The effects of repeated anesthesia on the biology of Blattella germanica (Linnaeus)

Summary Short exposures of cockroach nymphs once each week to anesthetic gases (nitrogen, nitrous oxide, cyclopropane, carbon dioxide, and ethyl ether) retarded the growth rate, decreased the adult weight, reduced the number of offspring produced, and prolonged adult life. Certain of these effects were more pronounced with some gases than with others, so that no one gas can be considered safest.Carbon dioxide applied throughout life is more deleterious to reproduction than if it is discontinued at maturity. The longer it is used, the greater the incidence of aborted egg capsules. The weight of egg capsules of CO₂-treated roaches tends to be less than normal even though the number of eggs per capsule is normal.An attempt was made to determine if carbon dioxide retards growth and causes abortion of eggs by affecting moisture loss, or ambient temperature, or molting rate; but all findings were negative. The percentage of moisture of treated roaches and their eggs was the same as for untreated ones; air chilled to the temperature of expanding carbon dioxide had no effect on growth rate; and the frequency of molting of anesthetized roaches was the same as for controls. One positive difference was that the efficiency of food conversion to body weight was less in CO₂-anesthetized roaches than in controls.

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Zusammenfassung Wenn Blattella germanica (L.) während des Wachstums einmal wöchentlich mit einem Gas betäubt wurde, verzögerte sich ihre Zuwachsrate. Das Endgewicht war geringer und die Anzahl der Nachkommen kleiner, aber die Lebensspanne wurde länger. Die fünf angewandten Betäubungsmittel (Stickstoff, Stickoxydul, Cyclopropan, Kohlendioxyd und Äthyläther) hatten verschiedene Folgen, waren aber alle schädlich. Kohlendioxyd wurde ausführlicher untersucht. Die Insekten wurden damit auch noch nach der Metamorphose betäubt. Dadurch verringerte sich die Anzahl der Nachkommen noch mehr. Die Nahrungsverwertung war bei den behandelten Larven ungünstiger.

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Paper No. 5438, Scientific Journal Series, Minnesota Agricultural Experiment Station.     

Human β-Synuclein Rendered Fibrillogenic by Designed Mutations

Filamentous inclusions made of α-synuclein are found in nerve cells and glial cells in a number of human neurodegenerative diseases, including Parkinson disease, dementia with Lewy bodies, and multiple system atrophy. The assembly and spreading of these inclusions are likely to play an important role in the etiology of common dementias and movement disorders. Both α-synuclein and the homologous β-synuclein are abundantly expressed in the central nervous system; however, β-synuclein is not present in the pathological inclusions. Previously, we observed a poor correlation between filament formation and the presence of residues 73–83 of α-synuclein, which are absent in β-synuclein. Instead, filament formation correlated with the mean β-sheet propensity, charge, and hydrophilicity of the protein (global physicochemical properties) and β-strand contiguity calculated by a simple algorithm of sliding averages (local physicochemical property). In the present study, we rendered β-synuclein fibrillogenic via one set of point mutations engineered to enhance global properties and a second set engineered to enhance predominantly β-strand contiguity. Our findings show that the intrinsic physicochemical properties of synucleins influence their fibrillogenic propensity via two distinct but overlapping modalities. The implications for filament formation and the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases are discussed.     

Use of the Malthus conductance growth analyser to determine numbers of thermophilic streptococci on stainless steel

The use of the Malthus conductance growth analyser for the detection of Streptococcus bovis attached to stainless steel surfaces was evaluated. A comparison between the results from acridine orange epifluorescence direct counts, swab recovery viable count and conductance estimates of attached cell concentrations, based on calibrations for planktonic cells, showed that the conductance results were up to 2 log₁₀ greater than the epifluorescence results and the swab counts. The growth rates of planktonic and attached cells were similar over 16 h using the Malthus technique. This suggests that the Malthus technique detects more attached cells of Strep. bovis than epifluorescence microscopy or swab recovery.     

Green land: Multiple perspectives on green algal evolution and the earliest land plants

Green plants, broadly defined as green algae and the land plants (together, Viridiplantae), constitute the primary eukaryotic lineage that successfully colonized Earth's emergent landscape. Members of various clades of green plants have independently made the transition from fully aquatic to subaerial habitats many times throughout Earth's history. The transition, from unicells or simple filaments to complex multicellular plant bodies with functionally differentiated tissues and organs, was accompanied by innovations built upon a genetic and phenotypic toolkit that have served aquatic green phototrophs successfully for at least a billion years. These innovations opened an enormous array of new, drier places to live on the planet and resulted in a huge diversity of land plants that have dominated terrestrial ecosystems over the past 500 million years. This review examines the greening of the land from several perspectives, from paleontology to phylogenomics, to water stress responses and the genetic toolkit shared by green algae and plants, to the genomic evolution of the sporophyte generation. We summarize advances on disparate fronts in elucidating this important event in the evolution of the biosphere and the lacunae in our understanding of it. We present the process not as a step-by-step advancement from primitive green cells to an inevitable success of embryophytes, but rather as a process of adaptations and exaptations that allowed multiple clades of green plants, with various combinations of morphological and physiological terrestrialized traits, to become diverse and successful inhabitants of the land habitats of Earth.     

