Phylogenetic distribution in the genus Mus of t-complex-specific DNA and protein markers: inferences on the origin of t-haplotypes

We have examined the phylogenetic distribution of two t-specific markers among representatives of various taxa belonging to the genus Mus. The centromeric TCP-1a marker (a testicular protein variant specific for all t-haplotypes so far studied) has also been apparently detected in several non-t representatives of the Mus IVA, Mus IVB, and probably M. cervicolor species. By contrast, a t-specific restriction- fragment-length polymorphism allele (RFLP) of the telomeric alpha- globin pseudogene DNA marker alpha-psi-4 was found only in animals belonging to the M. musculus-complex species either bearing genuine t- haplotypes or, like the M. m. bactrianus specimen studied here, likely to do so. This t-specific alpha-psi-4 RFLP allele was found to be as divergent from the RFLP alleles of the latter, non-t, taxonomical groups as it is from Mus 4A, Mus 4B, or M. spretus ones. These results suggest the presence of t-haplotypes and of t-specific markers in populations other than those belonging to the M. m. domesticus and M. m. musculus subspecies, implying a possible origin for t-haplotypes prior to the radiation of the most recent offshoot of the Mus genus (i.e., the spretus/domesticus divergence), some 1-3 Myr ago.      

Distribution of hereditary blood groups among Indians in South America. IV. In Chile with inferences concerning genetic connections between Polynesia and America

This is the fourth paper in a series on the distribution of blood groups among Indians of South America. It reports the findings on the Indians of Chile and the Polynesians of Chile's Easter Island. Blood specimens were procured from the following putatively pure Indians and unmixed Polynesians: 44 Alacaluf of Puerto Eden, Isla Wellington, 141 Mapuche (Araucanian) of Lonquimay, Malleco Province, 80 Atacameños of Antofagasta Province, and 45 Polynesians of Easter Island. These 310 samples were tested for blood factors in the A-B-O, M-N-S-s, P, Rh-Hr, Lutheran, K-k, Lewis, Duffy, Kidd and Diego systems, and for the Wright (Wr^a) agglutinogen. Serum samples were tested for haptoglobins and transferrins. Hemolysates prepared from the blood clots were tested for hemoglobin types. The results are presented as phenotype incidences and calculated gene frequencies in appropriate tables. Locations of the populations from which blood samples were procured are shown on two maps. The high frequencies for the O gene usually reported for South American Indians obtain in putatively pure Chilean Indians but A¹ is high in Easter Island Polynesians. In both Indians and Polynesians M, s, R¹ (CDe), R² (cDE), Lu^b, k, Le^H, and Fy^a gene frequencies are high and B, N, S, Mi^a, Vw, Rº (cDe), r (cde), Lu^a, K, Le¹, Fy^b, and Wr^a (Ca) are low or absent. The Diego (Di) gene is present in the Mapuche and Atacameños but absent in the Alacaluf and Polynesians. Hp¹ gene frequencies were determined only in the Alacaluf and Atacameños, in which they are 0.48 and 0.67 respectively. Transferrins were determined for the Alacaluf and Atacameños Indians and all were classified as Tf C. All Chilean Indian and Polynesian specimens were tested electrophoretically for hemoglobin types and all contained only hemoglobin (A) as a major component.     

Chronic Pseudomonas aeruginosa endobronchitis in rhesus monkeys: II. A histopathologic analysis

We have recently established a rhesus monkey model of chronic Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PA) endobronchitis by bronchoscopic instillation of PA-embedded agar beads. All experimental animals developed chronic neutrophilic endobronchitis similar to chronic PA endobronchitis in cystic fibrosis (CF). Histopathologic studies further confirmed similarities to chronic PA endobronchitis in CF, including marked peribronchial inflammation, epithelial damage, presence of degraded cilia and ciliary abnormalities, appearance of PA bacterial clusters, mucosal hyperplasia, goblet cell hypertrophy/hypersecretion, airway obstruction, alveolar abnormalities, bronchiectasis, and fibrosis.     

Membrane fluidity in glutamic acid-producing bacteria Brevibacterium sp. ATCC 13869

The bacterial secretion of glutamate was studied through plasma membrane fluidity, measured by anisotropy using the fluorophore TMA-DPH incorporated in the lipid part of the cell membrane. Cells of Brevibacterium sp. ATCC 13869 (wild type) were switched from the biotin-limited, producing state to the biotin-supplemented, non-producing state, and back. The following conclusions could be drawn: 1. It was not possible to detect any change in anisotropy by switching the cells from biotin-limited biotin-supplemented, as well as from biotin-supplemented, to biotin-limited, media. 2. The anisotropy value in the glutamic acid fermentation remains constant during the lag, exponential, growth, production and stationary phases. 3. The treatment of cells with a neutral synthetic polyester of ethylene-and propyleneoxide with soya oil-fatty acids increased the anisotropy values, indicating incorporation of the surfactant. 4. Glutamate secretion is not coupled with membrane fluidity, so a leak providing a general fluidization of the membrane could not be detected.     

Bacterial Symbionts in the Sugar Beet Root Maggot, Tetanops myopaeformis (von Röder)

Aerobic heterotrophic and facultative anaerobic bacteria were isolated from all developmental stages of the sugar beet root maggot, Tetanops myopaeformis (von Röder). Two distinct bacterial symbiotic relationships were observed. Serratia liquefaciens and Serratia marcescens were found to be associated with all developmental stages. Bacterial symbiont transmission occurred from one generation to the next. Symbionts were transferred from the male reproductive system to the female reproductive system, where both an internal infiltration of the egg chorion and an external smearing of the eggs occurred during oviposition. Pseudomonas maltophilia was found in association with the larval gut and the inner surface of the puparium. Electron microscopy of the inner puparial surface revealed symbionts within the chitinous wall. In vitro symbiont chitinase production was found, using both nephelometric (turbidimetric) and N-acetylglucosamine assays. A relationship appeared to exist between adult fly emergence and enzymatic chitin degradation of the puparium by the bacterial symbionts.     

