Luxury consumption and specific utilization rates of three macroelements in two Taraxacum microspecies of contrasting mineral ecology

Plants of Taraxacum sellandii Dahlst., a microspecies adapted to fertile, and Taraxacum nordstedtii Dahlst., adapted to infertile soils, were cultured hydroponically, either on a complete nutrient solution or on one deprived of nitrogen, phosphorus, or potassium ions. For all four treatments, the growth and internal mineral concentration of the plants was monitored. For plants cultured on a complete nutrient solution, the uptake rates of nitrate, phosphate, and potassium ions were determined. Luxury consumption of the three macronutrients was computed as the excess of ion absorption over the ion uptake rates minimally required to sustain maximum growth. In these calculations the critical N, P, or K⁺ concentrations, earlier derived, were used as parameters describing the mineral status minimally required to allow maximum growth. Efficiency in use of the three macroelements at various levels of mineral accumulation was also computed. Finally, the response to phosphate starvation as related to phosphate uptake capacity and the accumulation of P was investigated.
The physiological properies investigated provide a causal background for the superior adaptation of T. nordstedtii as compared to T. sellandii to infertile sites. Taraxacum nordstedtii had a higher relative luxury consumption of NO₃^–, H₂PO^-₄, and K⁺, a higher efficiency in N and P use at N– and (severe) P-deficiency, respectively; and, after phosphate starvation, a relatively high preservation of phosphate uptake capacity and an enlargement of P storage. In combination with the low potential growth, luxury consumption will be particularly effective in T. nordstedtii in preventing or minimizing mineral deficiency. The distribution of minerals between cytoplasm and vacuoles as a factor in mineral use efficiency is discussed.     

Gas exchange and water balance of a mistletoe species and its mangrove hosts

Summary The gas exchange and water relations of the hemiparasite Pthirusa maritima and two its mangrove host species, Conocarpus erectus and Coccoloba uvifera, were studied in an intertidal zone of the Venezuelan coast. Carbon uptake and transpiration, leaf osmotic and total water potential, as well as nutrient content in the xylem sap and leaves of mistletoes and hosts were followed through the dry and wet season. In addition, carbon isotope ratios of leaf tissue were measured to further evaluate water use efficiency. Under similar light and humidity conditions, mistletoes had higher transpiration rates, lower leaf water potentials, and lower water use efficiencies than their hosts. Potassium content was much higher in mistletoes than in host leaves, but mineral nutrient content in the xylem sap of mistletoes was relatively low. The resistance of the liquid pathway from the soil to the leaf surface of mistletoes was larger than the total liquid flow resistance of host plants. Differences in the daily cycles of osmotic potential of the xylem sap also indicate the existence of a high resistance pathway along the vascular connection between the parasite pathway along the vascular connection between the parasite and its host. P. maritima mistletoes adjust to the different physiological characteristics of the host species which it parasitizes, thus ensuring an adequate water and carbon balance.     

Salinity and germination of annual Melilotus from the Guadalquivir delta (SW Spain)

The germination response to NaCl treatments has been studied in Melilotus seed populations collected from saline and non-saline soils in the Guadalquivir delta. The rank orders for salt tolerance and seed weight were the same in the threeMelilotus species living in this area:Melilotus messanensis>M. segetalis>M. indica. Within the species, differences in germination response to salinity were found inM. indica (6 populations) andM. segetalis (8 populations). The relationship between salt tolerance during germination and salinity of maternal habitat is discussed.     

