Catalytic action of selenium in the reduction of methemoglobin by glutathione

Selenite, selenate and selenocystine catalyzed the reduction of methemoglobin (metHb) by glutathione (GSH), while selenomethionine did not. Maximal reduction of metHb was observed with 10^?5 M selenite and 2 mM GSH, at pH 7.4. Selenite also catalyzed the reduction of metHb with cysteine or 2-mercaptoethylamine in place of GSH. Heavy metals and arsenite completely prevented the effect of selenite. These findings suggest that certain seleno-compounds catalyze the reduction of metHb by thiol compounds.     

Possible regulation of thiamine diphosphatase activity in rat brain microsomes by lipids.

The effects of various treatments, which affect membrane structure, on microsomal thiamine diphosphatase and thiamine triphosphatase activities of rat brain, were examined. The treatment of micorosomes at alkaline pH caused a 2-fold activation of the thiamine diphosphatase, this being related to a change in membrane structure which was evidenced by a decrease of the turbidity of the microsomal suspension. Repeated freezing and thawing after hypo-osmotic treatment also increased the activity of microsomal thiamine diphosphatase. In addition, the thiamine diphosphatase activity was enhanced by treatment of the microsomes with phospholipase C or acetone. This lipid depletion resulted in a marked reduction in the apparent Km value of the thiamine diphosphatase with a corresponding loss in heat stability of the enzyme. We found further that brain thiamine diphosphatase was solubilized by Triton X-100. This decreased the phospholipid content in the preparation, but did not affect the apparent Km value and heat stability of the enzyme. In contrast with thiamine diphosphatase, thiamine triphosphatase was inactivated by treatment at alkaline pH or with acetone. However, treatment with phospholipase C did not affect the activity of thiamine triphosphatase.     

Stationarity and normality test for biomedical data.

Biomedical data, such as EEG, EMG and neural impulse sequences, are regarded as the stochastic phenomena of biological systems, and the statistical properties of such time series are often examined. Most of the statistical analysis processed in the frequency and the time domain are based on the assumption that the time series is weakly stationary and normally distributed. Therefore, as the basis of the statistical analysis of the biomedical data, it is necessary to know whether they satisfy the conditions of weak stationarity and normality. However, impulse response and evoked potential biomedical data, are not regarded as the stationary time series. Therefore, other analysis is required. In this paper, the authors present four programs, TEST1, TEST2, TEST3 and TEST4, to examine above conditions. Furthermore, in order to clarify the characteristic of each program, the time series were generated by the computer and examined by the test programs.     

Regulation of RNA polymerase sigma subunit synthesis in Escherichia coli: intracellular levels of four species of sigma subunit under various growth conditions.

By a quantitative Western immunoblot analysis, the intracellular levels of two principal sigma subunits, sigma 70 (sigma D, the rpoD gene product) and sigma 38 (sigma S, the rpoS gene product), and of two minor sigma subunits, sigma 54 (sigma N, the rpoN gene product) and sigma 28 (sigma F, the rpoF gene product), were determined in two Escherichia coli strains, W3110 and MC4100. The results indicated that the levels of sigma 54 and sigma 28 are maintained at 10 and 50%, respectively, of the level of sigma 70 in both strains growing at both exponential and stationary phases, but in agreement with the previous measurement for strain MC4100 (M. Jishage and A. Ishihama, J. Bacteriol. 177:6832-6835, 1995), the level of sigma 38 was undetectable at the exponential growth phase but increased at 30% of the level of sigma 70 at the stationary phase. Stress-coupled change in the intracellular level was observed for two sigma subunits: (i) the increase in sigma 38 level and the decrease in sigma 28 level upon exposure to heat shock at the exponential phase and (ii) the increase in sigma 38 level under high-osmolality conditions at both the exponential and stationary phases.     

Cloning and Characterization of a Probenazole-Inducible Gene for an Intracellular Pathogenesis-Related Protein in Rice

Probenazole (3-allyloxy-1,2-benzisothiazole-1,1-dioxide) inducesdisease resistance in rice against rice blast fungus. To investigatethe molecular mechanism of probenazole-induced resistance, weisolated and characterized a cDNA clone of a probenazole-induciblegene in rice, which encoded a protein designated PBZ1. Sequenceanalysis revealed that significant homology at the amino acidlevel exists between the predicted PBZ1 protein and intracellularpathogenesis-related (IPR) proteins. Accumulation of PBZ1 mRNAwas not induced by wounding, but markedly induced by inoculationwith rice blast fungus. In addition, it was induced sooner byinoculation with rice blast fungus. In addition, it was inducedsooner by inoculation with an incompatible race than that witha compatible race. On the other hand, when the accumulationof the PBZ1 mRNA was examined after treatment with probenazole-relatedcompounds, it was not fully correlated with anti-rice blastactivity. However, it was induced after treatement with N-cyanomethyl-2-chloro-isonicotinamide(NCI), which belongs to another group of compounds known toinduce disease resistance. Thus, although the accumulation ofthe PBZ1 mRNA was not fully correlated with anti-rice blastactivity, our findings suggest that the PBZ1 gene has an importantfunction during the disease resistance response in rice. (Received June 19, 1995; Accepted October 13, 1995)     

Assignment of disulfide bridges in the fusion glycoprotein of Sendai virus.

