A feline large granular lymphoma and its derived cell line

Summary A lymphoma cell line (MCC) was derived from an abdominal mass from a 13-yr-old castrated male cat. The cells resemble natural killer precursor cells, have membrane-bound granules, and are positive for chloroacetate esterase, α-naphthyl butyrate esterase, and tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase activities. The MCC cells are negative for rearranged feline T-cell receptor genes, negative for feline T-cytotoxic antigen, Ia, and surface μ, τ, and lambda chains and do not form E-rosettes. The MCC cell line is negative for the feline leukemia virus (FeLV); e.g., negative for exogenous FeLV (exU3) sequences, negative for cytoplasmic and surface FeLV major core protein of 27 000 daltons (p27) by indirect, immunofluorescence assay, negative for helper FeLV by clone 81 assay, and negative for release of soluble FeLV p27 by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Electron microscopy reveals budding type C retrovirus particles and MCC cells react with anti-RD-114 (anti-endogenous feline retrovirus) reference serum. After in vitro infection, MCC replicate FeLV readily, but replication is noncytopathic. This project has been funded, at least in part, with funds from the U.S. Department of Health and Human services under grants AI 25722, DK41939, and CA 35742 and contract AI-62525.     

Long-term cleaner fish presence affects growth of a coral reef fish

Cleaning behaviour is considered to be a classical example of mutualism. However, no studies, to our knowledge, have measured the benefits to clients in terms of growth. In the longest experimental study of its kind, over an 8 year period, cleaner fish Labroides dimidiatus were consistently removed from seven patch reefs (61-285 m(2)) and left undisturbed on nine control reefs, and the growth and parasite load of the damselfish Pomacentrus moluccensis determined. After 8 years, growth was reduced and parasitic copepod abundance was higher on fish from removal reefs compared with controls, but only in larger individuals. Behavioural observations revealed that P. moluccensis cleaned by L. dimidiatus were 27 per cent larger than nearby conspecifics. The selective cleaning by L. dimidiatus probably explains why only larger P. moluccensis individuals benefited from cleaning. This is the first demonstration, to our knowledge, that cleaners affect the growth rate of client individuals; a greater size for a given age should result in increased fecundity at a given time. The effect of the removal of so few small fish on the size of another fish species is unprecedented on coral reefs.     

One step antibiotic disk method for obtaining axenic cultures of multicellular marine algae

A simple and rapid method for obtaining axenic plant material has been devised where antibiotic-containing paper disks are applied to nutrient agarose or agar plates upon which small pieces of plant have been spread. By applying multiple disks to the agarose plate, susceptibility to a large number of antibiotics can be tested simultaneously. Clear zones are produced around those disks where contaminating bacteria are susceptible. Plant pieces are then removed from the clear zones and separately tested for sterility to identify the axenic pieces. The method has been successfully applied to multicellular marine algae (e.g.Enteromorpha, Porphyra, laminaria, Gracilaria andAgardhiella). Pieces fromAgardhiella plants survive better on nutrient medium solidified with agarose when -naphthaleneacetic acid and zeatin are present in the medium.     

Bovine trichomoniasis: Results of a slaughter survey in Colorado and Nebraska

A total of 2,909 bulls was cultured for the presence of Trichomonas fetus at slaughter at 4 abattoirs in Colorado and Nebraska. Samples were collected using the dry pipette preputial scraping technique and were transported to diagnostic laboratories within 24 h. Of the bulls cultured, 5 were positive. The state of the last origin for each animal was Kansas, 1 bull, Montana, 1 bull, Nebraska, 1 bull, and Utah, 2 bulls. These results indicate and incidence of less than 1% (0.172%) of trichomoniasis in the populations tested, even in the states of Colorado and Nebraska where the larger numbers of bulls were cultured.     

A Changing Society and the New Trends in Education

Profound differences exist between the ways in which arts educators and artists personally value the arts and the rationales offered via arts advocacy campaigns for public arts support. The author argues that those discrepancies carry grave consequences for K-university arts education. The author describes means by which to better reconcile valuing the arts for their intrinsic qualities with intense political pressure to justify arts education in terms of its alleged ability to improve students' math and reading skills and to address concerns of social justice and economic development. This article was adapted from a keynote speech given by the author on 13 October 2006 for the 62nd annual meeting of The National Association of Schools of Art and Design.     

