Murine Mammary Carcinomas Induced by Intravaginal Applications of Methylcholanthrene in Minimal Dosages

Mammary cancer occurred in five of 80 ICR Swiss mice and two of 52 phenotypically normal pituitary dwarf strain mice following intravaginal applications of 20-methylcholanthrene in doses totalling 2.0 to 5.5 mg. Twenty-two of these 132 methylcholanthrene-treated mice had lower genital tract cancer. One acetone-treated Swiss mouse developed mammary cancer. No genital tract or mammary cancer occurred in mice receiving less than 2.0 mg. methylcholanthrene. The carcinogen was administered when mice were young; mammary cancers appeared between 65 and 167 days after methylcholanthrene application was begun. This study provides additional examples of carcinogenesis in organs remote from sites of carcinogen treatment with carcinogen doses close to threshold levels for treated tissues.     

No Enhancement of 24-Hour Visuomotor Skill Retention by Post-Practice Caffeine Administration

Caffeine is widely consumed throughout the world and appears to indirectly facilitate learning and memory through effects on attention and motivation. Animal work indicates that post-training caffeine administration augments inhibitory avoidance memory, spatial memory, and object memory. In humans, post-training caffeine administration enhances the ability to discern between familiar images and new, similar images. However, the effect of post-training caffeine administration on motor memory has not been examined. Therefore, we tested two groups of low caffeine consumers (average weekly consumption ≤500 mg) in a double-blind, placebo-controlled study involving acquisition of a continuous isometric visuomotor tracking skill. On Day 1, subjects completed 5 blocks (150 repetitions) of training on the continuous isometric visuomotor skill and subsequently ingested either 200 mg of caffeine or placebo. On day 2, subjects completed an additional 5 blocks of training. Day 1 mean performance and performance variability were both similar between groups, suggesting that both groups acquired the motor skill similarly. For mean performance on Day 2, patterns of re-learning, mean performance learning magnitudes, mean performance learning rates, and mean performance retention magnitudes were all similar between groups. For performance variability on Day 2, there was a small trend towards increased variability in the caffeine group during re-learning, but performance variability learning magnitudes and performance variability retention magnitudes did not differ between groups. Because motor skill acquisition can also be conceptualized as a reduction in performance variability, these results suggest that there may be a small negative effect of post-practice caffeine administration on memory of a newly-learned visuomotor skill. Overall, we found no evidence to suggest that post-training caffeine administration enhances 24-hour retention of a newly-learned continuous visuomotor skill, and these results support the notion that memory-enhancing effects of post-training caffeine ingestion may be task-specific.     

The Augmented R-Loop Is a Unifying Mechanism for Myelodysplastic Syndromes Induced by High-Risk Splicing Factor Mutations

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Repair of Pyrimidine Dimer Damage Induced in Yeast by Ultraviolet Light

Crude extracts from ultraviolet (UV)-irradiated yeast cells compete with UV-irradiated transforming deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) for photoreactivating enzyme. The amount of competition is taken as a measure of the level of cyclobutyl pyrimidine dimers in the yeast DNA. A calibration of the competition using UV-irradiated calf thymus DNA indicates that an incident UV dose (1,500 ergs/mm(2)) yielding 1% survivors of wild-type cells produces between 2.5 x 10(4) to 5 x 10(4) dimers per cell. Wild-type cells irradiated in the exponential phase of growth remove or alter more than 90% of the dimers within 220 min after irradiation. Pyrimidine dimers induced in stationary-phase wild-type cells appear to remain in the DNA; however, with incubation, they become less photoreactivable in vivo, although remaining photoreactivable in vitro. In contrast, exponentially growing or stationary-phase UV-sensitive cells (rad2-17) show almost no detectable alteration of dimers. We conclude that the UV-sensitive cells lack an early step in the repair of UV-induced pyrimidine dimers.     

Surface Attachment of Listeria monocytogenes Is Induced by Sublethal Concentrations of Alcohol at Low Temperatures

Sublethal concentrations of ethanol or isopropanol increased attachment of Listeria monocytogenes at 10, 20, or 30°C; no induction occurred at 37°C. The alcohol induction phenotype was retained in sigB and cesRK mutants; however, the degree of induction was affected. These results suggest that alcohol may contribute to the persistence of L. monocytogenes.     

Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus Phage Plaque Size Enhancement Using Sublethal Concentrations of Antibiotics

Phage therapy presents an alternative approach against the emerging methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) threat. Some of the problems encountered during isolation of MRSA phages include the high prevalence of enteric phages in natural sources, nonspecific absorption of viable phage, and the formation of pinpoint or tiny plaques. The phage isolated in this study, MR-5, also formed tiny plaques against its host S. aureus ATCC 43300 (MRSA), making its detection and enumeration difficult. An improved method of increasing the plaque size of MRSA phage by incorporating sublethal concentrations of three different classes of antibiotics (inhibitors of protein synthesis) in the classical double-layer agar (DLA) method was investigated. The β-lactam and quinolone antibiotics commonly employed in earlier studies for increasing the plaque size did not show any significant effect on the plaque size of isolated MR-5 phage. Linezolid (oxazolidinone class), tetracycline, and ketolide antibiotics brought significant enhancements (3 times the original size) in the plaque size of MR-5 phage. Prior treatment with these antibiotics resulted in significant reductions in the time of adsorption and the latent period of MR-5 phage. To rule out whether the action of linezolid (which brought the maximum increase in plaque size) was specific for a single phage only, its effect on the plaque size of seven other S. aureus-specific phages was also assessed. Significant enhancements in the plaque size of these phages were observed. These results indicate that this modification can therefore safely be incorporated in the traditional DLA overlay method to search for new MRSA-virulent phages.     

Mechanism of Enhancement of Virus Plaques by Cationic Polymers

It has been assumed that plaque enhancement by cationic polymers is due to their binding of sulfated polysaccharides in agar. However, viruses that are enhanced by cationic polymers, diethylaminoethyl-dextran, and protamine were found not to be inhibited by polyanions in agar under the usual overlay conditions. In the case of adenovirus, enhancement by protamine seems to be due to the protamine serving as a source of arginine; enzymes released from the cultured cells digest the protamine and provide a reservoir of arginine for the cells. Other viruses (herpes and echovirus types 3, 4, 5, and 6) known to be susceptible to agar inhibitors were found to be enhanced by cationic polymers even under starch gel and methylcellulose overlays, which are free of polyanions. Since cationic polymers enhance the diffusion of virus through agar or starch gel, plaque enhancement seems to be the result of the gel becoming positively charged so that viruses can move effectively through them. The observation that starch gel and methylcellulose enhance plaque formation with viruses known to be inhibited under agar was also reinvestigated. When the consistency of the agar gel was reduced to the same viscosity of starch gel and methylcellulose overlays, the same plaque counts and sizes were observed under all three overlays.     

Specificity in the Photoreactivation of Premutational Damage Induced in Neurospora crassa by Ultraviolet

Summary Photoreactivation of the events which lead to ultraviolet-induced reversion of sixteen mutants has been studied. Reversion of one mutant, the inositol allele 37401, is photoreactivated far less than lethal damage. Reversion of the remaining 15 mutants, alleles at three different loci, is photoreactivated to the same extent as lethal damage. Various explanations of this finding are considered and the implications of repair specificity in modifying mutagen specificity are discussed briefly.     

酒精废液降解菌Q5的化学诱变

目的：筛选出一些酒精废液的降解菌。方法：使用亚硝基胍（NTG）、亚硝基甲基脲（NMU）等对酒精废液降解菌Q5进行诱变。结果：在无机盐选择培养基上生长菌株有36株,再经5次传代试验仅有8株能稳定传代,最后筛选出以酒精废液为碳源的性能较好的突变菌株Q58。该突变菌株Q58对酒精废液的降解率比出发菌株高0.65%;对酒精废液的降解时间比出发菌株缩短12h。     

EMS诱变玉米突变体苗期生理生化特性研究

实验分别选取四种白色突变玉米白1、白2、白3、白4为材料,以诱变的非突变玉米为对照。分析了玉米的代谢特性和抗性。结果表明突变体的代谢及抗性没有非突变体强,但我们也发现,在四种白色突变体中,白2表现突出。白2幼苗根系活力,叶绿素含量,POD、SOD活性,脯氨酸含量均比对照高,而加MDA含量比对照低,说明在四种突变体玉米中白2苗期表现出对环境的适应能力提高,且抗性增强。