Dr. Edo McGowan
Thesis.
Agricultural application of sewage sludge may see the following: accumulation of heavy metals in crops,
consequent shifts in plant hormones via heavy metals, production of brassinosteroids with consequent
effects on plant hormone output, effects on terrestrial arthopods and their aquatic counterparts, impacts to
crops and pass through of metals and hormones into man and food animals---including dairy animals.
Country: United States
1. Sponsor Organization: National Science Foundation
2. Project Title: Molecular Mechanisms of Brassinosteroid Action
3. Project Focus:
Project Primary Focus: Ecological Effects
Project Secondary Focus:
4. Description:
A great deal is known concerning the molecular mechanisms by which steroid hormones regulate gene expression in
vertebrates and insects. In contrast, the growth-promoting steroids found in higher plants are only beginning to be
studied. Brassinosteroids are plant steroid hormones that act at low concentrations (one billionth of a gram) to
profoundly affect the growth of a wide range of plants including arabidopsis, corn, soybean, rice, potatoes, radish,
lettuce, pepper and oranges. With previous NSF support, our laboratory showed that brassinosteroids enhanced the
elongation of stems and regulated gene expression in plants. The objective of the current NSF grant is to study the DNA
sequences in brassinosteroid regulated genes that are responsible for controlling the response to these plant steroid
hormones. Because brassinosteroids are similar in structure to animal steroid hormones, understanding their activity
has great potential importance in basic developmental biology. In view of the multitude of demonstrated effects
brassinosteroids have on crops, a deeper understanding of the molecular mechanisms of brassinosteroid action would
have agricultural potential as well.
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Focus on the Flu
Research: Prevention
Baculovirus Could Help Spur a Metamorphosis in Flu Vaccines
A virus that infects the larvae of the fall armyworm moth may be a possible vehicle for a new flu vaccine.
Cells derived from the fall armyworm are infected with the recombinant baculovirus.
Credit: Protein Sciences Corporation
What makes the virus, called baculovirus, an attractive candidate is that it infects a small number of insect species,
making it harmless to humans, says NIAID-supported researcher Manon Cox, D.Sc., M.B.A., chief operating officer of
Protein Sciences Corporation, Meriden, CT.
Another strength lies in its genome. Baculovirus possesses a thick protein coat, or polyhedrin, which surrounds the virus’
s genetic material, protecting it from sunlight or harsh conditions inside the larva’s gut. Preceding the gene that encodes
the polyhedrin protein is a “promoter,” a DNA sequence that activates the polyhedrin gene and, as researchers have
found, can switch on virtually any gene.
Using a technology developed by co-collaborators from Texas A&M University, Dr. Cox and team members from Protein
Sciences and elsewhere are using the baculovirus— together with an insect cell line derived from the fall armyworm—to
develop a vaccine made solely of HA proteins. To accomplish this, they replace the baculovirus’s polyhedrin gene with
an HA gene while leaving the promoter in place. They then infect the cell line derived from the fall armyworm with this
recombinant baculovirus, causing the cells to churn out—instead of polyhedrin—large quantities of HA protein. The
researchers then purify the HA for use in the vaccine.
One of the advantages of the recombinant HA vaccine is it enables researchers to deliver a potentially more potent and
pure vaccine consisting only of HA proteins in a relatively short amount of time. The production process also doesn’t
require the use of eggs or animal serum as in some cell culture–based vaccines.
Already, the recombinant HA vaccine has been evaluated in older adults in seven Phase I and II trials. The researchers
recently compared the currently available vaccine with three concentrations of the trivalent recombinant HA vaccine: the
same concentration, three times the concentration, and nine times the concentration of the current vaccine. In regard to
the H3N2 strain, they found that the similarly dosed recombinant vaccine offered better results than the current vaccine,
inducing protective antibodies in more than 50 percent of the subjects. Of the subjects receiving the higher doses, more
than 70-90 percent generated protective levels of antibodies. Phase III studies in healthy adults, ages 18-49, are
underway.
For more information, visit the Protein Sciences Corporation Web site.
back to top
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From: "Edo McGowan" <edo_mcgowan@hotmail.com>
To: jjembap@uc.edu
CC: maureen.reilly@sympatico.ca, aunc@uottawa.ca
Subject: See Science 1 Dec 2006, vol 314 p. 1410
Date: Sun, 10 Dec 2006 18:36:20 +0000
Patrick---hope you are well. Science carried an article on Bassinosterpods and plants. This may be of interest to you as
land application of sewage byproducts may interfere with this signaling process and thus the growth of plants or the
reuptake of these or other toxins by the plants. See alfalfa below. Green Acres, the farm supported on LA sewage is
growing alfalfa fed to dairy cattle owned by the same operation. There is some question about herd health, hence the
meat and dairy products. Since cattle in modern milk strings are stresses so much, their productive life expectancy is
about 3-years, then they go to slaughter.
