Current Knowledge about the Impact of Microgravity on Gene Regulation.

Microgravity (µg) has a massive impact on the health of space explorers. Microgravity changes the proliferation, differentiation, and growth of cells. As crewed spaceflights into deep space are being planned along with the commercialization of space travelling, researchers have focused on gene regulation in cells and organisms exposed to real (r-) and simulated (s-) µg. In particular, cancer and metastasis research benefits from the findings obtained under µg conditions. Gene regulation is a key factor in a cell or an organism's ability to sustain life and respond to environmental changes. It is a universal process to control the amount, location, and timing in which genes are expressed. In this review, we provide an overview of µg-induced changes in the numerous mechanisms involved in gene regulation, including regulatory proteins, microRNAs, and the chemical modification of DNA. In particular, we discuss the current knowledge about the impact of microgravity on gene regulation in different types of bacteria, protists, fungi, animals, humans, and cells with a focus on the brain, eye, endothelium, immune system, cartilage, muscle, bone, and various cancers as well as recent findings in plants. Importantly, the obtained data clearly imply that µg experiments can support translational medicine on Earth.

Toxicity of enzymatically decolored textile dyes solution by horseradish peroxidase.

The oxidative systems including enzymatic systems have been widely studied as an alternative for textile effluents treatment. However, studies have shown that some oxidative processes can produce degradation products with higher toxicity than the untreated dye. In this work, enzymatic dye decolorization was evaluated by horseradish peroxidase enzyme (HRP) and the toxicity of discoloration products was evaluate against Daphnia magna, Euglena gracilis algae, and Vibrio fischeri. Dye decolorization kinetics data were evaluated and the pseudo-second-order model showed the best-fitting to the experimental data. In addition, it was observed an increased acute and chronic toxicity associated with the decolorization efficiency. The Reactive Blue 19 and Reactive Black dye showed the highest toxicity against D. Magna (16 toxicity factor) and V. Fischeri (32 toxicity factor) after enzymatic decolorization. For the chronic toxicity against D. Magna, Reactive Red was the only dye with no fertility inhibition. In relation to toxicity tests with E. gracilis algae, it was not observed photosynthetic inhibition for all dyes. This study verified the viability of the enzyme horseradish peroxidase in the textile dyes decolorization and the importance to evaluate the decolorization products.

Daphniatox - Online monitoring of aquatic pollution and toxic substances.

The microcrustacean Daphnia is sensitive to many toxic substances and can be cultured easily. The Daphniatox instrument is based on computerized image analysis tracking swimming organisms in real time. The software evaluates 14 endpoints including motility, swimming velocity, orientation with respect to light and gravity as well as cell form and size. The system determines movement vectors of a large number of organisms to warrant high statistical significance and calculates mean values as well as standard deviation. Tests with K dichromate show that the toxin inhibits motility (EC50 0.75 mg/L), swimming velocity (EC50 0.70 mg/L) and even causes a significant decrease in length (16% at 4 mg/L) and changes the form of the animals, This bioassay can be used to monitor the toxicity of a large number of dissolved pollutants and toxic substances such as arsenic, dichromate and persistent organic pollutants.