Derivation and characterization of an efficiently myocarditic reovirus variant.

A reovirus variant, 8B, was isolated from a neonatal mouse which had been inoculated with a mixture of two reovirus strains: type 1 Lang (T1L) and type 3 Dearing (T3D) (E. A. Wenske, S.J. Chanock, L. Krata, and B. N. Fields, J. Virol. 56:613-616, 1985). 8B is a reassortant containing eight gene segments derived from the T1L parent and two gene segments derived from the T3D parent. Upon infection of neonatal mice, 8B produced a generalized infection characteristic of many reoviruses, but it also efficiently induced numerous macroscopic external cardiac lesions, unlike either of its parents. Microscopic examination of hearts from infected mice revealed myocarditis with necrotic myocytes and both polymorphonuclear and mononuclear cellular infiltration. Electron microscopy revealed viral arrays in necrotic myocytes and dystrophic calcification accompanying late lesions. Determination of viral titers in hearts from T1L-, T3D-, or 8B-infected mice indicated that growth was not the primary determinant of myocardial necrosis. Results from inoculations of athymic mice demonstrated that T cells were not a requirement for the 8B-induced myocarditis. Finally, 8B was more cytopathic than either of the parent viruses in cultured mouse L cells. Together, the data suggest that 8B-induced myocardial necrosis is due to a direct effect of reovirus on myocytes. Reovirus thus provides a useful model for the study of viral myocarditis.     

Homoserine dehydrogenase of Rhodospirillum rubrum. Physical and chemical characterization.

A detailed physicochemical characterization of purified homoserine dehydrogenase of Rhodospirillum rubrum is presented. The enzyme has a molecular weight of 110000 and consists of two subunits of identical molecular weight of 55000. Depending on the ionic strength and protein concentration it is possible for the native enzyme to dimerize to produce an enzymatically active species of molecular weight 220000. Titrations of the native and detergent-treated enzyme with a variety of sulfhydryl reagents show 2 mol free--SH groups per 110000 g, one of which is buried in the protein interior. L-Threonine and/or high concentrations of salt can expose the buried--SH group, and this--SH group is essential for the catalytic activity of the enzyme. Two independent lines of evidence show that extensive polymerization of the enzyme caused by L-threonine and/or high concentrations of salt does not involve the formation of intermolecular disulfide bonds.     

Lipopolysaccharides of Vibrio cholerae. I. Physical and chemical characterization

Vibrio cholerae is the causative organism of the disease cholera. The lipopolysaccharide (LPS) of V. cholerae plays an important role in eliciting the antibacterial immune response of the host and in classifying the vibrios into some 200 or more serogroups. This review presents an account of our up-to-date knowledge of the physical and chemical characteristics of the three constituents, lipid-A, core-polysaccharide (core-PS) and O-antigen polysaccharide (O-PS), of the LPS of V. cholerae of different serogroups including the disease-causing ones, O1 and O139. The structure and occurrence of the capsular polysaccharide (CPS) on V. cholerae O139 have been discussed as a relevant topic. Similarity and dissimilarity between the structures of LPS of different serogroups, and particularly between O22 and O139, have been analysed with a view to learning their role in the causation of the epidemic form of the disease by avoiding the host defence mechanism and in the evolution of the newer pathogenic strains in future. An idea of the emerging trends of research involving the use of immunogens prepared from synthetic oligosaccharides that mimic terminal epitopes of the O-PS of V. cholerae O1 in the development of a conjugate anti cholera vaccine is also discussed.     

Physical and chemical characterization of purified ovalbumin messenger RNA.

Preparative agarose gel electrophoresis under denaturing conditions has been successfully employed to purify large quantities of ovalbumin mRNA from hen oviducts. The mRNA thus prepared is physically homogeneous based on its migration as a single component on electrophoresis in both analytical acid-urea agarose gels and formamide-containing, neutral polyacrylaminde gels; it also sediments as a single peak in sucrose gradients containing 70% formamide. The mRNA is chemically free of ribosomal RNA contamination since its oligonucleotide fingerprint map after complete T1 ribonuclease digestion contains no detectable specific large oligonucleotide markers of ribosomal RNAs. It is also not contaminated by other biologically active messenger RNAs because, when it is added to the cell-free wheat germ translation system, the only protein product synthesized is ovalbumin as analyzed by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis in the presence of sodium dodecyl sulfate and specific immunoprecipitation. Ovalbumin mRNA has a nucleotide composition of 32.3% A, 21.0% G, 25.7% U, and 20.7% C [(A+U)/(G+C) equal 1.41]. The mRNA contains a heterogeneous poly(A) tract ranging from 20 to 140 residues with a number average chain length of 62 adenylate residues. The molecular weight of the sodium salt of the purified mRNA is approximately 650,000 +/- 63,000, corresponding to a chain length of 1890 +/- 180 nucleotides, as determined by electron microscopy under completely denaturing conditions. This value is in close agreement with the values obtained from: (a) sucrose gradient centrifugation in the presence of 70% formamide; (b) evaluation of poly(A) content in the mRNA and the number average chain length of its poly(A) tract; and (c) sedimentation velocity studies in the presence of 3% formaldehyde. When 125I-labeled ovalbumin mRNA is allowed to hybridize with a large excess of chick DNA, the observed kinetics of hybridization reveal no appreciable reaction between the mRNA and the repeated sequences of the chick DNA, although the mRNA appears to be approximately 600 nucleotides longer than necessary to code for ovalbumin. It thus appears that the entire ovalbumin mRNA is primarily transcribed from a unique sequence in the chick genome.     

