Exotoxin production by Aeromonas spp. in foods

A psychrotrophic toxin-producing strain of Aeromonas hydrophila grew well in a range of food slurries (scallop, prawn, fish, chicken liver paté, liverwurst, chicken luncheon slice and commercial baby food preparations) held at refrigeration temperatures. In most foods, excluding the baby food preparations, exotoxins were produced at levels comparable with production in bacteriological broth without apparent food spoilage (all but prawn and fish). Addition of ultra-heat treated (UHT) milk to toxin-containing broth culture supernatants markedly decreased or removed haemolytic and cytotoxic activities, explaining low levels of toxins found in milk in a previous study. Baby food preparations did not inactivate exotoxins under similar conditions suggesting production of toxins rather than their inactivation was inhibited in these foods.     

Effect of heat treatment on Listeria monocytogenes and Gram-negative bacteria in sheep, cow and goat milks

Sheep milk, compared with cow and goat milk, had a protective effect on Gram-negative bacteria and Listeria spp. heated at 65°C in a test-tube method. This effect was not solely due to fat content as cow milk artificially reconstituted to 10% homologous fat was not as protective. Listeria monocytogenes in whole sheep, cow and goat milks at an inoculum level of 1 times 10⁶ cfu ml^-1 was heated at 68°C for 15 s in the plate pasteurizer and survival was only detected in whole sheep milk after heating. Whole sheep, cow and goat milks containing high levels of L. monocytogenes (1 times 10⁶ cfu ml^-1) could not survive the current HTST plate pasteurization protocol.     

Phospholipases Involved in Activation of the Neutrophil NADPH Oxidase

Stimulation of neutrophils with a variety of stimuli can result in the activation of phospholipases A₂, C, or D with the resultant hydrolysis of plasma membrane phospholipids and the formation of important second messenger molecules. In the neutrophil, the activities of these phospholipases have been implicated in the processes of both stimulating and maintaining oxidase activation. In this review, some of the methods currently used to measure the products of phospholipase activation in the neutrophil are described, along with the possible role of their products in reactive oxidant production by the neutrophil NADPH oxidase.     

Efficient enzymatic synthesis of 13 C,15N-labeled DNA for NMR studies

The power of heteronuclear NMR spectroscopy to study macromoleculesand their complexes has been amply demonstrated over the last decade. Theobstacle to routinely applying these techniques to the study of DNA has beenthe synthesis of ¹³C,¹⁵N-labeled DNA. Here wepresent a simple and efficient method to generate isotope-labeled DNA forNMR studies that is as easy as that for isotope labeling of RNA. The methodwas used to synthesize a uniformly¹³ C,¹⁵N-labeled 32-nucleotide DNA that binds tohuman basic fibroblast growth factor with high affinity and specificity.Isotope-edited experiments were applied to the¹³ C,¹⁵N-labeled DNA bound to unlabeled protein,and the ¹³ C,¹⁵N-labeled DNA was also examined incomplex with ¹⁵N-labeled protein. The NMR experiments showthat the DNA adopts a well-defined stable structure when bound to theprotein, and illustrate the potential of¹³ C,¹⁵N-labeled DNA for structural studies ofDNA–protein complexes.     

The physiology of the ovary: Maturation of ovarian granulosa cells and a novel role for antioxidants in the corpus luteum

During folliculogenesis the granulosa cells divide whilst in contact with each other, and so exhibit some of the characteristics of stem cells. In vitro we have shown that bovine granulosa cells from 3–7 mm follicles, like stem cells, divide without the need for a substratum, and produce colonies of cells. Growth factors, bFGF and IGF's, stimulate their division. These cells secrete and assemble a basal lamina, suggesting that the follicular basal lamina is produced by the granulosa cells. They have the morphological characteristics of follicular granulosa cells. Thus this system is ideal for studying the functions of immature granulosa cells because the cells do not spontaneously differentiate or luteinize into luteal cells, as occurs in culture on a substratum. On differentiation into luteal cells in vivo the cells express the steroidogenic enzymes for progesterone production and accumulate β-carotene. During culture of bovine luteal cells we observed that a proportion of the steroidogenic enzyme cholesterol side-chain cleavage cytochrome P450 enzyme became chemically cross-linked to its electron donor, adrenodoxin. P450 enzymes produce oxygen free radicals and oxygen free radicals can cause cross-linking between proteins in close proximity. Cell protect against this damage by the use of antioxidant vitamins. Repleting the cultured luteal cells with β-carotene reduced the amount of cross-linking. We conclude that the high levels of β-carotene in corpora lutea are to protect against damage due to oxygen free radicals generated in the course of progesterone synthesis.     

