The natural history ofPetrobia (Tetranychina) harti (Ewing) andPetrobia (Mesotetranychus) tunisiae Manson (Acari: Tetranychidae) in the laboratory

Petrobia harti (Ewing) developed more rapidly, deposited more eggs and lived longer onOxalis corniculata than onO. articulata. No development took place on several other recorded host plants. In the field this mite was most abundant during early summer. Males made up less than 10% of the population, and no diapause eggs were seen in the field.Petrobia tunisiae Manson developed on various winter Gramineae, produced about 17 non-diapause eggs during its first generation and mostly diapause eggs in the second. A few diapause eggs kept in the laboratory and dipped in chloroform hatched even after 3 years. A summer diapause is postulated for this species.     

The role of the cytosolic fraction and of initiation factor eIF-2 for changes of the rate of protein synthesis during liver regeneration

The protein synthesis-stimulating activity of the cytosolic fraction from regenerating rat liver was tested in a cell-free system using washed polysomes from normal rat liver. This activity undergoes significant changes during liver regeneration after partial hepatectomy (p.h.). An initial decrease until 16 h after p.h. is followed by a significant increase until 24 h after p.h. Beyond 32 h after p.h. the activity begins to decline again. Evidence is presented that these changes of the cytosolic activity may not be due to alterations in the distribution of protein synthesis-stimulating factors between the microsomal and the cytosolic fraction. The Met-tRNAf-binding activity of the cytosolic fraction changes during liver regeneration analogously to the protein synthesis-stimulating activity measured in the polysomal assay. This indicates that initiation factor eIF-2 is involved in the observed changes of the cytosolic activity. This conclusion could be confirmed by addition of purified eIF-2 to the polysomal assay system. Addition of eIF-2 to cytosolic fractions of low endogenous protein synthesis-stimulating activity (16 h after p.h.) enhances amino-acid incorporation to a significantly higher extent than addition to highly active cytosolic fractions (24 h and 32 h after p.h.). From these results it is concluded that changes in eIF-2 plays an essential role in the described alterations of the cytosolic activities during liver regeneration.     

Influence of chain shortening on the inhibitor properties of hirudin and eglin c

To find out minimal sizes of the proteinase inhibitor proteins hirudin and eglin necessary for their biological activity the inhibitors were incubated with exopeptidases. From the incubation mixtures shortened derivatives were isolated and characterized. Eglin c can be N-terminally shortened by up to 6 amino-acid residues without any loss of affinity towards chymotrypsin. The complex of thrombin with hirudin lacking 3 C-terminal amino-acid residues showed a 15-20-fold increased Ki value as found previously for desulfato-hirudin and desulfato-hirudin shortened by 2 amino-acid residues. Obviously, the C-terminal part of the hirudin molecule has a positive influence on its affinity to thrombin.     

One antigen, one gold? A quantitative analysis of immunogold labeling of plasma membrane 5'-nucleotidase in frozen thin sections

We present an evaluation of the efficiency of immunogold labeling for a low abundance plasma membrane protein. Several independent methods were used to determine the density of 5'-nucleotidase on the plasma membrane of the Fao cell. These methods include morphometry in combination with either enzymology or cell surface radiometric assay. Immunocytochemistry of frozen thin sections with either single or double layers of antibody and visualized with protein A complexed with 5 nm colloidal gold was used to estimate the same density. The application of a balance sheet to immunogold labeling demonstrates that the labeling is never quantitative. For example, labeling of the cell surface is always greater than labeling on the section. We show that departures from the "one antigen, one gold" ideal are systematic, so that an efficiency can be calculated and quantitative results can be obtained. The ability to obtain reliable quantitative results from immunogold labeling extends the utility of this already powerful technique.     

