There is growing interest in discovery of novel bioactive natural products from Burkholderia thailandensis. Here we report a significantly improved genome sequence and reannotation of Burkholderia thailandensis MSMB43, which will facilitate the discovery of new natural products through genome mining and studies of the metabolic versatility of this bacterium.

Background

Rs2910164, a Single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) located in the precursor microRNA sequence of miR-146a, is the only MicroRNA sequence SNP studied in papillary thyroid cancer (PTC). Association studies had been performed in US and UK-Northern European populations, but results were inconsistence. This study evaluated the association between rs2910164 and the risk of PTC as well as benign thyroid tumor (BN), and examined the clinicopathological characteristics of PTC and BN for different genotypes.

Methods

This case-control study genotyped rs2910164 in 753 PTCs, 484 BNs and 760 controls in a Chinese Han population. Clinicopathological and genetic data were collected and compared. Multivariate logistic regression was performed to calculate adjusted odds ratios (ORs).

Results

There were no differences in rs2910164 genotype distributions between the three groups. PTC cases with three genotypes (CC, CG, GG) had similar clinicopathological characteristics except the existence of “para-cancer” BN (PTC/BN, P = 0.006). PTC/BN patients were older (P = 0.009), and had smaller cancer lesions (P<0.001), lower serum thyrotropin levels (1.82±1.42 vs. 2.21±1.74, P = 0.04), and lower rates of level VI lymph node metastasis (20.8% vs. 52.7%, P<0.001) and lateral neck lymph node metastasis (11.5% vs. 23.0%, P = 0.011) compared with PTC only. Then we supposed a possible progression from BN to PTC which may involve rs2910164 in and performed a multivariate logistic regression analysis of PTC/BN and BN cases to determine risk factors of this progression. Results showed that the rs2910164 GG homozygote (OR = 2.25, 95% CI 1.22–4.14, P = 0.01) was the only risk factor in this study.

Conclusion

Rs2910164 was not associated with increased risk of PTC and BN in Chinese patients, but may play a latent role in the transformation from BN to PTC.

Background

The goal of this study was to identify the clinicopathological factors of co-existing papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) in patients with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis (HT) and provide information to aid in the diagnosis of such patients.

Methods

This study included 6109 patients treated in a university-based tertiary care cancer hospital over a 3-year period. All of the patients were categorised based on their final diagnosis. Several clinicopathological factors, such as age, gender, nodular size, invasive status, central compartment lymph node metastasis (CLNM) and serum thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) level, were compared between the various groups of patients.

Results

There were 653 patients with a final diagnosis of HT. More PTC was found in those with HT (58.3%; 381 of 653) than those without HT (2416 of 5456; 44.3%; p < 0.05). The HT patients with co-occurring PTC were more likely to be younger, be female, have smaller nodules and have higher TSH levels than those without PTC. A multivariate analysis indicated that the presence of HT and higher TSH levels were risk factors for a diagnosis of PTC. In the PTC patients, the presence of HT or another benign nodule was a protective factor for CLNM, whereas no significant association was found for TSH levels.

Conclusion

PTC and HT have a close relationship in this region of highly prevalent HT disease. Based on the results of our study, we hypothesise that long-term HT leads to elevated serum TSH, which is the real risk factor for thyroid cancer.

Background

The ketoisovalerate reductase (EC 1.2.7.7 ) is required for the formation of beauvericin via the nonribosomal peptide synthetase biosynthetic pathway. It catalyzes the NADPH-specific reduction of ketoisovaleric acid to hydroxyisovalerate. However, little is known about the bioinformatics’ data about the 2-Kiv reductase in Fusarium. To date, heterologous production of the gene KivRFp from Fusarium has not been achieved.

Results

The KivRFp gene was subcloned and expressed in Escherichia coli BL21 using the pET expression system. The gene KivRFp contained a 1,359 bp open reading frame (ORF) encoding a polypeptide of 452 amino acids with a molecular mass of 52 kDa. Sequence analysis indicated that it showed 61% and 52% amino acid identities to ketoisovalerate reductase from Beauveria bassiana ATCC 7159 (ACI30654) and Metarhizium acridum CQMa 102 (EFY89891), respectively; and several conserved regions were identified, including the putative nucleotide-binding signature site, GXGXXG, a catalytic triad (Glu405, Asn184, and Lys285). The KivRFp exhibited the highest activity at 35°C and pH 7.5 respectively, by reduction of ketoisovalerate. It also exhibited the high level of stability over wide temperature and pH spectra and in the presence of metal ions or detergents.

Conclusions

A new ketoisovalerate reductase KivRFp was identified and characterized from the depsipeptide-producing fungus F. proliferatum. KivRFp has been shown to have useful properties, such as moderate thermal stability and broad pH optima, and may serve as the starting points for future protein engineering and directed evolution, towards the goal of developing efficient enzyme for downstream biotechnological applications.

