bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Anaerobic sulfur oxidation underlies adaptation of a chemosynthetic symbiont to oxic-anoxic interfaces
Authors: Paredes Gabriela F. , Viehboeck Tobias , Lee Raymond , Palatinszky Marton , Mausz Michaela A. , Reipert Siegfried , Schintlmeister Arno , Maier Andreas , Volland Jean-Marie , Hirschfeld Claudia , Wagner Michael , Berry David , Markert Stephanie , Bulgheresi Silvia , König Lena 
Published: March 2020

ABSTRACTChemosynthetic symbioses occur worldwide in marine habitats, but comprehensive physiological studies of chemoautotrophic bacteria thriving on animals are scarce. Stilbonematinae are coated by monocultures of thiotrophic Gammaproteobacteria. As these nematodes migrate through the redox zone, their ectosymbionts experience varying oxygen concentrations. However, nothing is known about how these variations affect their physiology or metabolism. Here, by applying omics, Raman microspectroscopy and stable isotope labelling, we investigated the effect of oxygen onCandidatusThiosymbion oneisti. Unexpectedly, sulfur oxidation genes were upregulated in anoxic relative to oxic conditions, but carbon fixation genes and incorporation of13C-labeled bicarbonate were not. Instead, several genes involved in carbon fixation were upregulated in oxic conditions, together with genes involved in organic carbon assimilation, polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) biosynthesis, nitrogen fixation and urea utilization. Furthermore, in the presence of oxygen, stress-related genes were upregulated together with vitamin biosynthesis genes likely necessary to withstand its deleterious effects, and the symbiont appeared to proliferate less. Based on its physiological response to oxygen, we propose thatCa.T. oneisti may exploit anaerobic sulfur oxidation coupled to denitrification to proliferate in anoxic sand. However, the ectosymbiont would still profit from the oxygen available in superficial sand, as the energy-efficient aerobic respiration would facilitate carbon and nitrogen assimilation by the ectosymbiont.IMPORTANCEChemoautotrophic endosymbionts are famous for exploiting sulfur oxidization to feed marine organisms with fixed carbon. However, the physiology of thiotrophic bacteria thriving on the surface of animals (ectosymbionts) is less understood. One long standing hypothesis posits that attachment to animals that migrate between reduced and oxic environments would boost sulfur oxidation, as the ectosymbionts would alternatively access sulfide and oxygen, the most favorable electron acceptor. Here, we investigated the effect of oxygen on the physiology ofCandidatusThiosymbion oneisti, a Gammaproteobacterium which lives attached to marine nematodes inhabiting shallow water sand. Surprisingly, sulfur oxidation genes were upregulated in anoxic relative to oxic conditions. Furthermore, under anoxia, the ectosymbiont appeared to be less stressed and to proliferate more. We propose that animal-mediated access to oxygen, rather than enhancing sulfur oxidation, would facilitate assimilation of carbon and nitrogen by the ectosymbiont.
Conscious perception and the modulatory role of dopamine: no effect of the dopamine D2 agonist cabergoline on visual masking, the attentional blink, and probabilistic discrimination
Authors: Boonstra E.A. , van Schouwenburg M.R. , Seth A.K. , Bauer M. , Zantvoord J.B. , Kemper E.M. , Lansink C.S. , Slagter H.A. 
Published: March 2020

AbstractRationaleConscious perception is thought to depend on global amplification of sensory input. In recent years, striatal dopamine has been proposed to be involved in gating information and conscious access, due to its modulatory influence on thalamocortical connectivity.ObjectivesSince much of the evidence that implicates striatal dopamine is correlational, we conducted a double-blind crossover pharmacological study in which we administered cabergoline – a dopamine D2 agonist – and placebo to 30 healthy participants. Under both conditions, we subjected participants to several well-established experimental conscious-perception paradigms, such as backward masking and the attentional blink task.ResultsWe found no evidence in support of an effect of cabergoline on conscious perception: key behavioral and event-related potential (ERP) findings associated with each of these tasks were unaffected by cabergoline.ConclusionsOur results cast doubt on a causal role for dopamine in visual perception. It remains an open possibility that dopamine has causal effects in other tasks, perhaps where perceptual uncertainty is more prominent.
Morphological and functional variability in central and subcentral motor cortex of the human brain
Authors: Eichert Nicole , Watkins Kate E. , Mars Rogier B. , Petrides Michael 
Published: March 2020

