Salt-induced structural changes of nucleosome core particles.

The effects of sodium chloride concentration on the structure of chicken erythrocyte nucleosome core particles have been studied by the use of fluorescently labelled histones. Histone H3 was modified with two sulfhydryl-specific dyes and reconstituted into core nucleosomes. Between 10^?4 m and 0.6 M-NaCl four different states were observed by the fluorescent techniques of collisional quenching, polarization and energy transfer. Below 5 × 10^?4 m-NaCl the nucleosome is flexible, with the single cysteine residues of the two H3 species about 48 Å apart and somewhat exposed. Between 5 × 10^?3 m and 10^?1 m-NaCl the nucleosome is rigid and non-spherical. The cysteine residues are close together and buried. Between 10^?1 m and 4 × 10^?1 m-NaCl, the cysteines become slightly more exposed but remain close together. At 6 × 10^?1 m-NaCl the nucleosome is very flexible. The cysteines are more than 70 Å apart and are quite exposed. The dramatic structural changes that are observed in core nucleosomes are consistent with the variety of functions in which they must participate in the cell.     

Search for a relationship between molecular anomalies of the mutant erythrocyte pyruvate kinase variants and their pathological expression

Summary Anomalies of the mutant pyruvate kinase variants and clinical symptoms have been compared in 22 unrelated patients with congenital red cell pyruvate kinase deficiency. This study suggests that some characteristics of the mutant enzymes could play a role in the intensity of haemolysis, namely residual activity, affinity for the substrate phosphoenolpyruvate and for the allosteric activator fructose 1,6 diphosphate and inhibition by ATP.     

Transfer of purified herpes virus thymidine kinase gene to cultured mouse cells.

Treatment of Ltk^?, mouse L cells deficient in thymidine kinase (tk), with Bam I restriction endonuclease cleaved DNA from herpes simplex virus-1 (HSV-1) produced tk⁺ clones with a frequency of 10^?6/2 μg of HSV-1 DNA. Untreated cells or cells treated with Eco RI restriction endonuclease fragments produced no tk+ clones under the same conditions. The thymidine kinase activities of four independently derived clones were characterized by biochemical and serological techniques. By these criteria, the tk activities were found to be identical to HSV-1 tk and different from host wildtype tk. The tk⁺ phenotype was stable over several hundred cell generations, although the rate of reversion to the tk^? phenotype, as judged by cloning efficiency in the presence of bromodeoxyuridine, was high (1–5 × 10^?3). HSV-1 DNA Bam restriction fragments were separated by gel electrophoresis, and virtually all activity, as assayed by transfection, was found to reside in a 3.4 kb fragment. Transformation efficiency with the isolated fragment is 20 fold higher per gene equivalent than with the unfractionated total Bam digest. These results prove the usefulness of transfection assays as a means for the bioassay and isolation of restriction fragments carrying specific genetic information. Cells expressing HSV-1 tk may also provide a useful model system for the detailed analysis of eucaryotic and viral gene regulation.     

Biochemical transfer of single-copy eucaryotic genes using total cellular DNA as donor.

Previous studies from our laboratories have demonstrated the feasibility of transferring the thymidine kinase (tk) gene from restriction endonuclease-generated fragments of herpes simplex virus (HSV) DNA to cultured mammalian cells. In this study, high molecular weight DNA from cells containing only one copy of the HSV gene coding for tk was successfully used to transform L+K-cells to the tk+ phenotype. The acquired phenotype was demonstrated to be donor-derived by analysis of the electrophoretic mobility of the tk activity, and the presence of HSV DNA sequences in the recipient cells was demonstrated. In companion experiments, we used high molecular weight DNA derived from tissues and cultured cells of a variety of species to transfer tk activity. The tk+ mouse cells transformed with human DNA were shown to express human type tk activity as determined by isoelectric focusing.     

Cellulose acetate electrophoresis of protein kinases: Detection of the active forms using various substrates

Electrophoresis on cellulose acetate strips was used to analyze protein kinases from normal rat liver. In addition to already well-characterized cAMP-dependent protein kinases type I and II and cAMP-independent casein kinases I and II, this method enabled the detection of several supplementary bands corresponding to kinases which were investigated according to their substrate specificity, activation by cAMP, and inhibition by the specific inhibitor of the catalytic subunit of cAMP-dependent protein kinases or by heparin. Using this rapid, sensitive, and resolutive electrophoretic method, different isozyme patterns could be obtained starting from minute amounts of different types of biological material.     

Chemical and Physical Characterization of Interfacial-Active Lipids from Rhodococcus erythropolis Grown on n-Alkanes

Lipophilic compounds of the culture suspension containing Rhodococcus erythropolis DSM43215 had surfactant properties when the bacteria were cultivated with n-alkanes as the sole carbon source. Thirteen main components from a dichloromethane-methanol extract of the R. erythropolis cultures were isolated and characterized to specify quantitatively their surfactant properties, e.g., minimum surface and interfacial tensions and critical micelle concentrations. The interfacial activity of the organic extract was dominated by α,α-trehalose-6,6′-dicorynomycolates which reduced interfacial tension from 44 to 18 mN/m. Phosphatidylethanolamines which were also present in the organic extract reduced the interfacial tension below 1 mN/m. The trehalose corynomycolates had extremely low critical micelle concentrations in high-salinity solutions, and the interfacial properties were stabile in solutions with a wide range of pH and ionic strength.