Mandibular growth and function in Archaeolemur

Ontogenetic changes in the morphology of the mandibular symphysis are described in Archaeolemur so as to infer the functional significance of symphyseal fusion in this subfossil Malagasy lemur. The first regions of the symphysis to show a more complex morphology were the lower and anterior borders of the joint and, to a lesser extent, the lingual borders of the superior and inferior transverse tori. During growth, these regions became increasingly rugose and encroached upon a centrally located, smooth, “oval” region, which may have been a principal pathway for neurovascular structures communicating with the unfused joint. In subadults, the symphysis was completely fused except for the lingual surface of the inferior transverse torus, where a patent suture and potential space were present between dentaries. Thus, in Archaeolemur there was an age- and size-related pattern of increased symphyseal ossification or fusion that was complete by adulthood. The morphology of the interlocking bony processes and the sequence of ossification in the symphysis suggest that increased dorsoventral shear stress during mastication was the most likely determinant of symphyseal fusion in Archaeolemur: The allometric pattern of greater symphyseal fusion may be linked to the presence of relatively greater dorsoventral shear in adults due to an increased recruitment of balancing-side jaw-muscle force. There is little indication that the symphysis of juvenile Archaeolemur was buttressed to resist forces associated with “wishboning” during mastication or vertical bending during incision. Our observations, as well as those of others, suggest that symphyseal fusion in primates occurs initially as a response to increased dorsoventral shear during mastication. Therefore, wishboning stress might only become a major determinant of symphyseal form and function in those taxa that develop a fused symphysis to counter increased dorsoventral shear. © 1994 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

Pollination of Ravenala madagascariensis (Strelitziaceae) by lemurs in Madagascar: evidence for an archaic coevolutionary system?

Investigations of the floral biology of the traveler's tree (Ravenala madagascariensis) and the ecology of the ruffed lemur (Varecia variegata), both endemic to the island of Madagascar, suggest a plant-pollinator relationship. Ravenala exhibits many specializations for visitation by large nonflying animals: inflorescences placed below the crown of the plant and easily accessible to arboreal animals; large flowers enclosed in tough, protective bracts that require a strong pollinator to open; stiff, rodlike styles that withstand the rough handling of the visitors; and copious, sucrose-dominant nectar that provides a renewable reward for a sizable animal for a long time period. Our observations in the field also show that Varecia variegata: consistently and almost exclusively visit the flowers of Ravenala; carry pollen on their fur between flowers on the same plant and between conspecific plants; do not destroy the flowers while obtaining the nectar; and appear to be highly dependent on nectar as a food source during specific times of the year. The basal phylogenetic position of Ravenala in the family Strelitziaceae, as indicated by molecular sequence data, and the distribution of reproductive traits in the three extant genera are consistent with the hypothesis that pollination by nonflying mammals is an archaic system, whereas bird and bat pollination are derived.     

Correlation approach to identify coding regions in DNA sequences.

Recently, it was observed that noncoding regions of DNA sequences possess long-range power-law correlations, whereas coding regions typically display only short-range correlations. We develop an algorithm based on this finding that enables investigators to perform a statistical analysis on long DNA sequences to locate possible coding regions. The algorithm is particularly successful in predicting the location of lengthy coding regions. For example, for the complete genome of yeast chromosome III (315,344 nucleotides), at least 82% of the predictions correspond to putative coding regions; the algorithm correctly identified all coding regions larger than 3000 nucleotides, 92% of coding regions between 2000 and 3000 nucleotides long, and 79% of coding regions between 1000 and 2000 nucleotides. The predictive ability of this new algorithm supports the claim that there is a fundamental difference in the correlation property between coding and noncoding sequences. This algorithm, which is not species-dependent, can be implemented with other techniques for rapidly and accurately locating relatively long coding regions in genomic sequences.     

