Differential sensitivity of aerobic gram-positive and gram-negative microorganisms to 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT) leads to dissimilar growth and TNT transformation: Results of soil and pure culture studies

The effects of 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT) on indigenous soil populations and pure bacterial cultures were examined. The number of colony-forming units (CFU) appearing when TNT-contaminated soil was spread on 0.3% molasses plates decreased by 50% when the agar was amended with 67 {mu}g TNT mL{sup -1}, whereas a 99% reduction was observed when uncontaminated soil was plated. Furthermore, TNT-contaminated soil harbored a greater number of organisms able to grow on plates amended with greater than 10 {mu}g TNT mL{sup -1}. The percentage of gram-positive isolates was markedly less in TNT-contaminated soil (7%; 2 of 30) than in uncontaminated soil (61%; 20 of 33). Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Pseudomonas corrugate, Pseudomonasfluorescens and Alcaligenes xylosoxidans made up the majority of the gram-negative isolates from TNT-contaminated soil. Gram-positive isolates from both soils demonstrated marked growth inhibition when greater than 8-16 {mu}g TNT mL{sup -1} was present in the culture media. Most pure cultures of known aerobic gram-negative organisms readily degraded TNT and evidenced net consumption of reduced metabolites. However, pure cultures of aerobic gram-positive bacteria were sensitive to relatively low concentrations of TNT as indicated by the 50% reduction in growth and TNT transformation which was observed at approximately 10 {mu}g TNT mL{sup -1}. Most non-sporeforming gram-positive organisms incubated in molasses media amended with 80 {mu}g TNT mL{sup -1} or greater became unculturable, whereas all strains tested remained culturable when incubated in mineral media amended with 98 {mu}g TNT mL{sup -1}, indicating that TNT sensitivity is likely linked to cell growth. These results indicate that gram-negative organisms are most likely responsible for any TNT transformation in contaminated soil, due to their relative insensitivity to high TNT concentrations and their ability to transform TNT

Erratum: first observation of the rare Bþ → DþKþπ− decay [Phys. Rev. D 93, 051101(R) (2016)]

No abstract available

A multi-ancestry genome-wide study incorporating gene-smoking interactions identifies multiple new loci for pulse pressure and mean arterial pressure

Elevated blood pressure (BP), a leading cause of global morbidity and mortality, is influenced by both genetic and lifestyle factors. Cigarette smoking is one such lifestyle factor. Across five ancestries, we performed a genome-wide gene–smoking interaction study of mean arterial pressure (MAP) and pulse pressure (PP) in 129 913 individuals in stage 1 and follow-up analysis in 480 178 additional individuals in stage 2. We report here 136 loci significantly associated with MAP and/or PP. Of these, 61 were previously published through main-effect analysis of BP traits, 37 were recently reported by us for systolic BP and/or diastolic BP through gene–smoking interaction analysis and 38 were newly identified (P < 5 × 10−8, false discovery rate < 0.05). We also identified nine new signals near known loci. Of the 136 loci, 8 showed significant interaction with smoking status. They include CSMD1 previously reported for insulin resistance and BP in the spontaneously hypertensive rats. Many of the 38 new loci show biologic plausibility for a role in BP regulation. SLC26A7 encodes a chloride/bicarbonate exchanger expressed in the renal outer medullary collecting duct. AVPR1A is widely expressed, including in vascular smooth muscle cells, kidney, myocardium and brain. FHAD1 is a long non-coding RNA overexpressed in heart failure. TMEM51 was associated with contractile function in cardiomyocytes. CASP9 plays a central role in cardiomyocyte apoptosis. Identified only in African ancestry were 30 novel loci. Our findings highlight the value of multi-ancestry investigations, particularly in studies of interaction with lifestyle factors, where genomic and lifestyle differences may contribute to novel findings

Multi-ancestry study of blood lipid levels identifies four loci interacting with physical activity

Many genetic loci affect circulating lipid levels, but it remains unknown whether lifestyle factors, such as physical activity, modify these genetic effects. To identify lipid loci interacting with physical activity, we performed genome-wide analyses of circulating HDL cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, and triglyceride levels in up to 120,979 individuals of European, African, Asian, Hispanic, and Brazilian ancestry, with follow-up of suggestive associations in an additional 131,012 individuals. We find four loci, in/near CLASP1, LHX1, SNTA1, and CNTNAP2, that are associated with circulating lipid levels through interaction with physical activity; higher levels of physical activity enhance the HDL cholesterol-increasing effects of the CLASP1, LHX1, and SNTA1 loci and attenuate the LDL cholesterol- increasing effect of the CNTNAP2 locus. The CLASP1, LHX1, and SNTA1 regions harbor genes linked to muscle function and lipid metabolism. Our results elucidate the role of physical activity interactions in the genetic contribution to blood lipid levels

Novel Loci for Adiponectin Levels and Their Influence on Type 2 Diabetes and Metabolic Traits : A Multi-Ethnic Meta-Analysis of 45,891 Individuals

J. Kaprio, S. Ripatti ja M.-L. Lokki työryhmien jäseniä.Peer reviewe

The Trouble with Diffusion

The phenomenological formalism, which yields Fick's Laws for diffusion in single phase multicomponent systems, is widely accepted as the basis for the mathematical description of diffusion. This paper focuses on problems associated with this formalism. This mode of description of the process is cumbersome, defining as it does matrices of interdiffusion coefficients (the central material properties) that require a large experimental investment for their evaluation in three component systems, and, indeed cannot be evaluated for systems with more than three components. It is also argued that the physical meaning of the numerical values of these properties with respect to the atom motions in the system remains unknown. The attempt to understand the physical content of the diffusion coefficients in the phenomenological formalism has been the central fundamental problem in the theory of diffusion in crystalline alloys. The observation by Kirkendall that the crystal lattice moves during diffusion led Darken to develop the concept of intrinsic diffusion, i.e., atom motion relative to the crystal lattice. Darken and his successors sought to relate the diffusion coefficients computed for intrinsic fluxes to those obtained from the motion of radioactive tracers in chemically homogeneous samples which directly report the jump frequencies of the atoms as a function of composition and temperature. This theoretical connection between tracer, intrinsic and interdiffusion behavior would provide the basis for understanding the physical content of interdiffusion coefficients. Definitive tests of the resulting theoretical connection have been carried out for a number of binary systems for which all three kinds of observations are available. In a number of systems predictions of intrinsic coefficients from tracer data do not agree with measured values although predictions of interdiffusion coefficients appear to give reasonable agreement. Thus, the complete connection has not been made, even for binary systems. The theory has never been tested in multicomponent systems. An alternative path to understanding diffusion behavior in multicomponent systems is presented which is based upon a kinetically derived version of the flux equations. While this approach has problems of its own, it has the potential for providing a new range of insights into the process, and for devising simple models for predicting composition evolution in multicomponent systems