清醒猫摄食过程中的胃电活动

本文报告慢性清醒猫正常摄食过程中胃电的变化,以及脑室注射心得安和动物麻醉对胃电的影响。结果显示,空腹饥饿状态下,猫胃电图上出现具有特征性的高振幅的“饥饿波”;摄食时胃电慢波抑制,可见较小快波;进食后半小时左右,胃电开始出现每分钟4—5次的振幅逐渐增大的正弦形慢波,多数慢波负载有快波。脑室注射心得安,可使饱猫胃电慢波抑制期出现饥饿波。动物在饥饿时麻醉,胃电慢波幅度显著降低,饥饿波完全不出现,苏醒后逐渐恢复。     

Methods for peptide identification by spectral comparison

Background  

Tandem mass spectrometry followed by database search is currently the predominant technology for peptide sequencing in shotgun proteomics experiments. Most methods compare experimentally observed spectra to the theoretical spectra predicted from the sequences in protein databases. There is a growing interest, however, in comparing unknown experimental spectra to a library of previously identified spectra. This approach has the advantage of taking into account instrument-dependent factors and peptide-specific differences in fragmentation probabilities. It is also computationally more efficient for high-throughput proteomics studies.     

Disruption of reducing pathways is not essential for efficient disulfide bond formation in the cytoplasm of <Emphasis Type="Italic">E. coli</Emphasis>

Background  

The formation of native disulfide bonds is a complex and essential post-translational modification for many proteins. The large scale production of these proteins can be difficult and depends on targeting the protein to a compartment in which disulfide bond formation naturally occurs, usually the endoplasmic reticulum of eukaryotes or the periplasm of prokaryotes. It is currently thought to be impossible to produce large amounts of disulfide bond containing protein in the cytoplasm of wild-type bacteria such as E. coli due to the presence of multiple pathways for their reduction.     

The 3120 +1G-->A splicing mutation in CFTR is common in Brazilian cystic fibrosis patients.

Cystic fibrosis patients from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, were screened for mutations in exons 11 and 16 of the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator gene (CFTR) by a nonradioactive single-stranded conformational polymorphism (SSCP) analysis technique. This procedure was used to evaluate the undefined mutations in one or both alleles of 64 cystic fibrosis patients. Unusual SSCP profiles were investigated further by sequence analysis. Two patients were shown to carry the G542X mutation (exon 11) and five had the splicing mutation 3120+1G-->A(intron 16), one of them being homozygous for the mutation. This is the first report of the 3120+ IG-->A mutation in Brazil. where it appears to be a frequent disease-associated molecular alteration in the CFTR gene.     

Oligotrophic waters of the Northwest Atlantic support taxonomically diverse diatom communities that are distinct from coastal waters

Diatoms are important components of the marine food web and one of the most species-rich groups of phytoplankton. The diversity and composition of diatoms in eutrophic nearshore habitats have been well documented due to the outsized influence of diatoms on coastal ecosystem functioning. In contrast, patterns of both diatom diversity and community composition in offshore oligotrophic regions where diatom biomass is low have been poorly resolved. To compare the diatom diversity and community composition in oligotrophic and eutrophic waters, diatom communities were sampled along a 1,250 km transect from the oligotrophic Sargasso Sea to the coastal waters of the northeast US shelf. Diatom community composition was determined by amplifying and sequencing the 18S rDNA V4 region. Of the 301 amplicon sequence variants (ASVs) identified along the transect, the majority (70%) were sampled exclusively from oligotrophic waters of the Gulf Stream and Sargasso Sea and included the genera Bacteriastrum, Haslea, Hemiaulus, Pseudo-nitzschia, and Nitzschia. Diatom ASV richness did not vary along the transect, indicating that the oligotrophic Sargasso Sea and Gulf Stream are occupied by a diverse diatom community. Although ASV richness was similar between oligotrophic and coastal waters, diatom community composition in these regions differed significantly and was correlated with temperature and phosphate, two environmental variables known to influence diatom metabolism and geographic distribution. In sum, oligotrophic waters of the western North Atlantic harbor diverse diatom assemblages that are distinct from coastal regions, and these open ocean diatoms warrant additional study, as they may play critical roles in oligotrophic ecosystems.     

Maintenance of clonal diversity during a spring bloom of the centric diatom Ditylum brightwellii

Maintenance of genetic diversity in eukaryotic microbes reflects a synergism between reproductive mode (asexual vs. sexual) and environmental conditions. We determined clonal diversity in field samples of the planktonic marine diatom, Ditylum brightwellii, during a bloom, when cell number increased by seven-fold because of rapid asexual division. The genotypes at three microsatellite loci were determined for 607 individual cell lines isolated during the 11 days of sampling. Genetic diversity remained high during the bloom and 87% of the cells sampled each day were genetically distinct. Sixty-nine clonal lineages were sampled two or more times during the bloom, and two clones were sampled seven times. Based on the frequency of resampled clonal lineages, capture-recapture statistics were used to determine that at least 2400 genetically distinct clonal lineages comprised the bloom population. No significant differences in microsatellite allele frequencies were observed among daily samples indicating that the bloom was comprised of a single population. No sexual stages were observed, although linkage equilibrium at two loci, high levels of allelic and genotypic diversity, and heterozygote deficiencies were all indicative of past sexual reproduction events. At the height of the bloom, a windstorm diluted cell numbers by 51% and coincided with a change in the frequency distribution of some resampled lineages. The extensive clonal diversity generated through past sexual reproduction events coupled with frequent environmental changes appear to prevent individual clonal lineages from becoming numerically dominant, maintaining genetic diversity and the adaptive potential of the population.     

Modeling brewers' yeast flocculation

Flocculation of yeast cells occurs during the fermentation of beer. Partway through the fermentation the cells become flocculent and start to form flocs. If the environmental conditions, such as medium composition and fluid velocities in the tank, are optimal, the flocs will grow in size large enough to settle. After settling of the main part of the yeast the green beer is left, containing only a small amount of yeast necessary for rest conversions during the next process step, the lagering. The physical process of flocculation is a dynamic equilibrium of floc formation and floc breakup resulting in a bimodal size distribution containing single cells and flocs. The floc size distribution and the single cell amount were measured under the different conditions that occur during full scale fermentation. Influences on flocculation such as floc strength, specific power input, and total number of yeast cells in suspension were studied. A flocculation model was developed, and the measured data used for validation. Yeast floc formation can be described with the collision theory assuming a constant collision efficiency. The breakup of flocs appears to occur mainly via two mechanisms, the splitting of flocs and the erosion of yeast cells from the floc surface. The splitting rate determines the average floc size and the erosion rate determines the number of single cells. Regarding the size of the flocs with respect to the scale of turbulence, only the viscous subrange needs to be considered. With the model, the floc size distribution and the number of single cells can be predicted at a certain point during the fermentation. For this, the bond strength between the cells, the fractal dimension of the yeast, the specific power input in the tank and the number of yeast cells that are in suspension in the tank have to be known. Copyright 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.