MAP kinase (MPK) cascades in Arabidopsis thaliana and other vascular plants are activated by developmental cues, abiotic stress, and pathogen infection. Much less is known of MPK functions in ...nonvascular land plants such as the moss Physcomitrella patens. Here, we provide evidence for a signaling pathway in P. patens required for immunity triggered by pathogen associated molecular patterns (PAMPs). This pathway induces rapid growth inhibition, a novel fluorescence burst, cell wall depositions, and accumulation of defense-related transcripts. Two P. patens MPKs (MPK4a and MPK4b) are phosphorylated and activated in response to PAMPs. This activation in response to the fungal PAMP chitin requires a chitin receptor and one or more MAP kinase kinase kinases andMAP kinase kinases. Knockout lines of MPK4a appear wild type but have increased susceptibility to the pathogenic fungi Botrytis cinerea and Alternaria brassisicola. Both PAMPs and osmotic stress activate some of the same MPKs in Arabidopsis. In contrast, abscisic acid treatment or osmotic stress of P. patens does not activate MPK4a or any other MPK, but activates at least one SnRK2 kinase. Signaling via MPK4a may therefore be specific to immunity, and the moss relies on other pathways to respond to osmotic stress.
Background and purpose - It is well recognized that some knee arthroplasty (KA) patients present with prolonged postoperative inflammation and some develop persistent pain. It can reasonably be ...speculated that some of these problems develop because of low-grade infections with low virulence bacteria caused by intraoperative contamination. This prospective study was performed to investigate whether intraoperative contamination results in lower patient-reported outcomes (PRO) for patients who were clinically uninfected in the first year after surgery.
Patients and methods - We combined data from 2 major prospective studies on patients undergoing primary KA at 2 Danish hospitals between September 2016 and January 2018. Pre- and postoperative (1.5, 3, 6, and 12 months) PROs and intraoperative microbiological cultures were obtained on a total of 714 patients who were included in the study. Based on the microbiological cultures, the patients were divided into 2 groups, contaminated and non-contaminated, and differences in PROs between the 2 groups were analyzed.
Results - 84 of 714 (12%) patients were intraoperatively contaminated; none of the 714 patients developed clinical infection. The preoperative Oxford Knee Score was 24 and 23 for contaminated and non-contaminated patients, respectively, improving to 40 and 39 at 1 year (p = 0.8). 1-year AUC for Oxford Knee Score and absolute improvement at each postoperative time point for Forgotten Joint Score and EQ-5D-5L also were similar between contaminated and non-contaminated patients.
Interpretation - Patient-reported outcomes from 714 patients do not indicate that intraoperative contamination affects the knee-specific or general health-related quality of life in primary KA patients who are clinically uninfected 1 year after surgery.
Somatic cells acclimate to changes in the environment by temporary reprogramming. Much has been learned about transcription factors that induce these cell‐state switches in both plants and animals, ...but how cells rapidly modulate their proteome remains elusive. Here, we show rapid induction of autophagy during temporary reprogramming in plants triggered by phytohormones, immune, and danger signals. Quantitative proteomics following sequential reprogramming revealed that autophagy is required for timely decay of previous cellular states and for tweaking the proteome to acclimate to the new conditions. Signatures of previous cellular programs thus persist in autophagy‐deficient cells, affecting cellular decision‐making. Concordantly, autophagy‐deficient cells fail to acclimatize to dynamic climate changes. Similarly, they have defects in dedifferentiating into pluripotent stem cells, and redifferentiation during organogenesis. These observations indicate that autophagy mediates cell‐state switches that underlie somatic cell reprogramming in plants and possibly other organisms, and thereby promotes phenotypic plasticity.
Synopsis
Adjustment to new environmental signals requires temporary and rapid modulation of the cellular proteome. Proteome adjustments are found to require autophagy, which erases previous cellular states in plant somatic cells to allow new programs to unfold.
Multiple external stimuli rapidly activate autophagy in plant cells.
Proteome adjustments during cell‐state switching are disrupted in autophagy mutants.
Autophagy‐deficient plants exhibit decreased phenotypic plasticity.
Autophagy‐deficient somatic cells cannot de‐differentiate efficiently into pluripotent stem cells.
Exit from pluripotency and organ formation are dysregulated in autophagy‐deficient cells.
