The effect of ultrasound on genetic instability in diploids ofAspergillus nidulans

Ultrasonication at 20 kHz and intensity of 59 W/cm2 of a diploid strain of Aspergillus nidulans was ound to lead to a significant increase in haploidization of germinating conidiospores. In a preliminary study ultrasound was found not to have an effect on the rate of reverse mutation in conidiospore suspensions of auxotrophic mutants.     

Evaluation of the bacterial diversity among and within individual venous leg ulcers using bacterial tag-encoded FLX and Titanium amplicon pyrosequencing and metagenomic approaches

Background  

Approximately 1 out of every 100 individuals has some form of venous insufficiency, which can lead to chronic venous disease and Venous Leg Ulcer (VLU). There are known underlying pathologies which contribute to the chronic nature of VLU including biofilm phenotype infections.     

Threats to observers,keepers, visitors,and others by zoo mangabeys (Cercocebus galeritus chrysogaster)

The facial threats of ten captive golden-bellied mangabeys (Cercocebus galeritus chrysogaster) were categorized by object threatened. Adult males threatened more than did females except when the object was a nonhuman primate in a neighboring cage. Juvenile mangabeys threatened mainly in play within their own enclosures. Keepers and observers did not differ in frequency of being threatened by the mangabeys. Adult female mangabeys seemed more concerned with neighboring cages of nonhuman primates than were the juveniles and the males. Human visitors to the enclosures received by far the most threats of any targets, certainly far more than the observers and keepers. They were treated like interlopers. Keepers were treated like familiar conspecifics, observers like familiar neighbors. The implications of these findings for captive management of primates and for observational methods in behavioral primatology are discussed.     

Control of steroidogenesis in small and large bovine luteal cells

Evidence was cited to show that: (1) prostacyclin (PGI2) plays a luteotrophic role in the bovine corpus luteum and that products of the lipoxygenase pathway of arachidonic acid metabolism, especially 5-hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acid play luteolytic roles; (2) oxytocin of luteal cell origin plays a role in development, and possibly in regression, of the bovine corpus luteum; and (3) luteal cells arise from two sources; the characteristic small luteal cells at all stages of the oestrous cycle and pregnancy are of theca cell origin; the large cells are of granulosa cell origin early in the cycle, but a population of theca-derived large cells appears later in the cycle. Results of in vitro studies with total dispersed cells and essentially pure preparations of large and small luteal cells indicate that: (1) the recently described Ca2+-polyphosphoinositol-protein kinase C second messenger system is involved in progesterone synthesis in the bovine corpus luteum; (2) activation of protein kinase C is stimulatory to progesterone synthesis in the small luteal cells; (3) activation of protein kinase C has no effect on progesterone synthesis in the large luteal cells; and (4) protein kinase C exerts its luteotrophic effect in total cell preparations, in part at least, by stimulating the production of prostacyclin. The protein kinase C system may cause down regulation of LH receptors in the large cells.     

Vitamin B12: Catalyst for a nonenzymic carbon-skeleton model rearrangement

Reaction of a limited amount (0.11 mmol) of vitamin B_12a (hydroxocobalamin) with sodium borohydride (3.96 mmol) and the thioethyl ester of bromomethylmethylmalonate I (0.52 mmol) yields the carbon-skeleton rearranged thioethyl ester of methylsuccinate III (0.14 mmol) together with the unrearranged thioethyl ester of dimethylmalonate IV (0.087 mmol). The yield, based on the amount of vitamin B_12a used, of the carbon-skeleton rearrangement product III is 131% (average of six runs). This is the first coenzyme B₁₂ rearrangement model system sufficiently facile to function in a catalytic fashion.