The amino acid sequences of the cytochromes c553 from Porphyridium cruentum and Aphanizomenon flos-aquae

The amino acid sequences of cytochrome c₅₅₃ from the eukaryotic red alga Porphyridium cruentum and from the prokaryotic cyanobacterium Aphanizomenon flos-aquae have been determined from the tryptic and cyanogen bromide peptides. The results indicate that a charged region of these proteins has evolved with special rapidity to accomodate a rapid evolution of a binding site in the P₇₀₀ electron acceptor complex.     

Social stimulation and the resumption of copulation in Rhesus (Macaca mulatto) and stumptail (Macaca arctoides) Macaques

Copulatory data derived from observations of social groups of rhesus and stumptail macaques were analyzed to test the hypothesis that pairs of animals would resume copulation significantly sooner if a second male copulated with the female shortly after the first male’s ejaculation. Data from both groups supported the hypothesis. These results, extending previous studies in Macaca nemestrina,suggest that the shortening of copulatory intervals by social stimuli occurs in several species, both in social groups and in experimentally created triads. These findings also are consistent with the hypothesis that socially mediated resumption of mating is related to intrasexual competition among males.     

In what sense is contemporary medicine dualistic?

Medicine's inability to humanely respond to the concerns of its patients has often been attributed to its Cartesian dualism of mind and body. More recently, this inability has been ascribed to medicine's penchant for isolating biological disease as its sole proper concern to the exclusion of experienced illness. This dualism of disease and illness is claimed to be an outgrowth of the Cartesian dualism but the differences and similiarities between these two forms of dualism is not clear. This paper seeks to clarify their relationship through an examination of their historical origins.Disease is currently identified and characterized by a process of clinico-pathological correlation. By this means clinical impressions are corrected in light of autopsy findings. Our current mode of clinico-pathological correlation originated in Paris in the early nineteenth century with the work of Xavier Bichat and others. The theory of knowledge implicit within this clinico-pathological approach to the body is described and compared to that of Descartes. Though medicine does pursue certain Cartesian goals for knowledge, such as knowledge of the patient that does not rely upon his candor, it ultimately espouses neither a Cartesian theory of knowledge nor a Cartesian theory of the body. With pathological inquiry modeled after the autopsy as the final word in the identification and characterization of disease, the patient's capacity for self-knowledge and interpretation — not an entity called mind — is isolated away from his body. This approach to the body means that objective evidence of disease is valued to the exclusion of subjective evidence.If the shortcomings of modern biomedicine are to be effectively addressed, not only must the interdependence of disease and illness be acknowledged. The very canons of medical evidence must be revised. Subjective evidence must be rehabilitated and rejuvenated with better methods of subjective clinical investigation. Host factors relevant to the healing and knowing of sickness must be elucidated so that medicine may rediscover the sentience of its patients. Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences University of Washington Seattle, WA 98195, U.S.A.     

Proteins of the human placental microvillar cytoskeleton. alpha-Actinin.

The human placental syncytiotrophoblast microvilli are supported by an underlying cytoskeleton consisting mainly of actin microfilaments. The major proteins associated with the actin have Mr values of 105 000, 80 000 and 68 000. The 105 000-Mr protein is recognized by an antibody preparation raised to purified chicken gizzard alpha-actinin. Electron microscopy has shown that the human placental protein has dimensions similar to those reported for muscle alpha-actinin. About half of the placental microvillar alpha-actinin is released from the cytoskeleton in the presence of Ca2+. This effect occurs at concentrations of Ca2+ greater than 0.3 muM and has been used as the basis of a method for the purification of the placental alpha-actinin. This sensitivity to Ca2+ is not affected by trifluoperazine and is therefore likely to be a property of the alpha-actinin as such rather than being mediated via calmodulin.     

Expression by human fetal organs of organ-specific cancer neoantigens as measured by leukocyte adherence inhibition

Summary Human cancers express organ-specific cancer neoantigens (OSN) as determined by in vitro leukocyte responses to extracts of cancers by the tumor host. In this study, we determined whether the OSNs were normal developmental proteins that were expressed by fetal organs and re-expressed with oncogenesis. Fetal extracts, principally of lung and colon but also of liver and kidney, were tested for their ability to induce leukocyte adherence inhibition (LAI) as compared to extracts from adult tissues of the same organ. Leukocytes from lung cancer patients showed positive LAI responses to 13- and 19-week fetal lung tissue. Likewise, leukocytes from colon cancer patients showed positive LAI responses to 14- and 19-week fetal colon tissue, whereas leukocytes from control subjects did not. Neither group responded positively to 21-week fetal organs. Criss-cross experiments showed that the fetal antigen was organ specific. Multiparous pregnant women showed positive LAI responses to cancer extracts but not to extracts from normal tissues of the same organ. The pattern of the LAI response was bell-shaped. Positive LAI responses to lung and breast cancer were detected at 4 to 7 months gestation and peaked at 5 months. To the fetal colon, LAI positive responses were detected at 5 to 8 months gestation, with the peak response at 6 months. The results indicate that OSN of cancers are also expressed by fetal organs and sufficient antigen is shed by fetal organs to sensitize pregnant women. Older fetal organs (21 weeks) and adult organs do not express an immunogenic or antigenic OSN.Supported by a grant from the National Cancer Institute of Canada     

