Lichen-forming fungi, in symbiotic associations with algae, frequently have
nuclear small subunit ribosomal DNA (SSU rDNA) longer than the 1,800
nucleotides typical for eukaryotes. The lichen-forming ascomycetous fungus
Lecanora dispersa contains insertions at eight distinct positions of its
SSU rDNA; the lichen-forming fungi Calicium tricolor and Porpidia
crustulata each contain one insertion. Insertions are not limited to fungi
that form lichens; the lichen ally Mycocalicium albonigrum also contains
two insertions. Of the 11 insertion positions now reported for
lichen-forming fungi and this ally, 6 positions are known only from
lichen-forming fungi. Including the 4 newly reported in this study,
insertions are now known from at least 17 positions among all reported SSU
rDNA sequences. Insertions, most of which are Group I introns, are reported
in fungal and protistan lineages and occur at corresponding positions in
genomes as phylogenetically distant as the nuclei of fungi, green algae,
and red algae. Many of these positions are exposed in the mature rRNA
tertiary structure and may be subject to independent insertion of introns.
Insertion of introns, accompanied by their sporadic loss, accounts for the
scattered distribution of insertions observed within the SSU rDNA of these
diverse organisms.
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The brush border, isolated from chicken intestine epithelial cells, contains the 95,000 relative molecular mass (M(r)) polypeptide, villin. This report describes the purification and characterization of villin as a Ca(++)-dependent, actin bundling/depolymerizing protein. Then 100,000 g supernatant from a Ca(++) extract of isolated brush borders is composed of three polypeptides of 95,000 (villin), 68,000 (fimbrin), and 42,000 M(r) (actin). Villin, following purification from this extract by differential ammonium sulfate precipitation and ion-exchange chromatography, was mixed with skeletal muscle F-actin. Electron microscopy of negatively stained preparations of these villin-actin mixtures showed that filament bundles were present. This viscosity, sedimentability, and ultrastructural morphology of filament bundles are dependent on the villin:actin molar ratio, the pH, and the free Ca(++) concentration in solution. At low free Ca(++) (less than 10(-6) M), the amount of protein in bundles, when measured by sedimentation, increased as the villin: actin molar ratio increased and reached a plateau at approximately a 4:10 ratio. This behavior correlates with the conversion of single actin filaments into filament bundles as detected in the electron microscope. At high free Ca(++) (more than 10(-6) M), there was a decrease in the apparent viscosity in the villin-actin mixtures to a level measured for the buffer. Furthermore, these Ca(++) effects were correlated with the loss of protein sedimented, the disappearance of filament bundles, and the appearance of short fragments of filaments. Bundle formation is also pH-sensitive, being favored at mildly acidic pH. A decrease in the pH from 7.6 to 6.6 results in an increase in sedimentable protein and also a transformation of loosly associated actin filaments into compact actin bundles. These results are consistent with the suggestions that villin is a bundling protein in the microvillus and is responsible for the Ca(++)-sensitive disassembly of the microvillar cytoskeleton. Thus villin may function in the cytoplasm as a major cytoskeletal element regulating microvillar shape. 相似文献
We employed a genetic approach to study protein glycosylation in the
procyclic form of the parasite Trypanosoma brucei. Two different mutant
parasites, ConA 1-1 and ConA 4-1, were isolated from mutagenized cultures
by selecting cells which resisted killing or agglutination by concanavalin
A. Both mutant cells show reduced concanavalin A binding. However, the
mutants have different phenotypes, as indicated by the fact that ConA 1-1
binds to wheat germ agglutinin but ConA 4-1 and wild type do not. A blot
probed with concanavalin A revealed that many proteins in both mutants lost
the ability to bind this lectin, and the blots resembled one of wild type
membrane proteins treated with PNGase F. This finding suggested that the
mutants had altered asparagine- linked glycosylation. This conclusion was
confirmed by studies on a flagellar protein (Fla1) and procyclic acidic
repetitive protein (PARP). Structural analysis indicated that the N- glycan
of wild type PARP is exclusively Man5GlcNAc2 whereas that in both mutants
is predominantly a hybrid type with a terminal N- acetyllactosamine. The
occupancy of the PARP glycosylation site in ConA 4-1 was much lower than
that in ConA 1-1. These mutants will be useful for studying trypanosome
glycosylation mechanisms and function.
