Morphological and functional specializations of the shell, musculature and pallial glands in the Lithophaginae (Mollusca: Bivalvia)

The structure of the pallial glands in limestone and coral boring species of Lithophaga (Bivalvia: Lithophaginae) is examined and related to evolutionary trends in habitat specialization. Boring glands of all species occur in the middle mantle fold but display a progressive degree of complexity from simple epithelial to ducted sub-epithelial structures coinciding with increasing specialization of habitat from natural limestone to species specific live coral dwellers. The size of this gland is relatively reduced anteriorly and along the entire length of the mantle in live coral borers.     

Inhibition of the pancreatic microsome enzyme release phenomenon by inhibitors of signal peptidase activity

The protease-sensitive release of α-amylase from rat pancreatic microsomes, incubated at 37°C, was inhibited by protease inhibitors which have been reported to inhibit signal peptidase activity. Protease inhibitors which did not affect signal peptidase activity also failed to inhibit amylase release from microsomes. Although the observed amylase release was in the opposite direction to enzyme secretion and involved fully-synthesised proteins, rather than nascent peptides, it is proposed that the enzyme release phenomenon reported from this laboratory (Pearce et al. (1978) Biochem. J. 176, 611–614) is related to the protein transporting mechanism involved in secretion.     

Isolation of an iridovirus from two terrestrial isopods,the pill bug, Armadillidium vulgare, and the sow bug, Porcellio dilatatus

An iridovirus was isolated from two terrestrial isopods (class Crustacea, order Isopoda), the pill bug, Armadillidium vulgare, and the sow bug, Porcellio dilatatus, collected in southern California. The isolates have been designated Type 31 (from A. vulgare) and Type 32 (from P. dilatatus). Diseased isopods were recognized by a characteristic blue discoloration of the normally gray cuticle. Based on the relative number of virions observed in diseased cells, viral replication was most extensive in epidermal, muscle, and adipose tissue. Additionally, small clusters of midgut epithelial cells were heavily infected in many specimens, although replication throughout this tissue was never observed. Nerve and reproductive tissues were lightly infected. Infection was not observed in hemocytes or the hepatopancreatic caeca. Virions of both isolates measured ca. 125 nm in diameter in ultrathin sections and 141 nm in negatively stained preparations, and formed paracrystalline arrays in heavily infected cells. The isolation of a typical iridovirus from isopods further demonstrates that the natural host range of this virus group extends beyond the class Insecta.     

Phenice's visual sexing technique for the os pubis: a critique

Innominate bones from 362 California Indians were sexed with Phenice's three non-metrical features of the os pubis. The frequencies of marked, intermediate, and absent cases of these three morphological features were tabulated in males and females to see if unambiguous and reliable distinctions were consistently available. The results suggest that Phenice's technique offered extremely reliable sex evaluations in this material.     

Conditions affecting primary cell cultures of functional adult rat hepatocytes

Summary The conditions for obtaining representative, primary adult rat hepatocyte cultures were explored. The methods applied included enzymatic liver perfusion which was nondestructive to hepatocytes, the prevention of aggregation of dissociated cells and the selective attachment of viable cells. These procedures yielded a recovery of 50% of the liver cells which gave rise to cultures representing 14% of the total liver cells. The cultures were composed of homogeneous epithelial-like cells cytologically similar to hepatocytes and possessed a number of liver-specific enzymes. There was virtually no cell division initially and most cells died between 24 and 48 hr. Insulin enhanced the attachment of the liver cells, altered their morphology, but did not prolong cell survival. This study was supported by grant no. BC 133 from the American Cancer Society.     

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CELL CYCLE AND LIGHT‐LIMITED GROWTH RATE IN OCEANIC PROCHLOROCOCCUS (MIT9312) AND SYNECHOCOCCUS (WH8103) (CYANOBACTERIA)1

The relationships between growth rate, cell‐cycle parameters, and cell size were examined in two unicellular cyanobacteria representative of open‐ocean environments: Prochlorococcus (strain MIT9312) and Synechococcus (strain WH8103). Chromosome replication time, C, was constrained to a fairly narrow range of values (～4–6 h) in both species and did not appear to vary with growth rate. In contrast, the pre‐ and post‐DNA replication periods, B and D, respectively, decreased with increasing growth rate from maxima of ～30 and 10–20 h to minima of ～4–6 and 2–3 h, respectively. The combined duration of the chromosome replication and postreplication periods (C+D), a quantity often used in the estimation of Prochlorococcus in situ growth rates, varied ～2.4‐fold over the range of growth rates examined. This finding suggests that assumptions of invariant C+D may adversely influence Prochlorococcus growth rate estimates. In both strains, cell mass was the greatest in slowly growing cells and decreased 2‐ to 3‐fold over the range of growth rates examined here. Estimated cell mass at the start of replication appeared to decrease with increasing growth rate, indicating that the initiation of chromosome replication in Prochlorococcus and Synechococcus is not a simple function of cell biomass, as suggested previously. Taken together, our results reflect a notable degree of similarity between oceanic Synechococcus and Prochlorococcus strains with respect to their growth‐rate‐specific cell‐cycle characteristics.