A Yersinia Effector with Enhanced Inhibitory Activity on the NF-κB Pathway Activates the NLRP3/ASC/Caspase-1 Inflammasome in Macrophages

A type III secretion system (T3SS) in pathogenic Yersinia species functions to translocate Yop effectors, which modulate cytokine production and regulate cell death in macrophages. Distinct pathways of T3SS-dependent cell death and caspase-1 activation occur in Yersinia-infected macrophages. One pathway of cell death and caspase-1 activation in macrophages requires the effector YopJ. YopJ is an acetyltransferase that inactivates MAPK kinases and IKKβ to cause TLR4-dependent apoptosis in naïve macrophages. A YopJ isoform in Y. pestis KIM (YopJKIM) has two amino acid substitutions, F177L and K206E, not present in YopJ proteins of Y. pseudotuberculosis and Y. pestis CO92. As compared to other YopJ isoforms, YopJKIM causes increased apoptosis, caspase-1 activation, and secretion of IL-1β in Yersinia-infected macrophages. The molecular basis for increased apoptosis and activation of caspase-1 by YopJKIM in Yersinia-infected macrophages was studied. Site directed mutagenesis showed that the F177L and K206E substitutions in YopJKIM were important for enhanced apoptosis, caspase-1 activation, and IL-1β secretion. As compared to YopJCO92, YopJKIM displayed an enhanced capacity to inhibit phosphorylation of IκB-α in macrophages and to bind IKKβ in vitro. YopJKIM also showed a moderately increased ability to inhibit phosphorylation of MAPKs. Increased caspase-1 cleavage and IL-1β secretion occurred in IKKβ-deficient macrophages infected with Y. pestis expressing YopJCO92, confirming that the NF-κB pathway can negatively regulate inflammasome activation. K+ efflux, NLRP3 and ASC were important for secretion of IL-1β in response to Y. pestis KIM infection as shown using macrophages lacking inflammasome components or by the addition of exogenous KCl. These data show that caspase-1 is activated in naïve macrophages in response to infection with a pathogen that inhibits IKKβ and MAPK kinases and induces TLR4-dependent apoptosis. This pro-inflammatory form of apoptosis may represent an early innate immune response to highly virulent pathogens such as Y. pestis KIM that have evolved an enhanced ability to inhibit host signaling pathways

The fingerprint of the summer 2018 drought in Europe on ground-based atmospheric CO2 measurements

During the summer of 2018, a widespread drought developed over Northern and Central Europe. The increase in temperature and the reduction of soil moisture have influenced carbon dioxide (CO2) exchange between the atmosphere and terrestrial ecosystems in various ways, such as a reduction of photosynthesis, changes in ecosystem respiration, or allowing more frequent fires. In this study, we characterize the resulting perturbation of the atmospheric CO2 seasonal cycles. 2018 has a good coverage of European regions affected by drought, allowing the investigation of how ecosystem flux anomalies impacted spatial CO2 gradients between stations. This density of stations is unprecedented compared to previous drought events in 2003 and 2015, particularly thanks to the deployment of the Integrated Carbon Observation System (ICOS) network of atmospheric greenhouse gas monitoring stations in recent years. Seasonal CO2 cycles from 48 European stations were available for 2017 and 2018.The UK sites were funded by the UK Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (formerly the Department of Energy and Climate Change) through contracts TRN1028/06/2015 and TRN1537/06/2018. The stations at the ClimaDat Network in Spain have received funding from the ‘la Caixa’ Foundation, under agreement 2010-002624

On the computation of long period seismograms in a 3-D earth using normal mode based approximations

International audienceTomographic inversions for large-scale structure of the earth's mantle involve a forward modelling step of wave propagation through 3-D heterogeneity. Until now, most investigators have worked in the framework of the simplest theoretical assumptions, namely the infinite frequency 'ray theory' in the case of body wave traveltime inversions, or the 'path-average' approximation (PAVA) to normal mode perturbation theory, in the case of surface waves and long-period waveforms. As interest is shifting to mapping shorter wavelength structures, the need for a more accurate theoretical account of the interaction of seismic waves with mantle heterogeneity, coupled with improvements in path coverage, has been realized. Here we discuss different levels of approximations used in the context of normal mode perturbation theory, when modelling time domain seismic waveforms. We compare the performance of asymptotic approximations, which collapse the effects of 3-D structure onto the great circle vertical plane: the 1-D PAVA and a 2-D approximation called non-linear asymp-totic coupling theory (NACT), which both are zeroth order asymptotic approximations. We then discuss how off-vertical plane effects can be introduced using higher order asymptotics. These computationally efficient approximations are compared to the linear Born formalism (BORN), which computes scattering integrals over the entire surface of the sphere. We point out some limitations of this linear formalism in the case of spatially extended anomalies, and show how that can be remedied through the introduction of a non-linear term (NBORN). All these approximations are referenced to a precise 3-D numerical computation afforded by the spectral element method. We discuss simple geometries, and explore a range of sizes of anomalies compared to the wavelength of the seismic waves considered, thus illustrating the range of validity and limitations of the various approximations considered