>Magister Scientiae - MSc / There is an influx in heavy metals into soils and ground water due to activities such as increased mineral mining, improper watering and the use of heavy metal contaminated fertilizers. These heavy metals are able to increase the ROS species within plants which may result in plant metabolism deterioration and tissue damage. Heavy metals may also directly damage plants by rendering important enzymes non-functional through binding in metal binding sites of enzymes. The heavy metal focused on in this study was vanadium due to South Africa being one of the primary produces of this metal. Two related Brassica napus L cultivars namely Agamax and Garnet which are economically and environmentally important to South Africa were exposed to vanadium. Physiological experiments such as cell death, chlorophyll and biomass determination were conducted to understand how these cultivars were affected by vanadium toxicity. A low cost, sensitive and robust vanadium assay was developed to estimate the amount of vanadium in samples such as water, soils and plant material. The oxidative state as well as the antioxidant profile of the two cultivars were also observed under vanadium stress. A chlorophyll assay which was conducted on the two cultivars exposed to vanadium showed a marked decrease in chlorophyll A in the suspected sensitive cultivar which was Garnet. However, the suspected tolerant cultivar Agamax fared better and the decrease in chlorophyll A was much less. A similar trend was observed for the two cultivars when the cell death assay was conducted. The vanadium assay showed that Garnet had higher concentrations of vanadium within its leaves and lower concentrations in its roots when compared to Agamax. This observation displayed that Agamax had inherent mechanisms which it used to localize vanadium in its roots and which assisted in its tolerance to the vanadium stress. The oxidative state was determined by doing assays for the specific reactive oxygen species namely hydrogen peroxide and superoxide. It was observed that vanadium treated Garnet leaves had higher reactive oxygen species (ROS) production when compared to the Agamax treated leaves. In-gel native PAGE activity gels were conducted to determine the antioxidant profile for the two cultivars which were exposed to vanadium. The antioxidant enzymes which were under investigation were ascorbate peroxide (APX), superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione-dependent peroxidases (GPX-like) as these enzymes are known to be responsible for controlling the ROS produced in the plants. The GPX-like profile consisted of three isoforms. No isoforms were inhibited by vanadium treatments but one isoform had increased activity in both the Garnet and Agamax treated samples. The SOD profile for Garnet consisted of six isoforms and Agamax had seven isoforms. One isoform which was visualized in both Agamax as well as Garnet was inhibited by vanadium treatments. Agamax also had two isoforms which were up-regulated however the corresponding isoforms in Garnet showed no change. The Ascorbate peroxidase profile consisted of seven isoforms for both Garnet and Agamax. No isoforms were inhibited by vanadium treatment. Three isoforms were up-regulated in Garnet and Agamax under vanadium treatments. Here, it is illustrated that Garnet lacked certain mechanisms found in Agamax (and thus experienced more cell death, yield and chlorophyll loss) and performed worst under high vanadium concentrations. Although Garnet increased the activity of some of its antioxidant isoforms in response to increasing ROS levels it was not adequate to maintain a normal oxidative homeostasis. This disruption in oxidative homeostasis lead to plant damage. Agamax was observed to produce less ROS than Garnet and was able to control the ROS produced more effectively than Garnet and thus less damage was observed in Agamax.