AbstractThere is a long-established link between anatomy and function in the somatomotor system in the mammalian cerebral cortex. The morphology of the central sulcus is predictive of the location of functional activation peaks relating to movement of different effectors in individuals. By contrast, morphological variation in the subcentral region and its relationship to function is, as yet, unknown. Investigating the subcentral region is particularly important in the context of speech, since control of the larynx during human speech production is related to activity in this region. Here, we examined the relationship between morphology in the central and subcentral region and the location of functional activity during movement of the hand, lips, tongue, and larynx at the individual participant level. We provide a systematic description of the sulcal patterns of the subcentral and adjacent opercular cortex, including the inter-individual variability in sulcal morphology. We show that, in the majority of participants, the anterior subcentral sulcus is not continuous, but consists of two distinct segments. A robust relationship between morphology of the central and subcentral sulcal segments and movement of different effectors is demonstrated. Inter-individual variability of underlying anatomy might thus explain previous inconsistent findings, in particular regarding the ventral larynx area in subcentral cortex. A surface registration based on sulcal labels indicated that such anatomical information can improve the alignment of functional data for group studies.
Dispersal ability ofNeophilaenus campestris, a vector ofXylella fastidiosa, from olive groves to over-summering hosts
Authors: Lago C. , Morente M. , De las Heras-Bravo D. , Marti Campoy A. , Rodriguez-Ballester F. , Plaza M. , Moreno A. , Fereres A. 
Published: March 2020

SUMMARYNeophilaenus campestrisis one of the recently identified spittlebugs (Hemiptera: Cercopoidea) able to transmitXylella fastidiosato olive trees. Considering its vector ability and the wide distribution of this species in Spain,N. campestrisshould be considered a serious threat to key crops that are vital for Spanish agriculture such as olive, almonds and grapevines. Migration and dispersal abilities of insect vectors have profound implications in the spread of vector-borne diseases. Thus, knowledge on the dispersal ability ofN. campestrisis essential to model, predict and limit the spread of the diseases caused byX. fastidiosa. A mark-release-recapture technique was developed to track between-field movements ofN. campestrisduring its late spring migration from the ground cover grasses within olive groves to sheltered areas dominated by pine trees. An indoor assay showed that the fluorescent dust used for marking did not affect the survival nor the flying ability ofN. campestris. Spittlebug adults captured in olive groves at Los Santos de la Humosa (Madrid, Spain) during late spring, 2019 were dusted with four fluorescent colours and released in four different locations. Six recapture samplings were performed 23 to 42 days after release in 12 different sites located within a maximum distance of 2.8 km from the release point. Results indicated thatN. campestriswas able to disperse a maximum distance of 2473 m in 35 days from the olive groves to areas dominated by pine trees. Furthermore, our flight mill studies also showed thatN. campestriswas able to fly long distances, reaching almost 1.4 km in an 82 minutes’ single flight.Moreover, we carried out a survey of directional movement of potential vectors ofX. fastidiosain an olive grove located in Villa del Prado (Madrid). We used yellow sticky bands, a Malaise trap and a vertical yellow sticky net to assess the directional movement from olive groves to surrounding managed and unmanaged areas. The captures obtained in the yellow sticky bands showed that spittlebugs dispersal from the olive grove to surrounding vegetation matched with the time when the ground cover dried out. The highest number of spittlebugs was captured in the border between the olive grove and a vineyard close by.Altogether, our findings suggest that eradication measures by rooting-upX. fastidiosa-infected and non-infected trees in a radius of 100 m are of limited value because vectors are able to disperse rapidly over distances much longer than expected.
Neural activity precedes conscious awareness of being in or out of a transient hallucinatory state
Authors: Hugdahl Kenneth , Craven Alexander R. , Johnsen Erik , Ersland Lars , Stoyanov Drozdstoy , Kandilarova Sevdalina , Sandøy Lydia Brunvoll , Kroken Rune A. , Løberg Else-Marie , Sommer Iris E. 
Published: March 2020

