Scrapie I. Transmission and Pathogenesis

Homogenized brain, extracts, and residues of brain from normal and scrapie sheep were inoculated into 116 sheep. Of 72 sheep inoculated with scrapie material 27 developed the disease, whereas four of 44 inoculated with ;normal' brain material showed symptoms similar to those of scrapie. The scrapie agent survived extraction for 18 hours with diethyl ether followed by water for 24 hours. Similarly the agent survived extraction in a Soxhlet apparatus with 95 per cent ethanol containing 2.0 per cent 4 M HC1 for 24 hours. There was no evidence of demyelination in sections of brain and spinal cord supporting the view that allergic encephalomyelitis is not responsible for the scrapie symptoms. Liver function, as measured by the bromsulfalein test, remained normal until just before death. These results preclude that liver dysfunction contributes to the disease but do not exclude the possibilities of other metabolic derangements.     

Effect of exogenous gibberellin A4/7 on tracheid production, longitudinal growth and the levels of indole‐3‐acetic acid and gibberellins A4, A7 and A9 in the terminal shoot of Pinus sylvestris seedlings

Synchronously dividing cultures of the unicellular green alga Scenedesmus obtusiusculus were cultivated for 24 or 70 h in medium high (1000 μM) or low (60 μM) in phosphorus. Aliquots of AlCl₃ (0, 37, 74, 111, 148, 185, or 222 μmol) were added daily to 1 l cell suspension at the end of the cell division phase. Algae were also grown in media with different pH, adjusted with HCl, in the absence of AlCl₃.
Effects of Al on cell metabolism vary with the intracellular Al concentration and with the concentration of Al available per cell. When the concentration of phosphorus is low, internal concentrations of Al are high and the chlorophyll content and the net dry matter production per cell increase, whereas the photosynthesis and the cell division are increased. Presence of Al in a low P medium decreases the pH of the medium down to 4.5. There are only small effects of Al in the presence of P, due to precipitation of most of the Al with P in the medium.
Despite the Al-induced decrease of the pH of the culture medium, effects caused by Al cannot be explained as a pH effect. Instead, the Al effect may, at least to some extent, be related to a decrease in availability of P in the metabolism, due to formation of aluminium phosphate inside the cell.     

Detection of Salmonella typhi by polymerase chain reaction

A rapid and sensitive method for detection of Salmonella typhi would help in preventing the spread of outbreaks and in clinical diagnosis. In order to develop unique PCR primers to detect Salm. typhi , ribosomal RNA genes from Salm. typhi (Rawlings) were cloned in pUC18. The resulting clone was confirmed by sequencing. The cloned DNA fragment contained the 5S, part of the 23S rRNA genes and the 5S-23S spacer region (EMBL/GenBank accession No. U04734).
It was expected that the 5S-23S spacer region is divergent unlike the highly conserved 23S+5S genes. This was confirmed by comparison with the rRNA gene sequences in the EMBL/GenBank database. A pair of PCR primers specific for Salm. typhi was obtained, based on this spacer region sequence. The specificity of this pair of primers was tested with 54 Salm. typhi strains (of 27 different phage types). All these Salm. typhi strains showed the positive 300 bp PCR product with this pair of primers. Six other Salmonella species as well as six other non- Salmonella bacteria were tested and none showed the 300 bp PCR product. The sensitivity of the detection level was 0·1 pg of pure Salm. typhi genomic DNA, or approximately 40 Salm. typhi cells in a spiked food sample. This pair of primers therefore has the potential for development into a diagnostic tool for the rapid diagnosis of typhoid fever.     

Effects of clinorotation and microgravity on sweet clover columella cells treated with cytochalasin D

The cytoskeleton of columella cells is believed to be involved in maintaining the developmental polarity of cells observed as a reproducible positioning of cellular organelles. It is also implicated in the transduction of gravitropic signals. Roots of sweet clover ( Melilotus alba L.) seedlings were treated with a microfilament disrupter, cytochalasin D, on a slowly rotating horizontal clinostat (2 rpm). Electron micrographs of treated columella cells revealed several ultrastructural effects including repositioning of the nucleus and the amyloplasts and the formation of endoplasmic reticulum (ER) whorls. However, experiments performed during fast clinorotation (55 rpm) showed an accumulation (but no whorling) of a disorganized ER network at the proximal and distal pole and a random distribution of the amyloplasts. Therefore, formation of whorls depends upon the speed of clinorotation, and the overall impact of cytochalasin D suggests the necessity of microfilaments in organelle positioning. Interestingly, a similar drug treatment performed in microgravity aboard the US Space Shuttle Endeavour (STS-54, January 1993) caused a displacement of ER membranes and amyloplasts away from the distal plasma membrane. In the present study, we discuss the role of microfilaments in maintaining columella cell polarity and the utility of clinostats to simulate microgravity.     

Cortical microtubules in sweet clover columella cells developed in microgravity

Electron micrographs of columella cells from sweet clover seedlings grown and fixed in microgravity revealed longitudinal and cross sectioned cortical microtubules. This is the first report demonstrating the presence and stability of this network in plants in microgravity.     

Interferon-γ exerts its negative regulatory effect primarily on the earliest stages of murine erythroid progenitor cell development

Interferon-γ (INFγ) has been shown to suppress erythropoiesis and perhaps to contribute to the anemia of chronic disease. In this study we demonstrated that the concentration of INFγ required to suppress murine burst forming unit-erythroid (BFU-E) growth was significantly less than that required to suppress colony forming unit-erythroid (CFU-E) growth. INFγ acted at the most primitive step in erythroid progenitor cell differentiation and proliferation, as inhibition was maximal when added at the time of BFU-E culture initiation. Inhibition was progressively less if INF-γ addition was delayed after culture initiation. The effects of INFγ on BFU-E did not require the presence of interleukin-1α (IL-1α), tumor necrosis factor-α (TNFα), or granulocyte macrophage colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF), as its effects were not neutralized by monoclonal antibodies against IL-1α, TNFα, or GM-CSF. This applied whether INFγ was added to culture with individual antibodies or with a combination of all three antibodies. INFγ was not required for IL-1α- or TNFα-induced suppression of BFU-E, as their effects were not neutralized by a monoclonal anti-INFγ antibody. In contrast, GM-CSF—induced suppression of BFU-E was negated by the simultaneous addition of anti-INFγ. We have previously shown that the addition of TNFα does not suppress BFU-E growth in cultures from marrow depleted of macrophages. Suppression did occur, however, if a small concentration of INFγ that does not inhibit and increasing concentrations of TNFα were added to culture, suggesting a synergistic effect between INFγ and TNFα. These observations suggest that INFγ is a potent direct inhibitor of erythroid colony growth in vitro. It exerts its negative regulatory effect primarily on the earliest stages of erythroid progenitor cell differentiation and proliferation, as much higher doses are required to suppress late erythroid cell development. INFγ is also involved in GM-CSF—induced inhibition of BFU-E colony growth. © 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

1 This artilce is a US Government work and, as such, is in the public domain in the United States of America.