Catecol e catecolaminas foram ensaiados sobre as atividades NADPH e NADH oxidásica dos microssomos. Quantidades catalíticas de adrenalina aumentam de duas a três vezes a velocidade de oxidação do NADPH, após um pequeno período de indução. O efeito da adrenalina é suprimido pela superóxido dismutase, se a enzima é adicionada antes de iniciada a reação. O efeito catalítico é atribuído a dois produtos de oxidação da adrenalina pelo íon superóxido; à quinona, produto de oxidação de dois elétrons e ao adrenocromo, produto de oxidação de quatro elétrons. Provavelmente, o adrenocromo reoxida a NADPH citocromo c redutase, e a quinona formada reage com oxigênio, regenerando adrenocromo. A adrenalina não mostrou qualquer efeito sobre a atividade NADH oxidásica, nem sobre a atividade NADPH oxidásica, estimulada por menadiona. Provavelmente, durante estes processos, dois elétrons são transferidos simultaneamente ao oxigênio. Catecol e catecolaminas duplicam a velocidade de oxidação do NADH em presença de quantidades catalíticas de NADH-citocromo b5 redutase e citocromo b5. Este resultado sugere a formação do íon superóxido, durante a autoxidação do citocromo b5. Catecol e p-hidroquinona promovem, cataliticamente, a oxidação da oxihemoglobina e oximioglobina à forma ferri. A velocidade de oxidação da oxihemoglobina mostra dependência de primeira ordem em relação à concentração de hemeproteína e de meia ordem em relação ao difenol ; contudo a altas concentrações dos catalisadores observa-se saturação, com valores de Vmáx similares para ambos os difenóis. É proposto que uma quinona , inicialmente formada, oxida a oxihemeproteína com liberação de oxigênio; por sua vez, a semiquinona oxida uma segunda molécula de oxihemeproteína, sendo que o oxigênio ligado recebe dois elétrons. Exceto para o caso da oximioglobina, que é mais reativa, a forma reduzida do catalisador deve estar presente para se opor ao desaparecimento da semiquinona por dismutação. Desde que se observa a liberação de oxigênio, esperada para a formação de água, o sistema pode ser considerado modelo de oxidase terminal. Infere-se tentativamente, que a oxihemoglobina tem estrutura HbFe2+ ...O2, e que a velocidade da oxidação catalisada é limitada pela velocidade de produção da verdadeira forma reativa, a estrutura ferri-superóxido, HbFe3+...O-2. / Catechol and catecholamines have been assayed upon the microsomal NADPH and NADH oxidase activities. Adrenaline shows a catalytic effect on the NADPH oxidation characterized by a small lag. The two-to three fold increase in rate can be supressed by dismutase if the enzyme is added before superoxide the reaction begins. The catalytic effect is ascribed to two products of adrenaline oxidation by the superoxide ion; to the quinone, the two electron oxidation product, and to the adrenochrome, the four electron oxidation product. Presumably, the adrenochrome reoxidizes the NADPH-cytochrome c reductase, and the formed quinone reacts with oxygen and regenerates the adrenochrome. Adrenaline neither changed, the NADH oxidase activity nor the menadione-stimulated NADPH oxidase activity. Presumably in these processes, two electrons are simultaneously transferred to the oxygen. Catechol and catecholamines doubled the rate of autoxidation of NADH in the presence of catalytic amounts of NADH-cytochrome b5 reductase and cytochrome b5 This result suggests superoxide ion formation in the autoxidation of the cytochrome. Catechol and p-hydroquinone catalytically promote the oxidation of oxyhemoglobin and oxymyoglobin to the ferri-form. Kinetic data for oxyhemoglobin oxidation indicates a first-order dependence upon the hemoprotein concentration and half-order dependence upon diphenol; however at high catalyst concentration, saturation is observed with similar Vmax values for both diphenols despite the difference in reactivity. It is proposed that initially formed quinone oxidizes the hemoprotein with oxygen release; in turn the semiquinone oxidizes a second molecule of hemoprotein and regenerates the quinone, with the bound oxygen acquiring two electrons. Except for the more reactive oxymyoglobin, the reduced form of the catalyst must be present to oppose semiquinone disappearance by dismutation, Since the expected release of 02 for water formation is observed, the system may be considered a model for terminal oxidase. It is tentatively inferred that oxyhemoglobin has the structure HbFe2+...02 and that the rate of the catalyzed oxidation is limited by the rate of generation of the true reacting form, the superoxide ferri structure, HbFe3+...0-2.

