Peculiarities of somatovisceral reactions in early postnata ontogenesis

To reveal possible ways of the somatovisceral interaction, in the 0–5-day, 11–13-day and one-month-old rats, reactions of the spontaneous contractile activity of the gastric antrum were studied to a rhythmic stimulation of the tibial nerve for 30 s with frequency 30 imp/s and strength equal to 3–4 thresholds of the gastrocnemial muscle motor response. Only the stimulations of the central, but not of peripheral, nerve segments were effective, which indicates the reflex nature of the reactions. It has been established that in the process of development, a shift occurs of the predominantly inhibitory reactions to predominantly activating the gastric wall reactions. Similar data were obtained by skin pain stimulation in the region of the tail base. Thus, the age-dependent change of direction of the observed somatoautonomous reactions can be produced by stimulation of different high-threshold somatic afferents. The efferent pathway both of inhibitory and of stimulatory reactions is mediated mainly, but not exclusively, by the gastric branches of the vagus nerve, which is confirmed by consequences of vagotomy and of section of the splanchnic nerve. As a whole, the results of the study can suggest that one of possible pathways of effects of the skeletal muscle contraction on rhythmic activity of the gastrointenstinal tract can be activation of muscle receptors.     

Design and development of a series of borocycles as selective,covalent kallikrein 5 inhibitors

The connection between Netherton syndrome and overactivation of epidermal/dermal proteases, particularly Kallikrein 5 (KLK5) has been well established and it is expected that a KLK5 inhibitor would improve the dermal barrier and also reduce the pain and itch that afflict Netherton syndrome patients. One of the challenges of covalent protease inhibitors has been achieving selectivity over closely related targets. In this paper we describe the use of structural insight to design and develop a selective and highly potent reversibly covalent KLK5 inhibitor from an initial weakly binding fragment.     

Sorption of lysine by molecularly imprinted carboxyl sorbents

Tuned (molecularly imprinted) and nontuned, with respect to lysine amino acid, carboxylic heteroreticular sorbents based on methacrylic acid and ethylene glycol dimethacrylate, were synthesized. Study of sorption of lysine within wide pH range and ionic strength indicated significant dissimilarities in amino acid sorption by tuned sorbents, which were expressed as an increase in the contribution of nonionic interaction, and resulted in a decrease in the ionic strength effect on the sorption capacity, as well as an increase in amino acid sorption selectivity.     

Effect of Pine Callus Elicitation by the Fusarium Strains of Various Pathogenicity on the Content of Phenolic Compounds

Pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) callus culture was treated with the mycelium extracts from six Fusarium strains. Previously, pine seedlings were infected with a spore suspension in order to test the pathogenicity of the used strains. Callus culture infection resulted in a decrease in the free proanthocyanidin (PA) and an increase in bound PA content. After treating the calli with all strains except F. oxysporum var. orthoceras, the lignin content became lower than the control one. The most considerable changes involved the p-hydroxybenzoic acid (HBA) content, and its greatest change was observed after treating the calli with F. nivale, when the HBA concentration (1229 g/g dry wt) exceeded fourfold the control one. There was a positive correlation (R = 0.81) between the HBA content in the callus culture cells treated with a fungal extract and the virulence of Fusarium strains. At the same time, there was an inverse correlation (R = –0.80) between the lignin content in a callus culture and the fungal virulence; the latter did not affect the contents of both free and bound PA.     

Transgenic tobacco plants expressing Tarin 1 inhibit the growth of Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato and the development of Spodoptera frugiperda

The protein Tarin 1, from Colocasia esculenta, was expressed in Nicotiana tabacum. Bioassays were done on plants expressing Tarin 1 at different levels using Spodoptera frugiperda larvae, various bacteria and fungi and the root‐knot nematode Meloidogyne javanica. It was found that S. frugiperda larvae fed on transformed plants had retarded and lower pupation, lower accumulated biomass and higher mortality rate than larvae fed on control plants. Also, Tarin 1 was found to inhibit the growth in vitro of Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato. For Meloidogyne javanica, both relative replication and root damage were greater in control plants than in transformed plants, but the results were not statistically significant. This work illustrates the effects of plants expressing Tarin 1, on the growth and development of insects and bacteria, and shows its potential for pest management.     

