Revisiting the relativistic ejection event in XTE J1550-564 during the 1998 outburst

We revisit the discovery outburst of the X-ray transient XTE J1550−564 during which relativistic jets were observed in 1998 September, and review the radio images obtained with the Australian Long Baseline Array, and light curves obtained with the Molonglo Observatory Synthesis Telescope and the Australia Telescope Compact Array. Based on Hi spectra, we constrain the source distance to between 3.3 and 4.9 kpc. The radio images, taken some 2 d apart, show the evolution of an ejection event. The apparent separation velocity of the two outermost ejecta is at least 1.3c and may be as large as 1.9c; when relativistic effects are taken into account, the inferred true velocity is ≥ 0.8c. The flux densities appear to peak simultaneously during the outburst, with a rather flat (although still optically thin) spectral index of −0.2

The stealth episome: suppression of gene expression on the excised genomic island PPHGI-1 from Pseudomonas syringae pv. phaseolicola

Pseudomonas syringae pv. phaseolicola is the causative agent of halo blight in the common bean, Phaseolus vulgaris. P. syringae pv. phaseolicola race 4 strain 1302A contains the avirulence gene avrPphB (syn. hopAR1), which resides on PPHGI-1, a 106 kb genomic island. Loss of PPHGI-1 from P. syringae pv. phaseolicola 1302A following exposure to the hypersensitive resistance response (HR) leads to the evolution of strains with altered virulence. Here we have used fluorescent protein reporter systems to gain insight into the mobility of PPHGI-1. Confocal imaging of dual-labelled P. syringae pv. phaseolicola 1302A strain, F532 (dsRFP in chromosome and eGFP in PPHGI-1), revealed loss of PPHGI-1::eGFP encoded fluorescence during plant infection and when grown in vitro on extracted leaf apoplastic fluids. Fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) of fluorescent and non-fluorescent PPHGI-1::eGFP F532 populations showed that cells lost fluorescence not only when the GI was deleted, but also when it had excised and was present as a circular episome. In addition to reduced expression of eGFP, quantitative PCR on sub-populations separated by FACS showed that transcription of other genes on PPHGI-1 (avrPphB and xerC) was also greatly reduced in F532 cells harbouring the excised PPHGI-1::eGFP episome. Our results show how virulence determinants located on mobile pathogenicity islands may be hidden from detection by host surveillance systems through the suppression of gene expression in the episomal state

Instability in a marginal coral reef: the shift from natural variability to a human-dominated seascape

As global climate change drives the demise of tropical reef ecosystems, attention is turning to the suitability o refuge habitat. For the Great Barrier Reef, are there historically stable southern refugia where corals from th north might migrate as climate changes? To address this question, we present a precise chronology of margina coral reef development from Moreton Bay, southeast Queensland, Australia. Our chronology shows that ree growth was episodic, responding to natural environmental variation throughout the Holocene, and tha Moreton Bay was inhospitable to corals for about half of the past 7000 years. The only significant change ii coral species composition occurred between similar to 200 and similar to 50 years ago, following anthropogenic alterations of th, bay and its catchments. Natural historical instability of reefs, coupled with environmental degradation sinc, European colonization, suggests that Moreton Bay offers limited potential as refuge habitat for reef species or human time scales

The influence of the accessory genome on bacterial pathogen evolution

Bacterial pathogens exhibit significant variation in their genomic content of virulence factors. This reflects the abundance of strategies pathogens evolved to infect host organisms by suppressing host immunity. Molecular arms-races have been a strong driving force for the evolution of pathogenicity, with pathogens often encoding overlapping or redundant functions, such as type III protein secretion effectors and hosts encoding ever more sophisticated immune systems. The pathogens’ frequent exposure to other microbes, either in their host or in the environment, provides opportunities for the acquisition or interchange of mobile genetic elements. These DNA elements accessorise the core genome and can play major roles in shaping genome structure and altering the complement of virulence factors. Here, we review the different mobile genetic elements focusing on the more recent discoveries and highlighting their role in shaping bacterial pathogen evolution

