Analysis of the Spore Membrane Proteome in Clostridium perfringens Implicates Cyanophycin in Spore Assembly.

UnlabelledHeat-resistant endospore formation plays an important role in Clostridium perfringens-associated foodborne illnesses. The spores allow the bacterium to survive heating during normal cooking processes, followed by germination and outgrowth of the bacterium in contaminated foods. To identify proteins associated with germination and other spore functions, a comparative spore membrane proteome analysis of dormant and germinated spores of C. perfringens strain SM101 was performed by using gel-based protein separation and liquid chromatography coupled with matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-tandem time of flight (MALDI-TOF/TOF) mass spectrometry. A total of 494 proteins were identified, and 117 of them were predicted to be integral membrane or membrane-associated proteins. Among these membrane proteins, 16 and 26 were detected only in dormant and germinated spores, respectively. One protein that was detected only in germinated spore membranes was the enzyme cyanophycinase, a protease that cleaves the polymer cyanophycin, which is composed of l-arginine-poly(l-aspartic acid), to β-Asp-Arg. Genes encoding cyanophycinase and cyanophycin synthetase have been observed in many species of Clostridium, but their role has not been defined. To determine the function of cyanophycin in C. perfringens, a mutation was introduced into the cphA gene, encoding cyanophycin synthetase. In comparison to parent strain SM101, the spores of the mutant strain retained wild-type levels of heat resistance, but fewer spores were made, and they were smaller, suggesting that cyanophycin synthesis plays a role in spore assembly. Although cyanophycin could not be extracted from sporulating C. perfringens cells, an Escherichia coli strain expressing the cphA gene made copious amounts of cyanophycin, confirming that cphA encodes a cyanophycin synthetase.ImportanceClostridium perfringens is a common cause of food poisoning, and germination of spores after cooking is thought to play a significant role in the disease. How C. perfringens controls the germination process is still not completely understood. We characterized the proteome of the membranes from dormant and germinated spores and discovered that large-scale changes occur after germination is initiated. One of the proteins that was detected after germination was the enzyme cyanophycinase, which degrades the storage compound cyanophycin, which is found in cyanobacteria and other prokaryotes. A cyanophycin synthetase mutant was constructed and found to make spores with altered morphology but normal heat resistance, suggesting that cyanophycin plays a different role in C. perfringens than it does in cyanobacteria

Quantifying loopy network architectures

Biology presents many examples of planar distribution and structural networks having dense sets of closed loops. An archetype of this form of network organization is the vasculature of dicotyledonous leaves, which showcases a hierarchically-nested architecture containing closed loops at many different levels. Although a number of methods have been proposed to measure aspects of the structure of such networks, a robust metric to quantify their hierarchical organization is still lacking. We present an algorithmic framework, the hierarchical loop decomposition, that allows mapping loopy networks to binary trees, preserving in the connectivity of the trees the architecture of the original graph. We apply this framework to investigate computer generated graphs, such as artificial models and optimal distribution networks, as well as natural graphs extracted from digitized images of dicotyledonous leaves and vasculature of rat cerebral neocortex. We calculate various metrics based on the Asymmetry, the cumulative size distribution and the Strahler bifurcation ratios of the corresponding trees and discuss the relationship of these quantities to the architectural organization of the original graphs. This algorithmic framework decouples the geometric information (exact location of edges and nodes) from the metric topology (connectivity and edge weight) and it ultimately allows us to perform a quantitative statistical comparison between predictions of theoretical models and naturally occurring loopy graphs.Comment: 17 pages, 8 figures. During preparation of this manuscript the authors became aware of the work of Mileyko at al., concurrently submitted for publicatio

Modelling the effects of past and future climate on the risk of bluetongue emergence in Europe

