The Cladocera and Copepoda of the Alta water-course, Northern Norway

Cladocera and Copepoda fauna, from ten lakes in the Alta water-course,northern Norway, have been collected and investigated. A totalof 42 species (34 Cladocera and 8 Copepoda) were recorded. Thenumber of Cladoceran species is high when compared with thatregistered for other areas of similar latitude, and Cladoceranspecies abundance is also greater than that reported for otherregions of northern and central Scandinavia. In addition, themean number of planktonic species present at any given timein the lakes (4.9 Cladocera and 3.4 Copepoda) was comparativelyhigh. Eight species have never been recorded as existing farthernorth than the Alta water-course, Three other species have beenrecorded at higher latitudes in North America, but not in Eurasia.Several species, of which there are only a few published records,arc rare in northern Scandinavia, and nine species were notconsidered by Illies (1978), as existing in the region of thepresent study.     

The distribution and interconversion of ammonium and nitrate in the Skallingen salt marsh (Denmark) and their exchange with the adjacent coastal water

The potential nitrogen sources for the primary production in the intertidal area are nitrogen compounds obtained from mineralization in the sediment and the water column, nitrogen fixation, outflow from rivers and groundwater seeping from the mainland. The available inorganic nitrogen in the adjacent coastal waters decreases from 50–80 μmol NO₃ ^-/l and 6–15 μmol NH₄ ⁺/l in early spring to ca one tenth during the growing season. In the sediment of the tidal flats available ammonia and nitrate vary between 50 and 100 μmol/1 pw. In the salt marsh available ammonia increases from 200–300 nmol NH₄ ⁺/g fwt to approximately double the amount, and the available nitrate varies from 100–300 nmol NO₃ ^-/g fwt (250–750 μmol NO₃ ^-/l pw) to ca one third during the growing season. The exchange of NH₄ ⁺, NO₂ ^- and NO₃ ^- across the sediment water interface has been estimated during tidal cycles under light and dark conditions on the tidal flats. The flux of nitrogen was dependent on the flora and fauna as well as the time of the year. The tidal activity, frequency and length of inundation are considered the driving force in a two-way process between salt marshes and adjacent coastal waters. The role of marsh sediment, tidal water and sediments of the tidal flats as sites of accumulation, consumption and remineralization of organic matter is emphasized. The possible exchange of ammonia and nitrate between the salt marsh and the different compartments of the tidal water is discussed.     

On the ecophysiology of Halimione portulacoides

Growth rate and salt accumulation were investigated in experiments on Halimione portulacoides with seven sodium chloride treatments, in water culture. The growth of Halimione was found to be stimulated by moderate, 85–170 mM NaCl, levels of salinity, but increasingly depressed by salinities from 410–690 mM NaCl, which is comparable to salinities in salt marshes during the growing season. Using the same technique, growth rate, chloride and nitrogen uptake experiments at four different sodium chloride and nitrate treatment levels were conducted, in order to study the effect of nitrogen and salt. At 8 mM NaCl in the growth medium growth was depressed at 16.2 mM nitrate treatment levels. At 137 mM, 410 mM and 684 mM of NaCl growth was stimulated by increasing levels of nitrogen. The results of these experiments are discussed in relation to the nitrogen and salt conditions prevailing in Halimione portulacoides salt-marsh communities.     

Biochemical pathways in prokaryotes can be traced backward through evolutionary time

For the first time, a credible prokaryotic phylogenetic tree is being assembled by Woese and others using quantitative sequence analysis of oligonucleotides in the highly conservative rRNA. This provides an evolutionary scale against which the evolutionary steps that led to the arrangement and regulation of contemporary biochemical pathways can be measured. This paper presents an emerging evolutionary picture of aromatic amino acid biosynthesis within a large superfamily assemblage of prokaryotes that is sufficiently developed to illustrate a new perspective that will be applicable to many other biochemical pathways.      

Extraction and Partial Characterization of Enkephalin-Like Peptides from Splanchnic Nerve

A method is described for the extraction of enkephalin-like peptides from peripheral nerve using chloroform and acidic methanol to facilitate a differential extraction of peptides and lipid. Porcine splanchnic nerve contains enkephalin-like peptides in low amounts compared to porcine adrenal medulla and striatum. Gel filtration chromatography reveals the presence of enkephalin-like peptides in both processed and cryptic forms. This is the first reported isolation and partial characterization of these peptides in splanchnic nerve. The presence of these peptides in this nerve provides support for the contention that the splanchnic nerve can modulate catecholamine release from the adrenal medulla through an effect on opiate receptors located on chromaffin cells.     

