Platelets are important players in inflammation, wound healing, initiation of immune response and regeneration in peripheral tissues. Disruption of the blood-brain barrier occurs during certain neurological disorders, such as brain trauma, Alzheimer’s disease or stroke, when blood cells including platelets can invade nervous tissue. However, the role of platelets in the context of neuroinflammation remains understudied. Recent works have showed that in activated platelets release a wide set of coagulative and vascular factors during neurovascular pathologies in the central nervous system. Moreover, platelets stimulate immunity and regulate inflammation in the central nervous system. Platelet-derived trophic and growth factors may play a role in neuronal regeneration. Activated platelets release neurotransmitters, serotonin, dopamine, histamine, and glutamate, and can modify neuronal cell activity in neuropathologies. This review focuses on the major aspects and mechanisms of platelet functions in neuroinflammation, and therapeutic potential of platelets for treatment of neurodegeneration.

The investigation of microbial communities of Antarctica soils is a very important direction of research that expands our knowledge of microbial participation in primary soil formation, their communities in extreme habitats features and is of considerable interest for directed search for microorganisms – potential biotechnological objects. In the present review results of longterm (2012–2017) of complex researches of soil microbial communities of the Russian polar stations of East Antarctica are presented (Shirmakher’s (Novolazarevskaya station) oasis, Hills Larsemann (Progress station) and Hills Tala (Molodezhnaya station)). For the first time for this region the assessment of biomass of soil microorganisms by means of methods of direct microscopy is carried out. The general amount of microbial biomass are small, there the fungi are dominate (77–99%). The unique feature of the Antarctic soils is the high content and a morphological diversity of small forms of microorganisms: fungi are presented by mainly one-cells structures (the small spores and yeasts), bacteria - the ultrafine (filtering) forms. At the same time microorganisms can make a significant importance/contribution to such important ecological functions of the soil as the emission of greenhouse gases, especially during the warm season at achievement of resistant positive temperatures by the soil. It should be considered during creation of models and forecasts of global warming of climate. Both the use of various methods of isolation for the analysis of the microbial population of soils and the succession approach expand significantly the information about taxonomy diversity of the cultivated fungi and bacteria in soils of Antarctica.

Transport of electrons in the spinach photosystem II (PSII) with oxygen-evolving complex (OEC) containing heterogenеous metal clusters 2Mn2Fe and 3Mn1Fe was investigated using the method of fluorescence induction kinеtic (FIK) measurement. Preparations of PSII(2Mn,2Fe) and PSII(3Mn,1Fe) were produced using Ca-depleted PSII membranes (PSII(-Ca)). We found that FIK in PSII(2Mn,2Fe) membranes are similar to FIK form in PSII(-Ca) samples but have lower fluorescence yield. Our results demonstrate the existence the electron transfer from metal cluster in the OEC to primary plastoquinone electron acceptor QА as well as in PSII(-Ca) preparations and show that substitution of Mn with Fe doesn’t effect on the electron transport on the PSII acceptor side. Thus these data demonstrate the possibility of water oxidation by heterogeneous metal cluster or water oxidation by only Mn dimer. We established that the form of FIK in PSII(3Mn,1Fe) preparations resembles the FIK in PSII(2Mn,2Fe) membranes. Yield of maximal fluorescence yield Fmax is larger but not significantly. The rate of electron transfer in the presence of Ca2+ rises significantly (2 times) whereas Ca2+ has no influence in PSII(2Mn,2Fe) membranes which don’t evolve oxygen. In the Mn-depleted PSII membranes FIK reach maximum (so-called peak K) then decreases as consequence of QА - oxidation and absence of electron input. Insertion of Fe cations instead of Mn provides the fluorescence saturation and disappearance of peak K possibly due to the delay of recombination process between reduced primary electron acceptor QА - and oxidized tyrosine YZ •+ – electron carrier between OEC and primary electron donor P680.