Autophagy facilitates cellular proteome adjustment to new stimuli and allows coordinated transition to a new cell state by erasing previous cellular programs.
On the basis of computational design, a focused one-bead one-compound library has been prepared on microparticle-encoded PEGA
beads consisting of small tripeptides with a triazole-capped
-terminal. ...The library was screened towards a double point-mutated version of the human FKBP12 protein, known as the destabilizing domain (DD). Inspired by the decoded library hits, unnatural peptide structures were screened in a novel on-bead assay, which was useful for a rapid structure evaluation prior to off-bead resynthesis. Subsequently, a series of 19 compounds were prepared and tested using a competitive fluorescence polarization assay, which led to the discovery of peptide ligands with low micromolar binding affinity towards the DD. The methodology represents a rapid approach for identification of a novel structure scaffold, where the screening and initial structure refinement was accomplished using small quantities of library building blocks.
AbstractBackgroundLivestock-acquired methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (LA-MRSA) is a concern in healthcare and a political priority in some countries. ObjectiveThis study investigates the ...net societal costs of 2 alternative strategies for controlling LA-MRSA in Denmark: (1) eradicating LA-MRSA in all pig housing units, and (2) containing LA-MRSA within the units. MethodsBenefits and costs are considered for affected economic sectors: healthcare, pig production, pig-related industries, and public administration. ResultsThe cost to society of eradication is estimated at €2.3 to €2.5 billion (present value). Containment will cost €55 to €93 million. For both strategies, the main cost lies in primary pig production—for containment this is mainly due to establishing and operating anterooms and shower rooms, and for eradication it is due to production losses, loss of genetic resources, and costs of cleaning and disinfection. ConclusionCompared with these costs, health economic benefits are moderate for both strategies. Containment is superior to eradication when measured by a benefit-cost ratio.
A novel nanoparticulate catalyst of copper (Cu) and ruthenium (Ru) was designed for low‐temperature ammonia oxidation at near‐stoichiometric mixtures using a bottom‐up approach. A synergistic effect ...of the two metals was found. An optimum CuRu catalyst presents a reaction rate threefold higher than that for Ru and forty‐fold higher than that for Cu. X‐ray absorption spectroscopy suggests that in the most active catalyst Cu forms one or two monolayer thick patches on Ru and the catalysts are less active once 3D Cu islands form. The good performance of the tuned Cu/Ru catalyst is attributed to changes in the electronic structure, and thus the altered adsorption properties of the surface Cu sites.
Bottoms up! The catalytic activity of the ammonia oxidation reaction can be tuned by a bottom‐up approach that combines theory and experiment. For stoichiometric catalysis, density functional calculations predict an increase in activity when a Cu overlayer is present on Ru. Four‐fold and forty‐fold increases in activity were obtained with synthesized CuRu nanoparticles bearing Cu monolayers compared to pure Ru and Cu, respectively.
Gas-phase photocatalysis in μ-reactors VESBORG, Peter C. K; OLSEN, Jakob L; HENRIKSEN, Toke R ...
Chemical engineering journal (Lausanne, Switzerland : 1996),
06/2010, Letnik:
160, Številka:
2
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Gas-phase photocatalysis experiments may benefit from the high sensitivity and good time response in product detection offered by mu -reactors. We demonstrate this by carrying out CO oxidation and ...methanol oxidation over commercial TiO sub(2) photocatalysts in our recently developed high-sensitivity reactors. We demonstrate that the system exhibits great versatility in terms of photocatalyst, illumination source and target reaction.
Caries is caused by acid production in biofilms on dental surfaces. Preventing caries therefore involves control of microorganisms and/or the acid produced. Here, calcium-phosphate-osteopontin ...particles are presented as a new approach to caries control. The particles are made by co-precipitation and designed to bind to bacteria in biofilms, impede biofilm build-up without killing the microflora, and release phosphate ions to buffer bacterial acid production if the pH decreases below 6. Analysis of biofilm formation and pH in a five-species biofilm model for dental caries showed that treatment with particles or pure osteopontin led to less biofilm formation compared to untreated controls or biofilms treated with osteopontin-free particles. The anti-biofilm effect can thus be ascribed to osteopontin. The particles also led to a slower acidification of the biofilm after exposure to glucose, and the pH always remained above 5.5. Hence, calcium-phosphate-osteopontin particles show potential for applications in caries control.
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