Cancer has become a leading research topic in recent years. Although there is no exact cure, scientists have been studying various means that can suppress cancer. One mechanism of eradicating cancer cells is by triggering apoptosis. Plant lectins have been shown to induce apoptosis in various types of cancer cells. Plant lectins use different mechanisms of apoptosis, but typically induce similar morphological changes such as DNA fragmentation and chromatin condensation. Increasing our understanding of the plant lectins apoptotic pathways is crucial in developing drugs that can inhibit the proliferation of cancer cells. This paper aims to provide a general perspective for understanding lectin's potential role as novel anti-cancer drugs.

Ubiquitination is a post-translational modification of proteins that plays an essential role in many cellular processes. Ubiquitination involves the attachment of the small polypeptide ubiquitin to target proteins to control their activity or stability. As a reversible modification, E3 ubiquitin-ligases attach ubiquitin to proteins while deubiquitinases (DUBs) remove ubiquitin from tagged proteins. Revealing the mechanisms that regulate ubiquitination/deubiquitination is important for understanding how cells fine-tune protein activity to control important processes and pathways. It is clear in animals and yeast that WD-repeat proteins (WDR) bind to and activate DUBs. In plants, however, no interactions between WDR proteins and DUBs have been reported. Here, we used BLAST searches to identify plant homolog proteins of a conserved animal DUB and its associated WDR proteins. Based on these homologies, we predicted that Arabidopsis UBP3, a DUB involved in pollen development and transmission, forms a complex with the WDR proteins At2g37160 and LRS1. Indeed, these three proteins could be co-immunoprecipitated when transiently co-expressed as epitope-tagged proteins in plant cells. At2g37160 also interacted with UBP3 in the yeast two-hybrid system and could enhance the DUB activity of UBP3 ten-fold in vitro. These results provide the first evidence that plant DUBs, like animal DUBs, are regulated by WDR proteins.

Acquisition of hospital and community-associated methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), extended spectrum beta lactamase producing Escherichia coli (ESBL-E. coli) and carbapenemase-producing Klebsiella pneumoniae (CPKP) from dirty environments is widely reported in Nigeria. Restroom floors of congested hostels (dormitories) and high-touch surfaces such as corridors, doors, and wardrobes handles, and hands of restroom users and non-users were studied for the presence of MRSA, ESBL-E. coli and CPKP before and 1 hour after cleaning and disinfection. Surfaces were swabbed with sterile moistened swab sticks, and isolation and identification of S. aureus, E. coli and K. pneumoniae were performed using standard techniques. Methicillin resistance by S. aureus, ESBL production by E. coli and carbapenemase production by K. pneumoniae were determined phenotypically using cefoxitin susceptibility, double disc synergy and modified Hodges tests, respectively. Amplification of bla_CTX-M, and bla_NDM-1 in ESBL-E. coli and CPKP was performed using PCR. We found that restroom floors were frequently contaminated with MRSA, ESBL-E. coli, and CPKP before and 1 hour after cleaning. High-touch surfaces such as corridors, doors, and wardrobes handles were contaminated with these pathogens, as well as hands of restroom users. The process of floor disinfection was able to reduce the percentage of MRSA, ESBL-E. coli and CPKP by 23.8%, 50%, and 22.2%, respectively. Pathogens from restroom floors and hand of users harbor similar resistant genes. The findings suggest that people with frequent contact with these surfaces can acquire and disseminate the pathogens to others.

