During cotton ovule development there is a rapid burst in the secretion and deposition of non-cellulosic cell wall polymers between 4 and 6 days post-anthesis (dpa). Within this developmental time period, the cotton Golgi swell and produce a large number of secretory vesicles to accommodate the increase in secretion. Differential proteomics of cotton Golgi at 4 and 6 dpa has generated an extens...

Genome-wide expression analysis of an industrial strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae during the initial stages of an industrial lager fermentation identified a strong response from genes involved in the biosynthesis of ergosterol and oxidative stress protection. The induction of the ERG genes was confirmed by Northern analysis and was found to be complemented by a rapid accumulation of ergostero...

Acute short-duration physical inactivity induces the development of insulin resistance for glucose uptake in skeletal muscle. We examined the possibility that inactivity rapidly induces muscle insulin resistance via the excessive activation of proinflammatory/stress pathways including those of IKK/IκB/NF-κB, JNK, and p38 MAPK We also examined the other possibility that inactivity-induced rapid ...

Aflatoxins are secondary toxic metabolites produced by some Aspergillus spp. particularly, Aspergillus flavus and A. parasiticus that contaminate food and feed. The objective of this study was to evaluate the contamination of feedstuffs with Aspergillus spp. and detect genes involved in the aflatoxin biosynthesis pathway of A. flavus and A. parasiticus isolates. A total of 110 cow feed samples ...

The plant pathogenic bacterium Pseudomonas syringae PG4180 synthesizes high levels of the phytotoxin coronatine (COR) at the virulence-promoting temperature of 18 °C, but negligible amounts at 28 °C. Temperature-dependent COR gene expression is regulated by a modified two-component system, consisting of a response regulator, CorR, the histidine protein kinase CorS, and a third component, termed...

Biological synthesis of pharmaceuticals and biochemicals offers an environmentally friendly alternative to conventional chemical synthesis. These alternative methods require the design of metabolic pathways and the identification of enzymes exhibiting adequate activities. Cinnamoyl, dihydrocinnamoyl, and benzoyl anthranilates are natural metabolites which possess beneficial activities for human...

The turnover of connexin 43 (Cx43) is very rapid in many cells and involves both the lysosomal and proteasomal protease pathways. Here we show that Ca(2+)-mobilizing agonists such as angiotensin II (Ang II) can up-regulate the expression of Cx43 in WB rat liver epithelial cells. Vasopressin had the same effect in A7R5 smooth-muscle cells. The effect of Ang II was not prevented by pretreatment w...

2C-methyl-D-erythritol 2, 4-cyclodiphosphate synthase (MECPS, EC: 4.6.1.12) is the fifth enzyme of the non-mevalonate terpenoid pathway for isopentenyl diphosphate biosynthesis and is involved in the methylerythritol phosphate (MEP) pathway for ginkgolide biosynthesis. The full-length mecps cDNA sequence (designated as Gbmecps) was cloned and characterized for the first time from gymnosperm pla...

The exploitation of synthetic polyploids for producing seedless fruits is well known in watermelon. Tetraploid progenitors of triploid watermelon plants, compared with their diploid counterparts, exhibit wide phenotypic differences. Although many factors modulate alternative splicing (AS) in plants, the effects of autopolyploidization on AS are still unknown. In this study, we used tissues of l...