The nutritional ecology of the ctenophore Bolinopsis vitrea: comparisons with Mnemiopsis mccradyi from the same region

Bolinopsis vitrea is a warm water lobate ctenophore which doesnot overlap in its distribution with Mnemiopsis mccradyi incontiguous waters. We examined its feeding ecology on a seriesof cruises. B. virrea ingested increasingly more prey at higherfood concentrations (2–100 prey l^–1) but feedingeffort (clearance rate) decreased with increasing food availability.On a dry weight basis, smaller tentaculate Bolinopsis ingestedseveral times more than larger lobates, but based on carbonweight, specific ingestion was fairly uniform over the entiresize range investigated (6–60 mm total length). Bolinopsiscollected during the daytime in the Bahamas rarely had morethan three prey items in their guts. These results and laboratorymeasurements of digestion times (av. = 1.9 h) allowed computationof daily rations, which could not account for the metabolicrequirement as measured on the same cruises. Results of feedingexperiments, however, implied that prey densities in excessof 11^–1 were sufficient to sustain a growing populationof Bolinopsis. Prey concentrations about an order of magnitudehigher were required for M. mccradyi based on similar experiments.These results were in general agreement with observed densitiesand distributions of ctenophores and their zooplankton preyin the Bahamas and coastal South Florida.     

Chemolithotrophic metabolism of the newly-isolated moderately thermophilic,obligately autotrophic Thiobacillus tepidarius

Thiobacillus tepidarius, isolated from the hot springs at Bath, Avon, UK, grew optimally at 43–45°C and pH 6.0–7.5 on thiosulphate or tetrathionate. In batch culture, thiosulphate was oxidized stoichiometrically to tetrathionate, with a rise in pH. The tetrathionate was then oxidized to sulphate, supporting growth and producing a fall in pH to a minimum of ph 4.8. The organism contained high levels of thiosulphate-oxidizing enzyme, rhodanese and ribulose bisphosphate carboxylase. It was obligately chemolithotrophic and autotrophic. In chemostat culture, T. tepidarius grew autotrophically with the following sole energy-substrates: sulphide, thiosulphate, trithionate, tetrathionate, hexathionate or heptathionate. Thiocyanate, dithionate and sulphite were not used as sole substrates, although sulphite enhanced growth yields in the presence of thiosulphate. Maximum specific growth rate on tetrathionate was 0.44 h^-1. True growth yields (Y _max) and maintenance coefficients (m) were calculated for sulphide, thiosulphate, trithionate and tetrathionate and observed yields at a single fixed dilution rate compared with those on hexathionate and heptathionate. Mean values for Y _max, determined from measurements of absorbance, dry wt, total organic carbon and cell protein, were similar for sulphide, thiosulphate and trithionate (10.9 g dry wt/mol substrate) as expected from their equivalent oxygen consumption for oxidation. Y _max for tetrathionate (20.5) and the relative Y _o values (as g dry wt/g atom oxygen consumed) for thiosulphate and all four polythionates indicated that substrate level phosphorylation did not contribute significantly to energy conservation. These Y _max values were 40–70% higher than any of those previously reported for obligately aerobic thiobacilli. Mean values for m were 6.7 mmol substrate oxidized/g dry wt·h for sulphide, thiosulphate and trithionate, and 2.6 for tetrathionate.Abbreviation PIPES Piperazine-N,N-bis(ethane sulphonic acid)     

Iron-Chelating Compounds Produced by Soil Pseudomonads: Correlation with Fungal Growth Inhibition

Strains of Pseudomonas putida, Pseudomonas sp., and Pseudomonas aeruginosa were examined for their ability to grow in the presence of the iron chelator, ethylenediamine-di-(o-hydroxyphenylacetic acid). In vitro fungal inhibition assays showed that the isolates varied in their ability to inhibit the growth of representative fungal plant pathogens. Fungal inhibition in vitro was superior to that of previously reported Pseudomonas sp. Studies with Fusarium oxysporum forma sp. lycopersici and a susceptible tomato cultivar demonstrated that Pseudomonas putida PPU3.1 was able to significantly reduce wilt disease.     

