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Organisationseinheit der BAM
Unity in defence: honeybee workers exhibit conserved molecular responses to diverse pathogens
(2017)
Background: Organisms typically face infection by diverse pathogens, and hosts are thought to have developed specific responses to each type of pathogen they encounter. The advent of transcriptomics now makes it possible to test this hypothesis and compare host gene expression responses to multiple pathogens at a genome-wide scale. Here, we performed a meta-analysis of multiple published and new transcriptomes using a newly developed bioinformatics approach that filters genes based on their expression profile across datasets. Thereby, we identified common and unique molecular responses of a model host species, the honey bee (Apis mellifera), to its major pathogens and parasites: the Microsporidia Nosema apis and Nosema ceranae, RNA viruses, and the ectoparasitic mite Varroa destructor, which transmits viruses.
Results: We identified a common suite of genes and conserved molecular pathways that respond to all investigated pathogens, a result that suggests a commonality in response mechanisms to diverse pathogens. We found that genes differentially expressed after infection exhibit a higher evolutionary rate than non-differentially expressed genes. Using our new bioinformatics approach, we unveiled additional pathogen-specific responses of honey bees; we found that apoptosis appeared to be an important response following microsporidian infection, while genes from the immune signalling pathways, Toll and Imd, were differentially expressed after Varroa/virus infection. Finally, we applied our bioinformatics approach and generated a gene co-expression network to identify highly connected (hub) genes that may represent important mediators and regulators of anti-pathogen responses.
Conclusions: Our meta-analysis generated a comprehensive overview of the host metabolic and other biological processes that mediate interactions between insects and their pathogens. We identified key host genes and pathways that respond to phylogenetically diverse pathogens, representing an important source for future functional studies as well as offering new routes to identify or generate pathogen resilient honey bee stocks. The statistical and bioinformatics approaches that were developed for this study are broadly applicable to synthesize information across transcriptomic datasets. These approaches will likely have utility in addressing a variety of biological questions.
Summary: The decomposition of novel phosphorus-containing poly(oxyphenylene-sulfonyl-phenylene-oxy-diphenyl phenylene phosphine oxide) (PSU_I), 2,5-dihydroxy-1-biphenylene-phosphine oxide based polysulfone (PSU_II), poly(sulfonyl-diphenylphenylene phosphonate) (PSU_P) and bisphenol A-based polysulfone (PSU) is studied. The influence of the chemical structure, charring and phosphorus release is discussed based on the mass loss, kinetics and products. The pyrolysis and fire behaviour of blends with epoxy resin (EP) are studied. For EP-PSU_II, phosphorus initiates water elimination and changes the decomposition pathway of EP. The fire behaviour of EP-PSU shows some improvements, whereas the heat release rate is crucially reduced for EP-PSU_II due to simultaneous char formation and flame inhibition.
Pyrolysis and fire behaviour of a phosphorus polyester (PET-P-DOPO) have been investigated. The glycol ether of the hydroquinone derivative of 9,10-dihydro-9-oxa-10-phosphaphenanthrene-10-oxide was used as a reactive halogen-free flame retardant in PET-P-DOPO. PET-P-DOPO is proposed as an alternative to poly(butylene terephthalate) (PBT) with established halogen-free additives. It exhibits a high LOI (39.3%) and achieves V-0 classification in the UL 94 test. Three different mechanisms (flame inhibition, charring and a protection effect by the intumescent char) contribute to the flame retardancy in PET-P-DOPO and were quantified with respect to different fire risks. The fire load was reduced by 66% of the PBT characteristic. The reduction is the superposition of the relative reduction due to flame inhibition (factor 0.625) and charring (factor 0.545). The peak of heat release rate (pHRR) was reduced by 83% due to flame inhibition, charring and the protection properties of the char (factor 0.486). The strength of all three mechanisms is in the same order of magnitude. The intumescent multicellular structure enables the char to act as an efficient protection layer. PBT flame-retarded with aluminium diethylphosphinate was used as a benchmark to assess the performance of PET-P-DOPO absolutely, as well as versus the phosphorus content. PET-P-DOPO exhibits superior fire retardancy, in particular due to the additional prolongation of the time to ignition and increase in char yield. PET-P-DOPO is a promising alternative material for creating halogen-free flame-retarded polyesters.
