Spatial and Temporal Scaling of Microtubules and Mitotic Spindles

During cell division, the mitotic spindle, a macromolecular structure primarily comprised of microtubules, drives chromosome alignment and partitioning between daughter cells. Mitotic spindles can sense cellular dimensions in order to adapt their length and mass to cell size. This scaling capacity is particularly remarkable during early embryo cleavage when cells divide rapidly in the absence of cell growth, thus leading to a reduction of cell volume at each division. Although mitotic spindle size scaling can occur over an order of magnitude in early embryos, in many species the duration of mitosis is relatively short, constant throughout early development and independent of cell size. Therefore, a key challenge for cells during embryo cleavage is not only to assemble a spindle of proper size, but also to do it in an appropriate time window which is compatible with embryo development. How spatial and temporal scaling of the mitotic spindle is achieved and coordinated with the duration of mitosis remains elusive. In this review, we will focus on the mechanisms that support mitotic spindle spatial and temporal scaling over a wide range of cell sizes and cellular contexts. We will present current models and propose alternative mechanisms allowing cells to spatially and temporally coordinate microtubule and mitotic spindle assembly.

Choice of medium affects PBMC quantification, cell size, and downstream respiratory analysis

High-resolution respirometry (HRR) can assess PBMC bioenergetics, but no standardized medium for PBMC preparation and HRR analysis exist. Here, we study the effect of four different media (MiR05, PBS, RPMI, Plasmax) on quantification, size, and HRR analysis (Oxygraph-O2k) of intact PBMCs. Remarkably, PBMC quantification was 21% higher in MiR05 than PBS and Plasmax, and 28% higher than in RPMI, causing O2 flux underestimation during HRR due to inherent adjustments. Moreover, smaller cell size of PBMCs and aggregation was observed in MiR05. We suggest optimization of HRR with a standardized, plasma-like medium for future HRR analysis of intact PBMCs.

TRF2 rescues pathogenic phenotypes in Duchenne muscular dystrophy cardiomyocytes derived from human iPSCs

Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a severe muscle wasting disease caused by the lack of dystrophin. Heart failure, driven by cardiomyocyte death, fibrosis, and the development of dilated cardiomyopathy, is the leading cause of death in DMD patients. Current treatments decrease the mechanical load on the heart; however, these treatments do not address the root cause of dilated cardiomyopathy: cardiomyocyte death. Previously, we showed that longer telomeres are protective against dilated cardiomyopathy. Here we investigated the role of telomeres as a target for therapy in DMD cardiomyocytes using human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) to model the disease. Compared to healthy controls, DMD cardiomyocytes exhibited reduced telomere lengths, cell size, nuclear size, and sarcomere density. The telomere-binding protein, TRF2, is a core component of the shelterin complex, which protects chromosome ends. TRF2 levels are reduced relative to healthy controls in DMD cardiomyocytes. We hypothesized that decreased TRF2 drives telomere attrition and subsequent cardiomyocyte death in the progression of dilated cardiomyopathy. Our data show that TRF2 overexpression prevented telomere attrition and also rescued deficits in cell size, nuclear size, sarcomere density, and calcium handling. These data highlight the benefits of TRF2 upregulation as a potential gene therapy to delay the onset of dilated cardiomyopathy.

The Effect of the Protein Synthesis Entropy Reduction on the Cell Size Regulation and Division Size of Unicellular Organisms

The underlying mechanism determining the size of a particular cell is one of the fundamental unknowns in cell biology. Here, using a new approach that could be used for most of unicellular species, we show that the protein synthesis and cell size are interconnected biophysically and that protein synthesis may be the chief mechanism in establishing size limitations of unicellular organisms. This result is obtained based on the free energy balance equation of protein synthesis and the second law of thermodynamics. Our calculations show that protein synthesis involves a considerable amount of entropy reduction due to polymerization of amino acids depending on the cytoplasmic volume of the cell. The amount of entropy reduction will increase with cell growth and eventually makes the free energy variations of the protein synthesis positive (that is, forbidden thermodynamically). Within the limits of the second law of thermodynamics we propose a framework to estimate the optimal cell size at division.

EBSD characterisation of grain size distribution and grain sub-structures for ferritic steel weld metals

Microstructural characterisation of engineering materials is required for understanding the relationships between microstructure and mechanical properties. Conventionally grain size is measured from grain boundary maps obtained using optical or electron microscopy. This paper implements EBSD-based linear intercept measurement of spatial grain size variation for ferritic steel weld metals, making analysis flexible and robust. While grain size has been shown to correlate with the strength of the material according to the Hall–Petch relationship, similar grain sizes in weld metals with different phase volume fractions can have significantly different mechanical properties. Furthermore, the solidification of the weld pool induces the formation of grain sub-structures that can alter mechanical properties. The recently developed domain misorientation approach is used in this study to provide a more comprehensive characterisation of the grain sub-structures for ferritic steel weld metals. The studied weld metals consist of varying mixtures of primary ferrite, acicular ferrite, and bainite/martensite, with large differences observed in hardness, grain size, grain morphology, and dislocation cell size. For the studied weld metals, the average dislocation cell size varied between 0.68 and 1.41 µm, with bainitic/martensitic weld metals showing the smallest sub-structures and primary ferrite the largest. In contrast, the volume-weighted average grain size was largest for the bainitic/martensitic weld metal. Results indicate that a Hall–Petch-type relationship exists between hardness and average dislocation cell size and that it partially corrects the significantly different grain size—hardness relationship observed for ferritic and bainitic/martensitic weld metals. The methods and datasets are provided as open access.