Background

Diamagnetic levitation is a technique that uses a strong, spatially varying magnetic field to simulate an altered gravity environment, as in space. In this study, using Streptomyces avermitilis as the test organism, we investigate whether changes in magnetic field and altered gravity induce changes in morphology and secondary metabolism. We find that a strong magnetic field (12T) inhibit the morphological development of S. avermitilis in solid culture, and increase the production of secondary metabolites.

Methodology/Principal Findings

S. avermitilis on solid medium was levitated at 0 g*, 1 g* and 2 g* in an altered gravity environment simulated by diamagnetic levitation and under a strong magnetic field, denoted by the asterix. The morphology was obtained by electromicroscopy. The production of the secondary metabolite, avermectin, was determined by OD245 nm. The results showed that diamagnetic levitation could induce a physiological response in S. avermitilis. The difference between 1 g* and the control group grown without the strong magnetic field (1 g), showed that the magnetic field was a more dominant factor influencing changes in morphology and secondary metabolite production, than altered gravity.

Conclusion/Significance

We have discovered that magnetic field, rather than altered gravity, is the dominant factor in altered gravity simulated by diamagnetic levitation, therefore care should to be taken in the interpretation of results when using diamagnetic levitation as a technique to simulate altered gravity. Hence, these results are significant, and timely to researchers considering the use of diamagnetic levitation to explore effects of weightlessness on living organisms and on physical phenomena.

Mutant libraries of avermectin-producing Streptomyces avermitilis strains were constructed by different mutagenesis strategies. A metric was applied to assess the mutation spectrum by calculating the distribution of average phenotypic distance of each population. The results showed for the first time that a microgravity environment could introduce larger phenotype distribution and diversity than UV and N-methyl-N-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine (NTG) could.

Heterogeneous surface expression of Thy-1 in fibroblasts modulates inflammation and may thereby modulate injury and repair. As a paradigm, patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a disease with pathologic features of chronic inflammation, demonstrate an absence of Thy-1 immunoreactivity within areas of fibrotic activity (fibroblast foci) in contrast to the predominant Thy-1 expressing fibroblasts in the normal lung. Likewise, Thy-1 deficient mice display more severe lung fibrosis in response to an inflammatory injury than wildtype littermates. We investigated the role of Thy-1 in the response of fibroblasts to the pro-inflammatory cytokine TNF-α. Our study demonstrates distinct profiles of TNF-α-activated gene expression in Thy-1 positive (Thy-1+) and negative (Thy-1−) subsets of mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEF). TNF-α induced a robust activation of MMP-9, ICAM-1, and the IL-8 promoter driven reporter in Thy-1− MEFs, in contrast to only a modest increase in Thy-1+ counterparts. Consistently, ectopic expression of Thy-1 in Thy-1− MEFs significantly attenuated TNF-α-activated gene expression. Mechanistically, TNF-α activated Src family kinase (SFK) only in Thy-1− MEFs. Blockade of SFK activation abrogated TNF-α-activated gene expression in Thy-1− MEFs, whereas restoration of SFK activation rescued the TNF-α response in Thy-1+ MEFs. Our findings suggest that Thy-1 down-regulates TNF-α-activated gene expression via interfering with SFK- and NF-κB-mediated transactivation. The current study provides a novel mechanistic insight to the distinct roles of fibroblast Thy-1 subsets in inflammation.

Conclusion: Chinese patients have a higher rate of lymphoepithelial carcinoma (LEC) and salivary duct carcinoma (SDC). Comprehensive use of diagnostic modalities, neck dissection, and postoperative radiation will improve the treatment results for salivary gland tumors (SGTs). Objectives: To study the clinicopathological characteristics of SGTs in a Chinese population. Methods: The records of SGT patients operated in a tertiary cancer hospital of China were retrieved. Results: From December 1997 to December 2007, 289 malignant and 887 benign SGTs were operated at Cancer Hospital, Shanghai, China. Pleomorphic adenoma and Warthin's tumor were the most common types of SGT. Mucoepidermoid carcinoma (24.6% of malignant cases) and adenoid cystic carcinoma (18.0%) were the most frequent malignant cases, followed by acinic cell carcinoma (12.1%), LEC (9.7%), and SDC (9.3%). The sensitivity and specificity of ultrasound scan, fine needle aspiration biopsy, and frozen section were 58.3 and 88.6%, 87.2 and 96.7%, 86.9 and 99.6%, respectively. Neck dissections and postoperative radiation were carried out for 48.6 and 48.0% of carcinomas, respectively. The percentage of tumors by pathologic TNM stage were 23.7% for stage I, 32.9% for stage II, 17.3% for stage III, and 26.1% for stage IV. The 5-year overall survival rate was 88.0%.