 2 TeV and for multiple tagger working points

Search for resonant production of dark quarks in the dijet final state with the ATLAS detector

This paper presents a search for a new Z′ resonance decaying into a pair of dark quarks which hadronise into dark hadrons before promptly decaying back as Standard Model particles. This analysis is based on proton-proton collision data recorded at $$\sqrt{s}$$ s = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider between 2015 and 2018, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 139 fb−1. After selecting events containing large-radius jets with high track multiplicity, the invariant mass distribution of the two highest-transverse-momentum jets is scanned to look for an excess above a data-driven estimate of the Standard Model multijet background. No significant excess of events is observed and the results are thus used to set 95% confidence-level upper limits on the production cross-section times branching ratio of the Z′ to dark quarks as a function of the Z′ mass for various dark-quark scenarios

Electron and photon energy calibration with the ATLAS detector using LHC Run 2 data

This paper presents the electron and photon energy calibration obtained with the ATLAS detector using 140 fb-1 of LHC proton-proton collision data recorded at √(s) = 13 TeV between 2015 and 2018. Methods for the measurement of electron and photon energies are outlined, along with the current knowledge of the passive material in front of the ATLAS electromagnetic calorimeter. The energy calibration steps are discussed in detail, with emphasis on the improvements introduced in this paper. The absolute energy scale is set using a large sample of Z-boson decays into electron-positron pairs, and its residual dependence on the electron energy is used for the first time to further constrain systematic uncertainties. The achieved calibration uncertainties are typically 0.05% for electrons from resonant Z-boson decays, 0.4% at ET ∼ 10 GeV, and 0.3% at ET ∼ 1 TeV; for photons at ET ∼ 60 GeV, they are 0.2% on average. This is more than twice as precise as the previous calibration. The new energy calibration is validated using J/ψ → ee and radiative Z-boson decays

A parthenogenetic quasi-program causes teratoma-like tumors during aging in wild-type C. elegans

A long-standing belief is that aging (senescence) is the result of stochastic damage accumulation. Alternatively, senescent pathology may also result from late-life, wild-type gene action (i.e., antagonistic pleiotropy, as argued by Williams) leading to non-adaptive run-on of developmental programs (or quasi-programs) (as suggested more recently by Blagosklonny). In this study, we use existing and new data to show how uterine tumors, a prominent form of senescent pathology in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, likely result from quasi-programs. Such tumors develop from unfertilized oocytes which enter the uterus and become hypertrophic and replete with endoreduplicated chromatin masses. Tumor formation begins with ovulation of unfertilized oocytes immediately after exhaustion of sperm stocks. We show that the timing of this transition between program and quasi-program (i.e., the onset of senescence), and the onset of tumor formation, depends upon the timing of sperm depletion. We identify homology between uterine tumors and mammalian ovarian teratomas, which both develop from oocytes that fail to mature after meiosis I. In teratomas, futile activation of developmental programs leads to the formation of differentiated structures within the tumor. We report that older uterine tumors express markers of later embryogenesis, consistent with teratoma-like activation of developmental programs. We also present evidence of coupling of distal gonad atrophy to oocyte hypertrophy. This study shows how the Williams Blagosklonny model can provide a mechanistic explanation of this component of C. elegans aging. It also suggests etiological similarity between teratoma and some forms of senescent pathology, insofar as both are caused by quasi-programs