Cell cycle parameters of Proteus mirabilis: interdependence of the biosynthetic cell cycle and the interdivision cycle.

We investigated the time periods of DNA replication, lateral cell wall extension, and septum formation within the cell cycle of Proteus mirabilis. Cells were cultivated under three different conditions, yielding interdivision times of approximately 55, 57, and 160 min, respectively. Synchrony was achieved by sucrose density gradient centrifugation. The time periods were estimated by division inhibition studies with cephalexin, mecillinam, and nalidixic acid. In addition, DNA replication was measured by thymidine incorporation, and murein biosynthesis was measured by incorporation of N-acetylglucosamine into sodium dodecyl sulfate-insoluble murein sacculi. At interdivision times of 55 to 57 min murein biosynthesis for reproduction of a unit cell lasted longer than the interdivision time itself, whereas DNA replication finished within 40 min. Surprisingly, inhibition of DNA replication by nalidixic acid did not inhibit the subsequent cell division but rather the one after that. Because P. mirabilis fails to express several reactions of the recA-dependent SOS functions known from Escherichia coli, the drug allowed us to determine which DNA replication period actually governed which cell division. Taken together, the results indicate that at an interdivision time of 55 to 57 min, the biosynthetic cell cycle of P. mirabilis lasts approximately 120 min. To achieve the observed interdivision time, it is necessary that two subsequent biosynthetic cell cycles be tightly interlocked. The implications of these findings for the regulation of the cell cycle are discussed.     

Cell cycle: driving the centrosome cycle.

Cyclin-dependent kinases (Cdks) control major transitions as cells pass through the cell cycle. It has recently been shown that centrosome duplication in vertebrates requires Cdk2 activity and can be driven solely by Cdk2-cyclin E complexes.     

The centrosome cycle in the mitotic cycle of sea urchin eggs

When sea urchin eggs entering mitosis are exposed to an appropriate concentration of mercaptoethanol, the chromosome cycle is restrained while the centrosome cycle advances. The two poles of the mitotic apparatus separate into four poles, while the chromosomes remain in their metaphase arrangements until released by the removal of the mercaptoethanol. We follow the centrosomes through the stages of the generation of two poles by each original pole. In electron microscopic studies, the osmiophilic component of the centrosomes serves as an indicator of their changing forms as each pole generates two poles. In light microscopic studies, including observations of birefringence, the shapes of the polar ends of the spindles are taken as indicators of the shapes of the centrosomes. The successive stages of the centrosome cycle are (1) compact spherical centrosomes at the time of formation of the mitotic apparatus; (2) expansion and flattening of the centrosomes, leading to (3) formation of thin flat plates, perpendicular to the spindle axis. Corresponding to the extended flat shape of the centrosomes, the spindle poles are flat; microtubules 'point' to the centrosomal plate and not the centrioles. The centrioles are separated in the flattening of the centrosomes. (4) The flat plate divides into two and each of the two halves becomes more compact, defining two separate poles. Our findings resurrect and update Boveri's [5] observations and interpretations of the centrosome. Centrosomes have shapes. The shapes may be imparted to the microtubular structures that they generate. The formation of two separate centrosomes from one, in the formation of mitotic poles, is describable as a sequence of changes in shape.     

Reproductive cycle of the elephant

The combination of a few factors, including poor captive reproduction, secession of importation from the wild and advances in hormone detection and ultrasonography, has contributed to the current knowledge on the elephant reproductive cycle. Several reproductive features in elephants differ markedly from other mammals. These include the urogenital tract anatomy, length and structure of the reproductive cycle, the formation of multiple corpora lutea and the type and secretion pattern of reproductive hormones. Being 13-18 weeks in length, the elephant estrous cycle is the longest amongst all studied non-seasonal mammals to date. Progesterone increases 1-3 days after ovulation, indicating the start of the luteal phase, which lasts 6-12 weeks. This is followed by a 4- to 6-week follicular phase that is concluded by two, precisely spaced and timed, LH surges. In general, the first, anovulatory LH surge occurs exactly 19-21 days before the second, ovulatory surge. Normally, a single follicle is ovulated. However, beside a corpus luteum (CL) forming on the site of ovulation, multiple accessory CLs can be found on the ovaries. Unlike many other species, the predominant progestagen secreted by luteal tissues is not progesterone, but rather its 5-alpha-reduced metabolites. The currently known aspects of the unique estrous cycle in Asian and African elephants, covering estrous behavior, circulating hormones, ultrasonography and anatomy of the reproductive organs as well as hormonal manipulation treatment possibilities, will be reviewed here.     

Fixing the Q cycle

Mitchell's key insight that all bioenergetic membranes run on the conversion of redox energy into transmembrane electrical and proton gradients took the form 30 years ago of a working model of the Q cycle of cytochrome bc1, which operates reversibly on coupled electron and proton transfers of quinone at two binding sites on opposite membrane faces. His remarkable model still stands today, but he had no structural information to provide understanding into how dangerous short-circuit redox reactions were avoided. Now, it is clear that the Q cycle must be fixed with a special mechanism that avoids semiquinone-mediated short circuits. Either the redox states of the quinone electron-transfer partners double-gate the semiquinone-intermediate stability, or semiquinone is avoided altogether in concerted double-electron transfer.     

Purine nucleotide cycle. Evidence for the occurrence of the cycle in brain.

Cell-free extracts of rat brain catalyze the reactions of the purine nucleotide cycle. Ammonia is formed during the deamination but not the amination phase of the cycle. The activity of adenylate deaminase in brain is sufficient to account for the maximum rates of ammonia production that have been reported. The activity of glutamate dehydrogenase is not sufficient to account for these rates of ammonia production. The activities of adenylosuccinate synthetase and adenylosuccinase are nearly sufficient to account for the steady state rates of ammonia production observed in brain. Demonstration of the cycle in extracts of brain is complicated by the occurrence of side reactions, in particular those catalyzed by phosphomonoesterase, nucleoside phosphorylase, and guanase.     

Cytological interrelationships between the cell cycle and duplication cycle of Candida albicans

The cytology of nuclear division and septation in the yeast and hyphal phases of Candida albicans growing at 37 degrees C has been studied by fluorescence microscopy after staining of specimens with 4'6-diaminido-2-phenylindole (DAPI) and Calcofluor. Yeast and hyphal cells replicated their nuclei at about 18 min after the emergence of a bud or germ-tube. The site of nuclear division coincided with the future location of the septum in both forms. This occurred at the junction of the bud and parent yeast cell or 6.0 micron from the parent yeast in germ tubes which were formed in medium containing serum. The filamentous forms of a range of clinical and laboratory strains grown in a variety of germ tube-inducing media were all extensively vacuolated. Germ tube extension in all of these media was linear. It is suggested that there is little biosynthesis of cytoplasm during the initial stages of germ tube growth in this organism and that this accounts for the development of the large vacuoles and the linear growth kinetics.