1,721,009 research outputs found
Respiratory Processes in Oxygenic and Anoxygenic Phototrophic Bacteria
No full textPhototrophic microorganisms include “anoxygenic phototrophs”, which are bacteria capable of growing photosynthetically with no oxygen generation, and Cyanobacteria which are “oxygenic phototrophs” because their photosynthetic apparatus generates oxygen. Several genera of anoxygenic phototrophs are capable of obtaining energy also from aerobic and anaerobic respiration in darkness; conversely, only a few filamentous cyanobacteria can grow in the dark on glucose or other sugars using the organic material as both carbon and energy source. The latter observation suggests that besides the bioenergetic aspect, respiration in cyanobacteria plays other roles such as to control the redox balance or to act as a scavenger for O2 during nitrogen fixation. Facultative phototrophs (capable of both respiration and photosynthesis) contain a photosynthetic apparatus whose synthesis is repressed by oxygen; an exception to this rule is the group of aerobic-anoxygenic phototrophs, mainly marine microorganisms, requiring the presence of oxygen to synthesize their photosynthetic apparatus
Tellurite processing by cells of Rhodobacter capsulatus involves a periplasmic step where the oxyanion causes a malfunction of the cytochrome c maturation system
No full textTellurite (TeO32−) is an oxyanion of increasing concern for soils and water bodies as tellurite is toxic to prokaryotes and eukaryotes. In cells of Rhodobacter capsulatus, a facultative anoxygenic photosynthetic bacterium which tolerates up to 1 mM tellurite, the assembly of c-type cytochromes (cyts) occurs in the periplasm and involves several proteins ensuring the correct redox-state of the cyt cmaturation process (Ccm). Here it is shown that a sub-lethal tellurite concentration (0.2 mM) reduces the amount of cyts c during the early growth-phase of R. capsulatus. This effect is due to a malfunction of the Ccm system and not to an effect on the transcriptional expression of the cyt c genes. Further, growth of mutants MT-G4/S4 and MD21, with mutations at the level of cyt c2 (ΔcycA) and of the Ccm system (ΔdsbA/ΔccdA), respectively, was more affected by tellurite than wild type cells. Both MT-G4/S4 and MD21 mutants, featured by a cyt c2 deficiency, showed a significant decrease in their capacity to reduce TeO32− into Te0, thereby implying the need of a full amount of periplasmic cyt c2 in the microbial-driven speciation of the metalloid. These findings show, for the first time, that tellurite processing by cells starts at the periplasmic level
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
On the role of a specific insert in acetate permeases (ActP) for tellurite uptake in bacteria: Functional and structural studies
No full textThe oxyanion tellurite (TeO32-) is extremely toxic to bacterial cells. In Rhodobacter capsulatus, tellurite enters the cytosol by means of the high uptake-rate acetate permease RcActP2, encoded by one of the three actP genes present in this species (actP1, actP2 and actP3). Conversely, in Escherichia coli a low rate influx of the oxyanion is measured, which depends mainly on the phosphate transporter EcPitA, even though E. coli contains its own EcActP acetate permease. Here we report that when the actP2 gene from R. capsulatus is expressed in wild-type E. coli HB101 and in E. coli JW3460 δpitA mutant, the cellular intake of tellurite increases up to four times, suggesting intrinsic structural differences between EcActP and RcActP2. Indeed, a sequence analysis indicated the presence in RcActP2 of an insert of 15-16 residues, located between trans-membrane (TM) helices 6 and 7, which is absent in both EcActP and RcActP1. Based on this observation, the molecular models of homodimeric RcActP1 and RcActP2 were calculated and analyzed. In the RcActP2 model, the insert induces a perturbation in the conformation of the loop between TM helices 6 and 7, located at the RcActP2 dimerization interface. This perturbation opens a cavity on the periplasmic side that is closed, instead, in the RcActP1 model. This cavity also features an increase of the positive electric potential on the protein surface, an effect ascribed to specific residues Lys261, Lys281 and Arg560. We propose that this positively charged patch in RcActP2 is involved in recognition and translocation of the TeO32- anion, attributing to RcActP2 a greater ability as compared to RcActP1 to transport this inorganic poison inside the cells
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Extracellular production of tellurium nanoparticles by the photosynthetic bacterium Rhodobacter capsulatus
Full text linkThe toxic oxyanion tellurite (TeO32-) is acquired by cells of Rhodobacter capsulatus grown anaerobically in the light, via acetate permease ActP2 and then reduced to Te0 in the cytoplasm as needle-like black precipitates. Interestingly, photosynthetic cultures of R. capsulatus can also generate Te0 nanoprecipitates (TeNPs) outside the cells upon addition of the redox mediator lawsone (2-hydroxy-1,4-naphtoquinone). TeNPs generation kinetics were monitored to define the optimal conditions to produce TeNPs as a function of various carbon sources and lawsone concentration. We report that growing cultures over a 10 days period with daily additions of 1 mM tellurite led to the accumulation in the growth medium of TeNPs with dimensions from 200 up to 600-700 nm in length as determined by atomic force microscopy (AFM). This result suggests that nucleation of TeNPs takes place over the entire cell growth period although the addition of new tellurium Te0 to pre-formed TeNPs is the main strategy used by R. capsulatus to generate TeNPs outside the cells. Finally, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) analysis of TeNPs indicate they are coated with an organic material which keeps the particles in solution in aqueous solvents
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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