BackgroundMitochondria are both a sensitive target and a primary source of oxidative stress, a key pathway of air particulate matter (PM)-associated diseases. Mitochondrial DNA copy number (MtDNAcn) is a marker of mitochondrial damage and malfunctioning. We evaluated whether ambient PM exposure affects MtDNAcn in a highly-exposed population in Beijing, China.MethodsThe Beijing Truck Driver Air Pollution Study was conducted shortly before the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games (June 15-July 27, 2008) and included 60 truck drivers and 60 office workers. Personal PM2.5 and elemental carbon (EC, a tracer of traffic particles) were measured during work hours using portable monitors. Post-work blood samples were obtained on two different days. Ambient PM10 was averaged from 27 monitoring stations in Beijing. Blood MtDNAcn was determined by real-time PCR and examined in association with particle levels using mixed-effect models.ResultsIn all participants combined, MtDNAcn was negatively associated with personal EC level measured during work hours (β=−0.059, 95% CI: -0.011; -0.0006, p=0.03); and 5-day (β=−0.017, 95% CI: -0.029;-0.005, p=0.01) and 8-day average ambient PM10 (β=−0.008, 95% CI: -0.043; -0.008, p=0.004) after adjusting for possible confounding factors, including study groups. MtDNAcn was also negatively associated among office workers with EC (β=−0.012, 95% CI: -0.022;-0.002, p=0.02) and 8-day average ambient PM10 (β=−0.030, 95% CI: -0.051;-0.008, p=0.007).ConclusionsWe observed decreased blood MtDNAcn in association with increased exposure to EC during work hours and recent ambient PM10 exposure. Our results suggest that MtDNAcn may be influenced by particle exposures. Further studies are required to determine the roles of MtDNAcn in the etiology of particle-related diseases.

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Many golf courses and turfgrass managers use recycled water, which contains high salts, as part or a sole irrigation source to lower costs and comply with governmental restrictions on water use. High salinity negatively affects turfgrass performance. Using salt-tolerant species or cultivars is one the most effective methods to address salinity problems. Twenty-six commercially available creeping bentgrass (Agrostis stolonifera) cultivars were evaluated for salt tolerance during in vitro germination on 1% agar media supplemented with NaCl at 0, 5, 10, 15, or 20 g·L−1 at 25/15 °C (day/night) under fluorescent light (36 μmol·s−1·m−2) with an 8- to16-h photoperiod. Significant variations in salinity tolerance were observed among the cultivars. Final germination rate (FGR, %) and daily germination rate (DGR, %/d) decreased linearly or quadratically as salinity levels increased. ‘Declaration’, ‘Seaside II’, ‘T-1’, and ‘Bengal’ were the most salt-tolerant, requiring salt levels at or greater than 16.0 and 10.0 g·L−1, respectively, to reduce FGR and DGR by 50%. In contrast, ‘Tyee’, ‘Kingpin’, and ‘SR1150’ required average salinity levels of 11.6 and 6.5 g·L−1 to cause 50% reduction in FGR and DGR, respectively, showing that they were the least salt-tolerant cultivars. The largest difference between FGR (1.9%) and DGR (26.2%) reduction under saline conditions was observed at 5 g·L−1, indicating that DGR was more sensitive to salinity changes than FGR. Therefore, DGR might be a more reliable method to be used for salt selection.

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Summary Heat shock factor 1 (HSF1) and 2 (HSF2) play distinct but overlapping regulatory roles in maintaining cellular proteostasis or mediating cell differentiation and development. Upon activation, both HSFs trimerize and bind to heat shock elements (HSEs) present in the promoter region of target genes. Despite structural insights gained from recent studies, structures reflecting the physiological architecture of this transcriptional machinery remains to be determined. Here, we present co-crystal structures of human HSF1 and HSF2 trimers bound to DNA, which reveal a triangular arrangement of the three DNA-binding domains (DBDs) with protein-protein interactions largely mediated by the wing domain. Two structural properties, different flexibility of the wing domain and local DNA conformational changes induced by HSF binding, seem likely to contribute to the subtle differential specificity between HSF1 and HSF2. Besides, two more structures showing DBDs bound to “two-site” head-to-head HSEs were determined as additions to the published tail-to-tail dimer-binding structures.