Mechanisms of interaction between the parietal association and projection areas of the cat neocortex

Changes in evoked potentials in the first visual (VI), first somatic (SI), and parietal areas of the cortex during local cooling of each area were investigated under pentobarbital anesthesia. Two types of interaction were distinguished. Type I interaction was found in all areas in the early stages of local cooling and was reflected in a similar decrease in amplitude of evoked potentials in intact parts of the cortex. In the thalamic association nuclei — the pulvinar and posterolateral nucleus — somatic evoked potentials were unchanged but visual were transformed differently from those in the cortex. Type IIinteraction was found in the later stages of cooling and only between the association area and each of the projection areas. It was reflected in a greater change in amplitude of the evoked potentials and also in their configuration. In response to somatic stimulation in the early stage of type II interaction transformation of evoked potentials in the cortex took place sooner than in the nuclei; in the later stage it took place immediately after transformation of the "subcortical" evoked potentials. In response to photic stimulation transformations of cortical evoked potentials were always preceded by the corresponding transformations in the nuclei. It is suggested that type I interaction is formed by intercortical connections and type II by direct and subcortical relay connections. Differences in the role of the association area in interaction of types I and II when activated by stimuli of different modalities are discussed.Brain Institute, Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR, Moscow. Translated from Neirofiziologiya, Vol. 10, No. 6, pp. 573–581, November–December, 1978.     

卤虫染色体倍性组成的研究

本文报道了我国4个地理品系卤虫的染色体倍性组成及卵径分布,分析了卤虫染色体的非整倍性,讨论了卤虫种的分布。 天津卤虫有2倍体(2n=42),占33.3％和5倍体,占16.2％;染色体数的波动为21—108;卵径为262±17μm。 海南卤虫有2倍体(2n=42),占8％;4倍体,占17.7％;5倍体,占18.3％;染色体数的波动为16—111;卵径为285±15μm。 新疆卤虫有2倍体(2n=42),占39.2％;染色体数的波动为17—106;卵径为269±15μm。 山西卤虫有2倍体(2n=42),占45.1％,染色体数的波动为17—84;卵径为234±13μm。     

Misfolded forms of glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase interact with GroEL and inhibit chaperonin-assisted folding of the wild-type enzyme

We studied the interaction of chaperonin GroEL with different misfolded forms of tetrameric phosphorylating glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH): (1) GAPDH from rabbit muscles with all SH-groups modified by 5,5'-dithiobis(2-nitrobenzoate); (2) O-R-type dimers of mutant GAPDH from Bacillus stearothermophilus with amino acid substitutions Y283V, D282G, and Y283V/W84F, and (3) O-P-type dimers of mutant GAPDH from B. stearothermophilus with amino acid substitutions Y46G/S48G and Y46G/R52G. It was shown that chemically modified GAPDH and the O-R-type mutant dimers bound to GroEL with 1:1 stoichiometry and dissociation constants K(d) of 0.4 and 0.9 muM, respectively. A striking feature of the resulting complexes with GroEL was their stability in the presence of Mg-ATP. Chemically modified GAPDH and the O-R-type mutant dimers inhibited GroEL-assisted refolding of urea-denatured wild-type GAPDH from B. stearothermophilus but did not affect its spontaneous reactivation. In contrast to the O-R-dimers, the O-P-type mutant dimers neither bound nor affected GroEL-assisted refolding of the wild-type GAPDH. Thus, we suggest that interaction of GroEL with certain types of misfolded proteins can result in the formation of stable complexes and the impairment of chaperonin activity.