Cyanobacteria of Rocks and Soils of the Orinoco Lowlands and the Guayana Uplands,Venezuela

The occurrence of 23 cyanobacterial species, belonging to 9 different genera and 5 cyanobacterial lichen species of 5 different genera on exposed, open rock surfaces of inselbergs and on soil in savannas of the Orinoco lowlands and the Guayana uplands is described. Their distribution patterns and frequency within the different habitats are given. The filamentous procaryotic blue-green algae/cyanobacteria Stigonema ocellatum and Scytonema crassum, together with the unicellular cyanobacterium Gloeocapsa sanguinea were the most frequent species on rocks, whereas the filamentous cyanobacterium, Schizothrix telephoroides, dominated in cyanobacterial mats on the savanna soil. All species showed intensively coloured sheaths, either brown or yellow in the case of Stigonema ocellatum and Scytonema crassum, or red in Gloeocapsa sanguinea and Schizothrix telephoroides. In addition, a number of cyanobacterial lichens occurred.     

The Different Behavior of Diphtheria Toxin, Modeccin and Ricin in HeLa Cells Infected with Trypanosoma cruzi

ABSTRACT. We have studied the action of diphtheria toxin, modeccin and ricin on HeLa cells infected by Trypanosoma cruzi . Parasitized HeLa cells were resistant to diphtheria toxin and modeccin, whereas non-parasitized cells from the same cultures and control cultures showed cytopathological alterations. Protein synthesis, assayed by the incorporation of labelled methionine, diminished in toxin-treated control cultures but remained unaltered in the infected ones, compared to synthesis by untreated infected cells. Ricin, on the other hand, is a toxin that enters the cytoplasm by endocytosis. It has greater cytopathological effects in parasitized cells than in non-parasitized ones from the same cultures or uninfected control cells. Protein synthesis was inhibited in infected cultures treated with ricin.     

Dark induction of nitrate reductase in the halophilic alga Dunaliella salina

The effect of nitrogen starvation on the NO₃-dependent induction of nitrate reductase (NR) and nitrite reductases (NIR) has been investigated in the halophilic alga Dunaliella salina. When D. salina cells previously grown in a medium with NH ₄ ⁺ as the only nitrogen source (NH ₄ ⁺ -cells) were transferred into NO ₃ ^? medium, NR was induced in the light. In contrast, when cells previously grown in N-free medium were transferred into a medium containing NO ₃ ^? , NR was induced in light or in darkness. Nitrate-dependent NR induction, in darkness, in D. salina cells previously grown at a photon flux density of 500 umol · m^?2 s^?1 was observed after 4 h preculture in N-free medium, whilst in cells grown at 100 umol · m^?2 s^?1 NR induction was observed after 7–8 h. An inhibitor of mRNA synthesis (6-methylpurine) did not inhibit NO ₃ ^? -induced NR synthesis when the cells, previously grown in NH ₄ ⁺ medium, were transferred into NO ₃ ^? medium (at time 0 h) after 4-h-N starvation. However, when 6-methylpurine was added simultaneously with the transfer of the cells from NH ₄ ⁺ to NO ₃ ^? medium (at time 0 h), NO ₃ ^? induced NR synthesis was completely inhibited. The activity of NIR decreased in N-starved cells and the addition of NO ₃ ^? to those cells greatly stimulated NIR activity in the light. The ability to induce NR in darkness was observed when glutamine synthetase activity reached its maximal level during N starvation. Although cells grown in NO ₃ ^? medium exhibited high NR activity, only 0.33% of the total NR was found in intact chloroplasts. We suggest that the ability, to induce NR in darkness is dependent on the level of N starvation, and that NR in D. salina is located in the cytosol. Light seems to play an indirect regulatory role on NO ₃ ^? uptake and NR induction due to the expression of NR and NO ₃ ^? -transporter mRNAs.     

Expression of conformationally constrained adhesion peptide in an antibody CDR loop and inhibition of natural killer cell cytotoxic activity by an antibody antigenized with the RGD motif.

We report that an antibody engineered to express three Arg-Gly-Asp (RGD) repeats in the third complementarity-determining region of the heavy chain (antigenized antibody) efficiently inhibits the lysis of human erythroleukemia K-562 cells by natural killer (NK) cells. Synthetic peptides containing RGD did not inhibit. Inhibition was specific for the (RGD)3-containing loop and required simultaneous occupancy of the Fc receptor (CD16) on effector cells. The antigenized antibody inhibited other forms of cytotoxicity mediated by NK cells but not cytotoxicity mediated by major histocompatibility complex-restricted cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL). A three-dimensional model of the engineered antibody loop shows the structure and physicochemical characteristics probably required for the ligand activity. The results indicate that an RGD motif is involved in the productive interaction between NK and target cells. Moreover, they show that peptide expression in the hypervariable loops of an antibody molecule is an efficient procedure for stabilizing oligopeptides within a limited spectrum of tertiary structures. This is a new approach towards imparting ligand properties to antibody molecules and can be used to study the biological function and specificity of short peptide motifs, including those involved in cell adhesion.     

Characterization of urease from the phototrophic bacteriumRhodobacter capsulatus E1F1

Rhodobacter capsulatus E1F1 showed high cytosolic urease activity when growing on urea, purines, and purine metabolites as nitrogen source. Molecular mass ofR. capsulatus enzyme is similar to that of other bacteria and greatly differs from that of jack bean. Kinetic parameters of partially purifiedR. capsulatus enzyme resemble those described in other bacterial ureases. The activity was inhibited by metal-chelating agents and by mercurials. Urease fromR. capsulatus E1F1 was negligible in nitrogen-starved cells or in cells cultured with nitrate, ammonium, or amino acids. Moreover, ammonium inhibited both the urea uptake and the urease activity expression inR. capsulatus cells.     

