Promoting Healthy Development: Educating Somali Mothers and Children on the Importance of Outdoor Physical Activity

This paper describes an educational program that was designed to provide education and awareness for Somali mothers and children about the importance of outdoor physical activity on healthy child development. The program is based on Margaret Newman\u27s nursing theory of Health as Expanding Consciousness and Hartrick-Doane & Varcoe\u27s concept of walking with. A comprehensive literature review was completed to exemplify the need for outdoor physical activity education in the immigrant population

FGB1 and WSC3 are in planta-induced beta-glucan-binding fungal lectins with different functions

In the root endophyte Serendipita indica, several lectin-like members of the expanded multigene family of WSC proteins are transcriptionally induced in planta and are potentially involved in beta-glucan remodeling at the fungal cell wall. Using biochemical and cytological approaches we show that one of these lectins, SiWSC3 with three WSC domains, is an integral fungal cell wall component that binds to long-chain beta 1-3-glucan but has no affinity for shorter beta 1-3- or beta 1-6-linked glucose oligomers. Comparative analysis with the previously identified beta-glucan-binding lectin SiFGB1 demonstrated that whereas SiWSC3 does not require beta 1-6-linked glucose for efficient binding to branched beta 1-3-glucan, SiFGB1 does. In contrast to SiFGB1, the multivalent SiWSC3 lectin can efficiently agglutinate fungal cells and is additionally induced during fungus-fungus confrontation, suggesting different functions for these two beta-glucan-binding lectins. Our results highlight the importance of the beta-glucan cell wall component in plant-fungus interactions and the potential of beta-glucan-binding lectins as specific detection tools for fungi in vivo

A putative serine protease, SpSsp1, from Saprolegnia parasitica is recognised by sera of rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss

Acknowledgements Our work was supported by the BBSRC (BB/C518457/1, BB/G012075/1, BB/J018333/1) (K.L.M., C.J.S., J.S.C., K.S.D., and P.v.W.), the University of Aberdeen (V.L.A., C.J.S., and P.v.W.), MSD Animal Health (J.S.C., K.S.D., and A.H.v.d.B), and The Royal Society (P.v.W.). This work was also supported by a Marie Curie Initial Training Networks with the SAPRO (sustainable approaches to reduce Oomycete (Saprolegnia) infections in aquacultures) grant PITN-GA-2009-238550 (A.H.v.d.B., L.L., C.J.S., P.v.W.). We would like to acknowledge Aberdeen Proteomics for carrying out LC–MS/MS and Laura Grenville-Briggs for valuable discussion and technical help. We are grateful to the Broad Institute (Carsten Russ, Rays Jiang, Brian Haas, and Chad Nusbaum), Brett Tyler (VBI), and P.v.W. for early release of draft supercontigs of the genome sequence of isolate CBS233.65, which helped us identify SpSsp1.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Fungi hijack a ubiquitous plant apoplastic endoglucanase to release a ROS scavenging beta-glucan decasaccharide to subvert immune responses

Plant pathogenic and beneficial fungi have evolved several strategies to evade immunity and cope with host-derived hydrolytic enzymes and oxidative stress in the apoplast, the extracellular space of plant tissues. Fungal hyphae are surrounded by an inner insoluble cell wall layer and an outer soluble extracellular polysaccharide (EPS) matrix. Here, we show by proteomics and glycomics that these two layers have distinct protein and carbohydrate signatures, and hence likely have different biological functions. The barley (Hordeum vulgare) β-1,3-endoglucanase HvBGLUII, which belongs to the widely distributed apoplastic glycoside hydrolase 17 family (GH17), releases a conserved β-1,3;1,6-glucan decasaccharide (β-GD) from the EPS matrices of fungi with different lifestyles and taxonomic positions. This low molecular weight β-GD does not activate plant immunity, is resilient to further enzymatic hydrolysis by β-1,3-endoglucanases due to the presence of three β-1,6-linked glucose branches and can scavenge reactive oxygen species. Exogenous application of β-GD leads to enhanced fungal colonization in barley, confirming its role in the fungal counter-defensive strategy to subvert host immunity. Our data highlight the hitherto undescribed capacity of this often-overlooked EPS matrix from plant-associated fungi to act as an outer protective barrier important for fungal accommodation within the hostile environment at the apoplastic plant–microbe interface