Fossil primates and the evolution of some primate locomotor systems

Of Paleocene primates only Plesiadapis is complete enough to reconstruct locomotor patterns; it was an arboreal scrambler, perhaps functioning like a large squirrel. Eocene lemurs (adapids) show an array of locomotor types much like certain modern Malagasy lemurs. The European Eocene tarsiid Necrolemur and the American Hemiacodon show the beginning of saltatory specializations in possession of elongated calcaneum and astragalus. Although not a direct anthropoid ancestor Necrolemur seems one of the best models for representing the early locomotor type from which higher primates arose. The Oligocene primates of Egypt (among which are the earliest undoubted pongids) are preserved with a forest fauna. Structures of long bones suggest they were arboreal. A considerable number of Miocene ape bones are known and those of Pliopithecus and Dryopithecus indicate similar adaptations. Of African Miocene forms, Dryopithecus major was a large, gorilla-sized animal, and hence perhaps primarily terrestrial. D. africanus was somewhat more arboreally adapted and a partial brachiator. The Italian fossil Oreopithecus, a coal-swamp dweller, shows indications of bipedality in pelvic structure. Ramapithecus, which is presumably ancestral to Australopithecus, shows palatal and facial patterns much like these later hominids, and probably hence had locomotor patterns more like men than like living apes; its lack of the dental specializations of apes strongly supports this suggestion.     

Changes in the formation of the lignified cell wall within a twenty-four hour period

Biologia Plantarum - The purpose of this paper is to determine the sequence of the formation of the lignified cell wall and to confirm the hypothesis expressed previously on the alternate...     

Effect of Surface-Active Pseudomonas spp. on Leaf Wettability

Different strains of Pseudomonas putida and P. fluorescens isolated from the rhizosphere and phyllosphere were tested for surface activity in droplet cultures on polystyrene. Droplets of 6 of the 12 wild types tested spread over the surface during incubation, and these strains were considered surface active; strains not showing this reaction were considered non-surface active. Similar reactions were observed on pieces of wheat leaves. Supernatants from centrifuged broth cultures behaved like droplets of suspensions in broth; exposure to 100°C destroyed the activity. Average contact angles of the supernatants of surface-active and non-surface-active strains on polystyrene were 24° and 72°, respectively. The minimal surface tension of supernatants of the surface-active strains was about 46 mN/m, whereas that of the non-surface-active strains was 64 mN/m (estimations from Zisman plots). After 6 days of incubation, wheat flag leaves sprayed with a dilute suspension of a surface-active strain of P. putida (WCS 358RR) showed a significant increase in leaf wettability, which was determined by contact angle measurements. Increasing the initial concentration of bacteria and the amount of nutrients in the inoculum sprayed on leaves reduced the contact angles from 138° on leaves treated with antibiotics (control) to 43° on leaves treated with surface-active bacteria. A closely related strain with no surface activity on polystyrene did not affect leaf wettability, although it was present in densities similar to those of the surface-active strain. Nutrients alone could occasionally also increase leaf wettability, apparently by stimulating naturally occurring surface-active bacteria. When estimating densities of Pseudomonas spp. underneath droplets with low contact angles, it appeared that populations on leaves treated with a surface-active strain could vary from about 10⁴ to 10⁶ CFU cm⁻², suggesting that the surface effect may be prolonged after a decline of the population. The possible ecological implications are discussed.     

Identification of cysteine 656 as the amino acid of hepatoma tissue culture cell glucocorticoid receptors that is covalently labeled by dexamethasone 21-mesylate

Recent results using proteases suggest that dexamethasone 21-mesylate (Dex-Mes) labeling of the rat hepatoma tissue culture (HTC) cell glucocorticoid receptor occurs at one or a few closely grouped cysteine residues (Simons, S.S., Jr. (1987) J. Biol. Chem. 262, 9669-9675). In this study, a more direct approach was used both to establish that only one cysteine is labeled by [3H]Dex-Mes and to identify the amino acid sequence containing this labeled cysteine. Various analytical procedures did not provide the purification of the extremely hydrophobic Staphylococcus aureus V8 protease digestion fragment that is required for unique amino acid sequencing data. Therefore, Edman degradation was performed on the limit protease digest mixtures which appeared to contain only one 3H-labeled peptide. These degradation experiments revealed the number of amino acid residues between the NH2 terminus of each peptide and the [3H]Dex-Mes-labeled cysteine. A comparison of these amino acid spacings with the published amino acid sequence of the HTC cell glucocorticoid receptor (Miesfeld, R., Rusconi, S., Godowski, P. J., Maler, B. A., Okret, S., Wikstom, A-C., Gustafsson, J-A., and Yamamoto, K. R. (1986) Cell 46, 389-399) indicated that the one cysteine labeled by [3H]Dex-Mes is Cys-656. Further analysis of the receptor sequence for the presence of the observed grouping of proteolytic cleavage sites, but without any preconditions as to which amino acid was labeled, gave Asp-122 and Cys-656 as the only two possibilities. Potential labeling of Asp-122 could be eliminated on the basis of immunological and genetic evidence. We, therefore, conclude that the single Dex-Mes-labeled site of the HTC cell glucocorticoid receptor has been identified as Cys-656. Since several lines of evidence indicate that [3H]Dex-Mes labeling of the receptor occurs in the steroid binding site, Cys-656 is the first amino acid which can be directly associated with a particular property of the glucocorticoid receptor.     

