TY - JOUR A1 - del Valle, Maria Victoria A1 - Müller, A. L. A1 - Romero, G. E. T1 - High-energy radiation from collisions of high-velocity clouds and the Galactic disc JF - Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society N2 - High-velocity clouds (HVCs) are interstellar clouds of atomic hydrogen that do not follow normal Galactic rotation and have velocities of a several hundred kilometres per second. A considerable number of these clouds are falling down towards the Galactic disc. HVCs form large and massive complexes, so if they collide with the disc a great amount of energy would be released into the interstellar medium. The cloud-disc interaction produces two shocks: one propagates through the cloud and the other through the disc. The properties of these shocks depend mainly on the cloud velocity and the disc-cloud density ratio. In this work, we study the conditions necessary for these shocks to accelerate particles by diffusive shock acceleration and we study the non-thermal radiation that is produced. We analyse particle acceleration in both the cloud and disc shocks. Solving a time-dependent two-dimensional transport equation for both relativistic electrons and protons, we obtain particle distributions and non-thermal spectral energy distributions. In a shocked cloud, significant synchrotron radio emission is produced along with soft gamma rays. In the case of acceleration in the shocked disc, the non-thermal radiation is stronger; the gamma rays, of leptonic origin, might be detectable with current instruments. A large number of protons are injected into the Galactic interstellar medium, and locally exceed the cosmic ray background. We conclude that under adequate conditions the contribution from HVC-disc collisions to the galactic population of relativistic particles and the associated extended non-thermal radiation might be important. KW - radiation mechanisms: non-thermal KW - ISM: clouds KW - cosmic rays Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stx2984 SN - 0035-8711 SN - 1365-2966 VL - 475 IS - 4 SP - 4298 EP - 4308 PB - Oxford Univ. Press CY - Oxford ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Feiner, Rebecca Christine A1 - Teschner, Julian A1 - Teschner, Kathrin E. A1 - Radukic, Marco T. A1 - Baumann, Tobias A1 - Hagen, Sven A1 - Hannappel, Yvonne A1 - Biere, Niklas A1 - Anselmetti, Dario A1 - Arndt, Katja Maren A1 - Müller, Kristian Mark T1 - rAAV Engineering for Capsid-Protein Enzyme Insertions and Mosaicism Reveals Resilience to Mutational, Structural and Thermal Perturbations JF - International journal of molecular sciences N2 - Recombinant adeno-associated viruses (rAAV) provide outstanding options for customization and superior capabilities for gene therapy. To access their full potential, facile genetic manipulation is pivotal, including capsid loop modifications. Therefore, we assessed capsid tolerance to modifications of the structural VP proteins in terms of stability and plasticity. Flexible glycine-serine linkers of increasing sizes were, at the genetic level, introduced into the 587 loop region of the VP proteins of serotype 2, the best studied AAV representative. Analyses of biological function and thermal stability with respect to genome release of viral particles revealed structural plasticity. In addition, insertion of the 29 kDa enzyme beta-lactamase into the loop region was tested with a complete or a mosaic modification setting. For the mosaic approach, investigation of VP2 trans expression revealed that a Kozak sequence was required to prevent leaky scanning. Surprisingly, even the full capsid modification with beta-lactamase allowed for the assembly of capsids with a concomitant increase in size. Enzyme activity assays revealed lactamase functionality for both rAAV variants, which demonstrates the structural robustness of this platform technology. KW - adeno-associated-virus KW - beta-lactamase KW - inverted terminal repeat (ITR) KW - loop modification KW - capsid stability Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms20225702 SN - 1422-0067 VL - 20 IS - 22 PB - MDPI CY - Basel ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Gomez-Merino, Fernando Carlos A1 - Brearley, C. A. A1 - Ornatowska, Magdalena A1 - Abdel-Haliem, Mahmoud E. F. A1 - Zanor, Maria Ines A1 - Müller-Röber, Bernd T1 - AtDGK2, a novel diacylglycerol kinase from Arabidopsis thaliana, phosphorylates 1-stearoyl-2-arachidonoyl-sn- glycerol and 1,2-dioleoyl-sn-glycerol and exhibits cold-inducible gene expression N2 - Diacylglycerol kinase (DGK) phosphorylates diacylglycerol (DAG) to generate phosphatidic acid (PA). Both DAG and PA are implicated in signal transduction pathways. DGKs have been widely studied in animals, but their analysis in plants is fragmentary. Here, we report the cloning and