Determination of “active” cytochrome P-450 from relaxation kinetics of product formation

We estimate the active part of cytochrome P-450, which is involved in a special substrate transformation, by measuring the initial change of the production rate as a function of the relaxation transitions between two different steady states of the reaction cycle of cytochrome P-450 using the light-reversibility of the carbon monoxide inhibition. The kinetic data of such relaxations are interpreted within a model cycle, which reduces the reaction cycle to three steps. The estimation of the rate constant of the first reduction step, derived from model simulation of the production rate, is confirmed by independent experimental study of the reduction kinetics.An application of our model to the O-deethylation of 7-ethoxycoumarin reveals that — in a time average — 10%–15% of the spectroscopically detectable cytochrome P-450 is involved in that transformation.Abbreviations Cyt. P-450 microsomal cytochrome P-450 - 7-EC 7-ethoxycoumarin     

The infectivity and purification of cultured Plasmodium berghei ookinetes

Plasmodium berghei ookinetes were cultured from hamster blood as described previously (Kurtti and Munderloh, 1986). An average of 7.3 X 10(6) ookinetes was harvested from each ml of blood. Ookinetes were purified by centrifugation on first a 40% and then a 36% Percoll gradient. The final preparation comprised 32.8% of the ookinetes initially obtained, and contained 3.3 other parasite stages or blood cells per ookinete. Unpurified and purified ookinetes were resuspended in hamster blood and fed to Anopheles stephensi. There was a strong linear correlation between the concentration of purified or unpurified ookinetes and the number of oocysts formed. With unpurified ookinetes, a maximum was reached when preparations containing 1 X 10(7) ookinetes/ml were fed, and feeding preparations containing a higher concentration did not produce more oocysts. Sporozoites were found in the salivary glands of mosquitoes fed ookinetes by days 14 (unpurified) or 15 (purified) PI. Approximately 5 times as many purified as unpurified ookinetes were required to produce each oocyst.     

Influence of pre- and post-copulatory pair contact on pregnancy success in Djungarian hamsters, Phodopus campbelli

Females housed with their mates for 3 or 4 days before mating took place (i.e. early in the oestrous cycle at the time of introduction to the mate) were significantly more likely to litter than were females housed with their mates for only 1 or 2 days before mating. The duration of post-copulatory pair contact had a complex effect on pregnancy success. While only 41% of females littered when they had 24 h of post-copulatory pair contact, females exposed to either longer or shorter durations of post-copulatory pair contact littered at significantly higher rates. Exposure to a strange male 24-48 h after mating did not produce a strange-male induced pregnancy block. The critical parameter responsible for the decrease in the number of females littering was the absence of the mate, irrespective of the presence or absence of a strange male. If this pattern of pregnancy block is adaptive for females, it seems probable that females in the wild require substantial levels of paternal investment by their mates.     

Effects of stress and beta-funal trexamine pretreatment on morphine analgesia and opioid binding in rats

This study was essentially an in vivo protection experiment designed to test further the hypothesis that stress induces release of endogenous opioids which then act at opioid receptors. Rats that were either subjected to restraint stress for 1 hr or unstressed were injected ICV with either saline or 2.5 micrograms of beta-funaltrexamine (beta-FNA), an irreversible opioid antagonist that alkylates the mu-opioid receptor. Twenty-four hours later, subjects were tested unstressed for morphine analgesia (tail-flick assay) or were sacrificed and opioid binding in brain was determined. [3H]D-Ala2NMePhe4-Gly5(ol)enkephalin (DAGO) served as a specific ligand for mu- opioid receptors, and [3H]-bremazocine as a general ligand for all opioid receptors. Rats injected with saline while stressed were significantly less sensitive to the analgesic action of morphine 24 hr later than were their unstressed counterparts. Beta-FNA pretreatment attenuated morphine analgesia in an insurmountable manner. Animals pretreated with beta-FNA while stressed were significantly more sensitive to the analgesic effect of morphine than were animals that received beta-FNA while unstressed, consistent with the hypothesis that stress induces release of endogenous opioids that would protect opioid receptors from alkylation by beta-FNA. beta-FNA caused small and similar decreases in [3H]-DAGO binding in brain of both stressed and unstressed animals. Stressed rats injected with saline tended to have increased levels of [3H]DAGO and [3H]-bremazocine binding compared to the other groups. This outcome may be relevant to the tolerance to morphine analgesia caused by stress.