2,730 research outputs found
Generating a host range-expanded recombinant baculovirus
Citation: Wu, C. F., Deng, Z. H., Long, Z., Cai, Y., Ying, Z. F., Yin, H. Q., . . . Pang, Y. (2016). Generating a host range-expanded recombinant baculovirus. Scientific Reports, 6, 14. doi:10.1038/srep28072As baculoviruses usually have a narrow insecticidal spectrum, knowing the mechanisms by which they control the host-range is prerequisite for improvement of their applications as pesticides. In this study, from supernatant of culture cells transfected with DNAs of an Autographa californica multiple nucleopolyhedrovirus (AcMNPV) mutant lacking the antiapoptotic gene p35 (vAc(Delta P35)) and a cosmid representing a fragment of Spodoptera exigua nucleopolyhedrovirus (SeMNPV), a viral strain was plaque-purified and named vAcRev. vAcRev had a broader host range than either vAc(Delta P35) or SeMNPV parental virus, being able to infect not only the permissive hosts of its parental viruses but also a nonpermissive host (Spodoptera litura). Genome sequencing indicated that vAcRev comprises a mixture of two viruses with different circular dsDNA genomes. One virus contains a genome similar to vAc(Delta P35), while in the other viral genome, a 24.4 kbp-fragment containing 10 essential genesis replaced with a 4 kbp-fragment containing three SeMNPV genes including a truncated Se-iap3 gene. RNA interference and ectopic expression assays found that Se-iap3 is responsible for the host range expansion of vAcRev, suggesting that Se-iap3 inhibits the progression of apoptosis initiated by viral infection and promotes viral propagation in hosts both permissive and non-permissive for AcMNPV and SeMNPV
Gradient microfluidics enables rapid bacterial growth inhibition testing
Bacterial growth inhibition tests have become a standard measure of the adverse effects of inhibitors for a wide range of applications, such as toxicity testing in the medical and environmental sciences. However, conventional well-plate formats for these tests are laborious and provide limited information (often being restricted to an end-point assay). In this study, we have developed a microfluidic system that enables fast quantification of the effect of an inhibitor on bacteria growth and survival, within a single experiment. This format offers a unique combination of advantages, including long-term continuous flow culture, generation of concentration gradients, and single cell morphology tracking. Using Escherichia coli and the inhibitor amoxicillin as one model system, we show excellent agreement between an on-chip single cell-based assay and conventional methods to obtain quantitative measures of antibiotic inhibition (for example, minimum inhibition concentration). Furthermore, we show that our methods can provide additional information, over and above that of the standard well-plate assay, including kinetic information on growth inhibition and measurements of bacterial morphological dynamics over a wide range of inhibitor concentrations. Finally, using a second model system, we show that this chip-based systems does not require the bacteria to be labeled and is well suited for the study of naturally occurring species. We illustrate this using Nitrosomonas europaea, an environmentally important bacteria, and show that the chip system can lead to a significant reduction in the period required for growth and inhibition measurements (<4 days, compared to weeks in a culture flask)
Study of and and
We study the decays of and to the final states
and based on a single
baryon tag method using data samples of
and events collected with
the BESIII detector at the BEPCII collider. The decays to
are observed for the first time. The
measured branching fractions of and
are in good agreement with, and much
more precise, than the previously published results. The angular parameters for
these decays are also measured for the first time. The measured angular decay
parameter for , , is found to be negative, different to the other
decay processes in this measurement. In addition, the "12\% rule" and isospin
symmetry in the and and
systems are tested.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures. This version is consistent with paper published
in Phys.Lett. B770 (2017) 217-22
Observation of and confirmation of its large branching fraction
The baryonic decay is observed, and the
corresponding branching fraction is measured to be
, where the first uncertainty is statistical
and second systematic. The data sample used in this analysis was collected with
the BESIII detector operating at the BEPCII double-ring collider with
a center-of-mass energy of 4.178~GeV and an integrated luminosity of
3.19~fb. The result confirms the previous measurement by the CLEO
Collaboration and is of greatly improved precision, which may deepen our
understanding of the dynamical enhancement of the W-annihilation topology in
