SOME HISTOCHEMICAL,ULTRASTRUCTURAL, AND NUTRITIONAL ASPECTS OF THE OVULE OF QUERCUS GAMBELII

Histochemical analyses of the ovule of Quercus gambelii show that the major food reserves (starch grains and lipids) are located almost exclusively within the outer integument. Vascular traces are present only within this integument which contains numerous, well-developed plasmodesmata. The inner integument is virtually devoid of any food reserves and has very few plasmodesmata. The ovule has a persistent chalazal extension of residual nucellar cells (called the postament) which projects into the embryo sac. Due to the above information and the fact that the synergids rarely contain starch and no plasmodesmata are present in the walls of any of the cells of the egg apparatus (Mogensen, 1972), it is concluded that the synergids play little or no role in embryo sac nutrition. Rather, it is proposed that the pathway of available food materials in the young ovule is from the outer integument to the chalaza and through the postament into the embryo sac.     

Microalbuminuria as predictor of increased mortality in elderly people.

OBJECTIVE--Correlation of the urinary albumin excretion rate and the risk of death among elderly subjects. DESIGN--216 Subjects aged 60-74 whose urinary albumin excretion rate had been determined were followed up 62-83 months later. SETTING--Municipality of Fredericia, Denmark. SUBJECTS--223 People who had been selected as control subjects for diabetics found during a systematic screening for diabetes of all people aged 60-74 living in the municipality of Fredericia, Denmark. Of these subjects, 216 had an extensive clinical and biochemical examination within a few weeks of selection. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE--Death. RESULTS--The median urinary albumin excretion rate was 7.52 micrograms/min. Eight of those with a rate below the median died compared with 23 with a rate equal to or greater than the median (p = 0.0078). The median albumin excretion rate in the 31 who died was 15.00 micrograms/min. Cardiovascular disease was the most common cause of death in both groups. A multivariate regression analysis of survival data was performed using the proportional hazards model. Besides albumin excretion rate, male sex, serum creatinine concentration, and hypertension were found to be of prognostic value. CONCLUSIONS--The association between the albumin excretion rate and mortality that has been described in recent years in patients with diabetes mellitus may be present in elderly people in general, even when other known risk factors are taken into account.     

Microtubule polarities indicate that nucleation and capture of microtubules occurs at cell surfaces in Drosophila

Hook decoration with pig brain tubulin was used to assess the polarity of microtubules which mainly have 15 protofilaments in the transcellular bundles of late pupal Drosophila wing epidermal cells. The microtubules make end-on contact with cell surfaces. Most microtubules in each bundle exhibited a uniform polarity. They were oriented with their minus ends associated with their hemidesmosomal anchorage points at the apical cuticle-secreting surfaces of the cells. Plus ends were directed towards, and were sometimes connected to, basal attachment desmosomes at the opposite ends of the cells. The orientation of microtubules at cell apices, with minus ends directed towards the cell surface, is opposite to the polarity anticipated for microtubules which have elongated centrifugally from centrosomes. It is consistent, however, with evidence that microtubule assembly is nucleated by plasma membrane-associated sites at the apical surfaces of the cells (Mogensen, M. M., and J. B. Tucker. 1987. J. Cell Sci. 88:95-107) after these cells have lost their centriole-containing, centrosomal, microtubule-organizing centers (Tucker, J. B., M. J. Milner, D. A. Currie, J. W. Muir, D. A. Forrest, and M.-J. Spencer. 1986. Eur. J. Cell Biol. 41:279-289). Our findings indicate that the plus ends of many of these apically nucleated microtubules are captured by the basal desmosomes. Hence, the situation may be analogous to the polar-nucleation/chromosomal-capture scheme for kinetochore microtubule assembly in mitotic and meiotic spindles. The cell surface-associated nucleation-elongation-capture mechanism proposed here may also apply during assembly of transcellular microtubule arrays in certain other animal tissue cell types.     

