Neuroprotective role for carbonyl reductase?

Oxidative stress is increasingly implicated in neurodegenerative disorders including Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, Huntington's, and Creutzfeld-Jakob diseases or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Reactive oxygen species seem to play a significant role in neuronal cell death in that they generate reactive aldehydes from membrane lipid peroxidation. Several neuronal diseases are associated with increased accumulation of abnormal protein adducts of reactive aldehydes, which mediate oxidative stress-linked pathological events, including cellular growth inhibition and apoptosis induction. Combining findings on neurodegeneration and oxidative stress in Drosophila with studies on the metabolic characteristics of the human enzyme carbonyl reductase (CR), it is clear now that CR has a potential physiological role for neuroprotection in humans. Several lines of evidence suggest that CR represents a significant pathway for the detoxification of reactive aldehydes derived from lipid peroxidation and that CR in humans is essential for neuronal cell survival and to confer protection against oxidative stress-induced brain degeneration.     

Courtship role reversal in bush crickets: another role for parasites?

The last decade has seen an increasing body of evidence in supportof the idea that parasites can play a role in sexual selection.Parasites have been shown to influence mate choice and matingcompetition. Here I demonstrate a further role for parasitesin that they can determine the courtship roles of males andfemales and thus the sex on which sexual selection acts. Malebush crickets, Requena verticalis, feed their mates during inseminationwith a nutritious meal, the spermatophylax, that increases femalefecundity. I show how the ability of males to donate nutrientswas reduced by increased intensities of infection of a protozoangut parasite. Further, increased intensity of infection reducedfemale fecundity. Mating trials showed that when females wereuninfected the typical courtship roles prevailed; females werethe coy, discriminating sex. However, when infected with gutparasites, females attempted to mate more often and males adoptedthe coy discriminative role in courtship. Thus it appeared thatmale donations were of greater importance for reproductivelyconstrained, infected females. The infection status of the malehad no influence on courtship role reversal supporting the ideathat proximate cues in female behavior determine the courtshiprole adopted by males. It is argued that parasites will be animportant determinant f courtship role reversal in any specieswhere male gifts influence female fecundity, and parasites constrainhost reproduction, because of the opposing way in which reproductiveconstraints will influence male and female mating frequency.     

Cortical maps: a role for astrocytes?

Astrocytes are a multifunctional cell type in the nervous system that can influence neurons and synapses in numerous ways. Astrocytes have been suggested to play important roles in synapse formation during development, as well as in multiple forms of synaptic plasticity in the developing and adult brain. Astrocytes respond to nearby neural activity with elevations in cytosolic calcium concentration, and in sensory cortex these calcium responses have been shown to be topographically aligned to neuronal sensory maps. Here, we review recent evidence for astrocyte interactions with neural circuits, with particular emphasis on how these interactions may shape the development, arrangement and plasticity of cortical sensory maps.     

A role for genetic accommodation in evolution?

Whether evolutionary change can occur by genetic assimilation, or more generally by genetic accommodation, remains controversial. Here we examine some of the experimental evidence for both phenomena. Several experiments in Drosophila suggest that assimilation is possible, and a new paper shows that a color polyphenism in the tobacco hornworm, Manduca sexta, can evolve by genetic accommodation. We argue that genetic accommodation, including assimilation, is a plausible mechanism in evolution; however, more work is required to test how this mechanism acts and how often it is involved in evolutionary change.     

Leukocyte extravasation: an immunoregulatory role for alpha-L-fucosidase?

Fucosylated oligosaccharides and glycoconjugates have been implicated in several biological events, including the cell-cell adhesion processes that mediate inflammation. Alpha-L-fucosidase (ALF) is an exoglycosidase that is involved in the hydrolytic degradation of alpha-L-fucose from glycoconjugates. In this study, we investigated the potential role of ALF in regulation of leukocyte migration. Measurement of transendothelial migration in response to CCL5 demonstrated that pretreatment of monocytic cells with ALF reduced migration (p = 0.0004) to a greater extent than treatment of the endothelial monolayer (p = 0.0374). Treatment with ALF significantly reduced the adhesion of monocytic cells to immobilized P-selectin.Fc. A murine model of experimental autoimmune uveitis was then used to show that treatment of splenic cells with ALF produced an 8.6-fold decrease in rolling and a 3.2-fold decrease in cell migration across the retinal vasculature. Further in vitro studies demonstrated that treatment of monocytes with the chemokines CCL3 or CCL5 increased the level of mRNA encoding ALF; this was accompanied by the detection of significant increases in both the 51- and 56-kDa components of ALF by Western blotting. Treatment of monocytic cells with ALF for 2 h significantly reduced the cell surface expression of CD31, with a further decrease in expression observed after 5 h (p = 0.002). Thus, CD31 and fucosylated ligands of P-selectin seem to be the candidates through which ALF mediates its effect in vitro. These data identify a previously unrecognized immunoregulatory role for ALF in late stages of inflammation.     