Pyrolysis, fire behaviour and mechanical properties of a blend of poly(butylene terephthalate) (PBT) with a phosphorus polyester (PET-P-DOPO) are investigated and compared with PBT/aluminium diethylphosphinate (AlPi-Et) composites. The PBT/PET-P-DOPO is immiscible and exhibits gas-phase and condensed-phase activity, whereas AlPi-Et in PBT results mainly in flame inhibition. Only higher loadings of AlPi-Et yield significant condensed-phase activity. Using the same phosphorus content, PBT/PET-P-DOPO and PBT/AlPi-Et exhibit similar reductions in fire load (22%) and flame spread (17% assessed by fire growth rate, FIGRA), compared with PBT. In contrast to AlPi-Et, the addition of PET-P-DOPO does not decrease the tensile strength of PBT. Thus, PET-P-DOPO is an interesting alternative to low-molecular-weight flame retardants.
A comparative evaluation of systematically tailored chemical structures of various phosphorus-containing aminic hardeners for epoxy resins was carried out. In particular, the effect of the oxidation state of the phosphorus in the hardener molecule on the curing behavior, the mechanical, thermomechanical, and hot-wet properties of a cured bifunctional bisphenol-A based thermoset is discussed. Particular attention is paid to the comparative pyrolysis of neat cured epoxy resins containing phosphine oxide, phosphinate, phosphonate, and phosphate (with a phosphorus content of about 2.6 wt %) and of the fire behavior of their corresponding carbon fiber-reinforced composites. Comparatively faster curing thermosetting system with an enhanced flame retardancy and adequate processing behavior can be formulated by taking advantage of the higher reactivity of the phosphorus-modified hardeners. For example, a combination of the high reactivity and of induced secondary crosslinking reactions leads to a comparatively high Tg when curing the epoxy using a substoichiometric amount of the phosphinate-based hardener. The overall mechanical performance of the materials cured with the phosphorus-containing hardeners is comparable to that of a 4,4-DDS-cured reference system. While the various phosphorus-containing hardeners in general provide the epoxy-based matrix with enhanced flame retardancy properties, it is the flame inhibition in the gas phase especially that determines the improvement in fire retardancy of carbon fiber-reinforced composites. In summary, the present study provides an important contribution towards developing a better understanding of the potential use of such phosphorus-containing compounds to provide the composite matrix with sufficient flame retardancy while simultaneously maintaining its overall mechanical performance on a suitable level.
A systematic and comparative evaluation of the pyrolysis of halogen-free flame-retarded epoxy resins containing phosphine oxide, phosphinate, phosphonate, and phosphate (phosphorus contents around 2.6 wt.%) and the fire behaviour of their carbon fibre composites is presented. Decomposition pathways are proposed based on the thermal analysis (TG), TG coupled with evolved gas analysis (TG-FTIR), kinetics and analysis of the residue with FTIR and XPS. All organophosphorus-modified hardeners containing phenoxy groups lead to a reduced decomposition temperature and mass loss step for the main decomposition of the cured epoxy resin. With increasing oxidation state of the phosphorus the thermally stable residue increases, whereas the release of phosphorus-containing volatiles decreases. The flammability of the composites was investigated with LOI and UL 94 and the fire behaviour for forced-flaming conditions with cone calorimeter tests performed using different irradiations. The flame retardancy mechanisms are discussed. With increasing oxidation state of the phosphorus additional charring is observed, whereas the flame inhibition, which plays the more important role for the performance of the composites, decreases. The processing and the mechanical performance (delamination resistance, flexural properties and interlaminar bonding strength) of the fibre-reinforced composites containing phosphorus were maintained at a high level and, in some cases, even improved. The potential for optimising flame retardancy while maintaining mechanical properties is highlighted in this study.