Linkage between the loci for serum albumin and vitamin D binding protein (GC) in the Japanese quail

Vitamin D binding protein ( GC ) and serum protease inhibitor ( PI ) have been added to genetic markers in the Japanese quail. Both loci were controlled by autosomal codominant alleles named GC^A, GC^B and PI^A, PI^B, PI^C, respectively. Close linkage between the loci for serum albumin ( ALB ) and GC protein is reported. Two recombinants were observed in 145 informative offspring of 14 families. The recombination frequency between the loci was estimated as 0.014±0.006. Thus, GC was assigned to linkage group II in the Japanese quail. No signs of linkage were observed among the loci for the ALB-GC complex, PI. serum prealbumin 2 ( PA2 ), phosphoglucose isomerase ( PG1 ), 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase ( PGD ) and esterase-D ( ESD ).     

New peptide alkaloids from Hovenia dulcis and H. tomentella

From the root bark of Hovenia dulcis Thunb. and H. tommentella (Makino) Nakai (Rhamnaceae), three peptide alkaloids, frangulanine, hovenins-A and -B have been isolated. Hovenin-A has been shown to be des-N-methylfrangulanine (II).     

Immunochemical properties of mannan-protein complex isolated from viable cells of Saccharomyces cerevisiae 4484-24D-1 mutant strain by the action of zymolyase

Viable cells of Saccharomyces cerevisiae 4484-24D-1 mutant strain were treated with an Arthrobacter sp. beta-1,3-glucanase, Zymolyase-60,000, in the presence of a serine protease inhibitor, phenylmethylsulfonyl fluoride. Fractionation of the solubilized materials with Cetavlon (cetyltrimethylammonium bromide) yielded a purified mannan-protein complex, which had a molecular weight of ca. 150,000, approximately three times higher than that of the mannan isolated from the same cells by the hot-water extraction method at 135 C. The amino acid composition of the mannan-protein complex was found to be very similar to that of the mannan-protein complexes of S. cerevisiae X2180-1A wild and S. cerevisiae X2180-1A-5 mutant strains, indicating the presence of large amounts of serine and threonine. It was unexpected that the antibody-precipitating activity of this complex against the homologous anti-whole cell serum was about twice as great as that of the mannan isolated by hot-water extraction. Treatment of this complex with 100 mM NaOH, hot water at 135 C, and pronase, respectively, gave degradation products having the same molecular weight and antibody-precipitating activity as those of the hot-water extracted mannan, allowing the assumption that the protein moiety participated in a large part of this activity.     

Water status of Hinoki cypress (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Chamaecyparis obtusa</Emphasis>) under reduced hydraulic conductance estimated from diurnal changes in trunk diameter

To estimate the water status of Hinoki cypress (Chamaecyparis obtusa) under reduced hydraulic conductance, we measured diurnal changes in the trunk diameter of two 20-year-old trees during a hot dry summer. One tree showed a greatly reduced water-transport area in its trunk cross-section and leaf specific hydraulic conductivity. Diurnal changes in trunk diameter were measured at the xylem surface using a strain-gauge method. At the start of the experiment, the diurnal changes in trunk diameter were similar in both trees with shrinking during the day and swelling at night. However, in the trunk of the tree with reduced hydraulic conductance, the maxima and minima decreased rapidly as days passed. These differences in trunk diameter changes might be caused by the differences in the leaf-specific hydraulic conductance.     

The enhancement of the human immunoglobulin G Fc fragment-binding activity of Mycoplasma salivarium cells by trypsin treatment is ascribed to the binding of trypsin to the Fc fragment

Abstract Human immunoglobulin G Fc fragment-binding activity of Mycoplasma salivarium cells was remarkably enhanced by trypsin treatment of the cells. Sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis profile of proteins of the cells treated wtrypsin was the same as that of the cells treated with pronase, although pronase treatment had been shown to reduce the activity in our previous study (FEMS Microbiol. Lett. 123, 305–310, 1994). This contradiction was clarified by the finding that trypsin bound the Fc fragment more strongly than the cells, and a small amount of trypsin remained in the cells treated with trypsin and washed well. On the basis of these results, it was concluded that the enhancement of cell activity by trypsin treatment was ascribed to binding of the Fc fragment to trypsin remaining in the trypsin-treated cells.     

Hypothalamic neuronal responses to cytokines

Fever has been extensively studied in the past few decades. The hypothesis that hypothalamic thermosensitive neurons play a major role in both normal thermoregulation and in fever production and lysis has particularly helped to advance our understanding of the neuronal mechanisms underlying the response to pyrogens. Furthermore, new data in the study of host defense responses induced by pyrogenic cytokines such as interleukin 1, interferon alpha 2, tumor necrosis factor alpha, and interleukin 6 have demonstrated that those factors have multiple, yet coordinated, regulatory activities in the central nervous system, so that our understanding of the role of the brain in the activity of these agents requires a new perspective and dimension. Thus, recent evidence from our laboratory indicates that blood-borne cytokines may be detected in the organum vasculosum laminae terminalis and transduced there into neuronal signals. Such signals may then affect distinct, but partially overlapping, sets of neuronal systems in the preoptic area of the anterior hypothalamus, mediating directly and/or indirectly the array of various host defense responses characteristic of infection that are thought to be induced by blood-borne cytokines.     

Polymerization of amino acid under liposomal environment

N-Carboxy anhydrides of amino acid derivatives with hydrophobic side chains, N-carboxy anhydrides of gamma-dodecyl L-glutamate and gamma-benzyl D-glutamate, were polymerized in bilayer membrane of large unilamellar liposomes prepared by the injection method. Infrared spectra indicated that polypeptides isolated from the liposomes existed in two different conformational forms, namely the alpha-helix and the beta form. Studying osmotic shrinkage of liposomes, it was found that liposomal membrane was highly permeable to glucose in the presence of polypeptides in the membrane.