[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1004365.].

Novel adaptations are generally assembled by co-opting pre-existing genetic components, but the factors dictating the suitability of genes for new functions remain poorly known. In this work, we used comparative transcriptomics to determine the attributes that increased the likelihood of some genes being co-opted for C4 photosynthesis, a convergent complex trait that boosts productivity in trop...

We report a CCSD(T)/cc-pCV5Z quartic force field (QFF) and a semi-global CCSD(T)-F12b/aug-cc-pVTZ potential energy surface (PES) for singlet, cyclic C4. Vibrational fundamentals, combinations, and overtones are obtained using vibrational second-order perturbation theory (VPT2) and the vibrational configuration-interaction (VCI) approach. Agreement is within 10 cm(-1) between the VCI calculated ...

The objective of this study was to investigate the changes in soil microbial biomass C, microbial metabolic activity, functional diversity, and metabolic diversity pattern during the restoration process of a pine (Pinus tabulaeformis) plantation. In this study, a chronosequence approach was adopted. Three sites of pine plantations along a restoration chronosequence (12 years old (PF12), 25 year...

BACKGROUNDS Cryptococcal meningitis (CM) has been known to lead to significant morbidity and mortality. The relative contribution of the complement system in protection and pathogenesis during CM remains largely unknown. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the baseline complement component profiles in human cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and plasma from non-HIV patients with CM, and therefore ...

Circulating monocytes and tissue macrophages (Me) 1 secrete complement proteins and have distinct receptors for some of these secreted products. Although hepatocytes and possibly epithelial cells are major sources of plasma complement (1), Mcl synthesize C1 subcomponents (2, 3), C4 (4, 5), C2 (5-7) C5 (8), C3 (2, 8) and all the components of the alternative pathway and its control proteins (8)....

BACKGROUND Acquired deficiencies of certain complement proteins and impaired opsonisation activity have been implicated in the pathogenesis of the increased susceptibility to infections of patients with alcoholic cirrhosis. METHODS Serum concentrations of C3 and C4, plasma concentrations of C3bc, C9, and the terminal C5b-9 complement complex (TCC), and haemolytic complement activity (classic ...

Bordetella pertussis produces a 73-kDa protein, BrkA (Bordetella resistance to killing), which inhibits the bactericidal activity of complement. In this study we characterized the step in the complement cascade where BrkA acts, using three strains: a wild-type strain, a strain containing an insertional disruption of brkA, and a strain containing two copies of the brkA locus. Following incubatio...

BACKGROUND AND AIM In sarcoidosis patients the circulating immune complex levels are raised with the activation of the disease but their diagnostic role is not clear. These circulating immune complexes contain complement and immunoglobulins (Ig). Complement and immunoglobulins are mostly accumulated in active sarcoid lesions and in circulating immune complexes. Thus complement and Ig levels in ...

Background: Photoreceptor cell death due to extensive light exposure and induced oxidative-stress are associated with retinal degeneration. A correlated dysregulation of the complement system amplifies the damaging effects, but the local and time-dependent progression of this mechanism is not thoroughly understood. Methods: Light-induced photoreceptor damage (LD) was induced in Balb/c mice with...