Multivalent mechanism of membrane insertion by the FYVE domain

Targeting of a wide variety of proteins to membranes involves specific recognition of phospholipid head groups and insertion into lipid bilayers. For example, proteins that contain FYVE domains are recruited to endosomes through interaction with phosphatidylinositol 3-phosphate (PtdIns(3)P). However, the structural mechanism of membrane docking and insertion by this domain remains unclear. Here, the depth and angle of micelle insertion and the lipid binding properties of the FYVE domain of early endosome antigen 1 are estimated by NMR spectroscopy. Spin label probes incorporated into micelles identify a hydrophobic protuberance that inserts into the micelle core and is surrounded by interfacially active polar residues. A novel proxyl PtdIns(3)P derivative is developed to map the position of the phosphoinositide acyl chains, which are found to align with the membrane insertion element. Dual engagement of the FYVE domain with PtdIns(3)P and dodecylphosphocholine micelles yields a 6-fold enhancement of affinity. The additional interaction of phosphatidylserine with a conserved basic site of the protein further amplifies the micelle binding affinity and dramatically alters the angle of insertion. Thus, the FYVE domain is targeted to endosomes through the synergistic action of stereospecific PtdIns(3)P head group ligation, hydrophobic insertion and electrostatic interactions with acidic phospholipids.     

Mice deficient in LRG-47 display enhanced susceptibility to Trypanosoma cruzi infection associated with defective hemopoiesis and intracellular control of parasite growth

IFN-gamma is known to be required for host control of intracellular Trypanosoma cruzi infection in mice, although the basis of its protective function is poorly understood. LRG-47 is an IFN-inducible p47GTPase that has been shown to regulate host resistance to intracellular pathogens. To investigate the possible role of LRG-47 in IFN-gamma-dependent control of T. cruzi infection, LRG-47 knockout (KO) and wild-type (WT) mice were infected with the Y strain of this parasite, and host responses were analyzed. When assayed on day 12 after parasite inoculation, LRG-47 KO mice, in contrast to IFN-gamma KO mice, controlled early parasitemia almost as effectively as WT animals. However, the infected LRG-47 KO mice displayed a rebound in parasite growth on day 15, and all succumbed to the infection by day 19. Additional analysis indicated that LRG-47-deficient mice exhibit unimpaired proinflammatory responses throughout the infection. Instead, reactivated disease in the KO animals was associated with severe splenic and thymic atrophy, anemia, and thrombocytopenia not observed in their WT counterparts. In addition, in vitro studies revealed that IFN-gamma-stimulated LRG-47 KO macrophages display defective intracellular killing of amastigotes despite normal expression of TNF and NO synthetase type 2 and that both NO synthetase type 2 and LRG-47 are required for optimum IFN-gamma-dependent restriction of parasite growth. Together, these data establish that LRG-47 can influence pathogen control by simultaneously regulating macrophage-microbicidal activity and hemopoietic function.     

Antigen-driven T cell clones can proliferate in vivo, eradicate disseminated leukemia, and provide specific immunologic memory

The aim of the current study was to determine the ability of antigen-driven cloned helper cell independent cytotoxic T lymphocytes (HITc) to proliferate and to survive in vivo and to mediate tumor therapy. The HITc clone utilized (denoted 1.B6) was specifically cytolytic to FBL-3, a syngeneic Friend virus-induced murine leukemia. Activation in vitro (48 hr) with FBL-3 induced secretion of interleukin 2 (IL 2), expression of IL 2 receptors (IL 2R), and in vitro proliferation. These cells could be "rested" for several weeks without stimulation, which resulted in reduced expression of IL 2R; however, restimulation with antigen resulted in reinduction of IL 2R and proliferation. The ability of cloned HITc to proliferate and to survive in vivo was examined in cyclophosphamide (CY) pretreated donor mice congenic for the Thy-1 gene. Adoptively transferred cloned HITc could be found in large numbers, and were widely distributed in vivo 1 wk after transfer. In tumor therapy, 1.B6 cells when injected into a site of tumor (i.p.) and used as an adjunct to CY were effective against disseminated FBL-3. In this circumstance, cloned 1.B6 cells could be recovered from cured mice 125 days after transfer and were shown to specifically lyse tumor and proliferate in vitro in response to FBL-3. Thus as an adjunct to CY, tumor-specific cloned HITc are capable of eradicating disseminated leukemia, persisting long-term in vivo, and providing specific immunologic memory.     

