Eph Family Receptors and Their Ligands Distribute in Opposing Gradients in the Developing Mouse Retina

The Eph family of receptor tyrosine kinases and their ligands can be divided into two specificity subclasses: the Eck-related receptors and their GPI-anchored ligands, and the Elk-related receptors and their transmembrane ligands. Previous reports demonstrated that Eck- and Elk-related receptors in the retina distribute in high temporal–low nasal and high ventral–low dorsal gradients, respectively. While others have focused on complementary ligand gradients in the retinal axon target, the tectum, we report that ligands from each subclass also distribute in gradients opposing those of their corresponding receptors within the retina itself. Moreover, ligand gradients in the retina precede ganglion cell genesis. These results support an intraretinal role for Eph family members in addition to their previously proposed role in the development of retinotectal topography. The distinct distributions of Eph family members suggest that each subclass specifies positional information along independent retinal axes.     

Actions of Rho family small G proteins and p21-activated protein kinases on mitogen-activated protein kinase family members.

The mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinases are a family of serine/threonine kinases that are regulated by distinct extracellular stimuli. The currently known members include extracellular signal-regulated protein kinase 1 (ERK1), ERK2, the c-Jun N-terminal kinase/stress-activated protein kinases (JNK/SAPKs), and p38 MAP kinases. We find that overexpression of the Ste20-related enzymes p21-activated kinase 1 (PAK1) and PAK2 in 293 cells is sufficient to activate JNK/SAPK and to a lesser extent p38 MAP kinase but not ERK2. Rat MAP/ERK kinase kinase 1 can stimulate the activity of each of these MAP kinases. Although neither activated Rac nor the PAKs stimulate ERK2 activity, overexpression of either dominant negative Rac2 or the N-terminal regulatory domain of PAK1 inhibits Ras-mediated activation of ERK2, suggesting a permissive role for Rac in the control of the ERK pathway. Furthermore, constitutively active Rac2, Cdc42hs, and RhoA synergize with an activated form of Raf to increase ERK2 activity. These findings reveal a previously unrecognized connection between Rho family small G proteins and the ERK pathway.     

Concerted action of RAS and G proteins in the sexual response pathways of Schizosaccharomyces pombe.

We have shown that the expression of mam2, the gene encoding the Schizosaccharomyces pombe P-factor pheromone receptor, is dependent upon components of the pheromone signal transduction pathway, including Ras1, Gpa1, Byr1 and Byr2, each of which is required for both conjugation and sporulation. Studies of the expression of mam2 in mutant S. pombe cells confirm previous conclusions, based on the ability of cells to sporulate, that the Byr1 protein kinase acts downstream of the Byr2 protein kinase and that both act downstream of Ras1, the S. pombe RAS homolog, and Gpa1, the G alpha component that mediates the occupancy of the mam2 receptor. In addition, our present studies show that Ras1 and Gpa1 each act downstream from the other and hence act in concert. The Spk1 kinase, which is required for conjugation and sporulation and which is a structural and functional homolog of the vertebrate MAP kinases, is not required for mam2 expression.     

Assessment of lead availability in soils contaminated by mine spoil

The uptake of lead by two contrasting plant species, radish and red fescue, grown in soils contaminated by mine spoil was investigated. Uptake was found to be poorly correlated either with pH or total Pb concentration in the soils. By contrast, a good correlation was obtained, particularly for red fescue, between Pb uptake and Pb concentration in the solution of equilibrated soil suspensions over a wide range of soil pH, total soil Pb and soil solution Pb concentration.Calculations suggested a similar order of magnitude in the total amounts of Pb taken up by the plants and Pb in the soil solution of the root zone, justifying the latter as a good index of Pb-availability. ei]Section editor: A C Borstlap     

On the probability of loss of new mutations in the presence of linkage disequilibrium

A new selectively neutral mutation occurs in a multilocus genetic background that has achieved a stable equilibrium at which there is a linkage disequilibrium. Perturbation techniques are applied to an extension of the branching process formulation of Fisher in order to address the question of extinction probabilities. We show that under appropriate conditions the probability of extinction of the new mutant is increased by the existence of linkage disequilibrium in the genetic background.Research supported in part by NIH grant GM 28016