The mature fusion (F) glycoprotein of the paramyxovirus family consists of two disulfide-linked subunits, the N-terminal F2 and the C-terminal F1 subunits, and contains 10 cysteine residues which are highly conserved at specific positions. The high level of conservation strongly suggests that they are indeed disulfide linked and play important roles in the folding and functioning of the molecule. However, it has not even been clarified which cysteine residues link the F2 and F1 subunits. This report describes our assignment of the disulfide bridges in purified Sendai virus F glycoprotein by fragmentation of the polypeptide and isolation of cystine-containing peptides and determination of their N-terminal sequences. The data demonstrate that all of the 10 cysteine residues participate in disulfide bridges and that Cys-70, the only cysteine in F2, and Cys-199, the most upstream cysteine in F1, form the interchain bond. Of the remaining eight cysteine residues clustered near the transmembrane domain of F1, the specific bridges identified are Cys-338 to Cys-347 and Cys-362 to Cys-370. Although no exact pairings between the subsequent four residues were defined, it seems likely that the most downstream, Cys-424, is linked to Cys-394, Cys-399, or Cys-401. Thus, we conclude that the cysteine-rich domain indeed contributes to the formation of a bunched structure containing at least two tandem cystine loops.     

The isolation and in vivo Potent Antitumor activity of clerodane diterpenoid from the oleoresin of the brazilian medicinal plant, copaifera langsdorfi desfon.

An extremely potent antitumor neo-clerodane diterpene was isolated from the oleoresin of the Brazilian medicinal plant, Copaifera langsdorfii Desfon. This compound was identified as (-)-kolavenol 1. The antitumor effect of 1 against IMC carcinomas as determined from the increase in lifespan (I.L.S.) in mice was twice that of 5-FU. The structure elucidation and the antitumor activity of the other related compounds 2 6 in this oleoresin were also described.     

Behavioral and electrophysiological evidences that the lateral line is involved in the inter-sexual vibrational communication of the himé salmon (landlocked red salmon,Oncorhynchus nerka)

Characteristic vibrational signals are suggested to be exchanged between the sexes during the spawning behavior in the himé salmon (landlocked red salmon, Oncorhynchus nerka). To check whether the lateral line is used to detect and process these vibrational signals, we examined how Co²⁺, which is known to block the mechano-electrical transduction in the lateral line detector, affects both the spawning behavior and lateral line response of the male himé salmon. The results showed that Co²⁺ blocked both the spawning behavior towards the vibrating model (Fig. 2) and the lateral line response to the vibrational stimuli (Figs. 5, 6), if the fish were forced to swim in the water containing 1.0 mM Co²⁺ for 1 to 1.5 h or longer in the presence of 0.25 mM Ca²⁺. 0.1 mM Co²⁺ had similar but weaker effects. These results indicate that the vibrational signals from the vibrating model are detected and processed by the lateral line system to elicit the spawning behavior. These are the first experimental evidences that the lateral line sense is involved in the communicational behavior of the fish.     

Genetic diversity and the genetic structure of natural populations of Chamaecyparis obtusa: implications for management and conservation

We investigated 25 natural populations of Chamaecyparis obtusa using 51 cleaved amplified polymorphic sequence (CAPS) markers, which were developed using information on sequence-tagged sites (STS) in Cryptomeria japonica. Most CAPS markers have codominant expression patterns, and are suitable for population studies because of their robustness and convenience. We estimated various genetic diversity parameters, including average heterozygosity (H(e)) and allelic richness and found that the more peripheral populations tended to have lower genetic diversity than central populations, in agreement with a previous theoretical study. The overall genetic differentiation between populations was low, but statistically significant (G(ST)=0.039), and similar to the level reported in a previous allozyme study. We attempted to detect non-neutral loci associated with local adaptation to clarify the relationship between the fixation index (F(ST)) and H(e) values for each locus and found seven candidates non-neutral loci. Phylogenetic tree analysis of the populations and Bayesian clustering analysis revealed a pattern of gradually increasing isolation of populations with increasing geographical distance. Three populations had a high degree of linkage disequilibrium, which we attribute to severe bottlenecks due to human disturbance or competition with other species during their migration from refugia after the most recent glaciation. We concluded that the small populations in western Japan and in Kanto district are more important, from a conservation perspective, than the populations in central Japan, due to their genetic divergence, relatively small sizes and restricted areas.     

High-resolution crystal structure of beta2-microglobulin formed at pH 7.0

beta(2)-Microglobulin (beta2-m), a light chain of the major histocompatibility complex class I, forms amyloid fibrils in patients undergoing long-term haemodialysis, causing dialysis-related amyloidosis. Based on a comparison of the X-ray structure obtained at pH 5.7 and that of beta2-m in the histocompatibility complex, it has been proposed that the continuous D-strand observed in the crystal structure at pH 5.7 increases the propensity of beta2-m to self-associate via edge-to-edge interactions, thus initiating the formation of fibrils. To obtain further insight into the mechanism by which amyloid fibrils form, we determined the crystal structure of beta2-m at pH 7.0 at a resolution of up to 1.13 A. The crystal structure at pH 7.0 was basically the same as that at pH 5.6, suggesting that the conversion of the beta-bulge in strand D into a contiguous beta-strand is not unique to the crystals formed under slightly acidic conditions. In other words, although the formation of beta2-m fibrils was enhanced under acidic conditions, it remains unknown if it is related to the increased propensity for the disappearance of the beta-bulge in strand D. We consider that the enhanced fibrillation is more directly coupled with the decreased stability leading to the increased propensity of exposing amyloidogenic regions.