Studies on the Photoactivation of the Water-Oxidizing Enzyme: II. Characterization of Weak Light Photoinhibition of PSII and Its Light-Induced Recovery

Inactivation of the water splitting enzyme complex in leaves or isolated chloroplasts results in increased susceptibility of photosystem II (PSII) to damage by light. Photoinhibition under this condition occurs in very weak light. The site of damage is exclusive of the water splitting complex yet still on the oxidizing side of PSII, as the Q_B locus is unaffected while photoreduction of silicomolybdate is inhibited. The kinetics of loss in PSII activity are more complex than apparent first-order, and the quantum efficiency is low. We observe no evidence of deletion from thylakoid membranes of any PSII polypeptide as a consequence of photoinhibition, although recovery from the photoinhibition is dependent upon both light and 70S protein synthesis. Enhanced synthesis of two proteins occurs during recovery, only one of which (D2) appears to be causally related to the recovery. We present a model which describes the relationship of weak light photoinhibition and its recovery to photoactivation of the S-state water oxidizing complex.     

The Activity of a Wall-Bound Cellulase Is Required for and Is Coupled to Cell Cycle Progression in the Dinoflagellate Crypthecodinium cohnii

Cellulose synthesis, but not its degradation, is generally thought to be required for plant cell growth. In this work, we cloned a dinoflagellate cellulase gene, dCel1, whose activities increased significantly in G₂/M phase, in agreement with the significant drop of cellulose content reported previously. Cellulase inhibitors not only caused a delay in cell cycle progression at both the G₁ and G₂/M phases in the dinoflagellate Crypthecodinium cohnii, but also induced a higher level of dCel1p expression. Immunostaining results revealed that dCel1p was mainly localized at the cell wall. Accordingly, the possible role of cellulase activity in cell cycle progression was tested by treating synchronized cells with exogenous dCelp and purified antibody, in experiments analogous to overexpression and knockdown analyses, respectively. Cell cycle advancement was observed in cells treated with exogenous dCel1p, whereas the addition of purified antibody resulted in a cell cycle delay. Furthermore, delaying the G₂/M phase independently with antimicrotubule inhibitors caused an abrupt and reversible drop in cellulase protein level. Our results provide a conceptual framework for the coordination of cell wall degradation and reconstruction with cell cycle progression in organisms with cell walls. Since cellulase activity has a direct bearing on the cell size, the coupling between cellulase expression and cell cycle progression can also be considered as a feedback mechanism that regulates cell size.     

Non-Vectorial Light-Induced H+ Release from CF1-Depleted Thylakoid Membranes. Absence of Correlation to Stoichiometric H+ Production and Consumption Coupled to Electron Transfer

Light-induced H⁺ release from CF₁-depleted thylakoid membraneswas examined by monitoring the pH in the intra- and extrathylakoidalspace and by analyzing the consumption and production of O₂that accompany the electron transfer. Our results indicatedthat the H⁺ release was not due to the H⁺ transport across themembrane or to the net H⁺ production in PS II as previouslysuggested. (Received April 14, 1988; Accepted June 13, 1988)     

Annexin VI-mediated Loss of Spectrin during Coated Pit Budding Is Coupled to Delivery of LDL to Lysosomes

Previously we reported that annexin VI is required for the budding of clathrin-coated pits from human fibroblast plasma membranes in vitro. Here we show that annexin VI bound to the NH₂-terminal 28-kD portion of membrane spectrin is as effective as cytosolic annexin VI in supporting coated pit budding. Annexin VI–dependent budding is accompanied by the loss of ∼50% of the spectrin from the membrane and is blocked by the cysteine protease inhibitor N-acetyl-leucyl-leucyl-norleucinal (ALLN). Incubation of fibroblasts in the presence of ALLN initially blocks the uptake of low density lipoprotein (LDL), but the cells recover after 1 h and internalize LDL with normal kinetics. The LDL internalized under these conditions, however, fails to migrate to the center of the cell and is not degraded. ALLN-treated cells have twice as many coated pits and twofold more membrane clathrin, suggesting that new coated pits have assembled. Annexin VI is not required for the budding of these new coated pits and ALLN does not inhibit. Finally, microinjection of a truncated annexin VI that inhibits budding in vitro has the same effect on LDL internalization as ALLN. These findings suggest that fibroblasts are able to make at least two types of coated pits, one of which requires the annexin VI–dependent activation of a cysteine protease to disconnect the clathrin lattice from the spectrin membrane cytoskeleton during the final stages of budding.     