Uridine phosphorylase from Escherichia coli. Physical and chemical characterization.

Uridine phosphorylase from Escherichia coli has been purified to homogeneity. The enzyme was found to have a molecular weight of 176000 and to consist of 8 probably identical subunits with molecular weights of 22000. These numbers were determined from equilibrium centrifugations in the analytical ultracentrifuge, from dodecylsulphate gel electrophoresis and from amino acid analysis. Moreover the following physico-chemical constants were determined: s020,w = 8.2 x 10(-13) s, upsilon2 = 0.751 cm3/g, A1%280 (1 cm) = 6.73 and a specific activity of 183 units/mg towards uridine. The enzyme shows some activity towards deoxyuridine and thymidine. The activity is not impaired through substitution by bromo, fluoro or methyl groups in the 5-position of the uracil base, but no enzymatic activity is observed when cytosine base is used in the nucleoside substrate.     

Purification and chemical characterization of the major glycoprotein of avian myeloblastosis virus.

The major glycoprotein of avian myeloblastosis virus (AMV) has been purified to an apparent state of homogeneity by gel filtration on a Sepharose 4B column in the presence of 6 m guanidine hydrochloride followed by dialysis against distilled water and then extraction with chloroform-methanol. The AMV glycoprotein remains soluble in the aqueous phase whereas contaminating proteins precipitate, either upon dialysis against distilled water or after treatment with chloroform-methanol.Carbohydrate, represented by glucosamine, mannose, galactose, fucose, and sialic acid, constitutes 40% of the weight of AMV glycoprotein. Glucosamine is the major carbohydrate component whereas fucose and sialic acid are present in relatively low amount. Amino acid analysis indicates a relatively high content of aspartic and glutamic acid, serine, threonine, and glycine. Based on SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, a molecular weight value of 77,500 ± 500 was determined for AMV glycoprotein.     

Intracellular posttranslational modifications of S1133 avian reovirus proteins.

Avian reovirus S1133 specifies at least 10 primary translation products, eight of which are present in the viral particle and two of which are nonstructural proteins. In the work presented here, we studied the covalent modifications undergone by these translation products in the infected cell. The structural polypeptide mu2 was shown to be intracellularly modified by both myristoylation and proteolysis. The site-specific cleavage of mu2 yielded a large carboxy-terminal fragment and a myristoylated approximately 5,500-Mr peptide corresponding to the amino terminus. Both mu2 and its cleavage products were found to be structural components of the reovirion. Most avian reovirus proteins were found to be glycosylated and to have a blocking group at the amino terminus. In contrast to the mammalian reovirus system, none of the avian reovirus polypeptides was found to incorporate phosphorus during infection. Our results add to current understanding of the similarities and differences between avian and mammalian reoviruses.     

Protein coding assignment of avian reovirus strain S1133.

Avian reovirus S1133 encodes 10 primary translation products, 8 of which are structural components of the viral particle and 2 of which are nonstructural proteins. The identity of the gene that codes for each of these polypeptides was determined by in vitro translation of denatured individual genome segments.     

Isolation and genetic characterization of ethanol-resistant reovirus mutants.

To better understand the mechanism(s) by which viruses respond to chemical or physical treatments, we isolated a series of mutant strains of reovirus type 3 Dearing that exhibit increased ethanol resistance. Following exposure to 33% ethanol for 20 min, the parental strain exhibited a 5 log10 decrease in infectivity. The mutant strains, however, exhibited a 2 to 3 log10 decrease in titer following identical treatment. Through the use of reassortant viruses, we mapped this increased ethanol resistance mutation to the M2 gene segment, which encodes a major outer capsid protein, mu1C. Sequence analysis of mutant M2 genes revealed that six of seven unique mutants possessed single-point mutations in this gene. In addition, the change in six of seven mutants caused a predicted amino acid change in a 35-amino-acid region of the gene product between amino acids 425 and 459. The identification of ethanol resistance mutations within a discrete region of this outer capsid protein identifies that portion of the protein as important in reovirus stability. The presence of viral particles possessing altered stability also suggests that subpopulations of viruses may possess altered environmental stability, which, in turn, could affect viral transmission.     