Mutagen-sensitive cell lines are obtained with a high frequency in V79 Chinese hamster cells

A replica-plating technique has been adopted for the isolation of mutagen-sensitive mutants of Chinese hamster V79 and CHO cell lines. After the mutagenic treatment (ENU) clones derived from these cell lines were replica plated into micro wells and replicas were treated with UV (254 nm), X-ray, MMC, EMC or MMS. Clonal cell lines which demonstrated mutagen sensitivity were retested by the determination of survival. Only one UV-sensitive line was obtained in 1500 clonal lines derived from CHO cells. This mutant appeared also sensitive to 4NQO and MMC. The sensitivity to UV and MMC was 2-3-fold enhanced, while the increase in sensitivity to 4NQO was 4-5-fold. In V79 cells 9 mutagen-sensitive lines were found after screening of 500 clonal lines; six of them showed increased sensitivity towards UV, two towards MMC, and one cell line was found to be X-ray sensitive. A considerable cross-sensitivity for the various agents was found among the isolated mutants. When a 2-fold increase is taken as a minimum to indicate mutagen sensitivity 6 mutants were sensitive to UV, 8 mutants were sensitive to MMC, 6 mutants were sensitive to 4NQO and 4 mutants were sensitive to X-rays. The difference in sensitivity to UV versus 4NQO makes it unlikely that 4NQO can be considered as a UV-mimetic agent. The sensitivity to MMC appears to fall into 2 classes: a class with moderate sensitivity (2-8-fold) and a class with high sensitivity (30-100-fold). The presence of similar classes is indicated for UV. Except for the two lines V-E5, V-B7 and the two lines V-H11, V-H4 all obtained mutants have a different spectrum of mutagen sensitivities which suggests that different genetic alterations underly these effects. The observed high frequency of mutagen-sensitive mutants in V79 cells, although unexpected and substantially higher than those published for CHO cells and L5178Y cells, can still be explained by the presence of functionally hemizygous loci.     

Thioredoxin and NADP-thioredoxin reductase from cultured carrot cells

Dark-grown carrot (Daucus carota L.) tissue cultures were found to contain both protein components of the NADP/thioredoxin system—NADP—thioredoxin reductase and the thioredoxin characteristic of heterotrophic systems, thioredoxin h. Thioredoxin h was purified to apparent homogeneity and, like typical bacterial counterparts, was a 12-kdalton (kDa) acidic protein capable of activating chloroplast NADP-malate dehydrogenase (EC 1.1.1.82) more effectively than fructose-1,6-bisphosphatase (EC 3.1.3.11). NADP-thioredoxin reductase (EC 1.6.4.5) was partially purified and found to be an arsenite-sensitive enzyme composed of two 34-kDa subunits. Carrot NADP-thioredoxin reductase resembled more closely its counterpart from bacteria rather than animal cells in acceptor (thioredoxin) specificity. Upon greening of the cells, the content of NADP-thioredoxin-reductase activity, and, to a lesser extent, thioredoxin h decreased. The results confirm the presence of a heterotrophic-type thioredoxin system in plant cells and raise the question of its physiological function.Abbreviations DTNB dithiolbis(2-nitrobenzoic acid) - FBPase fructose-1,6-bisphosphatase - FTR terredoxin-thioredoxin, reductase - NADP-MDH NADP-malate dehydrogenase - NTR NADP-thioredoxin reductase - SDS sodium-dodecyl sulfate