Highlights • F. nucleatum is an oral commensal implicated in oral infections, adverse pregnancy outcomes, GI disorders, and various other human diseases. • F. nucleatum can disseminate systemically ...colonizing different body sites. • F. nucleatum elicit a spectrum of host responses including inflammation. • The FadA adhesin/invasin of F. nucleatum binds to cadherins and is a key virulence factor.
Summary
Plant protoplasts are useful for assessing the efficiency of clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/CRISPR‐associated protein 9 (Cas9) mutagenesis. We improved the ...process of protoplast isolation and transfection of several plant species. We also developed a method to isolate and regenerate single mutagenized Nicotianna tabacum protoplasts into mature plants. Following transfection of protoplasts with constructs encoding Cas9 and sgRNAs, target gene DNA could be amplified for further analysis to determine mutagenesis efficiency. We investigated N. tabacum protoplasts and derived regenerated plants for targeted mutagenesis of the phytoene desaturase (NtPDS) gene. Genotyping of albino regenerants indicated that all four NtPDS alleles were mutated in amphidiploid tobacco, and no Cas9 DNA could be detected in most regenerated plants.
Soil acidification is a major problem in soils of intensive Chinese agricultural systems. We used two nationwide surveys, paired comparisons in numerous individual sites, and several long-term ...monitoring-field data sets to evaluate changes in soil acidity. Soil pH declined significantly (P < 0.001) from the 1980s to the 2000s in the major Chinese crop-production areas. Processes related to nitrogen cycling released 20 to 221 kilomoles of hydrogen ion (H⁺) per hectare per year, and base cations uptake contributed a further 15 to 20 kilomoles of H⁺ per hectare per year to soil acidification in four widespread cropping systems. In comparison, acid deposition (0.4 to 2.0 kilomoles of H⁺ per hectare per year) made a small contribution to the acidification of agricultural soils across China.
Cellular granules lacking boundary membranes harbor RNAs and their associated proteins and play diverse roles controlling the timing and location of protein synthesis. Formation of such granules was ...emulated by treatment of mouse brain extracts and human cell lysates with a biotinylated isoxazole (b-isox) chemical. Deep sequencing of the associated RNAs revealed an enrichment for mRNAs known to be recruited to neuronal granules used for dendritic transport and localized translation at synapses. Precipitated mRNAs contain extended 3′ UTR sequences and an enrichment in binding sites for known granule-associated proteins. Hydrogels composed of the low complexity (LC) sequence domain of FUS recruited and retained the same mRNAs as were selectively precipitated by the b-isox chemical. Phosphorylation of the LC domain of FUS prevented hydrogel retention, offering a conceptual means of dynamic, signal-dependent control of RNA granule assembly.
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► A crystallized small molecule recruits mRNAs into granule-like aggregates ► The granule-like aggregates contain known granule RNAs ► Aggregates from brain lysates are enriched in mRNAs encoding synaptic proteins ► 3′ UTR lengths of recruited RNAs are significantly longer than average
Aggregation of RNA-binding proteins, including FUS, from mammalian cells within hydrogels retains mRNAs previously associated with RNA granules. Phosphorylation of FUS influences mRNA retention suggesting a mechanism for regulating granule assembly and composition.
Abstract
We present a timing study of the short-period eclipsing cataclysmic variable (CV) HT Cas. Based on new eclipse times derived from our photometric monitoring and archival optical data, ...combined with historical timings, spanning ∼42 yr, we detect a secular decrease in the orbital period at a rate of
P
̇
=
−
1.32
×
10
−
12
ss
−
1
and a cyclic period wiggle with an amplitude of 79.3 s and a period of 30.28 yr. We find that neither gravitational radiation nor magnetic braking can explain the observed decrease rate, suggesting the presence of additional angular momentum loss (AML). The empirical consequential AML (eCAML) model developed by Schreiber et al. can well match the observed orbital decay in HT Cas, and the physical mechanism for eCAML is most likely attributable to the frictional AML following nova eruptions. As for the cyclic variation, the best explanation is the influence of an unseen companion in orbit around the binary. The derived orbital parameters reveal that the hypothetical third body could be a giant planet with mass of
M
3
≃ 14
M
Jup
that is moving on a highly eccentric orbit (
e
= 0.82). Taken together the results of the present study suggest that HT Cas is a unique triple system containing a high-eccentricity giant planet and it has the potential to become an ideal laboratory in which to test models of CV evolution.
