The Secret Cemetery

The Secret Cemetery . Doris Francis, Leonie Kellaher, and Georgina Neophytou. New York: Berg, 2005. 298 pp.     

Localization of Glyoxylate Cycle Enzymes in Glyoxysomes in Euglena*

SYNOPSIS. We demonstrated previously microbodies in Euglena gracilis grown in the dark on 2-carbon substrates. We have now established in Euglena the particulate nature of enzymes known in other organisms to be localized in microbodies (glyoxysomes and leaf peroxisomes). On a linear sucrose gradient the glyoxylate cycle enzymes band together at a nigner equilibrium density (1.20 g/cm3) than mitochondrial marker enzymes (1.17 g/cm3), establishing the existence in Euglena of glyoxysomes similar to those of higher plants. Glyoxylate (hydroxypyruvate) reductase and, under certain conditions, also glycolate dehydrogenase co-band with the glyoxylate cycle enzymes, suggesting that Euglena glyoxysomes, like those of higher plants, may contain peroxisomal-type enzymes. Catalase, an enzyme characteristic of microbodies from a variety of sources, was not detected in Euglena.     

Hydrogenosome-Methanogen Assemblages in the Echinoid Endocommensal Plagiopylid Ciliates,Lechriopyla mystax Lynch, 1930 and Plagiopyla minuta Powers, 19331

ABSTRACT. Lechriopyla mystax Lynch, 1930 and Plagiopyla minula Powers, 1933 contain hydrogenosome-methanogen assemblages similar to those reported for other plagiopylid ciliates. These assemblages are stacks of elongate ovoid hydrogenosomes alternating with methanogens; these stacks are surrounded by cisternae of the rough endoplasmic reticulum that are often accompanied by Golgi complexes. The individual methanogens in the larger ciliate, L. mystax, are about four times the volume of those in the smaller ciliate, P. minuta, but both ciliates appear to contain Gram-negative methanococcoid bacteria, possibly Methanoplanus sp. The endoplasmic reticulum-Golgi complex probably plays a significant role in exploitation of the methanogens by the host ciliate.     

Juvenile hormone and ovarian growth in Manduca sexta

In Manduca sexta the major size increase of ovarian follicles is accomplished by two processes: (1) vitellogenesis in which follicular volume and dry weight increase simultaneously, and (2) hydration in which absorption of water by the oocyte accounts for an 80% increase in volume prior to chorion formation. Vitellogenic growth occurs in both a slow and rapid phase. Rapid vitellogenic growth is initiated only by follicles of a threshold size (1 mm) and is a juvenile hormone (JH)-dependent event. In the absence of JH follicles grow to 1 mm and then degenerate.     

Coetzee on South Africa's Past: Remembering in the Time of Forgetting

As an intellectual figure in South Africa, J. M. Coetzee has consistently engaged with the politics of the past, particularly the contemporary ethical ramifications of the colonial past, alongside the more recent and bitter history of oppression under apartheid. As archaeologists, we aim to excavate these engagements through his novels and essays, particularly his long-standing concerns with the Khoekhoe communities of the Cape. In South Africa today, the tensions between remembering and forgetting are palpable and, in the aftermath of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), we suggest that not all forgetting can be cast as therapeutic. Throughout his complex relationships with the nation's history, Coetzee foregrounds the colonial past and reiterates the ethical responsibilities of remembering so that the patterns of the past are not repeated.