Analysis of effect of variation of Honeycomb core cell size and sandwich panel width on the stiffness of a sandwich structure

A sandwich structure consists of three main parts i.e. the facing skins, the core and the adhesive. It acts in a way similar to that of the I- Beam. In this research, a sandwich structure has been designed with a regular hexagon honey-comb core made up of Kevlar® and face sheet of carbon fiber. The design has been modelled and the model has also been validated with the experimental and analytical method. Six different configurations of sandwich structures have been proposed. Out of these six, three configurations have the varying cell size i.e. 3.2 mm, 4 mm and 4.8 mm and the other three configurations have the varying panel width i.e. 40 mm, 45 mm and 50 mm keeping rest of the design parameters unchanged. Using ANSYS, analysis has been performed for all these six configurations and equivalent stiffness has been calculated. It has been observed that the honeycomb core cell size does not have a significant effect on the stiffness properties of a composite sandwich panel. The analysis also reveals that with the increased panel width the stiffness of composite panel increases significantly.

Cryogenic thermal insulating and mechanical properties of rigid polyurethane foams blown with hydrofluoroolefin: Effect of perfluoroalkane

The effect of perfluoroalkane (PFA) on the morphology, thermal conductivity, mechanical properties and thermal stability of rigid polyurethane (PU) foams was investigated under ambient and cryogenic conditions. The PU foams were blown with hydrofluorolefin. Morphological results showed that the minimum cell size (153 μm) was observed when the PFA content was 1.0 part per hundred polyols by weight (php). This was due to the lower surface tension of the mixed polyol solution when the PFA content was 1.0 php. The thermal conductivity of PU foams measured under ambient (0.0215 W/mK) and cryogenic (0.0179 W/mK at −100°C) conditions reached a minimum when the PFA content was 1.0 php. The low value of thermal conductivity was a result of the small cell size of the foams. The above results suggest that PFA acted as a nucleating agent to enhanced the thermal insulation properties of PU foams. The compressive and shear strengths of the PU foams did not appreciably change with PFA content at either −170°C or 20°C. However, it shows that the mechanical strengths at −170°C and 20°C for the PU foams meet the specification. Coefficient of thermal expansion, and thermal shock tests of the PU foams showed enough thermal stability for the LNG carrier’s operation temperature. Therefore, it is suggested that the PU foams blown by HFO with the PFA addition can be used as a thermal insulation material for a conventional LNG carrier.

Plankton growth dynamic driven by plankton body size in deterministic and stochastic environments

In this paper, we establish a new phytoplankton-zooplankton model by considering the effects of plankton body size and stochastic environmental fluctuations. Mathematical theory work mainly gives the existence of boundary and positive equilibria, and shows their local as well as global stability in the deterministic model. Additionally, we explore the dynamics of V-geometric ergodicity, stochastic ultimate boundedness, stochastic permanence, persistence in the mean, stochastic extinction and the existence of a unique ergodic stationary distribution in the corresponding stochastic version. Numerical simulation work mainly reveals that plankton body size can generate great influences on the interactions between phytoplankton and zooplankton, which in turn proves the effectiveness of mathematical theory analysis. It is worth emphasizing that for the small value of phytoplankton cell size, the increase of zooplankton body size can not change the phytoplankton density or zooplankton density; for the middle value of phytoplankton cell size, the increase of zooplankton body size can decrease zooplankton density or phytoplankton density; for the large value of phytoplankton body size, the increase of zooplankton body size can increase zooplankton density but decrease phytoplankton density. Besides, it should be noted that the increase of zooplankton body size can not affect the effect of random environmental disturbance, while the increase of phytoplankton cell size can weaken its effect. There results may enrich the dynamics of phytoplankton-zooplankton models.

Effects of Atmospheric Plasma Corona Discharge on Agrobacterium tumefaciens Survival

Soil-borne pathogenic microorganisms are known to cause extensive crop losses. Agrobacterium tumefaciens, a member of the Proteobacteria, causes the neoplastic crown gall disease in plants. Plant protection is mainly based on toxic chemicals that are harmful to the environment. The use of cold atmospheric-pressure plasma is an attractive method for microbial eradication. Its antimicrobial mechanism includes the formation of large quantities of reactive oxygen species (ROS). The advantages of eradicating bacteria using cold plasma are not needed for chemicals, short treatment, and environmental temperatures. This study examined the impact of plasma corona discharge exposure on A. tumefaciens viability, membrane permeability, relative cell size, and ROS formation. The results showed that 90 s of plasma exposure led to a reduction by four orders of magnitude when the initial concentration was 1 × 107 CFU/mL and in a dry environment. When the initial concentration was 1 × 106 CFU/mL, 45 s of exposure resulted in total bacterial eradication. In a liquid environment, in an initial concentration of 2.02 × 106 CFU/mL, there was no complete bacterial eradication even at the most prolonged examined exposure (90 s). The influence of plasma treatment on the membrane permeability of A. tumefaciens, and their possible recovery, were analyzed using flow cytometer analysis using propidium iodide (PI). When the plasma-treated bacteria were suspended in Luria–Bertani (LB) (rich medium), the PI-positive count of the plasma-treated bacteria after two hours was 12 ± 3.9%. At the 24th hour, this percentage was only 1.74 ± 0.6%, as the control (0.7 ± 0.1%). These results may indicate the repair of the plasma-treated bacteria that were suspended in LB. At the 24th hour, the relative cell size of the treated bacteria shifted to the right, to ~3 × 104 forward side scatter (FSC), about 0.5-fold higher than the untreated cells. Measurement of the ROS showed that the intracellular fluorescence of the 90-s plasma-treated cells led to significant fluorescence formation of 32 relative fluorescence units (RFU)/cell (9 × 104 fold, compared to the nontreated cells). This study showed that cold plasma is a useful method for A. tumefaciens eradication. The eradication mechanism involves ROS generation, membrane permeability, and changes in cell size.