Mycelial elongation and sporulation of two fungi on amended media in light or dark

Botrytis allii andCollectotrichum dematium are onion pathogens which can infect in the field and cause decay in storage. Some phenolics can hinder development of these fungi, but the effect of cytokinins is not clear. Cytokinins (kinetin or 6-benzyladenine) or phenolics (caffeic or chlorogenic acids) were added to agar at concentrations of 0 to 10^–3 M. Cultures were continuously irradiated with fluorescent light or maintained in the dark for 6 days. On unamended media, final mycelial elongation was 45 or 17.8 mm and sporulation was 28 or 10.6 × 10⁴ spores/ml forBotrytis andColletotrichum, respectively. ForBotrytis, mycelial elongation was slightly (5%) but significantly increased and sporulation increased by 21% by incubation on phenolics as compared to cytokinins. Mycelial extension ofColletotrichum was not affected by amendment. Sporulation ofColletotrichum on kinetin was 16 to 28% greater than on the other amendments. As amendments concentration increased elongation of mycelia of both fungi decreased. Sporulation ofBotrytis increased by 60% as amendment concentration increased from 0 to 10^–5 M and then decreased 25% at 10^–3 M. As amendment concentration increased from 0 to 10^–3 M, sporulation ofColletotrichum increased by 45%. Incubation in light increased mycelial extension 3 to 17% forBotrytis andColletotrichum respectively, and sporulation was increased approximately 78% for both fungi. These compounds do not appear to inhibit development of theseBotrytis orColletotrichum species in culture.     

Protein kinase Akt2/PKBβ is involved in blastomere proliferation of preimplantation mouse embryos

Activation of Akt/Protein Kinase B (PKB) by phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase (PI3K) controls several cellular functions largely studied in mammalian cells, including preimplantation embryos. We previously showed that early mouse embryos inherit active Akt from oocytes and that the intracellular localization of this enzyme at the two-cell stage depends on the T-cell leukemia/lymphoma 1 oncogenic protein, Tcl1. We have now investigated whether Akt isoforms, namely Akt1, Akt2 and Akt3, exert a specific role in blastomere proliferation during preimplantation embryo development. We show that, in contrast to other Akt family members, Akt2 enters male and female pronuclei of mouse preimplantation embryos at the late one-cell stage and thereafter maintains a nuclear localization during later embryo cleavage stages. Depleting one-cell embryos of single Akt family members by microinjecting Akt isoform-specific antibodies into wild-type zygotes, we observed that: (a) Akt2 is necessary for normal embryo progression through cleavage stages; and (b) the specific nuclear targeting of Akt2 in two-cell embryos depends on Tcl1. Our results indicate that preimplantation mouse embryos have a peculiar regulation of blastomere proliferation based on the activity of the Akt/PKB family member Akt2, which is mediated by the oncogenic protein Tcl1. Both Akt2 and Tcl1 are essential for early blastomere proliferation and embryo development.     

Alpha 1 chain of chick type VI collagen. The complete cDNA sequence reveals a hybrid molecule made of one short collagen and three von Willebrand factor type A-like domains

