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1.
Blue jays consume large quantities of acorns to fuel energy-demanding caching flights in the fall. Yet blue jays possess no known physiological adaptation to counter the negative effects of a high tannin diet on protein digestion. Dietary experiments were conducted to determine if blue jays could subsist on an acorn-only diet, and if they could not, to determine whether supplements of acorn weevil larvae (Curculio), present inside acorns, enabled them to maintain their mass. Comparative tannin assays also were conducted on Lepidobalanus (low tannin; white oak) and Erythrobalanus (high tannin; pin oak) acorns using radial diffusion assay. Captive jays consumed considerable acorn material, yet were unable to maintain mass on ad lib. acorn-only diets or on an acorn +1.5 g larvae/day supplement. There were no significant differences in mass loss between high and low tannin diets. In contrast, blue jays were able to stabilize mass on a diet of acorns +5.0 g larvae supplement/day. These results suggest that acorn weevil larvae, or perhaps other insects, counteract the effects of acorn tannins in the jay diet allowing jays to subsist largely on acorns during the fall caching season. Oak demographic processes may be partly regulated by a tri-trophic relationship among plant, insect and bird. Acorn weevil larvae, considered damaging to oak populations, may actually facilitate oak recruitment and population vagility in the long-term. 相似文献
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The Drosophila melanogaster gene flightless-I, involved in gastrulation and
muscle degeneration, has Caenorhabditis elegans and human homologues. In
these highly conserved genes, two previously known gene families have been
brought together, families encoding the actin- binding proteins related to
gelsolin and the leucine-rich-repeat (LRR) group of proteins involved in
protein-protein interactions. Both these gene families exhibit
characteristics of molecular changes involving replication slippage and
exon shuffling. Phylogenetic analyses of 19 amino acid sequences of 6
related protein types indicate that actin- associated proteins related to
gelsolin are monophyletic to a common ancestor and include flightless
proteins. Conversely, comparison of 24 amino acid sequences of LRR proteins
including the flightless proteins indicates that flightless proteins are
members of a structurally related subgroup. Included in the flightless
cluster are human and mouse rsp-1 proteins involved in suppressing v-Ras
transformation of cells and the membrane-associated yeast (Saccharomyces
cerevisae) adenylate cyclase whose analogous LRRs are required for
interaction with Ras proteins. There is a strong possibility that ligands
for this group could be related and that flightless may have a similar role
in Ras signal transduction. It is hypothesized that an ancestral monomeric
gelsolin precursor protein has undergone at least four independent gene
reorganization events to account for the structural diversity of the extant
family of gelsolin-related proteins and that gene duplication and exon
shuffling events occurred prior to or at the beginning of multicellular
life, resulting in the evolution of some members of the family soon after
the appearance of actin-type proteins.
相似文献
3.
Magnesium-induced inner membrane aggregation in heart mitochondria: prevention and reversal by carboxyatractyloside and bongkrekic acid 下载免费PDF全文
Mg(2+) at an optimal concentration of 2mM (ph 6.5) induces large increases (up to 30 percent) in the optical density of bovine heart mitochondria incubated under conditions of low ionic strength (< approx. 0.01). The increases are associated with aggregation (sticking together) of the inner membranes and are little affected by changes in the energy status of the mitochondria. Virtually all of a number of other polyvalent cations tested and Ag(+) induce increases in mitochondrial optical density similar to those induced by Mg(2+), their approximate order of concentration effectiveness in respect to Mg(2+) being: La(3+) > Pb(2+) = Cu(2+) > Cd(2+) > Zn(2+) > Ag(+) > Mn(2+) > Ca(2+) > Mg(2+). With the exception of Mg(2+), all of these cations appear to induce swelling of the mitochondria concomitant with inner membrane aggregation. The inhibitors of the adenine nucleotide transport reaction carboxyatratyloside and bongkrekic acid are capable of preventing and reversing Mg(2+)-induced aggregation at the same low concentration required for complete inhibition of phosphorylating respiration, suggesting that they inhibit the aggregation by binding to the adenine nucleotide carrier. The findings are interpreted to indicate (a) that the inner mitochondrial membrane is normally prevented from aggregating by virtue of its net negative outer surface change, (b) that the cations induce the membrane to aggregate by binding at its outer surface, decreasing the net negative charge, and (c) that carboxyatractyloside and bongkrekic acid inhibit the aggregation by binding to the outer surface of the membrane, increasing the net negative charge. 相似文献
