Enzymatic analysis of the requirement for sodium in aerobic growth of Salmonella typhimurium on citrate

Na(+) was required for the aerobic growth of Salmonella typhimurium on citrate, but not on l-malate, glucose, or glycerol. The maximal growth rate and the maximal total growth occurred with 6 to 7 mm Na(+). Na(+) could not be replaced by K(+), NH(4) (+), Li(+), Rb(+), or Cs(+). Sonically treated extracts of citrate-grown cells contained the enzymes of the citrate fermentation pathway (citritase and oxalacetate decarboxylase) and all of the enzymes of the citric acid cycle. Thus, two separate routes of citrate catabolism appeared to be operational in the cells. Two discrete oxalacetate (OAA) decarboxylases were also demonstrated. One was of the "classic" type, being activated by Mn(++) and inhibited by ethylenediaminetetracetate (EDTA). It was present in the cell sap. The second decarboxylase closely resembled the Na(+)-activated OAA decarboxylase of citrate-grown Aerobacter aerogenes, whose growth also requires, or is increased, by Na(+). This decarboxylase was EDTA-insensitive, specifically activated by Na(+) and inhibited by avidin, and it had a high affinity for OAA. It was induced by growth on citrate, but not l-malate or glycerol. It is suggested that the Na(+) requirement for growth reflects the need to activate this OAA decarboxylase as a component of the citrate fermentation pathway and that citrate catabolism via the citric acid cycle, which should be independent of Na(+), is somehow dependent upon the activity of the Na(+)-activated enzyme.     

Tetracycline bone labeling in anatomy

Tetracyclines are deposited in vivo at centers of active bone formation, and can be seen by fluorescence microscopic examination of undecalcified bone sections. With this marker, the rate of bone formation at the level of the osteon can be measured, and is taken to indicate the speed of bone formation at the level of the osteoblast. When the number of bone-forming centers is then counted, it becomes possible to compute: (1) the number of new centers initiated per unit time, which number is taken to indicate the number of new osteoblasts created from the osteoprogenitor cell (mesenchymal cell) pool; (2) the rate of bone formation averaged over the whole sample, which is the form of protein anabolism characteristic of bone. Therefore the tetracycline-labeling technique permits the quantitative analysis of skeletal growth, as well as the maintenance of the mature skeleton, in terms of tissue dynamics and cell population dynamics. Of major importance in the design of future studies is the frequent finding that abnormalities in the rate of bone formation over the whole tissue may be the opposite of abnormalities in the rate of bone formation at the level of the osteoblast. This situation can exist because osteoprogenitor cell behavior can – and frequently does – produce major changes in the total number of functional osteoblasts, changes which do not correlate with changes in the behavior of individual osteoblasts.     

Properties of Kaurene Synthetase from Marah macrocarpus

The kaurene synthetase from immature seeds of Marah macrocarpus (Greene) Greene was partially purified from cell-free homogenates of endosperm by a combination of QAE-Sephadex A-25 chromatography and hydroxyapatite chromatography and freed of contaminating phosphatase activity. The two catalytic activities associated with kaurene synthetase, the cyclization of geranylgeranyl-pyrophosphate to copalyl-pyrophosphate (activity A) and the cyclization of copalyl-pyrophosphate to ent-kaurene (activity B), were not even partially resolved from one another during these procedures. Both activities had identical elution profiles from a calibrated Sepharose 4B column corresponding to a molecular weight less than that of ovalbumin (45,000).     

Automatic cell identification and enrichment in lung cancer. II. Acridine orange for cell sorting of sputum.

Fluorescence spectra were obtained from cells from sputum and pleural effusions stained with different fluorescent dyes and fixed by alternate methods. The spectra were referenced to a standard allowing for fluorescence comparisons of unstained and stained cells under various conditions. The metachromasia of acridine orange-stained cells offers nuclear/cytoplasmic differentiation in a single stain; mithramycin and propidium iodide do not. Unstained cells have an appreciable amount of green (546 nm) fluorescence, as does Carbowax in Saccomanno's preservative. Cytoplasm stained with acidine orange also has appreciable green fluorescence. Consequently, cells with much cytoplasm have high total fluorescence. Cytoplasmic fluorescence is negligible with mithramycin or propidium iodide. The metachromasia of acridine orange-stained cells is altered by alcohol and Carbowax levels in fixatives, keeping other factors constant.     

Automatic cell identification and enrichment in lung cancer. III. Light scatter and two fluorescence parameters.

Two fluorescence parameters and size are used in a flow through system to enrich sputum specimens for cancer cells. Human cells in sputum which are stained with acridine orange show a characteristic distribution of red and green fluorescence from which cancer cells can be localized. The peak enrichment is obtained by selectively sorting cells with the largest values of red and green fluorescence. Cancer cells located in other distribution regions having smaller fluorescence intensities show progressively diminished nuclear and cytoplasmic tinctorial features by Papanicolaou stain, consistent with the decreased intensity of red and green fluorescence.     

