Characterization of a Trypanosoma cruzi C3 binding protein with functional and genetic similarities to the human complement regulatory protein, decay-accelerating factor.

Evasion of the complement system by microorganisms is an essential event in the establishment of infection. In the case of Trypanosoma cruzi, the causative agent of Chagas disease, resistance to complement-mediated lysis is a developmentally regulated characteristic. Infectious trypomastigotes are resistant to complement-mediated lysis in the absence of immune antibodies, whereas the insect forms (epimastigotes) are sensitive to lysis via the alternative complement pathway. We have purified a developmentally regulated, trypomastigote glycoprotein, gp160, and shown that it has complement regulatory activity. The T. cruzi gp160 restricts complement activation by binding the complement component C3b and inhibiting C3 convertase formation. The protein is anchored in the parasite membrane via a glycosyl phosphatidylinositol linkage, similar to the human complement regulatory protein, decay-accelerating factor. Using anti-gp160 antibodies we have isolated a bacteriophage lgt11 clone expressing a portion of the gp160 gene that shares significant DNA sequence homology with the human DAF gene. These results provide functional, biochemical, and genetic evidence that the T. cruzi gp160 is a member of the C3/C4 binding family of complement regulatory proteins, and that gp160 may provide the infectious trypomastigotes with a means of evading the destructive effects of complement.     

Interaction between advancing ice fronts and erythrocytes

It can be shown theoretically and experimentally that in purely aqueous suspension, cells (as well as microsolutes) areexcluded by advancing freezing fronts. This puts the cells under considerable osmotic stress and may be considered to be the major source of cell destruction upon freezing. It is also shown theoretically and experimentally that in aqueous suspensions, admixed with appropriate concentrations of a cryoprotectant (e.g., glycerol), cells areengulfed by advancing freezing fronts: Under such conditions, cells do not undergo any osmotic stress and remain undamaged when frozen. The influence of various common cryoprotectants is discussed, as is the reason why penetrating as well as nonpenetrating agents can be equally effective cryoprotective agents. The reason why leukocytes require lower cryoprotectant concentrations than erythrocytes is also elucidated.     

Calcium in bacteria: a solution to which problem?

Calcium and calcium-binding proteins including those resembling calmodulin are implicated in numerous diverse processes in bacteria. These processes include chemotaxis, sporulation, virulence, the transport of sugars and proteins, phosphorylation, heat shock, the initiation of DNAS replication, septation, nucleoid structure, nuclease activity and recombination, the stability of the envelope, and phospholipids synthesis and configuration. That such varied processes should have a common factor, calcium, suggests major underlying principles of calcium metabolism metabolism which have yet to be discovered.     

Segmentation and the development of the vertebrate nervous system

1. Recent experiments on the development of neural segmentation in chick embryos are reviewed. 2. Segmentation of the spinal peripheral nerves is governed by a subdivision of the somite-derived sclerotome into anterior and posterior halves. Migrating neural crest cells and outgrowing motor axons are confined to the anterior sclerotome as a result, in part, of inhibitory interactions with posterior sclerotome cells. 3. The sclerotomal distribution of certain molecules known to influence growing nerve cells in vitro, namely laminin, fibronectin, N-CAM, N-Cadherin and J1/tenascin/cytotactin, suggest that these molecules play no critical role in determining the preference of nerve cells for anterior sclerotome. 4. Peanut agglutinin (PNA) recognises cell surface-associated components on posterior cells which, when incorporated into liposomes, cause the abrupt collapse of sensory growth cones in vitro. The PNA receptor(s) may be inhibitory for nerve cells in vivo. 5. The chick hindbrain epithelium is segmented early in its development. Each branchiomotor nucleus in the series of cranial nerves V, VII and IX derives from a pair of segments lying in register with an adjacent branchial arch. Neurogenesis of motor and reticular axons begins in alternate segments, suggesting parallels with insect pattern formation.     

The relation between nitrogen percent and dry weight of inoculated legumes

Summary Results of numerous tests of tropical and temperate legume hosts and Rhizobium strains accumulated between 1952 and 1966 were examined for a relation between N percent (y) and dry weight per plant (x). The data fitted the equation y=A–be^–cx. The most effective Rhizobium strains can be selected on the basis of dry matter yields of whole plants or plant tops only, without the need for N analyses, using statistical analyses. A previously proposed method which employs the linear relation between N-yield and dry matter yield was shown to apply only when data for strains which are not fully effective are excluded.It is postulated that symbiotically fixed N forms a different compound from that resulting from applied mineral N and that this compound cannot be remobilised before flowering.deceased     

Evidence for the localization of chlorophyll in lipid vesicles: a spin label study.

Fatty acid spin labels containing nitroxide groups at different positions in the fatty acid chain have been incorporated into lipid vesicles. Changes in esr parameters of the spin labels in the presence in the membrane of phytol, propionic acid phytol ester or chlorophyll $\text{a}$ and the kinetics of chlorophyll $\text{a}$ mediated photodestruction of the spin labels suggest a localization of the macrocyclic ring of the chlorophyll molecule in the polar head group region of the membrane.