Pectic polysaccharides of growing plant tissues

1. The polysaccharide compositions of the cell walls of sycamore cambium and sycamore callus tissue have been analysed and found to be directly comparable. 2. Electrophoretic analyses of the whole pectins prepared from actively growing callus and cambial tissue have shown that these preparations contain, in addition to the neutral and weakly acidic components present in apple fruit, a strongly acidic polygalacturonic acid component. 3. The weakly acidic component of all the pectins was directly comparable with that of the pectinic acid of apple fruit. 4. The components of the whole pectin of sycamore callus tissue have been partially purified and analysed. The neutral and weakly acidic components also found in apple fruit were isolated. 5. The pattern of the composition of the neutral sugars present in the pectins of actively growing tissues of cambium and callus has been compared with those present in apple-fruit pectinic acid. 6. The presence of rhamnose linked as galacturonosyl-(1-->2)-rhamnose has been found in sycamore whole pectin. 7. The difference in the pectins of callus, cambium and fruit appears not to be that of species difference but is more characteristic of the nature of the growth and growth conditions of the cells. This is discussed in relation to the problems of the control and mechanism of plant-cell growth and differentiation.     

Analysis of mammalian pigmentation at the molecular level

There has been great interest lately in the cloning of pigment-related genes; several laboratories have succeeded in isolating melanocyte-specific genes which have many of the characteristics expected for tyrosinase. In this paper, we review the selection criteria, the physical properties, and the functional characteristics of several of these gene products. Two of the clones map to the brown (b) and albino (c) loci, genes that are involved in the regulation of the quantity and quality of melanin production. The functional characteristics of these gene products are not easily reconciled with existing schemes of melanogenesis, and a reevaluation of our concepts of melanogenic regulation may be necessary. The altered expression of these gene products in normal and in transformed melanocytes, and the alternative mRNA processing that occurs in those cells, makes this system an appropriate and interesting one for studies of normal metabolic regulation of gene expression, as well as altered gene expression by neoplastic cells.     

Ferritin H gene polymorphism in idiopathic hemochromatosis

Summary We have analysed karyotypes and DNA from three patients with aniridia (congenital absence of irises) and Wilms' tumour. All three had constitutional deletions from the short arm of chromosome 11. The minimum region of overlap of the deletion involves a small region of band 11p13 presumed to contain the genetic loci responsible for both phenotypic abnormalities. Using cells from these patients, somatic cell hybrids with transformed mouse cells have been prepared. Individual subclones retaining either the deletion-11 chromosome or the normal chromosome 11, in addition to a variety of other human chromosomes, have been identified. The relative position of these breakpoints have been determined and the panel of hybrids has been used to map randomly-isolated 11p13 DNA sequences. The characterisation of these deletions has provided a useful panel of hybrids for random mapping strategies designed to identify the Wilms' and aniridia genes.     

Polymorphisms in human H chain V region genes from the VHIII gene family

Polymorphisms of the Ig H chain V region (VH) genes were examined with probes from the coding and flanking regions of a gene from the largest VH gene family, VHIII. The 5'-flanking probe gave the simplest pattern and revealed the largest number of polymorphic fragments. Analysis of unrelated individuals and of families identified five polymorphic loci. Two alleles were detected for each of two of the loci, whereas a polymorphic band was scored as present or absent for the other three loci. The polymorphic fragments segregated in the expected Mendelian fashion and parental haplotypes could be assigned in all cases. Comparison of the patterns obtained with the flanking and coding region probes suggests that the human VHIII gene family is highly polymorphic and may contain several hundred V genes. This method, as well as the polymorphism detected, can be used to investigate the organization and germ-line variation of H chain V genes and their inheritance in normal individuals and in individuals with immunologic disorders.