Announcements

The Editorial Team of Toxins would like to congratulate the winner of the GT-Toxins Award, Katharina Sessler, at the 6th German Pharm-Tox Summit.

Here is the title and abstract of her work:

The Enzyme Subunit SubA of Shiga Toxin-Producing E. coli Strains Demonstrates Comparable Intracellular Transport and Cytotoxic Activity as the Holotoxin SubAB

1 University Ulm Medical Center, Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Ulm, Germany

2 University Ulm, Institute of Biophysics, Ulm, Germany

3 University of Hohenheim, Institute of Food Science and Biotechnology, Hohenheim, Germany

Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) strains are bacterial pathogens, which are mainly found in the gastrointestinal tract of farm and wildlife animals. The bacteria can be transmitted to humans via food and causes diarrheal and extraintestinal diseases. In addition to the Shiga toxin, some STEC strains also produce a second toxin, namely the subtilase cytotoxin (SubAB) [1]. SubAB belongs to the family of AB5 toxins, consisting of an enzymatically active A subunit (SubA) and separate B subunits (SubB), which mediate cell binding and uptake of SubAB. Inside the host cell, SubAB is transported via a retrograde pathway into the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), where it cleaves the glucose-regulated protein GRP78. SubAB-induced GRP78 cleavage activates a cellular stress response eventually resulting in cell death [1]. We previously demonstrated that SubA, without SubB, binds and intoxicates HeLa cells [2], whereas the cellular and molecular mechanisms behind this remained unclear. In the present study, we found that even in the absence of SubB, SubA is internalized into cells, reaches the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and cleaves the chaperone GRP78. Furthermore, SubA-induced GRP78 cleavage in cells is prevented by the pre-treatment of cells with brefeldin A (BFA), which inhibits the transport of protein toxins into the ER. Obviously, SubA contains a yet undescribed ER localization signal, predicted by the software scanProsite™ as a SEEL motif at the C-terminus. Hence, a SubA mutant, lacking the SEEL motif (SubA_ΔC344), was generated, which exhibited no cytotoxicity alone, but only together with SubB, when tested on HeLa and HCT116 cells. Fluorescence microscopy revealed that SubA_ΔC344 is generally taken up into cells, but further investigations regarding substrate cleavage have shown that SubAΔC344-induced GRP78 cleavage was delayed when compared to wildtype SubA. We therefore assume that the SEEL motif plays a crucial role in guiding SubA into the ER [3]. Furthermore, we confirmed our findings in the human intestinal mini-gut organoid system. Our results not only contribute to a better understanding of the mode of action of the subtilase cytotoxin, but also raise the question whether a B component-independent cytotoxic effect of the A component is also true for other bacterial AB5 toxins.

1. Paton AW et al. (2010), Toxins (Basel) 2(2):215–228.
2. Funk J et al. (2015), Infect Immun 83(6):2338–2349.
3. Sessler K et al. (2021); Arch. Toxicol. (in press)

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We used an advanced machine learning model to better capture the semantic meanings of words. This helps the algorithm make better predictions by leveraging scientific text representation. In turn, this ensures high precision, helping authors decide which journal they should submit their paper to.

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We are pleased to announce the winners of the Toxins 2020 Outstanding Reviewer Award. The Toxins Editorial Board and Editorial Team would like to gratefully acknowledge the time and energy dedicated by reviewers to checking the manuscripts submitted to Toxins. It is due to their efforts that the high quality of the journal and quick turnaround is maintained.

The following awardees have been selected by the Editor-in-Chief of Toxins, Prof. Dr. Jay W. Fox. Each of them will receive a customized gift and a certificate to recognize their outstanding work:

Dr. Kirill S. Antonets

Affiliation: Laboratory for Proteomics of Supra-Organismal Systems, All-Russia Research Institute for Agricultural Microbiology (ARRIAM), Saint Petersburg, Russia.

Faculty of Biology, St. Petersburg State University (SPbSU), Saint Petersburg, Russia.

Research Interests: bioinformatics; structural biology; bacterial genomics; transcriptomics; molecular biology of host–pathogen interactions

"I would like to thank the Toxins Editorial Board for this Award and for their efforts in providing fast, convenient and transparent processing of manuscripts and reviews."

Dr. Alberto Rico-Yuste

Affiliation: Department of Analytical Chemistry, Complutense University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain.

Research Interests: molecular imprinted polymers; optical chemosensors; food analysis; mycotoxins; spectroscopy; fluorescence

“First of all, I would like to thank the committee for considering me worthy of this award. I consider that reviewing articles is an important part of scientific work.At the same time that it helps to improve the quality of the journals and of the articles that appear in them, it allows to increase the critical capacity of the reviewer. In addition, it is a way to learn and broaden one's knowledge. The publication of an article is the result of a lot of work and I believe that it is everyone's job that their contribution to the scientific society has more weight. That is why I must also thank my mentors for instilling in me the importance of carrying out this type of review with great professionalism and thoroughness.”

For more information about Toxins awards, please see the following link: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/toxins/awards.

