Histomorphometrical study of gonads in the endemic cyprinid fish, Cyprinion tenuiradius Heckel, 1847 (Cypriniformes: Cyprinidae)

To describe the morphological and histological changes during the annual reproductive cycle of the gonads of Cyprinion tenuiradius, a total of 341 specimens (102 female and 235 male specimens) were collected monthly from the Rudbal River (in the Qarah Aghaj sub-basin, the Persian Gulf basin), Firuzabad, Fars Province, southern Iran. The randomly sampling was adequate to collect males and females at the immature, mature, spawning-active, and non-active phases of reproduction. Five ovarian and five testicular maturation stages (I–V) were described using macroscopic and light and electron microscopic criteria. Also based on the histological examination, six types of ovarian follicles (A-F) and five types of testicular cells were designated. The largest ovarian follicles were found in the stage V of ovarian developmental stages in females with mean body weight and standard length of 22.27 g and 95.13 mm, respectively. The highest number of sperms was observed in the stage V of testicular developmental stages in males with mean body weight of 25.67 g and mean standard length of 97.83 mm. Based on the percentage of late ovary and testis maturation stages (IV, V) and high frequency of large oocytes and sperms it was concluded that the Qarah Aghaj botak spawns once a year during spring and the beginning of summer from April to July

Pot, kettle: Nonliteral titles aren’t (natural) science

© 2020 The Author. Published by MIT Press. This is an open access article available under a Creative Commons licence. The published version can be accessed at the following link on the publisher’s website: https://doi.org/10.1162/qss_a_00078Researchers may be tempted to attract attention through poetic titles for their publications, but would this be mistaken in some fields? Whilst poetic titles are known to be common in medicine, it is not clear whether the practice is widespread elsewhere. This article investigates the prevalence of poetic expressions in journal article titles 1996-2019 in 3.3 million articles from all 27 Scopus broad fields. Expressions were identified by manually checking all phrases with at least 5 words that occurred at least 25 times, finding 149 stock phrases, idioms, sayings, literary allusions, film names and song titles or lyrics. The expressions found are most common in the social sciences and the humanities. They are also relatively common in medicine, but almost absent from engineering and the natural and formal sciences. The differences may reflect the less hierarchical and more varied nature of the social sciences and humanities, where interesting titles may attract an audience. In engineering, natural science and formal science fields, authors should take extra care with poetic expressions, in case their choice is judged inappropriate. This includes interdisciplinary research overlapping these areas. Conversely, reviewers of interdisciplinary research involving the social sciences should be more tolerant of poetic licens

Substrate-Trapped Interactors of PHD3 and FIH Cluster in Distinct Signaling Pathways

Amino acid hydroxylation is a post-translational modification that regulates intra- and inter-molecular protein-protein interactions. The modifications are regulated by a family of 2-oxoglutarate- (2OG) dependent enzymes and, although the biochemistry is well understood, until now only a few substrates have been described for these enzymes. Using quantitative interaction proteomics, we screened for substrates of the proline hydroxylase PHD3 and the asparagine hydroxylase FIH, which regulate the HIF-mediated hypoxic response. We were able to identify hundreds of potential substrates. Enrichment analysis revealed that the potential substrates of both hydroxylases cluster in the same pathways but frequently modify different nodes of signaling networks. We confirm that two proteins identified in our screen, MAPK6 (Erk3) and RIPK4, are indeed hydroxylated in a FIH- or PHD3-dependent mechanism. We further determined that FIH-dependent hydroxylation regulates RIPK4-dependent Wnt signaling, and that PHD3-dependent hydroxylation of MAPK6 protects the protein from proteasomal degradation.European Commission - Seventh Framework Programme (FP7)Science Foundation IrelandUniversity College DublinCancer Research UKPRIMES Projec

Substrate-Trapped Interactors of PHD3 and FIH Cluster in Distinct Signaling Pathways

Amino acid hydroxylation is a post-translational modification that regulates intra- and inter-molecular protein-protein interactions. The modifications are regulated by a family of 2-oxoglutarate- (2OG) dependent enzymes and, although the biochemistry is well understood, until now only a few substrates have been described for these enzymes. Using quantitative interaction proteomics, we screened for substrates of the proline hydroxylase PHD3 and the asparagine hydroxylase FIH, which regulate the HIF-mediated hypoxic response. We were able to identify hundreds of potential substrates. Enrichment analysis revealed that the potential substrates of both hydroxylases cluster in the same pathways but frequently modify different nodes of signaling networks. We confirm that two proteins identified in our screen, MAPK6 (Erk3) and RIPK4, are indeed hydroxylated in a FIH- or PHD3-dependent mechanism. We further determined that FIH-dependent hydroxylation regulates RIPK4-dependent Wnt signaling, and that PHD3-dependent hydroxylation of MAPK6 protects the protein from proteasomal degradation.European Commission - Seventh Framework Programme (FP7)Science Foundation IrelandUniversity College DublinCancer Research UKPRIMES Projec

Implementing Reverse Phase Protein Array Profiling as a Sensitive Method for the Early Pre-Clinical Detection of Off-Target Toxicities Associated with Sunitinib Malate

Item does not contain fulltextPURPOSE: The tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) sunitinib is a multi-targeted agent approved across multiple cancer indications. Nevertheless, since approval, data has emerged to describe a worrisome side effect profile including hypertension, hand-foot syndrome, fatigue, diarrhea, mucositis, proteinuria, and (rarely) congestive heart failure. It has been hypothesized that the observed multi-parameter toxicity profile is related to "on-target" kinase inhibition in "off-target" tissues. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN: To interrogate off-target effects in pre-clinical studies, a reverse phase protein array (RPPA) approach is employed. Mice are treated with sunitinib (40 mg kg(-1) ) for 4 weeks, following which critical organs are removed. The Zeptosens RPPA platform is employed for protein expression analysis. RESULTS: Differentially expressed proteins associated with damage and/or stress are found in the majority of organs from treated animals. Proteins differentially expressed in the heart are associated with myocardial hypertrophy, ischaemia/reperfusion, and hypoxia. However, hypertrophy is not evidenced on histology. Mild proteinuria is observed; however, no changes in renal glomerular structure are visible via electron microscopy. In skin, proteins associated with cutaneous inflammation, keratinocyte hyper-proliferation, and increased inflammatory response are differentially expressed. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE: It is posited that pre-clinical implementation of a combined histopathological/RPPA approach provides a sensitive method to mechanistically elucidate the early manifestation of TKI on-target/organ off-target toxicities