Eradication of disseminated murine leukemia by treatment with high-dose interleukin 2

Interleukin 2 (IL 2) in high concentration induces lymphocytes to become nonspecifically cytolytic to a wide variety of tumor targets. We evaluated the therapeutic potential of such lymphokine-activated killer (LAK) cells in vivo and high-dose II 2 in vivo against disseminated murine leukemia. To quantitate the potential anti-leukemia effect of LAK cells in vivo, B6 mice were injected i.p. with graded doses of FBL-3 leukemia cells followed by LAK cells. In this Winn-type assay, 1 X 10(7) LAK cells were able to prevent the outgrowth of 1 X 10(2) FBL-3 cells in only 50% of mice and did not prevent the outgrowth of 1 X 10(6) tumor cells. Thus LAK cells, highly cytolytic to FBL-3 in vitro, mediated only a limited anti-tumor effect when applied directly to leukemia cells in vivo. LAK cells used as an adjunct to chemotherapy induced a small but non-curative effect against FBL-3, however. In this circumstance, LAK cells were markedly less effective than were immune spleen cells from mice previously sensitized to FBL-3. To test the anti-leukemia effect of high-dose IL 2 in vivo, B6 mice were inoculated with 5 X 10(6) FBL-3 cells followed by repeated doses of IL 2 at dose levels shown to induce LAK in vivo. "LAK-inducing" IL 2 doses on days 5 to 9 after FBL-3 inoculation, when tumor was disseminated, cured 50% of the mice. Treatment on days 5 to 9 was far more effective than on days 0 to 4, implying that the evolution of a host-tumor interaction was essential for the therapeutic effect of IL 2. Mice cured of FBL-3 by high-dose IL 2 were found to be immune to FBL-3, suggesting that tumor eradication resulted from a collaboration between LAK activity and tumor-specific immunity.     

The early adaptive evolution of calmodulin

Interaction between gene duplication and natural selection in molecular evolution was investigated utilizing a phylogenetic tree constructed by the parsimony procedure from amino acid sequences of 50 calmodulin- family protein members. The 50 sequences, belonging to seven protein lineages related by gene duplication (calmodulin itself, troponin-C, alkali and regulatory light chains of myosin, parvalbumin, intestinal calcium-binding protein, and glial S-100 phenylalanine-rich protein), came from a wide range of eukaryotic taxa and yielded a denser tree (more branch points within each lineage) than in earlier studies. Evidence obtained from the reconstructed pattern of base substitutions and deletions in these ancestral loci suggests that, during the early history of the family, selection acted as a transforming force on expressed genes among the duplicates to encode molecular sites with new or modified functions. In later stages of descent, however, selection was a conserving force that preserved the structures of many coadapted functional sites. Each branch of the family was found to have a unique average tempo of evolutionary change, apparently regulated through functional constraints. Proteins whose functions dictate multiple interaction with several other macromolecules evolved more slowly than those which display fewer protein-protein and protein-ion interactions, e.g., calmodulin and next troponin-C evolved at the slowest average rates, whereas parvalbumin evolved at the fastest. The history of all lineages, however, appears to be characterized by rapid rates of evolutionary change in earlier periods, followed by slower rates in more recent periods. A particularly sharp contrast between such fast and slow rates is found in the evolution of calmodulin, whose rate of change in earlier eukaryotes was manyfold faster than the average rate over the past 1 billion years. In fact, the amino acid replacements in the nascent calmodulin lineage occurred at residue positions that in extant metazoans are largely invariable, lending further support to the Darwinian hypothesis that natural selection is both a creative and a conserving force in molecular evolution.      

