Massive Gasoline Ingestion in a 64-Year-Old Female: An Explosive Situation.

Hydrocarbons from gasoline are toxins that can affect a multitude of organ systems based on the route of chemical intoxication exposure, with a majority involving oral ingestion or inhalation. Data is still incomplete concerning the systemic complications of gasoline ingestion due in part to variability in the chemical composition of various gasoline products. A 64-year-old female presented to her local emergency department following the ingestion of gasoline in a suicide attempt with altered mental status, hypotension, shortness of breath, tachypnea, sinus tachycardia, coarse rhonchi bilaterally, and hyperactive bowel sounds. Treatment upon admission included intravenous ampicillin/sulbactam, intubation, an intravenous fluid bolus, and ketamine to address the developing hypotension. The patient developed multiorgan failure and acute toxic encephalopathy despite medical interventions and hemodialysis. After four days, comfort care measures were initiated, and the patient passed away. Gasoline toxicity can have a profound effect on multiple organs based on the chemical properties and the route of exposure. These sequelae can be monitored through patient symptoms as well as radiologic imaging. Early supportive therapy and decontamination are vital in decreasing the morbidity and mortality associated with gasoline ingestion.

Hormone deficient mutants have distinct flavonoid proportion fingerprints in response to abiotic stress.

Distinct flavonoid profiles (a.k.a. 'fingerprints') are produced in the vegetative tissues of plants in response to different abiotic stresses, yet it remained unknown whether flavonoid levels or their relative their proportions are more tightly regulated in response to stress. Here we show that the relative proportions of 19 flavonoids were more stringently controlled compared to their levels in response to variety of abiotic stresses. We screened mutants that are deficient in the biosynthesis of the stress response hormones ABA, Eth, JA, and GA by growing them in an abiotic stress condition that induces the biosynthesis of a wide variety of flavonoids and found that mutants deficient in a particular hormone generally had a distinct flavonoid proportion fingerprint. Our results suggest that flavonoid proportion fingerprints of uncharacterized mutants could be used to predict gene involvement in particular hormone pathways that signal responses to abiotic stress.

Arabidopsis MATE45 antagonizes local abscisic acid signaling to mediate development and abiotic stress responses.

Anthocyanins provide ideal visual markers for the identification of mutations that disrupt molecular responses to abiotic stress. We screened Arabidopsis mutants of ABC (ATP-Binding Cassette) and MATE (Multidrug And Toxic compound Extrusion) transporter genes under nutritional stress and identified four genes (ABCG25,ABCG9,ABCG5, and MATE45) required for normal anthocyanin pigmentation. ABCG25 was previously demonstrated to encode a vascular-localized cellular exporter of abscisic acid (ABA). Our results show that MATE45 encodes an aerial meristem- and a vascular-localized transporter associated with the trans-Golgi, and that it plays an important role in controlling the levels and distribution of ABA in growing aerial meristems and non-meristematic tissues. MATE45 promoter-GUS reporter fusions revealed the activity localized to the leaf and influorescence meristems and the vasculature. Loss-of-function mate45 mutants exhibited accelerated rates of aerial organ initiation suggesting at least partial functional conservation with the maize ortholog bige1. The aba2-1 mutant, which is deficient in ABA biosynthesis, exhibited a number of phenotypes that were rescued in the mate45-1 aba2-1 double mutant. mate45 exhibited enhanced the seed dormancy, and germination was hypersensitive to ABA. Enhanced frequency of leaf primordia growth in mate45 seedlings grown in nutrient imbalance stress was ABA-dependent. The ABA signaling reporter construct pRD29B::GUS revealed elevated levels of ABA signaling in the true leaf primordia of mate45 seedlings grown under nutritional stress, and gradually reduced signaling in surrounding cotyledon and hypocotyl tissues concomitant with reduced expressions of ABCG25. Our results suggest a role of MATE45 in reducing meristematic ABA and in maintaining ABA distribution in adjacent non-meristematic tissues.