Localization of visual pigments within rhabdoms of the compound eye of Spodoptera exempta (Insecta,Noctuidae)

Summary In the noctuid moth Spodoptera exempta, the distribution of visual pigments within the fused rhabdoms of the compound eyes was investigated by electron microscopy. Each ommatidium regularly contains eight receptor cells belonging to three morphological types: one distal, six medial, and one basal cell (Meinecke 1981); four different visual pigments — absorption maxima at approximately 355, 465, 515, and 560 nm — are known to occur within the eye (Langer et al. 1979). The compound eyes were illuminated in situ by use of monochromatic light of different wavelengths. This illumination produced a wide scale of structural changes in the microvilli of the rhabdomeres of individual cells. Preparation of eyes by freeze-substitution revealed the structural changes in the rhabdomeres to be effects of light occurring in vivo.The degree of structural changes may be considerably different in rhabdomeres within the same ommatidium; it was found to depend on the wavelength and the duration of illumination, the intensity received by the ommatidia as well as the spectral sensitivity of the receptor cells. Therefore, it was possible to estimate the spectral sensitivities of the morphological types of receptor cells. Generally, all medial cells are green receptors and all basal cells red receptors; distal cells are blue receptors in about two-thirds of the ommatidia, while in the remaining third of them distal cells are sensitive to ultraviolet light.Supported by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Sonderforschungsbereich 114 (Bionach)     

Repair rate in human fibroblasts measured by thymine dimer excorporation

Summary The UV photoproduct, thymine dimer ( ), is excorporated with a remarkably low rate from the DNA of human fibroblasts grown in cell culture. An UV dose of 18 J/m² creates 0.045% (related to thymine). Within the first two days of repair logarithmically growing and quiescent fibroblasts exhibit the same repair rates; thereafter, the proportion of is lower in growing cells due to recovery of DNA replication. Only about 50% of the lesions are excised within 24 h. In quiescent cells, 13% of the thymine dimers originally present can be detected as late as a week after UV-irradiation. Two distinct first-order rate constants indicate that approximately half of the dimers are less accessible to repair. Repair measured by the nucleoid decondensation technique corresponds to the faster repair rate, whereas the slow repair rate cannot be detected by this method. Saturation of repair is found beyond 27 J/m². The remarkably slow rate of excision indicates that thymine dimers are not lethal lesions in human fibroblasts.     

Clustering of fatty acids in phospholipid bilayers

From electrophoresis experiments it is concluded that acidic phospholipids incorporated in liquid crystalline phosphatidylcholine bilayers at neutral pH are randomly distributed. The same is true for spin-labelled fatty acids. In contrast, long chain fatty acids are not fully ionized at neutral pH and appear to be clustered, i.e. they segregate out into patches. Only at $\text{pH}\text{>11}$ is the fatty acid-COOH group fully ionized and charge repulsion leads to a random distribution of the fatty acid within the plane of the bilayer.     

Hydrophobic interaction of soluble 3′:5′ cyclic nucleotide phosphodiesterase with octyl-sepharose

Summary Soluble cyclic nucleotide 3:5 monophosphate phosphodiesterase (PDE) (EC 3.1.4.17) obtained from beef adrenal cortex as the 100,000 g/1.5 h supernatant is usually regarded as a very hydrophilic protein. However, when subjected to hydrophobic chromatography on Octyl-Sepharose CL 413 it reveals strong hydrophobic interaction with the column matrix. The chromatographic procedure leads to multiple but distinct forms of PDE which degrade cAMP beyond 5AMP to inosine, via adenosine. The same metabolic pathway was previously observed with a membrane bound multienzyme sequence. Even the soluble PDE forms separated by gel chromatography (Sephadex G 200, Sepharose S 200 and Sepharose 6B) and soluble PDE of other tissue (heart) displayed the same metabolic pattern. These findings indicate a linkage between PDE, nucleotidase and deaminase activities. The intimate association of the enzyme is additionally supported by the phenomenon of kinetic advantage clearly observed with the most hydrophobic PDE form. Its end product, inosine, is formed more rapidly from CAMP than from the intermediate 5AMP. This paradoxical phenomenon is explained by close physical proximity between the enzymes involved in the metabolic pathway. Furthermore, when the most hydrophobic PDE form was immobilized on Octyl-Sepharose, rather than loss of catalytic activity even higher enzyme activities were measured. It is suggested that the so-called multiple forms of soluble PDE-at least in part-represent more or less preserved forms of a native, membrane bound, multienzyme sequence which degrades cyclic nucleotides.     

