Characterization of Encephalitozoon (Septata) intestinalis Isolates Cultured from Nasal Mucosa and Bronchoalveolar Lavage Fluids of Two AIDS Patients

ABSTRACT. Microsporidia are obligate intracellular protozoan parasites that can cause opportunistic infections in AIDS patients. Species from five genera of microsporidia are presently known to infect man. One species, Septata intestinalis originally was detected in stool specimens of individuals with chronic diarrhea and subsequently was found to disseminate to the kidneys, lungs, and nasal sinuses. This organism has since been reclassified as Encephalitozoon and in this study, we report the culture of Encephalitozoon intestinalis from a bronchoalveolar lavage specimen and a nasal mucus aspirate of two AIDS patients living in the USA. The bronchoalveolar and nasal microsporidian isolates grew in several continuous cell lines including RK-13, MDCK, HT-29, Caco-2, Vero, and 1047. Transmission electron microscopy of the clinical and cell culture specimens revealed that the new isolates appeared to be E. intestinalis based on morphology and growth of organisms in septated membrane-bound parasitophorous vacuoles. The new E. intestinalis isolates were characterized and compared with the first isolated E. intestinalis that was cultured from stool to confirm their identity and to determine if there existed any minor differences, as seen in the closely related Encephalitozoon cuniculi strains. By the methods of sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis staining for proteins and carbohydrates, Western blot immunodetection, and polymerase chain reaction-based methods with restriction endonuclease digestion, double-stranded DNA heteroduplex mobility shift analysis, and DNA sequencing of the ribosomal DNA intergenic spacer region, the new isolates were identical to each other and to the reference isolate of E. intestinalis. In addition, with any of these methods, the E. intestinalis organisms could be distinguished from the three E. cuniculi strains, Encephalitozoon hellem, and Vittaforma corneae, which is important for diagnostics, therapeutic strategies, and epidemiology.     

Preliminary estimates of the population density of the Sokoke scops owl Otus ireneae Ripley in the East Usambara lowlands, Tanzania

Preliminary population density estimates are presented for a recently discovered population of the Sokoke scops owl Otus ireneae in the lowlands of the East Usambara mountains, Tanzania. Calling birds were mapped at two sites totalling 6·3 km². Approximate densities were 3–4 territories/km² in Kwamgumi Forest Reserve and <1·5 territories/km² in Manga Forest Reserve, a much more heavily logged site. Densities in prime habitat in Arabuko‐Sokoke forest, Kenya, the only other locality for the species, exceed seven territories/km². The total population in the East Usambaras cannot be calculated, but it is probably markedly smaller than in Arabuko‐Sokoke. Suggestions for more precise surveys are made.     

Studies on Auxin Protectors XII. Auxin Protectors and Polyphenol Oxidase in Developing Coffee Fruit

The fruit of the coffee plant (Coffea arabica) was analyzed for auxin protector content. Ripe coffee berries were separated into pit and pulp, ground in buffer, and assayed for auxin protectors. The extracts were then subjected to gel filtration in order to determine the molecular weight of the protector(s). In the pit, a single protector was found with a molecular weight approaching 5000 daltons, while the pulp contained several auxin protectors, the largest of which appeared to be about 1000 daltons. Chromato-graphic studies of various gel filtration fractions showed that protector activity was always associated with spots which exhibited a light blue fluorescence under UV. The changing patterns during coffee fruit development were also investigated. Auxin protector production, and polyphenol oxidase (E.C. 1.10.3.1), an enzyme related to protector metabolism, were assayed at weekly intervals. In the unripe berry, an auxin protector was found with a molecular weight exceeding 200,000 daltons; as the berry ripened the amount of this protector gradually decreased until almost none was present in the ripe berry and the pattern changed to the pattern described above. Polyphenol oxidase content decreased as the berry ripened. Commercially roasted pits, i.e., coffee “beans”, contained very high levels of protector activity. However, gel filtration studies showed this activity to be associated entirely with low molecular weight compounds.     

Enzyme Activities Associated with Carbon Dioxide Exchange in Illuminated Leaves of Hordeum vulgare L.: III. Effects of Concentration and Form of Nitrogen Supplied on Carbon Dioxide Compensation Point

Increasing the nitrate concentration in the nutrient media wasfound not to influence the carbon dioxide compensation point(). However, a higher value of was obtained in the presenceof ammonia nitrogen in the nutrient media. Increasing the nitrateconcentration in the media gave a higher activity of RuDP carboxylase,nitrate reductase, glycollate oxidase, and catalase. Similarlythe plants grown in ammonia nitrogen showed higher activitiesof RuDP carboxylase and catalase, and a considerably higherglycollate oxidase activity.     

