Mitochondria in the flight muscles of insects. II. Effects of the medium on the size form,and organization of isolated sarcosomes

1. The sarcosomes of Drosophila and the blowfly, Phormia, are dense, spherical, homogeneous bodies when isolated from flight muscle and promptly examined under the phase contrast, oil immersion objective. 2. Their average diameter in newly emerged flies is about 1 micro. This value increases rapidly during the 1st week of adult life and then becomes constant at approximately 2.5 micro. At each age the variation in sarcosome diameter conforms approximately to a normal distribution. 3. The degree to which isolated sarcosomes retain their initial size and organization is remarkably conditioned by the composition and the hydrogen ion concentration of the medium in which they are teased and suspended. In suboptimal media three major categories of change were encountered: (1) swelling, with or without compaction of the contents (as in distilled water and salt solutions); (2) shrinkage to rod-like, pleomorphic forms (as in blood serum); and (3) fuzzy degeneration (as in sugar solutions). 4. The membrane that surrounds each sarcosome becomes plainly visible in swollen sarcosomes. A continuation of swelling is accompanied by the escape of the sarcosomal contents, the vacated membrane persisting as a spherical, optically empty ghost. 5. Sarcosomes appear to behave like osmometers when suspended in various aqueous solutions. Solutes which penetrate the membrane show only transient effects in preventing the osmotic entry of water. 6. Under this analysis we find the membrane to be more or less freely permeable to the ions of sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, chloride, and phosphate, to non-electrolytes smaller than hexoses, to phosphorylated hexoses, and to several intermediates of the citric acid cycle. 7. The sarcosomal membrane appears to be less permeable to non-electrolytes larger than pentoses, provided that such molecules are not phosphorylated. 8. The membrane shows a higher permeability to ATP than to ADP. The significance of this observation is considered with respect to the ADP-ATP shuttle between sarcosomes and muscle fibrils. 9. Simple solutions of electrolytes or non-electrolytes cause more or less conspicuous changes in the microscopic appearance of sarcosomes. Prolonged preservation was achieved only in more complicated media containing protein. It is concluded that the Donnan equilibrium is the source of the principal osmotic forces regulating the movement of water through the sarcosomal membrane. 10. The optimal medium for the preservation of isolated sarcosomes was an intracellular Ringer solution containing 2.5 per cent crystalline bovine albumin in 0.16 M potassium phosphate buffer at pH 7.0.     

Handedness found in a wild group of moor monkeys Macaca maurus in the Karaenta Nature Reserve, South Sulawesi,Indonesia

Hand preference of wild moor monkeys Macaca maurus was investigated in food reaching situations at the Karaenta Nature Reserve, South Sulawesi, Indonesia. The frequency picking up sweet-corn grains to take into the mouth by either hand of monkeys was counted directly at the feeding ground where sweet-corn grains were scattered for monkeys. Among the 20 monkeys examined, 8 were fight-handed, 8 were left-handed, and 4 were ambilateral. The results indicated the prevailed hand preference on individual level but not either trends of left- or right-hand preference on population level. The trend toward a higher proportion of left-handed monkeys found in Japanese and rhesus monkeys was not found. Some other characteristics found in moor monkeys are discussed in comparison with those previous findings in Japanese and Tibetan macaques in order to evaluate variations within the genus Macaca.     

A variant in the restriction endonuclease cleavage pattern of mitochondrial DNA in the domestic fowl, Gallus gallus domesticus

Summary. The cleavage patterns of mitochondrial DNAs (mtDNAs) were investigated from 15 lines of domestic fowls, Gallus gallus domesticus . using 11 restriction endonucleases. The cleavage patterns with 10 restriction endonucleases were identical in all the lines. A variant was found in a line of White Leghorn in the pattern with Mspl digestions. Cleavage patterns of the red jungle fowl, Gallus gallus gallus , were identical to the common patterns shown by the 14 lines of domestic fowls.     