Three series of studies were conducted to quantify the effectiveness of dietary incorporation of b-1,3-glucan (BG) from Schizophyllum commune in enhancing the immunity and resistance of grass prawn Penaeus monodon to vibriosis and white spot syndrome virus (WSSV) infections. In the first series of studies, three experiments were conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of dietary b-1,3-glucan on shrimp growth and resistance to vibriosis. Weight gain, survival and feed efficiency of juvenile shrimp (0.5 ¡Ó 0.1 g) were not significantly different (P>0.05) after being fed the diets containing BG 0, 0.2, 2, 10 g/kg diet for 18 weeks. Subadult shrimp (20.4 ¡Ó 2.1 g) fed the diet containing of BG 2 g/kg diet for 10 days showed a significantly (P<0.001) enhanced resistance against vibriosis. Postlarvae fed with the BG diet (2 g/kg diet) were more resistant (P<0.001) against starvation and V. harveyi challenges than the postlarvae fed non-BG diet. Additive disease resistance was observed when polyphosphorylated L-ascorbic acid (PAA) was used together with BG. In challenge tests with V. damsela, shrimp fed with PAA (0.2 g/kg diet) + BG (2 g/kg diet) diet for 20 days had a survival rate up to 60%. In the second series of studies, two experiments were conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of dietary b-1,3-glucan on wound healing and immunity in spawners. Dietary supplement of BG reduced the chance of infections, but did not help wound healing as did the supplement of PAA. And regardless of indoor or outdoor rearing, the survival rate of brooder (135 ¡Ó 25 g) fed the BG (2 g/kg diet) diet was higher (P<0.001) than that of the non-BG group. Fed the BG brooders showed enhanced haemocyte phagocytic activity, cell adhesion and superoxide anion production then the control group. Third series of studies evaluated the effectiveness against white spot syndrome virus (WSSV). Six days after being challenged with WSSV, 12.2 % of the BG-treated (2 g/kg diet for 15 days) postlarvae (PL15) and 20 % BG-treated (2 g/kg diet for 20 days) juveniles (5.5 ¡Ó 0.5 g) were still alive; while all non-BG-treated shrimp died. In order to quantify the effectiveness of BG to WSSV, juveniles (6.5 ¡Ó 0.4 g) were fed diets containing graded levels of BG. The results showed that shrimp fed the diet containing BG 10 g/kg for 20 days had the highest (P<0.001) survival rate (42 %) among all groups. Shrimp that received diets supplemented with BG at a dosage >2 g/kg recuperated 9 ~ 12 days after WSSV challenge; while the group fed diets with no or 1 g/kg BG suffered from rapid decrease in total haemocyte count, phagocytic activity, phenoloxidase, O2-, superoxide dismutase (SOD) production and subsequent high mortality. The results in this study showed that b-1,3-glucan is effective in enhancing the phagocytic activity, phenoloxidase, O2- and SOD productions and consequently the resistance of postlarval, juvenile, subadult and brooder P. monodon against vibriosis and viral infections. Since prolonged use of BG, even at optimal dietary levels, decreased the immunity of the shrimp, care therefore must be taken to maximize its effectiveness. A cycle of dietary BG supplement of 2 ~ 10 g/kg diet for 20 days with an intermission of 10 days may serve the purposes.

