Lipoprotein Glycosylation by Protein-O-Mannosyltransferase (MAB_1122c) Contributes to Low Cell Envelope Permeability and Antibiotic Resistance of Mycobacterium abscessus

Lipoproteins are important components of the mycobacterial cell envelope due to their function in cell wall homeostasis and bacterial virulence. They are post-translationally modified with lipid- and glycosyl-residues in various species and interference with acylation or glycosylation leads to reduced growth and attenuated virulence in Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Lipoproteins are also expressed in the emerging and highly drug resistant pathogen Mycobacterium abscessus which frequently affects the lungs of patients with chronic pulmonary disease or cystic fibrosis. We investigated post-translational modification, acylation and glycosylation, of heterologously expressed (M. tuberculosis LppX and Mpt83) and endogenous (SodC) lipoproteins at the molecular level in M. abscessus and identified MAB_1122c as protein O-mannosyltransferase (Pmt). Both, heterologous and endogenous lipoproteins carried a characteristic lipid anchor with palmitic acid (C16), palmitoleic acid (C16:1), oleic acid (C18), or tuberculostearic acid (C19) modifications. Multiple hexose-moieties were detected in the N-terminal region of the model lipoproteins expressed in M. abscessus. Conservation of lipoprotein glycosylation in M. tuberculosis and M. abscessus was revealed and points toward the existence of an O-glycosylation motif or other regulatory mechanisms regarding this post-translational modification. Deletion of MAB_1122c prevented glycosylation and affected susceptibility to specific antibiotics which are large or target peptidoglycan synthesis and to lysozyme. Cell envelope permeability of M. abscessus Δpmt was increased and mutant bacteria showed reduced survival inside macrophages. The results provide a link between post-translational modification of lipoproteins and the permeability of the mycobacterial cell envelope which stresses the importance of lipoproteins as components of this complex structure

The shoemaker's son always goes barefoot: Implementations of GPS and other tracking technologies for geographic research

The past decade witnessed dramatic grow in the implementation of GPS, smartphones and other tracking technologies for collecting high resolution space–time data. These highly accurate data can be analyzed and displayed by various tools and techniques that bring forth new insights about the space–time movements of people and objects such as private cars or taxis. Those analytical tools allow researchers to undertake more accurate temporal and spatial research, resulting in hundreds of journal articles that report findings using tracking technologies and data. But as was found in a meta analysis we conducted, only a small proportion of these papers were published in geography journals or involve geographers as collaborators. We discuss several possible reasons for this trend and see this neglect of such highly useful geographical tools by geographers as a missed opportunity. We encourage geographers to pay more attention to the new possibilities offered by these technologies in light of their immense potential for the advancement of geography in the future

Identification of best uses of private freight data to support planning needs in public road sector: udvidet resumé

As congestion on Danish roads is increasing, it is imperative that solutions be suggested for the issues caused by this, e.g. prolonged travel time, bottlenecks, etc. A first step towards reducing congestion is to provide public policy makers in road sectors with valuable knowledge on how the roads are being used by freight transport. This can be achieved through collecting freight data from private freight transport companies and analysing the collected data to derive analytics that can inform planning decisions on the road infrastructure. Because there exist many data analytics that can be derived from shared freight data, it is essential to identify which data analytics can efficiently support the decision-making processes. This study presents a proposed framework that can be used to help identify the best uses of shared freight data, which best fit the needs of their public sectors/organizations

Time use and movement behaviour of young people in cities: The application of GPS tracking in tracing movement pattern of young people for a week in Aalborg

UrbanismArchitecture and The Built Environmen

Survey harmonisation with new technologies improvement (SHANTI)

The SHANTI COST Action has coordinated research efforts on data harmonization for transport surveys across Europe. Guidelines for harmonizing surveys are not only a statistical problem, because each country also needs to analyze survey results throughout time (time series in the perspective of previous surveys on the same thematic issues with normally the same design) and changing the protocol or the definitions may have an impact on indicators in the sense that the changing behavior could be confused with changes in methodology. Therefore a bottom up approach relying on the skills of the researchers involved in the field of national travel surveys and so quite well knowing their particularities sounds more promising and could lead to more acceptable guidelines. To make results of different survey approaches comparable - it is necessary to develop a methodology or heuristic in which way a transition from one design to another can be derived and how the results of either survey approach can be "translated" or transformed into the results of another