Examination of effects of GSK3β phosphorylation, β-catenin phosphorylation, and β-catenin degradation on kinetics of Wnt signaling pathway using computational method

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Recent experiments have explored effects of activities of kinases other than the well-studied GSK3β, in wnt pathway signaling, particularly at the level of β-catenin. It has also been found that the kinase PKA attenuates β-catenin degradation. However, the effects of these kinases on the level and degradation of β-catenin and the resulting downstream transcription activity remain to be clarified. Furthermore, the effect of GSK3β phosphorylation on the β-catenin level has not been examined computationally. In the present study, the effects of phosphorylation of GSK3β and of phosphorylations and degradation of β-catenin on the kinetics of the wnt signaling pathway were examined computationally.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The well-known computational Lee-Heinrich kinetic model of the wnt pathway was modified to include these effects. The rate laws of reactions in the modified model were solved numerically to examine these effects on β-catenin level.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The computations showed that the β-catenin level is almost linearly proportional to the phosphorylation activity of GSK3β. The dependence of β-catenin level on the phosphorylation and degradation of free β-catenin and downstream TCF activity can be analyzed with an approximate, simple function of kinetic parameters for added reaction steps associated with effects examined, rationalizing the experimental results.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The phosphorylations of β-catenin by kinases other than GSK3β involve free unphorphorylated β-catenin rather than GSK3β-phosphorylated β-catenin*. In order to account for the observed enhancement of TCF activity, the β-catenin dephosphorylation step is essential, and the kinetic parameters of β-catenin phosphorylation and degradation need to meet a condition described in the main text. These findings should be useful for future experiments.</p

Cell entry of a host targeting protein of oomycetes requires gp96

This work is supported by the [European Community’s] Seventh Framework Programme [FP7/2007–2013] under grant agreement no. [238550] (L.L., J.D.-U., C.J.S., P.v.W.); BBSRC [BBE007120/1, BB/J018333/1 and BB/G012075/1] (F.T., I.d.B., C.J.S., S.W., P.v.W.); Newton Global Partnership Award [BB/N005058/1] (F.T., P.v.W.), the University of Aberdeen (A.D.T., T.R., C.J.S., P.v.W.) and Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft [CRC1093] (P.B., T.S.). We would like to acknowledge the Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia for funding INA. We would like to thank Brian Haas for his bioinformatics support. We would like to acknowledge Neil Gow and Johannes van den Boom for critical reading of the manuscript. We would like to acknowledge Svetlana Rezinciuc for technical help with pH-studies.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Distinctive expansion of potential virulence genes in the genome of the oomycete fish pathogen Saprolegnia parasitica.

Oomycetes in the class Saprolegniomycetidae of the Eukaryotic kingdom Stramenopila have evolved as severe pathogens of amphibians, crustaceans, fish and insects, resulting in major losses in aquaculture and damage to aquatic ecosystems. We have sequenced the 63 Mb genome of the fresh water fish pathogen, Saprolegnia parasitica. Approximately 1/3 of the assembled genome exhibits loss of heterozygosity, indicating an efficient mechanism for revealing new variation. Comparison of S. parasitica with plant pathogenic oomycetes suggests that during evolution the host cellular environment has driven distinct patterns of gene expansion and loss in the genomes of plant and animal pathogens. S. parasitica possesses one of the largest repertoires of proteases (270) among eukaryotes that are deployed in waves at different points during infection as determined from RNA-Seq data. In contrast, despite being capable of living saprotrophically, parasitism has led to loss of inorganic nitrogen and sulfur assimilation pathways, strikingly similar to losses in obligate plant pathogenic oomycetes and fungi. The large gene families that are hallmarks of plant pathogenic oomycetes such as Phytophthora appear to be lacking in S. parasitica, including those encoding RXLR effectors, Crinkler's, and Necrosis Inducing-Like Proteins (NLP). S. parasitica also has a very large kinome of 543 kinases, 10% of which is induced upon infection. Moreover, S. parasitica encodes several genes typical of animals or animal-pathogens and lacking from other oomycetes, including disintegrins and galactose-binding lectins, whose expression and evolutionary origins implicate horizontal gene transfer in the evolution of animal pathogenesis in S. parasitica