Cultured endothelial cells produce heparinlike inhibitor of smooth muscle cell growth

Using cultured cells from bovine and rat aortas, we have examined the possibility that endothelial cells might regulate the growth of vascular smooth muscle cells. Conditioned medium from confluent bovine aortic endothelial cells inhibited the proliferation of growth-arrested smooth muscle cells. Conditioned medium from exponential endothelial cells, and from exponential or confluent smooth muscle cells and fibroblasts, did not inhibit smooth muscle cell growth. Conditioned medium from confluent endothelial cells did not inhibit the growth of endothelial cells or fibroblasts. In addition to the apparent specificity of both the producer and target cell, the inhibitory activity was heat stable and not affected by proteases. It was sensitive flavobacterium heparinase but not to hyaluronidase or chondroitin sulfate ABC lyase. It thus appears to be a heparinlike substance. Two other lines of evidence support this conclusion. First, a crude isolate of glycosaminoglycans (TCA-soluble, ethanol-precipitable material) from endothelial cell-conditioned medium reconstituted in 20 percent serum inhibited smooth muscle cell growth; glycosaminoglycans isolated from unconditioned medium (i.e., 0.4 percent serum) had no effect on smooth muscle cell growth. No inhibition was seen if the glycosaminoglycan preparation was treated with heparinase. Second, exogenous heparin, heparin sulfate, chondroitin sulfate B (dermatan sulfate), chondroitin sulfate ABC, and hyaluronic acid were added to 20 percent serum and tested for their ability to inhibit smooth muscle cell growth. Heparin inhibited growth at concentrations as low as 10 ng/ml. Other glycosaminoglycans had no effect at doses up to 10 μg/ml. Anticoagulant and non- anticoagulant heparin were equally effective at inhibiting smooth muscle cell growth, as they were in vivo following endothelial injury (Clowes and Karnovsk. Nature (Lond.). 265:625-626, 1977; Guyton et al. Circ. Res. 46:625-634, 1980), and in vitro following exposure of smooth muscle cells to platelet extract (Hoover et al. Circ. Res. 47:578-583, 1980). We suggest that vascular endothelial cells may secrete a heparinlike substance in vivo which may regulate the growth of underlying smooth muscle cells.     

Incomplete Deletion of IL-4Rα by LysMCre Reveals Distinct Subsets of M2 Macrophages Controlling Inflammation and Fibrosis in Chronic Schistosomiasis

Mice expressing a Cre recombinase from the lysozyme M-encoding locus (Lyz2) have been widely used to dissect gene function in macrophages and neutrophils. Here, we show that while naïve resident tissue macrophages from IL-4Rα^flox/deltaLysM^Cre mice almost completely lose IL-4Rα function, a large fraction of macrophages elicited by sterile inflammatory stimuli, Schistosoma mansoni eggs, or S. mansoni infection, fail to excise Il4rα. These F4/80^hiCD11b^hi macrophages, in contrast to resident tissue macrophages, express lower levels of Lyz2 explaining why this population resists LysM^Cre-mediated deletion. We show that in response to IL-4 and IL-13, Lyz2^loIL-4Rα⁺ macrophages differentiate into an arginase 1-expressing alternatively-activated macrophage (AAM) population, which slows the development of lethal fibrosis in schistosomiasis. In contrast, we identified Lyz2^hiIL-4Rα⁺ macrophages as the key subset of AAMs mediating the downmodulation of granulomatous inflammation in chronic schistosomiasis. Our observations reveal a limitation on using a LysM^Cre mouse model to study gene function in inflammatory settings, but we utilize this limitation as a means to demonstrate that distinct populations of alternatively activated macrophages control inflammation and fibrosis in chronic schistosomiasis.     