Vector-borne diseases are among those most sensitive to climate because the ecology of vectors and the development rate of pathogens within them are highly dependent on environmental conditions. Bluetongue (BT), a recently emerged arboviral disease of ruminants in Europe, is often cited as an illustration of climate's impact on disease emergence, although no study has yet tested this association. Here, we develop a framework to quantitatively evaluate the effects of climate on BT's emergence in Europe by integrating high-resolution climate observations and model simulations within a mechanistic model of BT transmission risk. We demonstrate that a climate-driven model explains, in both space and time, many aspects of BT's recent emergence and spread, including the 2006 BT outbreak in northwest Europe which occurred in the year of highest projected risk since at least 1960. Furthermore, the model provides mechanistic insight into BT's emergence, suggesting that the drivers of emergence across Europe differ between the South and the North. Driven by simulated future climate from an ensemble of 11 regional climate models, the model projects increase in the future risk of BT emergence across most of Europe with uncertainty in rate but not in trend. The framework described here is adaptable and applicable to other diseases, where the link between climate and disease transmission risk can be quantified, permitting the evaluation of scale and uncertainty in climate change's impact on the future of such diseases

Evaluation of the indicators of inflammation in the diagnosis of ovine mastitis

O objetivo do presente trabalho foi avaliar diferentes indicadores inflamatórios no diagnóstico da mamite em ovinos da raça Santa Inês. Após a realização do exame físico das mamas e a prova de fundo escuro, foram coletadas e analisadas 390 amostras de leite, sendo as metades mamárias divididas de acordo com o exame bacteriológico e a prova de fundo escuro, resultando em 290 amostras negativas em ambos os exames, 90 amostras negativas à prova de fundo escuro e positivas na cultura bacteriológica, 5 amostras positivas à prova de fundo escuro e negativas ao exame bacteriológico e 3 amostras positivas em ambos os testes. Nestas amostras foram realizadas a contagem automática de células somáticas (CCS), o California Mastitis Test (CMT), a determinação da concentração hidrogeniônica (pH) e dos teores de cloreto e lactose, e ainda a avaliação do índice de cloreto-lactose. Os maiores valores preditivos foram observados para a CCS, CMT e teor de cloreto; o pH, o teor de lactose e o índice cloreto-lactose apresentaram-se como marcadores inflamatórios menos sensíveis, onde se considerou o resultado da cultura bacteriológica como padrão ouro. O exame físico não se mostrou como método diagnóstico seguro quando utilizado isoladamente, exaltando a importância da associação de outros meios diagnósticos indiretosThe aim of this trial was to evaluate distinct indictors of inflammation in the diagnosis of mastitis in Santa Ines ewes. The physical examination and the dark bottom cup test were performed. Afterwards, the bacteriologic samples of 390 milk samples were analyzed. The samples were divided according to the bacteriological examination and the dark cup bottom test, resulting in 290 samples negative in both tests, 90 samples positive in the bacteriological examination and negative in the dark cup bottom test, 5 samples positive in the dark cup bottom test and negative in bacteriological culture, and 3 samples positive in both tests. The automatic somatic cell count (SSC), the California mastitis test (CMT), the pH, the chloride and lactose content, and the chloride-lactose number were established. Then, their predictive value as a indicator of inflammation was calculated assuming the bacteriologic examination as the gold standard test. The CCS, CMT and chloride content proved to be the best predictors, while the pH, the lactose content and chloride-lactose number were the least sensitive tests. The physical examination was revealed to be a nonsensitive diagnostic procedure when used as the only procedure to detect the disease, showing that other diagnostics tests are requiredFAPESPCNP

Biochemical properties of Paracoccus denitrificans FnrP:Reactions with molecular oxygen and nitric oxide

