DES2 is a fatty acid Delta 11 desaturase capable of synthesizing palmitvaccenic acid in the arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus Rhizophagus irregularis

Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi are oleaginous organisms, and the most abundant fatty acyl moiety usually found in their lipids is palmitvaccenic acid (16:1Δ11cis). However, it is not known how this uncommon fatty acid species is made. Here, we have cloned two homologs of Lepidopteran fatty acyl-CoenzymeA Δ11 desaturases from the AM fungus Rhizophagus irregularis. Both enzymes, DES1 and DES2, are expressed in intraradicle mycelium and can complement the unsaturated fatty acid-requiring auxotrophic growth phenotype of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae ole1Δ mutant. DES1 expression leads almost exclusively to oleic acid (18:1Δ9cis) production, whereas DES2 expression results in the production of 16:1Δ11cis and vaccenic acid (18:1Δ11cis). DES2 therefore encodes a Δ11 desaturase that is likely to be responsible for the synthesis of 16:1Δ11cis in R. irregularis

Engineering the stereoisomeric structure of seed oil to mimic human milk fat

Human milk fat substitute (HMFS) is a class of structured lipid that is widely used as an ingredient in infant formulas. Like human milk fat, HMFS is characterised by enrichment of palmitoyl (C16:0) groups specifically at the middle (sn-2 or β) position on the glycerol backbone, and there is evidence that triacylglycerol (TAG) with this unusual stereoisomeric structure provides nutritional benefits. HMFS production currently relies on enzyme-based catalysis since there is no appropriate biological source of fat with the equivalent structure, other than humans. Most of the fat currently used in infant formulas is obtained from plants, which exclude C16:0 from the middle position. In this study we have modified the metabolic pathway for TAG biosynthesis in the model oilseed Arabidopsis thaliana to increase the percentage of C16:0 at the middle (versus outer) positions by more than 20-fold (i.e. from ~3% in wild type to >70% in our final iteration). This level of C16:0 enrichment is comparable to human milk fat. We achieved this by relocating the C16:0-specific chloroplast isoform of the enzyme lysophosphatidic acid acyltransferase (LPAT) to the endoplasmic reticulum so that it functions within the cytosolic glycerolipid biosynthetic pathway to esterify C16:0 to the middle position. We then suppressed endogenous LPAT activity to relieve competition and knocked out phosphatidylcholine:diacylglycerol cholinephosphotransferase activity to promote the flux of newly-made diacylglycerol directly into TAG. Applying this technology to oilseed crops might provide a new source of HMFS for infant formula

A multimodal deep learning framework using local feature representations for face recognition

YesThe most recent face recognition systems are mainly dependent on feature representations obtained using either local handcrafted-descriptors, such as local binary patterns (LBP), or use a deep learning approach, such as deep belief network (DBN). However, the former usually suffers from the wide variations in face images, while the latter usually discards the local facial features, which are proven to be important for face recognition. In this paper, a novel framework based on merging the advantages of the local handcrafted feature descriptors with the DBN is proposed to address the face recognition problem in unconstrained conditions. Firstly, a novel multimodal local feature extraction approach based on merging the advantages of the Curvelet transform with Fractal dimension is proposed and termed the Curvelet–Fractal approach. The main motivation of this approach is that theCurvelet transform, a newanisotropic and multidirectional transform, can efficiently represent themain structure of the face (e.g., edges and curves), while the Fractal dimension is one of the most powerful texture descriptors for face images. Secondly, a novel framework is proposed, termed the multimodal deep face recognition (MDFR)framework, to add feature representations by training aDBNon top of the local feature representations instead of the pixel intensity representations. We demonstrate that representations acquired by the proposed MDFR framework are complementary to those acquired by the Curvelet–Fractal approach. Finally, the performance of the proposed approaches has been evaluated by conducting a number of extensive experiments on four large-scale face datasets: the SDUMLA-HMT, FERET, CAS-PEAL-R1, and LFW databases. The results obtained from the proposed approaches outperform other state-of-the-art of approaches (e.g., LBP, DBN, WPCA) by achieving new state-of-the-art results on all the employed datasets

Disease awareness campaigns in printed and online media in Latvia : Cross-sectional study on consistency with WHO ethical criteria for medicinal drug promotion and European standards