Cation pretreatment effects on nitrate uptake, xylem exudate, and malate levels in wheat seedlings

Week-old wheat seedlings absorbed at least 40% NO₃⁻ from NaNO₃ when preloaded with K⁺ than when preloaded with Na⁺ or Ca²⁺. Cultures of Triticum vulgare L. cv. Arthur were grown for 5 days on 0.2 mm CaSO₄, pretreated for 48 hours with either 1 mm CaSO₄, K₂SO₄, or Na₂SO₄, and then transferred to 1 mm NaNO₃. All solutions contained 0.2 mm CaSO₄. Shoots of K⁺-preloaded plants accumulated three times more NO₃⁻ than shoots of the other two treatments. Initially, the K⁺-preloaded plants contained 10-fold more malate than either Na⁺- or Ca²⁺-preloaded seedlings. During the 48-hour treatment with NaNO₃, malate in both roots and shoots of the K⁺-preloaded seedlings decreased. Seedlings preloaded with K⁺ reduced 25% more NO₃⁻ than those preloaded with either Na⁺ or Ca²⁺. These experiments indicate that K⁺ enhanced NO₃⁻ uptake and reduction even though the absorption of K⁺ and NO₃⁻ were separated in time. Xylem exudate of K⁺-pretreated plants contained roughly equivalent concentrations of K⁺ and NO₃⁻, but exudate from Na⁺ and Ca²⁺-pretreated plants contained two to four times more NO₃⁻ than K⁺. Therefore K⁺ is not an obligatory counterion for NO₃⁻ transport in xylem.     

Relationship between the tonB locus and iron transport in Escherichia coli.

When a strain (arcB-) of Escherichia coli, unable to synthesize the iron transport compound enterochelin, was transduced to tonB-, it became resistant to phage phi80 and simultaneously lost the growth response to enterochelin and the ability to transport its iron complex. However, enterochelin precursors (shikimate and 2,3-dihydroxybenzoate) still supported growth, via the synthesis of enterochelin. Dihydroxybenzoate was a better growth factor at a low concentration than it was at higher levels. The evidence suggests that tonB- strains lack an outer membrane component necessary both for the uptake of ferric-enterochelin and for the adsorption of phage phi80. Thus, although ferric-enterochelin cannot penetrate the cell surface from outside, the complex that is formed within the envelope is transported normally into the cell. The aroB-, tonB- mutant also lacked growth reponses to citrate and various hydroxamate siderochromes, which supported growth in the tonB+ parent strain via inducible transport systems for their ferric complexes. The aroB-, tonB- mutant was unable to transport iron in the presence of citrate, but the low-affinity uptake of uncomplexed iron and the transport of amino acids and phosphate were unimpaired. The tonB locus, thus, affects all the known active transport systems for iron, possibly indicating that they share some common outer membrane component.     

Nature of the Carbohydrate and Phosphate Associated with ColB2 and EDP208 Pilin

Studies were carried out to elucidate the nature of phosphate and sugar linkages to F-like conjugative pili encoded by the ColB2Fdr (compatibility group FII) and EDP208 (compatibility group FV) plasmids. Both types of pili, when in the intact undissociated state, were found to contain approximately 3 mol of phosphate and 3 mol of sugar per mol of pilin. However, further purification of the two types of pilin by gel filtration chromatography in the presence of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) removed all of the carbohydrate from EDP208 pilin and approximately 65% of the carbohydrate from ColB2 pilin. Approximately 0.8 to 1.0 mol of glucose per mol of protein remained associated with ColB2 pilin after SDS gel filtration chromatography, but it was not possible to determine whether this was covalently linked to the pilin, or tightly associated in an SDS-resistant manner. SDS-gel chromatography did not remove phosphate from either ColB2 or EDP208 pilins. ³¹P nuclear magnetic resonance studies indicated that the pilin-associated phosphate is involved in a phosphodiester linkage. Acetone precipitation or chloroform-methanol extraction of the purified pilin material reduced the phosphate associated with EDP208 pilin to less than 0.04 molecule per pilin monomer. ColB2 pilin, under the same conditions, retained approximately 0.5 phosphate per pilin monomer. The extracted phosphate-containing moieties were identified as phosphatidylglycerol and phosphatidylethanolamine by thin-layer chromatography. Since the ³¹P nuclear magnetic resonance spectra for both ColB2 and EDP208 were identical and no signal other than that of a phosphodiester was detected in the ColB2 spectrum, the phosphate remaining with the ColB2 pilin after chloroform-methanol extraction is most likely due to a tightly bound noncovalent residue.