Spiking neural P systems with rules on synapses are a new variant of spiking neural P systems. In the systems, the neuron contains only spikes, while the spiking/forgetting rules are moved on the synapses. It was obtained that such system with 30 neurons (using extended spiking rules) or with 39 neurons (using standard spiking rules) is Turing universal. In this work, this number is improved to 6. Specifically, we construct a Turing universal spiking neural P system with rules on synapses having 6 neurons, which can generate any set of Turing computable natural numbers. As well, it is obtained that spiking neural P system with rules on synapses having less than two neurons are not Turing universal: i) such systems having one neuron can characterize the family of finite sets of natural numbers; ii) the family of sets of numbers generated by the systems having two neurons is included in the family of semi-linear sets of natural numbers.
Pseudomonas aeruginosa, an opportunistic human pathogen is known to synthesize rhamnolipid and polyhydroxyalkanoic acid (PHA) of which the acyl-group precursors (e.g., (R)-3-hydroxydecanoic acid) are provided through RhlA and PhaG enzyme, respectively, which have 57% gene sequence homology. The inhibitory effect of three 2-bromo-fatty acids of 2-bromohexanoic acid (2-BrHA), 2-bromooctanoic acid (2-BrOA) and 2-bromodecanoic acid (2-BrDA) was compared to get an insight into the biochemical nature of their probable dual inhibition against the two enzymes. The 2-bromo-compounds were found to inhibit rhamnolipid and PHA synthesis simultaneously in alkyl-chain-length dependent manner at several millimolar concentrations. The separate and dual inhibition of the RhlA and PhaG pathway by the 2-bromo-compounds in the wild-type cells was verified by investigating their inhibitory effects on the rhamnolipid and PHA synthesis in P. aeruginosa ΔphaG and ΔrhlA mutants. Unexpectedly, the order of inhibition strength was found 2-BrHA (≥90% at 2 mM) > 2-BrOA > 2-BrDA, equally for all of the rhamnolipids and PHA synthesis, swarming motility and biofilm formation. We suggest that the novel strongest inhibitor 2-BrHA could be potentially exploited to control the rhamnolipid-associated group behaviors of this pathogen as well as for its utilization as a lead compound in screening for antimicrobial agents based on new antimicrobial targets.
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