Funding Information: Teresa Leonardo Alves declares no conflicts of interest. She has worked in the past for not-for-profit organizations which have advocated against the relaxation of the direct-to-consumer advertising ban in the European Union, namely Prescrire (2012–2016) and Health Action International (2006–2011). Elita Poplavska is a board member of not-for-profit organizations - Health Projects for Latvia and Health Action International (which aim to promote rational use of medicines and reduce influence of pharmaceutical advertisement). Signe Mezinska is a board member of not-for-profit organizations - Health Projects for Latvia and Health Action International (which aim to promote rational use of medicines and reduce influence of pharmaceutical advertisement). Ieva Salmane-Kulikovska declares no conflicts of interest. Liga Andersone declares no conflicts of interest. Aukje Mantel-Teeuwisse is the Managing Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Pharmaceutical Policy & Regulation, which receives no direct funding or donations from private parties, including the pharmaceutical industry. Research funding from public-private partnerships, e.g. IMI, Lygature (https://www.lygature.org), is accepted under the condition that no company-specific product or company-related study is conducted. The Centre has received unrestricted research funding from public sources, e.g. Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development (ZonMW), Zorg Instituut Nederland (ZIN), the Dutch Medicines Evaluation Board (MEB), and the Dutch Ministry of Health. Barbara Mintzes has acted as an expert witness on behalf of plaintiffs in a Canadian class action suit on cardiovascular risks of testosterone therapy. Publisher Copyright: © 2018 The Author(s).Background: European legislation prohibits direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription medicines, but allows drug manufacturers to provide information to the public on health and diseases. Our aim was to measure the frequency of disease awareness campaigns in Latvian media and assess their compliance with international and European standards. Methods: Materials on health/disease and treatments were collected between April and September 2015 from 12 newspapers and magazines and six online portals. Disease awareness campaigns were assessed using a previously developed instrument based on the WHO Ethical Criteria for Medicinal Drug promotion and European standards (EU law and pharmaceutical industry self-regulatory guidelines). Collected materials were used to examine the information provided on medical conditions and their diagnosis and treatment. The inter-rater reliability was calculated. Results: We collected 263 materials from print (n = 149) and online media (n = 114); 94 were news items and 169 were disease-awareness advertisements. Cancer, cardiovascular problems, allergies and respiratory diseases were common topics. Of the 157 campaigns assessed, non-compliance was identified in 149 cases (inter-rater reliability 90%), mainly due to misleading or incomplete information, lack of balance and the absence of a listed author/sponsor. Six disease awareness campaigns directly mentioned a pharmaceutical product by brand name and other four included the logo or name of a manufacturer, referred to a condition and indirectly mentioned a treatment, all in contravention with European law. Conclusions: The compliance of disease awareness campaigns in Latvian media with international and European standards is low. This raises concerns about the nature of information being conveyed. Through lack of balance, missing sponsorship information, and misleading or incomplete information, these campaigns could contribute to inaccurate self-diagnosis and generate demand among those who might not need medical treatment.publishersversionPeer reviewe

Identification of a Δ11 desaturase from the arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus Rhizophagus irregularis

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi are oleaginous organisms and the most abundant fatty acyl moiety usually found in their lipids is palmitvaccenic acid (16:1Δ11cis). However, it is not known how this uncommon fatty acid species is made. Here we have cloned two homologs of Lepidopteran fatty acyl-CoenzymeA Δ11 desaturases from Rhizophagus irregularis. Both DES1 and DES2 are expressed in intraradicle mycelium and can complement the unsaturated fatty acid-requiring auxotrophic growth phenotype of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae ole1Δ mutant. DES1 expression leads almost exclusively to oleic acid (18:1Δ9cis) production, whereas DES2 expression results in the production of 16:1Δ11cis and vaccenic acid (18:1Δ11cis). DES2 therefore encodes a Δ11 desaturase that is likely to be responsible for the synthesis of 16:1Δ11cis in R. irregularis

Brief Communications- Evaluation of different methods for diagnosis of P. falciparum malaria

Rapid diagnosis is a prerequisite for institution of effective treatment and reducing the mortality and morbidity of falciparum malaria. This study was taken up to compare the efficacy of various rapid methods viz, acridine orange, Plasmodium falciparum   histidine rich protein II antigen detection and Field's stain with traditional microscopy i.e., Leishman stain for diagnosing falciparum malaria. Thick and thin blood films of 443 consecutive patients with history of fever with chills and rigors were examined by Leishman and Field's method. Acridine orange stained wet mounts of blood were examined under fluorescence microscopy. All films were examined by two independent microbiologists. Plasmodium falciparum histidine rich protein II antigen was detected using commercially available kit, Paracheck Pf. Out of the 443 subjects examined for P.falciparum 18.28% were detected by Leishman stain, 6.32% by Field's stain, 18.28% by acridine orange and 18.1% by antigen based technique. Field's stain missed 53 (65.4%), while Paracheck Pf was negative in 6(7.4%) of the Leishman positive samples. All Field's stain and acridine orange positives were positive by Leishman, but five Paracheck Pf positives were negative. Leishman stain is cost effective but if facilities are available one should use acridine orange for screening. The antigen detection kits are rapid, simple and are useful but to rule out false negatives in clinically suspected cases, Leishman stain is reliable