Microbial dehalogenation of trichloroacetic acid

A pure bacterial culture and a two-membered mixed culture were isolated that degraded trichloroacetic acid if a second, readily metabolizable substrate was present in the growth medium. Previous doubts over the microbial dehalogenation of trichloroacetic acid (TCA) may be due to its inability to act as a sole carbon and energy source. TCA dehalogenation was associated with conventional 2-haloalkanoic acid dehalogenases but oxalate, the putative dehalogenase product, was not detected. CO₂ was produced rapidly and concomitantly with Cl^– ion release during dehalogenation of TCA. An alternative mechanism is suggested for TCA dehalogenation via an initial decarboxylation reaction. This mechanism predicts that carbon monoxide is a product of TCA decarboxylation and it was significant that one of the organisms isolated,Pseudomonas carboxydohydrogens, was a carboxytroph and a second was an unidentified facultative methylotroph.     

Research Progress on endangered plants: a bibliometric analysis

Biodiversity and Conservation - The rapid extinction of endangered plants (EPs) may lead to the destruction of entire ecosystems, which will seriously threaten the survival and development of...     

Teratogenic activity of trichloroacetic acid in the rat

Trichloroacetic acid (TCA) is a by-product of the chlorine disinfection of water containing natural organic material. It is detectable in finished drinking water at levels comparable to the trihalomethanes (30-160 micrograms/L). TCA is also formed in vivo after ingestion of hypochlorite and has been identified as a major metabolite of chlorinated hydrocarbons such as trichloroethylene. The developmental effects of TCA were evaluated in the pregnant Long-Evans rat. Animals were dosed by oral intubation on gestation days 6-15 (plug = 0) with 0, 330, 800, 1,200, or 1,800 mg/kg/day. The vehicle control was distilled water. Maternal observations included clinical signs, weight change, and gross evaluation of organ weights and uterine contents at necropsy (day 20). Live fetuses were examined for external, skeletal, and soft tissue malformation. There were no maternal deaths associated with toxicity prior to sacrifice. Weight gain during treatment was reduced at 800, 1,200, and 1,800 mg/kg. Spleen and kidney weights were increased in a dose-related manner. The mean percent of resorbed implants per litter was 34, 62, and 90 at 800, 1,200, and 1,800 mg/kg, respectively. Live fetuses showed dose-dependent reductions in weight and length. The mean frequency of soft tissue malformations ranged from 9% at the low dose to 97% at the high dose. These were principally in the cardiovascular system (interventricular septal defect, levocardia). Skeletal malformations were found only at 1,200 and 1,800 mg/kg and were mainly in the orbit. Based on these observations TCA was considered to be developmentally toxic in the pregnant rat at doses of 330 mg/kg and above.     

Development of a trichloroacetic acid precipitation assay for covalent adducts of thymidylate synthase

The use of trichloroacetic acid as a protein precipitant and denaturant in the quantitative measurement of covalent complexes of thymidylate synthase is described. Enzyme inactivated with N[3H]ethylmaleimide and inhibitory ternary complex (formed with native enzyme, 5-[6-3H]fluoro-2'-deoxyuridylate, and methylenetetrahydrofolate) served as reagents which were used to establish the conditions under which trichloroacetic acid precipitation, washing, and solubilization steps provided quantitative results. The ternary complex formed by dihydrofolate reductase with [3H]methotrexate and NADPH was used as a control to assess whether tight, but noncovalent, enzyme:ligand complexes survived trichloroacetic acid precipitation. The fact that no counts above background were detected in the pellet of precipitated protein demonstrated that the noncovalent complexes were completely dissociated by this treatment. The dynamic range of linear response for the inhibitory ternary complex of thymidylate synthase spanned five orders of magnitude, and the assay detected levels of enzyme as low as 10 fmol, a value which was essentially limited by the specific radioactivity of 5-[6-3H]fluoro-2'-deoxyuridylate. The ability of the enzyme to bind 5-[6-3H]fluoro-2'-deoxyuridylate specifically, as measured by the trichloroacetic acid assay, generated a specific binding value of 13.4 nmol of enzyme/mg protein (assuming a binding ratio of 1.5 for the inhibitory ternary complex). Specific binding values were compared to specific activity values (obtained from the spectrophotometric assay) at each stage of purification of the enzyme from Lactobacillus casei and were found to give parallel results. The characteristics of the trichloracetic acid assay procedure, which exclusively detects covalent enzyme-ligand adducts, are compared to those for other ligand binding assays for thymidylate synthase.     

