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Prion protein interaction with soil humic substances: environmental implications.

ABSTRACT: Transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSE) are fatal neurodegenerative disorders caused by prions. Animal TSE include scrapie in sheep and goats, and chronic wasting disease (CWD) in cervids. Effective management of scrapie in many parts of the world, and of CWD in North American deer population is complicated by the persistence of prions in the environment. After shedding from diseased animals, prions persist in soil, withstanding biotic and abiotic degradation. As soil is a complex, multi-component system of both mineral and organic components, it is important to understand which soil compounds may interact with prions and thus contribute to disease transmission. Several studies have investigated the role of different soil minerals in prion adsorption and infectivity; we focused our attention on the interaction of soil organic components, the humic substances (HS), with recombinant prion protein (recPrP) material. We evaluated the kinetics of recPrP adsorption, providing a structural and biochemical characterization of chemical adducts using different experimental approaches. Here we show that HS act as potent anti-prion agents in prion infected neuronal cells and in the amyloid seeding assays: HS adsorb both recPrP and prions, thus sequestering them from the prion replication process. We interpreted our findings as highly relevant from an environmental point of view, as the adsorption of prions in HS may affect their availability and consequently hinder the environmental transmission of prion diseases in ruminants.

SUBMITTER: Giachin G

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4061048 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Prion protein interaction with soil humic substances: environmental implications.

Giachin Gabriele G Narkiewicz Joanna J Scaini Denis D Ngoc Ai Tran AT Margon Alja A Sequi Paolo P Leita Liviana L Legname Giuseppe G

PloS one 20140617 6

Transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSE) are fatal neurodegenerative disorders caused by prions. Animal TSE include scrapie in sheep and goats, and chronic wasting disease (CWD) in cervids. Effective management of scrapie in many parts of the world, and of CWD in North American deer population is complicated by the persistence of prions in the environment. After shedding from diseased animals, prions persist in soil, withstanding biotic and abiotic degradation. As soil is a complex, multi ...[more]

PMID: 24937266

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Project description:Plant litter is one of the main sources of soil humus, but which can also promote primary humus degradation by increasing microbial activity due to the higher availability of energy released, resulting in a confusing relationship between litterfall and soil humus. Therefore, an in situ incubation experiment was carried out in three subalpine forests (coniferous, mixed and broadleaved forests) on the eastern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. We set up two treatments. One that allowed litterfall to enter the soil normally and the other prevented litterfall to enter the soil. Soils were sampled in October (the end of the growing season), January (the onset of the freezing season), March (the end of the freezing season), and May (the start of the growing season) from May 2017 to May 2018. By assessing the litterfall production, the content of total extracted humus, humic acid (HA) and fulvic acid (FA) in the topsoil (0-20 cm) in each incubation period, we determined the impact of litterfall on the content of humus extracted from the soil during the freezing and the growing season. Over 1-year incubation, soil total extracted humus and HA showed considerable decreases in the treatment of retained litterfall in the mixed forest but not in the coniferous or broadleaved forests. Moreover, litterfall significantly reduced the contents of soil total extracted humus and HA during the growing season in all three forests, while only reduced soil HA content in the broadleaved forest in the freezing season. The relationship between litterfall and soil extracted humic substances was greatly regulated by the seasonal dynamics of litter types and litter production in all forest types. The larger the amount of litterfall was, the more litterfall could promote the reduction of soil extracted humic substances. Compared with a single type of broadleaf or needle litter, mixed litterfall could promote a higher degradation of soil humic substances. However, broadleaf litter might lead to much greater decreases in soil humic substance than needle litter because it is more decomposable. These results indicate that the effect of litterfall on soil humic substances are mainly regulated by litter types and litter production. Moreover, the effects of litterfall on soil humic substances are more significant during the growing season than winter. This suggests that the longer growing season and a shorter winter caused by ongoing global warming may alter the relationships between litterfall and extracted humic substances, further disrupting the carbon balance of forest ecosystems in the subalpine forests.

Project description:Conversion of conventional farming (CF) to organic farming (OF) is claimed to allow a sustainable management of soil resources, but information on changes induced on dissolved organic matter (DOM) are scarce. Among DOM components, dissolved humic substances (DHS) were shown to possess stimulatory effects on plant growth. DHS were isolated from CF and OF soil leacheates collected from soil monolith columns: first in November (bare soils) and then in April and June (bare and planted soils). DHS caused an enhancement of nitrate uptake rates in maize roots and modulated several genes involved in nitrogen acquisition. The DHS from OF soil exerted a stronger biostimulant action on the nitrate uptake system, but the first assimilatory step of nitrate was mainly activated by DHS derived from CF soil. To validate the physiological response of plants to DHS exposure, real-time RT-PCR analyses were performed on those genes most involved in nitrate acquisition, such as ZmNRT2.1, ZmNRT2.2, ZmMHA2 (coding for two high-affinity nitrate transporters and a PM H+-proton pump), ZmNADH:NR, ZmNADPH:NR, and ZmNiR (coding for nitrate reductases and nitrite reductase). All tested DHS fractions induced the upregulation of nitrate reductase (NR), and in particular the OF2 DHS stimulated the expression of both tested transcripts encoding for two NR isoforms. Characteristics of DHS varied during the experiment in both OF and CF soils: a decrease of high molecular weight fractions in the OF soil, a general increase in the carboxylic groups content, as well as diverse structural modifications in OF vs. CF soils were observed. These changes were accelerated in planted soils. Similarity of chemical properties of DHS with the more easily obtainable water-soluble humic substance extracted from peat (WEHS) and the correspondence of their biostimulant actions confirm the validity of studies which employ WEHS as an easily available source of DHS to investigate biostimulant actions on agricultural crops.

Dataset Information

Prion protein interaction with soil humic substances: environmental implications.

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Prion protein interaction with soil humic substances: environmental implications.

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