Keratinocyte growth-promoting activity from human placenta

Extracts of term human placenta were tested for enhancement of proliferative growth of primary cultures of human keratinocytes. Saline extracts or supernatants from homogenates were dialyzed extensively, lyophilized, and tested in subcultures of keratinocytes in MCDB 153 medium with 0.1 mM Ca++ containing only defined supplements (insulin, hydrocortisone, transferrin, ethanolamine, phosphoethanolamine). Cells plated in the absence of EGF at moderately high densities (1000-3000 cells per cm2) formed colonies and grew in the presence of placental extract at 25-500 micrograms/ml. Extracts of cord serum or maternal serum were inactive, suggesting that the activity is derived from placental tissue. The activity is not EGF, since the activity in the placental extract, unlike EGF, did not promote growth at low cell density, was synergistic with EGF under some conditions, and did not produce changes in colonial morphology which occurred in the presence of EGF. Unlike keratinocyte growth-promoting activity in bovine hypothalamic extract, the activity is non-dialyzable and is destroyed at 100 degrees C. Placental extract could not replace any of the defined components of the medium and is therefore distinct from them. The presence of activity in the placenta with distinctive properties suggests that this is a previously undescribed material with growth-promoting properties for epithelium.     

Phase determination of the circadian rhythm of conidiation in heterocaryons between two out-of-phase mycelia in Neurospora crassa

Neurospora grows vegetatively as a syncytium in which multiple nuclei exist within a connected cytoplasm. Because of the ability of separate and distinct mycelia to fuse, the possibility exists of generating heterocaryotic cultures in which the nuclei and cytoplasms of two different strains are comingled into the same syncytium. We have used such heterocaryons, in which the component parts differed with respect to their circadian clock phase, to examine whether or not clock-dominant phases exist in the circadian cycle. To this end, the phase subsequent to the formation of heterocaryons by pairs of mycelial discs that are initially at different circadian phases was examined in Neurospora crassa. The resulting phase was an average of the parent phases in many cases, but was sometimes observed to correspond more closely to just one of the original parental phases. In these cases, we did not observe any dominant phases in the circadian cycle; the phase of a particular parent disc was more dominant in the heterocaryon when the proportion of the nuclei from that parent was greater in the heterocaryon. In some instances, which occurred mostly when the difference in phase of the parental discs was large, the resultant phase could not be related in a simple way to the parental phases. An interpretation based on a limit cycle model of the circadian oscillation is possible.     

Biosynthesis of ferredoxin in Chlamydomonas reinhardii

The selective action of the antibiotics chloramphenicol and cycloheximide on the synthesis of ferredoxin in liquid cultures of Chlamydomonas reinhardii was studied. Highly specific antibodies raised against Chlamydomonas ferredoxin were used to determine the in vivo synthesis of apoferredoxin and conversion into native protein. The results indicate that 80S ribosomes are involved in the synthesis. Chlamydomonas cells growing in the absence of iron did not synthesize immunologically detectable amounts of ferredoxin. We suggest that this is based upon feed-back inhibition of apoferredoxin synthesis at the translational level.Abbreviations CAP chloramphenicol - CHI cycloheximide - IgG Immunoglobulin G - PBS 140.4 mM NaCl. 9 mM Na₂HPO₄, 1.3 mM NaH₂PO₄ (pH 74) - SDS sodium dodecvl sulphate - Fd Ferredoxin - apoFd Apoferredoxin - CM-Fd Scarboxymethylated Fd - TCA-Fd Fd treated with trichloroacetic acid     

Complementarity of regulation for the two glutamine synthetases from Bacillus caldolyticus, an extreme thermophile

Chromatophores from Rhodopseudomonas capsulata cells grown semiaerobically in the dark oxidize NADH, succinate, and dichlorophenolindophenol. In the presence of N₃^? these activities are inhibited, but light induces oxidation of dichlorophenolindophenol with O₂ as a terminal electron acceptor. Cyanide also inhibits electron transport but much higher concentrations are required to inhibit the photooxidation than the dark oxidation. The photooxidation was studied in a mutant strain of Rhodopseudomonas capsulata (YIV) which cannot grow anaerobically in the light, but similarly to the wild type, grows in the presence of oxygen. Chromatophores from YIV mutant catalyze photophosphorylation and dark oxidation activities with the same properties as those of the wild type. However, the rate of photooxidation in the mutant is only one-third that of the wild type. Based on the differential inhibitor sensitivity and on the mutation it is suggested that the photooxidase is different from the two respiratory oxidases and that this photooxidation activity might be essential for growth of the cells under anaerobic conditions in the light.     

Prediction of sequential antigenic regions in proteins

Prediction of antigenic regions in a protein will be helpful for a rational approach to the synthesis of peptides which may elicit antibodies reactive with the intact protein. Earlier methods are based on the assumption that antigenic regions are primarily hydrophilic regions at the surface of the protein molecule. The method presented here is based on the amino acid composition of known antigenic regions in 20 proteins which is compared with that of 314 proteins [(1978) Atlas of Protein Sequence and Structure, vol. 5, suppl. 3, 363-373]. Antigenicity values were derived from the differences between the two data sets. The method was applied to bovine ribonuclease, the B-subunit of cholera toxin and herpes simplex virus type 1 glycoprotein D. There was a good correlation between the predicted regions and previously determined antigenic regions.