Sex-Specific Trail Pheromone Mediates Complex Mate Finding Behavior in Anoplophora glabripennis

Anoplophora glabripennis (Motsch.) is a polyphagous member of the Cerambycidae, and is considered, worldwide, to be one of the most serious quarantine pests of deciduous trees. We isolated four chemicals from the trail of A. glabripennis virgin and mated females that were not present in trails of mature males. These compounds were identified as 2-methyldocosane and (Z)-9-tricosene (major components), as well as (Z)-9-pentacosene and (Z)-7-pentacosene (minor components); every trail wash sample contained all four chemical components, although the amounts and ratios changed with age of the female. Males responded to the full pheromone blend, regardless of mating status, but virgin females chose the control over the pheromone, suggesting that they may use it as a spacing pheromone to avoid intraspecific competition and maximize resources. Virgin, but not mated, males also chose the major pheromone components in the absence of the minor components, over the control. Taken together, these results indicate that all four chemicals are components of the trail pheromone. The timing of production of the ratios of the pheromone blend components that produced positive responses from males coincided with the timing of sexual maturation of the female.     

Effects of freshness on ATP-related compounds in retorted chub mackerel Scomber japonicus

To examine the usefulness of measurement of adenosine triphosphate (ATP)-related compounds for estimation of the quality of canned and/or retorted fishes, we investigated the ATP-related compounds, in sashimi (for raw-eating)-grade and for-cooking-grade chub mackerel Scomber japonicus before and after retort process (121 °C for 30 min) by HPLC method. By the deterioration (storage time) and retort process, inosine monophosphate (IMP), an umami-taste compound, was decreased and inosine (HxR), hypoxantine (Hx) and the K-value, an index of fish freshness defined as the ratio of the sum of HxR and Hx to the sum of ATP-related compounds, were increased. By the retorting, the K-values of sashimi-grade, for-cooking-grade and unacceptable-grade meats were increased from 9.9%, 26.6% and 70% to 36%, 46% and 81%, respectively. These results suggest that the measurement of ATP-related compounds in retorted fish products may estimate the freshness in raw materials, the product quality and/or the good manufacture practices.     

Enhanced fluid flow through nanoscale carbon pipes

Recent experimental and theoretical studies demonstrate that pressure driven flow of fluids through nanoscale ( d < 10 nm) carbon pores occurs 4 to 5 orders of magnitude faster than predicted by extrapolation from conventional theory. Here, we report experimental results for flow of water, ethanol, and decane through carbon nanopipes with larger inner diameters (43 +/- 3 nm) than previously investigated. We find enhanced transport up to 45 times theoretical predictions. In contrast to previous work, in our systems, decane flows faster than water. These nanopipes were composed of amorphous carbon deposited from ethylene vapor in alumina templates using a single step fabrication process.     

Developing the NASA food system for long-duration missions

Even though significant development has transformed the space food system over the last 5 decades to attain more appealing dietary fare for low-orbit space crews, the advances do not meet the need for crews that might travel to Mars and beyond. It is estimated that a food system for a long-duration mission must maintain organoleptic acceptability, nutritional efficacy, and safety for a 3- to 5-y period to be viable. In addition, the current mass and subsequent waste of the food system must decrease significantly to accord with the allowable volume and payload limits of the proposed future space vehicles. Failure to provide the appropriate food or to optimize resource utilization introduces the risk that an inadequate food system will hamper mission success and/or threaten crew performance. Investigators for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Advanced Food Technology (AFT) consider identified concerns and work to mitigate the risks to ensure that any new food system is adequate for the mission. Yet, even with carefully planned research, some technological gaps remain. NASA needs research advances to develop food that is nutrient-dense and long-lasting at ambient conditions, partial gravity cooking processes, methods to deliver prescribed nutrients over time, and food packaging that meets the mass, barrier, and processing requirements of NASA. This article provides a brief review of research in each area, details the past AFT research efforts, and describes the remaining gaps that present barriers to achieving a food system for long exploration missions.     