Molecular characterization of an avian astrovirus

Astroviruses are known to cause enteric disease in several animal species, including turkeys. However, only human astroviruses have been well characterized at the nucleotide level. Herein we report the nucleotide sequence, genomic organization, and predicted amino acid sequence of a turkey astrovirus isolated from poults with an emerging enteric disease.     

Rabbit cardiac myosin. I. Physical and chemical characterization of the native molecule.

Rabbit cardiac myosin, isolated from frozen tissue, was effectively purified by batchwise treatment with DEAE-cellulose in addition to suing cilution-precipitation techniques. An extensive experimental program was subsequently carried out with respect to the enzymic amino acid, optical and physicochemical properties of native cardiac myosin. This program has included the following: examination of the effects of pH and varying concentrations of ATP, CaCl2, MgCl2, and PCMB on its ATPase activity; measurement of its circular dichroic spectrum in solvent buffers, at different pH or containing ATP in the absence or presence of Ca-2+ or Mg-2+ ions; study of the concentration dependence of its viscosity and sedimentation velocity at low temperatures; and investigation of its molecular weight by the Archibald method and low- and high-speed sedimentation equilibrium. The results of these studies were consistent with the interpretation that cardiac myosin is comprised of highly asymmetric, semi-rigid molecules with a molecular weight in the order of 4.7 times 10-5, which display non-ideality even in solvent buffers of high ionic strength at neurtal pH. In addition, computer analysis of the high-speed sedimentation equilibrium data has provided evidence for the presence of a self-association reaction at low protein concentration. Even though the specif ATPase activity of cardiac myosin was found to be approximately one-third that reported for skeletal myosin in all cases, it was concluded, on the the basis of the essentially analogous physical and chemical properties of rabbit cardiac and skeletal myosin, that the two proteins are very similar in terms of molecular size, shape, and secondary structure.     

Physical and chemical characterization of a horse serum carboxylesterase

The serine carboxylesterase from horse serum was characterized by amino acid composition, peptide mapping, molecular and subunit weights, and sequencing of the amino acids around the essential serine residue at the active site. A protocol was developed for using reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography as the final step to obtain homogeneous preparations of horse serum carboxylesterase. Amounts sufficient for determining the amino acid composition and for peptide maps were obtained from a partially purified starting material which contained approximately 55% carboxylesterase. The amino acid composition, like the subunit weight (70,800 +/- 1400), was similar to the corresponding values reported for other serine carboxylesterases. However, the amino acid sequence of the tryptic digest fragment containing the essential nucleophilic seryl residue differed significantly from the corresponding sequences of other mammalian serine carboxylesterases.     

Isolation and characterization of an avian myogenic cell line

Myogenic cell lines have proven extremely valuable for studying myogenesis in vitro. Although a number of mammalian muscle cell lines have been isolated, attempts to produce cell lines from other classes of animals have met with only limited success. We report here the isolation and characterization of seven avian myogenic cell lines (QM1-4 and QM6-8), derived from the quail fibrosarcoma cell line QT6. A differentiation incompetent QM cell derivative was also isolated (QM5DI). The major features of QM cell differentiation in vitro closely resemble those of their mammalian counterparts. Mononucleated QM cells replicate in medium containing high concentrations of serum components. Upon switching to medium containing low serum components, cells withdraw from the cell cycle and fuse to form elongated multinucleated myotubes. Cultures typically obtain fusion indices of 43-49%. Northern blot and immunoblot analyses demonstrate that each differentiated QM cell line expresses a wide variety of genes encoding muscle specific proteins: desmin, cardiac troponin T, skeletal troponin T, cardiac troponin C, skeletal troponin I, alpha-tropomyosin, muscle creatine kinase, myosin light chain 2, and a ventricular isoform of myosin heavy chain. While all QM lines analyzed to date express at least some myosin light chain 2, only one line, QM7, expresses this gene at high levels. Surprisingly, none of the QM lines reported here express any known form of alpha-actin. The absence of sarcomeric actin expression may explain the absence of myofibrils in QM myotubes. These novel features of muscle gene expression in QM cells may prove useful for studying the role of specific muscle proteins during myogenesis. More importantly, however, the isolation of QM cell lines indicates that it may be feasible to isolate other avian myogenic cell lines with general utility for the study of muscle development.