Testosterone Is Inversely Related to Brain Activity during Emotional Inhibition in Schizophrenia

Sex steroids affect cognitive function as well as emotion processing and regulation. They may also play a role in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. However, the effects of sex steroids on cognition and emotion-related brain activation in schizophrenia are poorly understood. Our aim was to determine the extent to which circulating testosterone relates to brain activation in men with schizophrenia compared to healthy men during cognitive-emotional processing. We assessed brain activation in 18 men with schizophrenia and 22 age-matched healthy men during an emotional go/no-go task using fMRI and measured total serum testosterone levels on the same morning. We performed an ROI analysis to assess the relationship between serum testosterone and brain activation, focusing on cortical regions involved the emotional go/no-go task. Slower RT and reduced accuracy was observed when participants responded to neutral stimuli, while inhibiting responses to negative stimuli. Healthy men showed a robust increase in activation of the middle frontal gyrus when inhibiting responses to negative stimuli, but there was no significant association between activation and serum testosterone level in healthy men. Men with schizophrenia showed a less pronounced increase in activation when inhibiting responses to negative stimuli; however, they did show a strong inverse association between serum testosterone level and activation of the bilateral middle frontal gyrus and left insula. Additionally, increased accuracy during inhibition of response to negative words was associated with both higher serum testosterone levels and decreased activation of the middle frontal gyrus in men with schizophrenia only. We conclude that endogenous hormone levels, even within the normal range, may play an enhanced modulatory role in determining the neural and behavioural response during cognitive-emotional processing in schizophrenia.     

Pre-Existing Hypoxia Is Associated with Greater EEG Suppression and Early Onset of Evolving Seizure Activity during Brief Repeated Asphyxia in Near-Term Fetal Sheep

Spontaneous antenatal hypoxia is associated with high risk of adverse outcomes, however, there is little information on neural adaptation to labor-like insults. Chronically instrumented near-term sheep fetuses (125 ± 3 days, mean ± SEM) with baseline PaO₂ < 17 mmHg (hypoxic group: n = 8) or > 17 mmHg (normoxic group: n = 8) received 1-minute umbilical cord occlusions repeated every 5 minutes for a total of 4 hours, or until mean arterial blood pressure (MAP) fell below 20 mmHg for two successive occlusions. 5/8 fetuses with pre-existing hypoxia were unable to complete the full series of occlusions (vs. 0/8 normoxic fetuses). Pre-existing hypoxia was associated with progressive metabolic acidosis (nadir: pH 7.08 ± 0.04 vs. 7.33 ± 0.02, p<0.01), hypotension during occlusions (nadir: 24.7 ± 1.8 vs. 51.4 ± 3.2 mmHg, p<0.01), lower carotid blood flow during occlusions (23.6 ± 6.1 vs. 63.0 ± 4.8 mL/min, p<0.01), greater suppression of EEG activity during, between, and after occlusions (p<0.01) and slower resolution of cortical impedance, an index of cytotoxic edema. No normoxic fetuses, but 4/8 hypoxic fetuses developed seizures 148 ± 45 minutes after the start of occlusions, with a seizure burden of 26 ± 6 sec during the inter-occlusion period, and 15.1 ± 3.4 min/h in the first 6 hours of recovery. In conclusion, in fetuses with pre-existing hypoxia, repeated brief asphyxia at a rate consistent with early labor is associated with hypotension, cephalic hypoperfusion, greater EEG suppression, inter-occlusion seizures, and more sustained cytotoxic edema, consistent with early onset of neural injury.     

Singlet Oxygen Is the Major Reactive Oxygen Species Involved in Photooxidative Damage to Plants

