Use of EDTA to prevent spontaneous cell-to-cell transformation provides a more accurate estimation of gene transfer frequencies

Summary Spontaneous cell-to-cell transformation between naturally competent bacteria on selective media resulted in an overestimation of the transferability of genetic information. EDTA effectively prevented transformation on selective media whereas DNaseI did not reliably inhibit cell-to-cell transformation. An improved method to estimate gene transfer frequencies is described.     

Rhigonema infecta (Leidy, 1849) Christie & Cobb, 1927 and the systematic position of the Rhigonematidae sensu Théodoridès, 1965

Summary Rhigonema infecta (Leidy, 1849) Christie & Cobb, 1927, a member of the family Rhigonematidae sensu Théodoridès, 1965, is redescribed from the diplopod Narceus annularis from Sharbot Lake and Long Point, Ontario, Canada. R. infecta is most similar to R. subtruncatum Dollfus, 1952 but differs from this species in possessing four rather than three post-cloacal papillae in the male. Rhigonematids have been affiliated with members of the order Oxyurida by most authors but study of R. infecta suggests that rhigonematids should be placed in their own order, the Rhigonematida. Members of the order Rhigonematida are characterized by: two spicules in the male; H-shaped excretory system; are round to oval sperms; thick and smooth egg-shell; apparently lacking a uterine layer; and development in the egg involving no moults and resulting in a long, thin, coiled larva. In contrast, oxyuridans have a single spicule, the excretory system is X-shaped, the sperm is comet-shaped and the egg-shell has a prominent striated uterine layer. Development in the egg involves at least one and probably two moults and results in a short, robust, uncoiled larva. ac]19810310     

Isomeric lipid signatures reveal compartmentalized fatty acid metabolism in cancer

The cellular energy and biomass demands of cancer drive a complex dynamic between uptake of extracellular FAs and their de novo synthesis. Given that oxidation of de novo synthesized FAs for energy would result in net-energy loss, there is an implication that FAs from these two sources must have distinct metabolic fates; however, hitherto, all FAs have been considered part of a common pool. To probe potential metabolic partitioning of cellular FAs, cancer cells were supplemented with stable isotope-labeled FAs. Structural analysis of the resulting glycerophospholipids revealed that labeled FAs from uptake were largely incorporated to canonical (sn-) positions on the glycerol backbone. Surprisingly, labeled FA uptake also disrupted canonical isomer patterns of the unlabeled lipidome and induced repartitioning of n-3 and n-6 PUFAs into glycerophospholipid classes. These structural changes support the existence of differences in the metabolic fates of FAs derived from uptake or de novo sources and demonstrate unique signaling and remodeling behaviors usually hidden from conventional lipidomics.     

Why did heterospory evolve?

The primitive land plant life cycle featured the production of spores of unimodal size, a condition called homospory. The evolution of bimodal size distributions with small male spores and large female spores, known as heterospory, was an innovation that occurred repeatedly in the history of land plants. The importance of desiccation‐resistant spores for colonization of the land is well known, but the adaptive value of heterospory has never been well established. It was an addition to a sexual life cycle that already involved male and female gametes. Its role as a precursor to the evolution of seeds has received much attention, but this is an evolutionary consequence of heterospory that cannot explain the transition from homospory to heterospory (and the lack of evolutionary reversal from heterospory to homospory). Enforced outcrossing of gametophytes has often been mentioned in connection to heterospory, but we review the shortcomings of this argument as an explanation of the selective advantage of heterospory. Few alternative arguments concerning the selective forces favouring heterospory have been proposed, a paucity of attention that is surprising given the importance of this innovation in land plant evolution. In this review we highlight two ideas that may lead us to a better understanding of why heterospory evolved. First, models of optimal resource allocation – an approach that has been used for decades in evolutionary ecology to help understand parental investment and other life‐history patterns – suggest that an evolutionary increase in spore size could reach a threshold at which small spores yielding small, sperm‐producing gametophytes would return greater fitness per unit of resource investment than would large spores and bisexual gametophytes. With the advent of such microspores, megaspores would evolve under frequency‐dependent selection. This argument can account for the appearance of heterospory in the Devonian, when increasingly tall and complex vegetative communities presented competitive conditions that made large spore size advantageous. Second, heterospory is analogous in many ways to anisogamy. Indeed, heterospory is a kind of re‐invention of anisogamy within the context of a sporophyte‐dominant land plant life cycle. The evolution of anisogamy has been the subject of important theoretical and empirical investigation. Recent work in this area suggests that mate‐encounter dynamics set up selective forces that can drive the evolution of anisogamy. We suggest that similar dispersal and mating dynamics could have underlain spore size differentiation. The two approaches offer predictions that are consistent with currently available data but could be tested far more thoroughly. We hope to re‐establish attention on this neglected aspect of plant evolutionary biology and suggest some paths for empirical investigation.     