Using key words brassinosteroid and sewage--------
Natural brassinosteroids epibrassinolide and homobrassinolide synthesized from accessible natural sterols have been
studied in regards to the effect on strontium and cesium uptake by plants. For the first time, it has been established that
brassinosteroids efficiently diminished of radionuclide uptake by plants simultaneously with plant crop increasing effect.
The technology of application of brassinosteroids as plant protectors was elaborated for the cases of soils with
increased content of radionuclides.
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Mammalian sex hormones in plants. - group of 2 »
A Janeczko, A Skoczowski - Folia Histochem Cytobiol, 2005 - cm-uj.krakow.pl
... Page 3. estrogens found in sewage water (0.3 µg . dm -3 ) could affect the vegetative
growth of alfalfa plants. ... Brassinosteroids and phytoestrogens ...
Related Articles - View as HTML - Web Search
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The UGT73C5 of Arabidopsis thaliana glucosylates brassinosteroids
Brigitte Poppenberger *, , Shozo Fujioka , , Kazuo Soeno , Gilu L. George *, Fabián E. Vaistij *, Sayoko Hiranuma ,
Hideharu Seto , , Suguru Takatsuto ¶, Gerhard Adam , Shigeo Yoshida , , and Dianna Bowles *, ||
Steroid hormones are essential for development, and the precise control of their homeostasis is a prerequisite for
normal growth. UDP-glycosyltransferases (UGTs) are considered to play an important regulatory role in the activity of
steroids in mammals and insects. This study provides an indication that a UGT accepting plant steroids as substrates
functions in brassinosteroid (BR) homeostasis. The UGT73C5 of Arabidopsis thaliana catalyses 23-O-glucosylation of
the BRs brassinolide (BL) and castasterone. Transgenic plants overexpressing UGT73C5 displayed BR-deficient
phenotypes and contained reduced amounts of BRs. The phenotype, which was already apparent in seedlings, could be
rescued by application of BR. In feeding experiments with BL, wild-type seedlings converted BL to the 23-O-glucoside; in
the transgenic lines silenced in UGT73C5 expression, no 23-O-glucoside was detected, implying that this UGT is the
only enzyme that catalyzes BL-23-O-glucosylation in seedlings. Plant lines in which UGT73C5 expression was altered
also displayed hypocotyl phenotypes previously described for seedlings in which BR inactivation by hydroxylation was
changed. These data support the hypothesis that 23-O-glucosylation of BL is a function of UGT73C5 in planta, and that
glucosylation regulates BR activity.
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Impacts of Xenobiotics on Crustacean Molting: The Invisible Endocrine Disruption
Enmin Zou
Department of Biological Sciences, Nicholls State University, Thibodaux, Louisiana 70310
Aquatic pollution has led to the accumulation of various xenobiotics in crustaceans. A number of these environmental
chemicals have been found to interfere with molting of crustaceans. Results of initial mechanistic studies with Uca
pugilator suggest that the disruption of molting results from the disturbance to the Y-organ-ecdysteroid receptor (EcR)
axis by xenobiotics. Such disturbance to the Y-organ-EcR axis can be caused by interference with epidermal ecdysteroid
signaling and/or alterations in ecdysteroidogenesis and/or ecdysteroid disposition. Because the adverse impacts on
crustacean molting cannot be readily seen in the wild, the disruption of molting represents an invisible form of endocrine
disruption.
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The Hsp90 family of proteins in Arabidopsis thaliana
Priti Krishna
The phytohormone indoleacetic acid, 0.1 M sodium chloride, or heavy metals. ...
also produce an array of steroids, including brassinosteroids.
The 90-kDa heat shock protein (Hsp90) is an essential molecular chaperone in eukaryotic cells, with key roles in the
folding and activation of proteins involved in signal transduction and control of the cell cycle. A search for Hsp90
sequences in the Arabidopsis thaliana genome revealed that this family includes 7 members. The AtHsp90-1 through
AtHsp90-4 proteins constitute the cytoplasmic subfamily, whereas the AtHsp90-5, AtHsp90-6, and AtHsp90-7 proteins
are predicted to be within the plastidial, mitochondrial, and endoplasmic reticulum compartments, respectively. The
deduced amino acid sequences of each of the cytoplasmic proteins contains the highly conserved C-terminal
pentapeptide MEEVD. All of the AtHsp90 sequences include a conserved adenosine triphosphate–binding domain,
whereas only the cytoplasmic and endoplasmic reticulum–resident sequences include an adjacent charged linker
domain that is common in mammalian and yeast sequences. The occurrence of multiple AtHsp90 proteins in the
cytoplasm and of family members in other subcellular compartments suggests a range of specific functions and target
polypeptides.
Received: May 1, 2001; Accepted: May 1, 2001
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