SummaryAuditory verbal hallucinations, or “hearing voices”, is a remarkable state of the mind, occurring in psychiatric and neurological patients, and in a significant minority of the general population. An unexplained characteristic of this phenomenon is that it transiently fluctuates, with coming and going of episodes with time. We monitored neural activity with BOLD-fMRI second-by-second before and after participants indicated the start and end of a transient hallucinatory episode during the scanning session by pressing a response-button. We show that a region in the ventro-medial frontal cortex is activated in advance of conscious awareness of going in or out of a transient hallucinatory state. There was an increase in activity initiated a few seconds before the button-press for onsets, and a corresponding decrease in activity initiated a few seconds before the button-press for offsets. We identified the time between onset and offset button-presses, extracted the corresponding BOLD time-courses from nominated regions-of-interest, and analyzed changes in the signal from 10 seconds before to 15 seconds after the response-button was pressed, which identified onset and offset events. We suggest that this brain region act as a switch to turn on and off a hallucinatory episode. The results may have implications for new interventions for intractable hallucinations.
ODELAM: Rapid sequence-independent detection of drug resistance in clinical isolates of Mycobacterium tuberculosis
Authors: Herricks Thurston , Donczew Magdalena , Mast Fred D. , Rustad Tige , Morrison Robert , Sterling Timothy R. , Sherman David R. , Aitchison John D. 
Published: March 2020

AbstractAntimicrobial-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) causes over 200,000 deaths each year. Current assays of antimicrobial resistance need knowledge of mutations that confer drug resistance, or long periods of culture time to test growth under drug pressure. We present ODELAM (One-cell Doubling Evaluation of Living Arrays of Mycobacterium), a time-lapse microscopy-based method that observes individual cells growing into microcolonies. ODELAM enables rapid quantitative measures of growth kinetics in as little as 30 hours under a wide variety of environmental conditions. We show the utility of ODELAM by identifying ofloxacin resistance in clinical isolates of Mtb and benchmark its performance with standard MIC assays. In one clinical isolate, ODELAM identified ofloxacin heteroresistance and identifies the presence of drug resistant colony forming units (CFU) at 1 per 1000 CFUs in as little as 48 hours. ODELAM is a powerful new tool that can rapidly evaluate Mtb drug resistance in a laboratory setting.
Beyond the greenhouse: coupling environmental and salt stress response reveals unexpected global transcriptional regulatory networks inSalicornia bigelovii
Authors: Chelaifa Houda , Vinu Manikandan , Dieng Massar , Idaghdour Youssef , Hasan Ayesha , Hernandez Hector H. 
Published: March 2020

AbstractSoil salinity is an increasing threat to global food production systems. As such, there is a need for salt tolerant plant model systems in order to understand salt stress regulation and response.Salicornia bigelovii, a succulent obligatory halophyte, is one of the most salt tolerant plant species in the world. It possesses distinctive characteristics that make it a candidate plant model for studying salt stress regulation and tolerance, showing promise as an economical non-crop species that can be used for saline land remediation and for large-scale biofuel production. However, availableS. bigeloviigenomic and transcriptomic data are insufficient to reveal its molecular mechanism of salt tolerance. We performed transcriptome analysis ofS. bigeloviiflowers, roots, seeds and shoots tissues cultivated under desert conditions and irrigated with saline aquaculture effluent. We identified a unique set of tissue specific transcripts present in this non-model crop. A total of 66,943 transcripts (72.63%) were successfully annotated through the GO database with 18,321 transcripts (27.38%) having no matches to known transcripts. Excluding non-plant transcripts, differential expression analysis of 49,914 annotated transcripts revealed differentially expressed transcripts (DETs) between the four tissues and identified shoots and flowers as the most transcriptionally similar tissues relative to roots and seeds. The DETs between above and below ground tissues, with the exclusion of seeds, were primarily involved in osmotic regulation and ion transportation. We identified DETs between shoots and roots implicated in salt tolerance includingSbSOS1,SbNHX,SbHKT6 upregulated in shoots relative to roots, while aquaporins (AQPs) were up regulated in roots. We also noted that DETs implicated in osmolyte regulation exhibit a different profile among shoots and roots. Our study provides the first report of a highly upregulated HKT6 fromS. bigeloviishoot tissue. Furthermore, we identified two BADH transcripts with divergent sequence and tissue specific expression pattern. Overall, expression of the ion transport transcripts suggests Na+accumulation inS. bigeloviishoots. Our data led to novel insights into transcriptional regulation across the four tissues and identified a core set of salt stress-related transcripts inS. bigelovii.
Expression ofBacillus cereusVirulence-Related Genes in an Ocular Infection-Related Environment
Authors: Coburn Phillip S. , Miller Frederick C. , Enty Morgan A. , Land Craig , LaGrow Austin L. , Mursalin Md Huzzatul , Callegan Michelle C. 
Published: March 2020

