Effects of Abolishing Whi2 on the Proteome and Nitrogen Catabolite Repression-Sensitive Protein Production

In yeast physiology, a commonly used reference condition for many experiments, including those involving Nitrogen Catabolite Repression (NCR), is growth in Synthetic Complete (SC) medium. Four SC formulations, SCCSH, 1990, SCCSH, 1994, SCCSH, 2005 and SCME, have been used interchangeably as the nitrogen-rich medium of choice (Cold Spring Harbor Yeast Course Manuals, SCCSH, and a formulation in The Methods in Enzymology SCME). It has been tacitly presumed that all of these formulations support equivalent responses. However, Chen et al. (2018) concluded that: (i) TorC1 activity is down regulated by the lower concentration of primarily leucine in SCME relative to SCCSH. (ii) The Whi2-Psr1/2 complex is responsible for this down regulation. TorC1 is a primary nitrogen-responsive regulator in yeast. Among its downstream targets is control of NCR-sensitive transcription activators Gln3 and Gat1. They in turn control production of catabolic transporters and enzymes needed to scavenge poor nitrogen sources (e.g., Proline) and activate autophagy (ATG14). One of the reporters used in Chen et al. was an NCR-sensitive DAL80-GFP promoter fusion. This intrigued us because we expected minimal if any DAL80 expression in SC medium. Therefore, we investigated the source of the Dal80-GFP production and the proteomes of wild type and whi2Δ cells cultured in SCCSH and SCME. We found a massive and equivalent reorientation of amino acid biosynthetic proteins in both wild type and whi2Δ cells even though both media contained high overall concentrations of amino acids. Gcn2 appears to play a significant regulatory role in this reorientation. NCR-sensitive DAL80 expression and overall NCR-sensitive protein production were only marginally affected by the whi2Δ. In contrast, the levels of 58 proteins changed by an absolute value of log2 between 3 and 8) when Whi2 was abolished relative to wild type. Surprisingly, with only two exceptions could those proteins be related in GO analyses, i.e., GO terms associated with carbohydrate metabolism and oxidative stress after shifting a whi2Δ from SCCSH to SCME for 6 hours. What was conspicuously missing were proteins related by TorC1- and NCR-associated GO terms.

Monitoring the Safety of Herbal Medicines in Yemen: A Call for Action

Consuming modern medicines with traditional herbs to treat and prevent diseases or even maintain health and well-being is common in different countries. Despite the high prevalence of this activity in Yemen, there is neither proper regulation that controls the production, standardization, quality control and use nor an appropriate system for herbal pharmacovigilance in Yemen. Yemenis prefer to use herbs before resorting to allopathic medicines, sometimes in concomitant or alternative to the allopathic medication. Most people believe that herbs are safe, though there are many side effects associated with herbal medicines. For the safe and effective use of traditional herbal medication, there should be a regulation from the official authorities that controls their preparation, selling, quality control, production, and monitoring of the side effects. The World Health Organization (WHO) stated a guideline for monitoring herbal safety within the current pharmacovigilance framework. However, monitoring and reporting the adverse effects of allopathic medicines in Yemen are limited, and the situation is more complicated and challenging for herbal medicines. The present article highlighted the challenges and provided recommendations for the application of effective herbal pharmacovigilance.

The HrpX Protein Activates Synthesis of the RaxX Sulfopeptide, Required for Activation of XA21-Mediated Immunity to Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae

Upon encountering a susceptible plant host, a bacterial pathogen expresses specific virulence factors. For example, in planta, the Xanthomonas HrpX protein activates transcription of roughly 150 genes encoding components of the type III secretion system or its translocated effectors, as well as other secreted proteins implicated in pathogenesis. Here, we show that X. oryzae pv. oryzae growth in planta or in HrpX-inducing XOM2 media resulted in HrpX-dependent transcription of the raxX and raxST genes that control production of the RaxX sulfopeptide, exported through a type I secretion system. The RaxX protein is required for activation of XA21-mediated immunity in Xa21+ rice lines. We identified potential plant-inducible promoter elements upstream of the likely 5′ ends of the raxX and raxST transcripts. Deletions and nucleotide substitutions confirmed that these elements are required for HrpX-dependent expression of raxX and raxST. We conclude that raxX-raxST gene expression is induced by HrpX during growth in planta and, therefore, is coordinately expressed with other genes required for pathogenesis. [Formula: see text] Copyright © 2021 The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license .