Reactive oxygen species act as signaling molecules but can also directly provoke cellular damage by rapidly oxidizing cellular components, including lipids. We developed a high-performance liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization-tandem mass spectrometry-based quantitative method that allowed us to discriminate between free radical (type I)- and singlet oxygen (¹O₂; type II)-mediated lipid peroxidation (LPO) signatures by using hydroxy fatty acids as specific reporters. Using this method, we observed that in nonphotosynthesizing Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) tissues, nonenzymatic LPO was almost exclusively catalyzed by free radicals both under normal and oxidative stress conditions. However, in leaf tissues under optimal growth conditions, ¹O₂ was responsible for more than 80% of the nonenzymatic LPO. In Arabidopsis mutants favoring ¹O₂ production, photooxidative stress led to a dramatic increase of ¹O₂ (type II) LPO that preceded cell death. Furthermore, under all conditions and in mutants that favor the production of superoxide and hydrogen peroxide (two sources for type I LPO reactions), plant cell death was nevertheless always preceded by an increase in ¹O₂-dependent (type II) LPO. Thus, besides triggering a genetic cell death program, as demonstrated previously with the Arabidopsis fluorescent mutant, ¹O₂ plays a major destructive role during the execution of reactive oxygen species-induced cell death in leaf tissues.Plant leaves capture sun-derived light energy to drive CO₂ fixation during photosynthesis. During this process, leaves need to cope with photooxidative stress when the balance between energy absorption and consumption is disturbed. Excess excitation energy in the photosystems (PSI and PSII) leads to the inhibition of photosynthesis via the production of various reactive oxygen species (ROS) at different spatial levels of the cell (Apel and Hirt, 2004; Asada, 2006; Van Breusegem and Dat, 2006). Both exposure to high light intensities and decreased CO₂ availability direct linear electron transfer toward the reduction of molecular oxygen, generating superoxide radicals (O₂^−.) at PSI (the Mehler reaction). Superoxide dismutation generates hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂), which is detoxified in the chloroplast by ascorbate peroxidases. As such, this so-called water-water cycle participates in the dissipation of excess energy (Asada, 2006). Decreased CO₂ availability affects the first step in CO₂ fixation by shifting the carboxylation of Rubisco by the Rubisco carboxylase-oxygenase enzyme toward oxygenation, a process called photorespiration. This leads, through the action of glycolate oxidase, to peroxisomal H₂O₂ production that is counteracted by catalases. Finally, when the intersystem electron carriers are overreduced, triplet excited P680 in the PSII reaction center as well as triplet chlorophylls in the light-harvesting antennae are produced, with the production of singlet oxygen (¹O₂) as a consequence (Krieger-Liszkay, 2005). In photosynthetic membranes, ¹O₂ is quenched by carotenoids and tocopherols. When antioxidant mechanisms are overwhelmed, increased cellular ROS levels trigger signal transduction events related to stress signaling and programmed cell death (Mittler et al., 2004; Van Breusegem and Dat, 2006). On the other hand, excessive ROS accumulation damages pigments, proteins, nucleic acids, and lipids (Halliwell and Gutteridge, 2007), thereby contributing to or executing cell death.Since under environmental stress conditions different ROS are produced simultaneously, a causal link between the accumulation of a specific ROS and its signaling or damaging effects has always been difficult to establish. In recent years, the production of various transgenic Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) plants with compromised levels of specific antioxidant enzymes and the identification of the conditional fluorescent (flu) mutant provided important tools to assess the specific effects of O₂^−., H₂O₂, and ¹O₂ within a particular subcellular compartment (Dat et al., 2003; op den Camp et al., 2003; Pnueli et al., 2003; Rizhsky et al. 2003; Vandenabeele et al., 2004; Wagner et al., 2004; Queval et al., 2007). For example, with catalase-deficient [Cat(−)] plants, the signaling effects of increased photorespiratory H₂O₂ levels could be identified (Dat et al., 2003; Vandenabeele et al., 2004; Queval et al., 2007). Similarly, in the conditional flu mutant increased plastid ¹O₂ levels were shown to induce a genetic program leading to cell death (op den Camp et al., 2003; Wagner et al., 2004). Nevertheless, whereas careful monitoring of gene expression on the whole-genome level enables to pinpoint specific signaling capacities for diverse ROS (Mittler et al., 2004; Gadjev et al., 2006), it remained impossible to discriminate between the oxidative damaging effects on cellular components of different ROS.One consequence of ROS formation is lipid peroxidation (LPO; Halliwell and Gutteridge, 2007). Two nonenzymatic reaction types lead to specific patterns of oxidized membrane polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs; Stratton and Liebler, 1997; Montillet et al., 2004; Mueller et al., 2006). Type I reactions are initiated by free radicals (FRs) having high redox potential, such as hydroxyl radicals (^.OH) or organic oxyl and peroxyl radicals, and type II reactions are the result of ¹O₂ action. Notably, O₂^−. and H₂O₂ are not sufficiently reactive to oxidize any PUFA. However, both ROS can be nonenzymatically converted to ^.OH through Fenton-type reactions in the presence of transition metal ions such as Fe²⁺ (Halliwell and Gutteridge, 2007). Both type I and type II reactions lead to the formation of respective oxygenated fatty acids. Here, we propose a novel and quantitative approach to distinguish between FR- and ¹O₂-mediated LPO in plants by quantifying type II oxidation-specific hydroxy fatty acids with HPLC-tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS), allowing us to monitor the relative contribution of LPO caused by PSI-dependent O₂^−./H₂O₂, photorespiratory H₂O₂, and photosynthetic ¹O₂ during photooxidative stress and cell death. We demonstrate that nonenzymatic LPO in leaves is almost exclusively mediated by ¹O₂ and that photooxidative stress-dependent cell death involves ¹O₂ production in its final stage.     