A cDNA library constructed from chick aorta poly(A+) RNA in the expression vector pEX1 was screened with rabbit polyclonal antisera. Additional clones were obtained by DNA-DNA hybridization with subclones from the most 5'- and 3'-ends. The overlapping clones span 4.6 kilobases and code for the entire alpha 1 (VI) chain. The nucleotide sequence reveals a 3057-base pair open reading frame that codes for 1019 amino acids. Analysis of the deduced amino acid sequence predicts that alpha 1 (VI) has one collagenous domain (COL) of 336 residues flanked by three repeated domains of about 200 residues each, one at the amino (A'3) and two at the carboxyl ends (A'2 and A'1), respectively, that are similar to the type A repeats of von Willebrand Factor. The COL domain presents two short interruptions near the carboxyl end of the triple helix and three of the six potential N-asparaginyl-linked carbohydrate attachment sites (Asn-Xaa-Ser/Thr). Furthermore, it contains 1 cysteine at position 89 that could participate in the formation of dimers and 3 Arg-Gly-Asp sequences that might be potential sites for cell adhesion. The COL domain shows an extended region, starting from position 40, within the triple helix, made of 14 Gly-Xaa-Yaa triplets that lack proline in the Y position, suggesting that it might be more flexible than the rest of the domain. At the junction of the COL with the N- and C-terminal domains, there are several cysteines that could confer the well known resistance of type VI collagen to pepsin and collagenase digestion under nonreducing conditions. The present sequence data allow a structural model for type VI collagen assembly to be proposed that is consistent with the structure implied from previous electron microscopic observation by Furthmayr et al. (Furthmayr, H., Wiedemann, H., Timpl, R., Odermatt, R., and Engel, J. (1983) Biochem. J. 221, 303-311).     

Intestinal eversion in a pelagic shark evokes chase and bite attempts by large-bodied carangid fish

Journal of Ethology - Expelling indigestible objectives through the cloaca is an important cleansing behaviour for several species of higher vertebrates. Although intestinal eversions are short in...     

Metrics from nonlinear dynamics adapted for characterizing the behavior of nonequilibrium enzymatic rate functions

Several metrics from nonlinear dynamics and statistical mechanics have been characterized on computer-generated number series with various signal-to-noise ratios, demonstrating their individual reliability as a function of sample size and their relationships to each other. The root mean square (RMS) evaluates amplitude, and the power spectral density (PSD) provides a visual display of the frequency spectrum; both measures have very high reliability even for an N as low as 50. The Fractal Dimension (D) is shown to converge rapidly and also to be reliable when N is as low as 50. These three measures (RMS, PSD, and D) have been applied to the complex kinetics of tyrosine hydroxylase time courses (50-point curves) at various BH4 concentrations (near physiological, but far from equilibrium levels). Recently developed measures of spectral entropy and the Liapunov Exponent, -lambda are also characterized.     

An analysis of world records in three types of locomotion

The record history of running, swimming and ice-skating, over various distances, was analyzed. A mean period of about 66 years for the 18 male events and of about 50 years for the 14 female events was studied. Over a given distance the velocity (v) was related to the dates of the records minus 1900 (T) according to polynomial functions like: v = a0 + a1T + a2T2 + ..... + anTn. In 21 out of the 32 events equations of first or second degree fitted the experimental data. The mean correlation coefficient was 0.979 +/- 0.019 (+/- S.D.). The ratio between predicted (vlp) and actual value (vl) of the last records was 0.999 +/- 0.010. For T corresponding to v1 (Tl), the rate of record growth was slowing down in 5 events. Hence up to June 1981 a tendency towards an asymptotic v was not yet a general phenomenon. At Tl the range of the relative rate of increase of v (dvp/dT . vlp) was 0.9 . 10(-3) per year (800 m - female running) and 12.4 . 10(-3) per year (800 m - female swimming). dv/dT . vlp in swimming and skating was similar in both sexes but 4 times faster than in male running. Less marked differences were found for female running. A lowering of the cost of transport was probably the main reason of the fast growth of swimming and skating records. The numerical constants calculated from linear regression of v versus the time of the races over different distances did not seem to have a clear physiological meaning, as reported in the previous literature.     

Diorganotin dihalide complexes of 2,2'-biimidazole. A preliminary study of their inhibitory effects on cell division

We report the synthesis of new complexes with the general formula (R2SnX2)y.H2BiIm, where y = 1 or 2; R = Me, Et, Bun; X = Cl or Br (for R = Et) and H2BiIm = 2,2'-Biimidazole. The complexes have been characterized by elemental analysis and M?ssbauer, infra-red and 1H n.m.r. spectroscopy and tested (like the ligand, Me2SnCl2 and Et2SnCl2) against P388D1 leukemic cells.