Phylogenic analysis of serotype Asia1 foot-and-mouth disease virus from Sulaimani/Iraq using VP1 protein: heterogeneity with vaccine strain As1/Shamir/89

Foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) serotypes O, A and Asia1 are responsible for a significant number of disease outbreaks in Iraq. The current study can be considered as the first molecular characterization of serotype Asia1 in Iraq. The present investigation reports the detection of serotype FMDV Asia1 from local farms in Sulaimani districts in 2012 and 2014 outbreaks. Phylogenetic analysis of the complete VP1 gene has shown that FMDV Asia1 field isolates were under genetic novel variant Sindh-08 (group VII) including PAK/iso/11 and TUR/13 strains. The VP1 protein sequence of circulatory FMDV Asia1 genotype showed heterogeneity of nine amino acid substitutions within the G-H loop with the vaccine strain As1/Shamir/89 (JF739177) that is currently used in vaccination program in Iraq. Our result indicated that differences in VP1 protein at G-H loop of the locally circulated FMDV serotype Asia1 strain may be a reason for current vaccination failure

Network-based approaches for linking metabolism with environment

Genome-wide metabolic maps allow the development of network-based computational approaches for linking an organism with its biochemical habitat

Diversity and abundance of phosphonate biosynthetic genes in nature

Phosphonates, molecules containing direct carbon–phosphorus bonds, compose a structurally diverse class of natural products with interesting and useful biological properties. Although their synthesis in protozoa was discovered more than 50 y ago, the extent and diversity of phosphonate production in nature remains poorly characterized. The rearrangement of phosphoenolpyruvate (PEP) to phosphonopyruvate, catalyzed by the enzyme PEP mutase (PepM), is shared by the vast majority of known phosphonate biosynthetic pathways. Thus, the pepM gene can be used as a molecular marker to examine the occurrence and abundance of phosphonate-producing organisms. Based on the presence of this gene, phosphonate biosynthesis is common in microbes, with ∼5% of sequenced bacterial genomes and 7% of genome equivalents in metagenomic datasets carrying pepM homologs. Similarly, we detected the pepM gene in ∼5% of random actinomycete isolates. The pepM-containing gene neighborhoods from 25 of these isolates were cloned, sequenced, and compared with those found in sequenced genomes. PEP mutase sequence conservation is strongly correlated with conservation of other nearby genes, suggesting that the diversity of phosphonate biosynthetic pathways can be predicted by examining PEP mutase diversity. We used this approach to estimate the range of phosphonate biosynthetic pathways in nature, revealing dozens of discrete groups in pepM amplicons from local soils, whereas hundreds were observed in metagenomic datasets. Collectively, our analyses show that phosphonate biosynthesis is both diverse and relatively common in nature, suggesting that the role of phosphonate molecules in the biosphere may be more important than is often recognized

Transcriptional profiling of fetal hypothalamic TRH neurons

RIGHTS : This article is licensed under the BioMed Central licence at http://www.biomedcentral.com/about/license which is similar to the 'Creative Commons Attribution Licence'. In brief you may : copy, distribute, and display the work; make derivative works; or make commercial use of the work - under the following conditions: the original author must be given credit; for any reuse or distribution, it must be made clear to others what the license terms of this work are.AbstractBackgroundDuring murine hypothalamic development, different neuroendocrine cell phenotypes are generated in overlapping periods; this suggests that cell-type specific developmental programs operate to achieve complete maturation. A balance between programs that include cell proliferation, cell cycle withdrawal as well as epigenetic regulation of gene expression characterizes neurogenesis. Thyrotropin releasing hormone (TRH) is a peptide that regulates energy homeostasis and autonomic responses. To better understand the molecular mechanisms underlying TRH neuron development, we performed a genome wide study of its transcriptome during fetal hypothalamic development. ResultsIn primary cultures, TRH cells constitute 2% of the total fetal hypothalamic cell population. To purify these cells, we took advantage of the fact that the segment spanning -774 to +84 bp of the Trh gene regulatory region confers specific expression of the green fluorescent protein (GFP) in the TRH cells. Transfected TRH cells were purified by fluorescence activated cell sorting, various cell preparations pooled, and their transcriptome compared to that of GFP- hypothalamic cells. TRH cells undergoing the terminal phase of differentiation, expressed genes implicated in protein biosynthesis, intracellular signaling and transcriptional control. Among the transcription-associated transcripts, we identified the transcription factors Klf4, Klf10 and Atf3, which were previously uncharacterized within the hypothalamus. ConclusionTo our knowledge, this is one of the first reports identifying transcripts with a potentially important role during the development of a specific hypothalamic neuronal phenotype. This genome-scale study forms a rational foundation for identifying genes that might participate in the development and function of hypothalamic TRH neurons.Published versio

Prospective study of large uterine fibroids encountered during laparotomy and hysterectomy and their management

Background: Study of large fibroids is necessary to throw light on complications associated with them. This helps the surgeon to safeguard patients from anticipated complications during surgery. The objective is to study the clinical features, complications and outcome of large uterine fibroids.Methods: A hospital based prospective study was carried out among 32 eligible patients undergoing laparotomy hysterectomy at Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology from October 2015 to June 2018. Age groups, clinical features, complications and outcome of surgery were recorded. Data was analyzed using proportions.Results: Majority of the study subjects were in the age group of 25-35 years. The most common presenting symptom of large size fibroid uterus was abnormal uterine bleeding followed by pain abdomen in 18.8% of the cases. Majority of the women had fibroid size of 16-20 weeks in 62.5% of the cases followed by size of the 20-26 weeks in 31.3% of the cases. Only two women had very large size of 26-28 weeks in 6.3% of the cases. Only three patients had intra operative complications (9.4%). Among them two (6.3%) had injury to the urinary bladder and only one had injury to the ureters. 90.6% of the cases had no intra operative complications. All cases had complete symptomatic relief. Thus the successful outcome was seen in 100% of the cases.Conclusions: Large uterine fibroids can end up with urological complications more than smaller fibroids. Among these bladder and ureteric complications are important. Malignant degeneration is rare. Other complications include infection and wound dehiscence

