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Stereotypies in Laboratory Mice — Quantitative and Qualitative Description of the Ontogeny of ‘Wire-gnawing’ and ‘Jumping’ in Zur:ICR and Zur:ICR nu

The ontogeny of two stereotypic patterns, wire-gnawing and jumping, was studied in 24 laboratory mice: six males and six females each of two closely related outbred strains, kept under standard housing conditions, a conventional albino strain (ICR) and a nude, athymic mutant (ICR nu; hereafter: NU). All 24 individuals developed wire-gnawing after weaning at 20 d of age. In ICR one female and in NU five males and three females additionally developed jumping. ICR developed wire-gnawing between the age of 20 and 30 d, in NU jumping started at the age of 20 d, but intense jumping and wire-gnawing comparable to that of ICR did not develop in NU before the age of 40–50 d. Within each strain there was no significant difference between males and females with respect to the development of stereotypic behaviour. By contrast, ICR showed significantly more wire-gnawing but less jumping than NU. Stereotypy level increased with age up to a mean of 10.7 % of total activity in ICR and up to 7.4 % in NU at 100 d of age. However, there was huge inter- and intra-individual variability with respect to all parameters assessed in this study, i.e. total duration, number of bouts and bout length of the two stereotyped patterns. Wire-gnawing developed from outside-directed explorative climbing at the cage lid, whereas the source behaviour pattern (Mason 1991 a, Anim. Behav. 41, 1015–1037) of jumping was outside-directed explorative rearing at the cage wall. At 20 d of age, before the onset of stereotypy development, ICR showed significantly more climbing but less rearing than NU. Physical retardation of NU at weaning may account for decreased climbing ability during early ontogeny, and hence for the retarded development of wire-gnawing. The difference in early experience with either of the two patterns rather than genetic effects may be responsible for the qualitative difference between the strains with respect to the form of later stereotypy.     

Effect of ethylmethanesulfonate on Chlamydomonas reinhardi

Summary Ethylmethane sulfonate (EMS) is known to cause a considerably high mutation rate in higher plants. In our experiments with Chlamydomonas reinhardi however, the mutagenic effect was unexpectedly low, whereas the toxic effect was quite remarkable. It is supposed that the reason for the low rate of mutants is the high toxicity, since non-toxic EMS concentrations induce no mutants. The toxic effect on Chlamydomonas cells is caused not only by the products of hydrolysis of the EMS, but also by the EMS itself. The damaged cells begin to bleach, furthermore they are not able to deliver their daughter cells. To a certain degree both effects are reversible. Finally it was found that the sensivity to EMS was higher in cells of the mating type — than it was in those of the+mating type.     

Analysis of the Factors Involved in the Retinoic Acid-Induced Differentiation of a Retinoid-Hypersensitive Embryonal Carcinoma Cell Mutant

Retinoic acid (RA) has been known to play an important role in cellular growth and differentiation as well as in vertebrate development. Many in vitro cell cultures also respond to RA by differentiating. Perhaps the most widely studied of these cultures are embryonal carcinoma (EC) cells. We have used an RA-hypersensitive EC cell mutant, created by retroviral insertion, to analyze the activity of the identifiable components in the RA response pathway. We have analyzed the mRNA expression patterns of the retinoic acid receptors (RARs) α, β, and γ, the retinoid X receptors (RXRs) α, β, and γ, and the cellular retinoic acid binding proteins (CRABPs) I and II. Our results indicate that CRABP I, RAR β, and RAR γ mRNAs are expressed differentially between parent and RA-hypersensitive mutant cells. All three messages are present at higher basal levels and at earlier times after RA addition in the mutant relative to parental cells. All other elements examined are equivalently expressed. Therefore analyses of the expression patterns of CRABPs, RARs, and RXRs in these RA-hypersensitive cells point to the probable importance of CRABP I, RAR β, and RAR γ in the RA induction pathway and also indicate that CRABP II and RXR γ are not likely to be critical elements in the early differentiative response of cells to RA.     

Ver?nderungen des Brutvogelbestandes im Gro?raum Bonn: Analyse der Rasterkartierung 1975 und 1985

Zusammenfassung Die Brutverbreitung der Vögel im Großraum Bonn wurde 1975 und 1985 in jeweils 221 Minutengitterfeldern von je 2,2 km² Größe kartiert. Statistisch signifikante Zunahmen besetzter Gitterfelder wurden für 9 Arten, Abnahmen für 22 Arten registriert, die z. T. auch andernorts festgestellt wurden. Unter Verwendung von Kartierungsdaten 1974–1978 konnte bei 14 Arten eine signifikante Änderung (Zunahmen: Sperber, Habicht, Singdrossel; Abnahmen: Steinschmätzer, Rebhuhn, Schafstelze, Grauammer, Mehlschwalbe, Feldsperling, Fasan, Dorngrasmücke, Hänfling, Feldlerche und Zaunkönig) nachgewiesen werden. Die Untersuchung zeigt, daß die Rasterkartierung gut geeignet ist, Aussagen über großflächige und langfristige Populationsveränderungen zu machen.

