Evolution of mal ABC transporter operons in the Thermococcales and Thermotogales

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The <it>mal </it>genes that encode maltose transporters have undergone extensive lateral transfer among ancestors of the archaea <it>Thermococcus litoralis </it>and <it>Pyrococcus furiosus</it>. Bacterial hyperthermophiles of the order <it>Thermotogales </it>live among these archaea and so may have shared in these transfers. The genome sequence of <it>Thermotoga maritima </it>bears evidence of extensive acquisition of archaeal genes, so its ancestors clearly had the capacity to do so. We examined deep phylogenetic relationships among the <it>mal </it>genes of these hyperthermophiles and their close relatives to look for evidence of shared ancestry.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We demonstrate that the two maltose ATP binding cassette (ABC) transporter operons now found in <it>Tc. litoralis </it>and <it>P. furiosus </it>(termed <it>mal </it>and <it>mdx </it>genes, respectively) are not closely related to one another. The <it>Tc. litoralis </it>and <it>P. furiosus mal </it>genes are most closely related to bacterial <it>mal </it>genes while their respective <it>mdx </it>genes are archaeal. The genes of the two <it>mal </it>operons in <it>Tt. maritima </it>are not related to genes in either of these archaeal operons. They are highly similar to one another and belong to a phylogenetic lineage that includes <it>mal </it>genes from the enteric bacteria. A unique domain of the enteric MalF membrane spanning proteins found also in these <it>Thermotogales </it>MalF homologs supports their relatively close relationship with these enteric proteins. Analyses of genome sequence data from other <it>Thermotogales </it>species, <it>Fervidobacterium nodosum</it>, <it>Thermosipho melanesiensis</it>, <it>Thermotoga petrophila</it>, <it>Thermotoga lettingae</it>, and <it>Thermotoga neapolitana</it>, revealed a third apparent <it>mal </it>operon, absent from the published genome sequence of <it>Tt. maritima </it>strain MSB8. This third operon, <it>mal3</it>, is more closely related to the <it>Thermococcales</it>' bacteria-derived <it>mal </it>genes than are <it>mal1 </it>and <it>mal2</it>. <it>F. nodosum</it>, <it>Ts. melanesiensis</it>, and <it>Tt. lettingae </it>have only one of the <it>mal1-mal2 </it>paralogs. The <it>mal2 </it>operon from an unknown species of <it>Thermotoga </it>appears to have been horizontally acquired by a <it>Thermotoga </it>species that had only <it>mal1</it>.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>These data demonstrate that the <it>Tc. litoralis </it>and <it>P. furiosus mdx </it>maltodextrin transporter operons arose in the <it>Archaea </it>while their <it>mal </it>maltose transporter operons arose in a bacterial lineage, but not the same lineage as the two maltose transporter operons found in the published <it>Tt. maritima </it>genome sequence. These <it>Tt. maritima </it>maltose transporters are phylogenetically and structurally similar to those found in enteric bacteria and the <it>mal2 </it>operon was horizontally transferred within the <it>Thermotoga </it>lineage. Other <it>Thermotogales </it>species have a third <it>mal </it>operon that is more closely related to the bacterial <it>Thermococcales mal </it>operons, but the data do not support a recent horizontal sharing of that operon between these groups.</p

Sugar Transport and Metabolism in Thermotoga

The work conducted under this grant demonstrated that the hyperthermophilic bacterium Thermotoga neapolitana carries out glucose and lactose transport in a sodium-dependent manner and that energization of anaerobic cells is required to observe transport. We also demonstrated that Thermotoga maritima carries out maltose and glucose transport using periplasmic sugar binding proteins. We began defining patterns of expression of genes encoding sugar transport and catabolic functions in both T. maritima and T. neapolitana. We began a collaborative effort to identify all the genes regulated at the transcriptional level in response to sugars substrates. These funds also allowed us to begin an examination of the functions of several periplasmic substrate binding proteins encoded in the genome of T. maritima

Genome Sequence of the Mesophilic Thermotogales Bacterium Mesotoga prima MesG1.Ag.4.2 Reveals the Largest Thermotogales Genome To Date