Insulin-specific tolerance induction. I. Abrogation of helper T cell activity is controlled by H-2-linked Ir genes

Murine antibody responses to heterologous insulins are under H-2-linked immune response (Ir) gene control. We have found that the immune response to insulin in adjuvant can be inhibited by prior i.v. injection of soluble insulin. The effect of i.v. injection of insulin is antigen-specific and dose-dependent and requires the same doses of insulin that are immunogenic if administered with adjuvant. In addition, the inhibitory effect of soluble insulin is dependent upon the route of injection; if soluble insulin is injected i.p., the subsequent response to insulin in adjuvant is augmented rather than inhibited. Unresponsiveness requires at least 4 days after i.v. injection to develop and once induced, it is maintained for 4 wk or more. Unresponsiveness is caused by T cell, but not B cell, tolerance, and we have been unable to demonstrate any role for suppressor T cells in this unresponsiveness. More importantly, analysis of the ability of numerous insulin variants to induce unresponsiveness in several H-2k and H-2b strains of mice has demonstrated that only the variants that were immunogenic in a given strain when administered with adjuvant were able to cause tolerance. This report is, to our knowledge, the first describing that induction of helper T cell tolerance, like the induction of immunity, is controlled by H-2-linked Ir genes.     

Clues from Xanthomonas campestris about the evolution of aromatic biosynthesis and its regulation

The recent placement of major Gram-negative prokaryotes (Superfamily B) on a phylogenetic tree (including, e.g., lineages leading to Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Acinetobacter calcoaceticus) has allowed initial insights into the evolution of the biochemical pathway for aromatic amino acid biosynthesis and its regulation to be obtained. Within this prokaryote grouping, Xanthomonas campestris ATCC 12612 (a representative of the Group V pseudomonads) has played a key role in facilitating deductions about the major evolutionary events that shaped the character of aromatic biosynthesis within this grouping. X. campestris is like P. aeruginosa (and unlike E. coli) in its possession of dual flow routes to both L-phenylalanine and L-tyrosine from prephenate. Like all other members of Superfamily B, X. campestris possesses a bifunctional P-protein bearing the activities of both chorismate mutase and prephenate dehydratase. We have found an unregulated arogenate dehydratase similar to that of P. aeruginosa in X. campestris. We separated the two tyrosine-branch dehydrogenase activities (prephenate dehydrogenase and arogenate dehydrogenase); this marks the first time this has been accomplished in an organism in which these two activities coexist. Superfamily B organisms possess 3-deoxy-D-arabino-heptulosonate 7-P (DAHP) synthase as three isozymes (e.g., in E. coli), as two isozymes (e.g., in P. aeruginosa), or as one enzyme (in X. campestris). The two-isozyme system has been deduced to correspond to the ancestral state of Superfamily B. Thus, E. coli has gained an isozyme, whereas X. campestris has lost one. We conclude that the single, chorismate-sensitive DAHP synthase enzyme of X. campestris is evolutionarily related to the tryptophan-sensitive DAHP synthase present throughout the rest of Superfamily B. In X. campestris, arogenate dehydrogenase, prephenate dehydrogenase, the P-protein, chorismate mutase-F, anthranilate synthase, and DAHP synthase are all allosteric proteins; we compared their regulatory properties with those of enzymes of other Superfamily B members with respect to the evolution of regulatory properties. The network of sequentially operating circuits of allosteric control that exists for feedback regulation of overall carbon flow through the aromatic pathway in X. campestris is thus far unique in nature.     

Dietary selenium status and plasma thyroid hormones in chicks

Experiments were conducted to study the effect of marginal levels of selenium and vitamin E on plasma thyroid hormones of meattype chicks. Plasma thyroxine (T₄) was significantly increased when a semipurified diet was supplemented with either selenium or vitamin E. Triiodothyronine (T₃) was also significantly increased by vitamin E and in one experiment with selenium supplementation. No significant increase in these hormones was observed in birds fed a corn-soybean-meal diet supplemented with these nutrients. Plasma corticosterone level was reduced and weight of the bursa of Fabricius increased by selenium or vitamin E supplementation. These nutrients may be necessary for providing the optimum thyroid conditions for activity of thyroid peroxidase.