草莓毛管蚜性外激素腺体的形态及组织观察

本文通过对草莓毛管蚜Chaetosiphon fragaefolii(Cockerell)性外激素腺体外部形态的扫描电镜观察,对腺体的外形、大小、位置、数目作了描述;通过对腺体组织不同发育时期的电镜观察,揭示了该虫性外激素腺体的形成期、释放性外激素期和衰老期等不同发育阶段的变化过程.     

康定虫草主要寄主斜脉蝠蛾的研究

冬虫夏草是一味名贵的中药材.四川康定虫草的主要寄主斜脉蝠蛾翅面色斑多变异,可区分成“黑白斑”和“黄毛斑”两大色斑型.经交配试验和成虫形态特征(触角、口器、翅脉、前足、雌雄外生殖器和鳞片的超微结构等)的观察,证明为同一种,经鉴定是斜脉蝠蛾(Hepialus oblifurcus Chu et Wang)^**.     

柴达木盆地荒漠土壤蓝藻群落的初步研究

本文分析了柴达木盆地东部和中部具有代表性地区的丘陵、戈壁和沙丘的蓝藻种类组成、生物量及主要的土壤化学成分;采用了模糊聚类、系统聚类及多元线性回归等方法分析藻类的群落及其与环境因子的关系。共鉴定出21种蓝藻,其中6种为国内首次报道。研究表明:土壤含磷量、总盐量及与粘性和湿度有关的土壤结构是决定柴达木盆地蓝藻群落组成的重要因素。     

鹅掌楸种子和胚胎发育的研究

应用控制授粉、软 X-射线法、常规石蜡制片法和荧光检测等手段,研究了鹅掌楸(Lirio-dendron chinense(Hemsl.)Sarg.胚胎发育和控制授粉与结籽率的相关性。控制授粉后2小时花粉萌发,6小时萌发率最高,柱头可授期持续30小时左右。花粉管借助于柱头毛之间的分泌物进入柱头沟,经花柱沟、珠孔塞和珠心冠原进入胚囊,行珠孔受精。授粉后2周,胚乳为2至3细胞厚的狭组织;第6周,胚乳充满胚囊腔,珠心随之解体殆尽;第7到8周,球形胚、心形胚发生;第14到16周,子叶形成;第22周种子或熟,胚乳丰富。单株自然授粉结籽率不足1%。控制授粉后,单个聚合果的最高结籽率可达39%,9个聚合果的平均结籽率为17.7%。     

Isolation and culture of protoplasts of pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan L.)

Summary High yields of protoplasts were obtained from leaves of aseptically grown plants and calli originated from different explants, in several cultivars of Cajanus cajan L. The protoplasts divided to form cell clusters in modified KM 8p medium and developed to protocolonies after dilution with liquid Caboche's medium within three to four weeks of culture. The protocolonies proliferated to form green calli on solid Caboche's medium. No shoots or plants were obtained.Abbreviations BAP 6-benzylaminopurine - NAA -napthaleneacetic acid - 2,4-D 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid - Kin kinetin - Zea zeatin - Adn S adenine sulphate - GA ₃ gibberellic acid     

Effect of TSH in human thyroid cells: evidence for both mitogenic and antimitogenic effects.

The well-known mitogenic effects of TSH observed in vivo on the thyroid are not always reproducible of human thyroid cells in vitro where conflicting results have been obtained. In order to clarify this issue, we have used primary cultures of human thyroid cells obtained from normal tissue and maintained in serum-free medium for several days. In this in vitro model we have studied the effect of TSH on growth by measuring three different parameters: [3H]-thymidine incorporation, cell counts, and DNA measurement. Monolayer cultures were plated at both low and high cell density (2 x 10(4) and 8 x 10(4) cells/25 mm well, respectively). Although at either cell density cultures were equally able to functionally respond to TSH in terms of cAMP accumulation a significant growth response to TSH was observed only in low density cultures. In high density cultures TSH had an antimitogenic effect. Moreover, TSH potentiated the mitogenic effect of insulin only in low density cultures. In contrast to TSH, FCS induced a similar proliferative response at both high and low cell density. Following TSH stimulation, cAMP content was always increased, paralleling the effect of growth in low density but not in high density cultures. The cAMP analogues dibutyryl-cAMP and 8-bromo-cAMP, as well as cholera toxin and forskolin, did not mimic the mitogenic effect of TSH but had an antiproliferative effect. In addition, these agents blunted the proliferative effect of insulin. These data suggest that in thyroid cells TSH is able to elicit both a mitogenic and an antimitogenic effect depending on the environmental conditions such as cell density.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)     

Replacement of lysine-181 by aspartic acid in the third transmembrane region of endothelin type B receptor reduces its affinity to endothelin peptides and sarafotoxin 6c without affecting G protein coupling.