Primers‐4‐Yeast: a comprehensive web tool for planning primers for Saccharomyces cerevisiae

The budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae is a key model organism of functional genomics, due to its ease and speed of genetic manipulations. In fact, in this yeast, the requirement for homologous sequences for recombination purposes is so small that 40 base pairs (bp) are sufficient. Hence, an enormous variety of genetic manipulations can be performed by simply planning primers with the correct homology, using a defined set of transformation plasmids. Although designing primers for yeast transformations and for the verification of their correct insertion is a common task in all yeast laboratories, primer planning is usually done manually and a tool that would enable easy, automated primer planning for the yeast research community is still lacking. Here we introduce Primers‐4‐Yeast, a web tool that allows primers to be designed in batches for S. cerevisiae gene‐targeting transformations, and for the validation of correct insertions. This novel tool enables fast, automated, accurate primer planning for large sets of genes, introduces consistency in primer planning and is therefore suggested to serve as a standard in yeast research. Primers‐4‐Yeast is available at: http://www.weizmann.ac.il/Primers‐4‐Yeast Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Characterisation of the antioxidant activity of flavonoids

Inhibition of the superoxide anion (O₂⁻) generation catalysed by xanthine oxidase using certain flavonoids was examined to determine their antioxidant effects. All of the flavonoids and their glycosides, except for kaempferol-3-glucoside, considerably and markedly inhibited O₂⁻ generation. Flavonoids also inhibited uric acid formation, whereas their glycosides did not. The flavonoids and their glycosides with scavenging activity against the 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl radical had more than one conjugated en-diol group and exhibited more potent inhibition of the O₂⁻ generation than the uric acid formation catalysed by xanthine oxidase. The results show that the inhibition of O₂⁻ generation with flavonoids without any conjugated en-diol group was due to competitive inhibition of uric acid formation, while the inhibition with flavonoids having more than one conjugated en-diol group was due to the reduced form of the enzyme.     

No evidence for cerium dioxide nanoparticle translocation in maize plants

The rapidly increasing production of engineered nanoparticles has raised questions regarding their environmental impact and their mobility to overcome biological important barriers. Nanoparticles were found to cross different mammalian barriers, which is summarized under the term translocation. The present work investigates the uptake and translocation of cerium dioxide nanoparticles into maize plants as one of the major agricultural crops. Nanoparticles were exposed either as aerosol or as suspension. Our study demonstrates that 50 μg of cerium/g of leaves was either adsorbed or incorporated into maize leaves. This amount could not be removed by a washing step and did not depend on closed or open stomata investigated under dark and light exposure conditions. However, no translocation into newly grown leaves was found when cultivating the maize plants after airborne particle exposure. The use of inductively coupled mass spectrometer allowed detection limits of less than 1 ng of cerium/g of leaf. Exposure of plants to well-characterized nanoparticle suspensions in the irrigation water resulted also in no detectable translocation. These findings may indicate that the biological barriers of plants are more resistant against nanoparticle translocation than mammalian barriers.     

Analysis of furin ectodomain shedding in epididymal fluid of mammals: demonstration that shedding of furin occurs in vivo

Sperm cell surface proteins and proteins of their surrounding fluids are reported to be proteolytically processed in relation to acquisition of sperm fertility during epididymal transit. Several of these proteins might be potential targets for subtilisin-like pro-protein convertase. Using immunochemistry and mass spectrometry analysis, we found that an 80 kDa form of furin (EC 3.4.21.75) is present in the fluid from the mid-caput to the distal corpus regions of the epididymis of various domestic mammals. This protein is absent from the fluid of the caudal region, suggesting that it is reabsorbed or degraded. The cDNA sequence of ovine furin was obtained and the mRNA was found throughout this organ, although in greater amounts in the mid and distal caput regions. Metabolic labeling with (35)S-amino acids indicated that the protein was synthesized and released from the epithelium only in a restricted area of the mid-caput, suggesting a specific regionalized mechanism of secretion. The fluid protein is not pelleted at 100 000 g and did not react with a C-terminal antibody indicating that it is not bound to membranous materials. These findings demonstrate that a furin ectodomain shedding occurs naturally in vivo in the epididymis where this enzyme could be involved in fluid and/or sperm membrane protein processing.