The effect of IFN-gamma and colony-stimulating factors on the expression of neutrophil cell membrane receptors

The recombinant cytokines IFN-gamma, granulocyte-macrophage (GM)-CSF, and granulocyte (G)-CSF are all known to affect the function of neutrophils. We have investigated their ability to alter the surface expression of neutrophil Fc gamma R and CR. FcRI, formerly considered to be mononuclear phagocyte specific, was found on a variable percentage of neutrophils after 12 h of tissue culture. These levels could be readily enhanced by IFN-gamma at 0.5 U/ml suggesting that neutrophil FcRI is extremely sensitive IFN-gamma. In addition, membrane expression of FcRIII, the most abundant receptor of neutrophils, could also be increased by IFN-gamma and by GM-CSF and G-CSF. However, the opposite effect was observed in samples in which the initial levels of FcRIII were high. In these situations IFN-gamma and GM-CSF caused a decrease in receptor expression. No consistent alterations were found in the levels of FcRII. Cytokine-induced increases in both FcRI and FcRIII were not evident within the first hour of treatment suggesting that these molecules are not available in an intracellular compartment but must be newly synthesized. In contrast, the CR, CR1 and CR3, could be rapidly induced by GM-CSF indicating that this cytokine causes the mobilization of preformed molecules to the membrane. G-CSF and IFN-gamma did not alter the expression of CR1 and CR3. Thus, the very different effects of IFN-gamma, GM-CSF, and G-CSF suggest that the neutrophil functional profile will be distinctively affected by exposure to each of these cytokines.     

Short repetitive sequences in green algal mitochondrial genomes: potential roles in mitochondrial genome evolution

Current data on green algal mitochondrial genomes suggest an unexpected dichotomy within the group with respect to genome structure, organization, and sequence affiliations. The present study suggests that there is a correlation between this dichotomy on one hand and the differences in the abundance, base composition, and distribution of short repetitive sequences we observed among green algal mitochondrial genomes on the other. It is conceivable that the accumulation of GC- rich short repeated sequences in the Chlamydomonas-like but not Prototheca-like mitochondrial genomes might have triggered evolutionary events responsible for the distinct series of evolutionary changes undergone by the two green algal mitochondrial lineages. The similarity in base composition, nucleotide sequence, abundance, and mode of organization we observed between the short repetitive sequences present in Chlamydomonas-like mitochondrial genomes on one hand and fungal and vertebrate homologs on the other might extend to some of the roles that the short repetitive sequences have been shown to have in the latter. Potential involvements we propose for the short repetitive sequences in the evolution of Chlamydomonas-like mitochondrial genomes include fragmentation and scrambling of the ribosomal-RNA-coding regions, extensive gene rearrangements, coding-region deletions, surrogate origins of replication, and chromosomal linearization.      

Aspergillus terreus and its toxic metabolites as a food contaminant in some Egyptian Bakery products and grains

A. terreus isolates isolated from some bakery products, corn and rice were found to be able to produce territrems. 90% of theA. terreus isolated from bakery products were able to produce territrem A, with a mean of 0.09 ppm, while 80% ofA. terreus isolates produce territrem B with a mean of 0.24 ppm. On the other hand 31.8% of the isolates ofA. terreus from corn were able to produce territrem A with a mean of 0.44 ppm. ConcerningA. terreus isolates from rice, 66.7% were found to produce territrem A, with a mean of 5.28 ppm, and 77.8% of the isolates produced territrem B with a mean of 1.79 ppm.     