Biodiversity and ecosystem functioning: It is time for dispersal experiments

The experimental study of the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem function has mainly addressed the effect of species and number of functional groups. In theory, this approach has mainly focused on how extinction affects function, whereas dispersal limitation of ecosystem function has been rarely discussed. A handful of seed introduction experiments, as well as numerous observations of the effects of long‐distance dispersal of alien species, indicate that ecosystem function may be strongly determined by dispersal limitation at the local, regional and/or global scales. We suggest that it is time to replace biodiversity manipulation experiments, based on random draw of species, with those addressing realistic scenarios of either extinction or dispersal. Experiments disentangling the dispersal limitation of ecosystem function should have to take into account the probability of arrival. The latter is defined as the probability that a propagule of a particular species will arrive at a particular community. Arrival probability depends on the dispersal ability and the number of propagules of a species, the distance a species needs to travel, and the permeability of the matrix landscape. Current databases, in particular those in northwestern and central Europe now enable robust estimation of arrival probability in plant communities. We suggest a general hypothesis claiming that dispersal limitation according to arrival probability will have ecosystem‐level effects different from those arising due to random arrival. This hypothesis may be rendered more region‐, landscape‐ or ecosystem‐specific by estimating arrival probabilities for different background conditions.     

Inhibition of Aspartate Aminotransferase by Glycation In Vitro Under Various Conditions

Incubation of 50 mM d -glucose with aspartate aminotransferase (AST, EC 2.6.1.1) preparations (purified pig heart enzyme or a rat liver 20,000 × g supernatant) at 25°C had no effect on enzyme activity. 50 mM d -fructose or d -ribose gradually inhibited pig heart AST under the same conditions to zero activity after 14 days. 50 mM dl -glyceraldehyde decreased enzyme activity to zero after 6 days of incubation. The inhibition of pig heart AST by 50 mM d -fructose or d -ribose was marked even at a temperature of 4°C but it was less pronounced than at 25°C. There was no effect of 0.5 mM 2-oxoglutarate on AST activity during incubation, while the presence of 25 mM l -aspartate decreased it rapidly. 0.5 mM 2-oxoglutarate partly prevented inhibition of AST by d -ribose or d -fructose, while an analogous experiment with 25 mM aspartate resulted in a rapid decline similar to that in the absence of sugars.     

Melanocortin‐1 receptor structure and functional regulation

The melanogenic actions of the melanocortins are mediated by the melanocortin‐1 receptor (MC1R). MC1R is a member of the G‐protein‐coupled receptors (GPCR) superfamily expressed in cutaneous and hair follicle melanocytes. Activation of MC1R by adrenocorticotrophin or α‐melanocyte stimulating hormone is positively coupled to the cAMP signaling pathway and leads to a stimulation of melanogenesis and a switch from the synthesis of pheomelanins to the production of eumelanic pigments. The functional behavior of the MC1R agrees with emerging concepts in GPCR signaling including dimerization, coupling to more than one signaling pathway and a high agonist‐independent constitutive activity accounting for inverse agonism phenomena. In addition, MC1R displays unique properties such as an unusually high number of natural variants often associated with clearly visible phenotypes and the occurrence of endogenous peptide antagonists. Therefore MC1R is an ideal model to study GPCR function. Here we review our current knowledge of MC1R structure and function, with emphasis on information gathered from the analysis of natural variants. We also discuss recent data on the regulation of MC1R function by paracrine and endocrine factors and by external stimuli such as ultraviolet light.