Sex-inducing effect of a hydrophilic fraction on reproductive switching in the planarian Dugesia ryukyuensis (Seriata, Tricladida)

Background

Insects are known to rely on terrestrial landmarks for navigation. Landmarks are used to chart a route or pinpoint a goal. The distant panorama, however, is often thought not to guide navigation directly during a familiar journey, but to act as a contextual cue that primes the correct memory of the landmarks.

Results

We provided Melophorus bagoti ants with a huge artificial landmark located right near the nest entrance to find out whether navigating ants focus on such a prominent visual landmark for homing guidance. When the landmark was displaced by small or large distances, ant routes were affected differently. Certain behaviours appeared inconsistent with the hypothesis that guidance was based on the landmark only. Instead, comparisons of panoramic images recorded on the field, encompassing both landmark and distal panorama, could explain most aspects of the ant behaviours.

Conclusion

Ants navigating along a familiar route do not focus on obvious landmarks or filter out distal panoramic cues, but appear to be guided by cues covering a large area of their panoramic visual field, including both landmarks and distal panorama. Using panoramic views seems an appropriate strategy to cope with the complexity of natural scenes and the poor resolution of insects' eyes. The ability to isolate landmarks from the rest of a scene may be beyond the capacity of animals that do not possess a dedicated object-perception visual stream like primates.     

Neurocalcin: a novel calcium-binding protein from bovine brain.

A novel calcium-binding protein (molecular weight 23,000-24,000, pI 5.3-5.5), which we term neurocalcin, was identified in bovine brain. Using calcium-dependent drug affinity chromatography ((S)-P-(2-aminoethyloxy)-N-[2-(4-benzyloxycarbonylpiperazinyl++ +)-1-(P- methoxybenzyl)ethyl]-N-methylbenzene-sulfonamide dihydrochloride, W-77, -coupled Sepharose 6B), we purified neurocalcin from bovine brain. The partial amino acid sequence of neurocalcin revealed it to be an as yet unidentified protein with three putative calcium binding sites (EF-hands). Further purification and sequence analysis demonstrated the presence of four isoprotein forms designated alpha, beta, gamma 1, and gamma 2. When the 165 sequenced residues of neurocalcin beta are compared with sequences of other proteins, neurocalcin beta has a 38.2% sequence homology with visinin and 45.5% with recoverin (Yamagata, K., Goto, K., Kuo, C.-H., Kondo, H., and Miki, N. (1990) Neuron 2, 469-476; Dizhoor, A. M., Ray, S., Kumar, S., Niemi, G., Spencer, M., Brolley, D., Walsh, K. A., Philipov, P. P., Hurley, J. B., and Stryer, L. (1991) Science 251, 915-918). Both visinin and recoverin are expressed specifically in retinal photoreceptors and are not found in brain. Unlike visinin and recoverin, neurocalcin is purified not only from retina but also from bovine brain. Our results suggest that neurocalcin is a recoverin-like protein expressed in bovine brain.     

Purification and properties of thiosulfate reductase from Desulfovibrio vulgaris, Miyazaki F

Thiosulfate reductase was purified to an almost homogeneous state from Desulfovibrio vulgaris, strain Miyazaki F, by ammonium sulfate precipitation, chromatography on DEAE-Toyopearl, Ultrogel AcA 34, and hydroxylapatite, and disc electrophoresis. The specific activity was increased 580-fold over the crude extract. The molecular weight was determined by gel filtration to be 85,000-89,000, differing from those reported for thiosulfate reductases from other Desulfovibrio strains. The enzyme had no subunit structure. When coupled with hydrogenase and methyl viologen, it stoichiometrically reduced thiosulfate to sulfite and sulfide with consumption of hydrogen. It did not reduce sulfite or trithionate. Cytochrome c3 was active as an electron donor. More than 0.75 mM thiosulfate inhibited the enzyme activity. o-Phenanthroline and 2,2'-bipyridine inhibited the enzyme and ferrous ion stimulated the reaction.     

Studies on substantially increased proteins in follicular fluid of bovine ovarian follicular cysts using 2-D PAGE and MALDI-TOF MS

Background  

The objective of this study was to identify substantially increased proteins in bovine cystic follicular fluid (FF) in order to clarify the pathology and etiology of bovine ovarian follicular cysts (BOFC).     

