Direct Cord Reading Medium for Isolation of Mycobacteria

A study of growth and colony morphology of mycobacteria was performed on 7H10 medium and compared with the same medium to which WR 1339 was added. Collection strains of human, bovine, and atypical mycobacteria, in addition to 1,199 sputa, were planted on both media. The results showed that WR 1339 modifies the growth and colony morphology of human, bovine, atypical group I, and, to a lesser degree, atypical groups II, III, and IV mycobacteria. The great majority of human and bovine strains exhibit definite cords when examined at a magnification of 100 times. The colonies are larger when WR 1339 is added, especially if there is a small number of colonies. The addition of WR 1339 spreads the growth on the surface of the agar, producing a thin but larger colony as compared with 7H10 medium alone on which the colonies grow more vertically, thus producing thick but smaller colonies. WR 1339 spreads the growth, producing thin and transparent colonies where the cords are oriented in uniplane and easily visible directly on the isolation media. Half of the positive sputum cultures were easily identified at 12 days. The presence of typical cords permits a quick screening diagnosis of species directly on the isolation media and, in most instances, elimination of the possibility of atypical or contaminating colonies.     

Kurze Mitteilungen

Zusammenfassung Ein Paar Türkentauben brütete vom 29. 1. bis 15. 2. 1966 auf einem Straßenbaum in Berlin-Tempelhof. Es wurde nur ein Ei gelegt. Nach 17 Tagen schlüpfte das gelbbedaunte Junge. Es ist dann kurz danach, wahrscheinlich beim Umherkriechen auf dem Nestrand, erfroren. Die Umstände, unter denen die Brut erfolgte, waren äußerst ungünstig. Die Temperatur lag seit dem 7. 2. 1966 dauernd unter Null (–9 und –13 Grad). Die brütende Taube hatte von Anfang an auf dem Nestrand brüten müssen, da die Mulde schon vor der Eiablage völlig mit Schnee bedeckt war. Der brütende Vogel war mehrere Tage und Nächte von einem hohen Schneewall umgeben, der sich auf dem Nest gebildet hatte. Dieses Nest wurde von Mai 1964 an viermal von einem Türkentaubenpaar zum Brüten benutzt. Es wird vermutet, daß zum mindesten der eine Partner, der Tauber, während der ganzen Zeit derselbe geblieben ist.     

A simple and reliable turbidimetric and kinetic assay for alpha-amylase that is readily applied to culture supernatants and cell extracts

Summary A simple, reliable and sensitive assay for alpha-amylase activity is reported, together with its theoretical derivation, that overcomes many of the problems encountered with other assays, especially when attempting to assay alpha-amylase activity in crude cell extracts or culture supernatants. The method relies on the reduction in turbidity that occurs upon digestion of a starch suspension with alpha-amylase. The initial rate of decrease in turbidity is shown to be proportional to a wide range of enzyme concentrations, permitting a rapid spectrophotometric and kinetic determination of alpha-amylase activity.     

Growing tobacco cells respond to rapid medium changes with a transient increase in localized Ca2+ activity

Summary A suspension of tobacco cells,Nicotiana tabacum L. BY-2, was subjected to a rapid change of medium, resulting in disturbance of growth. A subpopulation of growing cells responded to such a nutritional signal by establishing a transient, localized Ca²⁺ accumulation, as judged by chlorotetracycline fluorescence. Residing near or at the plasma membrane, this initial Ca²⁺ signal began to relax after 1 h to a value presumably corresponding to an equilibrium Ca²⁺ level. This response was susceptible to treatment with brefeldin A, an agent impacting vesicular traffic, as indicated by a further increase in fluorescence. By contrast, undisturbed growing and non-growing cells did not display a Ca²⁺ response, regardless of the presence of brefeldin A.     

Evaluation of hydroxyl radical-scavenging property of garlic

While antibiotics are broadly used in dental and medical therapy, little attention has been directed towards the potential toxic side effects of antibiotics on tissue regeneration. Here we examined the effect of a quinolone antibiotic, pefloxacin (Rhone Poulenc) on rat parotid gland responses to chronic isoproterenol treatment. Groups of rats received injections of isoproterenol to induce glandular growth, saline (controls), pefloxacin, or isoproterenol and pefloxacin in combination. Parotid gland weight decreased significantly after pefloxacin treatment for 7 days as well as inhibiting glandular enlargement provoked by isoproterenol. The same trend was observed for the rates of DNA synthesis, with the incorporation of [³H]-thymidine in isoproterenol/pefloxacin-treated rats reduced to 49% of isoproterenol treatment alone levels. Saline-treated animals were 42% of the rate of [³H]-thymidine incorporation into DNA observed in isoproterenol treated rats. While isoproterenol treatment increased steady-state mRNA levels for fos, jun, myc, src, c-erbB-2, ras and topo II, inclusion of pefloxacin with the isoproterenol regimen blocked these increases. Pefloxacin treatment by itself did not alter proto-oncogene mRNA levels in the parotid gland. Glandular amylase activity was decreased in the pefloxacin treated group, while the combination of isoproterenol with pefloxacin did not decrease glandular amylase levels to the extent of that observed with -agonist treatment alone. In acute experiments, pefloxacin significantly decreased the volume of saliva secreted by the parotid gland. These results suggest that quinolone-based antibiotics disturb the secretory function of the parotid gland and can inhibit cell proliferation and regeneration. (Mol Cell Biochem 165: 55–63, 1996)     

Analysis of peptides from known proteins: Clusterization in sequence space

A combinatorial sequence space (CSS) model was introduced to represent sequences as a set of overlapping k-tuples of some fixed length which correspond to points in the CSS. The aim was to analyze clusterization of protein sequences in the CSS and to test various hypotheses about the possible evolutionary basis of this clusterization. The authors developed an easy-to-use technique which can reveal and analyze such a clusterization in a multidimensional CSS. Application of the technique led to an unexpectedly high clusterization of points in the CSS corresponding to k-tuples from known proteins. The clusterization could not be inferred from nonuniform amino acid frequencies or be explained by the influence of homologous data. None of the tested possible evolutionary and structural factors could explain the clusterization observed either. It looked as if certain protein sequence variations occurred and were fixed in the early course of evolution. Subsequent evolution (predominantly neutral) allowed only a limited number of changes and permitted new variants which led to preservation of certain k-tuples during the course of evolution. This was consistent with the theory of exon shuffling and protein block structure evolution. Possible applications of sequence space features found were also discussed.Correspondence to: H.A. Lim