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Aim: To screen and evaluate the biocontrol potential of Paenibacillus strains against disease complex caused by Meloidogyne incognita and Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. lycopersici interactions. Methods and Results: Paenibacillus strains were collected from rotten ginseng roots. The strains were tested under in vitro and pots for their inhibitory activities, and biocontrol potential against disease complex caused by M. incognita and F. oxysporum f. sp. lycopersici on tomato. In in vitro experiments, among 40 tested strains of Paenibacillus spp., 11 strains showed antifungal and nematicidal activities against F. oxysporum f. sp. lycopersici and M. incognita, respectively. Paenibacillus polymyxa GBR-462; GBR-508 and P. lentimorbus GBR-158 showed the strongest antifungal and nematicidal activities. These three strains used in pot experiment reduced the symptom development of the disease complex (wilting and plant death), and increased plant growth. The control effects were estimated to be 90-98%, and also reduced root gall formation by 64-88% compared to the untreated control. Conclusion: The protective properties of selected Paenibacillus strains make them as potential tool to reduce deleterious impact of disease complex plants. Significance and Impact of the Study: The study highlights biocontrol potential of Paenibacillus strains in management of disease complex caused by nematode-fungus interaction.

Tumor permeability is a critical determinant of drug delivery and sensitivity, but systematic methods to identify factors that perform permeability barrier functions in the tumor microenvironment are not yet available. Multicellular tumor spheroids have become tractable in vitro models to study the impact of a three-dimensional (3D) environment on cellular behavior. In this study, we characterized the spheroid-forming potential of cancer cells and correlated the resulting spheroid morphologies with genetic information to identify conserved cellular processes associated with spheroid structure. Spheroids generated from 100 different cancer cell lines were classified into four distinct groups based on morphology. In particular, round and compact spheroids exhibited highly hypoxic inner cores and permeability barriers against anticancer drugs. Through systematic and correlative analysis, we reveal JAK-STAT signaling as one of the signature pathways activated in round spheroids. Accordingly, STAT3 inhibition in spheroids generated from the established cancer cells and primary glioblastoma patient-derived cells altered the rounded morphology and increased drug sensitivity. Furthermore, combined administration of the STAT3 inhibitor and 5-fluorouracil to a mouse xenograft model markedly reduced tumor growth compared with monotherapy. Collectively, our findings demonstrate the ability to integrate 3D culture and genetic profiling to determine the factors underlying the integrity of the permeability barrier in the tumor microenvironment, and may help to identify and exploit novel mechanisms of drug resistance.

The rising demand for real-time services over the netw ork such as w eb-based information services requires new approaches for balancing competing demands on limited resources. The BeeHive database system proposes a n o vel solution to this need by the use of adaptive real-time, fault tolerance, quality of service and security services based upon rules embedded in individual objects 1]. These rules prescribe tradeo s of alternate levels of service (and cost) when resource conten tion becomes a problem. The approach momentarily trades o the lev el of securit y t o a c hiev e a required real-time performance. In many situations this is an acceptable, and even preferred, solution. We h a ve d e v eloped an adaptable security manager to provide alternate levels of communications security t o m ultiple users and dynamically adapt to real-time performance conditions. In this paperwe present the design and evaluation of the proposed security manager that utilizes the notion of adaptable security services.

sucAB and sucCD of Escherichia coli encode enzymes that generate succinyl-CoA from 2-oxoglutarate and succinate, respectively. Their mutual essentiality was studied. sucAB and sucCD could be deleted individually, but not simultaneously. The mutual essentiality of sucAB and sucCD was further confirmed by the conditional expression of sucABCD, sucAB, and sucCD under the control of a P(BAD) in E. coli MG1655, E. coli MG1655 (DeltasucCD), and E. coli MG1655 (DeltasucAB), respectively. These strains grew well in Luria-Bertani medium containing 0.1% arabinose, but not in the absence of arabinose unless the medium was supplemented with succinyl-CoA. Our results indicate that either sucAB or sucCD is enough to produce succinyl-CoA that is essential for cell viability.