Microbiological aspects of determination of trichloroacetic acid in soil

Soils have been shown to possess a strong microbial trichloroacetic acid (TCA)-degrading activity. High TCA-degradation rate was also observed during soil extraction with water. For correct measurements of TCA levels in soil all TCA-degrading activities have to be inhibited immediately after sampling before analysis. We used rapid freezing of soil samples (optimally in liquid nitrogen) with subsequent storage and slow thawing before analysis as an efficient technique for suppressing the degradation. Frozen soil samples stored overnight at -20 degrees C and then thawed slowly exhibited very low residual TCA-degrading activity for several hours. Omitting the above procedure could lead to the confusing differences between the TCA levels previously reported in the literature.     

Compartmental analysis of carcinogenic experiments: Formulation of a stochastic model

Numerous models for tumor formation and development have been proposed and analyzed. The present model is rather unique by virtue of its incorporation of casual biological theory into the chance mechanisms. This is accomplished by using the very flexible technique of compartmental modeling. An important consequence is that the present model readily lends itself to many types of generalizations and analyses, some of which are explored in this paper. The complete stochastic solution for the model is derived. Factorability of the hazard rate is established. Use of the stochastic solution for safe dose estimation is considered.     

Worldwide melatonin research: a bibliometric analysis of the published literature between 2015 and 2019

ABSTRACT

This study presents a bibliometric analysis of the publications on melatonin research from the Scopus database during the period 2015–2019. Based on the keywords used, which are related to melatonin in the article title, the study retrieved 4411 documents for further analysis using various tools. We used Microsoft Excel to conduct the frequency analysis, VOSviewer for data visualization, and Harzing’s Publish or Perish for citation metrics and analysis. This study reports the results using standard bibliometric indicators such as the growth of publications, authorship patterns, collaboration, and prolific authors, country contribution, most active institutions, preferred journals, and top-cited articles. Based on our findings, there is a continuous growth of publications on melatonin research for 5 years since 2015. China was the largest contributor to melatonin research, followed by the United States. The Journal of Pineal Research published the most number of publications related to melatonin research. Our findings suggest that the role of melatonin in plant and food sciences, as well as in cancer, may in later years take over the clusters that earlier dominated melatonin research.     

Comparison of trichloroacetic acid with other protein-precipitating agents in enriching abnormal prion protein for Western blot analysis

Detection of the abnormal or the pathogenic form of prion protein (PrP(Sc)) by Western blot (WB) is challenging, especially, for samples derived from cell cultures that contain low levels of PrP(Sc). A variety of PrP(Sc) concentration methods have been reported with various PrP(Sc) recovery efficiencies. Ultracentrifugation is one of the methods used frequently to enrich the pathogenic form of PrP(Sc) prior to WB analyses. The resulting PrP(Sc) pellet is extremely insoluble and often requires sonication to be dissolved, potentially generating aerosols. We modified the common protein-precipitating protocol using trichloroacetic acid to concentrate PrP(Sc) by slow-speed centrifugation, followed by solubilization of the pellets with 6 mol/L urea prior to sodium dodecyl sulphate -- polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and WB analyses. Comparative studies suggest this simple trichloroacetic acid protocol was more effective in enriching PrP(Sc) presented in cell cultures and brain homogenates than other reported protein-precipitating methods. Furthermore, incorporation of the urea treatment step to dissolve the precipitated PrP(Sc) pellets helped to reduce the infectivity of PrP(Sc).     

Nucleoprotein staining. An analysis of a standardized trichloroacetic acid-Fast Green FCF procedure

Synopsis A standardized, highly reproducible modification of the original Alfert & Geschwind procedure (1953) has been formulated; it involves trichloroacetic acid extraction at 60°C and the use of a weak HCl-borate buffer for the dye solution.A comparison of sections stained with Fast Green, Feulgen-Schiff, Toluidine Blue and Gallocyanin-chrome alum indicates that the trichloroacetic acid-Fast Green procedure does not reveal the actual amount of histone but instead simply indicates the excess of positive charges in the chromatin and cytoplasm remaining after the acid extraction.     

Pattern of dissolution of deoxyribonucleic acid in trichloroacetic acid in the presence of protein

Hot TCA solutions are unsatisfactory for the solubilization of radioactive DNA from precipitates containing large amounts of protein. Under such conditions, only a portion of the radioactivity becomes solubilized initially. With longer heating, the radioactivity becomes reattached to the precipitate but eventually becomes partly or completely resolubilized when the protein precipitate itself dissolves as a result of the decomposition of the TCA. Hot PCA or HCl solutions are satisfactory for the solubilization of radioactive DNA in the presence of protein, but longer heating is required to effect solubilization than in the absence of protein.