Essential oils from plants and in vitro shoots of Hypericum androsaemum L

The essential oil yields obtained by hydrodistillation of the aerial parts of Hypericum androsaemum cultivated plants varied from 0.94 to 4.09 mg/g of biomass dry weight, depending of the harvest time. The respective analyses performed by gas chromatography and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry revealed more than 80 compounds, 72 of which were identified. Most of the compounds were sesquiterpene hydrocarbons, which, depending of the harvest time, corresponded to 43-78% of the total essential oil. The other compounds were distributed as monoterpene hydrocarbons, oxygen-containing sesquiterpenes, n-alkanes, 1-alkenes, and oxygen-containing monoterpenes, these being a minor group. In H. androsaemum in vitro shoots, sesquiterpene hydrocarbons represented >80% of the respective essential oil. Differences in the essential oil composition were found depending on the harvest time and origin, in vivo versus in vitro, of the plant material. The essential oil sampled in November was characterized by the highest levels of sesquiterpene hydrocarbons and a high number of n-alkanes and 1-alkenes, from C(18) to C(28), whereas that sampled in June of the following year showed the highest levels of n-nonane and 1-octene as well as monoterpene hydrocarbons, the second most representative group.     

Disruption of the epithelial apical-junctional complex by Helicobacter pylori CagA

Helicobacter pylori translocates the protein CagA into gastric epithelial cells and has been linked to peptic ulcer disease and gastric carcinoma. We show that injected CagA associates with the epithelial tight-junction scaffolding protein ZO-1 and the transmembrane protein junctional adhesion molecule, causing an ectopic assembly of tight-junction components at sites of bacterial attachment, and altering the composition and function of the apical-junctional complex. Long-term CagA delivery to polarized epithelia caused a disruption of the epithelial barrier function and dysplastic alterations in epithelial cell morphology. CagA appears to target H. pylori to host cell intercellular junctions and to disrupt junction-mediated functions.     

Four climate cycles of recurring deep and surface water destabilizations on the Iberian margin

Centennial climate variability over the last ice age exhibits clear bipolar behavior. High-resolution analyses of marine sediment cores from the Iberian margin trace a number of associated changes simultaneously. Proxies of sea surface temperature and water mass distribution, as well as relative biomarker content, demonstrate that this typical north-south coupling was pervasive for the cold phases of climate during the past 420,000 years. Cold episodes after relatively warm and largely ice-free periods occurred when the predominance of deep water formation changed from northern to southern sources. These results reinforce the connection between rapid climate changes at Mediterranean latitudes and century-to-millennial variability in northern and southern polar regions.     

Cross-linking cellular prion protein triggers neuronal apoptosis in vivo

Neuronal death is a prominent, but poorly understood, pathological hallmark of prion disease. Notably, in the absence of the cellular prion protein (PrPC), the disease-associated isoform, PrPSc, appears not to be intrinsically neurotoxic, suggesting that PrPC itself may participate directly in the prion neurodegenerative cascade. Here, cross-linking PrPC in vivo with specific monoclonal antibodies was found to trigger rapid and extensive apoptosis in hippocampal and cerebellar neurons. These findings suggest that PrPC functions in the control of neuronal survival and provides a model to explore whether cross-linking of PrPC by oligomeric PrPSc can promote neuronal loss during prion infection.     

Molecular characterization of chestnut plants selected for putative resistance to Phytophthora cinnamomi using SSR markers

A set of nine short sequence repeat (SSR) loci was used for the molecular characterization of 32 accessions of 15 chestnut trees selected in the field because of their putative resistance to the ink disease caused by Phytophthora spp. The goal of the present study was to determine the genetic identity of those selected European chestnut trees (Castanea sativa) or interspecific hybrids, considering that hybridization programs between European chestnut and Asiatic species (mainly Japanese chestnut, Castanea crenata) have been carried out in Galicia (Spain) since the early 20th century. The results showed that the analyzed SSR loci were useful to discriminate three Asiatic and the European species of Castanea. The joint information provided by a factorial correspondence analysis (FCA) and the presence of privative alleles allowed the putative molecular assignment of the selected plants to a certain identity. Most of them were determined as hybrids between C. crenata and C. sativa. The individuals coded C036 and C048 were assigned, with a high probability, to C. sativa due to their clustering with accessions of this species and because they had a number of privative alleles of this species. Only a few individuals could not be assigned to any particular genotype.