High-level expression of a tobacco chitinase gene in Nicotiana sylvestris. Susceptibility of transgenic plants to Cercospora nicotianae infection

Endochitinases (E.C. 3.2.14, chitinase) are believed to be important in the biochemical defense of plants against chitin-containing fungal pathogens. We introduced a gene for class I (basic) tobacco chitinase regulated by Cauliflower Mosaic Virus 35S-RNA expression signals into Nicotiana sylvestris. The gene was expressed to give mature, enzymatically active chitinase targeted to the intracellular compartment of leaves. Most transformants accumulated extremely high levels of chitinase-up to 120-fold that of non-transformed plants in comparable tissues. Unexpectedly, some transformants exhibited chitinase levels lower than in non-transformed plants suggesting that the transgene inhibited expression of the homologous host gene. Progeny tests indicate this effect is not permanent. High levels of chitinase in transformants did not substantially increase resistance to the chitin-containing fungus Cercospora nicotiana, which causes Frog Eye disease. Therefore class I chitinase does not appear to be the limiting factor in the defense reaction to this pathogen.     

The preparation in vitro of chrysanthemum for transplantation to soil

Plantlets of Dendranthema grandiflora Pennine Reel were grown from nodal sections on Sorbarods saturated with liquid medium containing 0–3 mg 1^–1 of various growth retardants. After 4 weeks they were transferred to compost and maintained at a relative humidity of 42% at 27.5°C. Wilting was assessed over a period of 3 h. Plantlets treated with paclobutrazol, flurprimidol, triapenthenol, chlorphonium chloride, uniconazol and ancymidol showed dose-related reductions in wilting up to a concentration of 3 mg 1^–1. Responses to tetcyclacis and mepiquat chloride were weaker, and no responses to chlormequat chloride, BTS 44584 or diaminozide could be detected. These observations are compatible with an hypothesis that resistance to wilting derives from inhibited synthesis of gibberellins.     

Effects of nitrous oxide on mitochondrial and cell respiration and growth in Distichlis spicata suspension cultures

The reversible inhibition of respiratory activity could provide a novel approach to the preservation of traditionally hard to store plant germplasm such as clonal materials and recalcitrant seed. The gaseous anesthetic nitrous oxide caused a reversible, dose-dependent, partial inhibition of dioxygen utilization in mitochondrial particles isolated from cell suspension cultures of the salt-tolerant marsh grass Distichlis spicata, with maximal inhibition of 33% after 30 minutes exposure to an atmosphere of 80% nitrous oxide plus 20% oxygen. Respiration of whole cells required longer time to be affected by the anesthetic, and was reversibly inhibited an average of 19% when measured using a differential respirometer. Exposure to 80% nitrous oxide plus 20% oxygen for up to 10 days caused no measurable effect on cell growth.Abbreviations PCV packed cell volume - EDTA sodium ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid - BSA bovine serum albumin - MOPS 3(N-morpholino) propanesulfonic acid - TMPD N,N,N',N'-tetramethyl-p-phenylene diamine - STP standard temperature and pressure     

Genes, bees and ecosystems: The evolution of a common interest among individuals

Adam Smith proposed that individuals can share sufficient interest in their society's welfare to profit by cooperating for its benefit and by jointly suppressing behavior hurtful to it. Similarly, a genome's genes share a common interest in 'honest' meiosis, which ensures that alleles can spread only by benefitting their carriers. Honeybee workers express a common interest in raising their queen's, rather than their half-sisters', eggs by eating eggs laid by half sisters. Can analogous principles explain the evolution of harmony at other levels of biological organization, such as ecosystems or organismic development?     

Immunochemical characterisation of parathyroid hormone-related protein from tumor and non-tumor cells

The molecular forms of parathyroid hormone-related protein (PTHRP) in conditioned media from the BEN human lung cancer cell line, rat parathyroid cells (PT-r) and human keratinocytes were studied by gel-filtraton chromatography with assay of PTHRP by immunoassays and bioassay. Immunoreactivity (1–86 and 1–34) and bioactivity (1–34) in conditioned media eluted as a coincident major peak (approx. molecular mass 19–22 kDa) and there was evidence of amino-terminal species in the molecular mass range 10–16 kDa in BEN and keratinocyte media. Western blotting of PTHRP affinity purified by monoclonal antibodies directed at regions 1–34 or 37–67, identified a major species in all cell cytosols and media with an apparent molecular mass of 24–25 kDa, consistently slighty larger than recombinant PTHRP(1–141) (mobility of 21 kDa) which may represent an intact or native form of PTHRP. Additional amino-terminal species were identified in medium from keratinocytes (16 and 7 kDa), BEN cells (18 and 14 kDa) and PT-R cells (17 kDa), suggesting that processing occurs at the C-terminus and within the mid-region to form a range of amino-terminal fragments.     

