Fine root demography in alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.)

In perennial forages like alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.), repeated herbage removal may alter root production and mortality which, in turn, could affect deposition of fixed N in soil. Our objective was to determine the extent and patterns of fine-diameter root production and loss during the year of alfalfa stand establishment. The experiment was conducted on a loamy sand soil (Udorthentic Haploboroll) in Minnesota, USA, using horizontally installed minirhizotrons placed directly under the seeded rows at 10, 20, and 40 cm depths in four replicate blocks. We seeded four alfalfa germplasms that differed in N₂ fixation capacity and root system architecture: Agate alfalfa, a winter hardy commercially-available cultivar; Ineffective Agate, which is a non-N₂-fixing near isoline of Agate; a new germplasm that has few fibrous roots and strong tap-rooted traits; and a new germplasm that has many fibrous roots and a strongly branched root system architecture. Video images collected biweekly throughout the initial growing season were processed using C-MAP-ROOTS software.More than one-half of all fine roots in the upper 20 cm were produced during the first 7 weeks of growth. Root production was similar among germplasms, except that the highly fibrous, branch-rooted germplasm produced 29% more fine roots at 20 cm than other germplasms. In all germplasms, about 7% of the fine roots at each depth developed into secondarily thickened roots. By the end of the first growing season, greatest fine root mortality had occurred in the uppermost depth (48%), and least occurred at 40 cm (36%). Survival of contemporaneous root cohorts was not related to soil depth in a simple fashion, although all survivorship curves could be described using only five rates of exponential decline. There was a significant reduction in fine root mortality before the first herbage harvest, followed by a pronounced loss (average 22%) of fine roots at the 10- and 20-cm depths in the 2-week period following herbage removal. Median life spans of these early-season cohorts ranged from 58 to 131 days, based on fitted exponential equations. At all depths, fine roots produced in the 4 weeks before harvest (early- to mid-August) tended to have shorter median life spans than early-season cohorts. Similar patterns of fine root mortality did not occur at the second harvest. Germplasms differed in the pattern, but not the ultimate extent, of fine root mortality. Fine root turnover during the first year of alfalfa establishment in this experiment released an estimated 830 kg C ha^–1 and 60 kg N ha^–1, with no differences due to N₂ fixation capacity or root system architecture.     

Involvement of Activated Oxygen in Nitrate-Induced Senescence of Pea Root Nodules

The effect of short-term nitrate application (10 mM, 0-4 d) on nitrogenase (N2ase) activity, antioxidant defenses, and related parameters was investigated in pea (Pisum sativum L. cv Frilene) nodules. The response of nodules to nitrate comprised two stages. In the first stage (0-2 d), there were major decreases in N2ase activity and N2ase-linked respiration and concomitant increases in carbon cost of N2ase and oxygen diffusion resistance of nodules. There was no apparent oxidative damage, and the decline in N2ase activity was, to a certain extent, reversible. The second stage (>2 d) was typical of a senescent, essentially irreversible process. It was characterized by moderate increases in oxidized proteins and catalytic Fe and by major decreases in antioxidant enzymes and metabolites. The restriction in oxygen supply to bacteroids may explain the initial decline in N2ase activity. The decrease in antioxidant protection is not involved in this process and is not specifically caused by nitrate, since it also occurs with drought stress. However, comparison of nitrate- and drought-induced senescence shows an important difference: there is no lipid degradation or lipid peroxide accumulation with nitrate, indicating that lipid peroxidation is not necessarily involved in nodule senescence.     

Tissue-specific expression of an anti-ras ribozyme inhibits proliferation of human malignant melanoma cells.

In this study, we have compared the efficacy of a tissue-specific promoter (tyrosinase promoter) with a viral promoter to express anti-ras ribozyme RNA in human melanoma cells. The retroviral vector containing the tyrosinase promoter was superior in its ability to suppress the human melanoma phenotype in vitro as characterized by changes in growth, melanin synthesis, morphology and H-ras gene expression. These data support the use of tissue-specific expression of anti-oncogene ribozymes as a rational therapeutic strategy in human cancers.     

Is there an error correcting code in the base sequence in DNA?

Modern methods of encoding information into digital form include error check digits that are functions of the other information digits. When digital information is transmitted, the values of the error check digits can be computed from the information digits to determine whether the information has been received accurately. These error correcting codes make it possible to detect and correct common errors in transmission. The sequence of bases in DNA is also a digital code consisting of four symbols: A, C, G, and T. Does DNA also contain an error correcting code? Such a code would allow repair enzymes to protect the fidelity of nonreplicating DNA and increase the accuracy of replication. If a linear block error correcting code is present in DNA then some bases would be a linear function of the other bases in each set of bases. We developed an efficient procedure to determine whether such an error correcting code is present in the base sequence. We illustrate the use of this procedure by using it to analyze the lac operon and the gene for cytochrome c. These genes do not appear to contain such a simple error correcting code.     