Ethanol is a multifunctional compound that has many uses and can be made naturally by sugar-fermenting yeast such as Saccharomyces cerevisiae. However, ethanol is toxic to yeast, so in this study we aimed to improve yeast ethanol tolerance, which could result in greater efficiencies in the process of alcohol production. This research explores the effectiveness of artificially inducing population-level variation through the application of ethyl methanesulfonate (EMS) on increasing the ethanol tolerance in S. cerevisiae. After several rounds of selection and increasing ethanol concentrations, ranging from 9-27%, the two treatment populations (AS - Artificial Selection only; and EMS – Exposure to EMS and Artificial Selection) were compared to the initial parental population. The parental strain was tolerant to ethanol concentrations of 13%, while the AS treatment was tolerant to slightly higher levels, 16%. Both of these treatments were well below the EMS treatment which expressed a tolerance of 27%. To test differences between strains, the parental strain, selection strain, and the EMS-exposed strain were separately plated on ten 27% ethanol plates and ten 0% ethanol plates, and growth was checked after 24 hours. The EMS-exposed strain was the only strain that grew at 27% ethanol; all strains grew at 0% ethanol. These results show that EMS, artificial selection, and ethanol as a stressor might be effective in producing strains of S. cerevisiae that are able to produce greater amounts of ethanol before toxicity sets in.

The anterolateral ligament (ALL) has been distinctly characterized in the human knee, so there has been a resulting search for animal models with this ligament. Sus scrofa domestica, the domestic pig, has many biomechanical qualities similar to those of human knees, so this study searched for incidence of the ALL in 10 separate specimen knees. The anatomic dissection yielded no identification of an ALL structure in any of the specimens examined. However, the knees did possess other identifiable structures on the anterolateral aspect of the knee, including the lateral collateral ligament (LCL), tibialis anterior tendon (TAT), and lateral retinaculum (LR). These were harvested and tested to determine if their biomechanical properties compensated for the lack of the ALL. The TAT had the largest average Young's modulus, followed by the LCL, and then the LR. The LR had the longest average end of toe region, followed by the TAT, and then the LCL. The properties of these anterolateral structures, the lifestyle, and the evolutionary path of S. scrofa likely offer insight as to why this species might lack an ALL. This study concludes that S. scrofa does not serve as an animal study model for the anterolateral ligament.

The foraging success of orb-web spiders depends primarily on the structure and maintenance of their webs. The purpose of this study was to examine how the presence and degree of web damage affected web-building responses in Zygiella x-notata. Part 1 of the study investigated the severity of damage with: a control, a partial web damage group, and a complete web damage group. Part 2 investigated frequency of damage over a 5-day period with: a control group, an infrequent web damage group, and a frequent web damage group. Four spiders were allocated randomly to each experimental group, and four trials for each were conducted. Results suggested that spiders were unlikely to relocate, regardless of the type of web damage that occurred. Web sizes exhibited a decreasing trend for all experimental groups after web damage, except for controls and partial damage groups, with the largest decreases seen in frequent and complete damage groups. Anchor thread count increased after partial and complete damage; however, it decreased after damage in both repetitive web damage groups. Overall, these preliminary findings suggest that web-building spiders will likely rebuild instead of relocate in areas where damage occurs to their webs. When the damage is partial and non-repetitive, they expend more energy repairing and reinforcing their webs. However, when faced with repetitive and complete damage, their behavior is an adaptation to reduce the amount of energy expended in web repair.

Chagas disease is a neglected tropical parasitic disease that is caused by the protozoan Trypanosoma cruzi and that is transmitted by several insect vectors in the subfamily Triatominae. Research studies suggest that the vector ecology of Chagas disease may be impacted by anthropogenic changes to natural habitats. The objective of this study was to characterize linkages between poverty levels and diverse land use practices throughout El Salvador. Working at the municipal level, we used geographic information systems (GIS) to intersect map-layers containing land use types and poverty index values. The resulting intersect map was used to characterize the alpha-diversity of different agricultural, natural, and mixed land use types. We found that the richness, diversity, and evenness of municipal land use types changed with municipal poverty-level, size, population density, and population sex ratio. We also detected that changes in green space, natural landscapes, and agricultural landscapes correlated with municipal sociodemographic considerations. Given the broad exploratory connections between the vector ecology of Triatominae and the socio-demographics of land use practices, we propose that a multidisciplinary approach will be more effective in mitigating Chagas disease in El Salvador.