A Temporally Explicit Production Efficiency Model for Fuel Load Allocation in Southern Africa

Abstract We present a regional fuel load model (1 km² spatial resolution) applied in the southern African savanna region. The model is based on a patch-scale production efficiency model (PEM) scaled up to the regional level using empirical relationships between patch-scale behavior and multi-source remote sensing data (spatio-temporal variability of vegetation and climatic variables). The model requires the spatial distribution of woody vegetation cover, which is used to determine separate respiration rates for tree and grass. Net primary production, grass and tree leaf death, and herbivory are also taken into account in this mechanistic modeling approach. The fuel load model has been calibrated and validated from independent measurements taken from savanna vegetation in Africa southward from the equator. A sensitivity analysis on the effect of climate variables (incoming radiation, air temperature, and precipitation) has been conducted to demonstrate the strong role that water availability has in determining productivity and subsequent fuel load over the southern African region. The model performance has been tested in four different areas representative of a regional increasing rainfall gradient—Etosha National Park, Namibia, Mongu and Kasama, Zambia, as well as in Kruger National Park, South Africa. Within each area, we analyze model output from three different magnitudes of canopy coverage (<5, 30, and 50%). We find that fuel load ranges predicted by the model are globally in agreement with field measurements for the same year. High rainfall sustains green herbaceous production late in the dry season and delays tree leaf litter production. Effect of water on production varies across the rainfall gradient with delayed start of green material production in more arid regions.     

Polypyrimidine Tract Binding Protein Prevents Activity of an Intronic Regulatory Element That Promotes Usage of a Composite 3��-Terminal Exon

Alternative splicing of 3′-terminal exons plays a critical role in gene expression by producing mRNA with distinct 3′-untranslated regions that regulate their fate and their expression. The Xenopus α-tropomyosin pre-mRNA possesses a composite internal/3′-terminal exon (exon 9A9′) that is differentially processed depending on the embryonic tissue. Exon 9A9′ is repressed in non-muscle tissue by the polypyrimidine tract binding protein, whereas it is selected as a 3′-terminal or internal exon in myotomal cells and adult striated muscles, respectively. We report here the identification of an intronic regulatory element, designated the upstream terminal exon enhancer (UTE), that is required for the specific usage of exon 9A9′ as a 3′-terminal exon in the myotome. We demonstrate that polypyrimidine tract binding protein prevents the activity of UTE in non-muscle cells, whereas a subclass of serine/arginine rich (SR) proteins promotes the selection of exon 9A9′ in a UTE-dependent way. Morpholino-targeted blocking of UTE in the embryo strongly reduced the inclusion of exon 9A9′ as a 3′-terminal exon in the endogenous mRNA, demonstrating the function of UTE under physiological circumstances. This strategy allowed us to reveal a splicing pathway that generates a mRNA with no in frame stop codon and whose steady-state level is translation-dependent. This result suggests that a non-stop decay mechanism participates in the strict control of the 3′-end processing of the α-tropomyosin pre-mRNA.     

Effects of high and low molecular soluble factors of the bone marrow on antibody formation and pain sensitivity in animals

In addition to the immunostimulating activity, bone marrow mediators, myelopeptides (MP) show the dose-dependent effect on the development of pain sensitivity in mice. When injected in nanogram amounts, MP induce hyperalgesia and 3-9 fold higher production of antibodies against SREC. When injected in milligram amounts, they exhibit hypoalgesic effect and no influence on antibody production. Immunostimulating effect in MP (mol, mass less than 1 KD, fraction 3) is accompanied with hypoalgesia. Bone marrow factors of mol. masses 40-150 KD (fraction 1) eluted at Sephadex G-25 gel-filtration before MP enhance the pain sensitivity tHreshold and show a potent immunodepressive effect. Thus the bone marrow factors are capable of exhibiting the opposite effects on the immune system in the pain control system that evidences the tight interrelation between these systems.     