Fusobacterium nucleatum (Fn) has been associated with colorectal cancer (CRC), but causality and underlying mechanisms remain to be established. We demonstrate that Fn adheres to, invades, and ...induces oncogenic and inflammatory responses to stimulate growth of CRC cells through its unique FadA adhesin. FadA binds to E-cadherin, activates β-catenin signaling, and differentially regulates the inflammatory and oncogenic responses. The FadA-binding site on E-cadherin is mapped to an 11-amino-acid region. A synthetic peptide derived from this region of E-cadherin abolishes FadA-induced CRC cell growth and oncogenic and inflammatory responses. The fadA gene levels in the colon tissue from patients with adenomas and adenocarcinomas are >10–100 times higher compared to normal individuals. The increased FadA expression in CRC correlates with increased expression of oncogenic and inflammatory genes. This study unveils a mechanism by which Fn can drive CRC and identifies FadA as a potential diagnostic and therapeutic target for CRC.
•F. nucleatum (Fn) adhesin FadA binds E-cadherin and promotes CRC cell proliferation•A peptide from the FadA-binding region of E-cadherin prevents Fn-mediated carcinogenesis•FadA promotes inflammation and E-cadherin-mediated CRC tumor growth in xenograft mice•Tissues from human adenomas and adenocarcinomas have elevated fadA gene levels
Adverse pregnancy outcomes (APOs) have been defined as (a) pre‐term birth, when there is a delivery before 37 completed weeks (<259 days); (b) pre‐eclampsia, which is a multisystem disorder of ...pregnancy characterized by maternal hypertension and proteinuria after the 20th gestational week; (c) low and very low birthweight, depending on whether the weight of the baby is less of 2500 g or <1500 g and (d) the spontaneous death of the fetus with <20 weeks (miscarriage) or between 20 and 36 weeks (stillbirth). In 2012, during the Consensus Report from the Joint EFP/AAP workshop on periodontitis and systematic diseases the role of periodontal diseases on APOs was reviewed. Some years later, this evidence has grown, and an update on the literature regarding the mechanisms related to this potential association (APOs and periodontal diseases) needs to be presented. The two major pathways (direct and indirect) already accepted in 2012 are still valid nowadays. Most evidence published in the last 5 years deals with a strong and solid evidence coming from the direct pathway while there is as scarce new evidence regarding indirect pathway. In this direct pathway, the haematological dissemination of oral microorganisms and their products, would later induce an inflammatory/Immune response in the foetal‐placental unit. The most plausible route for this direct pathway is the hematogenous transmission through dental bacteremia, although not many new studies dealing with bacteremia has been performed lately.
We present the open-source software package DADA2 for modeling and correcting Illumina-sequenced amplicon errors (https://github.com/benjjneb/dada2). DADA2 infers sample sequences exactly and ...resolves differences of as little as 1 nucleotide. In several mock communities, DADA2 identified more real variants and output fewer spurious sequences than other methods. We applied DADA2 to vaginal samples from a cohort of pregnant women, revealing a diversity of previously undetected Lactobacillus crispatus variants.
The aim of this study was to explore a new total tongue reconstruction strategy based on the five-point eight-line segment (FIPELS) technique and a palatal speech appliance, and to evaluate the ...functional and aesthetic outcomes. Twenty patients with tongue squamous cell carcinoma were included in this study. All patients underwent total tongue resection followed by tongue reconstruction with an anterolateral thigh flap. The patients were divided randomly into two groups according to the reconstruction strategy: FIPELS group (10 patients) and traditional flap design group (10 patients). All 10 patients in the FIPELS group received a palatal speech appliance 1 month after the surgery. A Likert scale was used to assess swallowing function, speech articulation, and the aesthetic outcome of the reconstructed tongue in the traditional and FIPELS (with and without the palatal speech appliance) groups. Compared with the traditional group, swallowing function (1 month, P = 0.016; 3 months, P = 0.021) and the aesthetic outcome (1 month, P = 0.016; 3 months, P = 0.020) were significantly better in the FIPELS group (without the palatal speech appliance); however, there was no significant difference in speech articulation (1 month, P = 0.549; 3 months, P = 0.513). Within the FIPELS group, significantly better speech articulation was obtained with the palatal speech appliance than without it (1 month, P = 0.031; 3 months, P = 0.015).
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