Induction of Unresponsiveness to Canine Renal Allografts by Total Body Irradiation and Bone Marrow Transplantation

RECENT progress in the definition of the DL-A antigens within a closely bred colony of beagles maintained at the Mary Imogene Basset Hospital (Cooperstown colony) has shown that these antigens are components of the principal system of histocompatibility (DL-A) in the dog^1–3. Dausset and associates⁴ have described the segregation of DL-A antigens in 679 offspring of 151 consecutive matings within the Coopers-town colony. Through methods of backcross analysis, 23 DL-A haplotypes (that is, specificities determined by the DL-A region of one single chromosome) have been identified and the DL-A genotypes of 1,302 offspring of 517 matings in this colony have been defined⁴. This combined genetic and serological information has provided an opportunity to reassess the reported survival rates of allogeneic bone marrow transplantation in serologically matched littermate dogs⁵. We describe here the long term survival of bone marrow transplants and renal allografts obtained from the same donors in nine littermate and three non-littermate recipients selected on the basis of genetic and serological criteria of DL-A compatibility in the Cooperstown colony. The results are contrasted with the survival of twenty-two renal allografts performed in untreated recipients selected on the basis of similar criteria.     

Cryopreservation of Leucocytozoon caulleryi Sporozoites

Leucocytozoon caulleryi sporozoites that had been stored at - 196° C or -80° C for 6 or 12 months in Eagle's minimum essential medium or Medium 199 supplemented with 5% glycerol and 10% chicken serum showed infectivity to chickens. Glycerol at a concentration of 10% and dimethyl sulfoxide at 10% and 5% were found to be ineffective cryoprotective agents for the low temperature preservation of sporozoites. Sporozoites isolated from the intact females of Culicoides arakawae , which had been stored at -80° C for 6 or 12 months without cryoprotective agents, retained their infectivity. No differences were observed in the prepatent period, duration of parasitemia, and presence of serum-soluble antigens between chickens infected with frozen sporozoites and those infected with fresh sporozoites.     

Analysis of Rice Mutants by Low Temperature-Derivative Spectrophotometry in Relation to Pigment Compositions and Photochemical Activities

The chloroplasts of five rice (Oryza sativa) mutants examined in the present study possessed the following pigment and activity characteristics as compared with those of normal strain (Nohrin No. 8); a) less chlorophylls (especially, chlorophyll b, the molar ratio of a to b= 6 ～ 41) and less carotenoids but higher ratios of β-carotene to chlorophylls; b) only photosystem 1 particles were obtained by density gradient centrifugation of digitonin-treated mutant chloroplasts while both photosystem 1 and 2 particles were obtained from normal strain chloroplasts; c) the photosystem 2 activities of mutant chloroplasts were lower (48 ～ 81 %) than that of normal chloroplasts while their photosystem 1 activities were 1.9 ～ 2.4 times higher. The derivative absorption spectrum of the normal chloroplasts (a/b= 4) measured at liquid nitrogen temperature showed many small but distinct maxima and minima in the red region in addition to those observable for chlorophylls in solution. These band structures including the French inflection were lost partially in the derivative spectra of three mutants with a/b= 6, 8 and 11 and almost completely in those of the remaining two mutants with a/b= 18 and 41. The lack of such band structures reflecting specific states of chlorophylls in vivo was attributed to the absence of some conformational structures such as those expected in photosystem-2 particles, which are formed by the presence of chlorophyll b and are resistant to the digitonin treatment. Chlorophylls in specific states in such structures were thought to exhibit a higher photosystem 2 activity.     

The ant genus Leptanilla: discovery of the worker-associated male of L.japonica, and a description of a new species from Taiwan (Hymenoptera: Formicidae: Leptanillinae)

The male and female of Leptanilla japonica Baroni Urbani are described. This is the first worker-associated male to be discovered in subfamily Leptanillinae. Leptanilla taiwanensis is described as new based on the worker and female from Taiwan, the first record of Leptanillinae from the island. An ecological note on the food of the ants is given. Implications of the male morphology and taxonomic positions of the other leptanilline genera based on males are discussed.