[Biological markers of interenvironmental distribution of trace elements in the environmental objects].

Priority trace elements were identified in the environmental objects, such as drinking water, atmosphere of residential areas (by their levels in the snow cover), soil, and foodstuffs. The identification of trace elements in the environmental objects revealed various total loads and distribution of trace elements in the study environments of urban and rural areas, which might be largely determined by the degree of interenvironmental transition and the routes of their migration. By identifying of priority trace elements, the authors constructed models describing the correlation of elements in the study conjugate environments and the specific features of their interenvironmental transition in the environment-man system in the urban and rural areas. Paired correlation and multiple regression analyses on the basis of systemic modeling were used to determine a relationship of trace elements in the study environments to the specific features of their interenvironmental transition. Examination of the trace element status of children's hairs and its comparison with the content of trace elements in the environmental objects allowed an association to be determined between the qualitative and quantitative trace element composition of portable water, soil, snow cover, foodstuffs, and the body's biological media. Summing up the findings leads to a conclusion about the origin of trace element pollutions and the possible routes of their entry into the body and allows consideration of the trace elements Zn, Mn, and Ni as markers of biological exposure of the environment while making a sociohygienic monitoring and assessing the risk to human health.

Experimental determination and system level analysis of essential genes in Escherichia coli MG1655.

Defining the gene products that play an essential role in an organism's functional repertoire is vital to understanding the system level organization of living cells. We used a genetic footprinting technique for a genome-wide assessment of genes required for robust aerobic growth of Escherichia coli in rich media. We identified 620 genes as essential and 3,126 genes as dispensable for growth under these conditions. Functional context analysis of these data allows individual functional assignments to be refined. Evolutionary context analysis demonstrates a significant tendency of essential E. coli genes to be preserved throughout the bacterial kingdom. Projection of these data over metabolic subsystems reveals topologic modules with essential and evolutionarily preserved enzymes with reduced capacity for error tolerance.

[Risk factors for sexually transmitted infections in adolescents]. / Faktory riska zarazheniia molodezhi infektsiiami, peredavaemymi polovym putem.

The prevalence of sexually transmitted infections (STI) among young people in Russia is examined for the recent decade. Risk factors and organization of STI patients detection, the knowledge of young people about STI are analyzed. Approaches to prevention of these diseases in the society are outlined.

Sulfate reduction and possible aerobic metabolism of the sulfate-reducing bacterium Desulfovibrio oxyclinae in a chemostat coculture with Marinobacter sp. Strain MB under exposure to increasing oxygen concentrations.

A chemostat coculture of the sulfate-reducing bacterium Desulfovibrio oxyclinae together with a facultative aerobe heterotroph tentatively identified as Marinobacter sp. strain MB was grown under anaerobic conditions and then exposed to a stepwise-increasing oxygen influx (0 to 20% O(2) in the incoming gas phase). The coculture consumed oxygen efficiently, and no residual oxygen was detected with an oxygen supply of up to 5%. Sulfate reduction persisted at all levels of oxygen input, even at the maximal level, when residual oxygen in the growth vessel was 87 microM. The portion of D. oxyclinae cells in the coculture decreased gradually from 92% under anaerobic conditions to 27% under aeration. Both absolute cell numbers and viable cell counts of the organism were the same as or even higher than those observed in the absence of oxygen input. The patterns of consumption of electron donors and acceptors suggest that aerobic incomplete oxidation of lactate to acetate is performed by D. oxyclinae under high oxygen input. Both organisms were isolated from the same oxic zone of a cyanobacterial mat where they have to adapt to daily shifts from oxic to anoxic conditions. This type of syntrophic association may occur in natural habitats, enabling sulfate-reducing bacteria to cope with periodic exposure to oxygen.

Regulation of ammonia assimilation in an obligate methylotroph Methylobacillus flagellatum under steady-state and transient growth conditions.