Cultural Aspects of Health and Illness Behavior in Hospitals

Health care attitudes reflect the basic world view and values of a culture, such as how we relate to nature, other people, time, being, society versus community, children versus elders and independence versus dependence. Illness behavior determines who is vulnerable to illness and who agrees to become a patient—since only about one third of the ill will see a physician. Cultural values determine how one will behave as a patient and what it means to be ill and especially to be a hospital patient. They affect decisions about a patient''s treatment and who makes the decisions. Cultural differences create problems in communication, rapport, physical examination and treatment compliance and follow through. The special meaning of medicines and diet requires particular attention. The perception of physical pain and psychologic distress varies from culture to culture and affects the attitudes and effectiveness of care-givers as much as of patients. Religious beliefs and attitudes about death, which have many cultural variations, are especially relevant to hospital-based treatment. Linguistic and cultural interpreters can be essential; they are more available than realized, though there are pitfalls in their use. Finally, one must recognize that individual characteristics may outweigh the ethnic and that a good caring relationship can compensate for many cultural missteps.     

Kinetic behaviour and allosteric regulation of human deoxycytidylate deaminase derived from leukemic cells

Deoxycytidylate deaminase has been highly purified (1232-fold) from human leukemia CCRF-CEM cells. The native molecular weight of the enzyme is 108 000 and subunit molecular weight 50 500, suggesting that the native enzyme exists as a dimer. The enzyme exhibits a sigmoidal initial velocity vs substrate concentration curve and is regulated by allosteric effectors, dCTP and TTP. The curve relating substrate concentration to initial velocity was changed from a sigmoidal shape to a hyperbolic one by the activator dCTP, while the inhibitor TTP increased the sigmoidicity of the curve. The molecular weight of deoxycytidylate deaminase was unchanged in the presence of allosteric effectors, indicating that aggregation-disaggregation is not the basis of regulation. Deoxycytidylate deaminase exhibited the greatest affinity for the substrate dCMP, with lesser affinity for ara-CMP, and least affinity for CMP. Ara-CMP was an effective substrate in the presence of dCTP concentrations exceeding 4 microM. These data indicate that human neoplastic cell deoxycytidylate deaminase is a highly regulated allosteric enzyme, which is likely to have a significant influence on cellular dUMP, dCTP and TTP pools. These findings further suggest, that the enzyme through its influence on dUMP levels is likely to modulate the biochemical effects of pyrimidine antimetabolites active against the thymidylate synthetase reaction and in the presence of elevated dCTP pools will promote deamination of ara-CMP to the inactive ara-UMP.     

Distribution of immunoreactive somatostatin in the primate hypothalamus

Immunocytochemical methods were used to compare the localization of somatostatin (SRIF) in the human and rhesus monkey hypothalamus. The distribution of SRIF-containing cell bodies and fibers is similar in the two species. Perikarya are located predominantly in the periventricular region and to a lesser extent in the ventromedial nucleus. Fibers occur in dense clusters within the periventricular region, ventromedial nucleus, arcuate nucleus, median eminence, and pericommissural area of both species. Analysis of serial sections suggests that fibers originate from cells in the periventricular region, extend ventrally through the ventromedial and arcuate nuclei to terminate around the portal vessels of the infundibular stalk, and thereby participate in the regulation of anterior pituitary function. Somatostatinergic fibers are also found surrounding non-immunoreactive perikarya in the ventromedial nucleus and periventricular region of both primates. This arrangement may support somatostatin's postulated role as a neurotransmitter or neuromodulator. The strong similarity between the localization of hypothalamic SRIF in the human and rhesus monkey supports the use of the rhesus monkey as a model for the study of somatostatin as a neuroendocrine regulatory in the human.     

