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Now showing 1 - 10 of 25
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    Towards on-site testing of Phytophthora species
    (Cambridge : RSC Publ., 2014) Schwenkbier, Lydia; Pollok, Sibyll; König, Stephan; Urban, Matthias; Werres, Sabine; Cialla-May, Dana; Weber, Karina; Popp, Jürgen
    Rapid detection and accurate identification of plant pathogens in the field is an ongoing challenge. In this study, we report for the first time on the development of a helicase-dependent isothermal amplification (HDA) in combination with on-chip hybridization for the detection of selected Phytophthora species. The HDA approach allows efficient amplification of the yeast GTP-binding protein (Ypt1) target gene region at one constant temperature in a miniaturized heating device. The assay's specificity was determined by on-chip DNA hybridization and subsequent silver nanoparticle deposition. The silver deposits serve as stable endpoint signals that enable the visual as well as the electrical readout. Our promising results point to the direction of a near future on-site application of the combined techniques for a reliable detection of Phytophthora species.
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    Direct raman spectroscopic measurements of biological nitrogen fixation under natural conditions: An analytical approach for studying nitrogenase activity
    (Columbus, Ohio : American Chemical Society, 2016) Jochum, Tobias; Fastnacht, Agnes; Trumbore, Susan E.; Popp, Jürgen; Frosch, Torsten
    Biological N2 fixation is a major input of bioavailable nitrogen, which represents the most frequent factor limiting the agricultural production throughout the world. Especially, the symbiotic association between legumes and Rhizobium bacteria can provide substantial amounts of nitrogen (N) and reduce the need for industrial fertilizers. Despite its importance in the global N cycle, rates of biological nitrogen fixation have proven difficult to quantify. In this work, we propose and demonstrate a simple analytical approach to measure biological N2 fixation rates directly without a proxy or isotopic labeling. We determined a mean N2 fixation rate of 78 ± 5 μmol N2 (g dry weight nodule)-1 h-1 of a Medicago sativa-Rhizobium consortium by continuously analyzing the amount of atmospheric N2 in static environmental chambers with Raman gas spectroscopy. By simultaneously analyzing the CO2 uptake and photosynthetic plant activity, we think that a minimum CO2 mixing ratio might be needed for natural N2 fixation and only used the time interval above this minimum CO2 mixing ratio for N2 fixation rate calculations. The proposed approach relies only on noninvasive measurements of the gas phase and, given its simplicity, indicates the potential to estimate biological nitrogen fixation of legume symbioses not only in laboratory experiments. The same methods can presumably also be used to detect N2 fluxes by denitrification from ecosystems to the atmosphere. (Figure Presented).
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    Pseudo-HE images derived from CARS/TPEF/SHG multimodal imaging in combination with Raman-spectroscopy as a pathological screening tool
    (London : BioMed Central, 2016) Bocklitz, Thomas W.; Salah, Firas Subhi; Vogler, Nadine; Heuke, Sandro; Chernavskaia, Olga; Schmidt, Carsten; Waldner, Maximilian J.; Greten, Florian R.; Bräuer, Rolf; Schmitt, Michael; Stallmach, Andreas; Petersen, Iver; Popp, Jürgen
    Due to the steadily increasing number of cancer patients worldwide the early diagnosis and treatment of cancer is a major field of research. The diagnosis of cancer is mostly performed by an experienced pathologist via the visual inspection of histo-pathological stained tissue sections. To save valuable time, low quality cryosections are frequently analyzed with diagnostic accuracies that are below those of high quality embedded tissue sections. Thus, alternative means have to be found that enable for fast and accurate diagnosis as the basis of following clinical decision making.
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    Bioactive secondary metabolites with multiple activities from a fungal endophyte
    (Oxford : Wiley-Blackwell, 2016) Bogner, Catherine W.; Kamdem, Ramsay S.T.; Sichtermann, Gisela; Matthäus, Christian; Hölscher, Dirk; Popp, Jürgen; Proksch, Peter; Grundler, Florian M.W.; Schouten, Alexander
    In order to replace particularly biohazardous nematocides, there is a strong drive to finding natural product-based alternatives with the aim of containing nematode pests in agriculture. The metabolites produced by the fungal endophyte Fusarium oxysporum 162 when cultivated on rice media were isolated and their structures elucidated. Eleven compounds were obtained, of which six were isolated from a Fusarium spp. for the first time. The three most potent nematode-antagonistic compounds, 4-hydroxybenzoic acid, indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) and gibepyrone D had LC50 values of 104, 117 and 134 μg ml−1, respectively, after 72 h. IAA is a well-known phytohormone that plays a role in triggering plant resistance, thus suggesting a dual activity, either directly, by killing or compromising nematodes, or indirectly, by inducing defence mechanisms against pathogens (nematodes) in plants. Such compounds may serve as important leads in the development of novel, environmental friendly, nematocides.
