ESSENTIAL CONCEPTS OF METABOLISM

1. ESSENTIAL CONCEPTS OF METABOLISM CHAPTER 5

2. Cause of East Coast Dolphin Die-Off FoundFederal scientists say a virus related to human measles is likely to blame for the mass die-off of bottlenose dolphins along the East Coast. Based on the last outbreak, they say it could affect the species until next year. Since July 1, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) says 333 dead or sickly bottlenose dolphins have washed up from North Carolina to New York. That's over nine times the historical average for strandings during this period. The bulk of those reports — 174 of them — have come from Virginia. NOAA officials had already declared it an "unusual mortality event" and had been taking samples from dead dolphins to investigate the cause. So far, 32 of 33 samples tested for morbillivirus were either suspect (25 cases) or confirmed positive (seven cases), researchers with the agency told reporters Tuesday (Aug. 27).  [10 Deadly Diseases That Hopped Across Species] Dolphin morbillivirus is related to other morbilliviruses that can cause measles in people or canine distemper in dogs, but the pathogens are unlikely to spill over to other species. Bottlenose dolphins catch the disease through direct contact with infected dolphins and respiratory particles, or those particles that travel through the respiratory tract from the air dolphins breathe. Infected animals may develop lesions, brain infections and pneumonia, as well as secondary bacterial, viral and/or fungal infections. The same disease caused a deadly outbreak 26 years ago when more than 700 dead bottlenose dolphins were found from New Jersey to Florida between June 1987 and May 1988. We're expecting that if indeed this plays out the way that die-off occurred that we're looking at mortalities being higher and the moribillivirus spreading southward and likely continuing until spring of 2014," Teri Rowles, National Marine Mammal Stranding Coordinator with NOAA Fisheries, said during a conference call today (Aug. 27). "Many of the dolphins younger than 26 years old have limited to no immunity to this virus," Rowles said. "So if the virus is introduced, they don't have the traditional antibodies to protect them."

3. Heart gene therapy trial begins Mrs Gedda, from Essex, is among 200 patients being enrolled on a gene therapy trial to test whether introducing genetic material into damaged heart cells can improve their function. Researchers at Imperial College London found that levels of the protein SERCA2a are lower in patients with heart failure. It is 18 months since Carol Gedda suffered a massive heart attack. It left her with just 20% of her heart functioning. "I have a lot of trouble with stairs, and sometimes I can even run out of breath in a conversation", says Mrs Gedda, who is 65. She is one of at least 750,000 people in the UK with heart failure. It occurs when the heart is damaged and becomes unable to pump blood adequately. Trojan horse The researchers have 'hidden' the gene inside a genetically modified virus which is able to latch on to heart muscle cells but is believed to be entirely harmless. The virus acts like a Trojan horse, delivering the extra DNA into the nucleus of the heart cells. The hope is the gene will prompt the heart cells to produce more of the SERCA2a protein and repair some of the damaged heart muscle. Half of the patients will receive the gene therapy, while the rest will get a placebo or dummy drug.

4. Gut Bacteria From Thin Humans Can Slim Mice Down The trillions of bacteria that live in the gut — helping digest foods, making some vitamins, making amino acids — may help determine if a person is fat or thin. The evidence is from a novel experiment involving mice and humans that is part of a growing fascination with gut bacteria and their role in health and diseases like irritable bowel syndrome and Crohn’s disease. In this case, the focus was on obesity. Researchers found pairs of human twins in which one was obese and the other lean. They transferred gut bacteria from these twins into mice and watched what happened. The mice with bacteria from fat twins grew fat; those that got bacteria from lean twins stayed lean. The study, published online Thursday by the journal Science, is “pretty striking,” said Dr. Jeffrey S. Flier, an obesity researcher and the dean of the Harvard Medical School, who was not involved with the study. “It’s a very powerful set of experiments.” Michael Fischbach of the University of California, San Francisco, who also was not involved with the study, called it “the clearest evidence to date that gut bacteria can help cause obesity.” In fact, the part of the study that most surprised other experts was an experiment indicating that, with the right diet, it might be possible to change the bacteria in a fat person’s gut so that they promote leanness rather than obesity. The investigators discovered that given a chance, and in the presence of a low-fat diet, bacteria from a lean twin will take over the gut of a mouse that already had bacteria from a fat twin. The fat mouse then loses weight. But the opposite does not happen. No matter what the diet, bacteria from a fat mouse do not take over in a mouse that is thin. Although researchers suspected that gut bacteria might play a role in human obesity, it has been difficult to get convincing evidence. While there are often differences in gut bacteria in fat and lean people, they could be a cause or an effect of obesity. And gut bacteria vary from individual to individual, making it very difficult to decide which, if any, affect body weight.

5. Microbial Metabolism • Autotrophy versus heterotrophy • Chemo- versus Photo- Like most other photosynthetic bacteria, purple bacteria do not produce oxygen, because the reducing agent (electron donor) involved in photosynthesis is not water . In some, called purple sulfur bacteria, it is either sulfide or elemental sulfur. The others, called purple non-sulfur bacteria, typically use hydrogen. Plant photoautotroph- uses water as a reducing agent Fig. 5.2 The main types of energy-capturing metabolism

6. A black smoker or sea vent is a type of hydrothermal vent found on the ocean floor. They are formed in fields hundreds of meters wide when superheated water from below Earth's crust comes through the ocean floor. This water is rich in dissolved minerals from the crust, most notably sulfides. When it comes in contact with cold ocean water, many minerals precipitate, forming a black chimney-like structure around each vent. The metal sulfides that are deposited can become massive sulfide ore deposits in time. The water at a vent can reach 400 °C (752 °F), but does not usually boil at the seafloor because the water pressure at that depth exceeds the vapor pressure of the aqueous solution. The water is also extremely acidic, often having a pH value as low as 2.8 — approximately that of vinegar. Each year 1.4 × 1014 kg (370 trillion gallons) of water is passed through black smokers. Many think that life on earth started in these vents-Arachae A black smoker in the Atlantic Ocean

7. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XotF9fzo4Vo&feature=related This video shows and describes more about the vents. Europa, with a surface temperature of -260C has liquid ocean which could Support life. This observation (liquid ocean) coupled with chemoautotrophs opens all kinds of possibilities for life in space.

8. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgH_-spn-ew Key elements associated with various types of bacterial fermentation when starting with glucose as a food source Production of 2 X NADH+ H+ I assume that you have already been through glycolysis in several courses and therefore I will not repeat it , in its entirety, in this course Production of 2 pyruvic acids Fig. 5.11The reactions of glycolysis

9. Fig. 5.13 Homolactic acid fermentation

10. Know the various types of bacterial fermentation Acid/Alcohol Fermentation Pathways Fig. 5.12 Fermentation Pathways

11. Mannitol fermentation is often used in bacterial identification- A positive (yellow) mannitol-fermentation

12. Chemiosmosis

13. Final electron acceptors- aerobic respiration, anaerobic respiration and fermentation have different final electron acceptors- video below anaerobic respiration http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTILYY-NxxE