Pulse Examination by an Ultrasonic Method

One hundred patients with occlusive arterial disease affecting the lower extremities and 25 normal adults were examined by ultrasonic flow velocity detector. This new and harmless method is simple and has proved to be a very useful aid in both the diagnosis and the management of arterial disease.     

A species of Cryptonemia new to Europe

The morphology, reproduction and seasonal variation of a large foliose species of Cryptonemia collected in the drift in 1971–73 at Cork Harbour, Republic of Ireland, is described and compared with the known species of the genus. Although obviously closely related to a group of foliose Pacific species: C. borealis Kylin, C. obovata J. Ag. and C. angustata (Setch. et Gardn.) Dawson, the Irish Cryptonemia is not completely identifiable with any one of these and is therefore described as C. hibernica sp. nov., pending a revision of the genus.     

Electrophoretic analysis of proteinases in sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gels containing copolymerized radiolabeled protein substrates: application to proenkephalin processing enzymes

A novel method is described for the zymographic analysis of proteinases in sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gels containing copolymerized radiolabeled protein substrates such as [35S]methionine-labeled proenkephalin or 125I-labeled proinsulin. After electrophoresis the enzyme is reactivated and cleaves the radiolabeled in situ substrate into smaller peptides. These small peptides are able to diffuse out of the gel, leaving clear areas against a dark background when visualized by autoradiography. The technique can be used to detect as little as 200 fg of trypsin using only 50 ng (1.25 microCi) of [35S]proenkephalin. Soluble- and membrane-bound adrenal trypsin-like enzyme were isolated from bovine adrenal chromaffin granules. Both proteinases cleaved [35S]methionine-labeled proenkephalin but not 125I-labeled proinsulin. Moreover, both had a Mr of approximately 30,000. The potential of this technique for general use is discussed. An additional method using the synthetic fluorogenic substrate t-butoxycarbonyl Glu-Lys-Lys aminomethylcoumarin is also described.     

Saccharum species as horticultural classes

 Sugarcane, commonly referred to as Saccharum officinarum, is currently divided into six species, two of them are wild and four exist only in cultivation. The two wild species and three of the cultivated ones are interfertile and have produced the interspecific hybrids that constitute the sugarcane of commerce. All species are represented by wide ranges of intergrades preserved as clones through vegetative propagation. Species are separated by variable floral characters, sugar content, chromosome numbers and epidermal hair groups. Floral characteristics are sometimes useful with clones that flower, sugar is present in widely overlapping ranges and is highly influenced by environment, chromosome numbers range from 36 to 170 in the genus and range widely within species, and some epidermal hair groups are more quantitative than qualitative. Molecular techniques show that Saccharum spontaneum is distinctly different from the other species in cytoplasmic DNA, and cluster analyses of nuclear DNA support the difference. Not only are the species interfertile but chromosomal pairing and recombination have been demonstrated, as has the possibility that some Saccharum species are hybrids of others. Taken together, these observations suggest that there is little basis for the present separation and that the six species should more properly consist of two: one being S. spontaneum, based on molecular data, and the other S. officinarum including the other four species and all interspecific hybrids. Received: 20 December 1997 / Accepted: 5 June 1998