scholarly journals From Differential Stains to Next Generation Physiology: Chemical Probes to Visualize Bacterial Cell Structure and Physiology

Molecules ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (21) ◽  
pp. 4949
Author(s):  
Jonathan Hira ◽  
Md. Jalal Uddin ◽  
Marius M. Haugland ◽  
Christian S. Lentz

Chemical probes have been instrumental in microbiology since its birth as a discipline in the 19th century when chemical dyes were used to visualize structural features of bacterial cells for the first time. In this review article we will illustrate the evolving design of chemical probes in modern chemical biology and their diverse applications in bacterial imaging and phenotypic analysis. We will introduce and discuss a variety of different probe types including fluorogenic substrates and activity-based probes that visualize metabolic and specific enzyme activities, metabolic labeling strategies to visualize structural features of bacterial cells, antibiotic-based probes as well as fluorescent conjugates to probe biomolecular uptake pathways.

This is a comprehensive, illustrated catalogue of the 200+ marine chronometers in the collections of Royal Museums Greenwich. Every chronometer has been completely dismantled, studied and recorded, and illustrations include especially commissioned line drawings as well as photographs. The collection is also used to illustrate a newly researched and up-to-date chapter describing the history of the marine chronometer, so the book is much more than simply a catalogue. The history chapter naturally includes the story of John Harrison’s pioneering work in creating the first practical marine timekeepers, all four of which are included in the catalogue, newly photographed and described in minute detail for the first time. In fact full technical and historical data are provided for all of the marine chronometers in the collection, to an extent never before attempted, including biographical details of every maker represented. A chapter describes how the 19th century English chronometer was manufactured, and another provides comprehensive and logically arranged information on how to assess and date a given marine chronometer, something collectors and dealers find particularly difficult. For further help in identification of chronometers, appendices include a pictorial record of the number punches used by specific makers to number their movements, and the maker’s punches used by the rough movement makers. There is also a close-up pictorial guide to the various compensation balances used in chronometers in the collection, a technical Glossary of terms used in the catalogue text and a concordance of the various inventory numbers used in the collection over the years.


2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mara Calvini ◽  
Maria Stella Siori ◽  
Spartaco Gippoliti ◽  
Marco Pavia

The revised catalogue of primatological material stored in the Museo Regionale di Scienze Naturali of Torino and in the Dipartimento di Scienze della Vita e Biologia dei Sistemi of the Università degli Studi di Torino and belonging to the historical material of the Torino University is introduced. The material, 494 specimens belonging to 399 individuals of 122 taxa, is of particular importance since specimens were mainly obtained during the 19th Century and the beginning of the 20th Century. A relevant part of the collection was created by the collaborators of the Museum, among which it is worth to mention F. De Filippi, A. Borelli and E. Festa, while other material came from purchases and donations from private people or the Royal Zoological Garden of Torino. Great part of the specimens is stuffed but also the osteological materials are of particular importance, as many of them derived from the specimens before being prepared and consisting of skulls or more or less complete skeletons. After this revision, the Lectotype and Paralectotypes of <em>Alouatta</em> <em>palliata</em> <em>aequatorialis</em> have been selected, and the type-specimen of the <em>brunnea</em> variety of <em>Cebus</em> <em>albifrons</em> <em>cuscinus</em> has been recognized. In addition, some specimens of particular historical-scientific importance have also been identified and here presented for the first time.


2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 302-309 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan M. Fura ◽  
Sean E. Pidgeon ◽  
Morgan Birabaharan ◽  
Marcos M. Pires

