The roles of plant proteases and protease inhibitors in drought response: a review.

Upon exposure to drought, plants undergo complex signal transduction events with concomitant changes in the expression of genes, proteins and metabolites. For example, proteomics studies continue to identify multitudes of drought-responsive proteins with diverse roles in drought adaptation. Among these are protein degradation processes that activate enzymes and signalling peptides, recycle nitrogen sources, and maintain protein turnover and homeostasis under stressful environments.

Travel burden and clinical presentation of retinoblastoma: analysis of 1024 patients from 43 African countries and 518 patients from 40 European countries.

Background: The travel distance from home to a treatment centre, which may impact the stage at diagnosis, has not been investigated for retinoblastoma, the most common childhood eye cancer. We aimed to investigate the travel burden and its impact on clinical presentation in a large sample of patients with retinoblastoma from Africa and Europe.

Methods: A cross-sectional analysis including 518 treatment-naïve patients with retinoblastoma residing in 40 European countries and 1024 treatment-naïve patients with retinoblastoma residing in 43 African countries.

Evaluation of Fresh Water Actinomycete Bioflocculant and Its Biotechnological Applications in Wastewaters Treatment and Removal of Heavy Metals.

This study evaluated the potential of a biopolymeric flocculant produced by sp. isolated from Sterkfontein Dam, South Africa. Microbial flocculants aid the aggregation of suspended solutes in solutions, thus, suggesting its alternative application to inorganic and synthetic organic flocculants, which are associated with health-related problems.

Compositional, ultrastructural and nanotechnological characterization of the SMA strain of Saccharomyces pastorianus: Towards a more complete fermentation yeast cell analysis.

Nano scanning Auger microscopy (NanoSAM) and time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (TOF-SIMS) have been used in materials science research for some time, but NanoSAM, in particular, has only recently been applied to biological specimens. Here, the first concurrent utilization of NanoSAM, TOF-SIMS and microscopic techniques for the examination of a standard beverage fermentation strain of Saccharomyces pastorianus uncovered the presence of intracellular networks of CO2 in fermenting cells. Respiring cells produced few bubbles and instead had large internal vacuolar structures.

Genome-wide functional analysis in Candida albicans.

Candida albicans is an important etiological agent of superficial and life-threatening infections in individuals with compromised immune systems. To date, we know of several overlapping genetic networks that govern virulence attributes in this fungal pathogen. Classical use of deletion mutants has led to the discovery of numerous virulence factors over the years, and genome-wide functional analysis has propelled gene discovery at an even faster pace.