Evolutionary history of the OmpR/IIIA family of signal transduction two component systems in Lactobacillaceae and Leuconostocaceae

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Two component systems (TCS) are signal transduction pathways which typically consist of a sensor histidine kinase (HK) and a response regulator (RR). In this study, we have analyzed the evolution of TCS of the OmpR/IIIA family in <it>Lactobacillaceae </it>and <it>Leuconostocaceae</it>, two families belonging to the group of lactic acid bacteria (LAB). LAB colonize nutrient-rich environments such as foodstuffs, plant materials and the gastrointestinal tract of animals thus driving the study of this group of both basic and applied interest.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The genomes of 19 strains belonging to 16 different species have been analyzed. The number of TCS encoded by the strains considered in this study varied between 4 in <it>Lactobacillus helveticus </it>and 17 in <it>Lactobacillus casei</it>. The OmpR/IIIA family was the most prevalent in <it>Lactobacillaceae </it>accounting for 71% of the TCS present in this group. The phylogenetic analysis shows that no new TCS of this family has recently evolved in these <it>Lactobacillaceae </it>by either lineage-specific gene expansion or domain shuffling. Furthermore, no clear evidence of non-orthologous replacements of either RR or HK partners has been obtained, thus indicating that coevolution of cognate RR and HKs has been prevalent in <it>Lactobacillaceae</it>.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The results obtained suggest that vertical inheritance of TCS present in the last common ancestor and lineage-specific gene losses appear as the main evolutionary forces involved in their evolution in <it>Lactobacillaceae</it>, although some HGT events cannot be ruled out. This would agree with the genomic analyses of <it>Lactobacillales </it>which show that gene losses have been a major trend in the evolution of this group.</p

Effects of Porosity and Thermal Treatment on Hydration of Mushrooms

In this study, hydration of mushroom as a porous food material has been studied considering their biphasic character. It consists of a solid phase that consists of intertwined hyphae and having cell walls with a swellable polymeric matrix and a pore phase made up by the space in between the hyphae. We have investigated the hydration of mushrooms as a function of initial porosity and thermal treatment. Variation in porosity is induced by the natural variation in the growth of mushroom. Porosity is measured by the weight gain during vacuum infiltration of mushroom caps with the mushroom isotonic solution. The hydration of the heat-treated mushroom shows a linear increase with the porosity of mushroom. Storage of mushroom increases the porosity with the number of storage days, which has also been confirmed with X-ray tomography(XRT) measurements. Finally, we show that the hydration of thermal-treated mushroom has two independent contributions, from porosity and temperature of the heat treatment. Current theories deal only with the latter contribution to the hydration of foods and need to be extended for accounting porosity of the food.</p