C nuclear magnetic resonance study of acetate incorporation into malate during ca-uptake by isolated leaf tissues

¹³C Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy of leaflets of Gleditsia triacanthos and Albizia julibrisin was used to determine the fate of acetate taken up during the absorption of calcium from ¹³C-labeled Ca-acetate solution. Small amounts of acetate accumulated temporarily in the leaf tissues, but the bulk of acetate was incorporated into malate. The initial rate of malate synthesis was very low, but increased rapidly during acetate treatment and reached its maximum after 8 hours; the enzymes involved in malate synthesis thus appear to be substrate induced. Use of acetate-2-¹³C yielded malate labeled in C-3, indicating that vacuolar malate accumulating during Ca-uptake might be synthesized via malate synthase from acetate and glyoxalate. However, a source of glyoxalate condensing with acetate during malate synthesis could not be identified. Glycolate produced in photorespiration is an unlikely source, because glycolate-2-¹³C was absorbed and metabolized by the leaf tissues into products of the glycolate pathway, but was not a major precursor in malate synthesis. Malate synthesis via the glyoxalate cycle is also unlikely, because no evidence for the recycling of a ¹³C-labeled 4-carbon organic acid was found. Malate synthesis in the leaflets of Gleditsia and Albizia thus appears to involve the inducible condensation of acetate with a 2-carbon compound of unidentified nature and origin.     

Fluorescence quenching of cytochrome b5 in vesicles with an asymmetric transbilayer distribution of brominated phosphatidylcholine

Several fluorescence techniques have been used to estimate the depth, in the membrane, of the endogenous tryptophans of membrane-bound proteins. We reported recently the use of phosphatidylcholines specifically brominated at different positions of the sn-2 acyl chain for this purpose (Markello, T., Zlotnick, A., Everett, J., Tennyson, J., and Holloway, P. W. (1985) Biochemistry 24, 2895-2901). The membranes made from these brominated lipids will have the brominated lipid in both monolayers, and so the estimated depth of the fluorophore will be relative to either the inner or outer surface of the membrane, but will not distinguish between these two extremes. To differentiate between these two models vesicles have now been made with an asymmetric distribution of brominated lipid, by use of phosphatidylcholine exchange protein. The asymmetric vesicles were isolated by virtue of their density, and their asymmetry was established by addition of an amphipathic fluorescent carbazole compound. With these vesicles it was shown that the tryptophan in the membrane-binding domain of cytochrome b5 which is quenched by bromolipid is located 0.7 nm below the outer surface of the membrane vesicles, rather than 0.7 nm from the inner surface.     

Determination of the topography of cytochrome b5 in lipid vesicles by fluorescence quenching

Cytochrome b5, a protein isolated from the endoplasmic reticulum by detergent extraction, interacts spontaneously with small unilamellar phosphatidylcholine vesicles. When the vesicles are made from 1-palmitoyl-2-oleoylphosphatidylcholine (POPC), the tryptophan fluorescence of the cytochrome is enhanced, and when they are made from 1-palmitoyl-2-(dibromostearoyl) phosphatidylcholine (BRPC), the fluorescence is quenched. A series of BRPC were synthesized with bromine atoms at the 6,7, 9,10, 11,12 or 15,16 positions. The vesicles synthesized from each of these lipids were similar in size to those made from POPC. The relative fluorescence intensities of the cytochrome b5 in POPC and 6,7-, 9,10-, 11,12- and 15,16- BRPC were 100, 19.4, 29.4, 37.1, and 54.0, respectively. These data suggest that the exposed tryptophan(s) is (are) at a depth of 0.7 nm below the surface of the vesicle. Bromine is a collisional quencher; hence, these data may indicate the relative position of the lipid annulus around the protein rather than the depth of the protein below the average vesicle surface. Cytochrome b5 contains three potentially fluorescent tryptophans, and determinations of fluorescent quantum yield indicate all three potentially fluorescent tryptophans, and determinations of fluorescent quantum yield indicate all three are fluorescent with an average quantum yield, when in POPC vesicles, of 0.21. Fluorescence lifetime measurements by the demodulation technique indicated heterogeneity of fluorescence lifetimes in all vesicles. The lifetimes in the BRPC vesicles ranged from 2.0 to 2.4 ns compared to a value of 3.3 ns in POPC.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)     

Fertility restoration and mitochondrial nucleic acids distinguish at least five subgroups among cms-S cytoplasms of maize (Zea mays L.)

Summary Differences in fertility restoration and mitochondrial nucleic acids permitted division of 25 accessions of S-type male sterile cytoplasm (cms-S) of maize into five subgroups: B/D, CA, LBN, ME, and S(USDA). S cytoplasm itself (USDA cytoplasm) was surprisingly not representative of cms-S, since only two other accessions, TC and I, matched its mitochondrial DNA pattern. CA was the predominant subgroup, containing 18 of the 25 accessions. The B/D and ME subgroups were the most fertile and LBN the most sterile. The exceptional sterility of LBN cytoplasm makes it the most promising of the 25 cms-S accessions for the production of hybrid seed. The most efficient means of quantifying the fertility of the subgroups was analysis of pollen morphology in plants having cms-S cytoplasm and simultaneously being heterozygous for nuclear restorer-of-fertility (Rf) genes. This method took advantage of the gametophytic nature of cms-S restoration. The inbred NY821LERf was found to contain at least two restorer genes for cms-S. Fertility differences were correlated with mitochondrial nucleic acid variation in the LBN, ME, and S (USDA) subgroups.Paper No. 9498 of the Journal Series of the North Carolina Agricultural Research Service, Raleigh, NC     

DNA-dependent RNA polymerase from Spirochaeta aurantia

Abstract A DNA-dependent RNA polymerase was isolated from Spirochaeta aurantia . The M _r values of the holoenzyme subunits are 164000, 142000, 84000, and 44500. The RNA polymerase activity was sensitive to heparin, streptolydigin, and actinomycin D, while rifampicin and streptovaricin did not inhibit activity.