Transient increase in phosphatidylinositol 3,4-bisphosphate and phosphatidylinositol trisphosphate during activation of human neutrophils

We recently showed that phosphatidylinositol trisphosphate (PIP3) was present in a unique lipid fraction generated in neutrophils during activation. Here, we demonstrate that the band containing this fraction isolated from thin layer chromatography consists primarily of PIP3 and that only small amounts of radiolabeled PIP3 exist prior to activation. In addition, high performance liquid chromatography of deacylated phospholipids from stimulated cells reveals an increase in a fraction eluting ahead of glycerophosphoinositol 4,5-P2. After removal of the glycerol we found that it coeluted with inositol 1,3,4-P3 when resubjected to high performance liquid chromatography. Thus, we have detected a second, novel form of phosphatidylinositol bisphosphate in activated neutrophils, PI-(3,4)P2. The elevation of PIP3 through the formyl peptide receptor is blocked by pretreatment with pertussis toxin, implicating mediation of the increase in PIP3 by a guanosine triphosphate-binding (G) protein. The rise in PIP3 is not secondary to calcium elevation. Buffering the rise in intracellular calcium did not diminish the increase in PIP3. The elevation of PIP3 appears to occur during activation with physiological agonists, its level varying with the degree of activation. Leukotriene B4, which elicits many of the same responses as stimulation of the formyl peptide receptor but with minimal oxidant production, stimulates a much attenuated rise in PIP3. Isoproterenol, which inhibits oxidant production also reduces the rise in PIP3. Hence formation of PI(3,4)P2 and PIP3 (presumed to be PI(3,4,5)P3) correlates closely with the early events of neutrophil activation.     

Fickean and Non-Fickean Water Desorption During Vacuum Drying of <Emphasis Type="Italic">L. bulgaricus</Emphasis>

The recovery of Lactobacillus bulgaricus was studied in correlation to the kinetics of cell drying. When bacteria were dehydrated at 30 °C, either in the presence or the absence of sucrose, the drying kinetics corresponds to a Fickean diffusion in correspondence with a short lag time. In contrast, when the bacteria were dehydrated at 70 °C in the absence of sugar, the kinetics corresponds to an anomalous diffusion, and the lag time is four to five times higher than that at 30 °C. However, when drying at 70 °C was carried out in the presence of sucrose, drying kinetics turned into a Fickean process parallel to a substantial decrease in the lag time. The pattern of water desorption was correlated with the critical water activity. When the drying kinetics corresponds to a Fickean diffusion, the lag time started to increase at 0.7 water activity, but when the cells were dried at 70 °C, the damage started at 0.5 water activity. This observation indicates that the drying rate affects the pattern of water desorption, and it can change the value of critical water activity. These results put into relevance that the cell recovery is due to the drying history and that the recovery increase produced by sucrose can be related to the maintenance of kinetic barriers for water desorption.     

Locomotion of sponges and its physical mechanism

Active locomotion by individual marine and freshwater sponges across glass, plastic and rubber substrata has been studied in relation to the behavior of the sponges' component cells. Sequential tracing of sponge outlines on aquarium walls shows that sponges can crawl up to 160 microns/hr (4 mm/day). Time-lapse cinemicrography and scanning electron microscopy reveal that moving sponges possess distinctive leading edges composed of motile cells. Sponge locomotion was found to be mechanically similar to the spreading of cell sheets in tissue culture both with respect to exertion of traction (which causes the wrinkling of rubber substrata) and with respect to the patterns of adhesive contacts formed with the substratum (as observed by interference reflection microscopy). Other similarities include the orientation of sponge locomotion along grooves and the preferential extension onto more adhesive substrata. Neither the patterns of wrinkling produced in rubber substrata nor the distributions of adhesive contacts seen by interference reflection microscopy show evidence of periodic, propagating waves of surface contractions, such as would be expected if the sponges' mechanism of locomotion were by peristalsis or locomotory waves. Our observations suggest that the displacement of sponges is achieved by the cumulative crawling locomotion of the cells that compose the sponge's lower surface. This mode of organismal locomotion suggests new explanations for the plasticity of sponge morphology, seems not to have been reported from other metazoans, and has significant ecological implications.     

Amino-Terminal Charge Affects the Periplasmic Accumulation of Recombinant Heregulin/EGF Hybrids Exported Using theEscherichia coliAlkaline Phosphatase Signal Sequence

AnEscherichia coliexpression system that exploits the bacterial alkaline phosphatase (PhoA) signal sequence to translocate recombinant human epidermal growth factor (hEGF) to the periplasm was used to evaluate how changes in the composition and sequence of amino acids near the PhoA–hEGF junction influence the periplasmic accumulation of recombinant protein. A series of chimeric structural genes was generated byin vitroreplacement of hEGF sequence with analogous segments from the EGF-like domain of human heregulin (HRG), significantly altering the electrostatic character of the amino-terminal region of the mature protein. Quantitation of HRG/EGF protein inE. coliperiplasmic extracts, by RP-HPLC, showed a fourfold decrease after one of two acidic residues located in the amino-terminal region of the mature hEGF, near the PhoA junction, was replaced. An additional threefold decrease was observed when the second acidic residue was replaced with a positively charged lysine. Further extension of the amino-terminal HRG sequence, beyond the first six residues, resulted in net neutralization of a more distant EGF acidic residue with no additional effect on protein yield. The importance of having a negatively charged group in the amino-terminal region of the mature protein was confirmed when insertion of an aspartic acid near the amino-terminus of two poorly expressed hybrid protein sequences resulted in a five- to eightfold increase in their recovery from the periplasm. This study demonstrates the importance of having negatively charged residues near the fusion junction of recombinant proteins expressed inE. coliusing the PhoA signal sequence for protein export.