94 research outputs found
Analytical Method For Detecting Pcb Derivatives At Low Levels In Surface Water Samples By Solid Phase Extraction-Liquid Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry
Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and their metabolic derivatives are ubiquitous environmental contaminants. These compounds are of concern because of their persistence and bioaccumulation in nature. PCBs and the hydroxylated metabolites have shown endocrine-disrupting activity. A method of detection in surface water samples is important to identify and quantify the environmental contamination. In this research we have attempted to develop a method of detection. Six representative polychloromethoxybiphenyls (PCMBs) were prepared. The corresponding polychlorobiphenylols, hydroxylated PCB metabolites (OH-PCBs), were prepared from the PCMBs. A method coupling solid phase extraction with liquid chromatography, on-line electrospray ionization, and mass spectrometry (SPE-LC/ESI/MS) was developed for detection of the OH-PCBs in distilled and surface water samples
myo-Inositol Oxygenase is Required for Responses to Low Energy Conditions in Arabidopsis thaliana
myo-Inositol is a precursor for cell wall components, is used as a backbone of myo-inositol trisphosphate (Ins(1,4,5)P3) and phosphatidylinositol phosphate signaling molecules, and is debated about whether it is also a precursor in an alternate ascorbic acid synthesis pathway. Plants control inositol homeostasis by regulation of key enzymes involved in myo-inositol synthesis and catabolism. Recent transcriptional profiling data indicate up-regulation of the myo-inositol oxygenase (MIOX) genes under conditions in which energy or nutrients are limited. To test whether the MIOX genes are required for responses to low energy, we first examined MIOX2 and MIOX4 gene expression regulation by energy/nutrient conditions. We found that both MIOX2 and MIOX4 expression are suppressed by exogenous glucose addition in the shoot, but not in the root. Both genes were abundantly expressed during low energy/nutrient conditions. Loss-of-function mutants in MIOX genes contain alterations in myo-inositol levels and growth changes in the root. Miox2 mutants can be complemented with a MIOX2:green fluorescent protein fusion. Further we show here that MIOX2 is a cytoplasmic protein, while MIOX4 is present mostly in the cytoplasm, but also occasionally in the nucleus. Together, these data suggest that MIOX catabolism in the shoot may influence root growth responses during low energy/nutrient conditions
2D protrusion but not motility predicts growth factor–induced cancer cell migration in 3D collagen
Growth factor–induced migration is a critical step in the dissemination and metastasis of solid tumors. Although differences in properties characterizing cell migration on two-dimensional (2D) substrata versus within three-dimensional (3D) matrices have been noted for particular growth factor stimuli, the 2D approach remains in more common use as an efficient surrogate, especially for high-throughput experiments. We therefore were motivated to investigate which migration properties measured in various 2D assays might be reflective of 3D migratory behavioral responses. We used human triple-negative breast cancer lines stimulated by a panel of receptor tyrosine kinase ligands relevant to mammary carcinoma progression. Whereas 2D migration properties did not correlate well with 3D behavior across multiple growth factors, we found that increased membrane protrusion elicited by growth factor stimulation did relate robustly to enhanced 3D migration properties of the MDA-MB-231 and MDA-MB-157 lines. Interestingly, we observed this to be a more reliable relationship than cognate receptor expression or activation levels across these and two additional mammary tumor lines.National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Grant no. R01- GM081336)National Science Foundation (U.S.). Graduate Research FellowshipUnited States. Dept. of Defense. Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs. Breast Cancer Research Program (Grant no. W81XWH-11-1-0088)United States. Dept. of Defense. Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs. Breast Cancer Research Program (Grant no. W81XWH-10-1-0040
Parasitic Plants Striga and Phelipanche Dependent upon Exogenous Strigolactones for Germination Have Retained Genes for Strigolactone Biosynthesis
Abstract Strigolactones are plant hormones with multiple functions, including regulating various aspects of plant architecture such as shoot branching, facilitating the colonization of plant roots by arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, and acting as seed germination stimulants for certain parasitic plants of the family Orobanchaceae. The obligate parasitic species Phelipanche aegyptiaca and Striga hermonthica require strigolactones for germination, while the facultative parasite Triphysaria versicolor does not. It has been hypothesized that P. aegyptiaca and S. hermonthica would have undergone evolutionary loss of strigolactone biosynthesis as a part of their mechanism to enable specific detection of exogenous strigolactones. We analyzed the transcriptomes of P. aegyptiaca, S. hermonthica and T. versicolor and identified genes known to act in strigolactone synthesis (D27, CCD7, CCD8, and MAX1), perception (MAX2 and D14) and transport (PDR12). These genes were then analyzed to assess likelihood of function. Transcripts of all strigolactone-related genes were found M. Das et al. 1152 in P. aegyptiaca and S. hermonthica, and evidence points to their encoding functional proteins. Gene open reading frames were consistent with homologs from Arabidopsis and other strigolactone-producing plants, and all genes were expressed in parasite tissues. In general, the genes related to strigolactone synthesis and perception appeared to be evolving under codon-based selective constraints in strigolactone-dependent species. Bioassays of S. hermonthica root extracts indicated the presence of strigolactone class stimulants on germination of P. aegyptiaca seeds. Taken together, these results indicate that Phelipanche aegyptiaca and S. hermonthica have retained functional genes involved in strigolactone biosynthesis, suggesting that the parasites use both endogenous and exogenous strigolactones and have mechanisms to differentiate the two
The Atacama Cosmology Telescope: A Measurement of the DR6 CMB Lensing Power Spectrum and its Implications for Structure Growth
We present new measurements of cosmic microwave background (CMB) lensing over
sq. deg. of the sky. These lensing measurements are derived from the
Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) Data Release 6 (DR6) CMB dataset, which
consists of five seasons of ACT CMB temperature and polarization observations.
We determine the amplitude of the CMB lensing power spectrum at
precision ( significance) using a novel pipeline that minimizes
sensitivity to foregrounds and to noise properties. To ensure our results are
robust, we analyze an extensive set of null tests, consistency tests, and
systematic error estimates and employ a blinded analysis framework. The
baseline spectrum is well fit by a lensing amplitude of
relative to the Planck 2018 CMB power spectra
best-fit CDM model and relative to
the best-fit model. From our lensing power
spectrum measurement, we derive constraints on the parameter combination
of
from ACT DR6 CMB lensing alone and
when combining ACT DR6 and Planck NPIPE
CMB lensing power spectra. These results are in excellent agreement with
CDM model constraints from Planck or
CMB power spectrum measurements. Our lensing measurements from redshifts
-- are thus fully consistent with CDM structure growth
predictions based on CMB anisotropies probing primarily . We find no
evidence for a suppression of the amplitude of cosmic structure at low
redshiftsComment: 45+21 pages, 50 figures. Prepared for submission to ApJ. Also see
companion papers Madhavacheril et al and MacCrann et a
The Atacama Cosmology Telescope: High-resolution component-separated maps across one-third of the sky
Observations of the millimeter sky contain valuable information on a number
of signals, including the blackbody cosmic microwave background (CMB), Galactic
emissions, and the Compton- distortion due to the thermal Sunyaev-Zel'dovich
(tSZ) effect. Extracting new insight into cosmological and astrophysical
questions often requires combining multi-wavelength observations to spectrally
isolate one component. In this work, we present a new arcminute-resolution
Compton- map, which traces out the line-of-sight-integrated electron
pressure, as well as maps of the CMB in intensity and E-mode polarization,
across a third of the sky (around 13,000 sq.~deg.). We produce these through a
joint analysis of data from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) Data Release
4 and 6 at frequencies of roughly 93, 148, and 225 GHz, together with data from
the \textit{Planck} satellite at frequencies between 30 GHz and 545 GHz. We
present detailed verification of an internal linear combination pipeline
implemented in a needlet frame that allows us to efficiently suppress Galactic
contamination and account for spatial variations in the ACT instrument noise.
