A transient voltage-dependent outward current in cultured cerebellar granules

Granule cells were dissociated from rat cerebella with a procedure that yields a 98% pure cell population. Potassium currents in these cells were studied using the patch-clamp technique. Depolarizing pulses of 10 mV step and 100 ms duration from a holding potential of –80 mV elicited two different potassium outward currents: a transient, low-voltage activated component and a long lasting, high-voltage activated component. At +30 mV, the total current reached an amplitude of 2 nA (mean value of 15 experiments). The reversal potential of the transient current, estimated by measuring tail currents, was –77 mV, close to that predicted by the Nernst equation. The transient current was half inactivated with a holding potential of –78 mV and completely inactivated with –50 mV or more positive holding potentials. Finally, the current decay could be fitted by the sum of two exponentials with time constants of about 20 and 250 ms.     

Morphological changes in the junctional complex of cells in the arachnoid layer of the rat after cold injury

Summary The junctional complexes of cells in the outer arachnoid layer overlying the cerebral cortex of 2-week-old rats were examined with freeze-fracture electron microscopy up to 60 min after transcranial cold injury to the dorsal surface of the brain. Within 30 min after injury, areas of gap and tight junctions with morphological features characteristic of junction formation and/or junction disruption were found scattered among normal junctional complexes in some arachnoid cells. Within 60 min after injury, tight junctions with features typical of less leaky zonulae occludentes were present in all arachnoid cells examined. These morphological features include increases in the number of tight junctional strands and the number of strand-to-strand anatomoses. Gap junctions were interspersed among the tight junctional strands, and many were completely encircled by the strands. The increase in the number and complexity of the tight junctional strands in response to brain injury may be the morphological basis for the maintenance of the cerebrospinal fluid-blood dural barrier.This study was supported by the National Institute of Neurological and Communicative Disorders and Stroke Grant NS20590. The opinions or assertions contained herein are the private ones of the authors and are not to be construed as official or reflecting the views of the DoD or the USUHS. The experiments reported herein were conducted according to the principles set forth in the Guide for Care and Use of Laboratory Animals, Institute of Laboratory Animal Resources, National Research Council, DHEW Pub. No. (NIH) 78-23     

Experimental evaluation of a minnow trap for small lotic fish

A minnow trap that operates in various flow regimes in streams and allows sampling of small fish from stream bed microhabitats was developed. In laboratory and field tests, the most efficient trap design for capturing and retaining various species of fish had one funnel oriented downstream, a plexiglass body, and commercial trout food as bait. These lightweight traps can be set in a wide range of current velocities and depths, and can be useful in investigations that examine the microhabitat use, diel activity patterns or population densities of small lotic fish. Guidelines for the trap's use and for quick verification of capture success in new situations are suggested.     

压脚痛阈测定法的改进和应用

本文介绍一种改进的压脚测痛法。采用电机驱动替代用手挤压橡皮球完成升压过程;通过一个自动的电路切断结构判定抽脚反应,较目视更加客观;用读数保持电路记录压力变化,较直接读取刻度值更加准确,可靠。这些优点,业经电针和吗啡镇痛实验验证。     

The problem of the acts duration measurement in relation to the “focal-animal” technique of behavioral recording

The focal-animal technique assumes the continuous recording of the behavior of an individual during a certain time interval. The length of this interval (sampling unit) can be problematic when estimating the duration of behavioral acts. Two acts from the behavioral repertoire of the ant Leptothorax fuenteiwere focused on in this work at different ranges of temporal scales. Analyzing these acts we show the possibility of existence of a sampling artifact, in such a way that the estimates of the durations of the acts would be forced to depend upon the length of the sampling unit that is being used.     

Colchicine-binding activity of carrot tubulin at different culture age

Tubulin contents in the extract from cultured carrot cells at different growth phases were investigated by measuring colchicine-binding activity. The addition of vinblastine and dithiothreitol to the reaction mixture appreciably improved the stability of both free and colchicine-bound tubulins. Colchicine-binding activity in the cell extract obtained from stationary phase was more labile than that from log phase though the extract showed higher affinity to colchicine. After purification, however, tubulin from the cells at different growth phases showed the same affinity and its colchicine-binding activity was much more stable than in crude extract. The colchicine-binding activity in the crude extract was corrected for the decay during measurement and apparent difference in the affinity so that the activity in the cells containing different kind and amount of interefering substances could be compared. The corrected amount of colchicine that binds to the 100,000×g extract was 46 pmol/10⁵ cells at log phase. It decreased with the progression of culture age from linear to stationary phase. Combining the data with the morphological observation, it was suggested that the log phase cells contained larger free tubulin pool than the linear or stationary phase cells.     

