Notes

Sticholysins, pore-forming healthy proteins coming from a maritime anemone could cause growth of dendritic cellular material through a TLR4 dependent-pathway.
mily, an increase in sampling is still needed to resolve relationships and circumscription of genera, particularly in the christelloid clade (i.e., Amphineuron, Chingia, Christella, Pneumatopteris, Pronephrium, and Sphaerostephanos). Based on currently available knowledge, we propose the recognition of 16 genera in the family.Brain metastasis is a significant unmet clinical problem in breast cancer treatment. It is always associated with poor prognosis and high morbidity. Recently, Slit2/Robo1 pathway has been demonstrated to be involved in the progression of breast carcinoma. However, until present, there are no convincing reports that suggest whether the Slit2/Robo1 axis has any role in brain metastasis of breast cancer. In this study, we investigated the correlation between Slit2/Robo1 signaling and breast cancer brain metastasis for the first time. Our results demonstrated that (1) Invasive ductal carcinoma patients with low expression of Slit2 or Robo1 exhibited worse prognosis and brain-specific metastasis, but not liver, bone or lung. (2) Lower expression of Slit2 and Robo1 were observed in patients with brain metastasis, especially in their brain metastasis tumors, compared with patients without brain metastasis. (3) The interval from diagnosis of breast cancer to brain metastasis and brain metastasis to death were both much shorter in patients with low expression of Slit2 or Robo1 compared with the high expression group. Overall, our findings indicated that Slit2/Robo1 axis possibly be regarded as a significant clinical parameter for predicting brain metastasis in breast cancer patients.
Napsin A is commonly expressed in pulmonary adenocarcinomas and some renal cell carcinomas. However, napsin A expression in lymphoid neoplasms has never been reported.

Glycoproteomic analyses of lymphoma-derived cell lines revealed napsin A expression in anaplastic large cell lymphoma (ALCL) cells. We thus investigated napsin A expression in lymphoid neoplasms. A variety of lymphomas (n=672) and histiocytic tumors (n=55) was immunostained for napsin A using patient tissues.

In reactive lymphoid tissues, only a few histiocytes were positive for napsin A. ALK-positive ALCLs most frequently expressed napsin A (34.4%, 11/32 cases) at a rate that was significantly higher compared with ALK-negative ALCL (8.6%, 3/35; P=0.015). Napsin A expression was also observed in 13.4% (20/149) of diffuse large B-cell lymphomas (DLBCL), 11.1% (15/134) of Hodgkin lymphomas, 4.9% (2/41) of follicular lymphomas, 6% (4/67) of peripheral T-cell lymphomas, and 3.8% (1/26) of plasma cell neoplasms. Otherwise, napsin A was not detected in any other types of lymphomas or histiocytic neoplasms. Napsin A expression in systemic ALCL was associated with a higher international prognostic index. ALCL and DLBCL patients with napsin A expression tended to have poor prognosis.

These results demonstrated that napsin A is aberrantly expressed in a subset of lymphomas. The biological significance of napsin A in lymphomas warrants further study.
These results demonstrated that napsin A is aberrantly expressed in a subset of lymphomas. The biological significance of napsin A in lymphomas warrants further study.
The spatial distribution of many genes has been visualized during the embryonic development in the starlet sea anemone Nematostella vectensis in the last decade. In situ hybridization images are available in the Kahi Kai gene expression database, and a method has been developed to quantify spatial gene expression patterns of N. vectensis. In this paper, gene expression quantification is performed on a wide range of gene expression patterns from this database and descriptions of observed expression domains are stored in a separate database for further analysis.

Spatial gene expression from suitable in situ hybridization images has been quantified with the GenExp program. A correlation analysis has been performed on the resulting numerical gene expression profiles for each stage. Based on the correlated clusters of spatial gene expression and detailed descriptions of gene expression domains, various mechanisms for developmental gene expression are proposed.

