Development and validation of a framework for the assessment of school curricula on the presence of evolutionary concepts (FACE).

Evolution is a key concept of biology, fundamental to understand the world and address important societal problems, but research studies show that it is still not widely understood and accepted. Several factors are known to influence evolution acceptance and understanding, but little information is available regarding the impacts of the curriculum on these aspects. Very few curricula have been examined to assess the coverage of biological evolution. The available studies do not allow comparative analyses, due to the different methodologies employed by the authors. However, such an analysis would be useful for research purposes and for the development of appropriate educational policies to address the problem of a lack of evolution acceptance in some countries. In this paper we describe the steps through which we developed a valid and reliable instrument for curricula analysis known as FACE: "Framework to Assess the Coverage of biological Evolution by school curricula." This framework was developed based on the "Understanding Evolution Conceptual Framework" (UECF). After an initial pilot study, our framework was reformulated based on identified issues and experts' opinions. To generate validity and reliability evidence in support of the framework, it was applied to four European countries' curricula. For each country, a team of a minimum of two national and two foreign coders worked independently to assess the curriculum using this framework for content analysis. Reliability evidence was estimated using Krippendorf's alpha and resulted in appropriate values for coding the examined curricula. Some issues that coders faced during the analysis were discussed and, to ensure better reliability for future researchers, additional guidelines and one extra category were included in the framework. The final version of the framework includes six categories and 34 subcategories. FACE is a useful tool for the analysis and the comparison of curricula and school textbooks regarding the coverage of evolution, and such results can guide curricula development.

The N-terminal RASSF family: a new group of Ras-association-domain-containing proteins, with emerging links to cancer formation.

The RASSF (Ras-association domain family) has recently gained several new members and now contains ten proteins (RASSF1-10), several of which are potential tumour suppressors. The family can be split into two groups, the classical RASSF proteins (RASSF1-6) and the four recently added N-terminal RASSF proteins (RASSF7-10). The N-terminal RASSF proteins have a number of differences from the classical RASSF members and represent a newly defined set of potential Ras effectors. They have been linked to key biological processes, including cell death, proliferation, microtubule stability, promoter methylation, vesicle trafficking and response to hypoxia. Two members of the N-terminal RASSF family have also been highlighted as potential tumour suppressors. The present review will summarize what is known about the N-terminal RASSF proteins, addressing their function and possible links to cancer formation. It will also compare the N-terminal RASSF proteins with the classical RASSF proteins and ask whether the N-terminal RASSF proteins should be considered as genuine members or imposters in the RASSF family.

Discovery of the catalytic function of a putative 2-oxoacid dehydrogenase multienzyme complex in the thermophilic archaeon Thermoplasma acidophilum.

Those aerobic archaea whose genomes have been sequenced possess a single 4-gene operon that, by sequence comparisons with Bacteria and Eukarya, appears to encode the three component enzymes of a 2-oxoacid dehydrogenase multienzyme complex. However, no catalytic activity of any such complex has ever been detected in the Archaea. In the current paper, we have cloned and expressed the first two genes of this operon from the thermophilic archaeon, Thermoplasma acidophilum. We demonstrate that the protein products form an alpha2beta2 hetero-tetramer possessing the decarboxylase catalytic activity characteristic of the first component enzyme of a branched-chain 2-oxoacid dehydrogenase multienzyme complex. This represents the first report of the catalytic function of these putative archaeal multienzyme complexes.

Genome analysis and strain comparison of correia repeats and correia repeat-enclosed elements in pathogenic Neisseria.

Whole genome sequences of Neisseria meningitidis strains Z2491 and MC58 and Neisseria gonorrhoeae FA1090 were analyzed for Correia repeats (CR) and CR-enclosed elements (CREE). A total of 533, 516, and 256 copies of CR and 270, 261, and 102 copies of CREE were found in these three genomes, respectively. The lengths of CREE range from 28 to 348 bp, and the lengths of multicopy CREE appear mainly in the ranges of 154 to 156 bp and 105 to 107 bp. The distribution of CREE lengths is similar between the two N. meningitidis genomes, with a greater number of 154- to 156-bp CREE (163 and 152 copies in N. meningitidis strain Z2491 and N. meningitidis strain MC58, respectively) than 105- to 107-bp CREE (72 and 77 copies). In the N. gonorrhoeae strain FA1090 genome there are relatively more 105- to 107-bp CREE (51 copies) than 154- to 156-bp CREE (36 copies). The genomic distribution of 107-bp CREE also shows similarity between the two N. meningitidis strains (15 copies share the same loci) and differences between N. meningitidis strains and N. gonorrhoeae FA1090 (only one copy is located in the same locus). Detailed sequence analysis showed that both the terminal inverted repeats and the core regions of CREE are composed of distinct basic sequence blocks. Direct TA dinucleotide repeats exist at the termini of all CREE. A survey of DNA sequence upstream of the sialyltransferase gene, lst, in several Neisseria isolates showed that 5 N. meningitidis strains contain a 107-bp CREE in this region but 25 N. gonorrhoeae strains show an exact absence of a 105-bp sequence block (i.e., the 107-bp CREE without a 5' TA dinucleotide) in the same region. Whole-genome sequence analysis confirmed that this 105-bp indel exists in many homologous 107-bp CREE loci. Thus, we postulate that all CREE are made of target TA with indels of various lengths. Analysis of 107-bp CREE revealed that they exist predominantly in intergenic regions and are often near virulence, metabolic, and transporter genes. The abundance of CREE in Neisseria genomes suggests that they may have played a role in genome organization, function, and evolution. Their differential distribution in different pathogenic Neisseria strains may contribute to the distinct behaviors of each Neisseria species.