Establishment and development of patch reefs in the intracratonic Ordovician sequence near Chicoutimi, Quebec

Patch reefs occur near the top of the transgressive sequence of Ordovician Trenton Group limestones in the Chicoutimi area of Quebec, eastern Canada. Despite their small sue, these reefs comprise diverse assemblages dominated by bryozoans, corals, stromatoporoids and receptaculitid algae. Pelmatozoans and gastropods are also conspicuous. The reefs were initiated and grew in a fully marine, open shelf setting. Available substrates varied from loose skeletal lenses to soft, firm or hardened bioturbated wackestones, and the earliest stages of reef growth reflect this heterogeneity. Loose or less firm substrates were colonised by bryozoans and pelmatozoans and/or by receptaculitids, which, together with accessory organisms, stabilised the sediments and provided the basis for further reef development. The resultant firmer, slightly elevated substrates provided sites for attachment of stromatoporoids and colonial corals which spread over earlier reef organisms and sediments and dominated the later stages of reef growth. On hardened areas of sediment, stromatoporoids and corals colonised the surface directly and the early stabilising stage of reef growth is absent. The compositions and developmental stages of these Trenton Group reefs are comparable with those seen in broadly contemporaneous and often larger reefs elsewhere, and are among the earliest in which corals played an important role.     

Sources of Inorganic Carbon Acquired through CAM in Littorella uniflora (L.) Aschers

Madsen, T. V. 1987. Sources of inorganic carbon acquired throughCAM in Littorella uniflora (L.) Aschers.—J. exp. Bot.38: 367–377. The CO₂ dynamics of the lacunal air and the relative contributionof external and internal CO₂ sources to dark CO₂ assimilationwas examined in the submerged aquatic CAM species Littorellauniflora (L.) Aschers. Refixation of internal CO₂, released by dark respiration, constitutedabout 30–35% of the total dark CO₂ assimilation. At aCO₂ concentration of 0·2 mol m^–3 around the leavesthe external CO₂ uptake through the roots increased from 45%of the total CO₂ uptake at 0·7 mol m^–3 CO₂ to 100%at 1·6 mol m^–3 and 3·1 mol m^–3 CO₂around the roots. The negligible importance of leaf CO₂ uptakeat high CO₂ concentrations around the roots was the result ofa causative high CO₂ concentration in the leaf lacunae. The CO₂ permeability of Littorella leaves was high relativeto root permeability. This has at least two ecological implications:(1) it enhances the potential diffusive release of CO₂ fromthe sediment C0₂-pool via the lacunal system of the plants.This loss of CO₂, however, was found to be greatly reduced byCAM activity of the plants. (2) The high permeability of theleaf surface to CO₂ exchange allows the plants to assimilateCO₂ from the water surrounding the leaves when the concentrationis high, i.e. during extensive epiphyte dark respiration. Thus,CAM tends to facilitate retension of a high CO₂ pool in thesediment-plant system and at the same time allows the plantsto exploit the water column CO₂ source when it is abundant.This result is in accordance with the general idea that CAMin aquatics constitute a carbon conserving mechanism. Key words: Aquatic macrophytes, dark CO₂ assimilation, inorganic carbon sources     

The stem of Pachypteris papillosa (Thomas & Bose) Harris

Pachypteris papulosa (Thomas & Bose) Harris, leaves of a pteridosperm, are locally abundant in the Middle Jurassic of Yorkshire. Microsporophylls too are known but the stem has been represented only by a few puzzling fragments. Better-preserved stem material is now described. When young the stems were thick (up to 15 mm) and largely composed of soft parenchyma and thus succulent. The leaves are borne sparsely, each at the end of a prominent mamilla. The stem surface is covered by hemispherical emergences with a thickly cutinized epidermis which, when isolated, are beret-shaped. This cuticle is the only robust part of the young stem.
Later the stem formed a thick cylinder of wood and the surface was stretched. A new surface i presumed to be cork), was formed and the 'berets' and mamillac were lost. Branching occurs at distant intervals, when the stem divides nearly equally into widely diverging parts.
Pachypteris papillosa is pictured as a large shrub forming a mangrove-like thicket along tidal rivers.     

The minute books of the Linnean Club, from 1811 to 1955

Sometime during the early spring of 1970 I was asked to write an account of our old minute books and was given a large box containing many books and sundry papers. All the old books were there and in good condition, except the first–1811 to 1815. So I wrote a report lamenting the absence of this book, but afterwards it turned up. It had never been lost, but being rather different from all the others it was not recognized. I now think this was rather fortunate, for the first book which is the most interesting, deserves ampler treatment. My report is kept strictly on the books, and only very occasionally have I drawn on information from the Society's records, or from the introduction to the list of the Club compiled by H. W. Monckton in 1922, using the Society's records.