Abstract The brown planthoppers (BPH) Nilaparvata lugens (Stål) and the white-backed planthoppers (WBPH) Sogatella furcifera (Horváth) annually migrate from tropical and subtropical regions to temperate regions in Asia, including Japan, Korea and northern China. To elucidate the genetic divergence based on geography of planthoppers and to estimate their migration route on the basis of molecular data, we analysed a part of their mitochondrial genome sequences. Sequences of cytochrome oxidase subunit I ( cox1 ) – transfer RNA for Leu ( trnL2 ) – cox2 were determined for 579 BPH (1,928 bp) and 464 WBPH (1,927 bp) individuals collected from 31 and 25 locations, respectively, in East and Southeast Asia. Thirty and 20 mitochondrial haplotypes were detected for BPH and WBPH, respectively. Single populations of both planthoppers included multiple haplotypes, and many haplotypes were shared in some populations and areas. The most frequently detected haplotypes accounted for approximately 50% of all BPH and WBPH individuals. To evaluate gene flow among planthoppers in different regions in Asia, pairwise fixation index ( Fst ) values were calculated. For BPH, high Fst values (0.580–0.926) were shown between planthoppers in Papua New Guinea (PNG) and the other areas and moderate Fst values (0.176–0.362) were observed between those in southern Philippines and other areas. For WBPH, the Fst value was the highest between Taiwan and southern Vietnam (0.236), and low among the other areas. AMOVA indicated no genetic structure among eight areas, excluding southern Philippines and PNG, for BPH, and among ten areas for WBPH. These data indicate that both planthoppers do not show much differentiation of local populations and/or have genetically intermixed Asian populations. These data also indicate that it may be difficult to distinguish regional planthopper populations on the basis of differences in mitochondrial sequences.
Whereas accumulating evidence indicates that a number of inflammatory genes are induced by activation of nuclear factor-κB and other transcription factors, less is known about genes that are suppressed by proinflammatory stimuli. Here we show that expression of thioredoxin-interacting protein (Txnip) is dramatically suppressed both in mRNA and protein levels upon stimulation with lipopolysaccharide in mouse and human macrophages. In addition to lipopolysaccharide, a Toll-like receptor 4 ligand, stimulation with other Toll-like receptor ligands such as CpG DNA also suppressed Txnip expression. Not only the Toll-like receptor ligands, but also other proinflammatory stimulators, such as interleukin-1β and tumor necrosis factor-α elicited the similar response in fibroblasts. Suppression of Txnip by lipopolysaccharide is accompanied by a decrease of the glucose sensing transcription factor MondoA in the nuclei and dissociation of the MondoA:Mlx complex that bound to the carbohydrate-response elements in the Txnip promoter in unstimulated cells. Lipopolysaccharide-mediated decrease of nuclear MondoA was inhibited in the presence of 2-deoxyglucose. Furthermore, blockage of glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase by iodoacetate alleviated the suppression of Txnip mRNA by lipopolysaccharide, suggesting the involvement of glucose-metabolites in the regulation. Since Txnip is implicated in the regulation of glucose metabolism, this observation links between inflammatory responses and metabolic regulation.
We proposed a novel nonlinear equalization scheme using a support vector machine (SVM) for optical fiber communication systems. The scheme works even when the received symbols are completely distorted on a constellation map. Whereas conventional SVM-based nonlinear equalization is performed on a two-dimensional (2D) in-phase-quadrature (IQ)-plane, our proposed scheme uses the SVM in a higher dimensional signal space after tapped delay lines. By employing the proposed scheme, we can enlarge the separation between the distorted symbols. We investigated the basic performance using simulated optical fiber transmission of 10-GSymbol/s 16QAM signals. The receiver sensitivity was improved by 2 dB at a BER of 10-5.
Five new briarane-type diterpenoids, pachyclavulides E (5), F (6), G (7), H (8) and I (9), were isolated from the Okinawan soft coral Pachyclavularia violacea. The structures of these compounds were elucidated based on the results of spectroscopic analysis. Compound 5 showed a weak growth-inhibitory activity in vitro toward cancer cells.
The expression of p16(INK4a) has been reported to induce cell-cycle arrest and cellular senescence. The p16(INK4a) expression has never been examined in human mast cells and mastocytosis. We immunohistologically examined the expression of p16(INK4a) and tryptase in 5 normal human skin and 4 mastocytosis. In normal mast cells, only 5.9 ± 3.4 (mean ± standard deviation) % of tryptase-positive mast cells coexpressed p16(INK4a). However, significantly higher percentage (86.0 ± 14.1%) of tryptase-positive tumor cells was immunoreactive to p16(INK4a) in all of 4 mastocytosis. The p16(INK4a) overexpression may induce the senescence of neoplastic mast cells to undergo spontaneous regression of mastocytosis.
TheDbeA1variantofanovelhaloalkanedehalogenaseDbeA(EC3.8.1.5)fromBradyrhizobiumelkaniUSDA94 was constructed to study the structure-function relationships between DbjA and DbeA enzymes. A DbeA1 variant carries a unique fragment of nine amino acids transplanted from the sequentially closely related enzyme DbjA from Bradyrhizobium japonicumUSDA110 toDbeA. Herewe reportdevelopment of the crystallization protocolfor DbeA1and soaking experiments with the ligands 1-fluoropentane and 1,3-dichloropropane.
We evaluated the properties of porous beta-tricalcium phosphate (β-TCP) coated with a thin layer of hydroxyapatite (HA) using a molecular precursor method. Samples of HA-coated beta-TCP (HATCP) and non-coated β-TCP (TCP) were used for osteoblast culture. The proliferation and function of osteoblasts cultured in the samples were evaluated. Osteoblast proliferation and mineralization activity and secretion of osteoclast activating factors in the samples were observed. The thin HA coating on porous β-TCP was not affected to the three dimensional structures. The calcium concentration with osteoblast was significantly higher in the HATCP group, suggesting the thin HA coating enhanced mineralization activity of osteoblast. Osteoblast proliferation activity was similar in the TCP and HATCP groups. Then, osteoclast activating factors seen in HATCP were more than those in TCP. These results suggest that a thin HA coating on porous β-TCP enhanced osteoblast function activity without reducing proliferation activity.
Messenger RNA (mRNA) drugs have attracted considerable attention as promising tools with many therapeutic applications. The efficient delivery of mRNA drugs using non-viral materials is currently being explored. We demonstrate a novel concept where mCherry mRNA bearing a poly(A) tail is encapsulated into capsids co-assembled from viral β-annulus peptides bearing a 20-mer oligothymine (dT20) at the N-terminus and unmodified peptides via hybridization of dT20 and poly(A). Dynamic light scattering measurements and transmission electron microscopy images of the mRNA-encapsulated capsids show the formation of spherical assemblies of approximately 50 nm. The encapsulated mRNA shows remarkable ribonuclease resistance. Further, modification by a cell-penetrating peptide (His16) on the capsid enables the intracellular expression of mCherry of encapsulated mRNA.
