Catabolic plasmids of environmental and ecological significance

The environmental and ecological significance of catabolic plasmids and their host strains are discussed in the context of their potential application for environmental biotechnology. Included is a comprehensive list of naturally occurring discrete catabolic plasmids isolated from either natural habitats or selective enrichment studies. General properties, such as plasmid maintenance, stability and transfer, are discussed together with the techniques for plasmid detection and monitoring in the environment. The issues concerning the construction of catabolic strains with new or broader substrate ranges and the uses of monocultures or consortia for in situ treatment are addressed.     

Evaluation of the obstetric significance of some pelvic characters in an 18th century British sample of known parity status.

The excavations at Christ Church, Spitalfields (1984-86) produced a sample of 968 human skeletons which were interred between 1729 and 1859. Of these, 387 were recovered in association with coffin plates stating name, age at death, and date of death. There are 138 adult females in the named sample and the obstetric histories of 94 have been reconstructed from historical documentation. Such variables as birth spacing, number of children, and age at first and last births are known for the majority of this sample. Any individual about whose history there is any doubt has been excluded from the analysis. A middle-class group, they were largely of high nutritional status and, by the standards of the day, lived in sanitary and comfortable conditions. Both males and females have a mean age at death of 56 years. The presence or absence, the typology, the severity, the width and the length of the preauricular sulcus, the presence or absence and the number of pits on the dorsal aspect of the pubic body, sulci along the anterior sacrum adjacent to the auricular facet, and the extension of the pubic tubercle were evaluated in relation to the obstetric histories of these females. Statistical analysis has demonstrated a relationship between the presence of pubic tubercle extension and parity status and between the degree of extension and the number of children borne (P < .02). Statistically there is no significant relationship (P > .05) between either the preauricular sulcus or pubic pitting and parity status. Sacral scarring is significantly associated (P < .05) with parity status, but as it was evident in only eight females it has little practical application. Sample sizes are small, and it must be considered that statistical evaluation of larger samples might detect associations between variables not demonstrated here. There is no significant relationship between any of the cortical variants under consideration and age at death.     

Palatine torus in the Greenlandic Norse.

Physical anthropologists have long been intrigued by the distinctive oral tori expressed by the medieval Norse populations of Iceland and Greenland. To assess the temporal and spatial variation of one form of oral tori, palatine torus, observations were made on all available Greenlandic Norse skeletons, as well as on samples of medieval Icelanders and Norwegians. In terms of temporal variation, 12th to 14th century (medieval) Greenlanders from the Eastern and Western settlements exhibited higher frequencies and more pronounced expressions of palatine torus compared with early 11th century Greenlanders. The early Greenlandic sample closely approximated the medieval Icelandic and Norwegian samples for total torus frequency, although the Norwegians exhibited the trait to a less pronounced degree. As degree of expression is the most distinctive aspect of torus variation among the Norse, some combination of environmental factors, including increased masticatory stress and chronic undernutrition, probably accounts for most of the difference between settlement period and medieval Greenlanders. Although palatine torus may be hereditary in part, environmental factors play a significant role in the expression of this trait.     

The quantitative analysis of endogenous folate catabolites in human urine.

In man folates are catabolized and excreted as inactive cleaved degradation products, a mixture of pteridines and p-aminobenzoylglutamate (pABGlu) or its acetamido derivative (apABGlu). The daily rate of excretion represents the inescapable use of the vitamin in metabolic activity and thus has implications for determining the recommended dietary allowance for the vitamin. Furthermore, the rate of catabolism has been suggested to rise during pregnancy and in certain disease states. A method is described for the quantitative extraction and assay of the folate catabolites pABGlu and apABGlu in human urine. Aliquots of 24-h urine collections are acidified and applied to columns of Dowex 50W cation-exchange resin. The catabolites are selectively batch-eluted with increasing concentrations of HCl. The fraction containing pABGlu is diazotized and then applied to a C18 Sep Pak column for further purification and concentration. The fraction containing apABGlu was deacetylated and reapplied to the Dowex column and then treated identically to the pABGlu fraction. The methanolic concentrates of both extracts were evaporated to dryness and reconstituted with water and pABGlu was regenerated by reductive cleavage of the diazotized material with Zn/HCl. The extracts of the two catabolites were separated by reverse-phase HPLC using a Radial Pak C18 column. Recovery of isolated material was monitored by the addition of high specific activity tritiated labels of both compounds added as internal standards to all urine aliquots prior to purification and analysis.     