Ecological and behavioral consequences of digestion in frugivorous animals

The postingestional effect of seed size and mass and nutrient composition on fruit profitability are reviewed. It is emphasized that profitability results from the interaction between fruit characteristics and the physiological and morphological traits of frugivores. The processes by which frugivores regurgitate or defecate seeds and the differential processing of the nutrient rich pulp and ballast in fruit are strongly dependent on the interaction between frugivore gut morphology and seed size. Euphonias that lack a functional gizzard defecate seeds, whereas tanagers that have a delete a functional gizzards regurgitate seeds. Some frugivores separate seeds from pulp and exocarp in the gizzard. It is hypothesized that the gizzard plays an important role in determining the postigestional fate of different pulp components. Although fruit nutrient content is often invoked as a determinant of frugivore feeding choices, studies that rely on proximal nutrient analysis, have often failed to find clear nutrient composition-preference correlations. It is argued that a partial reason for this failure is that proximal nutrient analysis ignores the complexities of fruit digestion. The ecological and physiological correlates of lipid and sugar assimilation are used to identify the limitations of traditional proximal nutrient analyses in fruit-frugivore studies. We suggest that recognizing the intricacies of the digestive characteristics of frugivores may reveal a much richer patterning in the interaction of frugivores with plants than has been previously hypothesized.     

Enhancing estimation methods for integrating probability and nonprobability survey samples with machine-learning techniques. An application to a Survey on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in Spain

Web surveys have replaced Face-to-Face and computer assisted telephone interviewing (CATI) as the main mode of data collection in most countries. This trend was reinforced as a consequence of COVID-19 pandemic-related restrictions. However, this mode still faces significant limitations in obtaining probability-based samples of the general population. For this reason, most web surveys rely on nonprobability survey designs. Whereas probability-based designs continue to be the gold standard in survey sampling, nonprobability web surveys may still prove useful in some situations. For instance, when small subpopulations are the group under study and probability sampling is unlikely to meet sample size requirements, complementing a small probability sample with a larger nonprobability one may improve the efficiency of the estimates. Nonprobability samples may also be designed as a mean for compensating for known biases in probability-based web survey samples by purposely targeting respondent profiles that tend to be underrepresented in these surveys. This is the case in the Survey on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in Spain (ESPACOV) that motivates this paper. In this paper, we propose a methodology for combining probability and nonprobability web-based survey samples with the help of machine-learning techniques. We then assess the efficiency of the resulting estimates by comparing them with other strategies that have been used before. Our simulation study and the application of the proposed estimation method to the second wave of the ESPACOV Survey allow us to conclude that this is the best option for reducing the biases observed in our data.     

The ability of rufous hummingbirds Selasphorus rufus to dilute and concentrate urine

Most terrestrial animals face the challenge of having to conserve water in a desiccating environment. Not surprisingly, the ability to produce concentrated urine has been relatively well studied in birds. Nectar-feeding birds are unusual among terrestrial animals in that they often ingest and excrete prodigious water volumes to obtain adequate energy. Thus, they confront the unusual challenge of having to conserve electrolytes. The diluting abilities of birds and the renal mechanisms that may correlate with them have been relatively neglected. To elucidate diluting and concentrating abilities in nectar-feeding birds, we fed rufous hummingbirds Selasphorus rufus an electrolyte-free nectar and a nectar containing a range of NaCl concentrations. Hummingbirds had a spectacular (and possibly unique) diluting ability: when fed on electrolyte-free food they produced excreta containing less than 0.5 mM l⁻¹ each of sodium and potassium. Hummingbirds also had a poor concentrating ability, retaining sodium and chloride when their food (0.632 M l⁻¹ sucrose) contained more than 35 mM l⁻¹ of NaCl. The kidneys of hummingbirds do not appear to be suited for concentrating urine, and possibly contain structural features that give them a unique diluting ability compared with those of birds that do not feed on nectar.     

Species-specific phytoplankton responses to nutrients and zooplankton manipulations in enclosure experiments

1. In situ enclosure experiments were performed in the mesotrophic Bermejales reservoir to evaluate the algal response to changes in the nutrient supply and in the zooplankton size structure and density in a 2 × 2 factorial design. The experiments were conducted during the spring bloom of nanoplanktonic diatoms in 1989. 2. Nutrient enrichment promoted a great increase of phytoplankton biomass indicating a strong nutrient limitation on phytoplankton growth. Total phytoplankton biomass was significantly lower in the Daphina-added enclosures at a given nutrient level and strong direct an indirect effect of zooplankton on phytoplankton community structure and nutrient availability were observed. 3. Most of the nanoplanktonic species were effectively grazed but species with protective coverings and large size colonies were favoured by grazers and small chlorococcales were unaffected probably because of their compensatory high growth rates. The decrease in total biomass imposed by grazers is attributable mainly to the decrease of Cyclotella ocellata, the most abundant species. This taxon suffers two net effects of zooplankton: direct grazing and the indirect decrease of Si availability caused by the growth of C. ocellata which was promoted by P excretion by zooplankton. Indirect effects of grazers on Si availability should, therefore, be taken into account in explaining phytoplankton succession and community structure. 4. In this experiment grazers affected considerably the nanoplanktonic community in Bermejales reservoir. The extent which they were affected, however, depended not only on the algal size as a determinant of edibility but also greatly on the specific nutrient requirements and taxonomic features of the algal species.