Cultivating diversity and food quality. Proceedings of Diversifood EU Forum, Brussels, 11 April 2018

To tackle this issue, Diversifood team organised a forum with policy makers and stakeholders on the 11th of April 2018, in Brussels. Diversifood’s aim is to share results and key lessons including new approaches for the management of cultivated biodiversity, for plant breeding for sustainable farming systems, and new relationships among actors of food systems. In the afternoon, there was time for discussion, knowledge sharing, collecting feedback and extending current policies to include cultivating diversity and food quality (for FP9, CAP 2020, The outputs of this workshop will feed Diversifood’s final recommendations. The forum was kindly hosted by the European Committee of the Regions (Rue Belliard/Belliardstraat 101, 1040 Brussels)

Recruitment kinetics of DNA repair proteins Mdc1 and Rad52 but not 53BP1 depend on damage complexity.

The recruitment kinetics of double-strand break (DSB) signaling and repair proteins Mdc1, 53BP1 and Rad52 into radiation-induced foci was studied by live-cell fluorescence microscopy after ion microirradiation. To investigate the influence of damage density and complexity on recruitment kinetics, which cannot be done by UV laser irradiation used in former studies, we utilized 43 MeV carbon ions with high linear energy transfer per ion (LET = 370 keV/µm) to create a large fraction of clustered DSBs, thus forming complex DNA damage, and 20 MeV protons with low LET (LET = 2.6 keV/µm) to create mainly isolated DSBs. Kinetics for all three proteins was characterized by a time lag period T(0) after irradiation, during which no foci are formed. Subsequently, the proteins accumulate into foci with characteristic mean recruitment times τ(1). Mdc1 accumulates faster (T(0) = 17 ± 2 s, τ(1) = 98 ± 11 s) than 53BP1 (T(0) = 77 ± 7 s, τ(1) = 310 ± 60 s) after high LET irradiation. However, recruitment of Mdc1 slows down (T(0) = 73 ± 16 s, τ(1) = 1050 ± 270 s) after low LET irradiation. The recruitment kinetics of Rad52 is slower than that of Mdc1, but exhibits the same dependence on LET. In contrast, the mean recruitment time τ(1) of 53BP1 remains almost constant when varying LET. Comparison to literature data on Mdc1 recruitment after UV laser irradiation shows that this rather resembles recruitment after high than low LET ionizing radiation. So this work shows that damage quality has a large influence on repair processes and has to be considered when comparing different studies

Characterization of the monocyte-specific esterase (MSE) gene

Carboxylic esterases are widely distributed in hematopoietic cells. Monocytes express the esterase isoenzyme (termed 'monocyte-specific esterase', MSE) that can be inhibited by NaF in the alpha-naphthyl acetate cytochemical staining. We examined the expression of MSE in normal cells and primary and cultured leukemia-lymphoma cells. The MSE protein was demonstrated by isoelectric focusing (IEF); MSE mRNA expression was investigated by Northern blotting and reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). The following samples were positive for MSE protein and Northern mRNA expression: 20/24 monocytic, 4/32 myeloid, and 1/20 erythroid-megakaryocytic leukemia cell lines, but none of the 112 lymphoid leukemia or lymphoma cell lines; of the normal purified cell populations only the monocytes were positive whereas, T, B cells, and granulocytes were negative; of primary acute (myelo) monocytic leukemia cells (CD14-positive, FAB M4/M5 morphology) 14/20 were Northern mRNA and 11/14 IEF protein positive. RT-PCR revealed MSE expression in 29/49 Northern-negative lymphoid leukemia-lymphoma cell lines. The RT-PCR signals in monocytic cell lines were on average 50-fold stronger than the mostly weak trace expression in lymphoid specimens. On treatment with various biomodulators, only all-trans retinoic acid significantly upregulated MSE message and protein levels but could not induce new MSE expression in several leukemia cell lines; lipopolysaccharide and interferon-gamma increased MSE expression in normal monocytes. Analysis of DNA methylation with sensitive restriction enzymes showed no apparent regulation of gene expression by differential methylation; the MSE gene is evolutionarily conserved among mammalian species; the half-life of the human MSE transcripts was about 5-6 h. The extent of MSE expression varied greatly among different monocytic leukemia samples. However, the MSE overexpression in a significant number of specimens was not associated with gene amplification, gross structural rearrangements or point mutations within the cDNA region. Taken together, the results suggest that MSE expression is not absolutely specific for, but strongly associated with cells of the monocytic lineage; MSE is either not expressed at all or expressed at much lower levels in cells from other lineages. The biological significance, if any, of rare MSE messages in lymphoid cells detectable only by the hypersensitive RT-PCR remains unclear. Further studies on the regulation of this gene and on the physiological function of the enzyme will no doubt be informative with respect to its striking overexpression in some malignant cells and to a possible role in the pathobiology of monocytic leukemias

Crystal structure of (2,3-bis((2R,5R)-2,5-dimethylphosphonalyl)maleic anhydride)-(η4-norbornadiene)-rhodium(I) tetrafluoroborate, [Rh(C7H8)(C16H24O3P 2)] [BF4]

C23H32BF4O3P2Rh, orthorhombic, P212121 (no. 19), a = 10.147(2) Å, b = 13.246(3) Å, c = 18.827(4) Å, V = 2530.5 Å3, Z = 4, Rgt(F) = 0.025, wRref(F 2) = 0.067, T = 200 K. © by Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag,

Crystal structure of (η4-cycloocta-1,5-dien)-N-(2- (diphenylphosphinooxy)-3-(naphthalen-1-yloxy)propyl)-N-(pentan-3-yl)-1, 1-diphenylphosphinamine-rhodium(I) tetrafluoroborate, [Rh(C8H 12)(C42H43NO2P2)][BF 4]

C50H55BF4NO2P2Rh, monoclinic, P1211 (no. 4), a = 12.722(3) Å, b = 15.248(3) Å, c = 12.818(3) Å, β = 115.80(3)°, V = 2238.7 Å3, Z = 2, Rgt(F) = 0.036, wRref(F 2) = 0.079, T = 200 K. © by Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag

Crystal structure of (η4-cycloocta-1,5-dien)-((+)-1, 1′-bis((2R,4R)-2,4-diethyl-phosphotano)-ferrocene)-rhodium(I) tetrafluoroborate, [Rh(C8H12)Fe(C12H 18FeP)2][BF4]

C32H48BF4FeP2Rh, orthorhombic, P212121 (no. 19), a = 10.640(2) Å, b = 16.007(3) Å, c = 19.460(4) Å, V = 3314.3 Å3, Z = 4, Rgt(F) = 0.044, wRref(F2) = 0.089, T = 200 K. © by Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag