Project description:Yeast whole cells have been widely used in modern biotechnology as biocatalysts to generate numerous compounds of industrial, chemical, and pharmaceutical importance. Since many of the biocatalysis utilizing manufactures have become more concerned about environmental issues, seawater is now considered a sustainable alternative to freshwater for biocatalytic processes. This approach plausibly commenced new research initiatives into exploration of salt tolerant yeast strains. Recently, there has also been a growing interest in possible applications of microbial biofilms in the field of biocatalysis. In these complex communities, cells demonstrate higher resistance to adverse environmental conditions due to their embedment in an extracellular matrix, in which physical, chemical, and physiological gradients exist. Considering these two topics, seawater and biofilms, in this work we characterized biofilm formation in seawater-based growth media by several salt tolerant yeast strains with previously demonstrated bocatalytic capacities. The tested strains formed both air-liquid-like biofilms and biofilms on silicone surfaces, with Debaryomyces fabryi, Schwanniomyces etchellsii, S. polymorphus and Kluyveromyces marxianus showing the highest biofilm formation. The extracted biofilm extracellular matrices mostly consisted of carbohydrates and proteins. The latter group was primarily represented by enzymes involved in metabolic processes, particularly the biosynthetic ones, and in the response to stimuli. Specific features were also found in the carbohydrate composition of the extracellular matrix, which were dependent both on the yeast isolate and the nature of formed biofilms. Overall, our findings presented herein provide a unique data resource for further development and optimization of biocatalytic processes and applications employing seawater and halotolerant yeast biofilms.
Project description:Transcripts of the gill epithelium from three different stocks of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) migrating from freshwater river to lake (Saimaa stock, SS), brackish water (Neva stock, NS) or seawater (Teno stock, TS) were compared at three successive developmental stages (parr, smolt and postsmolt) using the 16K GRASP cDNA microarray platform.
Project description:Epigenetic changes deregulate gene expression to drive oncogenesis. The reversible nature of these changes enables therapeutic targeting, as in cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (MF/SS), Histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDACi), which alter epigenetic modifications, are effective in ~30% of MF/SS patients. However, there are no markers that predict MF/SS progression or therapy resistance. We hypothesized that epigenetic alterations drive MF/SS progression and promote HDACi drug resistance. Therefore, we profiled the epigenomes and transcriptomes of malignant T cell purified from skin biopsies and peripheral blood from MF/SS patients (N=21) before and after treatment with HDACi, as well as in vitro HDACi-treated CD4+ T cells from healthy donors. Here we report for the first time the epigenome-wide map of acetylation changes in MF/SS patients treated with HDACi, and define the significant differences in regulatory element activity and corresponding transcriptional changes in HDACi-sensitive versus resistant tumors. Our studies identified genes not previously associated with MF/SS, nor with disease progression or HDACi resistance, and were enriched in pathways that regulate apoptosis (BIRC5), cell cycle (RRM2), and chromosome cohesion (CENPH). We also identified a striking number of genes whose products are involved in cell adhesion and migration, including CCR6, LAIR2, VCAM1, and EPCAM. The mRNA of LAIR2, which encodes a receptor protein secreted by activated T cells that binds collagen and prevents binding of the inhibitory receptor LAIR1, was significantly upregulated in MF/SS tumors that were resistant to HDACi therapy and manifested in both skin and peripheral blood. We also detected elevated levels of LAIR2 protein in the plasma of MF/SS patients with progressive disease. Taken together, these studies defined the first epigenome-wide acetylation landscape of HDACi responsive and resistant MF/SS tumors, identified significantly altered patterns of epigenetic regulation and corresponding gene expression in HDACi resistant MF/SS tumors, and connected them to novel pathways of disease progression, particularly in cell adhesion and migration. These findings may represent novel predictive markers for MF/SS progression that are also targets for future therapeutic development.
Project description:Simple steatosis (SS) and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) are subtypes of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. The difference in pathogenesis between SS and NASH is still not clear. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are endogenous, non-coding short RNAs that regulate gene expression. The aim of this study was to examine the relationship of miRNA expression profiles with SS and NASH in animal models and humans.
Project description:Seawater drowning is a leading cause of accidental injury and death, and the resulting acute lung injury (ALI) is a serious clinical syndrome for which there are no effective treatments. This aim is to investigate the potential mechanism of seawater drowning-induced ALI.
Project description:Background. The Dahl salt-sensitive (SS) rat is an established model of salt-sensitive hypertension and renal damage. Recently, sodium-independent dietary effects were shown to be important in the development of the SS hypertensive phenotype. Compared to Dahl SS/JrHsdMcwi (SS/MCW) rats fed a purified diet (AIN-76A), grain-fed Dahl SS/JrHsdMcwiCrl rats (SS/CRL; Teklad 5L2F) were less susceptible to salt-induced hypertension and renal damage. Methods. With the known role of the immune system in hypertension, the present study characterized the immune cells infiltrating SS/MCW and SS/CRL kidneys. To further identify distinct molecular pathways between SS/MCW and SS/CRL, transcriptomic analysis was performed via RNA sequencing in T-cells isolated from the blood and kidneys of low and high salt-fed rats. Results. Following a 3-week high salt (4.0% NaCl) challenge, SS/CRL rats were protected from salt-induced hypertension (116.5±1.2 vs 141.9±14.4 mmHg) and albuminuria (21.7±3.5 vs 162.9±22.2 mg/day) compared to SS/MCW. Additionally, the absolute number of immune cells infiltrating the kidney was significantly reduced in SS/CRL. RNA-seq revealed >50% of all annotated genes in the entire transcriptome to be significantly differentially expressed in T-cells isolated from blood versus kidney. Pathway analysis of significant differentially expressed genes between SS/MCW and SS/CRL renal and circulating T-cells demonstrated salt-induced changes in genes related to inflammation in SS/MCW compared to metabolism-related pathways in SS/CRL. Conclusions. These functional and transcriptomic T-cell differences between SS/MCW and SS/CRL show that sodium-independent dietary effects may influence the immune response and infiltration of immune cells into the kidney, ultimately impacting susceptibility to salt-induced hypertension and renal damage.
Project description:The current study aimed to investigate whether bovine non-coding RNA play a role in regulating E. coli O157 shedding through studying miRNAomes of the whole gastrointestinal tract including duodenum, proximal jejunum, distal jejunum, cecum, spiral colon, descending colon and rectum. The number of miRNAs detected in each intestinal region ranged from 390 ± 13 to 413 ± 49. Compared between SS and NS, the number of differentially expressed (DE) miRNAs ranged from one to eight, and through the whole gut, seven miRNAs were up-regulated and seven were down-regulated in SS. The distal jejunum and rectum were the regions where the most DE miRNAs were identified (8 and 7, respectively). Functional analysis indicated that the bta-miR-378b, bta-miR-2284j and bta-miR-2284d which were down-regulated in both distal jejunum and rectum of SS, the bta-miR-2887 which was down-regulated in rectum of SS, as well as the bta-miR-211 and bta-miR-29d-3p which were up-regulated in rectum of SS were potentially regulatory to host immune functions, including hematological system development and immune cell trafficking. Our findings suggest that the alternation of miRNA expression in the gut of SS may lead to differential regulation in immune functions involved in E. coli O157 super-shedding in cattle.