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Fluctuation of breeding populations in the area of Bonn: Analysis of grid mapping in 1975 and 1985

Summary The distribution of breeding birds in the area of Bonn was mapped in 1975 and 1985 in 221 grids of 2.2 km² size each. These data were analyzed to see whether fluctuations in the breeding populations occurred during the 11 years. It was based on the assumption that strong population changes should be reflected in the number of grids occupied by a species. Statistically significant increases were recorded for 9 species, decreases for 22 species. Taking other grid-map data from 1974 til 1978 (Wink 1980) into account, a continuous and significant trend could be established for 14 species (increase:Accipiter nisus, A. gentilis, Turdus philomelos; decrease:Oenanthe oenanthe, Perdix perdix, Motacilla flava, Emberiza calandra, Delichon urbica, Passer montanus, Phasianus colchicus, Sylvia communis, Acanthis cannabina, Alauda arvensis, Troglodytes troglodytes). This study shows that grid-mapping may provide valuable data on population trends of breeding birds.

     

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Zur Ornithologie von Nordost-Frankreich

Ohne ZusammenfassungEs ist eine wichtige Aufgabe der Zoologie, sich von jeder Abweichung innerhalb der Einheit der Art Rechenschaft zu geben. J. H. Blasius.Der faunistische Teil der Arbeit ist von Bacmeister, der systematische von Kleinschmidt verfafst. Im Text ist dies jeweils am Ende der betreffenden Abschnitte durch die Anfangsbuchstaben unserer Namen B. und K. zum Ausdruck gebracht.     

Proteolytic enzymes in Chlamydomonas I. A survey on the aminopeptidase pattern in asynchronous vegetative cells of Chlamydomonas reinhardii

The supernatant of a crude extract from vegetative cells ofChlamydomonas reinhardii contains three different types of aminopeptidases.They are similar in their substrate specificities to the relativealanine specific aminopeptidases, the relative leucine specificaminopeptidases and the specific proline iminopeptidases describedin many other systems. Relative alanine specific aminopeptidasewhich also cleaves N-terminal Lys and Leu residues has a molecularweight of 92,000 daltons and is inhibited by zinc and manganeseions.Relative leucine specific aminopeptidase shows high activitywith N-terminal Phe besides Leu, and is capable of cleavingTyr, Pro, and to a minor degree Ala. It has a molecular weightof 76,000 daltons. No effects on its activity were detectedin the presence of divalent cations or chelating agents. Theiminopeptidase specifically splits N-terminal Pro and has amolecular weight of about 255,000 daltons. All the enzymes showoptimal activity at pH 8.0–8.5. The two aminopeptidases can be separated from the iminopeptidaseby ammonium sulfate solubilization and from each other by subsequentfractionation on DEAE-cellulose. Relative leucine specific activityappeared as a single enzyme in all the fractionation techniquesused, but it gave two distinct bands when crude extracts wererun on native polyacrylamide gels. Therefore, this enzyme mayexist in multiple molecularforms. (Received October 17, 1978; )     

Non-reciprocal recombination as an explanation of aberrant segregation in Chlamydomonas reinhardi

Summary In crosses of a p-aminobencoic acid requiring mutant of Chlamydomonas reinhard with the wildtype we observed besides the expected 4:4 segregation a surprisingly high frequency of aberrant segregation, all of which preferentially led to the wildtype. The only possible explanation of this finding is a non-reciprocal recombination, as mutations, trisomy and the loss of a tetrad cell with following additional division of a sister cell can be excluded. The molecular mechanism of non-reciprocal recombinations is still unknown. Nevertheless our findings are best understood, if we accept the hybrid-DNA model of Holliday, especially because this model is not only able to explain the 5:3 and 6:2 tetrads, but also the 7:1 and 8:0 segregations which occur at a much lower rate.The frequency of non-reciprocal recombinations could be reduced by irradiating zygotes at the very beginning of the germination period. If the X-rays were applicated 61/2 hours after induction of the germination, no clear aberrant segregation could be found.The reduction of the frequency of non-reciprocal recombinations by X-rays leads to the conclusion, that the mechanism of mutation and conversion are not identical. On the other hand we known many mutagenic substances which also cause non-reciprocal recombination. Thus it can be supposed that both the mechanisms have some steps in common.     

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