Multiple molecular forms of glucagon and insulin in the kaluga sturgeon, Huso dauricus

Five molecular forms of glucagon and two molecular forms of insulin were characterized from the kaluga sturgeon. Substitutions occurred at two to thirteen internal amino acid residues among the five molecular forms of glucagons, indicating that these glucagons were encoded by five distinct genes. The amino acid sequences of two insulins from the kaluga sturgeon were identical to those of paddlefish insulin-II and Russian sturgeon insulin except that kaluga sturgeon insulin-I had an extension of five residues at the B-chain N-terminus. This is the first demonstration that more than two molecular forms of glucagon have been characterized from a single animal species.     

A Novel Imprinted Gene, HYMAI, Is Located within an Imprinted Domain on Human Chromosome 6 Containing ZAC

Transient neonatal diabetes mellitus (TNDM) is a rare disease characterized by intrauterine growth retardation, dehydration, and failure to thrive due to a lack of normal insulin secretion. This disease is associated with paternal uniparental disomy or paternal duplication of chromosome 6, suggesting that the causative gene(s) for TNDM is imprinted. Recently, Gardner et al. (1999, J. Med. Genet. 36: 192–196) proposed that a candidate gene for TNDM lies within chromosome 6q24.1–q24.3. To find human imprinted genes, we performed a database search for EST sequences that mapped to this region, followed by RT-PCR analysis using monochromosomal hybrid cells with a human chromosome 6 of defined parental origin. Here we report the identification of a novel imprinted gene, HYMAI. This gene exhibits differential DNA methylation between the two parental alleles at an adjacent CpG island and is expressed only from the paternal chromosome. A previously characterized imprinted gene, ZAC/LOT1, is located 70 kb downstream of HYMAI and is also expressed only from the paternal allele. In the pancreas, both genes are moderately expressed. HYMAI and ZAC/LOT1 are therefore candidate genes involved in TNDM. Furthermore, the human chromosome 6q24 region is syntenic to mouse chromosome 10 and represents a novel imprinted domain.     

Stimulation of the release of lysosomal and nonlysosomal granular enzymes from macrophages treated with monensin

Mouse peritoneal macrophages that had been treated with a monovalent carboxylic ionophore, monensin, selectively secreted lysosomal and nonlysosomal granular enzymes into the medium. When macrophages were incubated with 1 to 10 microM monensin, the release of beta-glucuronidase, beta-hexosaminidase and beta-galactosidase was stimulated time and does dependently. Neither the beta-glucosidase nor acid phosphatase, enzymes bound to the lysosomal membranes, however, were released by monensin. Neutral alpha-glucosidase, shown recently to be localized in nonlysosomal granules of macrophages (15), was released by monensin at concentrations lower than those required for lysosomal enzyme release. Increased release of lysosomal enzymes also took place in a manner similar to that seen with monensin-treated macrophages after treatment of macrophages with weak bases, chloroquine and ammonium chloride. Neutral alpha-glucosidase, however, was not released when chloroquine was present in concentrations that stimulated the release of lysosomal enzymes. The UDP-galactosyltransferase activity of the Golgi apparatus in the macrophages markedly decreased after treatment with low concentration of monensin.     

Rapid method for the diagnosis of partial adenine phosphoribosyltransferase deficiencies causing 2,8-dihydroxyadenine urolithiasis

Summary More than half of the Japanese patients with 2,8-dihydroxyadenine urolithiasis only partially lack adenine phosphoribosyltransferase (APRT), while all the Caucasian patients with the same disease completely lack the enzyme. APRT activities in healthy heterozygotes for the complete APRT deficiencies were at the same levels as the Japanese patients, and simple enzyme assay does not distinguish between these two conditions. We have previously shown, using viable T-cells, that the enzyme was non-functional in the cells from the Japanese patients although they contain considerable APRT activities in the cell extracts. In the present investigations, we devised a rapid method using erythrocytes for the diagnosis of partial APRT deficiencies accompanied by severe impairment in adenine metabolism causing 2,8-dihydroxyadenine lithiasis. Thus, erythrocytes from three different families with 2,8-dihydroxyadenine urolithiasis associated with partial APRT deficiencies incorporated only minimal amounts of radioactive adenine, while normal erythrocytes incorporated significant amounts. These data indicate that severe impairment in adenine metabolism is shown not only in viable T-cells but also in viable erythrocytes. The present procedures provide a rapid method suitable for routine clinical use for the diagnosis of partial APRT deficiencies causing 2,8-dihydroxyadenine lithiasis.     

Blue-fluorescent bovine alpha-crystallin

Blue-fluorescent alpha-crystallin has been isolated from bovine lenses by gel-filtration on Sephacryl S-200 Superfine. The blue fluorescence of this alpha-crystallin is characterized by fluorescence peaks at about 410 and 435 nm and two excitation peaks at about 350 and 370 nm. This finding suggests the existence of two different blue-fluorescences in bovine alpha-crystallin. Both low molecular weight alpha-crystallin and higher molecular weight alpha-crystallin exhibit similar blue fluorescence. With aging, in the nuclear region of bovine lenses, blue fluorescent low molecular weight alpha-crystallin shifts to non-covalently-linked higher molecular weight aggregates which are also blue-fluorescent.     

Genome-Wide Linkage-Disequilibrium Profiles from Single Individuals

Although the analysis of linkage disequilibrium (LD) plays a central role in many areas of population genetics, the sampling variance of LD is known to be very large with high sensitivity to numbers of nucleotide sites and individuals sampled. Here we show that a genome-wide analysis of the distribution of heterozygous sites within a single diploid genome can yield highly informative patterns of LD as a function of physical distance. The proposed statistic, the correlation of zygosity, is closely related to the conventional population-level measure of LD, but is agnostic with respect to allele frequencies and hence likely less prone to outlier artifacts. Application of the method to several vertebrate species leads to the conclusion that >80% of recombination events are typically resolved by gene-conversion-like processes unaccompanied by crossovers, with the average lengths of conversion patches being on the order of one to several kilobases in length. Thus, contrary to common assumptions, the recombination rate between sites does not scale linearly with distance, often even up to distances of 100 kb. In addition, the amount of LD between sites separated by <200 bp is uniformly much greater than can be explained by the conventional neutral model, possibly because of the nonindependent origin of mutations within this spatial scale. These results raise questions about the application of conventional population-genetic interpretations to LD on short spatial scales and also about the use of spatial patterns of LD to infer demographic histories.