Delaminating myelin membranes help seal the cut ends of severed earthworm giant axons

Transected axons are often assumed to seal by collapse and fusion of the axolemmal leaflets at their cut ends. Using photomicroscopy and electronmicroscopy of fixed tissues and differential interference contrast and confocal fluorescence imaging of living tissues, we examined the proximal and distal cut ends of the pseudomyelinated medial giant axon of the earthworm, Lumbricus terrestris, at 5–60 min post-transection in physiological salines and Ca²⁺-free salines. In physiological salines, the axolemmal leaflets at the cut ends do not completely collapse, much less fuse, for at least 60 min post-transection. In fact, the axolemma is disrupted for 20–100 μm from the cut end at 5–60 min post-transection. However, a barrier to dye diffusion is observed when hydrophilic or styryl dyes are placed in the bath at 15–30 min post-transection. At 30–60 min post-transection, this barrier to dye diffusion near the cut end is formed amid an accumulation of some single-layered and many multilayered vesicles and other membranous material, much of which resembles delaminated pseudomyelin of the glial sheath. In Ca²⁺-free salines, this single and multilayered membranous material does not accumulate, and a dye diffusion barrier is not observed. These and other data are consistent with the hypothesis that plasmalemmal damage in eukaryotic cells is repaired by Ca²⁺-induced vesicles arising from invaginations or evaginations of membranes of various origin which form junctional contacts or fuse with each other and/or the plasmalemma. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Neurobiol 33: 945–960, 1997     

Ti plasmid type affects T-DNA processing in Agrobacterium tumefaciens

Agrobacterium tumefaciens can transfer the T-DNA region of a Ti plasmid to a recipient plant cell. An accepted model that describes the T-DNA transfer mechanism proposes that single-stranded T-complexes are transferred to a recipient plant via a conjugation-like mechanism. This model has been based on examination of a limited number of Ti plasmids. In this study, the type of processed T-DNA molecule created from multiple Ti plasmids was determined. The form of the processed T-DNA was found to vary and was correlated with whether the T-DNA region was organized as a single continuous region or two adjacent regions.     

The natural history of the doucs and snub-nosed monkeys

The Natural History of the Doucs and Snub-Nosed Monkeys. Edited by Nina G. Jablonski. River Edge, NJ: World Scientific. 1998. 382 pp. ISBN 981-02-3131-8. $64.00 (cloth).     

A Geospatial Comparison of Distributed Solar Heat and Power in Europe and the US

The global trends for the rapid growth of distributed solar heat and power in the last decade will likely continue as the levelized cost of production for these technologies continues to decline. To be able to compare the economic potential of solar technologies one must first quantify the types and amount of solar resource that each technology can utilize; second, estimate the technological performance potential based on that resource; and third, compare the costs of each technology across regions. In this analysis, we have performed the first two steps in this process. We use physical and empirically validated models of a total of 8 representative solar system types: non-tracking photovoltaics, 2d-tracking photovoltaics, high concentration photovoltaics, flat-plate thermal, evacuated tube thermal, concentrating trough thermal, concentrating solar combined heat and power, and hybrid concentrating photovoltaic/thermal. These models are integrated into a simulation that uses typical meteorological year weather data to create a yearly time series of heat and electricity production for each system over 12,846 locations in Europe and 1,020 locations in the United States. Through this simulation, systems composed of various permutations of collector-types and technologies can be compared geospatially and temporally in terms of their typical production in each location. For example, we see that silicon solar cells show a significant advantage in yearly electricity production over thin-film cells in the colder climatic regions, but that advantage is lessened in regions that have high average irradiance. In general, the results lead to the conclusion that comparing solar technologies across technology classes simply on cost per peak watt, as is usually done, misses these often significant regional differences in annual performance. These results have implications for both solar power development and energy systems modeling of future pathways of the electricity system.     

Unusual susceptibility of heme proteins to damage by glucose during non-enzymatic glycation

Glucose modifies the amino groups of proteins by a process of non-enzymatic glycation, leading to potentially deleterious effects on structure and function that have been implicated in the pathogenesis of diabetic complications. These changes are extremely complex and occur very slowly. We demonstrate here that hemoglobin and myoglobin are extremely susceptible to damage by glucose in vitro through a process that leads to complete destruction of the essential heme group. This process appears in addition to the expected formation of so-called advanced glycation end products (AGEs) on lysine and other side-chains. AGE formation is enhanced by the iron released. In contrast, the heme group is not destroyed during glycation of cytochrome c, where the sixth coordination position of the heme iron is not accessible to solvent ligands. Glycation leads to reduction of ferricytochrome c in this case. Since hydrogen peroxide is known to destroy heme, and the destruction observed during glycation of hemoglobin and myoglobin is sensitive to catalase, we propose that the degradation process is initiated by hydrogen peroxide formation. Damage may then occur through reaction with superoxide generated (a reductant of ferricytochrome c), or hydroxyl radicals, or with both.