Communicative & Integrative Biology 

About: Communicative & Integrative Biology is an academic journal published by Taylor & Francis. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Endosome & Exocytosis. It has an ISSN identifier of 1942-0889. It is also open access. Over the lifetime, 1339 publications have been published receiving 26806 citations. The journal is also known as: Communicative and integrative biology.

In vitro: Response of plant growth regulators and antimalformins on conidia germination of Fusarium mangiferae and incidence of mango malformation

Abstract: Mango malformation is the most important and threatening disease of recent times, primarily because of persistent lacuna in complete understanding of its nature. Diverse Fusarium spp, including F. mangiferae, were found to be associated with the disease. Here, F. mangiferae from mango cv Dashehri was morphologically characterized. Typically, oval-shaped microconidia without septum and crescent-shaped macroconidia with 3-septate were more often observed, whereas not a single chlamydospore was detected. The length and width of micro- and macro-conidia were 7.5, 55, 3.2, and 3.5, respectively. The plant growth regulators such as NAA, GA3, BAP and ethrel were found to induce in vitro germination of conidia of F. mangiferae after 12 h. In contrast, antimalformin silver nitrate (AgNO3) inhibits conidial germination in vitro and none of conidia was germinated beyond 500 ppm, however antimalformin glutathione was highly effective in stimulating conidial germination of F. mangiferae in vitro at > 1000 ppm after 24 h. We observed that the response of F. mangiferae to germinate the conidia in vitro under influence of plant growth regulators and antimalformins is not coincided with earlier findings of reduced disease incidence by exogenous application of these compounds. The present findings do not authenticate the involvement of F. mangiferae in the disease, however hormonal imbalance, most probably ethylene, might be responsible for deformed functional morphology of panicle. Further, a signal transduction mechanism of stress-stimulated ethylene imbalance causing physio-morphological changes in reproductive organs of mango flower and thereby failure of fertilization and fruit set, which needs to be investigated.

Exosomes: Fit to deliver small RNA.

Abstract: Exosomes are specialized membranous nano-sized vesicles derived from endocytic compartments that are released by many cell types. Microvesicles are distinctive from exosomes in that they are produced by shedding of the plasmamembrane and usually larger in size (>1 µm). Exosome biogenesis involves the tightly controlled process of inward budding from the limiting membrane of multivesicular bodies (MVBs). This results in numerous intraluminal vesicles in the lumen of MVBs that contain distinct protein repertoires. It has been suggested that microvesicles shed by certain tumor cells hold functional messenger RNA (mRNA) that may promote tumor progression. We discovered that purified exosomes contain functional microRNAs (miRNAs) and small RNA, but detected little mRNA. Although a clear and decisive distinction between microvesicles and exosomes cannot be made and different subsets of exosomes exist, we speculate that exosomes are specialized in carrying small RNA including the class 22-25 nucleotide regulatory miRNAs. To demonstrate this we developed a co-culture system and found that exosomes are continuously secreted and transferred from Epstein Barr virus (EBV)-infected cells to uninfected neighboring cells. Throughout exosome transfer, the exogenous EBV-encoded miRNAs were delivered to subcellular sites of miRNA-mediated gene repression. Additionally, we found evidence that mature miRNAs are transferred between circulating cells in humans, since we detected EBV-miRNAs in non-infected cells in the peripheral blood of patients that include monocytes and T cells. In this addendum we discuss these findings in the context of recently published papers that advanced our current knowledge of exosome physiology, (mi)RNA function and intercellular RNA transfer. Based on this information we propose that an intercellular (miRNA-based) mode of signal transmission may be well suited in controlling space-confined processes such as the initiation of immune responses in the secondary (peripheral) lymphoid tissues or in a tumor microenvironment. Deciphering the molecular mechanism(s) that control small RNA loading into exosomes and transfer to recipient cells in vitro will provide new evidence for the physiological relevance of vesicle-mediated intercellular communication in vivo.

The mechanism of action of PA-824: Novel insights from transcriptional profiling.

Abstract: The bicyclic nitroimidazole PA-824 is a pro-drug with a very complex mechanism of action active against both replicating and hypoxic, non-replicating Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Microarray analysis of the mode of action of PA-824 showed a puzzling mixed effect both on genes responsive to both cell wall inhibition (like isoniazid) and respiratory poisoning (like cyanide). The aerobic killing mechanism of this drug appears to involve inhibition of cell wall mycolic acid biosynthesis through an as yet unknown molecular mechanism. However, the structure-activity relationships governing aerobic activity do not parallel the relationships determining anaerobic activity. Based on the metabolite profiling of PA-824 and various derivatives by Ddn-mediated activation, we have shown that PA-824 acts directly as an NO donor.1 This respiratory poisoning through nitric oxide release seemed to be a crucial element of anaerobic activity by PA-824. The effect of PA-824 on the respiratory complex under hypoxic non-replicati...

Effects of intestinal microbiota on anxiety-like behavior

Abstract: The acquisition of intestinal microbiota in the immediate postnatal period has a defining impact on the development and function of many immune and metabolic systems integral to health and well-being. Recent research has shown that the presence of gut microbiota regulates the set point for hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis activity.1 Accordingly, we sought to investigate if there were other changes of brain function such as behavioral alterations in germ free (GF) mice, and if so, to compare these to behavior of mice with normal gut microbiota. Our recent paper showed reduced anxietylike behavior in the elevated plus maze (EPM) in adult GF mice when compared to conventionally reared specific pathogen-free (SPF) mice.2 Here, we present data collected when we next colonized the adult GF mice with SPF feces thereby introducing normal gut microbiota, and then reassessed anxiety-like behavior. Interestingly, the anxiolytic behavioral phenotype observed in GF mice persisted after colonization with SPF intestinal microbiota. These data show that gut-brain interactions are important to CNS development of stress systems and that a critical window may exist after which reconstitution of microbiota and the immune system does not normalize the behavioral phenotype.

The rhizobacterial elicitor acetoin induces systemic resistance in Arabidopsis thaliana.

Abstract: The majority of plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) confer plant immunity against a wide range of foliar diseases by activating plant defences that reduce a plant's susceptibility to pathogen attack. Here we show that Arabidopsis thaliana (Col-0) plants exposed to Bacillus subtilis strain FB17 (hereafter FB17), results in reduced disease severity against Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato DC3000 (hereafter DC3000) compared to plants without FB17 treatment. Exogenous application of the B. subtilis derived elicitor, acetoin (3-hydroxy-2-butanone), was found to trigger induced systemic resistance (ISR) and protect plants against DC3000 pathogenesis. Moreover, B. subtilis acetoin biosynthetic mutants that emitted reduced levels of acetoin conferred reduced protection to A. thaliana against pathogen infection. Further analysis using FB17 and defense-compromised mutants of A. thaliana indicated that resistance to DC3000 occurs via NPR1 and requires salicylic acid (SA)/ethylene (ET) whereas jasmonic acid (JA) is not essential. This study provides new insight into the role of rhizo-bacterial volatile components as elicitors of defense responses in plants.