Neonate Human Remains: A Window of Opportunity to the Molecular Study of Ancient Syphilis

Ancient DNA (aDNA) analysis can be a useful tool in bacterial disease diagnosis in human remains. However, while the recovery of Mycobacterium spp. has been widely successful, several authors report unsuccessful results regarding ancient treponemal DNA, casting doubts on the usefulness of this technique for the diagnosis of ancient syphilis. Here, we present results from an analysis of four newborn specimens recovered from the crypt of “La Ermita de la Soledad” (XVI–XVII centuries), located in the province of Huelva in the southwest of Spain. We extracted and analyzed aDNA in three independent laboratories, following specific procedures generally practiced in the aDNA field, including cloning of the amplified DNA fragments and sequencing of several clones. This is the most ancient case, reported to date, from which detection of DNA from T. pallidum subspecies pallidum has been successful in more than one individual, and we put forward a hypothesis to explain this result, taking into account the course of the disease in neonate individuals

Does Landscape Fragmentation Influence Sex Ratio of Dioecious Plants? A Case Study of Pistacia chinensis in the Thousand-Island Lake Region of China

The Thousand-Island Lake region in Zhejiang Province, China is a highly fragmented landscape with a clear point-in-time of fragmentation as a result of flooding to form the reservoir. Islands in the artificial lake were surveyed to examine how population sex ratio of a dioecious plant specie Pistacia chinensis B. was affected by landscape fragmentation. A natural population on the mainland near the lake was also surveyed for comparison. Population size, sex ratio and diameter at breast height (DBH) of individuals were measured over 2 years. More than 1,500 individuals, distributed in 31 populations, were studied. Soil nitrogen in the different populations was measured to identify the relationship between sex ratio and micro-environmental conditions. In accordance with the results of many other reports on biased sex ratio in relation to environmental gradient, we found that poor soil nitrogen areas fostered male-biased populations. In addition, the degree of sex ratio bias increased with decreasing population size and population connectivity. The biased sex ratios were only found in younger individuals (less than 50 years old) in small populations, while a stable 1∶1 sex ratio was found in the large population on the mainland. We concluded that the effects of landscape fragmentation on the dioecious population sex ratio were mainly achieved in relation to changing soil nitrogen conditions in patches and pollen limitation within and among populations. Large populations could maintain a more suitable environment in terms of nutrient conditions and pollen flow, subsequently maintaining a stable sex ratio in dioecious plant populations. Both micro-environmental factors and spatial structure should be considered in fragmented landscape for the conservation of dioecious plant species

The alpha-kinase family: an exceptional branch on the protein kinase tree

The alpha-kinase family represents a class of atypical protein kinases that display little sequence similarity to conventional protein kinases. Early studies on myosin heavy chain kinases in Dictyostelium discoideum revealed their unusual propensity to phosphorylate serine and threonine residues in the context of an alpha-helix. Although recent studies show that some members of this family can also phosphorylate residues in non-helical regions, the name alpha-kinase has remained. During evolution, the alpha-kinase domains combined with many different functional subdomains such as von Willebrand factor-like motifs (vWKa) and even cation channels (TRPM6 and TRPM7). As a result, these kinases are implicated in a large variety of cellular processes such as protein translation, Mg2+ homeostasis, intracellular transport, cell migration, adhesion, and proliferation. Here, we review the current state of knowledge on different members of this kinase family and discuss the potential use of alpha-kinases as drug targets in diseases such as cancer