Studies of the impact of inorganic phosphorus (Pi ), an important nutrient, on the growth and physiological parameters of single-celled algae are important for investigations of the dynamics of phytoplankton abundance and productivity in natural ecosystems as well as in industrial systems for the cultivation of microalgae. Difficulties in carrying out such studies are associated with the complex kinetics of Pi uptake by and the ability of microalgae to store phosphorus in their cells. This situation necessitates the efficient methods for express monitoring of microalgal cultures such as the methods based on the registration of optical properties of cells, such as absorption and scattering of light and fluorescence of chlorophyll contained in the cells. Here, we describe the results of monitoring the cultures of a chlorophyte Chlorella vulgaris IPPAS C-1, starving for phosphorus. It was found that both optical (light absorption in the bands of the key pigments–chlorophylls and carotenoids) and luminescent (variable fluorescence of chlorophyll) parameters reflect closely the culture condition. The correction for the contribution of light scattering to the overall extinction of light by microalgal cell suspensions turned to be necessary. At the same time, the light scattering signal is an accurate measure of the total number of suspended particles in the suspension. However, it is difficult to monitor via optical absorption the samples with abundant light-scattering particles lacking the photosynthetic pigments (such as heterotrophic bacteria). For such cultures, the using of variable fluorescence-based parameter Fv/Fm reflecting the maximum photochemical efficiency of the photosystem II is advisable.

Despite the fact that oxidation products of nucleotides and nucleosides are markers of oxidative stress, reports of the paradoxical ability of these compounds to protect cells from the harmful effects of reactive oxygen species began to appear more often. Among all nitrogenous bases, guanine is most susceptible to the influence of oxidative stress, therefore, guanosine is oxidized more often than other bases. In the present work, the effect of exogenous 8-oxo-2'-deoxyguanosine on the growth and “stationary phase aging” (accumulation of “age” changes in cultured cells during cell proliferation slowing down within a single passage and subsequent “aging” in the stationary phase of growth) of a nonsubcultured culture of transformed Chinese hamster cells was studied. We showed that the nucleoside is rapidly absorbed by the cells from the medium, but it does not affect the growth of the culture, and in the late stationary phase of growth impairs the viability of the cells. Thus, no mitogenic or geroprotective effect of 8-oxo-2'-deoxyguanosine was found.

Biomass of photosynthetic picoplankton (Bpic), its contribution to the total phytoplankton biomass (Bpic%), chlorophyll a concentration (Chl), and associated hydrophysical characteristics of water masses were estimated in the White Sea in June of 2015 on 47 stations in Onega and Kandalaksha Bays, including inlets, and in the western part of Basin. Spatial variability of Bpic mean values in photic layer (0.01-1.91 mg С/м3) was determined by sub- and mesoscale heterogeneity of hydrological conditions. The values of Bpic were higher near frontal zones than in the water masses with quasi-homogenous distribution of thermohaline characteristics. The relative contribution of Bpic did not exceed 1% at half of the stations and varied from 1 to 8% on the rest of the water area. The value of Bpic% riched 40.5% in the Basin and did not exceed 2% during the phytoplankton bloom in Knyazhaya Inlet (Chl>3 mg/m3) with the dominance of Skeletonema costatum sensu lato.