biochemical characterization of AtDGK2, encoding DGK from Arabidopsis thaliana. AtDGK2 has a predicted molecular mass of 79.4 kDa and, like AtDGK1 previously reported, harbors two copies of a phorbol ester/DAG-binding domain in its N-terminal region. AtDGK2 belongs to a family of seven DGK genes in A. thaliana. AtDGK3 to AtDGK7 encode similar to55-kDa DGKs that lack a typical phorbol ester/DAG-binding domain. Phylogenetically, plant DGKs fall into three clusters. Members of all three clusters are widely expressed in vascular plants. Recombinant AtDGK2 was expressed in Escherichia coli and biochemically characterized. The enzyme phosphorylated 1,2-dioleoyl-sn-glycerol to yield PA, exhibiting Michaelis-Menten type kinetics. Estimated K-m and V-max values were 125 muM for DAG and 0.25 pmol of PA min(-1) mug(-1), respectively. The enzyme was maximally active at pH 7.2. Its activity was Mg2+-dependent and affected by the presence of detergents, salts, and the DGK inhibitor R59022, but not by Ca2+. AtDGK2 exhibited substrate preference for unsaturated DAG analogues (i.e. 1-stearoyl-2-arachidonoyl-sn-glycerol and 1,2- dioleoyl-sn-glycerol). The AtDGK2 gene is expressed in various tissues of the Arabidopsis plant, including leaves, roots, and flowers, as shown by Northern blot analysis and promoter-reporter gene fusions. We found that AtDGK2 is induced by exposure to low temperature (4degreesC), pointing to a role in cold signal transduction Y1 - 2004 SN - 0021-9258 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Grott, Matthias A1 - Knollenberg, J. A1 - Hamm, M. A1 - Ogawa, K. A1 - Jaumann, R. A1 - Otto, Katharina Alexandra A1 - Delbo, M. A1 - Michel, P. A1 - Biele, J. A1 - Neumann, W. A1 - Knapmeyer, M. A1 - Kuehrt, E. A1 - Senshu, H. A1 - Okada, T. A1 - Helbert, J. A1 - Maturilli, A. A1 - Müller, N. A1 - Hagermann, A. A1 - Sakatani, N. A1 - Tanaka, S. A1 - Arai, T. A1 - Mottola, S. A1 - Tachibana, S. A1 - Pelivan, Ivanka A1 - Drube, L. A1 - Vincent, J-B A1 - Yano, H. A1 - Pilorget, C. A1 - Matz, K. D. A1 - Schmitz, N. A1 - Koncz, A. A1 - Schröder, S. E. A1 - Trauthan, F. A1 - Schlotterer, M. A1 - Krause, C. A1 - Ho, T-M A1 - Moussi-Soffys, A. T1 - Low thermal conductivity boulder with high porosity identified on C-type asteroid (162173) Ryugu JF - Nature astronomy N2 - C-type asteroids are among the most pristine objects in the Solar System, but little is known about their interior structure and surface properties. Telescopic thermal infrared observations have so far been interpreted in terms of a regolith-covered surface with low thermal conductivity and particle sizes in the centimetre range. This includes observations of C-type asteroid (162173) Ryugu1,2,3. However, on arrival of the Hayabusa2 spacecraft at Ryugu, a regolith cover of sand- to pebble-sized particles was found to be absent4,5 (R.J. et al., manuscript in preparation). Rather, the surface is largely covered by cobbles and boulders, seemingly incompatible with the remote-sensing infrared observations. Here we report on in situ thermal infrared observations of a boulder on the C-type asteroid Ryugu. We found that the boulder’s thermal inertia was much lower than anticipated based on laboratory measurements of meteorites, and that a surface covered by such low-conductivity boulders would be consistent with remote-sensing observations. Our results furthermore indicate high boulder porosities as well as a low tensile strength in the few hundred kilopascal range. The predicted low tensile strength confirms the suspected observational bias6 in our meteorite collections, as such asteroidal material would be too frail to survive atmospheric entry7. Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-019-0832-x SN - 2397-3366 VL - 3 IS - 11 SP - 971 EP - 976 PB - Nature Publishing Group CY - London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Grott, Matthias A1 - Knollenberg, J. A1 - Hamm, M. A1 - Ogawa, K. A1 - Jaumann, R. A1 - Otto, Katharina Alexandra A1 - Delbo, M. A1 - Michel, Patrick A1 - Biele, J. A1 - Neumann, Wladimir A1 - Knapmeyer, Martin A1 - Kührt, E. A1 - Senshu, H. A1 - Okada, T. A1 - Helbert, Jorn A1 - Maturilli, A. A1 - Müller, N. A1 - Hagermann, A. A1 - Sakatani, Naoya A1 - Tanaka, S. A1 - Arai, T. A1 - Mottola, Stefano A1 - Tachibana, Shogo A1 - Pelivan, Ivanka A1 - Drube, Line A1 - Vincent, J-B A1 - Yano, Hajime A1 - Pilorget, C. A1 - Matz, K. D. A1 - Schmitz, N. A1 - Koncz, A. A1 - Schröder, Stefan E. A1 - Trauthan, F. A1 - Schlotterer, Markus A1 - Krause, C. A1 - Ho, T-M A1 - Moussi-Soffys, A. T1 - Low thermal conductivity boulder with high porosity identified on C-type asteroid (162173) Ryugu JF - Nature astronomy N2 - C-type asteroids are among the most pristine objects in the Solar System, but little is known about their interior structure and surface