the charmed meson decays
Observation and study of the decay
We report the observation and study of the decay
using events
collected with the BESIII detector. Its branching fraction, including all
possible intermediate states, is measured to be
. We also report evidence for a structure,
denoted as , in the mass spectrum in the GeV/
region. Using two decay modes of the meson ( and
), a simultaneous fit to the mass spectra is
performed. Assuming the quantum numbers of the to be , its
significance is found to be 4.4, with a mass and width of MeV/ and MeV, respectively, and a
product branching fraction
. Alternatively, assuming , the
significance is 3.8, with a mass and width of MeV/ and MeV, respectively, and a product
branching fraction
. The angular distribution of
is studied and the two assumptions of the
cannot be clearly distinguished due to the limited statistics. In all
measurements the first uncertainties are statistical and the second systematic.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures and 4 table
Observation of in
Using a sample of events recorded with
the BESIII detector at the symmetric electron positron collider BEPCII, we
report the observation of the decay of the charmonium state
into a pair of mesons in the process
. The branching fraction is measured for the first
time to be , where the first uncertainty is
statistical, the second systematic and the third is from the uncertainty of
. The mass and width of the are
determined as MeV/ and
MeV.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figure
Evidence of a resonant structure in the cross section between 4.05 and 4.60 GeV
The cross section of the process for
center-of-mass energies from 4.05 to 4.60~GeV is measured precisely using data
samples collected with the BESIII detector operating at the BEPCII storage
ring.
Two enhancements are clearly visible in the cross section around 4.23 and
4.40~GeV.
Using several models to describe the dressed cross section yields stable
parameters for the first enhancement, which has a mass of 4228.6 \pm 4.1 \pm
6.3 \un{MeV}/c^2 and a width of 77.0 \pm 6.8 \pm 6.3 \un{MeV}, where the
first uncertainties are statistical and the second ones are systematic.
Our resonant mass is consistent with previous observations of the
state and the theoretical prediction of a molecule.
This result is the first observation of associated with an
open-charm final state.
Fits with three resonance functions with additional , ,
, , or a new resonance, do not show significant
contributions from either of these resonances. The second enhancement is not
from a single known resonance. It could contain contributions from
and other resonances, and a detailed amplitude analysis is required to better
understand this enhancement
XPD codon 312 and 751 polymorphisms, and AFB1 exposure, and hepatocellular carcinoma risk
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Genetic polymorphisms in DNA repair genes may influence individual variation in DNA repair capacity, which may be associated with risk of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) related to the exposure of aflatoxin B1 (AFB1). In this study, we have focused on the polymorphisms of xeroderma pigmentosum complementation group D (XPD) codon 312 and 751 (namely Asp312Asn and Lys751Gln), involved in nucleotide excision repair.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We conducted a case-control study including 618 HCC cases and 712 controls to evaluate the associations between these two polymorphisms and HCC risk for Guangxi population by means of TaqMan-PCR and PCR-RFLP analysis.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We found that individuals featuring the XPD genotypes with codon 751 Gln alleles (namely XPD-LG or XPD-GG) were related to an elevated risk of HCC compared to those with the homozygote of XPD codon 751 Lys alleles [namely XPD-LL, adjusted odds ratios (ORs) were 1.75 and 2.47; 95% confidence interval (CIs) were 1.30-2.37 and 1.62-3.76, respectively]. A gender-specific role was evident that showed an higher risk for women (adjusted OR was 8.58 for XPD-GG) than for men (adjusted OR = 2.90 for XPD-GG). Interestingly, the interactive effects of this polymorphism and AFB1-exposure information showed the codon 751 Gln alleles increase the risk of HCC for individuals facing longer exposure years (<it>P</it><sub>interaction </sub>= 0.011, OR = 0.85). For example, long-exposure-years (> 48 years) individuals who carried XDP-GG had an adjusted OR of 470.25, whereas long-exposure-years people with XDP-LL were at lower risk (adjusted OR = 149.12). However, we did not find that XPD codon 312 polymorphism was significantly associated with HCC risk.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>These findings suggest that XPD Lys751Gln polymorphism is an important modulator of AFB1 related-HCC development in Guangxi population.</p
- …