TO STUDY THE ROLE OF EXERCISE AND DIETARY MANIPULATION IN OBESE RATS TREATED WITH ORLISTAT

Objective: The present study was undertaken to evaluate the role of exercise and dietary manipulation in obese rats treated with Orlistat.Methods: The study was conducted for 16 weeks. High-fat diet (HFD) was used to induce obesity, and once these animals were obese (eight week), manipulation in the diet, exercise, Orlistat and low dose of Orlistat were tested for 8 more weeks. During the treatment period, animals were continued with HFD except for the groups where the low-calorie diet (LCD) was used. The various manipulative options studied to include swimming test (physical exercise), Orlistat (200 mg/kg), low dose Orlistat (65 mg/kg) and low-calorie diet. The parameters were evaluated including Body weight was measured on weekly two days. Biochemical parameters such as HDL, LDL, VLDL, Triglycerides and total cholesterol were measured using diagnostic kits. Blood-glucose level was measured. On 16th week, the animals were sacrificed and their organ weights were measured. Organ weights included the Liver, Left and Right kidney and fat pad weights such as Mesenteric fat, Epididymis fat. Results: There was a significant reduction in body weight, Triglycerides, total cholesterol, LDL, VLDL, Blood-glucose level organ weights included the Liver, Left kidney and Right kidney and fat pad weights such as Mesenteric fat, Epididymis fat and increased in HDL level of the animals treated with exercise and dietary manipulation and Orlistat.Conclusion: The present study revealed that [HFD+Orlistat (low dose)+Exercise+LCD] group showed more potential effective than rest of all treatment groups.Â

Synthesis of methylphosphonic acid by marine microbes: a source for methane in the aerobic ocean

Relative to the atmosphere, much of the aerobic ocean is supersaturated with methane; however, the source of this important greenhouse gas remains enigmatic. Catabolism of methylphosphonic acid by phosphorus-starved marine microbes, with concomitant release of methane, has been suggested to explain this phenomenon, yet methylphosphonate is not a known natural product, nor has it been detected in natural systems. Further, its synthesis from known natural products would require unknown biochemistry. Here we show that the marine archaeon Nitrosopumilus maritimus encodes a pathway for methylphosphonate biosynthesis and that it produces cell-associated methylphosphonate esters. The abundance of a key gene in this pathway in metagenomic data sets suggests that methylphosphonate biosynthesis is relatively common in marine microbes, providing a plausible explanation for the methane paradox

Jamming modulates coalescence dynamics of shear-thickening colloidal droplets

Recent investigations into coalescence dynamics of complex fluid droplets revealed the existence of sub-Newtonian behaviour for polymeric fluids (elastic and shear thinning). We hypothesize that such delayed coalescence or sub-Newtonian coalescence dynamics may be extended to the general class of shear thickening fluids. To investigate this droplets of aqueous corn-starch suspensions were chosen and its coalescence in sessile pendant configuration was probed by high-speed real time imaging. Temporal evolution of the neck (growth) during coalescence was quantified as a function of suspended particle weight fraction \phi_w. The necking behaviour was found to evolve as the power-law relation $R=at^b$ where R is neck radius with exponent \b\le0.5 implying it is a subset of the generic sub-Newtonian coalescence. Second significant delay in the coalescence dynamics is observed for particle fractions beyond the jamming fraction {\ \phi}_w>\ \phi_J\geq0.35}. Our proposed theoretical model captures this delay implicitly through altered suspension viscosity stemming from increased particle content

The RNA-Binding Protein Musashi1 Affects Medulloblastoma Growth via a Network of Cancer- Related Genes and Is an Indicator of Poor Prognosis

Musashi1 (Msi1) is a highly conserved RNA-binding protein that is required during the development of the nervous system. Msi1 has been characterized as a stem cell marker, controlling the balance between self-renewal and differentiation, and has also been implicated in tumorigenesis, being highly expressed in multiple tumor types. We analyzed Msi1 expression in a large cohort of medulloblastoma samples and found that Msi1 is highly expressed in tumor tissue compared with normal cerebellum. Notably, high Msi1 expression levels proved to be a sign of poor prognosis. Msi1 expression was determined to be particularly high in molecular subgroups 3 and 4 of medulloblastoma. We determined that Msi1 is required for tumorigenesis because inhibition of Msi1 expression by small-interfering RNAs reduced the growth of Daoy medulloblastoma cells in xenografts. To characterize the participation of Msi1 in medulloblastoma, we conducted different high-throughput analyses. Ribonucleoprotein immunoprecipitation followed by microarray analysis (RIP-chip) was used to identify mRNA species preferentially associated with Msi1 protein in Daoy cells. We also used cluster analysis to identify genes with similar or opposite expression patterns to Msi1 in our medulloblastoma cohort. A network study identified RAC1, CTGF, SDCBP, SRC, PRL, and SHC1 as major nodes of an Msi1-associated network. Our results suggest that Msi1 functions as a regulator of multiple processes in medulloblastoma formation and could become an important therapeutic target