There is an influx in heavy metals into soils and ground water due to activities such as increased mineral mining, improper watering and the use of heavy metal contaminated fertilizers. These heavy metals are able to increase the ROS species within plants which may result in plant metabolism deterioration and tissue damage. Heavy metals may also directly damage plants by rendering important enzymes non-functional through binding in metal binding sites of enzymes. The heavy metal focused on in this study was vanadium due to South Africa being one of the primary produces of this metal. Two related Brassica napus L cultivars namely Agamax and Garnet which are economically and environmentally important to South Africa were exposed to vanadium. Physiological experiments such as cell death, chlorophyll and biomass determination were conducted to understand how these cultivars were affected by vanadium toxicity. A low cost, sensitive and robust vanadium assay was developed to estimate the amount of vanadium in samples such as water, soils and plant material. The oxidative state as well as the antioxidant profile of the two cultivars were also observed under vanadium stress. A chlorophyll assay which was conducted on the two cultivars xiv exposed to vanadium showed a marked decrease in chlorophyll A in the suspected sensitive cultivar which was Garnet. However, the suspected tolerant cultivar Agamax fared better and the decrease in chlorophyll A was much less. A similar trend was observed for the two cultivars when the cell death assay was conducted. The vanadium assay showed that Garnet had higher concentrations of vanadium within its leaves and lower concentrations in its roots when compared to Agamax. This observation displayed that Agamax had inherent mechanisms which it used to localize vanadium in its roots and which assisted in its tolerance to the vanadium stress. The oxidative state was determined by doing assays for the specific reactive oxygen species namely hydrogen peroxide and superoxide. It was observed that vanadium treated Garnet leaves had higher reactive oxygen species (ROS) production when compared to the Agamax treated leaves. In-gel native PAGE activity gels were conducted to determine the antioxidant profile for the two cultivars which were exposed to vanadium. The antioxidant enzymes which were under investigation were ascorbate peroxide (APX), superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione-dependent peroxidases (GPX-like) as these enzymes are known to be responsible for controlling the ROS produced in the plants. The GPX-like profile consisted of three isoforms. No isoforms were inhibited by vanadium treatments but one isoform had increased activity in both the Garnet and Agamax treated samples. The SOD profile for Garnet consisted of six isoforms xv and Agamax had seven isoforms. One isoform which was visualized in both Agamax as well as Garnet was inhibited by vanadium treatments. Agamax also had two isoforms which were up-regulated however the corresponding isoforms in Garnet showed no change. The Ascorbate peroxidase profile consisted of seven isoforms for both Garnet and Agamax. No isoforms were inhibited by vanadium treatment. Three isoforms were up-regulated in Garnet and Agamax under vanadium treatments. Here, it is illustrated that Garnet lacked certain mechanisms found in Agamax (and thus experienced more cell death, yield and chlorophyll loss) and performed worst under high vanadium concentrations. Although Garnet increased the activity of some of its antioxidant isoforms in response to increasing ROS levels it was not adequate to maintain a normal oxidative homeostasis. This disruption in oxidative homeostasis lead to plant damage. Agamax was observed to produce less ROS than Garnet and was able to control the ROS produced more effectively than Garnet and thus less damage was observed in Agamax. / Magister Scientiae - MSc

Magister Scientiae - MSc (Biotechnology) / Soybean have been listed as a priority commodity crop in South Africa (SA) and provide a good source of protein to the population. Therefore, soybean has been earmarked as an important food security crop and strategies are currently being discussed at governmental level to increase and sustain soybean production. However, the SA landscape poses many challenges to the agricultural sector such as prolong drought periods, flooding, nutrient poor soils, saline soils and heavy metal contaminated soils. Heavy metal (HM) contamination is becoming a serious concern and is aggravated by historical mining in SA. Indeed, SA has established itself as the number one ranked mining country in the world and is frequently mining metals such as chromium, vanadium, gold, zirconium, platinum, and antimony. Prolong rainfall near mining areas leads to acid mine drainage which lowers the soil pH to approximately two. These highly acidic soils will solubilize the metals and cause the metals to leach into river systems as well as the water table leading to increase heavy metal contamination in nearby soil sites. This increase metal content negatively affects seed germination and overall plant development. Nonetheless, plants have evolved numerous internal mechanisms that help them to survive HM toxicity; by either avoiding or tolerating the stress. Two stress-activated pathways that help the plant tolerate stress have attracted much interest i.e. the glyoxalase system and reactive oxygen species (ROS) - antioxidant system as they detoxify methylglyoxal (MG) and ROS. / 2021-08-31