The heterochromatin of grasshoppers from the Caledia captiva species complex. I. Sequence evolution and conservation in a highly repeated DNA family

The restriction enzyme TaqI digests 0.2% of the genomic DNA from the grasshopper Caledia captiva to a family of sequences 168 bp in length (length of consensus sequence). The sequence variation of this "Taq family" of repeat units was examined among four races from C. captiva to assay the pattern of evolution within this highly repeated DNA. The Taq-family repeats are located in C-banded heterochromatin on at least one member of each homologous pair of chromosomes; the locations range from centromeric to telomeric. Thirty-nine cloned repeats isolated from two population 1A individuals along with 11 clones from seven populations taken from three of the races demonstrated sequence variation at 72 positions. Pairwise comparisons of the cloned repeats, both within an individual and between different races, indicate that levels of intraspecific divergence, as measured by reproductive incompatibility, do not correlate with sequence divergence among the 168-bp repeats. A number of subsequences within the repeat remain unchanged among all 50 clones; the longest of these is 18 bp. That the same 18-bp subsequence is present in all clones examined is a finding that departs significantly (P less than 0.01) from what would be expected to occur at random. Two other cloned repeats, from a reproductively isolated race of C. captiva, have sequences that show 56% identity with this 18-bp conserved region. An analysis showed that the frequency of occurrence of an RsaI recognition site within the 168- bp repeat in the entire Taq family agreed with that found in the cloned sequences. These data, along with a partial sequence for the entire Taq family obtained by sequencing uncloned repeats, suggest that the consensus sequence from the cloned copies is representative of this highly repeated family and is not a biased sample resulting from the cloning procedure. The 18-bp conserved sequence is part of a 42-bp sequence that possesses dyad symmetry typical of protein-binding sites. We speculate that this may be significant in the evolution of the Taq family of sequences.      

Isolation of a polysaccharide antigen from Schistosoma mansoni eggs.

A polysaccharide antigen was isolated from Schistosoma mansoni egg homogenates by the phenol procedure. The crude preparation (CPEA) contained at least two antigens. The more purified antigen (PEA) was isolated by sequential enzymatic treatment of CPEA with DNase, RNase, Pronase, and alpha-amylase. PEA was resistant to boiling, freezing and thawing, mild acid and alkali, and chloroform, but was destroyed with periodate. It gave a positive reaction with anthrone reagent. PEA was eluted in the wash fraction from a DEAE cellulose collumn and in the void volume of a Sephacryl 200 column. After immunoelectrophoresis and polyacrylamide electrophoresis there was little or no migration. Amino acid analysis failed to reveal ninhydrin-positive material in the a hydrolyzate of PEA. These resluts suggested that PEA is a neutral polysaccharide with a m.w. of more than 200,000 and contains no amino acids or hexosamine. Antibodies against PEA were detected in sera obtained from mice infected with S. mansoni. PEA is different from previously described antigens derived from schistosome eggs.     

Ecosystem Function in Appalachian Headwater Streams during an Active Invasion by the Hemlock Woolly Adelgid

Forested ecosystems in the southeastern United States are currently undergoing an invasion by the hemlock woolly adelgid (HWA). Previous studies in this area have shown changes to forest structure, decreases in canopy cover, increases in organic matter, and changes to nutrient cycling on the forest floor and soil. Here, we were interested in how the effects of canopy loss and nutrient leakage from terrestrial areas would translate into functional changes in streams draining affected watersheds. We addressed these questions in HWA-infested watersheds at the Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory in North Carolina. Specifically, we measured stream metabolism (gross primary production and ecosystem respiration) and nitrogen uptake from 2008 to 2011 in five streams across the Coweeta basin. Over the course of our study, we found no change to in-stream nutrient concentrations. While canopy cover decreased annually in these watersheds, this change in light penetration did not translate to higher rates of in-stream primary production during the summer months of our study. We found a trend towards greater heterotrophy within our watersheds, where in-stream respiration accounted for a much larger component of net ecosystem production than GPP. Additionally, increases in rhododendron cover may counteract changes in light and nutrient availability that occurred with hemlock loss. The variability in our metabolic and uptake parameters suggests an actively-infested ecosystem in transition between steady states.