A conserved aspartic acid residue in the third transmembrane region of many of the G protein-coupled receptors has been shown to play a role in ligand binding. In the case of endothelin receptors, however, a lysine residue replaces this conserved aspartic acid residue. To access the importance of this residue in ligand binding, we have replaced it with an aspartic acid in the rat endothelin type B (ETb) receptor by PCR mediated mutagenesis. The binding characteristics and functional properties of both the wild type and mutant receptors were determined in COS-7 cells transiently expressing the cloned receptor cDNAs. Using 125I-ET-1 as the radioactive peptide ligand in displacement binding studies, the wild type receptor displayed a typical non-isopeptide-selective binding profile with similar IC50 values (0.2-0.6 nM) for all three endothelin peptides (ET-1, ET-2, and ET-3) and sarafotoxin 6c (SRTX 6c). Interestingly, the mutant receptor showed an increase in IC50 values for ET-1 (5 nM), ET-2 (27 nM), and ET-3 (127 nM) but displayed a much larger increase in IC50 value for SRTX 6c (> 10 uM). The lysine mutant receptor still elicited full inositol phosphate (IP) turnover responses in the presence of saturating concentrations of endothelins (10 nM of ET-1, 100 nM of ET-2, or 1 uM of ET-3), indicating that the mutation (K181D) did not affect the coupling of mutant receptor to the appropriate G protein. These results demonstrate that lysine-181 on the receptor is important for binding ET peptides; however, it is required for binding the ETb selective agonist-SRTX 6c.     

A human histone H2B.1 variant gene, located on chromosome 1, utilizes alternative 3' end processing.

A variant human H2B histone gene (GL105), previously shown to encode a 2300 nt replication independent mRNA, has been cloned. We demonstrate this gene expresses alternative mRNAs regulated differentially during the HeLa S3 cell cycle. The H2B-Gl105 gene encodes both a 500 nt cell cycle dependent mRNA and a 2300 nt constitutively expressed mRNA. The 3' end of the cell cycle regulated mRNA terminates immediately following the region of hyphenated dyad symmetry typical of most histone mRNAs, whereas the constitutively expressed mRNA has a 1798 nt non-translated trailer that contains the same region of hyphenated dyad symmetry but is polyadenylated. The cap site for the H2B-GL105 mRNAs is located 42 nt upstream of the protein coding region. The H2B-GL105 histone gene was localized to chromosome region 1q21-1q23 by chromosomal in situ hybridization and by analysis of rodent-human somatic cell hybrids using an H2B-GL105 specific probe. The H2B-GL105 gene is paired with a functional H2A histone gene and this H2A/H2B gene pair is separated by a bidirectionally transcribed intergenic promoter region containing consensus TATA and CCAAT boxes and an OTF-1 element. These results demonstrate that cell cycle regulated and constitutively expressed histone mRNAs can be encoded by the same gene, and indicate that alternative 3' end processing may be an important mechanism for regulation of histone mRNA. Such control further increases the versatility by which cells can modulate the synthesis of replication-dependent as well as variant histone proteins during the cell cycle and at the onset of differentiation.     

Induction of an immune response through the idiotypic network with monoclonal anti-idiotype antibodies in the carcinoembryonic antigen system.

Anti-idiotype antibodies can mimic the conformational epitopes of the original antigen and act as antigen substitutes for vaccination and/or serological purposes. To investigate this possibility concerning the tumor marker carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), BALB/c mice were immunized with the previously described anti-CEA monoclonal antibody (MAb) 5.D11 (AB1). After cell fusion, 15 stable cloned cell lines secreting anti-Ids (AB2) were obtained. Selected MAbs gave various degrees of inhibition (up to 100%) of the binding of 125I-labeled CEA to MAb 5.D11. Absence of reactivity of anti-Id MAbs with normal mouse IgG was first demonstrated by the fact that anti-Id MAbs were not absorbed by passage through a mouse IgG column, and second because they bound specifically to non-reduced MAb 5.D11 on Western blots. Anti-5.D11 MAbs did not inhibit binding to CEA of MAb 10.B9, another anti-CEA antibody obtained in the same fusion as 5.D11, or that of several anti-CEA MAbs reported in an international workshop, with the exception of two other anti-CEA MAbs, both directed against the GOLD IV epitope. When applied to an Id-anti-Id competitive radioimmunoassay, a sensitivity of 2 ng/ml of CEA was obtained, which is sufficient for monitoring circulating CEA in carcinoma patients. To verify that the anti-Id MAbs have the potential to be used as CEA vaccines, syngeneic BALB/c mice were immunized with these MAbs (AB2). Sera from immunized mice were demonstrated to contain AB3 antibodies recognizing the original antigen, CEA, both in enzyme immunoassay and by immunoperoxidase staining of human colon carcinoma. These results open the perspective of vaccination against colorectal carcinoma through the use of anti-idiotype antibodies as antigen substitutes.