Brachiopoda is a relict group of invertebrate filter feeders that used tentacle organ – lophophore – for caption of food particles from the water flow. Brachiopod extinction apparently occurred due to low productivity of their filtering organ in comparison with more advanced filterfeeders. Investigation of filtering mechanism of recent brachiopods is essential to understanding their evolutionary fate. This study is devoted to the rejection mechanism of waste large particles from plectolophous lophophore of brachiopod Coptothyris grayi. The waste particles gather inside of the lophophore on outer side of brachial fold. The particles form rows along frontal grooves of outer tentacles, are carried successively to the tentacle tips and move along them, sliming by mucus. One part of the particles takes off the lophophore and falls down mantle, while another part was carried to abfrontal surface of the tentacles. Due to repeated reversals of abfrontal cilia, the particles wavily move along the abfrontal surface of tentacles. Such movement contributes to secretion of mucus and forming of particle clots. The clots take off the lophophore and fall down the mantle. The particles are transported along mantle by cilia to anterior part of the mantle margin. Here the ciliary reversals also take place that facilitate to secretion of mucus and forming pseudofeaces. The last takes away from the mantle cavity. Thus, only outer tentacles participate in rejection of waste large particle from lophophore. Ciliary reversals of abfrontal surface of tentacles and mantle are first discovered in brachiopods. This facilitates the secretion of mucus, forming of pseudofeaces and emission them from mantle cavity. The results contribute to knowledges of lophophore function and evolution of tentacle organs in Bilateria.

A procedure was developed for purification and preparation of a transcriptional stalled complex of Escherichia coli RNA polymerase for investigation by cryo-electron microscopy. The elongation complex has been concentrated on an affine monolayer formed by lipids bound to Ni ions. Additionally, the excess free RNA polymerase and unproductive complexes were removed on a heparin resin. The use of affinity grids with an immobilized monolayer of lipids helps to prevent aggregation of the particles on the grid surface. This technique can be used in the future to obtain a three-dimensional reconstruction of the EC+39 elongation complex.

The effect of different organic compounds (glucose, fructose, ribose, glycine, alanine, pyruvate, acetate, citrate and yeast extract) as well as of the wastes of food production (molasses, stillage, sweet whey) on the growth of iron-oxidizing acidophilic microorganisms and biooxidation of ferrous iron was studied. Representatives of the microorganisms predominating in biohydrometallurgical processes: archaea of the family Ferroplasmaceae (Acidiplasma aeolicum V1T, A. cupricumulans BH2T, Acidiplasma sp. MBA-1, Ferroplasma acidiphilum B-1) and bacteria of the genus Sulfobacillus (S. thermosulfidooxidans SH 10-1, S. thermotolerans Kr1T) were the subjects of the study. All studied strains most actively grew and oxidized ferrous iron in the presence of yeast extract, which is probably due to the presence of the large number of different growth factors in its composition, while others substrates provided growth of microorganisms and ferrous iron oxidation.

The features of the phenol-degrading strain Pseudomonas aeruginosa 21SG, isolated from the soil of the Ufa (Republic of Bashkortostan) largest producer of synthetic tanning agents in Russia, are described. Identification of the strain was performed according to the cultural, morphological, physiological, biochemical, morphometric features, as well as the results of the comparative analysis of the 16S rRNA gene sequence. The growth of P. aeruginosa 21SG in the batch culture was studied. It was established that the phenol content was reduced to the 4th day by 84% from the control in the culture liquid. The possibility of using P. aeruginosa 21SG for phenol utilization in industrial wastewater of petrochemical production and production of tanning extracts has been revealed.

Using fluorescence microscopy of single particles with Förster resonance energy transfer recording, the structural rearrangements were studied that occurred in nucleosomes formed on the 603 DNA template at a high ionic strength. It is found that within the range of 0.7–1.3 M KCl, large-scale changes occur in the nucleosome structure that are accompanied by the formation of at least two states differing in the degree of DNA unwrapping from the histone octamer and affecting from 13 to 35 and more pairs of nucleotides. A fraction of nucleosomes with modified structure varies from 60% at 0.7 M KCl to 100% at 1.3 M KCl. Preservation of the association between core histones and DNA in the new conformational states ensures reversibility of structural changes when KCl concentration is reduced to a physiological level. Reversibility is ~100% after the transition from 0.7 M to 0.15 KCl and decreases to ~50% after the transition from 1.3 M to 0.15 KCl.