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    Raman imaging of changes in the polysaccharides distribution in the cell wall during apple fruit development and senescence
    (Berlin ; Heidelberg : Springer, 2016) Szymańska-Chargot, Monika; Chylińska, Monika; Pieczywek, Piotr M.; Rösch, Petra; Schmitt, Michael; Popp, Jürgen; Zdunek, Artur
    Main conclusion Du ring on-tree ripening, the pectin distribution changed from polydispersed in cell wall to cumulated in cell wall corners. During apple storage, the pectin distribution returned to evenly dispersed along the cell wall. The plant cell wall influences the texture properties of fruit tissue for example apples become softer during ripening and postharvest storage. This softening process is believed to be mainly connected with changes in the cell wall composition due to polysaccharides undergoing an enzymatic degradation. These changes in polysaccharides are currently mainly investigated via chemical analysis or monoclonal labeling. Here, we propose the application of Raman microscopy for evaluating the changes in the polysaccharide distribution in the cell wall of apples during both ripening and postharvest storage. The apples were harvested 1 month and 2 weeks before optimal harvest date as well as at the optimal harvest date. The apples harvested at optimal harvest date were stored for 3 months. The Raman maps, as well as the chemical analysis were obtained for each harvest date and after 1, 2 and 3 months of storage, respectively. The analysis of the Raman maps showed that the pectins in the middle lamella and primary cell wall undergo a degradation. The changes in cellulose and hemicellulose were less pronounced. These findings were confirmed by the chemical analysis results. During development changes of pectins from a polydispersed form in the cell walls to a cumulated form in cell wall corners could be observed. In contrast after 3 months of apple storage we could observe an substantial pectin decrease. The obtained results demonstrate that Raman chemical imaging might be a very useful tool for a first identification of compositional changes in plant tissue during their development. The great advantage Raman microspectroscopy offers is the simultaneous localization and identification of polysaccharides within the cell wall and plant tissue.
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    Linear and non-linear optical imaging of cancer cells with silicon nanoparticles
    (Basel : Molecular Diversity Preservation International (MDPI), 2016) Tolstik, Elen; Osminkina, Liubov A.; Akimov, Denis; Gongalsky, Maksim B.; Kudryavtsev, Andrew A.; Timoshenko, Victor Yu.; Heintzmann, Rainer; Sivakov, Vladimir; Popp, Jürgen
    New approaches for visualisation of silicon nanoparticles (SiNPs) in cancer cells are realised by means of the linear and nonlinear optics in vitro. Aqueous colloidal solutions of SiNPs with sizes of about 10–40 nm obtained by ultrasound grinding of silicon nanowires were introduced into breast cancer cells (MCF-7 cell line). Further, the time-varying nanoparticles enclosed in cell structures were visualised by high-resolution structured illumination microscopy (HR-SIM) and micro-Raman spectroscopy. Additionally, the nonlinear optical methods of two-photon excited fluorescence (TPEF) and coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) with infrared laser excitation were applied to study the localisation of SiNPs in cells. Advantages of the nonlinear methods, such as rapid imaging, which prevents cells from overheating and larger penetration depth compared to the single-photon excited HR-SIM, are discussed. The obtained results reveal new perspectives of the multimodal visualisation and precise detection of the uptake of biodegradable non-toxic SiNPs by cancer cells and they are discussed in view of future applications for the optical diagnostics of cancer tumours.
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    Periodic array-based substrates for surface-enhanced infrared spectroscopy
    (Berlin : de Gruyter, 2017-7-29) Mayerhöfer, Thomas G.; Popp, Jürgen
    At the beginning of the 1980s, the first reports of surface-enhanced infrared spectroscopy (SEIRS) surfaced. Probably due to signal-enhancement factors of only 101 to 103, which are modest compared to those of surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS), SEIRS did not reach the same significance up to date. However, taking the compared to Raman scattering much larger cross-sections of infrared absorptions and the enhancement factors together, SEIRS reaches about the same sensitivity for molecular species on a surface in terms of the cross-sections as SERS and, due to the complementary nature of both techniques, can valuably augment information gained by SERS. For the first 20 years since its discovery, SEIRS relied completely on metal island films, fabricated by either vapor or electrochemical deposition. The resulting films showed a strong variance concerning their structure, which was essentially random. Therefore, the increase in the corresponding signal-enhancement factors of these structures stagnated in the last years. In the very same years, however, the development of periodic array-based substrates helped SEIRS to gather momentum. This development was supported by technological progress concerning electromagnetic field solvers, which help to understand plasmonic properties and allow targeted design. In addition, the strong progress concerning modern fabrication methods allowed to implement these designs into practice. The aim of this contribution is to critically review the development of these engineered surfaces for SEIRS, to compare the different approaches with regard to their performance where possible, and report further gain of knowledge around and in relation to these structures.