Early endosteal bone response to incorporated plutonium-238 in mice

Ten Swiss albino ICR SPF female mice 110 days old (weight about 30 g) were exposed for 48 hours to a solution of plutonium-238 nitrate (spec. act. 5 MBq/1 m1, pH 2.7) injected in amounts of 0.01 ml into the popliteal area of the right femur, each thus receiving about 500 kBq per 30 g body weight. Of the injected activity, 50% was retained in the right femur, 2% in the left femur and approximately 2-3% in the excrements collected separately from each animal during the whole exposure period. Ultrastructurally, electron micrographs revealed a variety of changes, including hypertrophy and destruction of endosteal cell organelles (primary damage), deformation and hypertrophy of osteocytes (secondary damage) and the irregularities in the osteocyte self-burial process leading to an abnormal formation of bone tissue structure (tertiary damage). Qualitatively, these changes in the irradiated bone ultrastructure were analogous to those occurring with age. This was confirmed by comparing two groups of control mice 110 and 330 days old. Assessed quantitatively, changes due to irradiation were more pronounced than those associated with aging.     

Properties of aminoglycoside-3'-phosphotransferases determined by kanamycin transposones Tn 601 and Tn 5

Aminoglycoside-3'-phosphotransferase I and II (APT-3'-I and APT-3'-II) has been purified to homogenity from the cells of E. coli containing the plasmids R6 and JR67, respectively. The purification procedure involved competitive affinity chromatography on neomycin-sepharose and gel-filtration on Sephadex G-100. The specific activity of APT-3'-I with the substrates--lividomycin A, neomycin B, paromycin, ribostamycin, kanamycins A and B--are 4.3, 2.8, 2.1, 1.6, 0.9 and 0.8 mol/min. mg protein, respectively. The specific activity of APT-3'-II with the substrates--ribostamycin, paromycin, kanamycins A and B, neomycin B--are 8.0, 7.2, 4.0, 4.5 and 3.6, respectively. Mg2+ is required for the activity of both enzymes. Co2+, Zn2+ and Mn2+ are active in case of APT-3'-I; however, these cations are less active than Mg2+. The pH-optimum of APT-3'-I and APT-3'-II is 7.0--7.5. High ionic strength is required for the activity of both enzymes. The molecular weights of APT-3'-I and APT-3'-II are about 36 000 and 26 000, respectively. The amino acid composition of APT-3'-I and APT-3'-II was determined. Both enzymes contain tryptophane residues whose fluorescence intensity decreased when ATP, but not amino-glycoside antibiotics, is added. The interrelationship between the molecular weights of these enzymes and the sizes of the loops of transposones Tn 601 and Tn 5, encoding APT-3'-I and APT-3'-II, is discussed.     

Delayed nucleoid segregation in Escherichia coli

To study the role of cell division in the process of nucleoid segregation, we measured the DNA content of individual nucleoids in isogenic Escherichia coli cell division mutants by image cytometry. In pbpB(Ts) and ftsZ strains growing as filaments at 42 degrees C, nucleoids contained, on average, more than two chromosome equivalents compared with 1.6 in wild-type cells. Because similar results were obtained with a pbpB recA strain, the increased DNA content cannot be ascribed to the occurrence of chromosome dimers. From the determination of the amount of DNA per cell and per individual nucleoid after rifampicin inhibition, we estimated the C and D periods (duration of a round of replication and time between termination and cell division respectively), as well as the D' period (time between termination and nucleoid separation). Compared with the parent strain and in contrast to ftsQ, ftsA and ftsZ mutants, pbpB(Ts) cells growing at the permissive temperature (28 degrees C) showed a long D' period (42 min versus 18 min in the parent) indicative of an extended segregation time. The results indicate that a defective cell division protein such as PbpB not only affects the division process but also plays a role in the last stage of DNA segregation. We propose that PbpB is involved in the assembly of the divisome and that this structure enhances nucleoid segregation.