1,720,956 research outputs found
Low-molecular-weight thiols: identification of novel thiol compounds and applications in winemaking processes
Full text linkThiols are reduced sulphur molecules that occur both in plants and animals with relevant roles. The thiol group is strongly nucleophilic, thus participating in a lot of biological redox processes, as for example the modulation of oxidative stress and participation to enzymatic reactions.
Low-molecular-weight (LMW) thiols are a class of highly reactive compounds mainly involved in the maintenance of the redox homeostasis in the cells, thanks to the reactivity of their nucleophilic sulfur groups. In plants, they are implicated in the responses to almost all stress factors, as well as in the regulation of cell metabolism. Moreover, they can conjugate or make complexes with xenobiotics and toxic compounds (detoxification processes) and deactivate them, and they can post-translationally modify regulatory enzymes. They also have important implications in food quality and safety, as well as in human health. The most studied LMW thiols are glutathione and its biosynthetically related compounds (cysteine, gamma-glutamylcysteine and cysteinylglycine). Other LMW thiols are described in the literature, such as cysteamine, homocysteine, and many species-specific volatile thiols but less is known about them. Research shows that exists a huge amount of thiols in plants, but many species-specific and organ-specific thiols remain to be identified. Some of these unknown LMW thiols have light dependence, suggesting that they could be related to the photosynthesis processes.
Recent advances in technology should help in this challenging work, helping to know the physiological and metabolic function in plants. However, their identification remains challenging due to their low concentration in plant tissues.
In order to discover new unidentified thiols, in this work it was carried out a derivatization with SBD-F (ammonium 7-fluoro 2,1,3-benzooxadiazole-4-sulfonate) of the plant extracts, and then, SBD-derivatives were analyzed by HPLC-fluorescence and LC-MS/MS in negative mode using an ion trap (Varian 500 MS), to obtain their fragmentation pattern. Known LMW thiols such as cysteine, homocysteine, glutathione, cysteamine, gamma-glutamylcysteine, N-acetylcysteine and cysteinylglycine were used as reference compounds and their fragmentation pattern was first studied in order to highlight a fragmentation rule and molecular markers to systematically identify the unknown LMW thiols. Also high resolution measurements were obtained on a Xevo G-2 Q-TOF mass spectrometer (Waters).
After the derivatization with the fluorophore, thiols can be easily recognized in fragmentation spectra due to the presence of a clear signal arising from the SBD-S fragment (m/z 231). This fragment corresponds to the fluorophore attached to the sulphur group from the LMW thiol. This signal was then used as a marker to confirm the presence of thiol groups in unknown molecules. In this way, some molecules could be identified and further confirmed by Q-TOF analysis; as for example the presence of thioglucose and glutathione containing derivatives. This protocol now opens the way to the identification of unknown thiol molecules.
In winemaking processes, LMW thiols and specifically GSH, have an antioxidant function, which is present in grapes, must and wine. They help contrasting the oxidative browning by protecting grapes, and also the must during fermentation and the wine during the aging processes. They have a key role in the antioxidant activity by protecting wines, mostly white ones, from the oxidative process during aging. Due to this fact, in this study it was also tried to develop and optimize an easy and fast method to quantify the amount of LMW thiols in several German grape varieties (white and red). These compounds were extracted and analyzed using the fluorescent dye SBD-F and HPLC-FL separation. Also using HPLC, the sugars and organic acids were also quantified.
The results of this quantification show that there is a very good reproducibility either in sampling or in the measurement of these compounds in the grape berries. This method can be also applied in must, wine and yeast. The method allowed not only the quantification of GSH, but also of its related compounds: cysteine, gamma-glutamylcysteine and cysteinylglycine in the same chromatogram, showing also the correlation between them. This study on German grape varieties is then showing that GSH is the most important LMW thiol in grapes, whose content is largely depending on the variety. Given their role as an antioxidant and possible beneficial effects during the winemaking processes, GSH and related LMW thiols are an important factor to consider in the evaluation of the grapes used for making wine
Low-molecular-weight thiols in plants: Functional and analytical implications
No full textLow-molecular-weight (LMW) thiols are a class of highly reactive compounds massively involved in the
maintenance of cellular redox homeostasis. They are implicated in plant responses to almost all stress
factors, as well as in the regulation of cellular metabolism. The most studied LMW thiols are glutathione
and its biosynthetically related compounds (cysteine, c-glutamylcysteine, cysteinylglycine, and
phytochelatins). Other LMW thiols are described in the literature, such as thiocysteine, cysteamine,
homocysteine, lipoic acid, and many species-specific volatile thiols. Here, we review the known LMW
thiols in plants, briefly describing their physico-chemical properties, their relevance in post-translational
protein modification, and recently-developed thiol detection methods. Current research points to a huge
thiol biodiversity in plants and many species-specific and organ-specific thiols remain to be identified.
Recent advances in technology should help researchers in this very challenging task, helping us to
decipher the roles of thiols in plant metabolism
Proteome readjustments in the apoplastic space of Arabidopsis thaliana ggt1 mutant leaves exposed to UV-B radiation
Full text linkUltraviolet-B radiation acts as an environmental stimulus, but in high doses it has detrimental effects on plant metabolism. Plasma membranes represent a major target for ROS generated by this harmful radiation. Oxidative reactions occurring in the apoplastic space are counteracted by antioxidative systems mainly involving ascorbate and, to some extent, glutathione. The occurrence of the latter and its exact role in the extracellular space are not well documented, however. In Arabidopsis thaliana, the gamma-glutamyl transferase isoform GGT1 bound to the cell wall takes part in the so-called gamma-glutamyl cycle for extracellular glutathione degradation and recovery, and may be implicated in redox sensing and balance.
In this work, oxidative conditions were imposed with UV-B and studied in redox altered ggt1 mutants. The response of ggt1 knockout Arabidopsis leaves to UV-B radiation was assessed by investigating changes in extracellular glutathione and ascorbate content and their redox state, and in apoplastic protein composition. Our results show that, on UV-B exposure, soluble antioxidants respond to the oxidative conditions in both genotypes. Rearrangements occur in their apoplastic protein composition, suggesting an involvement of H2O2, which may ultimately act as a signal. Other important changes relating to hormonal effects, cell wall remodeling, and redox activities are discussed. We argue that oxidative stress conditions imposed by UV-B and disruption of the gamma-glutamyl cycle result in similar stress-induced responses, to some degree at least. Data are available via ProteomeXchange with identifier PXD001807
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
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
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
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
No full textWe have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used
- …