Newly developed selective immunoinactivation assay revealed reduction in adipose triglyceride lipase activity in peripheral leucocytes from patients with idiopathic triglyceride deposit cardiomyovasculopathy

Triglyceride deposit cardiomyovasculopathy (TGCV) is a rare and newly identified disease among patients requiring cardiac transplantation. TGCV is characterized by cardiomyocyte steatosis and triglyceride (TG)-deposit atherosclerosis, resulting from the abnormal intracellular metabolism of TG. TGCV is classified into primary and idiopathic types. Primary TGCV carries ultra-rare genetic mutations in the adipose triglyceride lipase (ATGL), a rate-liming enzyme that hydrolyzes intracellular TG in adipose and non-adipose tissues. Idiopathic TGCV, first identified among autopsied individuals with diabetes mellitus (DM) with severe heart diseases, shows no ATGL mutations and its causes and underlying mechanisms are still unknown. TGCV is difficult to diagnose in daily clinics, thereby demanding feasible diagnostic procedures. We aimed to develop an assay to measure ATGL activity using peripheral leucocytes. Human his6-ATGL was expressed in COS1 cells, purified to homogeneity, and used to raise a polyclonal antibody neutralizing TG-hydrolyzing activity of ATGL. We developed a selective immunoinactivation assay (SIIA) for the quantitation of ATGL activity in cell lysates of leucocytes by the antibody neutralizing ATGL activities. ATGL activity was measured in 13 idiopathic TGCV patients, with two patients with primary TGCV as the negative control. Healthy (non-DM) and DM controls without heart diseases were also subjected. The developed SIIA assay revealed significant reduction in ATGL activity in leucocytes from patients with idiopathic TGCV who did not carry ATGL mutations as compared with non-DM and DM controls. Thus, ATGL in leucocytes may be an important biomarker for the diagnosis of TGCV and our assay may provide insights into pathophysiology and elucidate the underlying mechanism of TGCV and related disorders.     

A subfamily of RNA-binding DEAD-box proteins acts as an estrogen receptor alpha coactivator through the N-terminal activation domain (AF-1) with an RNA coactivator, SRA

One class of the nuclear receptor AF-2 coactivator complexes contains the SRC-1/TIF2 family, CBP/p300 and an RNA coactivator, SRA. We identified a subfamily of RNA-binding DEAD-box proteins (p72/p68) as a human estrogen receptor alpha (hER alpha) coactivator in the complex containing these factors. p72/p68 interacted with both the AD2 of any SRC-1/TIF2 family protein and the hER alpha A/B domain, but not with any other nuclear receptor tested. p72/p68, TIF2 (SRC-1) and SRA were co-immunoprecipitated with estrogen-bound hER alpha in MCF7 cells and in partially purified complexes associated with hER alpha from HeLa nuclear extracts. Estrogen induced co-localization of p72 with hER alpha and TIF2 in the nucleus. The presence of p72/p68 potentiated the estrogen-induced expression of the endogenous pS2 gene in MCF7 cells. In a transient expression assay, a combination of p72/p68 with SRA and one TIF2 brought an ultimate synergism to the estrogen-induced transactivation of hER alpha. These findings indicate that p72/p68 acts as an ER subtype-selective coactivator through ER alpha AF-1 by associating with the coactivator complex to bind its AF-2 through direct binding with SRA and the SRC-1/TIF2 family proteins.     

Mechanism underlying silent cleanup of apoptotic cells

Apoptotic cells are cleared without an inflammatory response such as neutrophil infiltration. The mechanism underlying such silent cleanup of apoptotic cells has been intensively investigated in vitro for over a decade, and the concept that active suppression via IL-10, TGF-β, and nitric oxide enables such silent cleanup to occur has been emerging. However, because this concept has not been vigorously examined under a variety of experimental conditions in vivo, the possibility remains that a null response, in which neither cytokines nor nitric oxide is produced upon an encounter with apoptotic cells, is responsible for silent cleanup.     

Activation of Nrf2/Keap1 signaling and autophagy induction against oxidative stress in heart in iron deficiency

We investigated the effects of dietary iron deficiency on the redox system in the heart. Dietary iron deficiency increased heart weight and accumulation of carbonylated proteins. However, expression levels of heme oxygenase-1 and LC3-II, an antioxidant enzyme and an autophagic marker, respectively, in iron-deficient mice were upregulated compared to the control group, resulting in a surrogate phenomenon against oxidative stress.