Unusual redox behaviour of cytochrome b-561 from bovine chromaffin granule membranes

(1) Redox titrations of cytochrome b-561 have been performed with the purified cytochrome and with intact and detergent-solubilized chromaffin-granule membranes. (2) The midpoint redox potential of the cytochrome is 100–130 mV; this depends upon the composition of the buffer, but is independent of pH in the range 5.5–7.5; partial proteolysis of the cytochrome raises the midpoint potential to 160 mV. (3) The Nernst plots of titration data have slopes of 75–115 mV, and are in some cases sigmoid in shape. This may be explained by negative cooperativity during redox transitions in oligomeric cytochrome b-561. (4) Measurements of the haem and cytochrome content of chromaffin granule membrane suggest a haem content of 1 mol/mol protein. (5) Chemical crosslinking of cytochrome b-561 suggests that it may exist as an oligomer of 4–6 polypeptide chains within the chromaffin granule membrane. Aggregation of purified cytochrome b-561 was shown by gel filtration studies and by immunological methods in SDS-polyacrylamide gels. Studies of the molecular weight of the aggregates suggest that the monomer has a molecular weight close to 22 000, but migrates anomalously slowly during electrophoresis.     

Characterisation of ionisations that influence the redox potential of mitochondrial cytochrome c and photosynthetic bacterial cytochromes c2

Several cytochromes c₂ from the Rhodospirillaceae show a pH dependence of redox potential in the physiological pH range which can be described by equations involving an ionisation in the oxidised form (pK_o) and one in the reduced form (pK_r). These cytochromes fall into one of two groups according to the degree of separation of pK_o and pK_r. In group A, represented here by the Rhodomicrobium vannielii cytochrome c₂, the separation is approx. one pH unit and the ionisation is that of a haem propionic acid. Members of this group are unique among both cytochromes c₂ and mitochondrial cytochromes c in lacking the conserved residue Arg-38. We propose that the role of Arg-38 is to lower the pK of the nearby propionic acid, so that it lies out of the physiological pH range. Substitution of this residue by an uncharged amino acid leads to a raised pK for the propionic acid. In group B, represented here by Rhodopseudomonas viridis cytochrome c₂, the separation between pK_o and pK_r is approx. 0.4 pH unit and the ionisable group is a histidine at position 39. This was established by NMR spectroscopy and confirmed by chemical modification. Only a few other members of the cytochrome c₂/mitochondrial cytochrome c family have a histidine at this position and of these, both Crithidia cytochrome c-557 and yeast cytochrome c were found to have a pH-dependent redox potential similar to that of Rps. viridis cytochrome c₂. Using Coulomb's law, it was found that the energy required to separate pK_o and pK_r could be accounted for by simple electrostatic interactions between the haem iron and the ionisable group.     

Human chromosomal assignments for 14 argininosuccinate synthetase pseudogenes: cloned DNAs as reagents for cytogenetic analysis

There are multiple, processed, dispersed pseudogenes for human argininosuccinate synthetase. Chinese hamster X human somatic cell hybrids were used to map DNA fragment groups corresponding to the single expressed gene and 14 pseudogene loci. Each chromosomal assignment was confirmed using hybrids containing very few human chromosomes and/or by demonstrating monosomic or trisomic dosage in human cell lines with chromosomal abnormalities. Pseudogenes were mapped to chromosomes 2cen-p25, 3q12-qter, 4q21-qter, 5 (two loci), 6, 7, 9p13-q11, 9q11-q22, 11q, 12, Xp22-pter, Xq22-q26, and Ycen-q11. DNA fragments from the expressed gene were mapped to 9q34-qter in agreement with the previous assignment for enzyme activity. A high-frequency restriction fragment length polymorphism mapped to 9q11-q22. The analyses emphasized the feasibility of using chromosomally abnormal human cell lines for confirmation and regionalization of gene-mapping assignments made using somatic-cell hybrids. Conversely, cloned DNA probes, once mapped and characterized, can be very valuable for determining the chromosomal composition of interspecies hybrids and the dosage of loci in human cells. The argininosuccinate synthetase cDNA is a convenient reagent for dosage analysis of 15 human loci on 11 different chromosomes. Improved reagents could be designed that would simplify Southern blot patterns by eliminating overlapping DNA fragments and providing a single DNA fragment for each locus.