Here we describe the genome of Mesotoga prima MesG1.Ag4.2, the first genome of a mesophilic Thermotogales bacterium. Mesotoga prima was isolated from a polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB)-dechlorinating enrichment culture from Baltimore Harbor sediments. Its 2.97 Mb genome is considerably larger than any previously sequenced Thermotogales genomes, which range between 1.86 and 2.30 Mb. This larger size is due to both higher numbers of protein-coding genes and larger intergenic regions. In particular, the M. prima genome contains more genes for proteins involved in regulatory functions, for instance those involved in regulation of transcription. Together with its closest relative, Kosmotoga olearia, it also encodes different types of proteins involved in environmental and cell–cell interactions as compared with other Thermotogales bacteria. Amino acid composition analysis of M. prima proteins implies that this lineage has inhabited low-temperature environments for a long time. A large fraction of the M. prima genome has been acquired by lateral gene transfer (LGT): a DarkHorse analysis suggests that 766 (32%) of predicted protein-coding genes have been involved in LGT after Mesotogadiverged from the other Thermotogales lineages. A notable example of a lineage-specific LGT event is a reductive dehalogenase gene—a key enzyme in dehalorespiration, indicating M. prima may have a more active role in PCB dechlorination than was previously assumed

What Is a Representative Brain? Neuroscience Meets Population Science

The last decades of neuroscience research have produced immense progress in the methods available to understand brain structure and function. Social, cognitive, clinical, affective, economic, communication, and developmental neurosciences have begun to map the relationships between neuro-psychological processes and behavioral outcomes, yielding a new understanding of human behavior and promising interventions. However, a limitation of this fast moving research is that most findings are based on small samples of convenience. Furthermore, our understanding of individual differences may be distorted by unrepresentative samples, undermining findings regarding brain–behavior mechanisms. These limitations are issues that social demographers, epidemiologists, and other population scientists have tackled, with solutions that can be applied to neuroscience. By contrast, nearly all social science disciplines, including social demography, sociology, political science, economics, communication science, and psychology, make assumptions about processes that involve the brain, but have incorporated neural measures to differing, and often limited, degrees; many still treat the brain as a black box. In this article, we describe and promote a perspective—population neuroscience—that leverages interdisciplinary expertise to (i) emphasize the importance of sampling to more clearly define the relevant populations and sampling strategies needed when using neuroscience methods to address such questions; and (ii) deepen understanding of mechanisms within population science by providing insight regarding underlying neural mechanisms. Doing so will increase our confidence in the generalizability of the findings. We provide examples to illustrate the population neuroscience approach for specific types of research questions and discuss the potential for theoretical and applied advances from this approach across areas

The Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998: An Economic Analysis

This brief provides an economic analysis of the main feature of the Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998 ('CTEA'), a twenty-year extension of the copyright term for existing and future works. Taken as a whole, the authors believe that it is highly unlikely that the economic benefits from copyright extension under the CTEA outweigh the additional costs.Technology and Industry

Genes for the Major Structural Components of Thermotogales Species’ Togas Revealed by Proteomic and Evolutionary Analyses of OmpA and OmpB Homologs

The unifying structural characteristic of members of the bacterial order Thermotogales is their toga, an unusual cell envelope that includes a loose-fitting sheath around each cell. Only two toga-associated structural proteins have been purified and characterized in Thermotoga maritima: the anchor protein OmpA1 (or Ompα) and the porin OmpB (or Ompβ). The gene encoding OmpA1 (ompA1) was cloned and sequenced and later assigned to TM0477 in the genome sequence, but because no peptide sequence was available for OmpB, its gene (ompB) was not annotated. We identified six porin candidates in the genome sequence of T. maritima. Of these candidates, only one, encoded by TM0476, has all the characteristics reported for OmpB and characteristics expected of a porin including predominant β-sheet structure, a carboxy terminus porin anchoring motif, and a porin-specific amino acid composition. We highly enriched a toga fraction of cells for OmpB by sucrose gradient centrifugation and hydroxyapatite chromatography and analyzed it by LC/MS/MS. We found that the only porin candidate that it contained was the TM0476 product. This cell fraction also had β-sheet character as determined by circular dichroism, consistent with its enrichment for OmpB. We conclude that TM0476 encodes OmpB. A phylogenetic analysis of OmpB found orthologs encoded in syntenic locations in the genomes of all but two Thermotogales species. Those without orthologs have putative isofunctional genes in their place. Phylogenetic analyses of OmpA1 revealed that each species of the Thermotogales has one or two OmpA homologs. T. maritima has two OmpA homologs, encoded by ompA1 (TM0477) and ompA2 (TM1729), both of which were found in the toga protein-enriched cell extracts. These annotations of the genes encoding toga structural proteins will guide future examinations of the structure and function of this unusual lineage-defining cell sheath