Transport as the Rate-Limiting Step in the Incorporation of Uridine into Mengovirus Ribonucleic Acid in Novikoff Rat Hepatoma Cells

The incorporation of uridine into the nucleotide pool of actinomycin-treated, mengovirus-infected Novikoff rat hepatoma cells in culture follows simple Michaelis-Menten kinetics, and the apparent V(max) and K(m) values are similar to those for uridine transport by uninfected cells. Incorporation of uridine into mengovirus-specific ribonucleic acid (RNA) also follows Michaelis-Menten kinetics, and the apparent K(m) (about 10 mum) is approximately the same as for uridine transport. Inhibition of uridine transport by the presence of adenosine, persantin, or phenethyl alcohol inhibits simultaneously and to the same extent the incorporation of uridine into the nucleotide pool and into viral RNA, without affecting viral RNA synthesis per se. Phenethyl alcohol, however, also inhibits virus maturation. The inhibition of uridine incorporation into the nucleotide pool and into viral RNA is of the simple competitive type, indicating that transport into the cells is the rate-limiting step in the incorporation of uridine into mengovirus RNA. The results also indicate that treatment with actinomycin D or mengovirus infection does not affect uridine transport.     

Linear, Single-Stranded Deoxyribonucleic Acid Isolated from Kilham Rat Virus

Kilham rat virus (KRV) was grown in a rat nephroma cell line and was purified by two isopycnic centrifugations in cesium chloride. The virus contains single-stranded deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) with a molecular weight of approximately 1.6 x 10(6). The DNA was extracted from the virion by both phenol extraction and by 2% sodium dodecyl sulfate at 50 C. KRV DNA, extracted by both procedures, was observed in an electron microscope by using a cytochrome c or diethylaminoethyldextran monolayer. The DNA was also exposed to exonuclease I, an enzyme which hydrolyzes specifically linear, single-stranded DNA. Hydrolysis of 70 to 80% of the DNA was observed. Both the enzymatic and the electron microscope studies support the conclusion that extracted KRV DNA is a single-stranded, linear molecule. The length of the DNA was measured in the electron microscope and determined to be 1.505 +/- 0.206 mum.     

Age,smoking habits,heat stress,and their interactive effects with carbon monoxide and peroxyacetylnitrate on man's aerobic power

Metabolic, body temperature, and cardiorespiratory responses of 16 healthy middle-aged (40–57 years) men, 9 nonsmokers and 7 smokers, were obtained during tests of maximal aerobic power at ambient environmental temperatures of 25 ± 0.5 and 35 ± 0.5°C and 20% relative humidity under four conditions: (a) filtered air, FA; (b) 50 ppm carbon monoxide in filtered air, CO; (c) 0.27 ppm peroxyacetylnitrate in filtered air, PAN; and (d) a combination of all three mixtures, PANCO. There was no significant change in maximum aerobic power \(\left( {\dot VO2max} \right)\) related to the presence of air pollutants, although total working time was lowered in the 25°C environment while breathing CO. Older nonsmokers did have a decrement in \(\left( {\dot VO2max} \right)\) while breathing 50 ppm CO, while older smokers failed to show any change. This difference was related to the initial COHb levels of the smokers, who, when breathing this level of ambient CO, had only a 14% increase in COHb over their initial levels in contrast to the 200% increase in the nonsmokers. Smoking habits were the most influential factor affecting the cardiorespiratory responses of these older men to maximal exercise. Regardless of ambient conditions, smokers had a significantly lower (27%) aerobic power than nonsmokers, were breathing closer to their maximal breathing capacities throughout the walk, and had a higher respiratory exchange ratio. While the \(\left( {\dot VO2max} \right)\) of nonsmokers was only 6% less than that of younger nonsmoking males ( \(\bar x\) age = 25 years) working under similar conditions, the aerobic power of the older smokers was 26% lower than that of young smokers ( \(\bar x\) age = 24 years).