Catecol e catecolaminas foram ensaiados sobre as atividades NADPH e NADH oxidásica dos microssomos. Quantidades catalíticas de adrenalina aumentam de duas a três vezes a velocidade de oxidação do NADPH, após um pequeno período de indução. O efeito da adrenalina é suprimido pela superóxido dismutase, se a enzima é adicionada antes de iniciada a reação. O efeito catalítico é atribuído a dois produtos de oxidação da adrenalina pelo íon superóxido; à quinona, produto de oxidação de dois elétrons e ao adrenocromo, produto de oxidação de quatro elétrons. Provavelmente, o adrenocromo reoxida a NADPH citocromo c redutase, e a quinona formada reage com oxigênio, regenerando adrenocromo. A adrenalina não mostrou qualquer efeito sobre a atividade NADH oxidásica, nem sobre a atividade NADPH oxidásica, estimulada por menadiona. Provavelmente, durante estes processos, dois elétrons são transferidos simultaneamente ao oxigênio. Catecol e catecolaminas duplicam a velocidade de oxidação do NADH em presença de quantidades catalíticas de NADH-citocromo b5 redutase e citocromo b5. Este resultado sugere a formação do íon superóxido, durante a autoxidação do citocromo b5. Catecol e p-hidroquinona promovem, cataliticamente, a oxidação da oxihemoglobina e oximioglobina à forma ferri. A velocidade de oxidação da oxihemoglobina mostra dependência de primeira ordem em relação à concentração de hemeproteína e de meia ordem em relação ao difenol ; contudo a altas concentrações dos catalisadores observa-se saturação, com valores de Vmáx similares para ambos os difenóis. É proposto que uma quinona , inicialmente formada, oxida a oxihemeproteína com liberação de oxigênio; por sua vez, a semiquinona oxida uma segunda molécula de oxihemeproteína, sendo que o oxigênio ligado recebe dois elétrons. Exceto para o caso da oximioglobina, que é mais reativa, a forma reduzida do catalisador deve estar presente para se opor ao desaparecimento da semiquinona por dismutação. Desde que se observa a liberação de oxigênio, esperada para a formação de água, o sistema pode ser considerado modelo de oxidase terminal. Infere-se tentativamente, que a oxihemoglobina tem estrutura HbFe2+ ...O2, e que a velocidade da oxidação catalisada é limitada pela velocidade de produção da verdadeira forma reativa, a estrutura ferri-superóxido, HbFe3+...O-2. / Catechol and catecholamines have been assayed upon the microsomal NADPH and NADH oxidase activities. Adrenaline shows a catalytic effect on the NADPH oxidation characterized by a small lag. The two-to three fold increase in rate can be supressed by dismutase if the enzyme is added before superoxide the reaction begins. The catalytic effect is ascribed to two products of adrenaline oxidation by the superoxide ion; to the quinone, the two electron oxidation product, and to the adrenochrome, the four electron oxidation product. Presumably, the adrenochrome reoxidizes the NADPH-cytochrome c reductase, and the formed quinone reacts with oxygen and regenerates the adrenochrome. Adrenaline neither changed, the NADH oxidase activity nor the menadione-stimulated NADPH oxidase activity. Presumably in these processes, two electrons are simultaneously transferred to the oxygen. Catechol and catecholamines doubled the rate of autoxidation of NADH in the presence of catalytic amounts of NADH-cytochrome b5 reductase and cytochrome b5 This result suggests superoxide ion formation in the autoxidation of the cytochrome. Catechol and p-hydroquinone catalytically promote the oxidation of oxyhemoglobin and oxymyoglobin to the ferri-form. Kinetic data for oxyhemoglobin oxidation indicates a first-order dependence upon the hemoprotein concentration and half-order dependence upon diphenol; however at high catalyst concentration, saturation is observed with similar Vmax values for both diphenols despite the difference in reactivity. It is proposed that initially formed quinone oxidizes the hemoprotein with oxygen release; in turn the semiquinone oxidizes a second molecule of hemoprotein and regenerates the quinone, with the bound oxygen acquiring two electrons. Except for the more reactive oxymyoglobin, the reduced form of the catalyst must be present to oppose semiquinone disappearance by dismutation, Since the expected release of 02 for water formation is observed, the system may be considered a model for terminal oxidase. It is tentatively inferred that oxyhemoglobin has the structure HbFe2+...02 and that the rate of the catalyzed oxidation is limited by the rate of generation of the true reacting form, the superoxide ferri structure, HbFe3+...0-2.