properties. Telescopic thermal infrared observations have so far been interpreted in terms of a regolith-covered surface with low thermal conductivity and particle sizes in the centimetre range. This includes observations of C-type asteroid (162173) Ryugu1,2,3. However, on arrival of the Hayabusa2 spacecraft at Ryugu, a regolith cover of sand- to pebble-sized particles was found to be absent4,5 (R.J. et al., manuscript in preparation). Rather, the surface is largely covered by cobbles and boulders, seemingly incompatible with the remote-sensing infrared observations. Here we report on in situ thermal infrared observations of a boulder on the C-type asteroid Ryugu. We found that the boulder’s thermal inertia was much lower than anticipated based on laboratory measurements of meteorites, and that a surface covered by such low-conductivity boulders would be consistent with remote-sensing observations. Our results furthermore indicate high boulder porosities as well as a low tensile strength in the few hundred kilopascal range. The predicted low tensile strength confirms the suspected observational bias6 in our meteorite collections, as such asteroidal material would be too frail to survive atmospheric entry7 Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-019-0832-x SN - 2397-3366 VL - 3 IS - 11 SP - 971 EP - 976 PB - Nature Publishing Group CY - London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Junginger, Mathias A1 - Kübel, Christian A1 - Schacher, Felix H. A1 - Müller, Axel H. E. A1 - Taubert, Andreas T1 - Crystal structure and chemical composition of biomimetric calcium phosphate nanofibers N2 - Calcium phosphate nanofibers with a diameter of only a few nanometers and a cotton-ball-like aggregate morphology have been reported several times in the literature. Although fiber formation seems reproducible in a variety of conditions, the crystal structure and chemical composition of the fibers have been elusive. Using scanning transmission electron microscopy, low dose electron (nano)diffraction, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, and energy- filtered transmission electron microscopy, we have assigned crystal structures and chemical compositions to the fibers. Moreover, we demonstrate that the mineralization process yields true polymer/calcium phosphate hybrid materials where the block copolymer template is closely associated with the calcium phosphate. Y1 - 2013 UR - http://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlepdf/2013/ra/c3ra23348k U6 - https://doi.org/10.1039/c3ra23348k ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Junginger, Mathias A1 - Kübel, Christian A1 - Schacher, Felix H. A1 - Müller, Axel H. E. A1 - Taubert, Andreas T1 - Crystal structure and chemical composition of biomimetic calcium phosphate nanofibers JF - RSC Advances N2 - Calcium phosphate nanofibers with a diameter of only a few nanometers and a cotton-ball-like aggregate morphology have been reported several times in the literature. Although fiber formation seems reproducible in a variety of conditions, the crystal structure and chemical composition of the fibers have been elusive. Using scanning transmission electron microscopy, low dose electron (nano) diffraction, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, and energy-filtered transmission electron microscopy, we have assigned crystal structures and chemical compositions to the fibers. Moreover, we demonstrate that the mineralization process yields true polymer/calcium phosphate hybrid materials where the block copolymer template is closely associated with the calcium phosphate. Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1039/c3ra23348k SN - 2046-2069 VL - 3 IS - 28 SP - 11301 EP - 11308 PB - Royal Society of Chemistry CY - Cambridge ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Klein, Julia A1 - Darvin, Maxim E. A1 - Meinke, Martina C. A1 - Schweigert, Florian J. A1 - Müller, Kerstin E. A1 - Lademann, Jürgen T1 - Analyses of the correlation between dermal and blood carotenoids in female cattle by optical methods JF - Journal of biomedical optics N2 - Herd health programs for the maintenance of welfare and productivity in cattle need efficient tools for monitoring the health of individual animals. Recent reports demonstrate that the oxidative status is related to various stress conditions in dairy cows. Biomarkers, among other carotenoids, could serve as indicators of stress originating from the environment (e.g., heat stress or sun radiation) or from the animal itself (e.g., disease). To date, only invasive in vitro tests are available to assess the oxidative status in cattle. The present study compares the results of optical noninvasive in vivo measurements of dermal carotenoids in cattle udder skin using an LED-based miniaturized spectroscopic system (MSS) with those obtained by photometric analysis of beta carotene in whole blood samples using a portable device. Correlations between the concentrations of dermal and blood carotenoids were calculated under consideration of the nutritional status of the animals. Significant correlation (R = 0.86) was found for cattle with a moderate to obese body condition. Thus, the blood and skin concentrations of the marker substance beta carotene are comparable under stable stress conditions of the cattle. This demonstrates that the MSS is suitable for noninvasive assessment of dermal carotenoid concentrations in cattle. KW - Raman spectroscopy KW - reflection spectroscopy KW - skin KW - antioxidants KW - free radicals Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1117/1.JBO.18.6.061219 SN - 1083-3668 VL - 18 IS - 6 PB - SPIE CY - Bellingham ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Lotkowska, Magda E. A1 - Tohge, Takayuki A1 - Fernie, Alisdair R. A1 - Xue, Gang-Ping A1 - Balazadeh, Salma A1 - Müller-Röber, Bernd T1 - The Arabidopsis Transcription Factor MYB112 Promotes Anthocyanin Formation during Salinity and under High Light Stress JF - Plant physiology : an international journal devoted to physiology, biochemistry, cellular and molecular biology, biophysics and environmental biology of plants N2 - MYB transcription factors (TFs) are important regulators of flavonoid biosynthesis in plants. Here, we report MYB112 as a formerly unknown regulator of anthocyanin accumulation in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana). Expression profiling after chemically induced overexpression of MYB112 identified 28 up-and 28 down-regulated genes 5 h after inducer treatment, including MYB7 and MYB32, which are both induced. In addition, upon extended induction, MYB112 also positively affects the expression of PRODUCTION OF ANTHOCYANIN PIGMENT1, a key TF of anthocyanin biosynthesis, but acts negatively toward MYB12 and MYB111, which both control flavonol biosynthesis. MYB112 binds to an 8-bp DNA fragment containing the core sequence (A/T/G)(A/C) CC(A/T)(A/G/T)(A/C)(T/C). By electrophoretic mobility shift assay and chromatin immunoprecipitation coupled to quantitative polymerase chain reaction, we show that MYB112 binds in vitro and in vivo to MYB7 and MYB32 promoters, revealing them as direct downstream target genes. We further show that MYB112 expression is up-regulated by salinity and high light stress, environmental parameters that both require the MYB112 TF for anthocyanin accumulation under these stresses. In contrast to several other MYB TFs affecting anthocyanin biosynthesis, MYB112 expression is not controlled by nitrogen limitation or an excess of carbon. Thus, MYB112 constitutes a regulator that promotes anthocyanin accumulation under abiotic stress conditions. Y1 - 2015 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1104/pp.15.00605 SN - 0032-0889 SN - 1532-2548 VL - 169 IS - 3 SP - 1862 EP - 1880 PB - American Society of Plant Physiologists CY - Rockville ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Martiel, Isabelle A1 - Müller-Werkmeister, Henrike A1 - Cohen, Aina E. T1 - Strategies for sample delivery for femtosecond crystallography JF - Acta Crystallographica : Section D, Structural biology N2 - Highly efficient data-collection methods are required for successful macromolecular crystallography (MX) experiments at X-ray free-electron lasers (XFELs). XFEL beamtime is scarce, and the high peak brightness of each XFEL pulse destroys the exposed crystal volume. It is therefore necessary to combine diffraction images from a large number of crystals (hundreds to hundreds of thousands) to obtain a final data set, bringing about sample-refreshment challenges that have previously been unknown to the MX synchrotron community. In view of this experimental complexity, a number of sample delivery methods have emerged, each with specific requirements, drawbacks and advantages. To provide useful selection criteria for future experiments, this review summarizes the currently available sample delivery methods, emphasising the basic principles and the specific sample requirements. Two main approaches to sample delivery are first covered: (i) injector methods with liquid or viscous media and (ii) fixed-target methods using large crystals or using microcrystals inside multi-crystal holders or chips. Additionally, hybrid methods such as acoustic droplet ejection and crystal extraction are covered, which combine the advantages of both fixed-target and injector approaches. KW - sample delivery KW - serial femtosecond crystallography KW - protein microcrystals KW - XFELs Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1107/S2059798318017953 SN - 2059-7983 SN - 0907-4449 VL - 75 SP - 160 EP - 177 PB - Bognor Regis CY - Wiley ER -