The pollen coat protects pollen grains from harmful environmental stresses such as drought and cold. Many compounds in the pollen coat are synthesized in the tapetum. However, the pathway by which they are transferred to the pollen surface remains obscure. We found that two Arabidopsis thaliana ATP binding cassette transporters, ABCG9 and ABCG31, were highly expressed in the tapetum and are inv...

Carica papaya (papaya) seed germinate readily fresh from the fruit, but desiccation induces a dormant state. Dormancy can be released by exposure of the hydrated seed to a pulse of elevated temperature, typical of that encountered in its tropical habitat. Carica papaya is one of only a few species known to germinate in response to heat shock (HS) and we know little of the mechanisms that contro...

In the mammalian host, the unicellular flagellate Trypanosoma brucei is covered by a dense surface coat that consists of a single species of macromolecule, the membrane form of the variant surface glycoprotein (mfVSG). After uptake by the insect vector, the tsetse fly, bloodstream-form trypanosomes differentiate to procyclic forms in the fly midgut. Differentiation is characterized by the loss ...

When challenged by stresses such as starvation, the soil bacterium Bacillus subtilis produces an endospore surrounded by a proteinaceous coat composed of >70 proteins that are organized into three main layers: an amorphous undercoat, lightly staining lamellar inner coat and electron-dense outer coat. This coat protects the spore against a variety of chemicals or lysozyme. Mutual interactions of...

Recently, an esthetic tooth coating material has been developed. The material consisted of a primer solution, a base coat, and a top coat. The purpose of this study, therefore, was to evaluate the color change of this tooth coating material and two resin composites after immersion in food-simulating, staining solutions. To this end, the newly developed coating material with and without its top ...

The coats of birds and mammals typically vary through their depth in structure, insulation and optical qualities. Physical models predict that such variation can substantially affect the solar heat load acquired by an animal. This study quantifies the consequences of complex coat structure for solar heat gain in the rock squirrel (Spermophilus variegatus (Erxleben, 1777)), a species normally ex...

Resistance characteristics of the bacterial endospores towards various environmental stresses such as chemicals and heat are in part attributed to their coat proteins. Heat resistance is developed in a late stage of sporulation and during maturation of released spores. Using our gel-free proteomic approach and LC-FT-ICR-MS/MS analysis we have monitored the efficiency of the tryptic digestion of...

Increased risk of progression to sustained hypertension in patients with white coat and masked hypertension White-coat and masked hypertension are two not clearly defined entities with respect to their clinical impact. A study by Sivén SS et al. investigated the risk of progression to sustained hypertension among a total of 944 patients of the FinnHome study with either normotension (n=528) or ...

Single amino acid substitutions in a protein can cause misfolding and aggregation to occur. Protein misfolding can be rescued by second-site amino acid substitutions called suppressor substitutions (su), commonly through stabilizing the native state of the protein or by increasing the rate of folding. Here we report evidence that su substitutions that rescue bacteriophage P22 temperature-sensit...

Bacillus spores are highly resistant dormant cells formed in response to starvation. The spore is surrounded by a structurally complex protein shell, the coat, which protects the genetic material. In spite of its dormancy, once nutrient is available (or an appropriate physical stimulus is provided) the spore is able to resume metabolic activity and return to vegetative growth, a process requiri...