Integrated effect of high temperature, insolation and anthropogenic pollution on pigment content, net oxygen production and dark respiration rates of Hibiscus syriacus L. is described in the paper. There were three observation sites under the study: Tashkent Botanical Garden, public garden in central part of Tashkent city and mountain holiday camp. High adaptive potential of H. syriacus L. was revealed; it is recognized as well adapted to environmental stress factors of arid and semiarid zone under good irrigation. Ecological plasticity of photosynthetic apparatus of hibiscus plays key role in the adaptation. It was revealed, that plants under the shade (in Tashkent Botanical Garden) had long, wide and thin leaves, recognized as manifestation of sciomorphosis. Heliomorphosis features of hibiscus’ leaves were identified in mountains under the high solar irradiation; there were thickened and compacted leaves of small sizes. Such leaf structure modifications have adaptive significance – it is for strengthening of photosynthetic capacity to compensate deficiency in sun light (in case of sciomorphosis); and on the contrary, – it is for shading of sensitive to redundant solar radiation photosynthetic elements to protect from oxidative damages (in case of heliomorphosis). Thus, the plant needs in carbon dioxide assimilation and organic matter production for maintenance of constant energy balance under different stress environment are provided. It was revealed that unfavorable (extreme) environment improved the resistance of dark respiration and net production of oxygen to temperature injuries (the worse environment, the higher plant resistance to temperature injuries). Besides, the higher resistance was detected for mature age leaves of H. syriacus in comparison with young ones. Thus, plants adapt to probable temperature drops gradually during their ontogenesis. Net oxygen production rate of H. syriacus (measured at optimal conditions – +27°C and 635–650 nm) was of the same level in different sites under the study during all the time of active vegetation; it was about 0,20±0,05 μmol О2/(dm2·s). It is considered as norm of reaction of net production (visible photosynthesis) rate of H. syriacus and as specific feature of its photosynthetic apparatus.

We studied the dependence of cytokinins accumulation in the shoot apexes of Arabidopsis plants on the delivery of these hormones from the roots. For the estimation of cytokinins content in the cells the method of immunohystochemical localization was used using antibodies against zeatin riboside. To prevent washing of cytokinins during the process of dehydration we used the method of differential conjugation of free cytokinins bases and their ribosides. Root cutting has been shown to weaken the immunostaining of zeatin in the cells of the shoot apical meristem thereby supporting the hypothesis about dependence of cytokinins accumulation in these cells on the hormone delivery from the roots. We detected a decline in the level of cytokinins in the cells of the shoot apex as affected by protonophor indicating important role of the process of secondary active transport through the cell membrane for the maintenance of cytokinins level in the cells of the shoot apex.

Pleurozium schreberi is one of the most common moss species in the forest area. It is the dominant in the forests of blueberry and Oxalis types. It can occur in small quantities in almost all types of forests, even in bogs. It is also a typical component of the moss layer in the tundra. The article deals with the spread of P. schreberi in the territory of the East European plain and Eastern Fennoscandia. On the basis of the literature sources on the occurrence of the species in different regions, according to point data, a model map of the species distribution using the kriging method was created. Overlaying the model map and the maps of spatial distribution of climatic parameters and the map of vegetation zones, the biogeographic preferences of the species were found out. P. schreberi is characterized by the greatest distribution in the Forest zone. Here its occurrence is high and it is phytocoenotical active species. The occurrence of P. schreberi decrease sharply in the transition from the Forest to Steppe zone. Here it is already a rare species, growing exclusively in pine and birch pegs. In the open Steppe this species disappears. Starting from the steppe zone and further to the South, the occurrence of P. schreberi decrease gradually, as the temperatures increase and decrease in precipitation, as well as forest extinction. In the North, where the species is highly active, its range abruptly ends on the coast of the Arctic Ocean. This distribution of P. schreberi is associated with both coenotic preferences and due to climate – it becomes rare in regions with summer temperatures above +23°C and rainfall of less than 400 mm per year.