Synchronous Growth and Plastid Replication in the Naturally Wall-less Alga Olisthodiscus luteus

Olisthodiscus luteus is a unicellular biflagellate alga which contains many small discoidal chloroplasts. This naturally wall-less organism can be axenically maintained on a defined nonprecipitating artificial seawater medium. Sufficient light, the presence of bicarbonate, minimum mechanical turbulence, and the addition of vitamin B₁₂ to the culture medium are important factors in the maintenance of a good growth response. Cells can be induced to divide synchronously when subject to a 12-hour light/12-hour dark cycle. The chronology of cell division, DNA synthesis, and plastid replication has been studied during this synchronous growth cycle. Cell division begins at hour 4 in the dark and terminates at hour 3 in the light, whereas DNA synthesis initiates 3 hours prior to cell division and terminates at hour 10 in the dark. Synchronous replication of the cell's numerous chloroplasts begins at hour 10 in the light and terminates almost 8 hours before cell division is completed. The average number of chloroplasts found in an exponentially growing synchronous culture is rather stringently maintained at 20 to 21 plastids per cell, although a large variability in plastid complement (4-50) is observed within individual cells of the population. A change in the physiological condition of an Olisthodiscus cell may cause an alteration of this chloroplast complement. For example, during the linear growth period, chloroplast number is reduced to 14 plastids per cell. In addition, when Olisthodiscus cells are grown in medium lacking vitamin B₁₂, plastid replication continues in the absence of cell division thereby increasing the cell's plastid complement significantly.     

d-Glyceraldehyde 3-Phosphate Dehydrogenases of Higher Plants

The d-glyceraldehyde 3-P dehydrogenases of spinach leaf, pea seed, and pea shoot were purified. The NADP and NAD-linked enzymes of either spinach leaves and pea shoots could not be separated. Changes in the ratio of NADP- to NAD-linked activity of the spinach leaf and pea shoot enzymes were observed during both purification and storage of crude extracts. The spinach leaf, pea shoot, and pea seed enzymes differ electrophoretically from each other and from the rabbit muscle enzyme.The pea seed and shoot enzymes contain bound nucleotide cofactor, resist proteolytic attack, have similar Michaelis-Menton kinetic constants and are competitively inhibited by d-sedoheptulose-7-phosphate and d-sedoheptulose 1,7-diphosphate. Charcoal removes the bound nucleotide from the pea seed enzyme but not from the pea shoot enzymes. NADP and NADPH were found to inhibit the reductive but not oxidative reaction catalyzed by the charcoal treated seed enzyme. The function of the pea shoot NADP and NAD-linked enzymes in chloroplast metabolism is discussed in regard to their location and catalytic properties. Although the NADP-linked activity can be assigned a primary, if not exclusive function in photosynthesis, the assignment of a distinct metabolic function to the NAD-linked activity cannot be made at present.     

Role of Aldolase in Photosynthesis. II Demonstration of Aldolase Types in Photosynthetic Organisms

Spinach leaves and photoautotrophically grown Euglena and Chlorella possess fructose 1,6-diphosphate aldolases inhibited by p-chloromercuribenzoate but insensitive to K⁺ or ethylenediamine tetraacetate (Type I). Dark grown Euglena and Chlorella have aldolases inhibited by p-chloromercuribenzoate and ethylenediamine tetraacetate but stimulated by K⁺ (Type II). The red alga, Chondrus, and the golden-brown alga, Ochromonas, appear to possess both types. Bean, pea, and spinach seeds and the leaves and cotyledons of etiolated bean seedlings contain a p-chloromercuribenzoate insensitive, apparently non-sulfhydryl variant of Type I. Sensitivity of leaf aldolase to p-chloromercuribenzoate occurs in etiolated bean seedlings only after an extended period of illumination. Type II aldolase activity in cell-free extracts of 4 blue-green algae has been demonstrated.     

Evidence for the participation of the reductive pentose phosphate cycle in photoreduction and the oxyhydrogen reaction

The assimilation of ¹⁴C-sodium bicarbonate has been measured in Scenedesmus obliquus as 1) photosynthesis, 2) photoreduction (light dependent incorporation of carbon dioxide by hydrogen adapted cells under conditions where photosynthesis is inoperative), and 3) the oxyhydrogen reaction (dark assimilation of carbon dioxide by hydrogen adapted cells in an atmosphere of hydrogen and 1% oxygen). Degradation of the glucose formed in each of these reactions using the Leuconostoc technique establishes the participation of the reductive pentose phosphate cycle.     