AbstractBacillus cereusproduces many factors linked to pathogenesis and is recognized for causing gastrointestinal toxemia and infections.B. cereusalso causes a fulminant and often blinding intraocular infection called endophthalmitis. We reported that the PlcR/PapR system regulates intraocular virulence, but the specific factors that contribute toB. cereusvirulence in the eye remain elusive. Here, we compared gene expression inex vivovitreous humor with expression in Luria Bertani (LB) and Brain Heart Infusion (BHI) broth by RNA-Seq. The expression of several cytolytic toxins in vitreous was less than or similar to levels observed in BHI or LB. Regulators of virulence genes, including PlcR/PapR, were expressed in vitreous. PlcR/PapR was expressed at low levels, though we had reported that PlcR-deficientB. cereuswas attenuated in the eye. Chemotaxis and motility genes were expressed at similar levels in LB and BHI, but at low to undetectable levels in vitreous, although motility is an important phenotype forB. cereusin the eye. Superoxide dismutase, a potential inhibitor of neutrophil activity in the eye during infection, was the most highly expressed gene in vitreous. Genes previously reported to be important to intraocular virulence were expressed at low levels in vitreous under these conditions, possibly becausein vivocues are required for higher level expression. Genes expressed in vitreous may contribute to the unique virulence ofB. cereusendophthalmitis, and future analysis of theB. cereusvirulome in the eye will identify those expressedin vivo, which could potentially be targeted to arrest virulence.Impact statementB. cereusis the causative agent of gastrointestinal infections, but can also cause a serious infection of the eye that often results in blindness or enucleation. Current therapeutic measures often fail to mitigate these poor outcomes. This necessitates the development of new treatment modalities based on new targets. To begin to better define thoseB. cereusfactors with roles in intraocular infection, we analyzed the expression of genes related to gastrointestinal infections, as well as those with both known and hypothesized roles in intraocular infections, after growth in anex vivovitreous. Potentially targetable candidate genes were demonstrated to be expressed in vitreous, which suggests that these genes might contribute to the unique virulence ofB. cereusendophthalmitis. Importantly, our results lay the groundwork for assessing the expression of these genesin vivoand defining the virulome ofB. cereusin intraocular infections.
Interaction mapping of endoplasmic reticulum ubiquitin ligases identifies modulators of innate immune signalling
Authors: Fenech Emma J. , Lari Federica , Charles Philip D. , Fischer Roman , Laétitia-Thézénas Marie , Bagola Katrin , Paton Adrianne W. , Paton James C. , Gyrd-Hansen Mads , Kessler Benedikt M. , Christianson John C. 
Published: March 2020

AbstractUbiquitin ligases (E3s) embedded in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) membrane regulate essential cellular activities including protein quality control, calcium flux, and sterol homeostasis. At least 25 different, transmembrane domain (TMD)-containing E3s are predicted to be ER-localised, but for most their organisation and cellular roles remain poorly defined. Using a comparative proteomic workflow, we mapped over 450 protein-protein interactions for 21 different stably expressed, full-length E3s. Bioinformatic analysis linked ER-E3s and their interactors to multiple homeostatic, regulatory, and metabolic pathways. Among these were four membrane-embedded interactors of RNF26, a polytopic E3 whose abundance is auto-regulated by ubiquitin-proteasome dependent degradation. RNF26 co-assembles with TMEM43, ENDOD1, TMEM33 and TMED1 to form a complex capable of modulating innate immune signalling through the cGAS-STING pathway. This RNF26 complex represents a new modulatory axis of STING and innate immune signalling at the ER membrane. Collectively, these data reveal the broad scope of regulation and differential functionalities mediated by ER-E3s for both membrane-tethered and cytoplasmic processes.
Non-Toxic Virucidal Macromolecules Show High Efficacy Against Influenza Virus Ex Vivo and In Vivo
Authors: Kocabiyik Ozgun , Cagno Valeria , Silva Paulo Jacob , Zhu Yong , Sedano Laura , Bhide Yoshita , Mettier Joelle , Medaglia Chiara , Costa Bruno Da , Constant Samuel , Huang Song , Kaiser Laurent , Hinrichs Wouter L. J. , Huckeriede Anke , Goffic Ronan Le , Tapparel Caroline , Stellacci Francesco 
Published: March 2020

