Antioxidative potential of polysaccharide fractions produced from traditional Chinese medicinal macrofungus Cordyceps jiangxiensis in vitro

Cordyceps jiangxiensis, also called ‘CaoMuWang’, is a medicinal entomopathogenic macrofungus native to eastern China. Polysaccharide fractions from cultured C. jiangxiensis exhibited potent antitumor activity via the induction of cell cycle arrest and apoptotic pathway. Antioxidant pathway is also one action of mechanism of antitumor; thus, the antioxidant abilities of these polysaccharide fractions were overall evaluated by five in vitro assays such as the scavenging abilities on DPPH•, hydroxyl and superoxide anion radicals, the reducing power and the chelating ability on ferrous ions. Among these assays, the polysaccharide fractions presented more excellent scavenging abilities on superoxide anion radicals than that of the positive control. When compared with the positive control, the polysaccharide fractions from C. jiangxiensis only had moderate scavenging activities on both DPPH and hydroxyl free radicals, moderate reducing power and ferrous ion chelating activity. The antioxidant abilities of the different polysaccharide fractions had certain differences at all the tested doses and all had a dose-dependent manner. The results suggested that, polysaccharides are  important antioxidant component in the medicinal Cordyceps fungi and have direct and potent antioxidant ability, and that C. jiangxiensis also is a promising potential source for the development of natural antioxidant.Key words: Cordyceps jiangxiensis, polysaccharide, antioxidant activity

Nanotechnology and molecular cytogenetics: the future has not yet arrived

Quantum dots (QDs) are a novel class of inorganic fluorochromes composed of nanometer-scale crystals made of a semiconductor material. They are resistant to photo-bleaching, have narrow excitation and emission wavelengths that can be controlled by particle size and thus have the potential for multiplexing experiments. Given the remarkable optical properties that quantum dots possess, they have been proposed as an ideal material for use in molecular cytogenetics, specifically the technique of fluorescent in situ hybridisation (FISH). In this review, we provide an account of the current QD-FISH literature, and speculate as to why QDs are not yet optimised for FISH in their current form

The Directed Dominating Set Problem: Generalized Leaf Removal and Belief Propagation

A minimum dominating set for a digraph (directed graph) is a smallest set of vertices such that each vertex either belongs to this set or has at least one parent vertex in this set. We solve this hard combinatorial optimization problem approximately by a local algorithm of generalized leaf removal and by a message-passing algorithm of belief propagation. These algorithms can construct near-optimal dominating sets or even exact minimum dominating sets for random digraphs and also for real-world digraph instances. We further develop a core percolation theory and a replica-symmetric spin glass theory for this problem. Our algorithmic and theoretical results may facilitate applications of dominating sets to various network problems involving directed interactions.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures in EPS forma

Detoxificación de aceites de Jatrofa curcas mediante irradiación ultravioleta combinado con lavados de etanol

Jatropha curcas oil (JCO) is non-edible due to the content of phorbolesters (PEs) which are very toxic. The aim of this study was to evaluate the potential of JCO, treated by ultraviolet irradiation combined with ethanol washing, as an edible oil. The results showed that PEs can be significantly decreased by 100% (p < 0.05), but the treatments produced no significant changes (p < 0.05) in the fatty acids composition (FAC) and triacylglycerols (TAGs) in the detoxified Jatropha curcas oil (DJCO). In addition, the quality of DJCO was improved with enhanced DPPH radical scavenging. Therefore, DJCO with good quality will become a good resource for edible oil.El aceite de Jatropha curcas (JCO) no es comestible debido a su contenido en esteres de forbol (PES) que son muy tóxicos. El objetivo de este estudio fue evaluar el potencial de JCO como aceite comestible, cuando se trató mediante irradiación ultravioleta en combinación con lavados de etanol. Los resultados mostraron que el contenido de PES puede disminuir significativamente, hasta el 100% (p < 0,05), sin embargo, no se detectaron cambios significativos (p < 0,05) en la composición de los ácidos grasos (FAC) y de los triglicéridos (TG) en el aceite de Jatropha curcas detoxificado (DJCO). Además, las cualidades de DJCO han mejorado teniendo una mayor capacidad de eliminación de radicales DPPH. Por lo tanto, DJCO con estas buenas cualidades se convertirá en un buen recurso de aceite comestible

"Case files from the University of Florida: When an Earache is more than an Earache": A case report

Brain abscess is not a common diagnosis as there are only approximately 2000 cases reported each year in the United States. There are three main routes of access to the brain including contiguous infection from the oropharynx, direct implantation and hematogenously. We present a case of brain abscess in a child who had multiple visits for ear pain to various physicians including pediatricians and to emergency departments. Additionally, the microbiology of brain abscesses is briefly discussed, as is treatment

Comparisons of host mitochondrial, nuclear and endosymbiont bacterial genes reveal cryptic fig wasp species and the effects of Wolbachia on host mtDNA evolution and diversity

