The CORL family of CNS-specific proteins share a Smad-binding region with mammalian SnoN and c-Ski protooncogenes. In this family Drosophila CORL has two mouse and two human relatives. Roles for the ...mouse and human CORL proteins are largely unknown. Based on genome-wide association studies linking the human CORL proteins
and
with ataxia, we tested the hypothesis that
mutations will cause adult movement disorders. For our initial tests, we conducted side by side studies of adults with the small deletion
and eight control strains. We found that deletion mutants exhibit three types of behavioral plasticity. First, significant climbing defects attributable to loss of
are eliminated by age. Second, significant phototaxis defects due to loss of
are partially ameliorated by age and are not due to faulty photoreceptors. Third,
males raised in groups have a lower courtship index than males raised as singles though this defect is not due to loss of
Subsequent tests showed that the climbing and phototaxis defects were phenocpied by
and
two CRISPR generated mutations. Overall, the finding that adult movement defects due to loss of
are subject to age-dependent plasticity suggests new hypotheses for CORL functions in flies and mammals.
Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is often complicated by steatotic liver disease, cardiovascular disease (CVD), and extrahepatic cancer. We investigated whether FIB-4, an indicator of liver fibrosis, ...is associated with a higher risk of CVD and extrahepatic cancer history in T2DM.
Two hundred and nine of 244 diabetics admitted to our center in one year were included and retrospectively evaluated.
One hundred and fifty-two (72.7%) were males and 57 (27.3%) females. The mean age and FIB-4 were 64.3 ± 11 years, and 1.15 ± 0.5, respectively. One hundred and fifty patients (71.8%) had FIB-4 ≤ 1.3, and 59 (28.2%) had FIB-4 > 1.3. A history of CVD was presented in 76 (36.4%) patients, and of extrahepatic cancer in 39 (18.7%). Patients with CVD were significantly older than those without (68.4 ± 8.5 vs. 63.2 ± 11.5 years;
= 0.002), with significantly higher FIB-4 (1.26 ± 0.5 vs. 1.08 ± 0.5;
= 0.012). Patients with cancer were older, with higher FIB-4 compared to those without (68.2 ± 9.5 vs. 64.4 ± 10.9 years;
= 0.098 and 1.37 ± 0.6 vs. 1.1 ± 0.5;
= 0.004, respectively). FIB-4 > 1.3 was associated with a 2.1-fold probability for CVD (χ
= 5.810;
= 0.025) and 2.7-fold probability for cancer history (χ
= 7.603;
= 0.01).
FIB-4 ≥ 1.3 is associated with a higher probability of CVD or extrahepatic cancer history. FIB-4 could potentially discriminate patients at risk, justifying stricter surveillance.
During official shellfish control for the presence of marine biotoxins in Greece in year 2012, a series of unexplained positive mouse bioassays (MBA) for lipophilic toxins with nervous symptomatology ...prior to mice death was observed in mussels from Vistonikos Bay-Lagos, Rodopi. This atypical toxicity coincided with (a) absence or low levels of regulated and some non-regulated toxins in mussels and (b) the simultaneous presence of the potentially toxic microalgal species Prorocentrum minimum at levels up to 1.89 × 103 cells/L in the area's seawater. Further analyses by different MBA protocols indicated that the unknown toxin was hydrophilic, whereas UPLC-MS/MS analyses revealed the presence of tetrodotoxins (TTXs) at levels up to 222.9 μg/kg. Reviewing of official control data from previous years (2006-2012) identified a number of sample cases with atypical positive to asymptomatic negative MBAs for lipophilic toxins in different Greek production areas, coinciding with periods of P. minimum blooms. UPLC-MS/MS analysis of retained sub-samples from these cases revealed that TTXs were already present in Greek shellfish since 2006, in concentrations ranging between 61.0 and 194.7 μg/kg. To our knowledge, this is the earliest reported detection of TTXs in European bivalve shellfish, while it is also the first work to indicate a possible link between presence of the toxic dinoflagellate P. minimum in seawater and that of TTXs in bivalves. Confirmed presence of TTX, a very heat-stable toxin, in filter-feeding mollusks of the Mediterranean Sea, even at lower levels to those inducing symptomatology to humans, indicates that this emerging risk should be seriously taken into account by the EU to protect the health of shellfish consumers.
In this study, the production and optimization of extracellular lipase from
Kluyveromyces marxianus
IFO 0288 was investigated by using optimized nutritional and cultural conditions in a yeast medium ...containing glucose as the carbon source in fully aerobic batch fermentation (150 rpm). The influence of four fermentation parameters (type of lipidic source, initial culture pH, temperature, and length of fermentation) on growth and lipase production was investigated and evaluated using the conventional “one variable at a time” approach and response surface methodology. An 18-fold increase in lipase production during 65 h of fermentation was obtained with optimized nutritional (0.5 % olive oil) and cultivation (pH 6.5, 35 °C) conditions by employing the conventional optimization method. By applying the response surface methodology technique the initial pH value of 6.4 and temperature of 32.5 °C were identified as optimal and led to further improvements (up to 18-fold) of extracellular lipase production. The results provide, for the first time, evidence that
K. marxianus
has the potential to be used as an efficient producer of extracellular lipase with prospective application in a variety of industrial and biotechnological areas.
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