AbstractInfluenza is one of the most widespread viral infections worldwide and represents a major public health problem. The risk that one of the next pandemics is caused by an influenza strain is very high. It is very important to develop broad-spectrum influenza antivirals to be ready for any possible vaccine shortcomings. Anti-influenza drugs are available but they are far from ideal. Arguably, an ideal antiviral should target conserved viral domains and be virucidal,i.e. irreversibly inhibit viral infectivity. Here, we describe a new class of broad-spectrum anti-influenza macromolecules that meets these criteria and displays exceedingly low toxicity. These compounds are based on a cyclodextrin core modified on its primary face with long hydrophobic linkers terminated in 6’sialyl-N-acetyllactosamine (6’SLN) or 3’SLN. SLN enables nanomolar inhibition of the viruses while the hydrophobic linkers confer irreversibility to the inhibition. The combination of these two properties allows for efficacy in vitro against several human or avian influenza strains, as well as against a 2009 pandemic influenza strain ex vivo. Importantly, we show that, in mice, the compounds provide therapeutic efficacy when administered 24h post-infection allowing 90% survival as opposed to no survival for the placebo and oseltamivir..
Plasmid analysis of NDM metallo-β-lactamase-producing Enterobacterales isolated in Vietnam
Authors: Hirabayashi Aki , Yahara Koji , Mitsuhashi Satomi , Nakagawa So , Imanishi Tadashi , Ha Van Thi Thu , Nguyen An Van , Nguyen Son Thai , Shibayama Keigo , Suzuki Masato 
Published: March 2020

AbstractCarbapenem-resistant Enterobacterales (CRE) represent a serious threat to public health due to the lack of treatment and high mortality. The rate of antimicrobial resistance of Enterobacterales isolates to major antimicrobials, including carbapenems, is much higher in Vietnam than in Western countries, but the reasons remain unknown due to the lack of genomic epidemiology research. A previous study suggested that carbapenem resistance genes, such as the carbapenemase geneblaNDM, spread via plasmids among Enterobacterales in Vietnam. In this study, we characterizedblaNDM-carrying plasmids in Enterobacterales isolated in Vietnam, and identified several possible cases of horizontal transfer of plasmids both within and among species of bacteria. Twenty-five carbapenem-nonsusceptible isolates from a medical institution in Hanoi were sequenced on Illumina short-read sequencers, and 13blaNDM-positive isolates, including isolates ofKlebsiella pneumoniae,Escherichia coli,Citrobacter freundii,Morganella morganii, andProteus mirabilis, were further sequenced on an Oxford Nanopore Technologies long-read sequencer to obtain complete plasmid sequences. Almost identical 73 kb IncFII(pSE11)::IncN hybrid plasmids carryingblaNDM-1were found in aP. mirabilisisolate and anM. morganiiisolate. A 112 kb IncFII(pRSB107)::IncN hybrid plasmid carryingblaNDM-1in anE. coliisolate had partially identical sequences with a 39 kb IncR plasmid carryingblaNDM-1and an 88 kb IncFII(pHN7A8)::IncN hybrid plasmid in aC. freundiiisolate. 148–149 kb IncFIA(Hl1)::IncA/C2 plasmids and 75–76 kb IncFII(Yp) plasmids, both carryingblaNDM-1were shared among three sequence type 11 (ST11) isolates and three ST395 isolates ofK. pneumoniae, respectively. Most of the plasmids co-carried genes conferring resistance to clinically relevant antimicrobials, including third-generation cephalosporins, aminoglycosides, and fluoroquinolones, in addition toblaNDM-1. These results provide insight into the genetic basis of CRE in Vietnam, and could help control nosocomial infections.