Analysis of the human Alu Ya-lineage

The Alu Ya-lineage is a group of related, short interspersed elements (SINEs) found in primates. This lineage includes subfamilies Ya1-Ya5, Ya5a2 and others. Some of these subfamilies are still actively mobilizing in the human genome. We have analyzed 2482 elements that reside in the human genome draft sequence and focused our analyses on the 2318 human autosomal Ya Alu elements. A total of 1470 autosomal loci were subjected to polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based assays that allow analysis of individual Ya-lineage Alu elements. About 22% (313/1452) of the Ya-lineage Alu elements were polymorphic for the insertion presence on human autosomes. Less than 0.01% (5/1452) of the Ya-lineage loci analyzed displayed insertions in orthologous loci in non-human primate genomes. DNA sequence analysis of the orthologous inserts showed that the orthologous loci contained older pre-existing Y, Sc or Sq Alu subfamily elements that were the result of parallel forward insertions or involved in gene conversion events in the human lineage. This study is the largest analysis of a group of "young", evolutionarily related human subfamilies. The size, evolutionary age and variable allele insertion frequencies of several of these subfamilies makes members of the Ya-lineage useful tools for human population studies and primate phylogenetics.     

HALOGENATED MONOTERPENE PRODUCTION IN REGENERATED PLANTLET CULTURES OF OCHTODES SECUNDIRAMEA (RHODOPHYTA, CRYPTONEMIALES)

Three genera of macrophytic red algae ( Ochtodes , Plocamium , and Portieria ) contain novel halogenated monoterpenes. To develop an in vitro system for studying halogenated monoterpene production, a laboratory tissue culture was established for Ochtodes secundiramea (Montagne) Howe (Cryptonemiales, Rhizophyllidaceae). Specifically, callus cells were induced from thallus explants of O. secundiramea plants. Shoot primordia regenerated from callus cells and developed into plantlets that released tetraspores. A sporeling from one of these tetraspores was selected for further culture. Axenic plantlets were cultivated in ESS-enriched natural seawater. Thallus tissue was cut into small pieces before subculture. Each plantlet grew as a symmetrical array of highly branched shoot tissues emanating from a common center, ultimately assuming a spherical shape of 20 mm diameter 4 weeks after subculture. Specific growth rates of over 20% per day were attained in bubble-aerated flask culture at an optimal temperature of 26° C and photosynthetic saturation light intensity of 200 μmol photons·m ^{− 2}·s ^{− 1}. The cultured plantlets contained myrcene and seven halogenated monoterpenes, based on gas chromatography–mass spectroscopy analysis of dichloromethane extracts. Although bromomyrcene was the dominant acyclic halogenated monoterpene, the cyclic halogenated monoterpenes chondrocole C and ochtodene were also produced by the O. secundiramea plantlet cultures. Halogenated monoterpene production at light-saturated growth conditions increased with decreasing nitrogen availability below 1.0 mM medium nitrate concentration (N:P ratios of 1.6:1 to 32:1). The halogenated monoterpene yield was insensitive to medium nitrate concentrations above 1.0 mM (N:P ratios of 32:1 to 320:1), where the bromomyrcene yield was 1700 μg per gram of dry cell mass.     

Location of a protein of the fodrin-spectrin-TW260/240 family in the mouse intestinal brush border

We have determined that a protein of the fodrin-spectrin-TW260/240 (FST) family is a component of the thin fibrils (～5 nm wide, 100–200 nm long) that cross-link bundles of actin filaments to adjacent actin bundles and to the plasma membrane in the terminal web of the brush border of the intestinal epithelium. When isolated brush borders were incubated with anti-fodrin antibodies and prepared for electron microscopy by the quick-freeze, deepetch technique, these ～5 nm fibrils were specifically decorated with the antibody. In addition, these cross-linking fibrils disappeared when the anti-fodrin-reactive proteins were extracted from the brush border. We conclude that FST is a component of a cross-linking system composed of ～5 nm fibrils that are morphologically distinct from the ～8 nm myosin-containing fibrils which were identified by antimyosin decoration. In addition to linking actin bundles to adjacent actin bundles and to the plasma membrane, these FST fibrils may mediate actinvesicle, actin-intermediate filament and vesicle-plasma membrane linkages.