In the blastula and gastrula stages of developmetterns across a database can generate hypotheses about collective cell movements before these movements are measured directly.
Early gene expression domains in N. vectensis appear to maintain a positional order along the primary body axis. Early determination in N. vectensis occurs in two stages expression in broad circles and rings in the blastula is consolidated during gastrulation, and more complex expression patterns appear in the planula within these broad regions. Quantification and comparison of gene expression patterns across a database can generate hypotheses about collective cell movements before these movements are measured directly.Nematodes are known to be harmful to various crops, vegetables, plants and insects. The present study reports that, chitin upregulates the activity of chitinase (20%) and nematicidal potential (15%) of Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The chitinase gene (pachi) from P. aeruginosa was cloned, and its nematicidal activity of pachi protein against Caenorhabditis elegans was studied. The mortality rate induced by pachi increased by 6.3-fold when in association with Cry21Aa from Bacillus thuringiensis. Pachi efficiently killed C. elegans in its native state (LC50 = 387.3 ± 31.7 μg/ml), as well as in association with Cry21Aa (LC50 = 30.9 ± 4.1 μg/ml), by degrading the cuticle, egg shell and intestine in a relatively short time period of 24 h. To explore the nematidal potential of chitinase, six fusion proteins were constructed using gene engineering techniques. The CHACry showed higher activity against C. elegans than others owing to its high solubility. Notably, the CHACry showed a synergistic factor of 4.1 versus 3.5 a mixture [11] of pachi and Cry21Aa. The present study has identified eco-friendly biological routes (e.g., mixed proteins, fusion proteins) with potent nematicidal activity, which not only can help to prevent major crop losses but also strengthen the agro-economy and increase gross crop yield.Extracted, formulated, and processed natural Aloe vera has been used as an active layer for memory applications. The functional memory device is realized by a bottom-up structure of ITO/Aloe vera/Al in which the Aloe vera is spin-coated after mixing with different concentrations of ethanol (0-80 wt%) and subsequently dried at different temperatures (50-120 °C). From the current density-voltage measurements, the device can exhibit a reproducible bipolar switching characteristic with pure Aloe vera dried at 50 °C. It is proposed that charges are transported across the Aloe vera layer via space-charge-limited conduction (SCLC), and clusters of interstitial space formed by the functional groups of acemannans and de-esterified pectins in the dried Aloe vera contribute to the memory effect. The formation of charge traps in the Aloe vera layer is dependent on the drying temperature. The drying temperature of a memory-switching Aloe vera layer can be extended to 120 °C with the addition of appropriate amounts of ethanol. The concept of using natural Aloe vera as an active material for memory applications has been demonstrated, and the read memory window, ON/OFF ratio, and retention time are approximately 5.0 V, 10(3), and >10(4) s, respectively.A two-step process is developed to synthesize rare earth doped titania nanorods (RE-TiO2 NRs) as photocatalysts for efficient degradation of lignin under simulated sunlight irradiation. In this approach, protonated titanate nanotubes with layered structures were first prepared by a hydrothermal approach, and rare earth metal ions were subsequently bound to the negatively charged surface of the synthesized titanate via electrostatic incorporation. The as-synthesized RE-TiO2 NRs after calcination generally showed much higher photocatalytic efficiencies than those of undoped TiO2 NRs or the commercial P25 TiO2 photocatalyst. Using methyl orange (MO) as a probing molecule, we demonstrate that Eu-TiO2 NRs are among the best for degrading MO, with an observed rate constant of 4.2 × 10(-3) s(-1). The La(3+), Sm(3+), Eu(3+) and Er(3+) doped TiO2 NRs also showed higher photocatalytic efficiencies in degrading MO than the commercial P25 TiO2. We further demonstrate that lignin can be photodegraded effectively and rapidly at room temperature under simulated sunlight through two reaction routes, which could be important in controlling ways of lignin depolymerization or the formation of reaction products.The ability to induce targeted mutations in somatic cells in developing organisms and then track the fates of those cells is a powerful approach both for studying neural development and for modeling human disease. The CRISPR/Cas9 system allows for such targeted mutagenesis, and we therefore tested it in combination with a piggyBac transposase lineage labeling system to track the development of neocortical neural progenitors with targeted mutations in genes linked to neurodevelopmental disruptions and tumor formation. We show that sgRNAs designed to target PTEN successfully decreased PTEN expression, and led to neuronal hypertrophy and altered neuronal excitability. Targeting NF1, by contrast, caused increased astrocytogenesis at the expense of neurogenesis, and combined targeting of three tumor suppressors (PTEN, NF1 and P53) resulted in formation of glioblastoma tumors. Our results demonstrate that CRISPR/Cas9 combined with piggyBac transposase lineage labeling can produce unique models of neurodevelopmental disruption and tumors caused by somatic mutation in neural progenitors.Coordinated locomotion of an organism relies on the development of proper musculoskeletal connections. In Drosophila, the Slit-Robo signaling pathway guides muscles to tendons. Here, we show that the Slit receptor Roundabout 2 (Robo2) plays a non-cell-autonomous role in directing muscles to their corresponding tendons. Robo2 is expressed by tendons, and its non-signaling activity in these cells promotes Slit cleavage, producing a cleaved Slit N-terminal guidance signal that provides short-range signaling into muscles. Consistently, robo2 mutant embryos exhibited a muscle phenotype similar to that of slit, which could not be rescued by muscle-specific Robo2 expression but rather by ectodermally derived Robo2. Alternatively, this muscle phenotype could be induced by tendon-specific robo2 RNAi. We further show that membrane immobilization of Slit or its N-terminal cleaved form (Slit-N) on tendons bypasses the functional requirement for Robo2 in tendons, verifying that the major role of Robo2 is to promote the association of Slit with the tendon cell membrane. Slit-N tends to oligomerize whereas full-length uncleavable Slit does not. It is therefore proposed that Slit-N oligomers, produced at the tendon membrane by Robo2, signal to the approaching muscle by combined Robo1 and Robo3 activity. These findings establish a Robo2-mediated mechanism, independent of signaling, that is essential to limiting Slit distribution and which might be relevant to the regulation of Slit-mediated short-range signaling in additional systems.
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