Thousands of Rab GTPases for the Cell Biologist

Rab proteins are small GTPases that act as essential regulators of vesicular trafficking. 44 subfamilies are known in humans, performing specific sets of functions at distinct subcellular localisations and tissues. Rab function is conserved even amongst distant orthologs. Hence, the annotation of Rabs yields functional predictions about the cell biology of trafficking. So far, annotating Rabs has been a laborious manual task not feasible for current and future genomic output of deep sequencing technologies. We developed, validated and benchmarked the Rabifier, an automated bioinformatic pipeline for the identification and classification of Rabs, which achieves up to 90% classification accuracy. We cataloged roughly 8.000 Rabs from 247 genomes covering the entire eukaryotic tree. The full Rab database and a web tool implementing the pipeline are publicly available at www.RabDB.org. For the first time, we describe and analyse the evolution of Rabs in a dataset covering the whole eukaryotic phylogeny. We found a highly dynamic family undergoing frequent taxon-specific expansions and losses. We dated the origin of human subfamilies using phylogenetic profiling, which enlarged the Rab repertoire of the Last Eukaryotic Common Ancestor with Rab14, 32 and RabL4. Furthermore, a detailed analysis of the Choanoflagellate Monosiga brevicollis Rab family pinpointed the changes that accompanied the emergence of Metazoan multicellularity, mainly an important expansion and specialisation of the secretory pathway. Lastly, we experimentally establish tissue specificity in expression of mouse Rabs and show that neo-functionalisation best explains the emergence of new human Rab subfamilies. With the Rabifier and RabDB, we provide tools that easily allows non-bioinformaticians to integrate thousands of Rabs in their analyses. RabDB is designed to enable the cell biology community to keep pace with the increasing number of fully-sequenced genomes and change the scale at which we perform comparative analysis in cell biology

Sampling size for determination of adenine nucleotide contents in mature grape berries: application to reference samples analysis

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Bases physiopathologiques en hématologie générale : un aide-mémoire d'hématologie

La disciplina contable como ciencia no ha sido ajena a los cambios que generan las crisis en los ámbitos económico, político y social. El presente trabajo, que forma parte de un proyecto de investigación, hace un recorrido histórico abordando la evolución de la contabilidad de gestión a partir de la investigación y análisis de bibliografía nacional y extranjera. Se plantea como objetivos de trabajo los siguientes: - Caracterizar la evolución histórica de la contabilidad de gestión - Relacionar el surgimiento de nuevas herramientas de gestión con la evolución de los paradigmas económicos. - Plantear la utilización del ‘Cuadro de mando Integral’ (Balanced Scorecard -BSC) como herramienta para incorporar la dimensión social y ambiental en la gestión empresaria.Centro de Estudios en Contabilidad Internacional (CECIN

Interleukin-4 induces functional cell-surface expression of CXCR4 on human T cells

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Enhanced visual acuity with echogenic needles in ultrasound-guided axillary brachial plexus block: a randomized, comparative, observer-blinded study.

International audienceBACKGROUND:We prospectively evaluated the effect of insertion angle on the visibility of echogenic and nonechogenic needles in phantoms and in axillary nerve blocks in patients.METHODS:Conventional and echogenic needles were studied in phantoms at insertion angles of 0-30°, 30-45°, and ≥ 45°. Operators rated comfort and image quality during the procedure and experts blinded to the needle groups randomly analyzed videos for tip and shaft visibility, surrounding tissue visibility, sharpness of the needle surface, and percentage of time with the needle completely visible. Patients scheduled for axillary nerve block were prospectively enrolled in the clinical study. Needle insertion angles were 0-30° for the median nerve approach, 30-45° for the radial nerve, and ≥ 45° for the musculocutaneous nerve. The same needle parameters were analyzed during the procedure and on videos.RESULTS:Physician comfort and image quality were significantly better for echogenic needles for phantoms and patients at 30-45° and ≥ 45° insertion angles. Needle tip and shaft visibility at 30-45° and ≥ 45° insertion angles in phantoms and for the musculocutaneous nerve in patients were significantly improved, as well as the percentage with complete needle visualization during the procedure. Tissue visibility and needle sharpness were significantly superior for conventional needles. There were no differences concerning block parameters and adverse events.CONCLUSION:Needles with enhanced echogenicity improved physician comfort, image quality, needle visibility, and visualization time of the needle during ultrasound-guided procedures in phantoms and axillary nerve blocks using insertion angles of 30-45° and ≥ 45°