FRONTIERS MEDIA SA Acta Medica Okayama 2235-2988 12 2022 Mycovirus Hunting Revealed the Presence of Diverse Viruses in a Single Isolate of the Phytopathogenic Fungus Diplodia seriata From Pakistan 913619 EN Haris Ahmed Khan Atta-ur-Rahman School of Applied Biosciences (ASAB), National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST) Paul Telengech Institute of Plant Science and Resources, Okayama University Hideki Kondo Institute of Plant Science and Resources, Okayama University Muhammad Faraz Bhatti Atta-ur-Rahman School of Applied Biosciences (ASAB), National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST) Nobuhiro Suzuki Institute of Plant Science and Resources, Okayama University Diplodia seriata in the family Botryosphaeriaceae is a cosmopolitan phytopathogenic fungus and is responsible for causing cankers, fruit rot and leaf spots on economically important plants. In this study, we characterized the virome of a single Pakistani strain (L3) of D. seriata. Several viral-like contig sequences were obtained via a previously conducted next-generation sequencing analysis. Multiple infection of the L3 strain by eight RNA mycoviruses was confirmed through RT-PCR using total RNA samples extracted from this strain; the entire genomes were determined via Sanger sequencing of RT-PCR and RACE clones. A BLAST search and phylogenetic analyses indicated that these eight mycoviruses belong to seven different viral families. Four identified mycoviruses belong to double-stranded RNA viral families, including Polymycoviridae, Chrysoviridae, Totiviridae and Partitiviridae, and the remaining four identified mycoviruses belong to single-stranded RNA viral families, i.e., Botourmiaviridae, and two previously proposed families "Ambiguiviridae" and "Splipalmiviridae". Of the eight, five mycoviruses appear to represent new virus species. A morphological comparison of L3 and partially cured strain L3ht1 suggested that one or more of the three viruses belonging to Polymycoviridae, "Splipalmiviridae" and "Ambiguiviridae" are involved in the irregular colony phenotype of L3. To our knowledge, this is the first report of diverse virome characterization from D. seriata. No potential conflict of interest relevant to this article was reported.

FRONTIERS MEDIA SA Acta Medica Okayama 2234-943X 12 2022 Engineering Cancer/Testis Antigens With Reversible S-Cationization to Evaluate Antigen Spreading 869393 EN Ai Miyamoto Department of Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering in Health Systems, Okayama University Tomoko Honjo Department of Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering in Health Systems, Okayama University Mirei Masui Department of Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering in Health Systems, Okayama University Rie Kinoshita Department of Cell Biology, Okayama University Graduate School of Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences Hiromi Kumon Innovation Center Okayama for Nanobio-targeted Therapy, Okayama University Kazuhiro Kakimi Department of Immunotherapeutics, The University of Tokyo Hospital Junichiro Futami Department of Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering in Health Systems, Okayama University Serum autoantibody to cancer/testis antigens (CTAs) is a critical biomarker that reflects the antitumor immune response. Quantitative and multiplexed anti-CTA detection arrays can assess the immune status in tumors and monitor therapy-induced antitumor immune reactions. Most full-length recombinant CTA proteins tend to aggregate. Cysteine residue-specific S-cationization techniques facilitate the preparation of water-soluble and full-length CTAs. Combined with Luminex technology, we designed a multiple S-cationized antigen-immobilized bead array (MUSCAT) assay system to evaluate multiple serum antibodies to CTAs. Reducible S-alkyl-disulfide-cationized antigens in cytosolic conditions were employed to develop rabbit polyclonal antibodies as positive controls. These control antibodies sensitively detected immobilized antigens on beads and endogenous antigens in human lung cancer-derived cell lines. Rabbit polyclonal antibodies successfully confirmed the dynamic ranges and quantitative MUSCAT assay results. An immune monitoring study was conducted using the serum samples on an adenovirus-mediated REIC/Dkk-3 gene therapy clinical trial that showed a successful clinical response in metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer. Autoantibody responses were closely related to clinical outcomes. Notably, upregulation of anti-CTA responses was monitored before tumor regression. Thus, quantitative monitoring of anti-CTA antibody biomarkers can be used to evaluate the cancer-immunity cycle. A quality-certified serum autoantibody monitoring system is a powerful tool for developing and evaluating cancer immunotherapy. No potential conflict of interest relevant to this article was reported.

FRONTIERS MEDIA SA Acta Medica Okayama 2296-6463 6 2018 Impurity Resistivity of fcc and hcp Fe-Based Alloys: Thermal Stratification at the Top of the Core of Super-Earths 217 EN Hitoshi Gomi Institute for Planetary Materials, Okayama University Takashi Yoshino Institute for Planetary Materials, Okayama University It is widely known that the Earth's Fe dominant core contains a certain amount of light elements such as H, C, N, O, Si, and S. We report the results of first-principles calculations on the band structure and the impurity resistivity of substitutionally disordered hcp and fcc Fe based alloys. The calculation was conducted by using the AkaiKKR (machikaneyama) package, which employed the Korringa-Kohn-Rostoker (KKR) method with the atomic sphere approximation (ASA). The local density approximation (LDA) was adopted for the exchange-correlation potential. The coherent potential approximation (CPA) was used to treat substitutional disorder effect. The impurity resistivity is calculated from the Kubo-Greenwood formula with the vertex correction. In dilute alloys with 1 at. % impurity concentration, calculated impurity resistivities of C, N, O, S are comparable to that of Si. On the other hand, in concentrated alloys up to 30 at. %, Si impurity resistivity is the highest followed by C impurity resistivity. Ni impurity resistivity is the smallest. N, O, and S impurity resistivities lie between Si and Ni. Impurity resistivities of hcp-based alloys show systematically higher values than fcc alloys. We also calculated the electronic specific heat from the density of states (DOS). For pure Fe, the results show the deviation from the Sommerfeld value at high temperature, which is consistent with previous calculation. However, the degree of deviation becomes smaller with increasing impurity concentration. The violation of the Sommerfeld expansion is one of the possible sources of the violation of the Wiedemann-Franz law, but the present results could not resolve the inconsistency between recent electrical resistivity and thermal conductivity measurements. Based on the present thermal conductivity model, we calculated the conductive heat flux at the top of terrestrial cores, which is comparable to the heat flux across the thermal boundary layer at the bottom of the mantle. This indicates that the thermal stratification may develop at the top of the liquid core of super-Earths, and hence, chemical buoyancies associated with the inner core growth and/or precipitations are required to generate the global magnetic field through the geodynamo. No potential conflict of interest relevant to this article was reported.