Growth kinetics of Lactobacillus acidophilus under ohmic heating

Lactobacillus acidophilus OSU133 was inoculated into MRS broth in a fermenter vessel and incubated at 30, 35, or 45 degrees C with agitation. Incubation temperatures were attained by conventional or ohmic heating. An electrical current at low (15 V) or high (40 V) voltage was used to heat the culture directly during fermentations under ohmic heating. The growth parameters (lag period, minimum generation time, and maximum growth) and changes in pH were determined during fermentation. Metabolic activities (consumption of glucose and production of lactic acid and bacteriocin) were determined during fermentation at 35 degrees C under both heating methods. Lag period for L. acidophilus was affected appreciably by the method of heating, but the magnitude of these changes depended on the fermentation temperature. When fermentation was done at 30 degrees C, lag period decreased by 94% under low-voltage ohmic, compared with conventional, heating methods. Ohmic heating did not change the generation time significantly and caused slight, but significant (p < 0.01) decrease in maximum growth. Therefore, the electric current enhances the early stages, but it inhibits the late stages of growth. Ohmic, compared with conventional, heating resulted in higher final pH and lower bacteriocin activity in the fermented medium. However, ohmic heating at 35 degrees C had minimal effect on glucose utilization and lactic acid production by L. acidophilus. Results show that measurement of the electric current when ohmic heating is done at a constant voltage may be used in monitoring such fermentations. In conclusion, ohmic heating is potentially useful in certain applications related to fermented foods. (c) 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Homogeneous transport in a heterogeneous membrane: water diffusion across human stratum corneum in vivo.

The objective of this study was to determine whether a structurally heterogeneous biomembrane, human stratum corneum (SC), behaved as a homogeneous barrier to water transport. The question is relevant because the principal function of the SC in vivo is to provide a barrier to the insensible loss of tissue water across the skin. Impedance spectra (IS) of the skin and measurements of the rate of transepidermal water loss (TEWL) were recorded sequentially in vivo in human subjects as layers of the SC were progressively removed by the serial application of adhesive tape strips. The low-frequency (< or = 100 rad s-1) impedance of skin was much more significantly affected by tape stripping than the higher frequency values; removal of the outermost SC layer had the largest effect. In contrast, TEWL changed little as the outer SC layers were stripped off, but increased dramatically when 6-8 microns of the tissue had been removed. It follows that the two noninvasive techniques probe SC barrier integrity in somewhat different ways. After SC removal, recovery of barrier function, as assessed by increasing values of the low-frequency impedance, apparently proceeded faster than TEWL decreased to the prestripping control. The variation of TEWL as a function of SC removal behaved in a manner entirely consistent with a homogeneous barrier, thereby permitting the apparent SC diffusivity of water to be found. Skin impedance (low frequency) was correlated with the relative concentration of water within the SC, thus providing an in vivo probe for skin hydration. Finally, the SC permeability coefficient to water, as a function of SC thickness, was calculated and correlated with the corresponding values of skin admittance derived from IS.     

Micropipette suction for measuring piconewton forces of adhesion and tether formation from neutrophil membranes.

A new method for measuring piconewton-scale forces that employs micropipette suction is presented here. Spherical cells or beads are used directly as force transducers, and forces as small as 10-20 pN can be imposed. When the transducer is stationary in the pipette, the force is simply the product of the suction pressure and the cross-sectional area of the pipette minus a small correction for the narrow gap that exists between the transducer and the pipette wall. When the transducer is moving along the pipette, the force on it is corrected by a factor that is proportional to the ratio of its velocity relative to its drag-free velocity. With this technique, the minimum force required to form a membrane tether from neutrophils is determined (45 pN), and the length of the microvilli on the surface of neutrophils is inferred. The strength of this technique is in its simplicity and its ability to measure forces between cells without requiring a separate theory or a calibration against an external standard and without requiring the use of a solid surface.     

A Gene for Autosomal Dominant Congenital Nystagmus Localizes to 6p12

Congenital nystagmus is an idiopathic disorder characterized by bilateral ocular oscillations usually manifest during infancy. Vision is typically decreased due to slippage of images across the fovea. As such, visual acuity correlates with nystagmus intensity, which is the amplitude and frequency of eye movements at a given position of gaze. X-linked, autosomal dominant, and autosomal recessive pedigrees have been described, but no mapping studies have been published. We recently described a large pedigree with autosomal dominant congenital nystagmus. A genome-wide search resulted in six markers on 6p linked by two-point analysis at θ = 0 (D6S459, D6S452, D6S465, FTHP1, D6S257, D6S430). Haplotype analysis localizes the gene for autosomal dominant congenital motor nystagmus to an 18-cM region between D6S271 and D6S455.     

Production of δ-(l-α-aminoadipyl)-l-cysteinyl-d-valine by entrapped ACV-synthetase fromStreptomyces clavuligerus

Summary -(l--Aminoadipyl)-l-cysteinyl-d-valine (ACV)-synthetase fromStreptomyces clavuligerus was studied under conditions that enabled the reuse of the enzyme. Coupling of ACV-synthetase to DEAE-Trisacryl and aminopropyl-glass resulted in an immobilized enzyme product of little or no catalytic activity. However, an enzyme reactor was designed by physical confinement of partially-purified ACV-synthetase in an ultrafiltration cell. This system was stimulated by phosphoenolpyruvate at lower concentrations of ATP, an effect not observed with purified enzyme. Up to 30% conversion of the limiting substrate, cysteine, to ACV occurred under semi-continuous conditions. Reaction products were investigated as potential inhibitors: AMP was the most inhibitory, but only when used at concentrations in excess of those produced in reaction mixtures. Under a nitrogen atmosphere, both product and enzyme stabilities were greatly improved and the enzyme retained 45–46% of its initial activity after five uses at room temperature during a 24-h period. Extrapolations based on these data suggest that 1.3 g partially purified enzyme (0.13 U g^–1) would be capable of producing 411 mg of ACV in a 1-L reaction mixture in this period.