It is our pleasure to welcome the following 3 recognized researchers, who recently joined the Editorial Board of Toxins:

Prof. Dr. Aibo Wu
CAS Key Laboratory of Nutrition, Metabolism and Food Safety, Shanghai Institute of Nutrition and Health, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Interests: mycotoxins; microbial molecular biology; fungal biology; molecular microbiology

Prof. Dr. Michael Richardson
Institute of Biology Leiden, Leiden University
Interests: evo-devo; reptiles; evolution; chick embryo

Prof. Dr. Yukako Fujinaga
Department of Bacteriology, Kanazawa University
Interests: Clostridium botulinum; botulinum toxin; clostridial neurotoxins

We look forward to their contributions to the journal.

MDPI is proud to adopt the principles of the Coalition for Diversity & Inclusion in Scholarly Communications (C4DISC) to support building equity, inclusion, diversity, and accessibility in scholarly communications.

The C4DISC represents organizations and individuals working in scholarly communications and is focused on addressing issues of diversity and inclusion within the publishing industry.

MDPI’s Managing Editors encourage the Editors-in-Chief and Associate Editors to appoint diverse expert Editorial Boards. This is also reflective in our multi-national and inclusive workplace. We are proud to create equal opportunities without regard to gender, ethnicity, geographic location, sexual orientation, age, disability, political beliefs, religion, or socio-economic status. There is no place for discrimination in our workplace and editors of MDPI journals are to uphold these principles in high regard.

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At MDPI we have slightly revised the layout for articles to be published in the 2021 Volume, starting at the end of December 2020. As of today, the article templates available for download on ‘Instructions for Authors’ pages have been updated.

The most noticeable change can be found on the first page of the article, where a left-hand column has been created to include the following front matter elements: (i) the recommended citation style for the article, (ii) the publishing history, (iii) as well as the Creative Commons Attribution license used (iv) a standard note regarding affiliations. At the same time, the extra spacing on the left means the authors’ affiliations are now more clearly set apart than before. Other front matter key elements such as journal logo, article type, article title, authors, abstract and keywords remain unchanged.

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We are pleased to acknowledge that many academic editors who have made an impact on MDPI journals as editorial board members, editors-in-chief, or section editors, are recognized as 2020 Highly Cited Researchers by Clarivate.

Highly Cited Researchers highlights the top 1% of researchers, by citations, in one or more of the 22 fields used in Clarivate Analytics Essential Science Indicators. We offer our congratulations to 279 academic editors of MDPI journals who were recognized as the most influential scholars in their fields in 2020.

The full list of 2020 Highly Cited Researchers  can be accessed on https://recognition.webofsciencegroup.com/awards/highly-cited/2020/

--- Highly Cited Researchers (HCR) is a Clarivate product.

In this webinar, we will present some examples of fungal phytotoxins that could be used as potential bioherbicides and of phytotoxins produced by pathogenic fungi of agrarian plants. Furthermore, the importance of the absolute configuration assignment and the main methodology used for its determination will be presented as well as some examples of their total synthesis.

Chair: Marco Masi

Date: 26th November 2020

Time: 1:00pm CET | 6:00am CST

Webinar ID: 984 7644 1392

Register for Free Here: https://sciforum.net/conference/Toxins-1

This webinar will project the SDGs of Agenda 2030 by presenting some examples of natural antioxidants present in food that can alleviate the effects of mycotoxins in vitro, the study of the increased presence of mycotoxins in wheat associated with climate change, and the results obtained in biomonitoring mycotoxins in children’s urine.

Date: 27 November 2020

Time: 9:00am CET | 2:00am CST | 4:00pm UTC+8

Chair: Ana Juan- García

Webinar ID: 886 5296 8196

Register for Free Here: https://sciforum.net/conference/Toxins-2

For any questions about the webinar, please send an email to toxins.webinar@mdpi.com

We welcome the following 7 recognized researchers, who recently joined the Editorial Board of Toxins:

Dr. Shinichiro Kurosawa, Boston University School of Medicine, USA

Prof. Dr. Somshuvra Mukhopadhyay, The University of Texas at Austin, USA

Prof. Dr. Philippe Guerre, Université de Toulouse, France

Prof. Dr. Ketan Patel, University of Reading, United Kingdom

Prof. Dr. Ketan Patel, University of Reading, United Kingdom

Dr. Thérèse Malliavin, Institut Pasteur and CNRS UMR 3528, Unité de Bioinformatique Structurale, France

Dr. Félix Núñez, Universidad de Extremadura, Unité de Bioinformatique Structurale, Spain

We look forward to their contributions to the journal.

Toxins Editorial Office

We are delighted to announce the establishment of our Open Access agreement with Jisc Collections, which will allow UK institutions to benefit from access to article processing charge (APC) discounts and streamlined payment workflows.

All institutions participating in the agreement will also gain access to the MDPI online submission system where they can find full article metadata and pricing information for easy identification and additional transparency.

Eligible authors affiliated with the participating institutions are prompted to choose the corresponding Institutional Open Access Program (IOAP) when they submit an article via our online submission system.

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For more information, contact helen.dobson@jisc.ac.uk.

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