Signatures of anthocyanin metabolites identified in humans inhibit biomarkers of vascular inflammation in human endothelial cells

Scope The physiological relevance of contemporary cell culture studies is often perplexing, given the use of unmetabolized phytochemicals at supraphysiological concentrations. We investigated the activity of physiologically relevant anthocyanin metabolite signatures, derived from a previous pharmacokinetics study of 500 mg 13C5-cyanidin-3-glucoside in 8 healthy participants, on soluble vascular adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) in human endothelial cells. Methods and results Signatures of peak metabolites (previously identified at 1, 6 and 24 h post-bolus) were reproduced using pure standards and effects were investigated across concentrations ten-fold lower and higher than observed mean (<5 μM) serum levels. Tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α)-stimulated VCAM-1 was reduced in response to all treatments, with maximal effects observed for the 6 h and 24 h profiles. Profiles tested at ten-fold below mean serum concentrations (0.19-0.44 μM) remained active. IL-6 was reduced in response to 1, 6 and 24 h profiles, with maximal effects observed for 6 h and 24 h profiles at concentrations above 2 μM. Protein responses were reflected by reductions in VCAM-1 and IL-6 mRNA, however there was no effect on phosphorylated NFκB-p65 expression. Conclusion Signatures of anthocyanin metabolites following dietary consumption reduce VCAM-1 and IL-6 production, providing evidence of physiologically relevant biological activity

Regional metacommunities in two coastal systems: spatial structure and drivers of plant assemblages

Aim Biogeographical patterns in metacommunities are still poorly understood, and different processes are expected to occur in different habitats. We analysed the regional plant metacommunities of coastal habitats to test whether (1) the influence of space and climate differs between two habitats differentiated along the seashore–inland gradient, and (2) regional variation in species composition of these habitats can be ascribed to different metacommunity paradigms. Location The entire coast of the Iberian Peninsula, south-western Europe. Methods We collected data on the plant species composition of coastal sites on sand dunes across 3000 km of coastline. The sites were classified into two habitats corresponding to shifting and stable sand dunes, and divided into three distinct geographical regions: Cantabrian, Atlantic and Mediterranean. We assessed the geographical structure of the species composition using ordination, estimates of species turnover and spatial autocorrelation. We then used multivariate models and variation partitioning to test the influence of climatic and spatial effects. Analyses were conducted for the whole data set and the geographical subsets. Results Metacommunities from shifting and stable dunes showed similar spa- tial patterns, with the highest species turnover occurring in the Mediterranean region. Similarities between communities that were nearer each other (typically < 100 km) were weaker in shifting than in stable dunes, although the distance decay for sites that were further apart was similar in both habitats. Variation in species composition in shifting dunes was mainly explained by distance and climate, while in stable dunes the effect of climate was clearly dominant. The observed differences were relatively consistent across geographical regions. Main conclusions Distinct processes structure the metacommunities in two dune habitats differentiated along the seashore–inland gradient. Communities of shifting dunes seem to be structured by an interplay of neutral or patch-dynamic processes and to a lesser degree by species sorting. In contrast, communities of stable dunes are mainly governed by species sorting in response to climatic gradi- ents. These results highlight the importance of differentiating habitats according to local ecological factors when analysing regional patterns in metacommunities

Solid-phase synthesis of duocarmycin analogues and the effect of C-terminal substitution on biological activity

YesThe duocarmycins are potent antitumour agents with potential in the development of antibody drug conjugates (ADCs) as well as being clinical candidates in their own right. In this paper, we describe the synthesis of a duocarmycin monomer (DSA) that is suitably protected for utilisation in solid phase synthesis. The synthesis was performed on a large scale and the resulting racemic protected Fmoc-DSA subunit was separated by supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC) into the single enantiomers. Application to solid phase synthesis methodology gave a series of monomeric and extended duocarmycin analogues with amino acid substituents. The DNA sequence selectivity was similar to previous reports for both the monomeric and extended compounds. The substitution at the C-terminus of the duocarmycin caused a decrease in antiproliferative activity for all of the compounds studied. An extended compound containing an alanine at the C-terminus was converted to the primary amide or to an extended structure containing a terminal tertiary amine but this had no beneficial effects on biological activity.MJS was funded by Novartis and UEA. We thank the EPSRC Mass Spectrometry Service, Swansea. We thank Richard Robinson and Julia Hatto at Novartis for help in the large scale synthesis

Tomato: a crop species amenable to improvement by cellular and molecular methods

Tomato is a crop plant with a relatively small DNA content per haploid genome and a well developed genetics. Plant regeneration from explants and protoplasts is feasable which led to the development of efficient transformation procedures. In view of the current data, the isolation of useful mutants at the cellular level probably will be of limited value in the genetic improvement of tomato. Protoplast fusion may lead to novel combinations of organelle and nuclear DNA (cybrids), whereas this technique also provides a means of introducing genetic information from alien species into tomato. Important developments have come from molecular approaches. Following the construction of an RFLP map, these RFLP markers can be used in tomato to tag quantitative traits bred in from related species. Both RFLP's and transposons are in the process of being used to clone desired genes for which no gene products are known. Cloned genes can be introduced and potentially improve specific properties of tomato especially those controlled by single genes. Recent results suggest that, in principle, phenotypic mutants can be created for cloned and characterized genes and will prove their value in further improving the cultivated tomato.

The Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field Camera 3 Early Release Science data: Panchromatic Faint Object Counts for 0.2-2 microns wavelength

We describe the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) Early Release Science (ERS) observations in the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey (GOODS) South field. The new WFC3 ERS data provide calibrated, drizzled mosaics in the UV filters F225W, F275W, and F336W, as well as in the near-IR filters F098M (Ys), F125W (J), and F160W (H) with 1-2 HST orbits per filter. Together with the existing HST Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) GOODS-South mosaics in the BViz filters, these panchromatic 10-band ERS data cover 40-50 square arcmin at 0.2-1.7 {\mu}m in wavelength at 0.07-0.15" FWHM resolution and 0.090" Multidrizzled pixels to depths of AB\simeq 26.0-27.0 mag (5-{\sigma}) for point sources, and AB\simeq 25.5-26.5 mag for compact galaxies. In this paper, we describe: a) the scientific rationale, and the data taking plus reduction procedures of the panchromatic 10-band ERS mosaics; b) the procedure of generating object catalogs across the 10 different ERS filters, and the specific star-galaxy separation techniques used; and c) the reliability and completeness of the object catalogs from the WFC3 ERS mosaics. The excellent 0.07-0.15" FWHM resolution of HST/WFC3 and ACS makes star- galaxy separation straightforward over a factor of 10 in wavelength to AB\simeq 25-26 mag from the UV to the near-IR, respectively.Comment: 51 pages, 71 figures Accepted to ApJS 2011.01.2

AD51B in Familial Breast Cancer

Common variation on 14q24.1, close to RAD51B, has been associated with breast cancer: rs999737 and rs2588809 with the risk of female breast cancer and rs1314913 with the risk of male breast cancer. The aim of this study was to investigate the role of RAD51B variants in breast cancer predisposition, particularly in the context of familial breast cancer in Finland. We sequenced the coding region of RAD51B in 168 Finnish breast cancer patients from the Helsinki region for identification of possible recurrent founder mutations. In addition, we studied the known rs999737, rs2588809, and rs1314913 SNPs and RAD51B haplotypes in 44,791 breast cancer cases and 43,583 controls from 40 studies participating in the Breast Cancer Association Consortium (BCAC) that were genotyped on a custom chip (iCOGS). We identified one putatively pathogenic missense mutation c.541C&gt;T among the Finnish cancer patients and subsequently genotyped the mutation in additional breast cancer cases (n = 5259) and population controls (n = 3586) from Finland and Belarus. No significant association with breast cancer risk was seen in the meta-analysis of the Finnish datasets or in the large BCAC dataset. The association with previously identified risk variants rs999737, rs2588809, and rs1314913 was replicated among all breast cancer cases and also among familial cases in the BCAC dataset. The most significant association was observed for the haplotype carrying the risk-alleles of all the three SNPs both among all cases (odds ratio (OR): 1.15, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.11–1.19, P = 8.88 x 10−16) and among familial cases (OR: 1.24, 95% CI: 1.16–1.32, P = 6.19 x 10−11), compared to the haplotype with the respective protective alleles. Our results suggest that loss-of-function mutations in RAD51B are rare, but common variation at the RAD51B region is significantly associated with familial breast cancer risk

Gene-centric meta-analyses for central adiposity traits in up to 57 412 individuals of European descent confirm known loci and reveal several novel associations

Waist circumference (WC) and waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) are surrogate measures of central adiposity that are associated with adverse cardiovascular events, type 2 diabetes and cancer independent of body mass index (BMI). WC and WHR are highly heritable with multiple susceptibility loci identified to date. We assessed the association between SNPs and BMI-adjusted WC and WHR and unadjusted WC in up to 57 412 individuals of European descent from 22 cohorts collaborating with the NHLBI's Candidate Gene Association Resource (CARe) project. The study population consisted of women and men aged 20–80 years. Study participants were genotyped using the ITMAT/Broad/CARE array, which includes ∼50 000 cosmopolitan tagged SNPs across ∼2100 cardiovascular-related genes. Each trait was modeled as a function of age, study site and principal components to control for population stratification, and we conducted a fixed-effects meta-analysis. No new loci for WC were observed. For WHR analyses, three novel loci were significantly associated (P < 2.4 × 10−6). Previously unreported rs2811337-G near TMCC1 was associated with increased WHR (β ± SE, 0.048 ± 0.008, P = 7.7 × 10−9) as was rs7302703-G in HOXC10 (β = 0.044 ± 0.008, P = 2.9 × 10−7) and rs936108-C in PEMT (β = 0.035 ± 0.007, P = 1.9 × 10−6). Sex-stratified analyses revealed two additional novel signals among females only, rs12076073-A in SHC1 (β = 0.10 ± 0.02, P = 1.9 × 10−6) and rs1037575-A in ATBDB4 (β = 0.046 ± 0.01, P = 2.2 × 10−6), supporting an already established sexual dimorphism of central adiposity-related genetic variants. Functional analysis using ENCODE and eQTL databases revealed that several of these loci are in regulatory regions or regions with differential expression in adipose tissue