Background Figs and fig-pollinating wasp species usually display a highly specific one-to-one association. However, more and more studies have revealed that the "one-to-one" rule has been broken. Co-pollinators have been reported, but we do not yet know how they evolve. They may evolve from insect speciation induced or facilitated by Wolbachia which can manipulate host reproduction and induce reproductive isolation. In addition, Wolbachia can affect host mitochondrial DNA evolution, because of the linkage between Wolbachia and associated mitochondrial haplotypes, and thus confound host phylogeny based on mtDNA. Previous research has shown that fig wasps have the highest incidence of Wolbachia infection in all insect taxa, and Wolbachia may have great influence on fig wasp biology. Therefore, we look forward to understanding the influence of Wolbachia on mitochondrial DNA evolution and speciation in fig wasps. Results We surveyed 76 pollinator wasp specimens from nine Ficus microcarpa trees each growing at a different location in Hainan and Fujian Provinces, China. We found that all wasps were morphologically identified as Eupristina verticillata, but diverged into three clades with 4.22-5.28% mtDNA divergence and 2.29-20.72% nuclear gene divergence. We also found very strong concordance between E. verticillata clades and Wolbachia infection status, and the predicted effects of Wolbachia on both mtDNA diversity and evolution by decreasing mitochondrial haplotypes. Conclusions Our study reveals that the pollinating wasp E. verticillata on F. microcarpa has diverged into three cryptic species, and Wolbachia may have a role in this divergence. The results also indicate that Wolbachia strains infecting E. verticillata have likely resulted in selective sweeps on host mitochondrial DNA

Semiconductor quantum dots as fluorescent probes for in vitro and in vivo bio-molecular and cellular imaging

Over the years, biological imaging has seen many advances, allowing scientists to unfold many of the mysteries surrounding biological processes. The ideal imaging resolution would be in nanometres, as most biological processes occur at this scale. Nanotechnology has made this possible with functionalised nanoparticles that can bind to specific targets and trace processes at the cellular and molecular level. Quantum dots (QDs) or semiconductor nanocrystals are luminescent particles that have the potential to be the next generation fluorophores. This paper is an overview of the basics of QDs and their role as fluorescent probes for various biological imaging applications. Their potential clinical applications and the limitations that need to be overcome have also been discussed

QTL Mapping of Combining Ability and Heterosis of Agronomic Traits in Rice Backcross Recombinant Inbred Lines and Hybrid Crosses

BACKGROUND: Combining ability effects are very effective genetic parameters in deciding the next phase of breeding programs. Although some breeding strategies on the basis of evaluating combining ability have been utilized extensively in hybrid breeding, little is known about the genetic basis of combining ability. Combining ability is a complex trait that is controlled by polygenes. With the advent and development of molecular markers, it is feasible to evaluate the genetic bases of combining ability and heterosis of elite rice hybrids through QTL analysis. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: In the present study, we first developed a QTL-mapping method for dissecting combining ability and heterosis of agronomic traits. With three testcross populations and a BCRIL population in rice, biometric and QTL analyses were conducted for ten agronomic traits. The significance of general combining ability and special combining ability for most of the traits indicated the importance of both additive and non-additive effects on expression levels. A large number of additive effect QTLs associated with performance per se of BCRIL and general combining ability, and dominant effect QTLs associated with special combining ability and heterosis were identified for the ten traits. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: The combining ability of agronomic traits could be analyzed by the QTL mapping method. The characteristics revealed by the QTLs for combining ability of agronomic traits were similar with those by multitudinous QTLs for agronomic traits with performance per se of BCRIL. Several QTLs (1-6 in this study) were identified for each trait for combining ability. It demonstrated that some of the QTLs were pleiotropic or linked tightly with each other. The identification of QTLs responsible for combining ability and heterosis in the present study provides valuable information for dissecting genetic basis of combining ability

Intrinsic and Extrinsic Performance Limits of Graphene Devices on SiO2

The linear dispersion relation in graphene[1,2] gives rise to a surprising prediction: the resistivity due to isotropic scatterers (e.g. white-noise disorder[3] or phonons[4-8]) is independent of carrier density n. Here we show that acoustic phonon scattering[4-6] is indeed independent of n, and places an intrinsic limit on the resistivity in graphene of only 30 Ohm at room temperature (RT). At a technologically-relevant carrier density of 10^12 cm^-2, the mean free path for electron-acoustic phonon scattering is >2 microns, and the intrinsic mobility limit is 2x10^5 cm^2/Vs, exceeding the highest known inorganic semiconductor (InSb, ~7.7x10^4 cm^2/Vs[9]) and semiconducting carbon nanotubes (~1x10^5 cm^2/Vs[10]). We also show that extrinsic scattering by surface phonons of the SiO2 substrate[11,12] adds a strong temperature dependent resistivity above ~200 K[8], limiting the RT mobility to ~4x10^4 cm^2/Vs, pointing out the importance of substrate choice for graphene devices[13].Comment: 16 pages, 3 figure