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In situ hybridization of Drosophila melanogaster somatic chromosomes has been used to demonstrate the near exact correspondence between the location of highly repetitious DNA and classically defined constitutive heterochromatin. The Y chromosome, in particular, is heavily labeled even by cRNA transcribed from female (XX) DNA templates (i.e., DNA from female Drosophila with 2 Xs and 2 sets of autosomes). This observation confirms earlier reports that the Y chromosome contains repeated DNA sequences that are shared by other chromosomes. In grain counting experiments the Y chromosome shows significantly heavier label than any other chromosome when hybridized with cRNA from XY DNA templates (i.e., DNA from male Drosophila with 1 X and 1 Y plus 2 sets of autosomes). However, the preferential labeling of the Y is abolished if the cRNA is derived from XX DNA. We interpret these results as indicating the presence of a class of Y chromosome specific repeated DNA in D. melanogaster. The relative inefficiency of the X chromosome in binding cRNA from XY and XYY DNA templates, coupled with its ability to bind XX derived cRNA, may also indicate the presence of an X chromosome specific repeated DNA. 相似文献
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Proprotein convertases regulate activity of prostate epithelial cell differentiation markers and are modulated in human prostate cancer cells 总被引:1,自引:0,他引:1
Uchida K Chaudhary LR Sugimura Y Adkisson HD Hruska KA 《Journal of cellular biochemistry》2003,88(2):394-399
Prostate derived factor (PDF) is a member of transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta) superfamily proteins involved in differentiation of the prostate epithelium. Proprotein convertases (PCs) such as furin are thought to mediate the processing of TGF-beta superfamily. In the present study, we demonstrated for the first time that human prostate cancer cell lines differentially synthesize and secret prostate derived factor (PDF), and that PDF secreted by LNCaP is processed by PCs. Exposure of LNCaP cells to the decanoyl-Arg-Val-Lys-Arg-chloromethylketone (CMK), a synthetic furin-like protease inhibitor, inhibited PDF processing and resulted in the loss of luminal cell phenotype and induction of basal cell phenotype in LNCaP cells as demonstrated by alternations in the expression of cytokeratins 8, 14, 18, and 19, markers of prostate epithelial cell differentiation. These results suggest that proprotein convertases may be involved in the regulation of prostate epithelial cell differentiation, and may be an important target of prostate cancer therapy. 相似文献
8.
Rates and patterns of evolution in partial sequences of five mitochondrial
genes (cytochrome b, ATPase 6, NADH dehydrogenase subunit 5, tRNA(Glu), and
the control region) were compared among taxa in the passerine bird genera
Fringilla and Carduelis. Rates of divergence do not vary significantly
among genes, even in comparisons with the control region. Rate variation
among lineages is significant only for the control region and NADH
dehydrogenase subunit 5, and patterns of variation are consistent with the
expectations of neutral theory. Base composition is biased in all genes but
is stationary among lineages, and there is evidence for directional
mutation pressure only in the control region. Despite these similarities,
patterns of substitution differ among genes, consistent with alternative
regimes of selective constraint. Rates of nonsynonymous substitution are
higher in NADH dehydrogenase subunit 5 than in other protein-coding genes,
and transitions exist in elevated proportions relative to transversions.
Transitions appear to accumulate linearly with time in tRNA(Glu), and
despite exhibiting the highest overall rate of divergence among species,
there are no transversional changes in this gene. Finally, for resolving
phylogenetic relationships among Fringilla taxa, the combined
protein-coding data are broadly similar to those of the control region in
terms of phylogenetic informativeness and statistical support.
相似文献
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Hendrik-Jan Megens Richard PMA Crooijmans John WM Bastiaansen Hindrik HD Kerstens Albart Coster Ruud Jalving Addie Vereijken Pradeepa Silva William M Muir Hans H Cheng Olivier Hanotte Martien AM Groenen 《BMC genetics》2009,10(1):1-11