TfoX-Based Genetic Mapping Identifies Vibrio fischeri Strain-Level Differences and Reveals a Common Lineage of Laboratory Strains

Bacterial strain variation exists in natural populations of bacteria and can be generated experimentally through directed or random mutation. The advent of rapid and cost-efficient whole-genome sequencing has facilitated strain-level genotyping. Even with modern tools, however, it often remains a challenge to map specific traits to individual genetic loci, especially for traits that cannot be selected under culture conditions (e.g., colonization level or pathogenicity). Using a combination of classical and modern approaches, we analyzed strain-level variation in Vibrio fischeri and identified the basis by which some strains lack the ability to utilize glycerol as a carbon source. We proceeded to reconstruct the lineage of the commonly used V. fischeri laboratory strains. Compared to the wild-type ES114 strain, we identify in ES114-L a 9.9-kb deletion with endpoints in tadB2 and glpF; restoration of the missing portion of glpF restores the wild-type phenotype. The widely used strains ESR1, JRM100, and JRM200 contain the same deletion, and ES114-L is likely a previously unrecognized intermediate strain in the construction of many ES114 derivatives. ES114-L does not exhibit a defect in competitive squid colonization but ESR1 does, demonstrating that glycerol utilization is not required for early squid colonization. Our genetic mapping approach capitalizes on the recently discovered chitin-based transformation pathway, which is conserved in the Vibrionaceae; therefore, the specific approach used is likely to be useful for mapping genetic traits in other Vibrio species.     

Extracellular matrix metabolism by chondrocytes: VI. Concomitant depression by exogenous levels of proteoglycan of collagen and proteoglycan synthesis by chondrocytes

The synthesis of collagen and proteoglycans by cultured chondrocytes, as measured by the incorporation of L-[³H]proline into hydroxyproline and [³H]acetate into glycosaminoglycans, was shown to be depressed by 59% and 39%, respectively, by the addition of exogenous proteoglycan at a concetration of 10 mg/ml growth media. The incorporation of L-[³H]proline into acid-in-soluble protein remained unaltered in the presence of the proteoglycan. It was concluded that the effect was depressing the activity of the enzymatic steps, associated with the endoplasmic reticulum, which are responsible for the post-traslational modification of collagen and proteoglycan.     

S-adenosylmethionine decarboxylase from Leishmania donovani. Molecular, genetic, and biochemical characterization of null mutants and overproducers.

The polyamine biosynthetic enzyme, S-adenosylmethionine decarboxylase (ADOMETDC) has been advanced as a potential target for antiparasitic chemotherapy. To investigate the importance of this protein in a model parasite, the gene encoding ADOMETDC has been cloned and sequenced from Leishmania donovani. The Delta adometdc null mutants were created in the insect vector form of the parasite by double targeted gene replacement. The Delta adometdc strains were incapable of growth in medium without polyamines; however, auxotrophy could be rescued by spermidine but not by putrescine, spermine, or methylthioadenosine. Incubation of Delta adometdc parasites in medium lacking polyamines resulted in a drastic increase of putrescine and glutathione levels with a concomitant decrease in the amounts of spermidine and the spermidine-containing thiol trypanothione. Parasites transfected with an episomal ADOMETDC construct were created in both wild type and Delta adometdc parasites. ADOMETDC overexpression abrogated polyamine auxotrophy in the Delta adometdc L. donovani. In addition, ADOMETDC overproduction in wild type parasites alleviated the toxic effects of 5'-(((Z)-4-amino-2-butenyl)methylamino)-5'-deoxyadenosine (MDL 73811), but not pentamidine, berenil, or methylglyoxyl bis(guanylhydrazone), all inhibitors of ADOMETDC activities in vitro. The molecular, biochemical, and genetic characterization of ADOMETDC establishes that it is essential in L. donovani promastigotes and a potential target for therapeutic validation.     

Specificity of inhibition of calcium- and calmodulin-dependent protein kinase by alloxan

Studies were undertaken to determine whether the effect of alloxan to inactivate a membrane-bound calcium- and calmodulin-dependent protein kinase was specific for the pancreatic islets and whether inactivation of the kinase occurred also after injection of a diabetogenic dose of alloxan into rats. The effect of alloxan was also examined on similar particulate calcium- and calmodulin-dependent kinases present in two other secretory tissues, mammary acini and forebrain. Exposure of alloxan to cell-free preparations of all secretory tissues examined inhibited the calcium- and calmodulin-dependent kinase activities, suggesting that the specificity of alloxan action was not due to the presence in islets of a kinase uniquely sensitive to alloxan. To determine whether the selective effect of alloxan action was mediated at the cellular level, experiments were performed with alloxan presented to intact cells. Whereas alloxan exposure to viable cell preparations of islets and brain decreased the subsequently measured calcium- and calmodulin-dependent protein kinase activity, the activity measured in mammary acini exposed to these alloxan concentrations was unaffected. Injection (i.v.) of a diabetogenic dose of alloxan (50 mg/kg) produced an immediate (10 min) and selective inactivation of the calcium- and calmodulin-dependent protein kinase in pancreatic islests but had no effect on the similar kinases measured in brain and mammary acini. These results indicate that the unique sensitivity of islets to alloxan may result from the ability of alloxan to rapidly gain intracellular access and then inactivate this kinase activity. The selective effect of alloxan injection on this islet protein kinase is consistent with the hypothesis that inactivation of the kinase by alloxan is related to its diabetogenic effect in vivo.