The obligate methylotroph Methylobacillus flagellatum was grown in the presence of different ammonium concentrations and the regulation of the enzymes associated with ammonium assimilation was investigated in steady-state and transient growth regimes. As the medium changed from C-limitation to dual C/N- and finally to N-limitation, the culture passed through three definite growth phases. The NADP(+)-dependent glutamate dehydrogenase (GDH) was present under ammonium limitation of the culture growth (at 2 mmol 1(-1) of ammonium in the growth medium) and increased in response to an increase in nitrogen availability. Glutamine synthetase (GS) and glutamate synthase (GOGAT) activities were negligible during C- and C/N-limitation. In N-limited cells the GOGAT activity increased as the dilution rate increased up to 0.35 h-1, and then sharply dropped. In the N-sufficient cultures both NAD(+)-and NADP(+)-dependent isocitrate dehydrogenase (NAD-ICDH and NADP-ICDH) activities were up-regulated as dilution rate increased, but in the N-limited culture the NAD-ICDH activity was up-regulated whereas NADP-ICDH one was down-regulated. Pulse additions of ammonium and methanol demonstrated the coordinate regulation of the GDH and ICDHs activities. When pulses were added to the C/N-limited cultures, there was an immediate utilization of the nutrients, resulting in an increase in biomass; at the same time the GDH and ICDH activities increased and the GS and GOGAT activities decreased. When the same ammonium/methanol pulse was added into the N-limited culture, there was a 3 h delay in the culture response, after which the substrates were utilized at rates close to the ones shown by the C/N-limited culture after the analogous pulse.

Growth of the obligate methylotroph Methylobacillus flagellatum under stationary and nonstationary conditions during continuous cultivation.

The growth characteristics of a chemostat culture of the obligate methylotrophic bacterium Methylobacillus flagellatum have been determined. Steady-state cultures growing at a rate of 0.73-0.74 h(-1), equal to the maximal growth rate, were obtained under oxyturbidostat cultivation conditions. The response of a chemostat culture to a pulse increase of methanol concentration was studied. It was shown that slow and rapidly growing cultures of M. flagellatum responded differently to pulse methanol addition. The growth characteristics of slow-growing cultures decreased after methanol addition compared to those of stationary chemostat cultures. The growth characteristics of rapidly growing cultures were practically unchanged with and without pulse methanol addition.

Growth and enzymological characteristics of a pink-pigmented facultative methylotroph Methylobacterium sp. MB1.

Growth characteristics of batch and continuous cultures of the pink facultative methylotroph Methylobacterium sp. MB1 were determined. The response of a chemostat culture to a pulse increase of methanol concentration was studied. Malate, succinate and oxaloacetate additions to the methanol-supplemented medium decreased batch culture growth inhibition by methanol. The carotenoid content in cells grown in a chemostat decreased with increasing growth rate. The key enzyme activities of C1-metabolism were measured in a chemostat culture at different dilution rates.

Oxidative and assimilative enzyme activities in continuous cultures of the obligate methylotroph Methylobacillus flagellatum.

In methanol-limited continuous cultures of the obligate methylotrophic bacterium Methylobacillus flagellatum grown at rates from 0.05 to 0.63 h-1, and also in an oxyturbidostat culture of M. flagellatum growing at the rate of 0.73 h-1, levels of methanol dehydrogenase, enzymes of formaldehyde oxidation (both linear and cyclic) and assimilation (RuMP cycle), a number of intermediary metabolism and TCA cycle enzymes and also 'dye-linked' formaldehyde dehydrogenase were determined. It was shown that the activities of dissimilatory enzymes, with the exception of 'dye-linked' formaldehyde dehydrogenase, decreased with increasing growth rate. Activities of assimilative enzymes and activities of the TCA cycle enzymes detected as well as the 'dye-linked' formaldehyde dehydrogenase activity, increased with increasing growth rate. A periplasmic location was shown for the latter enzyme and a role in formaldehyde detoxification was proposed.