X-ray absorption spectroscopy of selenium-containing amino acids

Received: 2 April 1999 / Accepted: 17 September 1999     

Developmental expression of 44-kDa bone phosphoprotein (osteopontin) and bone γ-carboxyglutamic acid (Gla)-containing protein (osteocalcin) in calcifying tissues of rat

New aspects of the distribution and developmental appearance of the 44-kDa bone phosphoprotein (44K BPP, also called sialoprotein I or osteopontin) and bone gamma-carboxyglutamic acid (Gla)-containing protein (BGP, also called osteocalcin) during osteogenesis and dentinogenesis were investigated with immunocytochemical techniques using monospecific, affinity-purified polyclonal antibodies. Sections from newborn rat incisors and from various bone anlagen of newborn animals and fetuses were processed for detection of 44K BPP or BGP antigenicity. In addition, histochemical reactions for detection of alkaline phosphatase or calcium salts were performed on a number of the sections. The 44K BPP appears to be synthesized and secreted by chondrocytes only in the areas of cartilage-to-bone transition; these cells could participate indirectly in the process of bone formation by providing a suitable scaffold onto which primary marrow osteoblasts attach and spread. During osteogenesis, 44K BPP is found in bone-forming cells almost concomitantly with the appearance of alkaline phosphatase and before osteoid deposition, whereas BGP is still absent during early stages of mineralization. We hypothesize that this dramatic difference between the developmental appearance of 44K BPP and BGP reflects the delayed expression of the BGP gene relative to that of 44K BPP. In long-term cultures of bone marrow from adult mice, some fibroblastic cells expressed the 44K BPP phenotype; these cells could represent early osteogenic progenitor cells. Some experiments also suggested that, as with BGP, 44K BPP or an immunologically related protein is synthesized by some odontoblasts and secreted into predentin, prior to the onset of mineralization.     

Use of cloacal sexing techniques in mark-recapture estimates of breeding population size in Wilson's stormpetrel Oceanites oceanicus at South Georgia

Summary Many stormpetrel species breed in habitats where their populations cannot be estimated by direct counts of burrows or birds; mark-recapture experiments have been confounded by the presence of many wandering non-breeders. With a population of Wilson's Stormpetrel Oceanites oceanicus at Bird Island, South Georgia, we tried to estimate the proportion of breeding females in samples obtained during a mark-recapture experiment. These were identified by measurements of the cloaca, which greatly enlarges at egg-laying. A concurrent experiment with individually marked birds determined that breeding females could be discriminated from males and non-breeders for c 30 days after laying. The technique is probably applicable to other petrels, though it will work best with those that lay most synchronously. The overall population estimate was 4841–5515 birds (SE 856–1417); estimates of breeding females gave a population of 2300 paris early in the incubation period and 1400 pairs near hatching.     

Microbial populations and hydrocarbon biodegradation potentials in fertilized shoreline sediments affected by the T/V Exxon Valdez oil spill.

The effort of clean up the T/V Exxon Valdez oil spill in Prince William Sound, Alaska, included the use of fertilizers to accelerate natural microbial degradation of stranded oil. A program to monitor various environmental parameters associated with this technique took place during the summer of 1990. Microbiological assays for numbers of heterotrophic and oil-degrading microbes and their hydrocarbon mineralization potentials were performed in support of this program. Fertilizer addition resulted in higher hexadecane and phenanthrene mineralization potentials on treated plots than on untreated reference plots. Microbial numbers in treated and reference surface sediments were not significantly different immediately after the first nutrient application in May 1990. However, subsurface sediments from treated plots had higher numbers of hydrocarbon degraders than did reference sediments shortly after treatment. The second application of fertilizer, later in summer, resulted in surface and subsurface increases in numbers of hydrocarbon degraders with respect to reference sediments at two of the three study sites. Elevated mineralization potentials, coupled with increased numbers of hydrocarbon degraders, indicated that natural hydrocarbon biodegradation was enhanced. However, these microbiological measurements alone are not sufficient to determine in situ rates of crude oil biodegradation.     

Biodegradation of textile azo-dyes byPhanerochaete chrysosporium

Of 18 commercially used textile dyes, eight were degraded by the white rot fungus,Phanerochaete chrysosporium, by 40 to 73% based on decrease of colour. Both the lignin-degrading enzyme system ofP. chrysosporium and adsorption to its cell mass were involved in the degradation of the diazo dye, Reactofix Gold Yellow. Degradation was best achieved by adding the dye to the medium and then inoculating with pre-grown mycelium; inoculation with spores resulted mainly in dye adsorption.     

Predictive model of conjugative plasmid transfer in the rhizosphere and phyllosphere.

