416 research outputs found
Salmonella Rissen Φ1: a molecular switch
No full textIntroduction: Bacteria develop resistance against phages by losing the phage receptor or reducing its binding specificity or by a temporary change of phage receptor specificity. Here we describe the phage resistance mechanism adopted by S. Rissen which acts through a molecular switch.
Material & Methods: Phage was isolated from the S. Rissen strain (RW) and used to select the phage resistant strain RRφ1+. We evaluate both the differences in bacterial morphology and the genetic variations between the two strains by biochemical and comparative genomic analyses.
Results: Biochemical analyses showed that the presence of the phage influences biofilm production, phage resistance and the switch of the O-antigen from smooth to rough, Genomic analysis showed that the sensitive and resistant strains differ by 10 genes. Only the phosphomannomutase_1 and 2 genes, involved in mannose synthesis pathway, showed different expression levels. The SNP of the two genes are located near HTs known to regulate phase variation. We used S rissen to see whether a character under strong selection pressure- such as phage resistance is repeatable. In four independent experiment phage resistance was acquired by the same molecular mechanism.
Conclusion: S. rissen uses the same and evolutionary flexible tool (phase variation) to control several characters: biofilm production, phage resistance, and O-antigen structure
FUNCTIONAL AND MOLECULAR ANALYSIS OF an1 MYB TRANSCRIPTIONAL FACTOR INVOLVED IN ANTHOCYANIN PRODUCTION IN POTATO
No full textMigrazioni e schiavi in Roma imperiale. Cenni ed episodi
No full textL’autore si concentra su aspetti e problemi di storia del diritto romano connessi ai fenomeni migratori a Roma nell’epoca dell’espansione. Pone peraltro in rilievo che pure alla condizione giuridica personale di schiavo ci si sottoponeva talora non coercitivamente, bensì mediante la vendita di sé stessi come schiavi e la venuta a Roma. Svolge anche alcune considerazioni su flussi e consistenza numerica degli immigrati e della schiavitù nel contesto della mobilità nell’età imperiale, per concludere con rapidi cenni sugli inizi delle invasioni straniere nell’età tardoantica.The author concentrates on aspects and problems of the history of Roman law related to migration phenomena in Rome during the era of expansion. Moreover, he emphasized that the personal legal status of slave, sometimes were not subjected with coercion, but with the sale of themselves as slaves and the coming to Rome. He also makes some observations on the flows and numerical consistency of immigrants and slavery in the context of mobility in the imperial age, to conclude with a brief outline of the beginnings of foreign invasions in the Late Antiquity
Application of hydroxyapatite as an innovative carrier for bacteriophages.
No full text“Bacteriophage therapy” represents a valid approach against the spread of antibiotic-resistant bacterial strains but - at the same time - displays some disadvantages (low stability, short half-life, no resistance to acid pH condition), which make difficult phage delivery to the specific sites of infection such as the gastrointestinal environment.
Since many years, hydroxyapatite is being explored as vehicle for drug targeting, transfection, bone scaffolds and implant coating materials and, for these reasons we evaluated the effect of this mineral for the bacteriophage therapy. The results have highlighted that Salmonella Rissen bacteriophage displays antimicrobial activity against ten Salmonella species isolated from food.
Complexed with hydroxyapatite, the bacteriophages have shown an increased half-life and a resistance at acid pH conditions.
Experiments have demonstratedthe ability of bacteriophages - carried by HA -to penetrate inside liver cancer cells (HepG2) more efficiently than phages alone and, so, killing in-tracellular bacteria.
Furthermore, the hydroxyapatite/bacteriophage complex was able to reduce the bacterial load of Salmonella Rissen in previously infected minced meat, respect to bacteriophage or hydroxyapatite alone.
Future research will be focused on the study of the effect of hydroxyapatite complexed with other bacteriophages
The Wild Side of Potato: Insights into the Genome Sequence of the Stress-Tolerant S. commersonii
No full textThe wild side of potato: insights into the genome sequence of the stress-tolerant S. commersonii Dun
No full textSolanum commersonii is a potato species native to Central and South America. Despite being genetically isolated from cultivated potato, in the past few years it has garnered significant research interest because it exhibits high tolerance to both biotic and abiotic stresses. Among the abiotic stresses, particularly interesting are its freezing tolerance and capacity to cold acclimatize. Little is understood of the genetic determi- nants and mechanisms beyond its resistance traits. This is partially due to the lack of genomic resources for potato germplasm. The group at the University of Naples has recently decoded, for the first time, the genome of S. commersonii, ushering in a new era of whole-genome sequencing of wild potato relatives. After illustrating the genome structure and organization of this species and its intrigffuing evolutionary roots, this chapter describes findings relative to the identification of the candidate genes for cold stress tolerance. The genome sequence of S. commersonii will pave the way to an understanding of the molecular dynamics that have given this species so many adaptive characteristics
What is Beauty But a Breath? (1984)
Get PDFSATB a cappella – (text is an anonymous 14th century English author - premiered by members of the Concordia College choirs, Frank Felice, conducting, April 1984; originally published by Moon of Hope Publishing, Galesburg, Illinois, 1996.https://digitalcommons.butler.edu/jca_scores/1040/thumbnail.jp
Comparative metabolite and genome analysis of tuber-bearing potato species
No full textThe cultivated potato Solanum tuberosum is unrivalled among crop plants for its wild relatives, which potentially represent an important source of genetic diversity to improve the nutritional value of potato varieties and understand metabolism regulation. The main aim of this research was to profile human health-related metabolites in a number of clones from 13 Solanum species. Results from HPLC-DAD and LC-ESI-MS analyses highlighted a high interspecific variability in the level of metabolites analysed. Ascorbic acid was confirmed to be the most abundant antioxidant in potato and chlorogenic acid the primary polyphenol. Generally, metabolite-based hierarchical clustering (HCL) and correlation networks did not group clones of identical species in the same cluster. This might be due to various factors, including the outcrossing nature of potato species, gene expression level and metabolic profiling techniques. Access to the genome sequence of S. tuberosum and S. commersonii allowed comparison of the genes involved in ascorbic acid, aromatic amino acid, phenylpropanoid and glycoalkaloid biosynthesis and helped interpret their respective pathways
Expression profile of the NCED/CCD genes in chickpea and lentil during abiotic stress reveals a positive correlation with increased plant tolerance
No full text: Carotenoid cleavage dioxygenase (CCD) gene family is organized in two subfamilies: (i) 9-cis epoxycarotenoid dioxygenase (NCED) genes and (ii) CCD genes. NCED genes are essential for catalyzing the first step of the abscisic-acid (ABA) biosynthesis, while CCD genes produce precursors of the strigolactones hormone. The functional characterization of these gene subfamilies has not been yet performed in chickpea and lentil. Herein, were identified and systematically characterized two NCED and five CCD genes in the chickpea and two NCED and six CCD genes in lentil. After in silico sequence analysis and phylogeny, the expression profile of the NCED/CCD genes was determined by meta-analysis and real-time PCR in plants under different stress conditions. Sequence data revealed that NCED/CCD genes are highly conserved between chickpea and lentil. This conservation was observed both at gene and protein sequence levels and phylogenetic relationships. Analysis of the promoter sequences revealed that all NCED/CCD genes have a considerable number of cis-regulatory elements responsive to biotic and abiotic stress. Protein sequence analysis evidenced that NCED/CCD genes share several conserved motifs and that they have a highly interconnected interaction network. Furthermore, the three-dimensional structure of these proteins was determined and indicated that some proteins have structures with considerable similarity. The meta-analysis revealed that NCED/CCD genes are dynamically modulated in different organs and under different stress conditions, but they have a positive correlation with plant tolerance. In accordance, real-time PCR data showed that both NCED and CCD genes are differentially modulated in plants under drought stress. In particular, CaNCED2, CaCCD5, LcNCED2, LcCCD1, and LcCCD2 genes have a positive correlation with improved plant tolerance to drought stress. Therefore, this study presented a detailed characterization of the chickpea and lentil NCED/CCD genes and provided new insights to improve abiotic stress tolerance in these two important crops
CLiC-it 2020 - Italian Conference on Computational Linguistics 2020 - Proceedings of the Seventh Italian Conference on Computational Linguistics
No full textOn behalf of the Program Committee, a very warm welcome to the Seventh Italian Conference on
Computational Linguistics (CLiC-it 2020). This edition of the conference is held in Bologna and
organised by the University of Bologna. The CLiC-it conference series is an initiative of the Italian
Association for Computational Linguistics (AILC) which, after six years of activity, has clearly
established itself as the premier national forum for research and development in the fields of
Computational Linguistics and Natural Language Processing, where leading researchers and
practitioners from academia and industry meet to share their research results, experiences, and
challenges.
This year CLiC-it received 80 submissions against 64 submissions in 2015, 69 in 2016, 72 in
2017, 70 in 2018 and 82 in 2019 confirming the increasing trend of the past years. The
Programme Committee worked very hard to ensure that every paper received at least three
careful and fair reviews. This process finally led to the acceptance of 19 papers for oral
presentation and 53 papers for poster presentation, with a global acceptance rate of 90%
motivated by the inclusive spirit of the conference. The conference is also receiving considerable
attention from the international community, with 17 (21%) submissions showing at least one
author affiliated to a foreign institution. Regardless of the format of presentation, all accepted
papers are allocated 5 or 6 pages plus 2 pages for references in the proceedings, available as
open access publication. In line with previous editions, the conference is organised around
thematic areas managed by one or two area chairs per area.
In addition to the technical programme, this year we are honoured to have as invited speakers
internationally recognised researchers as Veronique Hoste (Ghent University) and Stefan Kopp
(Bielefeld University). We are very grateful to Veronique and Stefan for agreeing to share with
the Italian community their knowledge and expertise on key topics in Computational Linguistics
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