Evidence for Chloroplastic Succinate Dehydrogenase Participating in the Chloroplastic Respiratory and Photosynthetic Electron Transport Chains of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii

A method for isolating intact chloroplasts from Chlamydomonas reinhardtii F-60 was developed from the Klein, Chen, Gibbs, Platt-Aloia procedure ([1983] Plant Physiol 72: 481-487). Protoplasts, generated by treatment with autolysine, were lysed with a solution of digitonin and fractionated on Percoll step gradients. The chloroplasts were assessed to be 90% intact (ferricyanide assay) and free from cytoplasmic contamination (NADP isocitrate dehydrogenase activity) and to range from 2 to 5% in mitochondrial contamination (cytochrome c oxidase activity). About 25% of the cellular succinate dehydrogenase activity (21.6 micromoles per milligram chlorophyll per hour, as determined enzymically) was placed within the chloroplast. Chloroplastic succinate dehydrogenase had a K_m for succinate of 0.55 millimolar and was associated with the thylakoidal material derived from the intact chloroplasts. This same thylakoidal material, with an enzymic assay of 21.6 micromoles per milligram chlorophyll per hour was able to initiate a light-dependent uptake of oxygen at a rate of 16.4 micromoles per milligram chlorophyll per hour when supplied with succinate and methyl viologen. Malonate was an apparent competitive inhibitor of this reaction. The succinate dehydrogenase activity present in the chloroplast was sufficient to account for the photoanaerobic rate of acetate dissimilation in H₂ adapted Chlamydomonas (M Gibbs, RP Gfeller, C Chen [1986] Plant Physiol 82: 160-166).     

Light-induced spectral absorbance changes in relation to photosynthesis and the epoxidation state of xanthophyll cycle components in cotton leaves

When cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L., cv Acaia SJC-1) leaves kept in weak light were suddenly exposed to strong red actinic light a spectral absorbance change took place having the following prominent characteristics. (a) It was irreversible within the first four minute period after darkening. (b) The difference in leaf absorbance between illuminated and predarkened leaves had a major peak at 505 nanometers, a minor peak at 465 nanometers, a shoulder around 515 nanometers, and minor troughs at 455 and 480 nanometers. (c) On the basis of its spectral and kinetic characteristics this absorbance change can be readily distinguished from the much faster electrochromic shift which has a peak at 515 nanometers, from the slow, so-called light-scattering change which has a broad peak centered around 535 nanometers and is reversed upon darkening, and from absorbance changes associated with light-induced chloroplast rearrangements. (d) The extent and time course of this absorbance change closely matched that of the deepoxidation of violaxanthin to zeaxanthin in the same leaves. (e) Both the absorbance change and the ability to form zeaxanthin were completely blocked in leaves to which dithiothreitol (DTT) had been provided through the cut petlole. DTT treatment also caused strong inhibition of that component of the 535-nanometer absorbance change which is reversed in less than 4 minutes upon darkening and considered to be caused by increased light scattering. Moreover, DTT inhibited a large part of nonphotochemical quenching of chlorophyll fluorescence in the presence of excessive light. However, DTT had no detectable effect on the photon yield of photosynthesis measured under strictly rate-limiting photon flux densities or on the light-saturated photosynthetic capacity, at least in the short term. We conclude that it is possible to monitor light-induced violaxanthin de-epoxidation in green intact leaves by measurement of the absorbance change at 505 nanometers. Determination of absorbance changes in conjunction with measurements of photosynthesis in the presence and absence of DTT provide a system well suited for future studies of meachanisms of dissipation of excessive excitation energy in intact leaves.     

Correction of congenital microtia using the tissue expander

We attempted auricular reconstruction using Radovan-type inflatable silicone expanders in six children and one adult, with the complete hypoplastic, the conchal remnant, and constricted type of microtia. Ear frameworks, including the helix, anthelix, concha, and tragus, were prepared using autologous rib cartilage. Based on the surface area of the normal adult auricle, the silicone expander was tentatively shaped and sized into a rotated semiellipse and expanded with 70 cc saline. Auricular reconstruction on the framework was completed at the time of insertion in four of the seven patients, requiring no elevation of the ear. The reconstructed auricle was satisfactory in both color and texture and had nearly normal sensation. Mild complications were noted in three of the seven patients. However, no resorption of the inserted rib cartilage has been observed 14 months to 2 years and 5 months after the operation. Slight shrinkage of the expanded skin was noted in each patient.     

