Population Dynamics of Meloidogyne incognita and Rotylenchulus reniformis Alone and in Combination,and Their Effects on Sweet Potato

Meloidogyne incognita (Mi) and Rotylenchulus reniformis (Rr) interactions on sweet potato were studied in naturally and artificially infested field plots for 3 years. In a naturally infested field, early season counts of Mi or Rr were positively correlated with later counts of the same nematode, but negative correlations were found between early Mi and subsequent Rr, and early Rr and subsequent Mi counts. In field plots fumigated with methyl bromide and then infested with low levels of Rr, Mi, and Rr + Mi, final population densities of Mi juveniles were reduced by Rr, but Rr was not affected by Mi. In field plots with a high natural population density of Rr, artificial infestation with high levels of Mi in both fumigated and nonfumigated treatments inhibited Rr, while the final Mi juvenile population density was not affected. Results indicate that a competitive interaction exists with each species capable of inhibiting the other and becoming the dominant population. The nematodes had no apparent effect on yield at the inoculum densities used, either alone or mixed. Both nematodes increased cracking of sweet potatoes, but mixed populations did not differ in incidence of cracking from either Rr or Mi alone.     

Hospital Topics: Examination of the Whole Colon with the Fibreoptic Colonoscope

During examination of the intact colon with the Olympus CF LB 185-cm colonoscope it has proved possible to reach the caecum or terminal ileum in 47 out of 50 cases (94%). Careful bowel preparation, moderately heavy sedation, and some x-ray screening are necessary for the procedure, but it was well tolerated by all patients and there was no morbidity. The average time taken to the caecum was 40 minutes and the average time to completion of examination 90 minutes. The long colonoscope was as convenient to use as the fibresigmoidoscope in examinations confined to the sigmoid colon or in patients with a colostomy, ileostomy, or ileorectal anastomosis. Of the two, the long colonoscope is the instrument of choice for clinical use.Because of the expense, time, and equipment involved colonoscopy appears to be best offered as a specialist service after x-ray studies. There is alo a limited place for colonoscopy during abdominal surgery, when it is technically an easier procedure. In this series 10 patients were saved exploratory laparotomy by examination with the colonocope, and we also diagnosed four resectable carcinomas not seen on double-contrast barium-enema studies. The colonoscope provides an effective new means of diagnosis of lesions throughout the colon.     

Fine Structure Mapping in Yeast with Sunlamp Radiation

The X-ray mapping procedure of Manney and Mortimer (1964) is the most widely applicable and convenient method for fine structure analysis in yeast, but suffers the disadvantage that suitable X-ray machines or gamma ray sources are very expensive. Although many other recombinogens are known, none gives a linear dose-response like X-rays and few are as convenient or give as reproducible results. Experiments with Saccharomyces cerevisiae reported in this paper show, however, that the near-ultraviolet radiation emitted by fluorescent sunlamps gives linear dose-response relations, as reproducible results as ionizing radiations, and map distances which correlate highly with those obtained by using (60)Co gamma rays. It is suggested that this convenient recombinogen may be a suitable low-cost substitute for ionizing radiations in fine structure mapping.     

Blood Platelet Behaviour during and after Open-heart Surgery

In view of the high incidence of thromboembolic complications after the insertion of cardiac valve prostheses, platelet adhesiveness and aggregation was measured in whole blood before, during, and for several days after this operation in 10 patients. Cardiopulmonary bypass resulted in a profound decrease in the platelet count, in the number of adhesive platelets, and in platelet aggregation. These changes returned to near preoperative levels by the sixth postoperative day. Thereafter a consistent and sustained increase in platelet count, in the number of adhesive platelets, and in platelet aggregation was observed. The results suggest that the prevalence of thromboembolism after valve replacement may be due partly to changes in platelet behaviour.     

Mutant of Yeast Sensitive to 2,6-Diaminopurine

A mutant of yeast sensitive to growth inhibition by 2,6-diaminopurine (2,6-DAP) was analyzed genetically and found to be a double mutant. One gene, dap, conferred approximately 30% sensitivity to the analogue. The other, slw, potentiated the inhibition such that the double mutant dap slw was inhibited 90%. The mutation dap conferred concomitant sensitivity to a number of other purine analogues. The activity of a purine phosphoribosyltransferase with 2,6-DAP in a strain carrying dap was found to be three times higher than in the wild type. It is inferred that the mutation alters the properties of a purine phosphoribosyltransferase. A possible mechanism for the effect of slw is also discussed.     

Control of Bacteriophage-induced Enzyme Synthesis in Cells Infected with a Temperature-sensitive Mutant

The timing of "early" and "late" protein synthesis in Escherichia coli infected with T-even bacteriophage was studied with a temperature-sensitive phage mutant, T4 tsL13. This strain was completely unable to direct the synthesis of phage deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) at 44 C because it makes a deoxycytidylate hydroxymethylase which cannot act at that temperature. However, the mutant did multiply normally at 30 C. No detectable formation of the late protein, lysozyme, occurred at 44 C, in agreement with the idea, proposed by several workers, that DNA replication is necessary for activation of late genetic functions. However, the formation of an early enzyme, thymidylate synthetase, was shut off at about 10 min, as in normal infection. This implied that separate mechanisms were responsible for cessation of early functions and activation of late ones. That the infected cell at 44 C retained the capacity for synthesis of early enzymes was shown by the fact that DNA synthesis occurred after a culture was transferred from 44 to 30 C as late as 30 min after infection. This synthesis was inhibited by chloramphenicol, indicating that de novo synthesis of an early enzyme can take place at a late period in development. It is suggested that cells infected under normal conditions maintained an appreciable rate of early enzyme synthesis throughout the course of infection.     

Teaching of Fertility Regulation in Medical Schools: A Survey in the United States and Canada, 1964

Fertility regulation is taught didactically in 82 of 94 medical school departments of obstetrics and gynecology in the United States and Canada, but students are given clinical experience in only 59 medical schools, according to a survey conducted in 1964 by a committee of the American Public Health Association. Legal prohibitions impeded teaching in 1964 in two States and in all of Canada. Nearly all schools teach that help with fertility regulation should be offered for medical and socioeconomic stress, and most teach that it should be offered routinely in premarital counselling and in the postpartum period, but only two-thirds teach that this help should be given to unmarried adults and only one-third teach that any person requesting help with fertility regulation should receive it.     

FOWLER'S BACILLUS AND ITS PARASPORAL BODY

Fowler's bacillus is one of several organisms which form a non-viable inclusion or parasporal body during the process of sporulation. This body is globular and may be as large as or larger than the spore. Its position in the cell is not random; the spore is terminal and the body paracentral, lying between the spore and the remaining vegetative cell chromatin bodies. On completion of sporulation both spore and body are contained within an exosporium. The sequence in the development of the cell structures was followed in ultrathin sections of material fixed in permanganate. When sporulation is well advanced the body begins to grow from a single crystal, then presumably as a result of some disorientation in the growth process it develops as a multicrystalline body with the lattices orientated at different angles. When the body approximates the spore in size, a lamella coat is formed and an exosporium develops which eventually encircles the body and the spore. Other lamella systems microscopically similar to those surrounding the parasporal body develop free in the cytoplasm outside the exosporium. In both of these systems the number of lamellae is variable. The spore coat of Fowler's bacillus, consisting of an outer lamella layer and an inner unresolved amorphous layer has been found microscopically identical to the spore coat of B. cereus. In both organisms the lamella layer of the spore coat consists, in contrast to the other lamella systems, of a regular number of lamellae. Physiological tests would indicate that Fowler's bacillus is a variety of B. cereus.