The Hubble Constant

I review the current state of determinations of the Hubble constant, which gives the length scale of the Universe by relating the expansion velocity of objects to their distance. There are two broad categories of measurements. The first uses individual astrophysical objects which have some property that allows their intrinsic luminosity or size to be determined, or allows the determination of their distance by geometric means. The second category comprises the use of all-sky cosmic microwave background, or correlations between large samples of galaxies, to determine information about the geometry of the Universe and hence the Hubble constant, typically in a combination with other cosmological parameters. Many, but not all, object-based measurements give $H_0$ values of around 72-74km/s/Mpc , with typical errors of 2-3km/s/Mpc. This is in mild discrepancy with CMB-based measurements, in particular those from the Planck satellite, which give values of 67-68km/s/Mpc and typical errors of 1-2km/s/Mpc. The size of the remaining systematics indicate that accuracy rather than precision is the remaining problem in a good determination of the Hubble constant. Whether a discrepancy exists, and whether new physics is needed to resolve it, depends on details of the systematics of the object-based methods, and also on the assumptions about other cosmological parameters and which datasets are combined in the case of the all-sky methods.Comment: Extensively revised and updated since the 2007 version: accepted by Living Reviews in Relativity as a major (2014) update of LRR 10, 4, 200

High Throughput Ratio Imaging to Profile Caspase Activity: Potential Application in Multiparameter High Content Apoptosis Analysis and Drug Screening

Recent advancement in the area of green fluorescent protein techniques coupled with microscopic imaging has significantly contributed in defining and dissecting subcellular changes of apoptosis with high spatio-temporal resolution. Although single cell based studies using EGFP and associated techniques have provided valuable information of initiation and hierarchical changes of apoptosis, they are yet to be exploited for multiparameter cell based real time analysis for possible drug screening or pathway defining in a high throughput manner. Here we have developed multiple cancer cell lines expressing FRET sensors for active caspases and adapted them for high throughput live cell ratio imaging, enabling high content image based multiparameter analysis. Sensitivity of the system to detect live cell caspase activation was substantiated by confocal acceptor bleaching as well as wide field FRET imaging. Multiple caspase-specific activities of DEVDase, IETDase and LEHDase were analysed simultaneously with other decisive events of cell death. Through simultaneous analysis of caspase activation by FRET ratio change coupled with detection of mitochondrial membrane potential loss or superoxide generation, we identified several antitumor agents that induced caspase activation with or without membrane potential loss or superoxide generation. Also, cells that escaped the initial drug-induced caspase activation could be easily followed up for defining long term fate. Employing such a revisit imaging strategy of the same area, we have tracked the caspase surviving fractions with multiple drugs and its subsequent response to retreatment, revealing drug-dependent diverging fate of surviving cells. This thereby indicates towards a complex control of drug induced tumor resistance. The technique described here has wider application in both screening of compound libraries as well as in defining apoptotic pathways by linking multiple signaling to identify non-classical apoptosis inducing agents, the greatest advantage being that the high content information obtained are from individual cells rather than being population based

Plasma amino acids and neopterin in healthy persons with Down’s syndrome

In persons with Down’s syndrome (DS) immunological abnormalities as well as hypothyroidism and Alzheimer type dementia are frequently observed. In addition, the activity of the enzyme cystathionine beta-synthase (CBS) is over-expressed which results in an altered homocysteine metabolism

Structural Insights into the Evolution of a Non-Biological Protein: Importance of Surface Residues in Protein Fold Optimization

Phylogenetic profiling of amino acid substitution patterns in proteins has led many to conclude that most structural information is carried by interior core residues that are solvent inaccessible. This conclusion is based on the observation that buried residues generally tolerate only conserved sequence changes, while surface residues allow more diverse chemical substitutions. This notion is now changing as it has become apparent that both core and surface residues play important roles in protein folding and stability. Unfortunately, the ability to identify specific mutations that will lead to enhanced stability remains a challenging problem. Here we discuss two mutations that emerged from an in vitro selection experiment designed to improve the folding stability of a non-biological ATP binding protein. These mutations alter two solvent accessible residues, and dramatically enhance the expression, solubility, thermal stability, and ligand binding affinity of the protein. The significance of both mutations was investigated individually and together, and the X-ray crystal structures of the parent sequence and double mutant protein were solved to a resolution limit of 2.8 and 1.65 Å, respectively. Comparative structural analysis of the evolved protein to proteins found in nature reveals that our non-biological protein evolved certain structural features shared by many thermophilic proteins. This experimental result suggests that protein fold optimization by in vitro selection offers a viable approach to generating stable variants of many naturally occurring proteins whose structures and functions are otherwise difficult to study