Interfacing whispering gallery mode optical microresonator biosensors with the plant defense elicitor chitin.

The biomaterial class of chitooligosaccharides (chitin), commonly found in insects and fungi, is one of the most abundant on earth. Substantial evidence implicates chitin in mediating a diverse array of plant cellular signaling events, including the induction of plant defense mechanisms against invading pests. However, these recognition and mediation mechanisms, including the binding kinetics between chitin and their plant recognition receptors, are not fully understood.

Predicting gene regulatory networks of soybean nodulation from RNA-Seq transcriptome data.

Background: High-throughput RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq) is a revolutionary technique to study the transcriptome of a cell under various conditions at a systems level. Despite the wide application of RNA-Seq techniques to generate experimental data in the last few years, few computational methods are available to analyze this huge amount of transcription data. The computational methods for constructing gene regulatory networks from RNA-Seq expression data of hundreds or even thousands of genes are particularly lacking and urgently needed.

Cytochrome b₅ coexpression increases Tetrahymena thermophila Δ6 fatty acid desaturase activity in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

Very-long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids such as arachidonic, eicosapentaenoic, and docosahexaenoic acids, are important to the physiology of many microorganisms and metazoans and are vital to human development and health. The production of these and related fatty acids depends on Δ6 desaturases, the final components of an electron transfer chain that introduces double bonds into 18-carbon fatty acid chains. When a Δ6 desaturase identified from the ciliated protist Tetrahymena thermophila was expressed in Saccharomyces cerevisiae cultures supplemented with the 18:2(Δ9,12) substrate, only 4% of the incorporated substrate was desaturated.

Structural analysis and cellular localization of polyunsaturated C₂₇ hydrocarbons in the marine dinoflagellate, Pyrocystis lunula (Dinophyceae).

A neutral lipid fraction obtained from two strains of the permanently sheathed dinoflagellate, Pyrocystis lunula, was found to contain three polyunsaturated C₂₇ hydrocarbons as abundant lipid components. A combination of mass spectrometry techniques was used to identify these compounds as n-heptacosa-3,6,9,12,15,18-hexaene (C₂₇:₆), approx. 0.

Free sterol composition of species in the dinoflagellate genus Pyrocystis: a spectrum of sterol diversity.

The dinoflagellate genus Pyrocystis includes a small number of marine species, which spend the majority of their life cycles as nonmotile cells within a carbohydrate sheath, and which are found ubiquitously throughout the world's oceans. The biochemistry of this model dinoflagellate genus has been widely studied due to its ability to bioluminesce. However, Pyrocystis has been comparatively understudied with respect to its lipid biochemistry, in particular that of sterols.

Sterols of the syndinian dinoflagellate Amoebophrya sp., a parasite of the dinoflagellate Alexandrium tamarense (Dinophyceae).

Several harmful photosynthetic dinoflagellates have been examined over past decades for unique chemical biomarker sterols. Little emphasis has been placed on important heterotrophic genera, such as Amoebophrya, an obligate, intracellular parasite of other, often harmful, dinoflagellates with the ability to control host populations naturally. Therefore, the sterol composition of Amoebophrya was examined throughout the course of an infective cycle within its host dinoflagellate, Alexandrium tamarense, with the primary intent of identifying potential sterol biomarkers.