Physiological aspects of chitin catabolism in marine bacteria

Chitin, a carbohydrate polymer composed of alternating beta-1, 4-linked N-acetylglucosamine residues is the second most abundant organic compound in nature. In the aquatic biosphere alone, it is estimated that more than 10(11) metric tons of chitin are produced annually. If this enormous quantity of insoluble carbon and nitrogen was not converted to biologically useful material, the oceans would be depleted of these elements in a matter of decades. In fact, marine sediments contain only traces of chitin, and the turnover of the polysaccharide is attributed primarily to marine bacteria, but the overall process involves many steps, most of which remain to be elucidated. Marine bacteria possess complex signal transduction systems for: (1) finding chitin, (2) adhering to chitinaceous substrata, (3) degrading the chitin to oligosaccharides, (4) transporting the oligosaccharides to the cytoplasm, and (5) catabolizing the transport products to fructose-6-P, acetate and NH(3). The proteins and enzymes are located extracellularly, in the cell envelope, the periplasmic space, the inner membrane and the cytoplasm. In addition to these levels of complexity, the various components of these systems appear to be carefully coordinated by intricate regulatory mechanisms.     

A chimeric vector for efficient chromosomal modification in Enterococcus faecalis and other lactic acid bacteria

Aim: To construct a chimeric vector named pBVGh for quickly generating gene modifications in Enterococcus faecalis. Methods and Results: The constructed plasmid pBVGh carries the pG⁺host replicon (a thermosensitive (TS) derivative of pWV01), allowing a simple generation of mutants by growing colonies first at the permissive temperature and then switching the culture to the nonpermissive temperature. Additionally, this vector facilitates the screening of mutants by a rapid colorimetric blue‐white discrimination of plasmid‐free bacteria. Conclusions: The pBVGh vector allows a straightforward inactivation or modification of target genes as well as a fast selection of enterococcal mutant strains. Significance and Impact of the Study: The broad range of the TS replicon utilized in this plasmid permits the easy establishment and the efficient generation of food‐grade mutant strains in Ent. faecalis and several other Gram‐positive bacteria.     

Site-specific chromosomal rearrangements induced in human diploid cells by x-irradiation

A total of 130 stable, two-break reciprocal translocations were scored in G-banded karyotypes prepared from 375 metaphase spreads from a strain of human diploid fibroblasts irradiated with 400 or 600 rads and analyzed 1-20 mean population doublings later. The chromosomal location of each of the 260 breakpoints was mapped. The sites of 121 chromosomal breaks and deletions in the first postirradiation mitosis were also scored. Unlike the random distribution of these latter events, the translocation breakpoints showed not only a nonrandom distribution among chromosomes but also the existence of specific sites within chromosomes that were more frequently involved in translocations. The most notable finding was a marked excess of translocations involving the short arm of chromosome 1, in particular, band 1p22. The specific types of translocations were random, although the breakpoints were not. Eight of the 12 most frequently involved chromosomal sites were regions in which fragile sites have been mapped in human lymphocytes.     

Physiological aspects of apoptosis

Study of apoptosis is a new stage in development of biomedical sciences. At the cellular level the process is realised on account of efferents supporting an equilibrium among proliferation, differentiation, and programmed cell death. Significance of each of the factors is determined by its role in physiological systems functioning. Cell death infringement may cause pathological conditions and diseases followed by both degenerative and proliferative changes.     

Physiological and pathophysiological aspects of ceramide

Activation of cells by receptor- and nonreceptor-mediated stimuli not only requires a change in the activity of signaling proteins but also requires a reorganization of the topology of the signalosom in the cell. The cell membrane contains distinct domains, rafts that serve the spatial organization of signaling molecules in the cell. Many receptors or stress stimuli transform rafts by the generation of ceramide. These stimuli activate the acid sphingomyelinase and induce a translocation of this enzyme onto the extracellular leaflet of the cell membrane. Surface acid sphingomyelinase generates ceramide that serves to fuse small rafts and to form large ceramide-enriched membrane platforms. These platforms cluster receptor molecules, recruit intracellular signaling molecules to aggregated receptors, and seem to exclude inhibitory signaling factors. Thus ceramide-enriched membrane platforms do not seem to be part of a specific signaling pathway but may facilitate and amplify the specific signaling elicited by the cognate stimulus. This general function may enable these membrane domains to be critically involved in the induction of apoptosis by death receptors and stress stimuli, bacterial and viral infections of mammalian cells, and the regulation of cardiovascular functions.