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    Nanoboomerang-based inverse metasurfaces - a promising path towards ultrathin photonic devices for transmission operation
    (College Park : American Institute of Physics, 2017) Zeisberger, Matthias; Schneidewind, Henrik; Hübner, Uwe; Popp, Jürgen; Schmidt, Markus A.
    Metasurfaces have revolutionized photonics due to their ability to shape phase fronts as requested and to tune beam directionality using nanoscale metallic or dielectric scatterers. Here we reveal inverse metasurfaces showing superior properties compared to their positive counterparts if transmission mode operation is considered. The key advantage of such slot-type metasurfaces is the strong reduction of light in the parallel-polarization state, making the crossed-polarization, being essential for metasurface operation, dominant and highly visible. In the experiment, we show an up to four times improvement in polarization extinction for the individual metasurface element geometry consisting of deep subwavelength nanoboomerangs with feature sizes of the order of 100 nm. As confirmed by simulations, strong plasmonic hybridization yields two spectrally separated plasmonic resonances, ultimately allowing for the desired phase and scattering engineering in transmission. Due to the design flexibility of inverse metasurfaces, a large number of highly integrated ultra-flat photonic elements can be envisioned, examples of which include monolithic lenses for telecommunications and spectroscopy, beam shaper or generator for particle trapping or acceleration or sophisticated polarization control for microscopy.
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    Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy of cell lysates mixed with silver nanoparticles for tumor classification
    (Frankfurt, M. : Beilstein-Institut zur Förderung der Chemischen Wissenschaften, 2017) Hassoun, Mohamed; Schie, Iwan W.; Tolstik, Tatiana; Stanca, Sarmiza E.; Krafft, Christoph; Popp, Jürgen
    The throughput of spontaneous Raman spectroscopy for cell identification applications is limited to the range of one cell per second because of the relatively low sensitivity. Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) is a widespread way to amplify the intensity of Raman signals by several orders of magnitude and, consequently, to improve the sensitivity and throughput. SERS protocols using immuno-functionalized nanoparticles turned out to be challenging for cell identification because they require complex preparation procedures. Here, a new SERS strategy is presented for cell classification using non-functionalized silver nanoparticles and potassium chloride to induce aggregation. To demonstrate the principle, cell lysates were prepared by ultrasonication that disrupts the cell membrane and enables interaction of released cellular biomolecules to nanoparticles. This approach was applied to distinguish four cell lines – Capan-1, HepG2, Sk-Hep1 and MCF-7 – using SERS at 785 nm excitation. Six independent batches were prepared per cell line to check the reproducibility. Principal component analysis was applied for data reduction and assessment of spectral variations that were assigned to proteins, nucleotides and carbohydrates. Four principal components were selected as input for classification models based on support vector machines. Leave-three-batches-out cross validation recognized four cell lines with sensitivities, specificities and accuracies above 96%. We conclude that this reproducible and specific SERS approach offers prospects for cell identification using easily preparable silver nanoparticles.
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    A manual and an automatic TERS based virus discrimination
    (Cambridge : RSC Publ., 2015) Olschewski, Konstanze; Kämmer, Evelyn; Stöckel, Stephan; Bocklitz, Thomas; Deckert-Gaudig, Tanja; Zell, Roland; Cialla-May, Dana; Weber, Karina; Deckert, Volker; Popp, Jürgen
    Rapid techniques for virus identification are more relevant today than ever. Conventional virus detection and identification strategies generally rest upon various microbiological methods and genomic approaches, which are not suited for the analysis of single virus particles. In contrast, the highly sensitive spectroscopic technique tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (TERS) allows the characterisation of biological nano-structures like virions on a single-particle level. In this study, the feasibility of TERS in combination with chemometrics to discriminate two pathogenic viruses, Varicella-zoster virus (VZV) and Porcine teschovirus (PTV), was investigated. In a first step, chemometric methods transformed the spectral data in such a way that a rapid visual discrimination of the two examined viruses was enabled. In a further step, these methods were utilised to perform an automatic quality rating of the measured spectra. Spectra that passed this test were eventually used to calculate a classification model, through which a successful discrimination of the two viral species based on TERS spectra of single virus particles was also realised with a classification accuracy of 91%.