Correction of the unilateral cleft lip nose

The cleft lip nasal deformity is best repaired secondarily in teenagers. Some more severe cases may be repaired during childhood. Optimal repair requires adequate exposure, best obtained with transcolumellar flying-bird incisions. The major anatomic defect, the misplaced lateral crus, needs to be advanced to a normal position. The vestibular lining of the lateral crus should remain attached to add circulation and support, especially when scoring of the cartilage is needed. The lateral defect left after advancement of the lateral crus should be closed with sutures. Accessory procedures, including septoplasty, augmentation or reshifting of the alar base attachment, and occasionally, cartilage grafts, are critical to achieving an aesthetic result. Fifty-three patients operated on using the technique described are reviewed.     

Do parasitoids diversify in response to host‐plant shifts by herbivorous insects?

1. For herbivorous insects, the incorporation of a novel host into the diet, and subsequent formation of distinct host associations (races), is thought to be a significant early step in the speciation process. While many studies have addressed this issue, virtually nothing is known about the evolutionary response of natural enemies to herbivore host‐race formation. 2. The hypothesis that the parasitoid wasp Eurytoma gigantea (Hymenoptera: Eurytomidae) has formed host races in direct response to the host shift and subsequent host‐race formation by its host, the gallmaker Eurosta solidaginis (Diptera: Tephritidae) was tested. Emergence time, mating preference, and female oviposition preference were determined for parasitoids derived from galls of each Eurosta host race. 3. Male and female E. gigantea overlap broadly in their emergence times from each Eurosta host race, suggesting that there is no phenological barrier to gene flow. 4. In choice experiments, female parasitoids did not mate assortatively: females that emerged from one Eurosta host race were equally likely to mate with males from either Eurosta host race. 5. Oviposition behaviour experiments revealed that female parasitoids do not prefer to oviposit on their host race of origin and that there is no overall preference for one host race, even though fitness is higher when parasitoids are reared from Eurosta galls of the Solidago gigantea host race than when reared from Eurosta galls of the Solidago altissima host race. 6. These results suggest that E. gigantea has not diverged in parallel with its host in response to the herbivore host‐plant shift. Further studies are needed before the ubiquity of this diversification mechanism can be evaluated fully.     

Kappa-casein polymorphisms among cattle breeds and bison herds

Summary
We identified the Hind III restriction site polymorphism of K-casein in cattle reported by Pinder et al. ( Animal Genetics 22, 11, 1991) and found an additonal polymorphism ( Rsa I) in cattle and bison. The Hin dIII and Rsa I restriction sites were mapped and three haplotypes (alleles) were identified. Preliminary screening of 39 cattle and 71 bison revealed one allele restricted to cattle, one restricted to bison, and one shared by the species. No fixed allelic differences were observed among cattle breeds or among bison herds or subspecies.     

The biology of Brevineura froggatti and phylogenetic conservatism in Australian allodapine bees (Apidae,Allodapini)

Summary: We present the first data on the social biology of the allodapine bee, Brevineura froggatti. Colony sizes are small, and only 12.5% of nests contained more than two females. Brood rearing occurs throughout the year, including winter, as it does in the other species of Brevineura studied to date. In both Brevineura species, per capita brood production is much higher in multi-female nests than single female nests, raising the question of why more colonies aren't multifemale. The occurrence of small colony sizes, despite large benefits to group living, differs strongly from species of the sister clade Exoneura. These findings, combined with previous allodapine studies, indicate conservatism in voltinism, brood phenology and colony size within, but not between, Australian allodapine genera.     

Protein Synthesis in Rat Brain Microvessels Decreases with Aging

Abstract: The synthesis of protein by brain microvessels prepared from rats 4, 15, and 21 months of age was examined in organ culture. The rate of [³⁵S]methionine incorporation into trichloroacetic acid-insoluble protein was lower in the vessels from older animals. These decreases were not dependent on the concentration of added methionine. Differences in protein synthesis could not be accounted for by specific peptidases in the incubation mixture. Polypeptide bands corresponding to actin and to the heavy and light chains of myosin were observed among the newly synthesized proteins following electrophoresis and autoradiography of the incubation mixture on polyacrylamide gels. The pattern of proteins synthesized, however, did not appear to vary significantly between young and old animals. Age-related decreases in the synthesis of vascular proteins may contribute, in part, to some of the changes in the mechanical and functional properties of blood vessels during aging.     

Preparation of biologically active 32P-labeled human relaxin. Displaceable binding to rat uterus, cervix, and brain

Relaxin is a member of the insulin family of polypeptide hormones and is known to exert its biological effects on various parts of the mammalian reproductive system. Biologically active human relaxin has been chemically synthesized based on the nucleotide sequence obtained from an ovarian cDNA clone. In the present study synthetic human relaxin was radiolabled by phosphorylation with cAMP-dependent protein kinase and [gamma-32P]ATP to a specific activity of 5000 Ci/mmol. The phosphorylated relaxin was purified on cation exchange high performance liquid chromatography and was shown to co-migrate with relaxin on sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Mass spectrometry revealed a single phosphorylated site on the B chain of relaxin. The 32P-relaxin was able to bind to a goat anti-relaxin antibody, and this binding could be displaced by unlabeled relaxin in a concentration-dependent manner. A comparison of the concentration responses of cellular cAMP production stimulated by relaxin and phosphorylated relaxin in a primary human uterine cell line showed that phosphorylation did not affect the in vitro biological efficacy of relaxin. This made it suitable for in situ autoradiographic localization of relaxin binding sites in rat uterine, cervical, and brain tissue sections. Displacement of the binding of 100 pM 32P-relaxin by 100, 10, and 3 nM unlabeled relaxin, but not by 100 nM insulin, insulin-like growth factor-I, and an insulin-like growth factor-I analog, demonstrated the high affinity and specificity of such binding. We conclude that 32P-labeled human relaxin is biologically and immunologically active and that this novel probe binds reversibly and with high affinity to classical (e.g. uterus) and unpredicted (e.g. brain) tissues.