These maps provide a significant advance, in noise levels and resolution, over
the existing \textit{Planck} component-separated maps and will enable a host of
science goals including studies of cluster and galaxy astrophysics, inferences
of the cosmic velocity field, primordial non-Gaussianity searches, and
gravitational lensing reconstruction of the CMB.Comment: The Compton-y map and associated products will be made publicly
available upon publication of the paper. The CMB T and E mode maps will be
made available when the DR6 maps are made publi
The Atacama Cosmology Telescope: DR6 Gravitational Lensing Map and Cosmological Parameters
We present cosmological constraints from a gravitational lensing mass map
covering 9400 sq. deg. reconstructed from CMB measurements made by the Atacama
Cosmology Telescope (ACT) from 2017 to 2021. In combination with BAO
measurements (from SDSS and 6dF), we obtain the amplitude of matter
fluctuations at 1.8% precision,
and the Hubble
constant at
1.6% precision. A joint constraint with CMB lensing measured by the Planck
satellite yields even more precise values: ,
and . These measurements agree
well with CDM-model extrapolations from the CMB anisotropies measured
by Planck. To compare these constraints to those from the KiDS, DES, and HSC
galaxy surveys, we revisit those data sets with a uniform set of assumptions,
and find from all three surveys are lower than that from ACT+Planck
lensing by varying levels ranging from 1.7-2.1. These results motivate
further measurements and comparison, not just between the CMB anisotropies and
galaxy lensing, but also between CMB lensing probing on
mostly-linear scales and galaxy lensing at on smaller scales. We
combine our CMB lensing measurements with CMB anisotropies to constrain
extensions of CDM, limiting the sum of the neutrino masses to eV (95% c.l.), for example. Our results provide independent
confirmation that the universe is spatially flat, conforms with general
relativity, and is described remarkably well by the CDM model, while
paving a promising path for neutrino physics with gravitational lensing from
upcoming ground-based CMB surveys.Comment: 30 pages, 16 figures, prepared for submission to ApJ. Cosmological
likelihood data is here:
https://lambda.gsfc.nasa.gov/product/act/actadv_prod_table.html ; likelihood
software is here: https://github.com/ACTCollaboration/act_dr6_lenslike . Also
see companion papers Qu et al and MacCrann et al. Mass maps will be released
when papers are publishe
Expanding the diversity of mycobacteriophages: insights into genome architecture and evolution.
Mycobacteriophages are viruses that infect mycobacterial hosts such as Mycobacterium smegmatis and Mycobacterium tuberculosis. All mycobacteriophages characterized to date are dsDNA tailed phages, and have either siphoviral or myoviral morphotypes. However, their genetic diversity is considerable, and although sixty-two genomes have been sequenced and comparatively analyzed, these likely represent only a small portion of the diversity of the mycobacteriophage population at large. Here we report the isolation, sequencing and comparative genomic analysis of 18 new mycobacteriophages isolated from geographically distinct locations within the United States. Although no clear correlation between location and genome type can be discerned, these genomes expand our knowledge of mycobacteriophage diversity and enhance our understanding of the roles of mobile elements in viral evolution. Expansion of the number of mycobacteriophages grouped within Cluster A provides insights into the basis of immune specificity in these temperate phages, and we also describe a novel example of apparent immunity theft. The isolation and genomic analysis of bacteriophages by freshman college students provides an example of an authentic research experience for novice scientists
The genetic architecture of the human cerebral cortex
The cerebral cortex underlies our complex cognitive capabilities, yet little is known about the specific genetic loci that influence human cortical structure. To identify genetic variants that affect cortical structure, we conducted a genome-wide association meta-analysis of brain magnetic resonance imaging data from 51,665 individuals. We analyzed the surface area and average thickness of the whole cortex and 34 regions with known functional specializations. We identified 199 significant loci and found significant enrichment for loci influencing total surface area within regulatory elements that are active during prenatal cortical development, supporting the radial unit hypothesis. Loci that affect regional surface area cluster near genes in Wnt signaling pathways, which influence progenitor expansion and areal identity. Variation in cortical structure is genetically correlated with cognitive function, Parkinson's disease, insomnia, depression, neuroticism, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder
The genetic architecture of the human cerebral cortex
The cerebral cortex underlies our complex cognitive capabilities, yet little is known about the specific genetic loci that influence human cortical structure. To identify genetic variants that affect cortical structure, we conducted a genome-wide association meta-analysis of brain magnetic resonance imaging data from 51,665 individuals. We analyzed the surface area and average thickness of the whole cortex and 34 regions with known functional specializations. We identified 199 significant loci and found significant enrichment for loci influencing total surface area within regulatory elements that are active during prenatal cortical development, supporting the radial unit hypothesis. Loci that affect regional surface area cluster near genes in Wnt signaling pathways, which influence progenitor expansion and areal identity. Variation in cortical structure is genetically correlated with cognitive function, Parkinson's disease, insomnia, depression, neuroticism, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder
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