Bacterial adhesion and biofilms on surfaces

Bacterial adhesion has become a significant problem in industry and in the domicile,and much research has been done for deeper understanding of the processes involved.A generic biological model of bacterial adhesion and population growth called the bacterial biofilm growth cycle,has been described and modified many times.The biofilm growth cycle encompasses bacterial adhesion at all levels,starting with the initial physical attraction of bacteria to a substrate,and ending with the eventual liberation of cell dusters from the biofilm matrix.When describing bacterial adhesion one is simply describing one or more stages of biofilm development,neglecting the fact that the population may not reach maturity.This article provides an overview of bacterial adhesion.cites examples of how bac-terial adhesion affects industry and summarises methods and instrumentation used to improve our understanding of the adhesive prop-erties of bacteria.     

Reversible redox energy coupling in electron transfer chains

Reversibility is a common theme in respiratory and photosynthetic systems that couple electron transfer with a transmembrane proton gradient driving ATP production. This includes the intensely studied cytochrome bc1, which catalyses electron transfer between quinone and cytochrome c. To understand how efficient reversible energy coupling works, here we have progressively inactivated individual cofactors comprising cytochrome bc1. We have resolved millisecond reversibility in all electron-tunnelling steps and coupled proton exchanges, including charge-separating hydroquinone-quinone catalysis at the Q(o) site, which shows that redox equilibria are relevant on a catalytic timescale. Such rapid reversibility renders popular models based on a semiquinone in Q(o) site catalysis prone to short-circuit failure. Two mechanisms allow reversible function and safely relegate short-circuits to long-distance electron tunnelling on a timescale of seconds: conformational gating of semiquinone for both forward and reverse electron transfer, or concerted two-electron quinone redox chemistry that avoids the semiquinone intermediate altogether.     

Regulation of innate and adaptive immune responses by MAP kinase phosphatase 5

Mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinases are essential regulators in immune responses, and their activities are modulated by kinases and phosphatases. MAP kinase phosphatase (MKP) is a family of dual-specificity phosphatases whose function is evolutionarily conserved. A number of mammalian MKPs have been identified so far, but their specific physiological functions in negative regulation of MAP kinases have not been genetically defined. Here we examine innate and adaptive immune responses in the absence of MKP5. JNK activity was selectively increased in Mkp5 (also known as Dusp10)-deficient mouse cells. Mkp5-deficient cells produced greatly enhanced levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines during innate immune responses and exhibited greater T-cell activation than their wild-type counterparts. However, Mkp5-deficient T cells proliferated poorly upon activation, which resulted in increased resistance to experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis. By contrast, Mkp5-deficient CD4(+) and CD8(+) effector T cells produced significantly increased levels of cytokines compared with wild-type cells, which led to much more robust and rapidly fatal immune responses to secondary infection with lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus. Therefore, MKP5 has a principal function in both innate and adaptive immune responses, and represents a novel target for therapeutic intervention of immune diseases.     

Environmental biology: heat reward for insect pollinators

In neotropical forests, adults of many large scarab beetle species spend most of their time inside the floral chambers of heat-producing flowers, where they feed and mate throughout the night and rest during the following day, before briefly flying to another flower. Here we measure floral temperatures in Philodendron solimoesense (Araceae) in French Guiana and the respiration rates of Cyclocephala colasi beetles at floral and ambient temperatures, and show that the the beetles' extra energy requirements for activity are 2.0-4.8 times greater outside the flower than inside it. This finding indicates that heat produced by the flower constitutes an important energy reward to pollinators, allowing them to feed and mate at a fraction of the energy cost that would be required outside the flower.     

“Underneath the iceberg” — Challenges to the process of operational research (OR)/systems from alternative practice

Conventional OR/systems practice, it is argued in this paper, is based upon assumptions which make it unsuitable for guiding interventions in nontraditional organizations. Any methodology or method rests upon a social theory,upon craft knowledge, and upon a theory of how change can and should be brought about. Conventional OR/systems is not explicit about any of these matters. Reflecting on why conventional methods often fail to work with nontraditional organizations, however, enables us to get beneath the iceberg and unearth what is being taken for granted. It is then obvious that the nature of many organizations in the social economy requires a different type of practice. Soft OR/systems is a response to the failings of the traditional approach, but goes only some way toward meeting the criticisms.