In Paracoccus denitrificans, three CRP/FNR family regulatory proteins, NarR, NnrR and FnrP, control the switch between aerobic and anaerobic (denitrification) respiration. FnrP is a [4Fe-4S] cluster containing homologue of the archetypal O2 sensor FNR from E. coli and accordingly regulates genes encoding aerobic and anaerobic respiratory enzymes in response to O2, and also NO, availability. Here we show that FnrP undergoes O2-driven [4Fe-4S] to [2Fe-2S] cluster conversion that involves up to 2 O2 per cluster, with significant oxidation of released cluster sulfide to sulfane observed at higher O2 concentrations. The rate of the cluster reaction was found to be ~6-fold lower than that of E. coli FNR, suggesting that FnrP can remain transcriptionally active under microaerobic conditions. This is consistent with a role for FnrP in activating expression of the high O2 affinity cytochrome c oxidase under microaerobic conditions. Cluster conversion resulted in dissociation of the transcriptionally active FnrP dimer into monomers. Therefore, along with E. coli FNR, FnrP belongs to the subset of FNR proteins in which cluster type is correlated with association state. Interestingly, two key charged residues, Arg140 and Asp154, that have been shown to play key roles in the monomer-dimer equilibrium in E. coli FNR are not conserved in FnrP, indicating that different protomer interactions are important for this equilibrium. Finally, the FnrP [4Fe-4S] cluster is shown to undergo reaction with multiple NO molecules, resulting in iron nitrosyl species and dissociation into monomers

Optimizing for periodicity: a model-independent approach to flux crosstalk calibration for superconducting circuits

Flux tunability is an important engineering resource for superconducting circuits. Large-scale quantum computers based on flux-tunable superconducting circuits face the problem of flux crosstalk, which needs to be accurately calibrated to realize high-fidelity quantum operations. Typical calibration methods either assume that circuit elements can be effectively decoupled and simple models can be applied, or require a large amount of data. Such methods become ineffective as the system size increases and circuit interactions become stronger. Here we propose a new method for calibrating flux crosstalk, which is independent of the underlying circuit model. Using the fundamental property that superconducting circuits respond periodically to external fluxes, crosstalk calibration of N flux channels can be treated as N independent optimization problems, with the objective functions being the periodicity of a measured signal depending on the compensation parameters. We demonstrate this method on a small-scale quantum annealing circuit based on superconducting flux qubits, achieving comparable accuracy with previous methods. We also show that the objective function usually has a nearly convex landscape, allowing efficient optimization

Targeted prevention of common mental health disorders in university students: randomised controlled trial of a transdiagnostic trait-focused web-based intervention

Background: A large proportion of university students show symptoms of common mental disorders, such as depression, anxiety, substance use disorders and eating disorders. Novel interventions are required that target underlying factors of multiple disorders.<p></p> Aims: To evaluate the efficacy of a transdiagnostic trait-focused web-based intervention aimed at reducing symptoms of common mental disorders in university students.<p></p> Method: Students were recruited online (n = 1047, age: M = 21.8, SD = 4.2) and categorised into being at high or low risk for mental disorders based on their personality traits. Participants were allocated to a cognitive-behavioural trait-focused (n = 519) or a control intervention (n = 528) using computerised simple randomisation. Both interventions were fully automated and delivered online (trial registration: ISRCTN14342225). Participants were blinded and outcomes were self-assessed at baseline, at 6 weeks and at 12 weeks after registration. Primary outcomes were current depression and anxiety, assessed on the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ9) and Generalised Anxiety Disorder Scale (GAD7). Secondary outcome measures focused on alcohol use, disordered eating, and other outcomes.<p></p> Results: Students at high risk were successfully identified using personality indicators and reported poorer mental health. A total of 520 students completed the 6-week follow-up and 401 students completed the 12-week follow-up. Attrition was high across intervention groups, but comparable to other web-based interventions. Mixed effects analyses revealed that at 12-week follow up the trait-focused intervention reduced depression scores by 3.58 (p<.001, 95%CI [5.19, 1.98]) and anxiety scores by 2.87 (p = .018, 95%CI [1.31, 4.43]) in students at high risk. In high-risk students, between group effect sizes were 0.58 (depression) and 0.42 (anxiety). In addition, self-esteem was improved. No changes were observed regarding the use of alcohol or disordered eating.<p></p> Conclusions This study suggests that a transdiagnostic web-based intervention for university students targeting underlying personality risk factors may be a promising way of preventing common mental disorders with a low-intensity intervention