Toward a 21st-century health care system: Recommendations for health care reform

The coverage, cost, and quality problems of the U.S. health care system are evident. Sustainable health care reform must go beyond financing expanded access to care to substantially changing the organization and delivery of care. The FRESH-Thinking Project (www.fresh-thinking.org) held a series of workshops during which physicians, health policy experts, health insurance executives, business leaders, hospital administrators, economists, and others who represent diverse perspectives came together. This group agreed that the following 8 recommendations are fundamental to successful reform: 1. Replace the current fee-for-service payment system with a payment system that encourages and rewards innovation in the efficient delivery of quality care. The new payment system should invest in the development of outcome measures to guide payment. 2. Establish a securely funded, independent agency to sponsor and evaluate research on the comparative effectiveness of drugs, devices, and other medical interventions. 3. Simplify and rationalize federal and state laws and regulations to facilitate organizational innovation, support care coordination, and streamline financial and administrative functions. 4. Develop a health information technology infrastructure with national standards of interoperability to promote data exchange. 5. Create a national health database with the participation of all payers, delivery systems, and others who own health care data. Agree on methods to make de-identified information from this database on clinical interventions, patient outcomes, and costs available to researchers. 6. Identify revenue sources, including a cap on the tax exclusion of employer-based health insurance, to subsidize health care coverage with the goal of insuring all Americans. 7. Create state or regional insurance exchanges to pool risk, so that Americans without access to employer-based or other group insurance could obtain a standard benefits package through these exchanges. Employers should also be allowed to participate in these exchanges for their employees' coverage. 8. Create a health coverage board with broad stakeholder representation to determine and periodically update the affordable standard benefit package available through state or regional insurance exchanges

Correction to: Two years later: Is the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic still having an impact on emergency surgery? An international cross-sectional survey among WSES members

Background: The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic is still ongoing and a major challenge for health care services worldwide. In the first WSES COVID-19 emergency surgery survey, a strong negative impact on emergency surgery (ES) had been described already early in the pandemic situation. However, the knowledge is limited about current effects of the pandemic on patient flow through emergency rooms, daily routine and decision making in ES as well as their changes over time during the last two pandemic years. This second WSES COVID-19 emergency surgery survey investigates the impact of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic on ES during the course of the pandemic. Methods: A web survey had been distributed to medical specialists in ES during a four-week period from January 2022, investigating the impact of the pandemic on patients and septic diseases both requiring ES, structural problems due to the pandemic and time-to-intervention in ES routine. Results: 367 collaborators from 59 countries responded to the survey. The majority indicated that the pandemic still significantly impacts on treatment and outcome of surgical emergency patients (83.1% and 78.5%, respectively). As reasons, the collaborators reported decreased case load in ES (44.7%), but patients presenting with more prolonged and severe diseases, especially concerning perforated appendicitis (62.1%) and diverticulitis (57.5%). Otherwise, approximately 50% of the participants still observe a delay in time-to-intervention in ES compared with the situation before the pandemic. Relevant causes leading to enlarged time-to-intervention in ES during the pandemic are persistent problems with in-hospital logistics, lacks in medical staff as well as operating room and intensive care capacities during the pandemic. This leads not only to the need for triage or transferring of ES patients to other hospitals, reported by 64.0% and 48.8% of the collaborators, respectively, but also to paradigm shifts in treatment modalities to non-operative approaches reported by 67.3% of the participants, especially in uncomplicated appendicitis, cholecystitis and multiple-recurrent diverticulitis. Conclusions: The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic still significantly impacts on care and outcome of patients in ES. Well-known problems with in-hospital logistics are not sufficiently resolved by now; however, medical staff shortages and reduced capacities have been dramatically aggravated over last two pandemic years

Development and validation of HERWIG 7 tunes from CMS underlying-event measurements

This paper presents new sets of parameters (“tunes”) for the underlying-event model of the HERWIG7 event generator. These parameters control the description of multiple-parton interactions (MPI) and colour reconnection in HERWIG7, and are obtained from a fit to minimum-bias data collected by the CMS experiment at s=0.9, 7, and 13Te. The tunes are based on the NNPDF 3.1 next-to-next-to-leading-order parton distribution function (PDF) set for the parton shower, and either a leading-order or next-to-next-to-leading-order PDF set for the simulation of MPI and the beam remnants. Predictions utilizing the tunes are produced for event shape observables in electron-positron collisions, and for minimum-bias, inclusive jet, top quark pair, and Z and W boson events in proton-proton collisions, and are compared with data. Each of the new tunes describes the data at a reasonable level, and the tunes using a leading-order PDF for the simulation of MPI provide the best description of the dat