Eye size variation reflects habitat and daily activity patterns in colubrid snakes

The functioning of the vertebrate eye depends on its absolute size, which is presumably adapted to specific needs. Eye size variation in lidless and spectacled colubrid snakes was investigated, including 839 specimens belonging to 49 genera, 66 species and subspecies. Variations of adult eye diameters (EDs) in both absolute and relative terms between species were correlated with parameters reflecting behavioral ecology. In absolute terms, eye of arboreal species was larger than in terrestrial and semiaquatic species. For diurnal species, EDs of terrestrial species do not differ from semiaquatic species; for nocturnal species the ED of terrestrial species is larger than fossorial species but not different from semiaquatic species. In relative terms, ED did not differ significantly by habitat for diurnal species. Although the ED of terrestrial species is larger than fossorial species there were no differences for nocturnal species between semiaquatic and fossorial snakes. In contrast to other vertebrates studied to date, colubrid EDs in absolute and relative terms are larger in diurnal than in nocturnal species. These observations suggest that among colubrid snakes, eye size variation reflects adaptation to specific habitats, foraging strategies and daily activities, independently of phylogeny. J. Morphol. 2012. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The fertile island effect varies with aridity and plant patch type across an extensive continental gradient

Plant and Soil - Perennial plants play important roles in maintaining ecosystem functions by forming fertile islands beneath their canopies. Little is known about how the fertile island effect...     

Glycogen debranching enzyme: purification, antibody characterization, and immunoblot analyses of type III glycogen storage disease.

Type III glycogen storage disease is caused by a deficiency of glycogen debranching-enzyme activity. Many patients with this disease have both liver and muscle involvement, whereas others have only liver involvement without clinical or laboratory evidence of myopathy. To improve our understanding of the molecular basis of the disease, debranching enzyme was purified 238-fold from porcine skeletal muscle. In sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis the purified enzyme gave a single band with a relative molecular weight of 160,000 that migrated to the same position as purified rabbit-muscle debranching enzyme. Antiserum against porcine debranching enzyme was prepared in rabbit. The antiserum reacted against porcine debranching enzyme with a single precipitin line and demonstrated a reaction having complete identity to those of both the enzyme present in crude muscle and the enzyme present in liver extracts. Incubation of antiserum with purified porcine debranching enzyme inhibited almost all enzyme activity, whereas such treatment with preimmune serum had little effect. The antiserum also inhibited debranching-enzyme activity in crude liver extracts from both pigs and humans to the same extent as was observed in muscle. Immunoblot analysis probed with anti-porcine-muscle debranching-enzyme antiserum showed that the antiserum can detect debranching enzyme in both human muscle and human liver. The bands detected in human samples by the antiserum were the same size as the one detected in porcine muscle. Five patients with Type III and six patients with other types of glycogen storage disease were subjected to immunoblot analysis. Although anti-porcine antiserum detected specific bands in all liver and muscle samples from patients with other types of glycogen storage disease (Types I, II, and IX), the antiserum detected no cross-reactive material in any of the liver or muscle samples from patients with Type III glycogen storage disease. These data indicate (1) immunochemical similarity of debranching enzyme in liver and muscle and (2) that deficiency of debranching-enzyme activity in Type III glycogen storage disease is due to absence of debrancher protein in the patients that we studied.     

Electrically-Evoked Frequency-Following Response (EFFR) in the Auditory Brainstem of Guinea Pigs

It is still a difficult clinical issue to decide whether a patient is a suitable candidate for a cochlear implant and to plan postoperative rehabilitation, especially for some special cases, such as auditory neuropathy. A partial solution to these problems is to preoperatively evaluate the functional integrity of the auditory neural pathways. For evaluating the strength of phase-locking of auditory neurons, which was not reflected in previous methods using electrically evoked auditory brainstem response (EABR), a new method for recording phase-locking related auditory responses to electrical stimulation, called the electrically evoked frequency-following response (EFFR), was developed and evaluated using guinea pigs. The main objective was to assess feasibility of the method by testing whether the recorded signals reflected auditory neural responses or artifacts. The results showed the following: 1) the recorded signals were evoked by neuron responses rather than by artifact; 2) responses evoked by periodic signals were significantly higher than those evoked by the white noise; 3) the latency of the responses fell in the expected range; 4) the responses decreased significantly after death of the guinea pigs; and 5) the responses decreased significantly when the animal was replaced by an electrical resistance. All of these results suggest the method was valid. Recording obtained using complex tones with a missing fundamental component and using pure tones with various frequencies were consistent with those obtained using acoustic stimulation in previous studies.     

Functions and mechanisms of plant histone deacetylases

Lysine acetylation, one of the major types of post-translational modifications, plays critical roles in regulating gene expression and protein function. Histone deacetylases(HDACs) are responsible for removing acetyl groups from lysines of both histone and non-histone proteins. While tremendous progress has been made in understanding the function and mechanism of HDACs in animals in the past two decades, nearly half of the HDAC studies in plants were reported within the past five years. In this review,we summarize the major findings on plant HDACs, with a focus on the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana, and highlight the components, regulatory mechanisms, and biological functions of HDAC complexes.     

Construction and Characterization of a CTLA-4-Targeted scFv–Melittin Fusion Protein as a Potential Immunosuppressive Agent for Organ Transplant

Immunotoxins with selective cytotoxicity are frequently used as therapeutic immunosuppressive agents in solid-organ transplantation because of their efficiency and high specificity. In this study, we present a new recombinant immunotoxin termed anti-CTLA-4-scFv–melittin prepared from Escherichia coli aimed at clearing activated T cells at the same time avoiding all-round decline in systematic immunity. This fusion protein is composed of anti-CTLA-4-scFv unit and melittin analog unit with properties of low immunogenicity and selective cytotoxicity to CTLA-4-positive T cells. In preliminary biological activity assays, our results confirmed the feasibility of activated T cell clearance strategy and there were significant differences in cell survival rates between CTLA-4-positive group and control group at all experimental concentrations of the immunotoxin. The selective cytotoxicity, low immunogenicity, and low production cost make it an attractive alternate to traditional immunosuppressants.