Postsynaptic localization of the alpha receptor-mediated stimulation of phosphatidylinositol turnover in pineal gland.

The phosphatidylinositol effect in rat pineal gland (defined as the enhanced incorporation of P_i into phosphatidylinositol which is elicited by agonists) is mediated through alpha-adrenergic receptors. Experiments with glands from animals treated with 6-hydroxydopamine, with dispersed pinealocytes and with a number of relatively specific pre- and postsynaptic alpha-adrenergic agonists and antagonists have shown the receptors involved to be located at postsynaptic sites.     

Nuclear cytochrome-deficient mutants of Neurospora crassa: isolation, characterization, and genetic mapping.

Summary We have isolated twenty-six nuclear, singlegene cytochrome-deficient mutants of Neurospora crassa as an initial step toward the study of the structural components and regulatory mechanisms involved in the biogenesis of the mitochondrial cytochrome system. These mutants, together with two previously described mutants, cyt-1 and cyt-2, have been classified into six distinct groups on the basis of cytochrome phenotype: a) cytochrome aa ₃ deficiency (due to mutations affecting loci designated cya); b) cytochrome b deficiency (cyb-1 locus); c) cytochrome b deficiency with a partial deficiency of cytochrome aa ₃ (cyb-2 locus); d) deficiency of both cytochromes aa ₃ and b (cyt loci); e) deficiency of both cytochromes aa ₃ and c (cyt-2 locus); and f) partial deficiency of cytochromes aa ₃ and c (cyt-12 locus).Four of seven mutations affecting cya loci have been mapped and are located on linkage groups I, II, V, and VI. It is not yet known whether these genes code for structural components of cytochrome oxidase or have a regulatory function that affects synthesis or assembly of the enzyme. The cyb-1 and cyb-2 genes are located on linkage groups V and VI, respectively, and appear to code for regulatory elements that control the biogenesis of cytochromes b and aa ₃ . The positions of the cyt mutations that cause a simultaneous deficiency of cytochromes aa ₃ and b are dispersed throughout the genome, except for two gene clusters on the left arm of linkage group I. Some of these mutants may be deficient in mitochondrial protein synthesis. Two mutations, cyt-2 and cyt-12, are located on linkage groups VI and II, respectively, and appear to affect genes that code for components of a regulatory system that controls the biogenesis of cytochromes aa ₃ and c.     

Mass spectrometry of silylated flavonol O-glycosides

The electron impact mass spectra of 19 trimethyl silylated flavonol mono-, di- and -triglycosides are reported for the first time. All spectra show wel     

Ammoniteli der GattungParapatoceras aus dem Oberen Mitteljura des Süntels (östliches Wesergebirge,Niedersachsen)

The Parapatocerates from the Süntel (Weser mountains, Northwest Germany) are described being an utmost variable subspecies respectively geographical raceParapatoceras distans (?) bentzi (Potonié) with two possibly modificatorily separated form groups. They differ from the similarP. distans(?) crioconus (Buckman) (=Crioconites Buckman) of Chippenham (England) in primary quadrilobaty and further characteristics accessible only by precise analysis. To establish the speciesdistans Baugier & Sauzé and with this the genusParapatoceras, recovery of the holotype or a determination of a neotype is required. A very similar but probably quinquelobate specimen (Parapatoceras sp.) from the Macrocephalus oolite of Hanover seems to accentuate once more the taxonomically minor degree of the quadri- or quinquelobaty inParapatoceras.