Ribulose bisphosphate carboxylase in algae: synthesis,enzymology and evolution

Studies demonstrating differences in chloroplast structure and biochemistry have been used to formulate hypotheses concerning the origin of algal plastids. Genetic and biochemical experiments indicate that significant variation occurs in ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase (Rubisco) when supertaxa of eukaryotic algae are compared. These differences include variations in the organelle location of the genes and their arrangement, mechanism of Rubisco synthesis, polypeptide immunological reactivity and sequence, as well as efficacy of substrate (ribulose bisphosphate and CO₂) binding and inhibitor (6-phosphogluconate) action. The structure-function relationships observed among chromophytic, rhodophytic, chlorophytic and prokaryotic Rubisco demonstrate that: (a) similarities among chromophytic and rhodophytic Rubisco exist in substrate/inhibitor binding and polypeptide sequence, (b) characteristic differences in enzyme kinetics and subunit polypeptide structure occur among chlorophytes, prokaryotes and chromophytes/rhodophytes, and (c) there is structural variability among chlorophytic plant small subunit polypeptides, in contrast to the conservation of this polypeptide in chromophytes and rhodophytes. Taxa-specific differences among algal Rubisco enzymes most likely reflect the evolutionary history of the plastid, the functional requirements of each polypeptide, and the consequences of encoding the large and small subunit genes in the same or different organelles.     

Assessment of Amyloid β Protein in Cerebrospinal Fluid as an Aid in the Diagnosis of Alzheimer's Disease

Abstract: The principal constituent of amyloid plaques found in the brains of individuals with Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a 39–42-amino-acid protein, amyloid β protein (Aβ). This study examined whether the measurement of Aβ levels in CSF has diagnostic value. There were 108 subjects enrolled in this prospective study: AD (n = 39), non-AD controls (dementing diseases/syndromes; n = 20), and other (n = 49). CSF was obtained by lumbar puncture, and Aβ concentrations were determined using a dual monoclonal antibody immunoradiometric sandwich assay. The mean Aβ value for the AD group (15.9 ± 6.8 ng/ml) was not significantly different from that for the non-AD control group (13.0 ± 7.1 ng/ml; p = 0.07), and substantial overlap in results were observed. Aβ values did not correlate with age ( r = −0.05, p = 0.59), severity of cognitive impairment ( r = 0.22, p = 0.21), or duration of AD symptoms ( r = 0.14, p = 0.45). These findings are in conflict with other reports in the literature; discrepant results could be due to the instability of Aβ in CSF. Aβ immunoreactivity decays rapidly under certain conditions, particularly multiple freeze/thaw cycles. Use of a stabilizing sample treatment buffer at the time of lumbar puncture allows storage of CSF without loss of Aβ reactivity. In conclusion, the total CSF Aβ level is not a useful marker for current diagnosis of AD.     

FEMALE CONTROL OF SPERM TRANSFER AND INTRASPECIFIC VARIATION IN SPERM PRECEDENCE: ANTECEDENTS TO THE EVOLUTION OF A COURTSHIP FOOD GIFT

Manipulation of ejaculates is believed to be an important avenue of female choice throughout the animal kingdom, but evidence of its importance to sexual selection remains scarce. In crickets, such manipulation is manifest in the premature removal of the externally attached spermatophore, which may afford females an important means of postcopulatory mate choice. We tested the hypothesis that premature spermatophore removal contributes significantly to intraspecific variation in sperm precedence by (1) experimentally manipulating spermatophore attachment durations of competing male Gryllodes sigillatus and (2) employing protein electrophoresis to determine the paternity of doubly mated females. The relative spermatophore attachment durations of competing males had a significant influence on male paternity, but the pattern of sperm precedence deviated significantly from the predictions of an ideal lottery. Instead, paternity data and morphological evidence accorded best with a model of partial sperm displacement derived here. Our model is similar to a displacement model of Parker et al. in that sperm of the second male mixes instantaneously with that of the first throughout the displacement process, but the novel feature of our model is that the number of sperm displaced is only a fraction of the number of sperm transferred by the second male. Regardless of the underlying mechanism, female G. sigillatus can clearly alter the paternity of their offspring through their spermatophore-removal behavior, and employ such cryptic choice in favoring larger males and those providing larger courtship food gifts. We discuss how female control of sperm transfer and intraspecific variation in sperm precedence may be important precursors to the evolution of gift giving in insects.