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At present, the known populations of Lycaena helle from Romania are found at a lower altitude than those from Western and Central Europe. Besides land-use changes, climate warming severely threatens this specie that prefer humid and cool habitats. Withdrawal to higher altitudes is also restricted by the species' low dispersal ability. Therefore, the future of the Romanian population is uncertain. While implementing a peatlands restoration project in the northeastern part of the country, we investigated the local invertebrate fauna around a bog woodland from Dornelor Depression (Suceava County). Here we found a mosaic of wet habitats sheltering a violet copper population. This population was mentioned long ago, representing the first recorded instance of this species in present-day Romania. The violet copper butterfly has not been spotted in the area since the initial record was published in 1897, and current literature only refers to it as historical data from the Dorna Depression. We describe the habitat occupied by this population, bring up to date the specie's distribution, and prompt for the designation of a special area of conservation for this European protected species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The p53 protein plays an essential role in regulating the cell cycle, thus acting as a tumor suppressor gene that prevents the occurrence of cancer, DNA repair and apoptosis. Mutations in TP53 gene may be a biomarker to chemotherapy response in advanced breast cancers, especially to tamoxifen. We investigated the TP53 gene, exons 4-9, using fresh tumor tissue samples, and we tried also to identify some particular ultrastructural aspects of the tissue. The study included 22 tumor tissues: all of them were invasive ductal ductal carcinomas, with various stages. Genomic DNA was extracted using QIAamp DNA Mini Kit, and DNA concentration and purity were evaluated using NanoDrop ND 1000. The samples were amplified by a PCR method and subsequently sequenced by the Sanger method using the 3500 Genetic Analyzer. Data analysis was performed with the Variant Reporter v2 software. In order to investigate ultrasonic transmission electron microscopy (TEM), small fragments (1-3 mm) of normal breast and tumor tissue were used. Results. TP53 somatic mutations had a rate of 27.3% (6/22); most mutations were of deletion type (66.67%), localized in exon 4 (c.213_214del2), exon 5 (c.398delT) and exon 7 (c.739_747delAACCGGAGG and c.731delG). The substitutions were detected in two cases (33.33%): a missense mutation in exon 5 (R175H; c.524G>A) and a nonsense mutation in exon 6 (pR213 * c.637C>T). Five polymorphic variations were identified; three in the coding regions of the gene (rs1042522-R72P, rs372397095- P82P in exon 4 and rs1800372-R213R in exon 5) and two in intron 6 (rs1625895 and rs17880604). The mutated alleles corresponding to the SNPs rs1042522 and rs1625895 were detected in all samples, both homozygous and heterozygous, while the remaining TP53 variants were detected only in a few samples. The electron microscopy analysis at the ultrastructural level showed interesting aspects: nnIn invasive ductal carcinomas, epithelial tumor cells frequently have intracellular micro-channels with a multitude of microvilloid extensions. nnMembrane vesicles (carrier proteins, lipids, microRNAs, DNA fragments etc.) that are released by some tumor cells at the stromal tumor interface can be observed. nnThe presence of telocytes was detected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]