Structural response to mutation at a protein-protein interface

We have crystallised three mutants of the barnase-barstar complex in which interactions across the interface have been deleted by simultaneous mutation of both residues involved in the interaction. Each mutant deletes a different type of interaction at the interface: the first complex bnHis102-->Ala-bsTyr29-->Phe (bn, barnase; bs, barstar), deletes a van der Waals packing interaction; the second complex, bnLys27-->Ala-bsThr42-->Ala, deletes a hydrogen bond; the third, bnLys27-->Ala-bsAsp35-->Ala, deletes a long-range charge-charge interaction. The contribution of each of these side-chains to the stability of the complex is known; the coupling energy between the deleted side-chains is also known. Despite each of the double mutants being significantly destabilised compared with the wild-type, the effects of mutation are local. Only small movements in the main-chain surrounding the sites of mutation and some larger movements of neighbouring side-chains are observed in the mutant complexes. The exact response to mutation is context-dependent and for the same mutant can vary depending upon the environment within the crystal. In some double mutant complexes, interfacial pockets, which are accessible to bulk solvent are formed, whereas interfacial cavities which are isolated from bulk solvent, are formed in others. In all double mutants, water molecules fill the created pockets and cavities. These water molecules mimic the deleted side-chains by occupying positions close to the non-carbon atoms of truncated side-chains and re-making many hydrogen bonds made by the truncated side-chains in the wild-type. It remains extremely difficult, however, to correlate energetic and structural responses to mutation because of unknown changes in entropy and entropy-enthalpy compensation.     

Case-control study of leukaemia and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma among children aged 0-4 years living in west Berkshire and north Hampshire health districts.

OBJECTIVE--To investigate the relation between parental employment in the nuclear industry and childhood leukaemia and non-Hodgkin''s lymphoma. DESIGN--Case-control study. SETTING-West Berkshire and Basingstoke and North Hampshire District Health Authorities. SUBJECTS--54 children aged 0-4 years who had leukaemia or non-Hodgkin''s lymphoma diagnosed during 1972-89, who were born in the study area and were resident there when cancer was diagnosed. Six controls were selected for each case: four from hospital delivery registers and two from livebirth registers maintained by the NHS central register. Controls were matched for sex, date of birth (within six months), and area of residence at birth and time of diagnosis. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES--Parents'' employment by the nuclear industry and exposure to ionising radiation at work. RESULTS--Five (9%) of the 54 cases and 14 (4%) of the 324 controls had fathers or mothers, or both, who had been employed by the nuclear industry (relative risk 2.2, 95% confidence interval 0.6 to 6.9). Nuclear industry employees who work in areas where exposure to radiation is possible are given film badges to monitor their exposure to external penetrating ionising radiation. Three fathers of cases and two fathers of controls (and no mothers of either) had been monitored in this way before their child was conceived (relative risk 9.0, 95% confidence interval 1.0 to 107.8). No father (of a case or control) had accumulated a recorded dose of more than 5 mSv before his child was conceived, and no father had been monitored at any time in the four years before his child was conceived. A dose-response relation was not evident among fathers who had been monitored. CONCLUSIONS--These results suggest that the children of fathers who had been monitored for exposure to external penetrating ionising radiation in the nuclear industry may be at increased risk of developing leukaemia before their fifth birthday. The finding is based on small numbers and could be due to chance. If the relationship is real the mechanisms are far from clear, except that the effect is unlikely to be due to external radiation; the possibility that it could be due to internal contamination by radioactive substances or some other exposure at work should be pursued. The above average rates of leukaemia in the study area cannot be accounted for by these findings.     

High copy number of highly similar mariner-like transposons in planarian (Platyhelminthe): evidence for a trans-phyla horizontal transfer

Several DNA sequences similar to the mariner element were isolated and characterized in the platyhelminthe Dugesia (Girardia) tigrina. They were 1,288 bp long, flanked by two 32 bp-inverted repeats, and contained a single 339 amino acid open-reading frame (ORF) encoding the transposase. The number of copies of this element is approximately 8,000 per haploid genome, constituting a member of the middle- repetitive DNA of Dugesia tigrina. Sequence analysis of several elements showed a high percentage of conservation between the different copies. Most of them presented an intact ORF and the standard signals of actively expressed genes, which suggests that some of them are or have recently been functional transposons. The high degree of similarity shared with other mariner elements from some arthropods, together with the fact that this element is undetectable in other planarian species, strongly suggests a case of horizontal transfer between these two distant phyla.