Elicitor-induced plant immunity relies on amino acids accumulation to delay the onset of bacterial virulence.

Plant immunity relies on the perception of microbe-associated molecular patterns (MAMPs) from invading microbes to induce defense responses that suppress attempted infections. It has been proposed that MAMP-triggered immunity (MTI) suppresses bacterial infections by suppressing the onset of bacterial virulence. However, the mechanisms by which plants exert this action are poorly understood.

Characterizing glucose, illumination, and nitrogen-deprivation phenotypes of PCC6803 with Raman spectroscopy.

Background: PCC6803 is a model cyanobacterium that has been studied widely and is considered for metabolic engineering applications. Here, Raman spectroscopy and Raman chemometrics (Rametrix™) were used to (i) study broad phenotypic changes in response to growth conditions, (ii) identify phenotypic changes associated with its circadian rhythm, and (iii) correlate individual Raman bands with biomolecules and verify these with more accepted analytical methods.

Methods: cultures were grown under various conditions, exploring dependencies on light and/or external carbon and nitrogen sources.

Characterizing metabolic stress-induced phenotypes of PCC6803 with Raman spectroscopy.

Background: During their long evolution, sp. PCC6803 developed a remarkable capacity to acclimate to diverse environmental conditions. In this study, Raman spectroscopy and Raman chemometrics tools (Rametrix) were employed to investigate the phenotypic changes in response to external stressors and correlate specific Raman bands with their corresponding biomolecules determined with widely used analytical methods.

High Resolution Melting Temperature Analysis to IdentifyCRISPR/Cas9 Mutants from .

CRISPR/Cas9 made targeted mutagenesis and genome editing possible for many plant species. One of the ways that the endonuclease is used for plant genetics is the creation of loss-of-function mutants, which typically result from erroneous DNA repair through non-homologous end joining (NHEJ) pathway. The majority of erroneous repair events results in single-bp insertion or deletion.

Gateway-Compatible CRISPR-Cas9 Vectors and a Rapid Detection by High-Resolution Melting Curve Analysis.

CRISPR-Cas9 system rapidly became an indispensable tool in plant biology to perform targeted mutagenesis. A CRISPR-Cas9-mediated double strand break followed by non-homologous end joining (NHEJ) repair most frequently results in a single base pair deletion or insertions (indels), which is hard to detect using methods based on enzymes that detect heteroduplex DNA. In addition, somatic tissues of the T1 generation inevitably contain a mosaic population, in which the portion of cells carrying the mutation can be too small to be detected by the enzyme-based methods.

Antibacterial activity of jalapeño pepper ( var. ) extract fractions against select foodborne pathogens.

fruits have been investigated for antimicrobial activity in a number of studies. Capsaicin or other cinnamic acid pathway intermediates are often suggested to be the antimicrobial component, however there are conflicting results. No research has specifically fractionated jalapeño pepper ( var.

Evaluation of different solvents to extract antibacterial compounds from jalapeño peppers.

Chili peppers ( spp.) may possess antibacterial properties and have potential to be used in foods as antimicrobial. The complete chili pepper extract should be evaluated to determine which compounds are responsible for the antimicrobial activity.

Epigenetic-Imprinting Changes Caused by Neonatal Fasting Stress Protect From Future Fasting Stress.

Unfavourable nutritional conditions during the neonatal critical period can cause both acute metabolic disorders and severe metabolic syndromes in later life. These phenomena have been tightly related to the epigenetic modification controlling the balance between satiety and hunger in the hypothalamus. In the present study, we investigated epigenetic modification associated with both the fasting stress effects and the short-term resilience to fasting stress in the hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus (PVN) of chicks.

Suppressor mutations in the Glutamine Dumper1 protein dissociate disturbance in amino acid transport from other characteristics of the Gdu1D phenotype.

Intracellular amino acid transport across plant membranes is critical for metabolic pathways which are often split between different organelles. In addition, transport of amino acids across the plasma membrane enables the distribution of organic nitrogen through the saps between leaves and developing organs. Amino acid importers have been studied for more than two decades, and their role in this process is well-documented.

Effect of storage temperature on survival and growth of foodborne pathogens on whole, damaged, and internally inoculated jalapeños (Capsicum annuum var. annuum).

There is a lack of general knowledge regarding the behavior of foodborne pathogenic bacteria associated with jalapeño peppers. The survival and growth behaviors of Listeria monocytogenes, Escherichia coli O157:H7, and Salmonella enterica on the interior and exterior of jalapeño peppers were determined under different storage conditions. Jalapeños were inoculated with a five-strain cocktail of L.

Fasting of 3-day-old chicks leads to changes in histone H3 methylation status.

Unfavorable nutritional conditions during early developmental periods may cause neuronal network remodeling in the hypothalamus, which influences subsequent adaptability to those same stressful conditions. Alterations in hypothalamic plasticity as a result of neuronal remodeling are achieved by variations in the repertoire of proteins expressed via gene transcriptional activation or repression, both of which are modulated by histone methylation status. This study demonstrates that fasting had a stimulatory effect on dimethylation and trimethylation of histone 3 at lysine 27 (H3K27) in preoptic/anterior hypothalamus (PO/AH) of 3-day-old chicks.

A comparison of the objective structured clinical examination results across campuses of the University of the West Indies (2001 and 2002).