Long-term effects of ungulates on phytophagous insects

Abstract.  1. Most plants interact with a diverse suite of herbivores, allowing the opportunity for the existence of positive and negative interactions between highly dissimilar organisms. However, most studies on herbivorous interactions have been performed under the assumption that they occur mainly between similar species. Consequently, ecologists are still far from a full understanding of the ecological factors that determine insect population dynamics.
2. In this study, a 7-year field experiment was conducted that manipulated the presence of ungulates to evaluate their effects on the abundance, attack rate, and survival of four guilds of co-occurring herbivorous insects living on the same host plant: seed predators, stem borers, gall makers and sap suckers. These four guilds differed in habits and behaviour, the first three being sessile and endophytic and the last being free-living.
3. This study shows that the abundance of all four guilds was negatively affected by ungulates. However, the effect on attack rate differed among guilds, as mammals do not affect the seed predator attack rate. Ungulates also differentially affected insect survival, ingesting only seed predators and gall makers.
4. In summary, this study suggests that diverse mechanisms may affect different insect guilds in different ways. Therefore, competition between disparate herbivores appears to be complex and can be provoked by multiple mechanisms.     

Antisense RNA decreases AP33 gene expression and cytoadherence by <Emphasis Type="Italic">T. vaginalis</Emphasis>

Background  

Host parasitism by Trichomonas vaginalis is complex. Adherence to vaginal epithelial cells (VECs) is mediated by surface proteins. We showed before that antisense down-regulation of expression of adhesin AP65 decreased amounts of protein, which lowered levels of T. vaginalis adherence to VECs. We now perform antisense down-regulation of expression of the ap33 gene to evaluate and confirm a role for AP33 in adherence by T. vaginalis. We also used an established transfection system for heterologous expression of AP33 in T. foetus as an additional confirmatory approach.     

A structural study on the mode of action of CHATM Chemical Hybridizing Agent in wheat

Summary This study has compared mature pollen grains while still in the anther, as well as post-pollination responses, from untreated and CHA^TM Chemical Hybridizing Agent-treated wheat plants using light (bright-field, phase-contrast, and fluorescence), scanning, and transmission electron microscopy. The chemical, azetidine-3-carboxylic acid (A3C), was applied at three treatment levels of 0.75, 1.0 and 1.5 kg/ha for the mature pollen investigations. It was found that the major effect of A3C on mature pollen is an alteration of the wall precursor vesicles (wp-vesicles), which form a high proportion of the contents of the mature grass pollen grain. The degree of deformation of the wp-vesicles is dose dependent. There is some evidence that increased aggregations of ribosomes are formed in treated pollen cytoplasm. Pollination studies (all at a treatment level of 1.0 kg/ha) show that, in most cases, the treated pollen does not germinate, and a high percentage of the pollen grains burst (60% burst grains in treated material compared to 28% in controls). In about 20% of the cases from treated plants, a short pollen tube forms, but no tubes were seen to grow far enough to enter the stigma hairs of the pistil. Thus, A3C does not act by preventing pollen formation, but by the prevention of normal pollen tube growth. There appears to be a specific targeting of the wp-vesicles such that, even in cases where the ultra-structure of the vesicles is not altered, the normal course of events leading to the incorporation of their contents into the extending tube wall is arrested. Further studies must be undertaken to determine the significance of the effect of CHA^TM Chemical Hybridizing Agent on wp-vesicle composition.     

Murine model of dextran sulfate sodium-induced colitis reveals Candida glabrata virulence and contribution of β-mannosyltransferases

Candida glabrata, like Candida albicans, is an opportunistic yeast pathogen that has adapted to colonize all segments of the human gastrointestinal tract and vagina. The C. albicans cell wall expresses β-1,2-linked mannosides (β-Mans), promoting its adherence to host cells and tissues. Because β-Mans are also present in C. glabrata, their role in C. glabrata colonization and virulence was investigated in a murine model of dextran sulfate sodium (DSS)-induced colitis. Five clustered genes of C. glabrata encoding β-mannosyltransferases, BMT2-BMT6, were deleted simultaneously. β-Man expression was studied by Western blotting, flow cytometry, and NMR analysis. Mortality, clinical, histologic, and colonization scores were determined in mice receiving DSS and different C. glabrata strains. The results show that C. glabrata bmt2-6 strains had a significant reduction in β-1,2-Man expression and a disappearance of β-1,2-mannobiose in the acid-stable domain. A single gavage of C. glabrata wild-type strain in mice with DSS-induced colitis caused a loss of body weight, colonic inflammation, and mortality. Mice receiving C. glabrata bmt2-6 mutant strains had normal body weight and reduced colonic inflammation. Lower numbers of colonies of C. glabrata bmt2-6 were recovered from stools and different parts of the gastrointestinal tract. Histopathologic examination revealed that the wild-type strain had a greater ability to colonize tissue and cause tissue damage. These results showed that C. glabrata has a high pathogenic potential in DSS-induced colitis, where β-Mans contribute to colonization and virulence.