A computer simulation model was used to predict the dynamics of survival and conjugation of Pseudomonas cepacia (carrying the transmissible recombinant plasmid R388:Tn1721) with a nonrecombinant recipient strain in simple rhizosphere and phyllosphere microcosms. Plasmid transfer rates were derived for a mass action model, and donor and recipient survival were modeled as exponential growth and decay processes or both. Rate parameters were derived from laboratory studies in which donor and recipient strains were incubated in test tubes with a peat-vermiculite solution or on excised radish or bean leaves in petri dishes. The model predicted donor, recipient, and transconjugant populations in hourly time steps. It was tested in a microcosm planted with radish seeds and inoculated with donor and recipient strains and on leaf surfaces of radish and bean plants also growing in microcosms. Bacteria were periodically enumerated on selective media over 7 to 14 days. When donor and recipient populations were 10(6) to 10(8) CFU/g (wet weight) of plant or soil, transconjugant populations of about 10(1) to 10(4) were observed after 1 day. An initial rapid increase and a subsequent decline in numbers of transconjugants in the rhizosphere and on leaf surfaces were correctly predicted.     

Thermodynamic properties of the semiquinone and its binding site in the ubiquinol-cytochrome c (c2) oxidoreductase of respiratory and photosynthetic systems

The antimycin-sensitive ubisemiquinone radical (QC) of the ubiquinol-cytochrome c oxidoreductase of submitochondrial particles and chromatophores of Rhodopseudomonas sphaeroides Ga has been studied by a combination of redox potentiometry and EPR spectroscopy. This g = 2.005 radical signal appears at physiological pH values and increases in intensity with increasing pH up to pH 7.6 in submitochondrial particles and pH 9.0 in R. sphaeroides after which its intensity remains unchanged. The Em7 (ubiquinone/quinol) of the signal, estimated from redox titration data is 80 mV for submitochondrial particles, and 150 mV in chromatophores. Each of these values is higher than that of the quinone pool by 20 mV in submitochondrial particles and 60 mV in R. sphaeroides. This indicates that the quinone at the binding site is out of equilibrium with the pool, and that binding site preferentially binds quinol over quinone. Analysis of the shapes of the semiquinone titration curves, taken together with the midpoint elevation, indicates a quinone-binding site: cytochrome c1 stoichiometry of 1:1 in both submitochondrial particles and chromatophores. At its maximal intensity, the semiquinone concentration at the binding site is 0.26 in submitochondrial particles (greater than pH 7.6) and 0.4 in chromatophores (greater than pH 9.0). In both systems, the midpoint of the ubiquinone/ubisemiquinone couple is constant as the pH is raised up to the pH of maximal semiquinone formation whereafter it becomes more negative at the rate of -60 mV/pH unit. The midpoint of the ubisemiquinone/quinol couple, on the other hand, varies by -120 mV/pH unit at pH values up to the transition pH, after which it, too, changes by -60 mV/pH unit. This seemingly anomalous behavior may be explained by invoking a protonated group at or near the quinone-binding site whose pK corresponds to the pH transition point in the quinone/semiquinone/quinol redox chemistry when the site is free or when quinone or quinol occupies the site. This pK is elevated to at least pH 9.0 in submitochondrial particles and 10.5 in R. sphaeroides when semiquinone is bound to the site.     

Reproductive endocrinology of the Black-browed albatross Diomedea melanophris and the Grey-headed albatross D. chrysostoma

Gonadal size and the circulating concentrations of two pituitary hormones (luteinizing hormone and prolactin) and three gonadal steroids (testosterone, progesterone and oestradiol-17β) were measured in two closely related Diomedea albatrosses at South Georgia. The Grey-headed albatross D. chrysostoma , if successful in rearing a chick, usually breeds biennially, whilst the Black-browed albatross D. melanophris normally breeds annually. Direct examination (by laparoscopy) of the gonads showed that the testes of both species underwent annual cycles, whilst endocrine data confirmed that those male Grey-headed albatrosses at the colony in the pre-laying period but not breeding in that year (having bred successfully the previous year) were apparently in full reproductive condition with elevated testosterone levels typical of breeding birds. However, the females of the two species differed markedly. Grey-headed albatrosses, in a year following successful breeding, had undeveloped ovaries with low levels of circulating oestradiol but high levels of progesterone, whereas the Black-browed albatrosses showed a pattern consistent with annual ovarian development. The profiles of gonadal steroids through the breeding season were similar for the males of both species but differences existed between the females. In the female Grey-headed albatrosses, transient peaks of progesterone were present throughout chick rearing but these were absent from Black-browed albatrosses. Prolactin had a similar profile in both species, with uniformly high levels throughout incubation and a rapid fall near the end of the brood-guard period. It is suggested that Grey-headed, like Black-browed, albatrosses are intrinsically annual breeders. However, if a female Grey-headed albatross breeds successfully in one year, then nutritional factors operate to ensure that in the following year the female does not show ovarian development, although the ovary is active in terms of progesterone secretion.     

Relationship of Aflatoxicosis to Salmonella gallinarum Infections of Chickens

Aflatoxicosis and Salmonella gallinarum exert their effects on the body weight and mortality of chickens without any interaction.