Oxonol dyes as monitors of membrane potential. Their behavior in photosynthetic bacteria

The responses of oxonol dyes to single and multiple single turnovers of the photosynthetic apparatus of photosynthetic bacteria have been studied, and compared with the responses of the endogenous carotenoid pigments. The absorbance changes of the oxonols can be conveniently measured at 587 nm, because this is an isosbestic point in the ‘light-minus-dark’ difference spectrum of the chromatophores.The oxonols appear to respond to the light-induced ‘energization’ by shifting their absorption maxima. In the presence of K⁺, valinomycin abolished and nigericin enhanced such shifts, suggesting that the dyes respond to the light-induced membrane potential. Since the dyes are anions at neutral pH values, they probably distribute across the membrane in accordance with the potential, which is positive inside the chromatophores. The accumulation of dye, which is indicated by a decrease in the carotenoid bandshift, poises the dye-membrane equilibrium in favor of increased dye binding and this might be the cause of the spectral shift.The dye response has an apparent second-order rate constant of approx. 2 · 10⁶ M^?1 · s^?1 and so is always slower than the carotenoid bandshift. Thus the dyes cannot be used to monitor membrane potential on submillisecond timescales. Nevertheless, on a timescale of seconds the logarithm of the absorbance change at 587 nm is linear with respect to the membrane potential calibrated with the carotenoid bandshift. This suggests that under appropriate conditions the dyes can be used with confidence as indicators of membrane potential in energy-transducing membranes that do not posses intrinsic probes of potential.     

Immunoprophylaxis of respiratory syncytial virus infection in the infant ferret.

Infant ferrets can be protected from respiratory syncytical virus challenge at 3 days of age by gestational infection of their mothers. Ferrets acquire their immunity to respiratory syncytial virus postpartum via immunizing products of lactation. The level of protection against viral replication correlates with the maternal serum neutralizing titer or a concomitant factor. Passive administration of adult ferret serum with a neutralizing titer of 1:1024 or greater, either i.p. or orally does not confer immunity. A nonantibody-mediated protective mechanism appears to play an important role in protecting the infant ferret from respiratory syncytial virus replication. Our findings allow the testing of the efficacy of future human vaccines before human clinical trial.     

MULTIPLE FORMS OF CHOLINE ACETYLTRANSFERASE AND THE HIGH AFFINITY UPTAKE OF CHOLINE IN BRAIN OF DEVELOPING AND ADULT RATS

The multiple molecular forms of choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) were analysed during the postnatal development of rat brain. Changes in the sodium-dependent, high affinity uptake of [³H]choline (HAUC) and in the efficiency of conversion of labelled choline into ACh in vitro were also examined. Both mature and 7-day old brain contained three molecular forms of ChAT, with isoelectric points of pH 7.3, 7.9 and 8.3, but the immature brain appeared to contain smaller concentrations of the most basic form of the enzyme (pI = 8.3). Of the total choline uptake measured in slices of frontal cortex, adult samples exhibited a greater proportion of HAUC than 7-day samples and appeared to acetylate more efficiently the [³H]choline accumulated by high affinity uptake. This evidence suggests a basic molecular form of ChAT, appearing in rat brain during postnatal development, might be responsible for the efficient coupling of the high affinity uptake and subsequent acetylation of choline in cholinergic nerve terminals.     

Single and multiple turnover reactions in the ubiquinone-cytochrome b-c2 oxidoreductase of Rhodopseudomonas sphaeroides. The physical chemistry of the major electron donor to cytochrome c2, and its coupled reactions

We have examined the thermodynamic properties of the physiological electron donor to ferricytochrome c₂ in chromatophores from the photosynthetic bacterium Rhodopseudomonas sphaeroides. This donor (Z), which is capable of reducing the ferri-cytochrome with a halftime of 1–2 ms under optimal conditions, has an oxidation-reduction midpoint potential of close to 150 mV at pH 7.0, and apparently requires two electrons and two protons for its equilibrium reduction.

