The use of several energy-coupling reactions in characterizing mutants of Escherichia coli K12 defective in oxidative phosphorylation.

Oxidative phosphorylation, ATP-32Pi exchange, ATP-dependent quenching of acridine-dye fluorescence, ATP-dependent transhydrogenase and ATP-dependent transport of thiomethyl beta-D-galactoside are shown to be experimentally equivalent tools to study the functional state of the ATPase complex in Escherichia coli wild-type and mutant strains defective in oxidative phosphorylation. According to these criteria ten mutants in the ATPase complex were classified having lesions in the unc A,B region of the chromosome. The first mutant type lacks ATPase activity, but the membrane-integrated part of the complex remains functional (class I). The second mutant type lacks a functional membrane-integrated part, but retains ATPase activity (class II). The third mutant type is shown to be defective in both parts of the ATPase complex (class III).     

Range expansion of the greater white-toothed shrewCrocidura russula in Switzerland results in local extinction of the bicoloured white-toothed shrewC. leucodon

The distribution limits ofCrocidura russula (Hermann, 1780) andC. leucodon (Hermann, 1780) were investigated during an interval of 25 years in the bottom of the Rhone valley above Lake Geneva, Switzerland (total data set: 105 spatio-temporal occurrences, 1137 shrews). In 1975, the contact zone between the two species was situated in the region of Martigny. In 1999/2000, new sampling revealed three results: (1) The contact zone showed an upward shift of about 25 km. (2) In the expanded range ofC. russula, the resident species has totally disappeared (confirmed by owl pellets analysis). (3) This demonstrates a dominance ofC. russula overC. leucodon. Three hypotheses which may explain the range expansion ofC. russula were evaluated: (1) habitat modification favouring linear dispersal due to the construction of a highway; (2) temporal event favoured by climate fluctuations, or (3) ongoing postglacial colonisation of Europe. Hypothesis 1 was rejected, because the progression of the shrews anticipated the construction. Hypothesis 3 received only weak support because range limits ofC. russula in the region of Nice have been stable for thousands of years. Therefore hypothesis 2, admitting that ongoing climate change has facilitated range expansion, is the most probable.     

Characterization of proteoglycans from adult bovine tendon

Proteoglycans were extracted in good yield from the proximal, fibrous portion of adult bovine tendon with 4 m guanidine HCl. They comprise less than 1% of the dry weight of the tissue. Using CsCl density gradient centrifugation, gel chromatography, and ion exchange chromatography, two populations of proteoglycans were separated and purified from other tissue proteins. One was a large, chondroitin sulfate proteoglycan with high buoyant density in CsCl. This component appeared to be composed of two or three subpopulations as detected by agarose/polyacrylamide electrophoresis, although they could not be effectively separated from one another for individual characterization. As a group, the large proteoglycans eluted from Sepharose CL-2B with Kav from 0.1-0.5 and their core protein had Mr greater than 200,000 with high contents of glutamic acid, serine, and glycine. The glycosaminoglycan chains had a weight average Mr of 17,000 and more than 98% of the uronic acid was glucuronic acid. This group comprised only 12% of the total proteoglycan of the tissue. The other 88% of the proteoglycans appeared to represent one group of small molecules that eluted from Sepharose CL-2B at Kav = 0.70. They demonstrated buoyant densities in a CsCl gradient ranging from greater than or equal to 1.51 to 1.30 g/ml. Their core protein had an apparent Mr = 48,000 following removal of the glycosaminoglycan chains by digestion with chondroitinase ABC. This core protein had a particularly high content of aspartic acid/asparagine and leucine. The glycosaminoglycan chains had a weight average Mr of 37,000 and were dermatan sulfate containing 73% iduronic acid. Those molecules found at highest buoyant density appeared to have additional glycosaminoglycan chains that were shorter. Proteoglycans were also extracted from the pressure-bearing distal region of this tendon, where contents of proteoglycan per wet weight of tissue were 3-fold higher and as much as 50% of this was as large as the large proteoglycans from the proximal tissue. Preparations of large proteoglycans from both tendon regions contained molecules capable of interacting with hyaluronic acid.     

8-Oxoguanine DNA-glycosylase repair activity and expression: a comparison between cryopreserved isolated lymphocytes and EBV-derived lymphoblastoid cell lines

Several lines of evidence suggest an association between oxidative DNA-damage repair capacity and cancer risk. In particular, a DNA-glycosylase assay for removal of 8-oxoguanine (8-oxoG) in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) has been successfully applied to identify populations with increased risk for lung cancer and squamous cell carcinomas of head and neck. In order to verify whether EBV-transformed lymphoblastoid cell lines (LCL) are a suitable surrogate for PBMC in specific DNA-repair phenotypic assays, a validation trial was conducted. PBMC from 20 healthy subjects were collected and an aliquot was transformed with EBV to obtain LCL. The ability of cell-free extracts from both cell types to incise a 3'-fluorescently labelled duplex oligonucleotide containing a single 8-oxoG (OGG assay) was evaluated. Since this activity is mediated predominantly by OGG1, the OGG1 gene expression was also measured. 8-oxoG DNA-glycosylase activity and OGG1 expression were significantly higher (p<0.0001) in LCL than in PBMC. However, while this assay was shown to be robust and reproducible when used on PBMC (intra-assay CV=8%), a high intra-culture variability was observed with LCL (intra-culture CV=16.8%). Neither differences on OGG1 gene expression nor the cell-cycle distribution seemed to account for this variability. Inter-individual variability of OGG activity in PBMC and LCL was not associated with OGG1 gene expression. We have therefore established a non-radioactive cleavage assay that can be easily applied to measure OGG activity in human PBMC. The use of LCL for DNA-repair genotype-phenotype correlation studies seems to be inappropriate, at least with cell-free based functional assays.