Kinetics of biopolymerization on nucleic acid templates

The kinetics of biopolymerization on nucleic acid templates is discussed. The model introduced allows for the simultaneous synthesis of several chains, of a given type, on a common template, e.g., the polyribosome situation. Each growth center [growing chain end plus enzyme(s)] moves one template site at a time, but blocks L adjacent sites. Solutions are found for the probability n_j(t) that a template has a growing center that occupies the sites j — L + 1,…, j at time t. Two special sets of solutions are considered, the uniform-density solutions, for which n_j(t) = n, and the more general steady-state solutions, for which dn_j(t)/dt = 0. In the uniform-density case, there is an upper bound to the range of rates of polymerization that can occur. Corresponding to this maximum rate, there is one uniform solution. For a polymerization rate less than this maximum, there are two uniform solutions that give the same rate. In the steady-state case, only L = 1 is discussed. For a steady-state polymerization rate less than the maximum uniform-density rate, the steady-state solutions consist of either one or two regions of nearly uniform density, with the density value(s) assumed in the uniform region(s) being either or both of the uniform-density solutions corresponding to that polymerization rate. For a steady-state polymerization rate equal to or slightly larger than the maximum uniform-density rate, the steady-state solutions are nearly uniform to the single uniform-density solution for the maximum rate. The boundary conditions (rate of initiation and rate, of release of completed chains from the template) govern the choice among the possible solutions, i.e., determine the region(s) of uniformity and the value(s) assumed in the uniform region(s).     

Kinetics of the Oxyhydrogen Reaction in the Presence and Absence of Carbon Dioxide in Scenedesmus obliquus

The oxyhydrogen reaction in the presence and absence of CO₂ was studied in H₂-adapted Scenedesmus obliquus by monitoring the initial rates of H₂, O₂, and ¹⁴CO₂ uptake and the effect of inhibitors on these rates with gas-sensing electrodes and isotopic techniques. In the presence of 0.02 atmosphere O₂, the pH₂ was varied from 0 to 1 atmosphere. Whereas the rate of O₂ uptake increased by only 30%, the rate of H₂ uptake increased severalfold over the range of pH₂ values. At 0.1 atmosphere H₂ and 0.02 atmosphere O₂, rates for H₂ and O₂ uptake were between 15 and 25 micromoles per milligram chlorophyll per hour. As the pH₂ was changed from 0 to 1 atmosphere, the quotient H₂:O₂ changed from 0 to roughly 2. This change may reflect the competition between H₂ and the endogenous respiratory electron donors. Respiration in the presence of glucose and acetate was also competitive with H₂ uptake. KCN inhibited equally respiration (O₂ uptake in the absence of H₂) and the oxyhydrogen reaction in the presence and absence of CO₂. The uncoupler carbonyl cyanide p-trifluoromethoxyphenylhydrazone accelerated the rate of respiration and the oxyhydrogen reaction to a similar extent. It was concluded that the oxyhydrogen reaction both in the presence and absence of CO₂ has properties in common with components of respiration and photosynthesis. Participation of these two processes in the oxyhydrogen reaction would require a closely linked shuttle between mitochondrion and chloroplast.     

Template-directed synthesis and selective adsorption of oligoadenylates on hydroxyapatite

Summary Polyuridylic acid is adsorbed completely from aqueous solution by hydroxyapatite under conditions that permit template-directed synthesis of oligoadenylates in free solution. The yield of oligoadenylates is enhanced to almost the same extent by poly(U) in the presence or the absence of hydroxyapatite. Under very similar conditions small quantities of hydroxyapatite adsorb higher molecular-weight oligoadenylates selectively from a mixture of oligomers.On the basis of these results we propose a mechanism for prebiotic oligonucleotide formation in which selective adsorption on hydroxyapatite or some other immobilized anion-exchanging material plays a major role. Monomers are released from the surface for reactivation, while oligomers are retained in a protected environment by adsorption to the apatite surface.Abbreviations poly(U) polyuridylate - HA hydroxyapatite - ImpA adenosine 5-phosphorimidazolide - pA adenosine 5-phosphate - ADP adenosine 5-diphosphate - MeIm 1-methylimidazole - EDTA ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid - (pA)_n (n = 2, 3, 4) oligoadenylates with 5-terminal phosphates The nature of the internucleotide linkages is not specifiedThe nature of the internucleotide linkages is not specified     

Whole Exome Sequencing in Atrial Fibrillation

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a morbid and heritable arrhythmia. Over 35 genes have been reported to underlie AF, most of which were described in small candidate gene association studies. Replication remains lacking for most, and therefore the contribution of coding variation to AF susceptibility remains poorly understood. We examined whole exome sequencing data in a large community-based sample of 1,734 individuals with and 9,423 without AF from the Framingham Heart Study, Cardiovascular Health Study, Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study, and NHLBI-GO Exome Sequencing Project and meta-analyzed the results. We also examined whether genetic variation was enriched in suspected AF genes (N = 37) in AF cases versus controls. The mean age ranged from 59 to 73 years; 8,656 (78%) were of European ancestry. None of the 99,404 common variants evaluated was significantly associated after adjusting for multiple testing. Among the most significantly associated variants was a common (allele frequency = 86%) missense variant in SYNPO2L (rs3812629, p.Pro707Leu, [odds ratio 1.27, 95% confidence interval 1.13–1.43, P = 6.6x10^-5]) which lies at a known AF susceptibility locus and is in linkage disequilibrium with a top marker from prior analyses at the locus. We did not observe significant associations between rare variants and AF in gene-based tests. Individuals with AF did not display any statistically significant enrichment for common or rare coding variation in previously implicated AF genes. In conclusion, we did not observe associations between coding genetic variants and AF, suggesting that large-effect coding variation is not the predominant mechanism underlying AF. A coding variant in SYNPO2L requires further evaluation to determine whether it is causally related to AF. Efforts to identify biologically meaningful coding variation underlying AF may require large sample sizes or populations enriched for large genetic effects.