Cloning, sequencing and distribution of the Salmonella typhimurlum LT2 siaiidase gene, nanH, provides evidence for interspecies gene transfer

The Salmonella typhimurium LT2 sialidase (neuraminidase, EC 3.2.1.18) structural gene, nanH, has been cloned and sialidase overproduced from multicopy plasmids in Escherichia coli. Sialidase expression was regulated positively by cAMP. In contrast, certain Tn1000 insertions located upstream of nanH coding sequences reduced sialidase activity. A nanH chromosomal insertion mutation constructed by marker exchange demonstrated a single sialidase gene copy in S. typhimurium LT2. The complete nucleotide sequence of nanH, encoding a 41,300 dalton polypeptide, was determined and the derived primary structure was similar to sialidases from Clostridium perfringens, Clostridium sordellii, Bacteroides fragilis, and Trypanosoma cruzi. Comparative sequence analysis, including codon usage and secondary structure predictions, indicated that the S. typhimurium and clostridial sialidases are homologous, strongly suggestive of an interspecies gene transfer event. At least two primary sequence motifs of the bacterial enzymes were detected in influenza A virus sialidases. The predicted secondary structure of the bacterial enzymes was strikingly similar to viral sialidase. From the population distribution of nanH detected within a collection of salmonellae, it was apparent that S. typhimurium obtained its nanH copy most recently from Salmonella arizonae. S. typhimurium LT2 is thus a genetic mosaic that differs from other strains of even the same serotype by nanH plus potentially additional characters linked to nanH. These results have relevance to the evolution and function of sialidases in pathogenic microbes, and to the origin of the sialic acids.     

Molecular characterization of a patient with del(1)(q23–q25)

Summary We report a patient (S.T.) with multiple congenital anomalies and developmental delay associated with an interstitial deletion of 1q23–1q25. Molecular analysis of the deletion was performed using DNA markers that map to 1q. Five DNA markers, MLAJ-1 (D1S61), CRI-L1054 (D1S42), HBI40 (D1S66), OS-6 (D1S75), and BH516 (D1S110), were demonstrated to be deleted. Informative polymorphisms demonstrated this to be a de novo deletion of the maternally derived chromosome. Deletion status was determined using restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis supplemented with densitometry in the experiments where RFLP analysis was not fully informative. Deletions were confirmed by Southern analysis using genomic DNA from a somatic cell hybrid retaining the del(1)(q23–q25) chromosome that was constructed from patient S.T. Flow karyotyping confirmed the deletion and estimated that the deletion encompassed 11,000–16,000 kb. The clinical and cytogenetic characteristics of S.T. are compared with those of ten previously described patients with monosomy 1q21–1q25.     

Glycine betaine and proline are the principal compatible solutes ofStaphylococcus aureus

The foodborne pathogenStaphylococcus aureus is distinguished by its ability to grow within environments of extremely high osmolarity (e.g., foods with low water activity values). In the present study, we examined the accumulation of intracellular organic solutes withinS. aureus strain ATCC 12600 when cells were grown in a complex medium containing high concentrations of NaCl. Consistent with previous reports [Measures JC (1975) Nature 257:398–400; Koujima I, et al. (1978) Appl Environ Microbiol 35:467–470; and Anderson CB, Witter LD (1982) Appl Environ Microbiol 43:1501–1503], intracellular proline was found to accumulate to high concentrations. However, NMR spectroscopy of cell extracts revealed glycine betaine to be the predominant intracellular organic solute accumulated within cells grown at high osmolarity. In additional experiments, we examined the growth rate ofS. aureus in a defined medium of high osmolarity and found it to be stimulated significantly by the presence of either exogenous proline or glycine betaine. Highest growth rates were obtained when the defined medium was supplemented with glycine betaine.     

Cofactor interactions and the regulation of glutamate decarboxylase activity

More than 50% of glutamate decarboxylase (GAD) in brain is present as apoenzyme. Recent work has opened the possibility that apoGAD can be studied in brain by labeling with radioactive cofactor. Such studies would be aided by a compound that inhibits specific binding. One possibility is 4-deoxy-pyridoxine 5-phosphate, a close structural analog of the cofactor pyridoxal 5-phosphate. The effects of deoxypyridoxine-P on the cyclic series of reactions that interconverts apo- and holoGAD was investigated and found to be consistent with simple competitive inhibition of the activation of apoGAD by pyridoxal-P. As expected from the cycle GAD was inactivated when incubated with glutamate and deoxypyridoxine-P even though cofactor was present, but no inactivation was observed with deoxypyridoxine-P in the absence of glutamate. Deoxypyridoxine-P also stabilized apoGAD against heat denaturation. These effects were quantitatively accounted for by a kinetic model of the apo-holoGAD cycle. Deoxypyridoxine-P inhibited the labeling by [³²P]pyridoxal-P of GAD isolated from rat brain. Hippocampal extracts were labeled with [³²P]pyridoxal-P and analyzed by SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Remarkably few bands were strongly labeled. The major labeled band (at 63 kDa) corresponded to one of the forms of GAD. Other strongly-labeled bands were observed at 65 kDa (corresponding to the higher molecular weight form of GAD) and at 69–72 kDa. Labeling of the 63- and 65-kDa bands was inhibited by deoxypyridoxine-P, but the 69–72 kDa bands were unaffected, suggesting that the latter were non-specifically labeled. The results suggest that the 63-kDa form of GAD makes up the majority of apoGAD in hippocampus.Special issue dedicated to Dr. Eugene Roberts.