Efficient use and recycling of the micronutrient iodide in mammals

Daily ingestion of iodide alone is not adequate to sustain production of the thyroid hormones, tri- and tetraiodothyronine. Proper maintenance of iodide in vivo also requires its active transport into the thyroid and its salvage from mono- and diiodotyrosine that are formed in excess during hormone biosynthesis. The enzyme iodotyrosine deiodinase responsible for this salvage is unusual in its ability to catalyze a reductive dehalogenation reaction dependent on a flavin cofactor, FMN. Initial characterization of this enzyme was limited by its membrane association, difficult purification and poor stability. The deiodinase became amenable to detailed analysis only after identification and heterologous expression of its gene. Site-directed mutagenesis recently demonstrated that cysteine residues are not necessary for enzymatic activity in contrast to precedence set by other reductive dehalogenases. Truncation of the N-terminal membrane anchor of the deiodinase has provided a soluble and stable source of enzyme sufficient for crystallographic studies. The structure of an enzyme·substrate co-crystal has become invaluable for understanding the origins of substrate selectivity and the mutations causing thyroid disease in humans.     

Normal vision can compensate for the loss of the circadian clock

Circadian clocks are thought to be essential for timing the daily activity of animals, and consequently increase fitness. This view was recently challenged for clock-less fruit flies and mice that exhibited astonishingly normal activity rhythms under outdoor conditions. Compensatory mechanisms appear to enable even clock mutants to live a normal life in nature. Here, we show that gradual daily increases/decreases of light in the laboratory suffice to provoke normally timed sharp morning (M) and evening (E) activity peaks in clock-less flies. We also show that the compound eyes, but not Cryptochrome (CRY), mediate the precise timing of M and E peaks under natural-like conditions, as CRY-less flies do and eyeless flies do not show these sharp peaks independently of a functional clock. Nevertheless, the circadian clock appears critical for anticipating dusk, as well as for inhibiting sharp activity peaks during midnight. Clock-less flies only increase E activity after dusk and not before the beginning of dusk, and respond strongly to twilight exposure in the middle of the night. Furthermore, the circadian clock responds to natural-like light cycles, by slightly broadening Timeless (TIM) abundance in the clock neurons, and this effect is mediated by CRY.     

Kinetics of beta-glucuronidase induction by androgen. Genetic variation in the first order rate constant

Measurements of enzyme activity, rates of protein synthesis, and mRNA activity suggest that the induction of beta-glucuronidase in mouse kidney in response to androgen is regulated at a pretranslational level. Following an initial lag period, the rate and extent of induction follow the rules of simple turnover kinetics and can be described in terms of a zero order rate constant for acquisition of mRNA activity (ka) and a first order rate constant for loss of activity (kb). Genetic variation in kb, described here for the first time, alters the half-time and extent of induction. Variation in kb is independent of previously described variation in ka and, unlike changes in ka, is not associated with change in the lag time. The DNA sequences determining kb, like those determining ka, are genetically linked to the structural gene for beta-glucuronidase. Following the removal of androgen, beta-glucuronidase activity, rate of synthesis, and mRNA activity all decline rapidly with half-lives of 1-2 days. Even in the most rapidly inducing strains, this is significantly faster than the half-time for induction determined by kb. Furthermore, genetic variation in kb does not affect the rate of de-induction. These facts suggest that kb may not describe the turnover of beta-glucuronidase mRNA, but rather the turnover of another step in the induction process.     

Southern analysis of BT-R 1, the Manduca sexta gene encoding the receptor for the Cry1Ab toxin of Bacillus thuringiensis

Various subspecies of the gram-positive bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis are known to produce a wide array of insecticidal crystal proteins (ICPs) upon sporulation. These ICPs act primarily on the brush border of midgut epithelial cells of susceptible larvae. Recently, a protein of 210?kDa, isolated from the midgut of Manduca sexta, has been demonstrated to bind the Cry1Ab toxin produced by B. thuringiensis subsp. berliner and is therefore postulated to be involved in mediating the toxicity of Cry1Ab. The cDNA encoding the 210?kDa protein, termed BT-R₁ (Bacillus thuringiensis receptor-1), was recently cloned, and shows limited homology to the cadherin superfamily of proteins. Quite naturally, there is a great deal of interest in the characterization of BT-R ₁ , the gene encoding the 210?kDa Cry1Ab binding protein. The studies presented here involve the use of various restriction fragments prepared from the cDNA encoding BT-R₁ as probes of Southern blots bearing M. sexta genomic DNA cleaved with a variety of restriction endonucleases. These Southern blot data reveal that there are two discrete regions within the M. sexta genome which encode sequences homologous to BT-R₁. On the basis of the signal intensities seen on Southern blots, it appears that only one of these genes encodes BT-R₁, whereas the other is a closely related homologue.