A positive role for yeast extrachromosomal rDNA circles?

Yeast mitochondria frequently mutate, and some dysfunctional mitochondria out-compete wild-type versions. The retrograde response enables yeast to tolerate dysfunction, but also produces ribosomal DNA circles (ERCs). We propose that ERC accumulation increases expression of the rDNA antisense gene, TAR1, which counteracts spread of respiration-deficient mitochondria in matings with wild-type yeast.     

A role for phytotoxins in thePhragmites die-back syndrome?

Die-back and healthy stands ofPhragmites australis (Cav.) Trin. exSteud., in the U.K. and Hungary, were compared in terms of plant morphology and anatomy, sediment redox potential and sulphide levels and plant resistance to internal Poiseuille gas flow. In laboratory experiments rhizome cuttings were exposed to acetic acid or dissolved sulphide in unstirred solution cultures in order to determine whether the die-back symptoms found in the field could be induced by these phytotoxins. Most of the die-back symptoms, namely stunting of adventitious roots and laterals, bud death, callus blockages of the gas-pathways, and vascular blockages (both xylem and phloem), were produced by each of the phytotoxin treatments. These symptoms were largely absent from healthy field sites and from the experimental controls. In a greenhouse experiment, plants were grown in waterlogged sand or loam, with or without a sub-surface organic layer composed of chopped up rhizomes and roots mixed with the soil base. Especially during the first 70 days, redox levels were considerably lowered, and shoot numbers and shoot growth much reduced by the presence of the organic layers; the effects were most pronounced in the sand plus organic matter treatment. It is suggested that accumulated phytotoxins, e.g. orgnaic acids and/or sulphide, whether produced from the death and decay of the plant, or from excessive organic loading or as an indirect results of eutrophication, will perpetuate the die-back ofPhragmites and prevent the recovery of the plant in the short term.     

Trace fear conditioning: a role for context?

Fear conditioning can be rapidly obtained over long trace intervals, but its specificity with respect to both time and stimulus is uncertain. Long-trace fear conditioning often parallels contextual conditioning, and it is sensitive to hippocampal lesions. These properties of trace conditioning are not directly addressed by timing models and multiple-time-scale models of conditioning. It is proposed that during early stages of conditioning, a joint representation of the context and the stimulus trace may underlie conditioned responses, and that discriminative processes allow the emergence of specific responses in a later stage.     

A role for haemoglobin in all plant roots?

Abstract. We have found haemoglobin in plant roots whereas previously it has been recorded only in nitrogen fixing nodules of plants. Haemoglobin occurs not only in the roots of those plants that are capable of nodulation but also in the roots of species that are not known to nodulate. We suggest that a haemoglobin gene may be a component of the genome of all plants. The gene structure and sequence in two unrelated families of plants suggests that the plant haemoglobins have had a single origin and that this origin relates to the haemoglobin gene of the animal kingdom. At present we cannot completely rule out the possibility of a horizontal transfer of the gene from the animal kingdom to a progenitor of the dicotyledonous angiosperms but we favour a single origin of the gene from a progenitor organism to both the plant and animal kingdoms. We speculate about the possible functions of haemoglobin in plant roots and put the case that it is unlikely to have a function in facilitating oxygen diffusion. We suggest that haemoglobin may act as a signal molecule indicating oxygen deficit and the consequent need to shift plant metabolism from an oxidative to a fermentative pathway of energy generation.     

Photoentrainment in mammals: a role for cryptochrome?

There is growing evidence in support of the hypothesis that, in mammals, photoreceptive tasks are segregated into those associated with creating a detailed visual image of the environment and those involved in the photic regulation of temporal biology. The hypothesis that this segregation extends to the use of different photoreceptors remains unproven, but published reports from several mammalian species that circadian photoentrainment survives a degree of retinal degeneration sufficient to induce visual blindness suggest that this may be so. This has lead to speculation that mammals might employ a dedicated 'circadian photoreceptor' distinct from the rod and cone cells of the visual system. The location and nature of this putative circadian photoreceptor has become a matter of conjecture. The latest candidates to be put forward as potential circadian photopigments are the mammalian cryptochrome proteins (CRY1 and 2), putative vitamin-B2 based photopigments. To date, published experimental evidence falls short of a definitive demonstration that these proteins form the basis of circadian photoreception in mammals. Consequently, this review aims to assess their suitability for this task in light of what we know regarding the biology of the cyrptochromes and the nature of mammalian photoentrainment.