Automated carboxy-terminal sequence analysis of peptides.

Proteins and peptides can be sequenced from the carboxy-terminus with isothiocyanate reagents to produce amino acid thiohydantoin derivatives. Previous studies in our laboratory have focused on solution phase conditions for formation of the peptidylthiohydantoins with trimethylsilylisothiocyanate (TMS-ITC) and for hydrolysis of these peptidylthiohydantoins into an amino acid thiohydantoin derivative and a new shortened peptide capable of continued degradation (Bailey, J. M. & Shively, J. E., 1990, Biochemistry 29, 3145-3156). The current study is a continuation of this work and describes the construction of an instrument for automated C-terminal sequencing, the application of the thiocyanate chemistry to peptides covalently coupled to a novel polyethylene solid support (Shenoy, N. R., Bailey, J. M., & Shively, J. E., 1992, Protein Sci. I, 58-67), the use of sodium trimethylsilanolate as a novel reagent for the specific cleavage of the derivatized C-terminal amino acid, and the development of methodology to sequence through the difficult amino acid, aspartate. Automated programs are described for the C-terminal sequencing of peptides covalently attached to carboxylic acid-modified polyethylene. The chemistry involves activation with acetic anhydride, derivatization with TMS-ITC, and cleavage of the derivatized C-terminal amino acid with sodium trimethylsilanolate. The thiohydantoin amino acid is identified by on-line high performance liquid chromatography using a Phenomenex Ultracarb 5 ODS(30) column and a triethylamine/phosphoric acid buffer system containing pentanesulfonic acid. The generality of our automated C-terminal sequencing methodology was examined by sequencing model peptides containing all 20 of the common amino acids. All of the amino acids were found to sequence in high yield (90% or greater) except for asparagine and aspartate, which could be only partially removed, and proline, which was found not be capable of derivatization. In spite of these current limitations, the methodology should be a valuable new tool for the C-terminal sequence analysis of peptides.     

Community pattern analysis: A method for quantifying community mosaic structure

A method of quantifying community spatial patterns, community pattern analysis, is described. It is proposed that ordination analysis is used to obtain an integrated score for each quadrat from transect data. For the data presented here, separate ordinations were made of both floristic and environmental (soils) data. The ordination axis scores are then analysed using two or three-term local variance analysis to quantify the scales of community pattern. Correlation analyses allow the relationship between the vegetation and soils data (as represented by ordination axis scores), and other environmental data to be investigated at defined scales. The advantages of this method, that employs the joint application of conventional methods, are that it includes the influence of all species in the analysis, and that multiple uncorrelated scales of pattern within a community are identified.     

The mechanistic nature of the membrane potential dependence of sodium-sugar cotransport in small intestine

Summary Methods are described which demonstrate the use of unidirectional influx of¹⁴C-tetraphenylphosphonium (¹⁴C-TPP⁺) into isolated intestinal epithelial cells as a quantitative sensor of the magnitude of membrane potentials created by experimentally imposed ion gradients. Using this technique the quantitative relationship between membrane potential () and Na⁺-dependent sugar influx was determined for these cells at various Na⁺ and -methylglucoside (-MG) concentrations. The results show a high degree of dependence for the transport Michaelis constant but a maximum velocity for transport which is independent of . No transinhibition by intracellular sugar (40mm) can be detected. Sugar influx in the absence of Na⁺ is insensitive to 1.3mm phlorizin and independent of . The mechanistic implications of these results were evaluated using the quality of fit between calculated and experimentally observed kinetic constants for rate equations derived from several transport models. The analysis shows that for models in which translocation is the potential-dependent step the free carrier cannot be neutral. If it is anionic, the transporter must be functionally asymmetric. A model in which Na⁺ binding is the potential-dependent step (Na⁺ well concept) also provides an appropriate kinetic fit to the experimental data, and must be considered as a possible mechanistic basis for function of the system.