The state of reduction of Z, which may be a quinone · protein complex near the inner (cytochrome c₂) side of the membrane, appears to govern the rate at which the cyclic photosynthetic electron transport system can operate. If Z is oxidized prior to the flash-oxidation of cytochrome c₂, the re-reduction of the cytochrome takes hundreds of milliseconds and no third phase of the carotenoid bandshift occurs. In contrast if Z is reduced before flash activation, the cytochrome is rereduced within milliseconds and the third phase of the carotenoid bandshift occurs. The prior reduction of Z also has a dramatic effect on the uncoupler sensitivity of the rate of electron flow; if it is oxidized prior to activation, uncoupler can stimulate the cytochrome re-reduction after several turnovers by less than tenfold, but if it is reduced prior to activation, the stimulation after several turnovers can be as dramatic as a thousandfold. The results suggest that Z plays a central role in controlling electron and proton movements in the ubiquinone cytochrome b-c₂ oxido-reductase.     

Effect of reduction of the reaction center intermediate upon the picosecond oxidation reaction of the bacteriochlorophyll dimer in Chromatium vinosum and Rhodopseudomonas viridis

The photo-oxidation of the reaction center bacteriochlorophyll dimer or special pair was monitored at 1235 nm in Chromatium vinosum and at 1301 nm in Rhodopseudomonas viridis. In both species, the photo-oxidation was apparently complete within 10 ps after light excitation and proceeded unimpeded at low temperatures regardless of the prior state of reduction of the traditional primary electron acceptor, a quinone-iron complex. Thus the requirement for an intermediary electron carrier (I), previously established by picosecond measurements in Rps. sphaeroides (see ref. 4), is clearly a more general phenomenon.

The intermediary carrier, which involves bacteriopheophytin, was examined from the standpoint of its role as the direct electron acceptor from the photo-excited reaction center bacteriochlorophyll dimer. To accomplish this, the extent of light induced bacteriochlorophyll dimer oxidation was measured directly by the picosecond response of the infrared bands and indirectly by EPR assay of the triplet/biradical, as a function of the state of reduction of the I/I couple (measured by EPR) prior to activation. Two independent methods of obtaining I in a stably reduced form were used: chemical equilibrium reduction, and photochemical reduction. In both cases, the results demonstrated that the intermediary carrier, which we designate I, alone governs the capability for reaction center bacteriochlorophyll photooxidation, and as such I appears to be the immediate and sole electron acceptor from the light excited reaction center bacteriochlorophyll dimer.     

Spectroscopic properties of the intermediary electron carrier in the reaction center of Rhodopseudomonas viridis evidence for its interaction with the primary acceptor

The spectroscopic properties of the intermediary electron carrier (I), which functions between the bacteriochlorophyll dimer, (BChl)₂, and the primary acceptor quinone · iron, QFe, have been characterized in Rhodopseudomonas viridis. Optically the reduction of I is accompanied by a bleaching of bands at 545 and 790 nm and a broad absorbance increase around 680 nm which we attribute to the reduction of a bacteriopheophytin, together with apparent blue shifts of the bacteriochlorophyll bands at 830 and possibly at 960 nm. Low temperature electron paramagnetic resonance analysis also reveals complicated changes accompanying the reduction of I. In chromatophores I? is revealed as a broad split signal centered close to g 2.003, which is consistent with I? interacting, via exchange coupling and dipolar effects, with the primary acceptor Q?Fe. This is supported by experiments with reaction centers prepared with sodium dodecyl sulfate, which lack the Q?Fe g 1.82 signal, and also lack the broad split I? signal; instead, I? is revealed as an approximately 13 gauss wide free radical centered close to g 2.003. Reaction centers prepared using lauryl dimethylamine N-oxide retain most of their Q?Fe g 1.82 signal, and in this case I? occurs as a mixture of the two EPR signals described above. However, the optical changes accompanying the reduction of I? are very similar in the two reaction center preparations, so we conclude that there is no direct correlation between the two optical and the two EPR signals of I?. Perhaps the simplest explanation of the results is that the two EPR signals reflect the reduced bacteriopheophytin either interacting, or not interacting, with Q?Fe, while the optical changes reflect the reduction of bacteriophenophytin, together with secondary, perhaps electrochromic effects on the bacteriochlorophylls of the reaction center. However, we are unable to eliminate completely the possibility that there is also some electron sharing between the reduced bacteriopheophytin and bacteriochlorophyll.     

