A Virome and Proteomic Analysis of Placental Microbiota in Pregnancies with and without Fetal Growth Restriction.

Introduction: Metagenomic research has allowed the identification of numerous viruses present in the human body. Viruses may significantly increase the likelihood of developing intrauterine fetal growth restriction (FGR). The goal of this study was to examine and compare the virome of normal and FGR placentas using proteomic techniques.

Human-driven breakdown of predator-prey interactions in the northern Adriatic Sea.

Long-term baseline data that allow tracking how predator-prey interactions have responded to intensifying human impacts are often lacking. Here, we assess temporal changes in benthic community composition and interactions between drilling predatory gastropods and their molluscan prey using the Holocene fossil record of the shallow northern Adriatic Sea, which is characterized by a long history of human transformation. Molluscan assemblages differ between the Isonzo and Po prodelta, but both show consistent temporal trends in the abundance of dominant species.

Abundance-diversity relationship as a unique signature of temporal scaling in the fossil record.

Species diversity increases with the temporal grain of samples according to the species-time relationship (STR), impacting palaeoecological analyses because the temporal grain (time averaging) of fossil assemblages varies by several orders of magnitude. We predict a positive relation between total abundance and sample size-independent diversity (ADR) in fossil assemblages because an increase in time averaging, determined by a decreasing sediment accumulation, should increase abundance and depress species dominance. We demonstrate that, in contrast to negative ADR of non-averaged living assemblages, the ADR of Holocene fossil assemblages is positive, unconditionally or when conditioned on the energy availability gradient.

"Tear down that wall"-a critical evaluation of bioinformatic resources available for lysin researchers.

Lytic enzymes, or lysins for short, break down peptidoglycan and interrupt the continuity of the cell wall, which, in turn, causes osmotic lysis of the bacterium. Their ability to destroy bacteria from within makes them promising antimicrobial agents that can be used as alternatives or supplements to antibiotics. In this paper, we briefly summarize basic terms and concepts used to describe lysin sequences and delineate major lysin groups.

The Greater Celandine: Identification and Characterization of an Antimicrobial Peptide from .

, known as Greater Celandine, is a latex-bearing plant that has been leveraged for its anticancer and antimicrobial properties. Herein, aerial tissue is mined for the presence of antimicrobial peptides. A highly abundant cysteine-rich peptide with a length of 25 amino acids, deemed CM-AMP1, is characterized through multiple mass spectrometric approaches.