Author(s):  
André Parent

Two hundred years ago, Giovanni Aldini published a highly influential book that reported experiments in which the principles of Luigi Galvani (animal electricity) and Alessandro Volta (bimetallic electricity) were used together for the first time. Aldini was born in Bologna in 1762 and graduated in physics at the University of his native town in 1782. As nephew and assistant of Galvani, he actively participated in a series of crucial experiments with frog's muscles that led to the idea that electricity was the long-sought vital force coursing from brain to muscles. Aldini became professor of experimental physics at the University of Bologna in 1798. He traveled extensively throughout Europe, spending much time defending the concept of his discreet uncle against the incessant attacks of Volta, who did not believe in animal electricity. Aldini used Volta's bimetallic pile to apply electric current to dismembered bodies of animals and humans; these spectacular galvanic reanimation experiments made a strong and enduring impression on his contemporaries. Aldini also treated patients with personality disorders and reported complete rehabilitation following transcranial administration of electric current. Aldini's work laid the ground for the development of various forms of electrotherapy that were heavily used later in the 19th century. Even today, deep brain stimulation, a procedure currently employed to relieve patients with motor or behavioral disorders, owes much to Aldini and galvanism. In recognition of his merits, Aldini was made a knight of the Iron Crown and a councillor of state at Milan, where he died in 1834.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raphael R. Steimbach ◽  
Corey J. Herbst-Gervasoni ◽  
Glynis Klinke ◽  
Magalie Géraldy ◽  
Gergely Tihanyi ◽  
...  

We report the first selective chemical probes for histone deacetylase 10 (HDAC10) with unprecedented selectivity over other HDAC isozymes. HDAC10 deacetylates polyamines and has a distinct substrate specificity, making it unique among the 11 zinc-dependent HDAC hydrolases. Taking inspiration from HDAC10 polyamine substrates, we systematically inserted an amino group (“aza-scan”) into the hexyl linker moiety of the approved drug Vorinostat (SAHA). This one atom replacement (C-->N) transformed SAHA from an unselective pan-HDAC inhibitor into a specific HDAC10 inhibitor. Optimization of the aza-SAHA structure yielded DKFZ-748, which has a double-digit nanomolar IC50 against HDAC10 in cells and >500-fold selectivity over the closest relative HDAC6 as well as the Class I enzymes (HDAC1, 2, 3, 8). Potency of our aza-SAHA derivatives is rationalized with HDAC10 co-crystal structures and demonstrated by cellular and biochemical target-engagement, as well as thermal-shift, assays. Treatment of cells with DKFZ-748, followed by quantification of selected polyamines, confirmed for the first time the suspected cellular function of HDAC10 as a poly-amine deacetylase. Selective HDAC10 chemical probes provide a valuable pharmacological tool for target validation and will enable further studies on the enigmatic biology of HDAC10 and acetylated polyamines. HDAC10-selective aza-SAHA derivatives are not cytotoxic, which opens the doors to novel therapeutic applications as immunomodulators or in combination cancer therapy.


2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-32
Author(s):  
JOS BAZELMANS

The windmill. The origins of a Dutch icon The windmill is an icon of the Netherlands. But when did this instrument acquire this symbolic role at home and abroad? After all, mills are also common outside of the Netherlands. In this essay, it is argued that during the second half of the 19th century, foreigners systematically identified the Netherlands and the windmill for the first time. More than in other countries, there was a varied use of mills in the Netherlands, large and robust mills and clusters of industrial mills. Within the Netherlands itself, development towards an iconic position is only visible around the turn of the century when the mill turned out to be a plus in tourist recruitment abroad and when mills were slowly disappearing from the landscape.


2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 ◽  
pp. 1-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hui Xu ◽  
Dongmei Han ◽  
Zhaohui Xu

The ability ofThermotogaspp. to degrade cellulose is limited due to a lack of exoglucanases. To address this deficiency, cellulase genes Csac_1076 (celA) and Csac_1078 (celB) fromCaldicellulosiruptor saccharolyticuswere cloned intoT.sp. strain RQ2 for heterologous overexpression. Coding regions of Csac_1076 and Csac_1078 were fused to the signal peptide of TM1840 (amyA) and TM0070 (xynB), resulting in three chimeric enzymes, namely, TM1840-Csac_1078, TM0070-Csac_1078, and TM0070-Csac_1076, which were carried byThermotoga-E. colishuttle vectors pHX02, pHX04, and pHX07, respectively. All three recombinant enzymes were successfully expressed inE. coliDH5αandT.sp. strain RQ2, rendering the hosts with increased endo- and/or exoglucanase activities. InE. coli, the recombinant enzymes were mainly bound to the bacterial cells, whereas inT.sp. strain RQ2, about half of the enzyme activities were observed in the culture supernatants. However, the cellulase activities were lost inT.sp. strain RQ2 after three consecutive transfers. Nevertheless, this is the first time heterologous genes bigger than 1 kb (up to 5.3 kb in this study) have ever been expressed inThermotoga, demonstrating the feasibility of using engineeredThermotogaspp. for efficient cellulose utilization.