Masters of Science / In this study, we observed that phosphate (P) deficiency stunted plant growth and produced plants with poor morphological characteristics (yellow and small leaves). Furthermore, we treated plants with 0.8 mM (control) and 0.02 mM P (deficient) in addition to 6 μM methylglyoxal (MG) and we observed that the plants treated with MG had a higher germination, and better morphological characteristics (the leaves were more dark green and bigger in size) compared to the P deficient plants. However, we also observed that the P deficient plants treated with MG had low levels of both O2- and H2O2 and this could be a possible reason for the improved growth and morphological characteristics. In contrast, the P deficient plants not treated with MG had high levels of O2- and H2O2 which could be the possible reason for the observed cell death. We also performed biochemical assays including superoxide dismutase, ascorbate peroxidase, malondialdehyde content, ascorbic acid content, catalase, and most of the assays showed high levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and low levels of antioxidant activities in plants not treated with MG while high levels of antioxidant activities and low levels of ROS were observed in plants treated with exogenous MG. Since nitric oxide (NO) is also known to be a signalling molecule, we did a NO assay and observed that NO content increased under low exogenous doses of MG. From our findings we came to a hypothesis that MG modulates P deficiency stress in P. vulgaris through NO signalling or it might be that NO and MG work in tandem to modulate signalling pathways under P deficiency. Finally, we looked at the nutrient profile and the results showed that while there was a poor nutrient profile generally under P deficiency, there was an improvement in nutrient profile when MG was administered at low doses.

<p>Diss. (sammanfattning) Umeå : Umeå universitet, 1983, härtill 5 uppsatser</p> / digitalisering@umu

Clostridium difficile (CD) is the leading cause of bacterial hospital-associated infection in North America. How CD colonizes the human host, including its response to the innate immune system and other stresses, is poorly understood. This work considers CD's defenses against two stresses found in the host - the antimicrobial peptide LL-37 and reactive oxygen species (ROS). LL-37 had bactericidal activity against CD. CD strains varied in their sensitivity to the peptide, and epidemic-associated strains were more resistant to LL-37 than others. CD became more resistant to LL-37 following exposure to sub-lethal concentrations of the peptide, suggesting the presence of inducible resistance mechanisms. A quantitative proteomics analysis revealed definite alterations in CD protein expression caused by LL-37. Specific changes included increased expression of DltB, a protein previously reported to confer resistance against other antimicrobial peptides. Notably, disruption of individual LL-37-induced genes did not sensitize CD to the peptide. This suggests functional redundancy, and that LL-37 may cause global changes in protein expression, not limited to antimicrobial peptide resistance determinants. One of the proteins most strongly induced by LL-37 was a predicted superoxide reductase (SOR). As CD is considered a strict anaerobe, expression of a predicted antioxidant protein was an interesting finding. Heterologous expression of CD SOR in a superoxide dismutase-deficient E. coli strain confirmed its action as a superoxide scavenger. Insertional inactivation of SOR rendered CD more sensitive to oxygen and ROS-generating compounds, indicating that SOR contributes to antioxidant defense in CD. SOR mutants were impaired in their ability to cause disease in hamsters, indicating a role for this protein in infection.

Mémoire numérisé par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal.