55 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
La tutela degli interessi collettivi nel diritto dell'Unione europea
Get PDFAs a result of some scandals (such as that of Dieselgate), collective actions have recently returned to the fore. While these mechanisms are particularly common in the United States, the European Union has always been quite dubious about the adoption of a comprehensive regulation on the matter. In recent times, however, as a result of the Commission's initiative, they have come back into vogue. In particular, the Commission presented a proposal of a directive on the protection of collective consumer interests in April 2018. The legislative procedure has gone ahead and it is now nearing its conclusion. In this context it is appropriate to evaluate, both the legitimacy of the action of the European political institutions, with regard to the division of competences in procedural matters, and the need for the same, in the light of certain provisions of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. In particular, according to the author, an action by European institutions is necessary with reference to articles 37 and 38 of the Charter, concerning, respectively, the protection of the environment and consumers. In fact, in the absence of specific instruments for the protection of collective interests, the rights of these two categories would remain devoid of effective judicial protection, in sharp contrast with Section 47 of the same regulatory instrument. In this context, the author examines the current state of European legislation with reference to access to justice in environmental issues and the judicial protection of consumer rights
FUNCTIONAL AND MOLECULAR ANALYSIS OF an1 MYB TRANSCRIPTIONAL FACTOR INVOLVED IN ANTHOCYANIN PRODUCTION IN POTATO
No full textIl Recovery Fund
No full textThe Next Generation EU (also called Recovery Fund for its function of restructuring the economy of the member States, after the COVID-19 pandemic) is a plan with which the European Union aims to raise funds on the market through the issue of bonds and, subsequently, to disburse sums of money, including non-repayable funds, for the realization of projects of common European interest. With this plan, the EU intends to finance the so-called green transition, bridge the digital divide and, in addition, support the structural reforms necessary for each member State. The program is very ambitious and marks a turning point in the European Union’s approach to managing economic crises, in the sense that, instead of the so-called ‘austerity’, the supranational legislator prefers to finance investments capable of supporting growth and industrial reconversion. The paper analyzes the conclusions of the extraordinary meeting of the European Council in July and the main draft acts published by the European Commission. The author notes that the program presents certain provisions which, at first glance, may appear incompatible with the Treaty, such as the power of the Commission to issue bonds and the incidence of the no bail-out clause on the legitimacy of non-repayable aids. However, these doubts can be resolved in the light of the correct reading of the provisions of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. The problem is that the Next Generation EU plan ends up restricting the already limited room for maneuver of national parliaments in defining economic policies, so it does not seem really lawful in the light of the democratic principle enshrined in Article 10 TEU
Intelligenza artificiale e dati personali
Get PDFThe European Commission, on April 21, 2021, adopted a legislative proposal of a regulation on artificial intelligence.
This proposal was formulated after a long preparatory work, in which all the political institutions of the EU have been involved.
The proposal does not intend to interfere with the regulatory framework for the protection of personal data (regulation 2016/679).
However, there appears to be some overlap between the two sources of EU law. These overlaps concern the principle of consent, the so called minimization, the pseudoanonymization, the improper use of involuntary discriminatory biases and the right to the explanation of the outcome of a specific system of artificial intelligence.
The author tries to overcome the overlaps and the disharmonies due to the cumulative application of the two sources of EU law (reg. 2016/679 and the future regulation on AI), but it would be better for the European legislator to clarify how to solve the difficulties discending from the application of the GDPR to artificial intelligence systems
La proposta della Commissione europea di adozione del “Digital Markets Act”
No full textI mercati digitali presentano caratteristiche molto peculiari, che ne hanno determinato una struttura fortemente oligopolistica. Questo assetto ha, fino a questo momento, prodotto diverse conseguenze dannose, sia sul funzionamento del mercato che sullo sviluppo di nuove imprese e nuovi prodotti. In questo contesto, diversi Stati hanno cercato di contrastare il fenomeno attraverso l’intervento delle autorità antitrust. Tuttavia, al momento, i tentativi sembrano non aver prodotto gli effetti sperati. L’approccio ora tentato dalla Commissione europea, che sta cercando di introdurre una specifica regolamentazione ex ante delle piattaforme online, fa sperare in una parziale soluzione del problema. La proposta non appare, tuttavia, molto chiara su una questione cruciale, che è il rapporto della stessa con la normativa antitrust. A parere dell’Autore, il Digital Markets Act deve essere considerato come una fonte di diritto complementare, il che significa che gli obblighi previsti al suo interno devono sommarsi agli obblighi previsti dagli artt. 101 e 102 TFUE.Digital markets present very peculiar characteristics, which have determined a strongly oligopolistic structure of the market. This structure has produced several harmful consequences, both on the functioning of the market and on the development of new businesses and new products. In this context, several States have tried to tackle the phenomenon through the intervention of the antitrust authorities. However, at the moment, the attempts do not seem to have produced the desired effects. In this context, the approach now attempted by the European Commission, which is trying to introduce specific ex ante regulation of online platforms, gives hope for a partial solution to the problem. The proposal is not very clear on a crucial matter, which is the relationship between the proposal itself and the antitrust rules. According to the opinion of the Author, the Digital Markets Act must be regarded as a complementary source of law, which means that the obligations provided within should add up to the obligations provided for by Articles 101 and 102 TFEU
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
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
- …