2011 ◽  
Vol 675-677 ◽  
pp. 3-7
Author(s):  
Peter Häussler ◽  
Martin Stiehler

Structure formation, the condensation of a cloud of atoms to a crystal is still not well understood. Disordered sytems (amorphous/liquid) should be in the center of this research, they are the precursors of any crystal. We consider elementary systems, as well as binary, or ternary amorphous alloys, irrespective whether they are metallically, covalently or ionically bonded and describe the process of structure formation in the formal language of thermodynamics but, as far as we know for the first time, by an extended version (general dynamics), based on the complete Gibbs fundamental equation, applied to internal subsystems. Major structural features evolve from global resonances between formerly independent internal subsystems by exchanging momenta and angular momenta, both accompanied by energy. By this they adjust mutually their internal features and create spherical-periodic structural order at medium-range distances. Under the given external constraints the resonances get optimized by selforganization. Global resonances of the type considered have clearly to be distinguished from local resonances between individual ions (described by quantum chemistry) forming local order. The global resonances cause anti-bonding (non-equilibrium) as well as bonding (equilibrium) states of the coupled total system, occupying the latter to form new structurally extended order. The transition to equilibrium creates entropy which itself leaves the system together with energy. At resonance the energetical splitting between the bonding and anti-bonding state is largest, the creation of entropy and the decrease of the total energy therefore, too. The crystal, finally, evolves by additionally optimizing a resonance based on angular momentum, and the additional adjustments of the local resonances to the global ones, theoretically done by applying Bloch’s theorem.


2020 ◽  
pp. 271-290
Author(s):  
A. I. Arkhipova ◽  
P. P. Petrov

For the first time in historiography, an attempt is made to illuminate the activities of Senator I.N. Tolstoy in conducting an audit of the regional management system of the Yakutsk region. Particular attention is paid to the audit of office work of the Yakutsk regional administration and the Yakutsk city hall. The novelty of the study is in the fact that, based on an analysis of archival sources first introduced into scientific circulation, the specifics of the functioning of the regional administration in the second quarter of the 19th century is revealed, and the results of the audit are considered as prerequisites for expanding the rights of administrative independence of the Yakutsk region from the Irkutsk province. The relevance of the study is due to the fact that this was the only senatorial revision for all years in the territory of the vast and geographically remote Yakutsk region, which has not undergone extensive scientific study. In the course of the presentation of the substantive part, a review of the main directions of the audit activity in relation to the regional and district levels of government, as well as its inspection supervision of the activities of the lower administrative authorities, including the city hall, was performed. Based on the author’s development, it was proved that the senatorial audit, reflecting the attention of the imperial authorities to the periphery, was aimed primarily at increasing the efficiency of the Siberian suburbs management system on the example of the Yakutsk region through personnel shifts and elimination of identified office work disturbances. The study was based on documents first discovered in the archives of the Russian State Historical Archive and the National Archives of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia).


2017 ◽  
Vol 57 (2) ◽  
pp. 33-50
Author(s):  
Jernej Kosi

The article analyses the process involved in the formation of the idea to separate the "Slovenian" and "Croatian" national territory in the west of the Kingdom of Hungary. The concept was initially articulated as a linguistic premise in the works written by the famous linguist Jernej Kopitar, who understood the territory of the today's Prekmurje region as an area where Slovenian language was spoken. As of the middle of the 19th century, Kopitar's classification had been appropriated by the Slovenian national movement, which presupposed that the speakers of the Slovenian language in the Kingdom of Hungary were also members of the envisioned Slovenian community. In this context the Slovenian linguistic – national border was, in the middle of the 19th century, depicted on a map for the first time (Peter Kozler). In just a few decades, the idea of the national demarcation line in the today's Prekmurje, supposedly separating Slovenians from Croats at the river Mura, had strengthened considerably among the Slovenian national activists in the Cisleithanian lands. After the dissolution of Austro-Hungary and the signing of the Treaty of Trianion, this line in fact became a border between the Slovenian and the neighbouring Croatian national space. 


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