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The Public Health Service policy, Animal Welfare Act regulations, and the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals all require that institutions provide training for personnel engaged in animal research. Most research facilities have developed training programs to meet these requirements but may not have developed ways of assessing the effectiveness of these programs. Omission of this critical activity often leads to training that is ineffective, inefficient, or unnecessary. Evaluating the effectiveness of biomedical research and animal care training should involve a combination of assessments of performance, competence and knowledge, and appropriate tests for each type of knowledge, used at appropriate time intervals. In this article, the hierarchical relationship between performance, competence, and knowledge is described. The discussion of cognitive and psychomotor knowledge includes the important distinction between declarative and procedural knowledge. Measurement of performance is described and can include a variety of indirect and direct measurement techniques. Each measurement option has its own profile of strengths and weaknesses in terms of measurement validity, reliability, and costs of development and delivery. It is important to understand the tradeoffs associated with each measurement option, and to make appropriate choices of measurement strategy based on these tradeoffs arrayed against considerations of frequency, criticality, difficulty of learning, logistics, and budget. The article concludes with an example of how these measurement strategies can be combined into a cost-effective assessment plan for a biomedical research facility. 相似文献
25 aromatic carboxylic acids which are analogs of benzoic acid were tested in the rat diaphragm preparation for effects on chloride conductance (G(Cl)). Of the 25, 19 were shown to reduce membrane G(Cl) with little effect on other membrane parameters, although their apparent K(i) varied widely. This inhibition was reversible if exposure times were not prolonged. The most effective analog studied was anthracene-9-COOH (9-AC; K(i) = 1.1 x 10(-5) M). Active analogs produced concentration-dependent inhibition of a type consistent with interaction at a single site or group of sites having similar binding affinities, although a correlation could also be shown between lipophilicity and K(i). Structure-activity analysis indicated that hydrophobic ring substitution usually increased inhibitory activity while para polar substitutions reduced effectiveness.
These compounds do not appear to inhibit G(Cl) by altering membrane surface charge and the inhibition produced is not voltage dependent. Qualitative characteristics of the I-V relationship for Cl(-) current are not altered. Conductance to all anions is not uniformly altered by these acids as would be expected from steric occlusion of a common channel. Concentrations of 9-AC reducing G(Cl) by more than 90 percent resulted in slight augmentation of G(I). The complete conductance sequence obtained at high levels of 9-AC was the reverse of that obtained under control conditions. Permeability sequences underwent progressive changes with increasing 9-AC concentration and ultimately inverted at high levels of the analog. Aromatic carboxylic acids appear to inhibit G(Cl) by binding to a specific intramembrane site and altering the selectivity sequence of the membrane anion channel.
Evolutionary theory suggests that the selection pressure on parasites to maximize their transmission determines their optimal
host exploitation strategies and thus their virulence. Establishing the adaptive basis to parasite life history traits has
important consequences for predicting parasite responses to public health interventions. In this study we examine the extent
to which malaria parasites conform to the predicted adaptive trade-off between transmission and virulence, as defined by mortality.
The majority of natural infections, however, result in sub-lethal virulent effects (e.g. anaemia) and are often composed of
many strains. Both sub-lethal effects and pathogen population structure have been theoretically shown to have important consequences
for virulence evolution. Thus, we additionally examine the relationship between anaemia and transmission in single and mixed
clone infections. 相似文献
Members of the ZFY and ZNF6 gene families have been cloned from species
representing different taxa and different modes of sex determination.
Comparisons of these genes show the ZFY-like and ZNF6 sequences to be
strongly conserved across marsupials, birds, and lepidosaurians. Sequence
analyzed by neighbor-joining indicated that both gene families are
monophyletic with a high bootstrap value. Pairing of sequences from males
and females of nonmammalian species showed there to be no significant
difference between male and female sequences from a single species,
consistent with autosomal locations. The molecular distances between murine
Zfy-1, Zfy-2, and other ZFY-like sequences suggested that Zfy genes have
undergone a period of rapid evolutionary change not seen in human ZFY.
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The matrix metalloproteinase family in humans comprises 23 enzymes, which are involved in many biological processes and diseases. It was previously thought that these enzymes acted only to degrade components of the extracellular matrix, but this view has changed with the discovery that non-extracellular-matrix molecules are also substrates. 相似文献