Selective metal binding to Cys-78 within endonuclease V causes an inhibition of catalytic activities without altering nontarget and target DNA binding

T4 endonuclease V is a pyrimidine dimer-specific DNA repair enzyme which has been previously shown not to require metal ions for either of its two catalytic activities or its DNA binding function by virtue of its ability to function in the presence of metal-chelating agents. However, we have investigated whether the single cysteine within the enzyme was able to bind metal salts and influence the various activities of this repair enzyme. A series of metals (Hg2+, Ag+, Cu+) were shown to inactivate both endonuclease Vs pyrimidine dimer-specific DNA glycosylase activity and the subsequent apurinic nicking activity. The binding of metal to endonuclease V did not interfere with nontarget DNA scanning or pyrimidine dimer-specific binding. The Cys-78 codon within the endonuclease V gene was changed by oligonucleotide site-directed mutagenesis to Thr-78 and Ser-78 in order to determine whether the native cysteine was directly involved in the enzyme's DNA catalytic activities and whether the cysteine was primarily responsible for the metal binding. The mutant enzymes were able to confer enhanced ultraviolet light (UV) resistance to DNA repair-deficient Escherichia coli at levels equal to that conferred by the wild type enzyme. The C78T mutant enzyme was purified to homogeneity and shown to be catalytically active on pyrimidine dimer-containing DNA. The catalytic activities of the C78T mutant enzyme were demonstrated to be unaffected by the addition of Hg2+ or Ag+ at concentrations 1000-fold greater than that required to inhibit the wild type enzyme. These data suggest that the cysteine is not required for enzyme activity but that the binding of certain metals to that amino acid block DNA incision by either preventing a conformational change in the enzyme after it has bound to a pyrimidine dimer or sterically interfering with the active site residue's accessibility to the pyrimidine dimer.     

The primary structure of NG2, a novel membrane-spanning proteoglycan

The complete primary structure of the core protein of rat NG2, a large, chondroitin sulfate proteoglycan expressed on O2A progenitor cells, has been determined from cDNA clones. These cDNAs hybridize to an mRNA species of 8.9 kbp from rat neural cell lines. The total contiguous cDNA spans 8,071 nucleotides and contains an open reading frame for 2,325 amino acids. The predicted protein is an integral membrane protein with a large extracellular domain (2,224 amino acids), a single transmembrane domain (25 amino acids), and a short cytoplasmic tail (76 amino acids). Based on the deduced amino acid sequence and immunochemical analysis of proteolytic fragments of NG2, the extracellular region can be divided into three domains: an amino terminal cysteine-containing domain which is stabilized by intrachain disulfide bonds, a serine-glycine-containing domain to which chondroitin sulfate chains are attached, and another cysteine-containing domain. Four internal repeats, each consisting of 200 amino acids, are found in the extracellular domain of NG2. These repeats contain a short sequence that resembles the putative Ca(++)-binding region of the cadherins. The sequence of NG2 does not show significant homology with any other known proteins, suggesting that NG2 is a novel species of integral membrane proteoglycan.     

High Density Molecular Linkage Maps of the Tomato and Potato Genomes

High density molecular linkage maps, comprised of more than 1000 markers with an average spacing between markers of approximately 1.2 cM (ca. 900 kb), have been constructed for the tomato and potato genomes. As the two maps are based on a common set of probes, it was possible to determine, with a high degree of precision, the breakpoints corresponding to 5 chromosomal inversions that differentiate the tomato and potato genomes. All of the inversions appear to have resulted from single breakpoints at or near the centromeres of the affected chromosomes, the result being the inversion of entire chromosome arms. While the crossing over rate among chromosomes appears to be uniformly distributed with respect to chromosome size, there is tremendous heterogeneity of crossing over within chromosomes. Regions of the map corresponding to centromeres and centromeric heterochromatin, and in some instances telomeres, experience up to 10-fold less recombination than other areas of the genome. Overall, 28% of the mapped loci reside in areas of putatively suppressed recombination. This includes loci corresponding to both random, single copy genomic clones and transcribed genes (detected with cDNA probes). The extreme heterogeneity of crossing over within chromosomes has both practical and evolutionary implications. Currently tomato and potato are among the most thoroughly mapped eukaryotic species and the availability of high density molecular linkage maps should facilitate chromosome walking, quantitative trait mapping, marker-assisted breeding and evolutionary studies in these two important and well studied crop species.