Directional control and the functional organization of defensive responses inAplysia

Noxious cutaneous stimulation of anterior sites on Aplysia californica causes withdrawal and turning followed by escape locomotion. Stimulation of anterior sites causes significantly larger turning responses than does stimulation of posterior sites, so that escape locomotion is always directed away from a site of 'attack'. Later phases of escape locomotion are often the same, regardless of the site of the triggering stimulus. The defensive secretions, ink and opaline, are directed along the anterior-posterior axis at the source of noxious stimulation. Ink and opaline ejections are directed to the front or back of the animal by characteristic responses of the siphon, mantle, and parapodia. Ink and opaline are ejected by a series of coordinated pumping movements of the mantle, gill, and parapodia that closely resemble triggered 'respiratory pumping' or 'Interneuron II' episodes (Kupfermann and Kandel 1969; Byrne and Koester 1978; Hening 1982). The directed ejection of secretions from the mantle cavity in response to noxious stimulation suggests a number of potential defensive functions for these secretions including aggressive retaliation, startle display, diversion, and alarm signalling (Edmunds 1975). Taken together, our results and others' suggest an integrated scheme for the functional organization of overt defensive behavior in Aplysia, and begin to suggest testable hypotheses about the integration of defensive responses on the cellular level in this animal.     

Cloning and characterization of genes coding for ribosomal RNA inCampylobacter jejuni

The DNA fragments coding for ribosomal RNA inCampylobacter jejuni have been cloned from a genomic library ofC. jejuni constructed inEscherichia coli. Clones carrying DNA Sequences for rRNA were identified by hybridization of 5-end-labeled rRNA fromC. jejuni to colony blots of transformants from this gene library. Cloned DNA sequences homologous to each of 5S, 16S, and 23S rRNA were idenfified by hybridization of labeled plasmid DNA to Northern blots of rRNA. The gene coding for 23S rRNA was found to be located on a 5.5kb HindIII fragment, while the 5S and 16S rRNA genes were on HindIII fragments of 1.65 and 1.7 kb, respecitively. The DNA fragment containing the 16S rRNA gene was characterized by restriction endonuclease mapping, and the location of the 16S rRNA gene on this fragment was determined by hybridization of 5-end-labeled rRNA to restriction fragments and also by DNA sequence determination. It appears that the major portion of the coding region for 16S rRNA is located on the 1.7-kb HindIII fragment, while a small portion is carried on an adjacent HindIII fragment of 7.5 kb. Cloned rRNA genes fromC. jejuni were used to study the organization of the rDNA inC. jejuni and other members of the genùsCampylobacter.     

Larvae of Euphausia superba in the Scotia Sea and Bransfield Strait in March 1984 — Development and abundance compared with 1981 larvae

Summary Larvae of Euphausia superba in the Atlantic sector of the Antarctic in March 1984 averaged 580 per 1000 m³ of water. This is 100 times less than we observed in March 1981, but more than the average of 250 larvae per 1000 m³ found in January–February 1981. There was one 1984 high-abundance sample, accounting for 85% of all larvae caught, from the eastern area of confluence of Drake Passage and Weddell Sea waters. Abundances in 1984 near the South Shetland Islands were commonly 5 to 10 larvae per 1000 m³, and younger by 2 to 4 developmental stages than in March 1981. Body lengths of given stages were generally less in 1984 than in 1981. Advanced furcilia stages, particularly, in the 1984 samples tended to be smaller than the same stages in March 1981, indicating relatively poor growth during February 1984. However, the 1984 younger larvae (calyptopes and the developmental forms of furcilia stages 1 and 2) indicated that, in 1984, recent (March) growth had been good — probably better than in February. Dierct observation of the development of calyptopis stage 3 to furcilia stage yielded a development time of 7.7 days, which compares favorably to the 8-day period estimated from field samples. Reduced food availability did not affect the development rate nor give rise to a clearly higher incidence of indirect pathways of development. It is postulated that recruitment was about of month later in 1984 than in 1981 in most of the area studied and was probably going to be less successful.