Transformation of oil and gas fields based on information technologies

Currently, there is an opportunity to ensure digital transformation in the leading oil and gas companies in Russia. The main task of the transformation is to reduce capital and operating costs and increase production efficiency. The objects of transformation are processes, information, and people. Considering the existing technological and geological constraints for the Arctic fields, it is advisable to ensure the initial implementation of the principles of a digital intelligent field when creating control systems for wells and control production complexes. An important component is the development of an effective decision support system as a tool for calculating forecast tasks that provides strategic and tactical planning when modeling geological and technological processes online. The materials provide the structure of remote management of geographically distributed facilities of PJSC Gazprom, as well as solutions already implemented and confirmed the effectiveness of management for the Bovanenkovo oil and gas condensate field located in the Arctic on the Yamal Peninsula.

Technology For Oil Production Wells Drawdown and Gor Control For Oil Rim Reservoir Development on the Yurubcheno-Tokhomskoye Field.

One of the critical tasks during the oil rim development is to control production wells to prevent water breakthroughs and gas outs. Key factors are control over drawdown and on-time choke restriction of the well in case of a gas out and an extreme gas factor increase.

Enhancing Resveratrol Bioproduction and Anti-Melanogenic Activities through Elicitation in DJ526 Cell Suspension

Resveratrol, a secondary plant metabolite, and its derivatives, including piceid, show several potential health-related biological activities. However, resveratrol production is uncommon in plants; thus, resveratrol-enriched rice (DJ526) is produced for its nutritional and therapeutic value. Here, a DJ526 cell suspension was treated with various elicitors to determine its resveratrol-production potential and elicit its biological activity. Treatments with most elicitors produced more piceid than resveratrol; as elicitation periods increased, the average piceid levels were 75-fold higher than resveratrol levels. This increase is associated with glycosylation during growth and development. The duration of exposure and concentrations of elicitors were crucial factors affecting resveratrol synthase expression. Of all the elicitors tested, jasmonic acid and methyl jasmonate (MeJA) were strong elicitors; they increased resveratrol production to ≤115.1 μg g−1 (total resveratrol and piceid content). Moreover, 5 μM of MeJA increased total resveratrol production by >96.4% relative to the control production. In addition, the extract of cell suspension treated with 5 μM of MeJA significantly reduced melanin content and cellular tyrosinase activity (24.2% and 21.5% relative to the control, respectively) in melan-a cells without disturbing cell viability. Overall, elicitation can enhance resveratrol production and elicit the biological activity of the compound, in this case, its anti-melanogenic activities, in DJ526 cell suspension.

Biocultural aspects of mental distress: Expanding the biomedical model towards an integrative biopsychosocial understanding of disorder

Objective: To produce a theoretical approach about the relations between neuroscience and psychopathology that expands beyond the biomedical model to include a non-reductionist, enactive, and biocultural perspective. Method: An integrative review, drawing from the biocultural approach from Anthropology, is used to produce examples from epigenetics, neuroplasticity, and functional neuroanatomy. Results and conclusion: A biocultural approach points to a brain that is highly plastic, reinforcing a much more complex model in which biological vulnerabilities and the historical-cultural environment co-construct each other. The examples given seem to point to the pressing need for a critical expansion of reductionist models of psychopathology. Importantly, the cultural-historical environment to which we refer is not a set of neutral social relations to which individuals are homogeneously exposed, such that aspects that are usually studied under the social determinants of health and disease (poverty, discrimination, violence, and other factors that represent sources of control, production, and distribution of material resources, ideology, and power) need to be incorporated in adequate biopsychosocial models of mental distress.

Demand Response Model for Optimized Use of Renewable Energies in Production

A demand-response model was developed in the Automation Technology Laboratory at the Velbert/Heiligenhaus Campus (CVH) of Bochum University of Applied Sciences, in which energy users in the manufacturing sector are networked with a smart grid via a cloud platform in order to control production based on the supply of renewable energies.