Triiodothyronine is needed for the acclimatization of brown trout (Salmo trutta) or rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) to seawater]

Brown and rainbow trout, held in freshwater at 13 +/- 1 degrees, were injected, every 3 days, with iopanoic acid (IOP: 5 mg/100 g body wt), an inhibitor of deiodination of thyroxine (T4) to triiodothyronine (T3). One group of IOP-treated rainbow trout was immersed in T3 (20 micrograms/l water). In IOP trout, plasma T3 fell to very low levels by day 7, while changes in T4 levels were less marked. In IOP + T3 trout plasma T3 increased fivefold, plasma T4 being unchanged. No mortality occurred and plasma osmolarity (OP) was not altered by any treatment. After direct transfer to seawater (30/1000), IOP trout were unable to acclimate to salinity: all died within 2 or 3 days, while the survival at day 3 was 100% in control brown trout and 45 and 74% in control and IOP + T3 rainbow trout respectively. OP increased more in IOP and less in IOP + T3 than in controls. There was a significant inverse correlation between T3, but not T4, plasma level, at the time of transfer and the OP 1 day later. In conclusion, although T3 does not play a significant role in osmoregulation in freshwater, T3 and therefore the deiodination of T4 into T3, were required for the development of hypo-osmoregulatory capacity involved in acclimation of trout to seawater.     

Complexation of copper(II) by a peptide hybrid of bleomycin and amsacrine. Circular dichroism and electron spin resonance studies

A model incorporating the metal chelating moiety of bleomycin and an anilinoacridine ring able to intercalate in DNA has been synthesized. The copper(II) complex of that molecule has been studied using circular dichroism and electron spin resonance by comparison with bleomycin. The introduction of the anilinoacridine ring involves a modification in the geometry of the complex. A distortion of the square-pyramidal form (type II complex) gives rise to a type I complex in which the metallic atom is drawn out of the plane of the four square-planar ligands and displaced slightly towards the fifth ligand.     

c-myc oncogene expression inhibits the initiation of myogenic differentiation

The role of c-myc oncogene expression in myogenic differentiation has been established by transfecting rat myoblasts of the L6 cell line with plasmid pMT-myc, in which the c-myc coding sequences were under the control of the metallothionein I promoter. We observed that the constitutive expression of the exogenous c-myc gene inhibits muscular differentiation. A diminution of the endogenous c-myc gene expression occurs within the first 24 h after the transfer of the cells to a differentiating medium. This early decrease of c-myc expression is required for cell differentiation to occur. We have also observed that exogenous myc gene expression has no effect on endogenous myc expression.     

Microbiological Degradation of Malodorous Substances of Swine Waste under Aerobic Conditions

Phenol, p-cresol, and volatile fatty acids (VFA; acetic, propionic, isobutyric, butyric, isovaleric, and valeric acids) were used as odor indicators of swine waste. Aeration of the waste allowed the indigenous microorganisms to grow and degrade these malodorous substances. The time required for degradation of these substances varied according to the waste used, and it was not necessarily related to their concentrations. Using a minimal medium which contained one of the malodorous compounds as sole carbon source, we have selected from swine waste microorganisms that can grow in the medium. The majority of these microorganisms were able to degrade the same substrate when inoculated in sterilized swine waste but with an efficiency varying from one strain to the other. None of these strains was able to degrade all malodorous substances studied. Within 6 days of incubation these selected strains degraded the following: Acinetobacter calcoaceticus, phenol and all VFA; Alcaligenes faecalis, p-cresol and all VFA; Corynebacterium glutamicum and Micrococcus sp., phenol, p-cresol, and acetic and propionic acids; Arthrobacter flavescens, all VFA. On a laboratory scale, the massive inoculation of swine waste with C. glutamicum or Micrococcus sp. accelerated degradation of the malodorous substances. However, this effect was not observed with all of the various swine wastes tested. These results suggest that an efficient deodorization process of various swine wastes could be developed at the farm level based on the aerobic indigenous microflora of each waste.