Objective: To compare the performance of medical students in the Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) of thefinal MBBS Examination across the four campuses of The University of the West Indies, over a two-year period

Design And Methods: All final examination results of the Medicine and Therapeutics OSCE were collectedfrom the Faculty of Medical Science at the four campuses of The University of the West Indies and analyzed using both parametric (t-tests and ANOVAs) and non-parametric tests (chi-squared tests).

Results: Results indicated that students achieved significantly higher mean scores in the 2002 examination than in 2001 (t = 3.85, df = 415, p = 0.

A history of cardiology in Jamaica.

The history of cardiology in Jamaica is conveniently considered in decades beginning in the 1950s. The decade of the 1950s was characterized by early descriptions of the pattern of cardiac disease in adults and children in Jamaica, the establishment of a cardiac clinic at the University Hospital of the West Indies and early cardiac surgical landmarks. Extensive preparatory experimental work in the canine laboratory with respect to cardiopulmonary bypass in the early to mid-1960s culminated in the successful completion of the first open heart surgical procedure in April, 1968.

A serosurvey of hepatitis B virus, hepatitis C virus, human T lymphotropic virus type-1 and syphilis in HIV-1-infected patients in Jamaica.

The seroprevalences of hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV), human T lymphotropic virus type-1 (HTLV-1) and syphyilis were determined in 129 HIV-1-infected patients using commercially prepared reagents. The seroprevalences were HCV, 0% (0/129); HBV, 37% (48/129); HTLV-1, 5% (6/129) and syphilis, 20% (26/129). Fifteen per cent (19/129) of the patients had active/chronic HBV infection.

Fifty years of clinical examinations at the University of the West Indies.

The University of the West Indies was founded at Mona, Jamaica, in 1948. After fifty-two years, the format of the final Bachelor of Medicine clinical examination in Medicine and Therapeutics has been radically revised. The change from the traditional to an evidence-based, objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) was undertaken in November/December 2000.

Intracoronary stent implantation in Jamaica. The initial experience.

Intracoronary stent implantation resulted in the complete or near complete dilatation of high grade occlusions of the left anterior descending coronary arteries in the four patients in whom it was undertaken. Intracoronary stent implantation is a useful adjunct to Percutaneous Transluminal Angioplasty (PTCA) and is applicable in selected patients with symptomatic ischaemic heart disease in a developing country with limited health resources like Jamaica. This is so since financial data presented here document the significant savings this technique (when appropriately utilised) could realise compared to the use of balloon angioplasty alone.

Beta-adrenergic blockade in the treatment of congestive heart failure.

Although chronic sympathetic activation provides inotropic and chronotropic support to the failing heart, such activation may also have deleterious effects, including the direct cardiotoxic effects of catecholamines, activation of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system and an increase in myocardial oxygen demand. These observations indicate that beta-blockade might be beneficial in the treatment of heart failure. This suggestion is receiving growing support from clinical trials, which show that beta blockade improves the clinical and functional status of patients with heart failure resulting from dilated cardiomyopathy or ischaemic heart disease.

The prophylaxis of acute rheumatic fever in a pair of monozygotic twins. The public health implications.

Recurrent acute rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease can be prevented by antibiotic intervention. We report the case of genetically identical twins, one of whom had overt rheumatic fever, received penicillin prophylaxis and did not have rheumatic heart disease. The other must have had inapparent rheumatic fever, received no chemotherapy prophylaxis and proceeded to develop rheumatic heart disease.

Percutaneous balloon mitral valvuloplasty for severe rheumatic mitral stenosis in Jamaica: the initial experience.

Although percutaneous balloon mitral valvuloplasty has been performed in the Caribbean before, there has not been any detailed description in the English-speaking West Indian Medical literature hitherto. This report provides a description of the first four cases of percutaneous balloon mitral valvuloplasty performed in Jamaica.

Percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) in Jamaica. Preliminary results.

This is the first detailed report from the Anglophone Caribbean of percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA). The procedure resulted in complete dilatation of the occluded vessels in the five patients in whom it was undertaken, with significant improvement in exercise duration in the Bruce protocol (p < 0.001; 95% CI 2.

The N-terminal domain of tomato 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-CoA reductases. Sequence, microsomal targeting, and glycosylation.

The enzyme 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-CoA reductase (HMGR) catalyzes the conversion of 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-CoA to mevalonic acid, considered the rate-limiting step in isoprenoid biosynthesis. In plants, isoprenoid compounds play important roles in mediating plant growth and development, electron transport, photosynthesis, and disease resistance. Sequence comparisons of plant HMGR proteins with those from yeast and mammalian systems reveal high levels of sequence identity within the catalytic domain but significant divergence in the membrane domain.

Regulation of Defense-related Gene Expression during Plant-Pathogen Interactions.

Plants have evolved a broad array of defense mechanisms involved in disease resistance. These include synthesis of phytoalexin antibiotics and proteinase inhibitors, deposition of cell wall materials, and accumulation of hydrolytic enzymes such as chitinases. Resistance appears to depend on the ability of the host to recognize the pathogen rapidly and induce these defense responses in order to limit pathogen spread.

Pulmonary artery pressure and the acute chest syndrome in homozygous sickle cell disease.

Objective: To investigate whether attacks of acute chest syndrome affected pulmonary artery pressure in patients homozygous for sickle cell disease.

Main Outcome Measures: Pulmonary artery pressure, assessed by non-invasive echocardiographic techniques.

Patients: 20 patients with homozygous sickle cell disease with a history of at least six episodes of acute chest syndrome and in 20 age, sex, and height matched controls with homozygous sickle cell disease without a history of acute chest syndrome.