Cultured epithelial autografts for giant congenital nevi

Eight pediatric patients with giant congenital nevi confluent over 21 to 51 percent body surface area were treated by excision and grafting. The nevus was excised to the muscle fascia, and the open wound was grafted with cultured epithelial autografts and split-thickness skin grafts. The patients have been followed from 17 to 56 months. Seventeen operations were performed in the eight patients, excising a mean of 6.9 percent body surface area at each procedure. The mean duration of anesthesia was 3.7 hours, and the mean operative blood loss was 12.3 percent estimated blood volume. The mean "take" for the cultured epithelial autografts was 68 percent, and for the split-thickness skin grafts, 84 percent. Epithelialization of open wound areas adjacent to the grafts was somewhat slower for the cultured epithelial autografts than for the split-thickness skin grafts, but it led to a healed wound in all patients except one. Ten of the 17 areas grafted with cultured epithelial autografts resulted in small open wounds that required regrafting. Wound contraction under the cultured epithelial autografts and under split-thickness skin grafts was similar and depended more on the anatomic site grafted than on the type of graft employed. in 16 of 17 operations, the cultured epithelium remained as a permanent, durable skin coverage. The use of cultured epithelial autografts allowed a larger area of excision than would have been possible with split-thickness skin grafts alone and, therefore, a more rapid removal of nevus. Cultured epithelial autograft are an important new technique in the care of patients with giant congenital nevi.     

A chimera embryo assay reveals a decrease in embryonic cellular proliferation induced by sperm from X-irradiated male mice

Male mice were divided into three experimental groups and a control group. Mice in the experimental groups received one of three doses of acute X irradiation (1.73, 0.29, and 0.05 Gy) and together with the control unirradiated mice were then mated weekly to unirradiated female mice for a 9-week experimental period. Embryos were recovered from the weekly matings at the four-cell stage and examined by the chimera assay for proliferative disadvantage. Aggregation chimeras were constructed of embryos from female mice mated to irradiated males (experimental embryos) and embryos from females mated to unexposed males (control embryos) and contained either one experimental embryo and one control embryo (heterologous chimera) or two control embryos (control chimera). The control embryo in heterologous chimeras and either embryo in control chimeras were prelabeled with the vital dye fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC), and the chimeras were cultured for 40 h and viewed under phase-contrast and epifluorescence microscopy to obtain total embryo cell number and the cellular contribution from the FITC-labeled embryo. Experimental and control embryos that were cultured singly were also examined for embryo cell number at the end of the 40-h culture period. In control chimeras, the mean ratio of the unlabeled cells:total chimera cell number (henceforth referred to as "mean ratio") was 0.50 with little or no weekly variation over the 9-week experimental period. During Weeks 4-7, the mean ratios of heterologous chimeras differed significantly from the mean ratio of control chimeras with the greatest differences occurring during Week 7 (0.41 for chimeras of 0.05 Gy dose group, 0.40 for chimeras of the 0.29 Gy dose group, and 0.17 for chimeras of the 1.73 Gy dose group). However, cell numbers of singly cultured experimental embryos differed from those of singly cultured control embryos for just Week 7 for the 0.29 and 1.73 Gy dose groups, even though the mean ratios of heterologous chimeras had differed significantly from those of homologous chimeras for 3 weeks prior to and 1 week following Week 7. We conclude that sublethal changes sustained by sperm in vivo from only 0.05 Gy of X irradiation can be inherited by the embryo as a proliferative disadvantage that becomes expressed if challenged by direct cell contact with an unirradiated embryo in an aggregation chimera.     

Aging and cerebral aminopeptidase activity

A comparative study of brain aminopeptidase activity between 18 month old male rats and young adults of 3 months has been carried out utilizing the arylamides Leu-, Arg-, Lys-, Tyr- and Asp-beta-naphthylamide as substrates. Statistical analysis of results showed no significant differences either in areas studied or for enzymatic activities detected when both ages were compared. Two different patterns of regional distribution of enzymatic activity were observed: One came to be as a result of the use of Lys-, Arg-, Leu- or Tyr-beta-naphthylamide and the other as a result of the use of Asp-beta-naphthylamide.