高压氧在复苏术中的应用(附32例报告)

目的:研究高压氧在心脑复苏的早期应用,主要是使已恢复的心跳、呼吸、血压等生命体征稳定,提高治疗效果,挽救生命.方法:采用空气加压舱加压,戴面罩吸纯氧,治疗压力为2.5ATA,稳压吸纯氧30分钟,改吸舱内空气10分钟,再吸纯氧30分钟,减压20分钟,每日一次,10次为一疗程.结果:高压氧是治疗心脑复苏的一种有效方法,疗效效果理想,安全可靠,值得推广.结论:心脑复苏的患者应用高压氧治疗可以改善脑缺氧,甚至可以降低致残率,提高生活质量,为心脑复苏的治疗开辟了新的有效途径.     

Emergence of Shared Intentionality Is Coupled to the Advance of Cumulative Culture

There is evidence that the sharing of intentions was an important factor in the evolution of humans’ unique cognitive abilities. Here, for the first time, we formally model the coevolution of jointly intentional behavior and cumulative culture, showing that rapid techno-cultural advance goes hand in hand with the emergence of the ability to participate in jointly intentional behavior. Conversely, in the absence of opportunities for significant techno-cultural improvement, the ability to undertake jointly intentional behavior is selected against. Thus, we provide a unified mechanism for the suppression or emergence of shared intentions and collaborative behavior in humans, as well as a potential cause of inter-species diversity in the prevalence of such behavior.     

Light-Induced Body Movement of Euglena gracilis Coupled to Flagellar Photophobic Responses by Mechanical Stimulation*†

SYNOPSIS. In low viscosity media, Euglena gracilis strain Z responds to a sudden change in light intensity by a cessation of forward movement, followed by a reorientation of the locomotor flagellum which results in turning of the cell around the lateral axis (photophobic response). At a viscosity interface between low [～ 1 cP (centipoise)] and high (4000 cP) media, the cells exhibit avoidance responses or become immobilized in the higher viscosity medium. Upon changing the light intensity, free swimming cells have photophobic responses, while immobilized ones undergo body contractions. For cells immersed in media of varying viscosity, the delay between light stimulation and body contraction (transduction time) is shortest at high viscosities. From 500 to 2000 cP, where the cells are capable of both movement and light-induced body contractions, there is a logarithmic dependence of the transduction time on the viscosity. The transduction time does not vary appreciably with the intensity of the primary light stimulus within a range of 0.14-1.13 kW/m².     

Nitrate Reductase Activity of Wheat Seedlings during Exposure to and Recovery from Water Stress and Salinity

Nitrate reductase activity was inhibited as a result of reduced soil moisture potentials or application of NaCI to nutrient solutions. The decrease in enzyme activity of wheat seedlings exposed to salinity, was found 24 hours after exposure to stress. The effect of stress on nitrate reductase was found in cell-free extracts as well as in riro in assays of intact leaf sections. A recovery in enzyme activity was found after irrigation or after removal of seedlings from salinity. While relative water content of the leaves was restored within 3 hours after removal of stress, full recovery of enzyme activity occurred only after 24 hours. Cycloheximide and chloramphenicol suppressed the activity of nitrate reductase in non-stressed seedlings, but had no effect on the activity of plants exposed to salinity. However, during removal of stress, cycloheximide prevented completely the recovery of nitrate reductase, while chloramphenicol did not interfere with the recovery of the inhibited enzyme activity. It is concluded that a fraction of nitrate reductase may be located in the cytoplasm and lost activity during stress, probably due to inhibited protein synthesis. Another fraction which may be associated with chloroplasts, was inhibited by stress due to conformational changes or partial denaturation.     

Effects of Argon on Oxygen Consumption in Humans during Physical Exercise under Hypoxic Conditions

An increase in oxygen consumption was observed in healthy male subjects breathing argon-containing gas mixtures during physical exercise. According to a detailed analysis of the methodology and calculations, this effect exceeded the possible errors in the measurements. It was proposed that argon has a catalytic effect on the kinetics of oxygen consumption as an attempt to explain two of its known effects, i.e., an increase in oxygen consumption in human subjects breathing moderately hypoxic gas mixtures and an increase in the survival rates observed previously for rats in acute hypoxia.     

The Role of Oxygen in the Priming of Neutrophils on Exposure to a Weak Magnetic Field

A preliminary mild partial degassing of a neutrophil suspension at an atmospheric gas pressure of 640 mm Hg was accompanied by a decrease in oxygen to 412 ng-atom O/mL and was shown to cause a significant (fourfold) decrease in neutrophil priming index on exposure to combined weak magnetic fields (a static magnetic field of 42 μT and a low-frequency collinear alternating magnetic field of 860 nT; 1, 4.4, and 16.5 Hz) but did not affect the cell potential to generate a respiratory burst in response to an activator (the peptide N-formyl–Met–Leu–Phe) in the control. A partial replacement of the air mixture with carbogen, xenon, or sulfur hexafluoride reduced the intensity of luminol-dependent chemiluminescence of the samples.