Substance P and acetylcholine are co-localized in the pathway mediating mucociliary activity in Rana pipiens

Mucociliary activity is an important clearance mechanism in the respiratory system of air breathing vertebrates. Substance P (SP) and acetylcholine play a key role in the stimulation of the mucociliary transport in the frog palate. In this study, retrograde neuronal tracing was combined with immunocytochemistry for SP and choline acetyl transferase (ChAT) in the trigeminal ganglion and for neurokinin-1 receptor (NK1R) in the palate of Rana pipiens. The cells of origin of the palatine nerve were identified in the trigeminal ganglion using the retrograde tracer Fluorogold (FG). Optimal labeling of FG cells in the trigeminal ganglion was obtained at 96 h of exposure. Immunoflorescent shows that SP and acetylcholine are co-localized in 92% of the cells labeled with FG in the trigeminal ganglion. NK1 receptors were found in the membrane of epithelial and goblet cells of the palate. Ultrastructural study of the palate showed axonal-like endings with vesicles in connection with epithelial and goblet cells. These results further support the concerted action of both neurotransmitters in the regulation of mucociliary activity in the frog palate.     

Bioactivities of simplified adociaquinone B and naphthoquinone derivatives against Cdc25B,MKP-1, and MKP-3 phosphatases

Some simplified adociaquinone B analogs and a series of 1,4-naphthoquinone derivatives were synthesized and tested against the three enzymes Cdc25B, MKP-1, and MKP-3. Cdc25B and MKP-1 in particular are enzymes overexpressed in human cancer cells, and they represent potential molecular targets for novel cancer chemotherapeutic treatments. A number of analogs exhibited significant inhibitory activity against these enzymes, and the bioassay data in addition to structure–activity relationships of these compounds will be discussed.     

NAD metabolism in Salmonella typhimurium: isolation of pyridine analogue supersensitive (pas) and pas suppressor mutants

Mutants of Salmonella typhimurium supersensitive to the nicotinic acid analogue 6-amino-nicotinic acid (6ANA) were isolated as unable to grow on what are normally subinhibitory concentrations of the analogue. The mutations were classified on the basis of their map positions as pasA (89-92 units), pasB (66-69 units), pasC (18-22 units), pasD (18 units) and pasE (55 units). The mutants exhibited a wide range of minimal inhibitory concentrations towards 6ANA, and several were affected in terms of growth. The data suggest that most of the mutations probably reside in genes whose products utilize nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) as a cofactor, the altered gene products being more sensitive to internal 6-amino NAD concentrations. Secondary mutations which suppress the Pas- phenotype were found to reside in the following NAD-related loci; pncB, nadB and nadD. Two of the pncB mutants appear to be affected in the expression of NAPRTase while several of the nadB mutants are apparently insensitive to feedback inhibition by internal NAD concentrations.     

RHODOLITHS: BETWEEN ROCKS AND SOFT PLACES

Rhodoliths (maërl) are widely distributed in the worlds' oceans and have an excellent fossil record. Individuals are slow growing, may be long lived (>100 years), and are resilient to a variety of environmental disturbances. Their external morphology and internal growth bands are potential archives of environmental variation at scales of within years to tens of years. At high densities, these free-living non-geniculate coralline algae form rhodolith beds, communities of high diversity that can be severely impacted by resource extraction.     

Design of highly stable functional GroEL minichaperones.

GroEL minichaperones have potential in the biotechnology industry for the refolding of recombinant proteins. With the aim of enhancing and widening their use, we have created two highly stable functional variants of minichaperone GroEL(193-345). A sequence alignment of 130 members of the chaperonin 60 (Cpn60) family was used to design 37 single mutations. Two small-to-large mutations, A223T, A223V and one similar-size mutation, M233L, all located in the hydrophobic core were found to stabilize the protein by more than 1 kcal mol(-1) each. Six stabilizing mutations were combined, yielding two multiple mutants that were 6.99 and 6.15 kcal mol(-1) more stable than wild-type protein. Even though some of the substituted residue pairs are close to each other in the protein structure, the energetic effects of mutation are approximately additive. In particular, the stabilizing substitution A223T is unexpected and would have been missed by purely structural analysis. In the light of previously reported successes employing similar methods with several other proteins, our results show that a homology based approach is a simple and efficient method of increasing the stability of a protein.     

Composition of Pseudomonas aeruginosa slime

1. The slime produced by eight strains of Pseudomonas aeruginosa on a number of different media was demonstrated to be qualitatively the same. Small quantitative differences may be occasioned by differences in the extraction procedure, the growth medium or the strain of organism used. 2. The slime was shown to be predominantly polysaccharide with some nucleic acid material and a small amount of protein. 3. The hydrolysed polysaccharide fraction consists mainly of glucose with smaller amounts of mannose. This accounts for some 50-60% of the total slime. In addition, there is some 5% of hyaluronic acid. The nucleic acid material represents approx. 20% of the total weight, and is composed of both RNA and DNA. 4. Minor components are protein, rhamnose and glucosamine, the protein being less than 5% of the total. 5. Hyaluronic acid is produced in greater quantities from nutrient broth than from chemically defined media, and is more firmly attached to the cells than the other components.