The contractile basis of amoeboid movement: V. The control of gelation, solation, and contraction in extracts from dictyostelium discoideum

Motile extracts have been prepared from Dictyostelium discoideum by homogenization and differential centrifugation at 4 degrees C in a stabilization solution (60). These extracts gelled on warming to 25 degrees Celsius and contracted in response to micromolar Ca++ or a pH in excess of 7.0. Optimal gelation occurred in a solution containing 2.5 mM ethylene glycol-bis (β-aminoethyl ether)N,N,N',N'-tetraacetate (EGTA), 2.5 mM piperazine-N-N'-bis [2-ethane sulfonic acid] (PIPES), 1 mM MgC1(2), 1 mM ATP, and 20 mM KCI at ph 7.0 (relaxation solution), while micromolar levels of Ca++ inhibited gelation. Conditions that solated the gel elicited contraction of extracts containing myosin. This was true regardless of whether chemical (micromolar Ca++, pH >7.0, cytochalasin B, elevated concentrations of KCI, MgC1(2), and sucrose) or physical (pressure, mechanical stress, and cold) means were used to induce solation. Myosin was definitely required for contraction. During Ca++-or pH-elicited contraction: (a) actin, myosin, and a 95,000-dalton polypeptide were concentrated in the contracted extract; (b) the gelation activity was recovered in the material sqeezed out the contracting extract;(c) electron microscopy demonstrated that the number of free, recognizable F-actin filaments increased; (d) the actomyosin MgATPase activity was stimulated by 4- to 10-fold. In the absense of myosin the Dictyostelium extract did not contract, while gelation proceeded normally. During solation of the gel in the absense of myosin: (a) electron microscopy demonstrated that the number of free, recognizable F- actin filaments increased; (b) solation-dependent contraction of the extract and the Ca++-stimulated MgATPase activity were reconstituted by adding puried Dictyostelium myosin. Actin purified from the Dictyostelium extract did not gel (at 2 mg/ml), while low concentrations of actin (0.7-2 mg/ml) that contained several contaminating components underwent rapid Ca++ regulated gelation. These results indicated : (a) gelation in Dictyostelium extracts involves a specific Ca++-sensitive interaction between actin and several other components; (b) myosin is an absolute requirement for contraction of the extract; (c) actin-myosin interactions capable of producing force for movement are prevented in the gel, while solation of the gel by either physical or chemical means results in the release of F-actin capable of interaction with myosin and subsequent contraction. The effectiveness of physical agents in producting contraction suggests that the regulation of contraction by the gel is structural in nature.     

Roles of creatine in the regulation of cardiac protein synthesis

The observation that increased muscular activity leads to muscle hypertrophy is well known, but identification of the biochemical and physiological mechanisms by which this occurs remains an important problem. Experiments have been described (5, 6) which suggest that creatine, an end product of contraction, is involved in the control of contractile protein synthesis in differentiating skeletal muscle cells and may be the chemical signal coupling increased muscular activity and the increased muscular mass. During contraction, the creatine concentration in muscle transiently increases as creatine phosphate is hydrolyzed to regenerate ATP. In isometric contraction in skeletal muscle for example, Edwards and colleagues (3) have found that nearly all of the creatine phosphate is hydrolyzed. In this case, the creatine concentration is increased about twofold, and it is this transient change in creatine concentration which is postulated to lead to increased contractile protein synthesis. If creatine is found in several intracellular compartments, as suggested by Lee and Vissher (7), local changes in concentration may be greater then twofold. A specific effect on contractile protein synthesis seems reasonable in light of the work of Rabinowitz (13) and of Page et al. (11), among others, showing disproportionate accumulation of myofibrillar and mitochondrial proteins in response to work-induced hypertrophy and thyroxin-stimulated growth. Previous experiments (5, 6) have shown that skeletal muscles cells which have differentiated in vitro or in vivo synthesize myosin heavy-chain and actin, the major myofibrillar polypeptides, faster when supplied creatine in vitro. The stimulation is specific for contractile protein synthesis since neither the rate of myosin turnover nor the rates of synthesis of noncontractile protein and DNA are affected by creatine. The experiments reported in this communication were undertaken to test whether creatine selectively stimulates contractile protein synthesis in heart as it does in skeletal muscle.     

Properties of cyclic nucleotide phosphodiesterase in the central nervous system of Manduca sexta.

The properties of cyclic nucleotide phosphodiesterase were studied in soluble and particulate fractions from the central nervous system of Manduca sexta (Lepidoptera: Sphingidae). It was determined that: (1) The highest levels of phosphodiesterase occur in nervous tissue. (2) The total and specific enzyme activities of larval and adult brains are greater than those of the remaining ganglia. (3) Specific central nervous sy stem phosphodiesterase activities of the adult are lower than those of the larva, but both protein and total phosphodiesterase contents are considerably greater in the adult central nervous system. (4) Mg2+ is not absolutely required for either cyclic AMP-phosphodiesterase or cyclic GMP-phosphodiesterase activity. (5) Phosphodiesterase is inhibited by a variety of physiological and non-physiological compounds, nucleoside triphosphates being particularly effective; Some potent inhibitors of mammalian phosphodiesterase are comparatively ineffective toward Manduca sexta phosphodiesterase. (6) Kinetic analyses of soluble and particulate phosphodiesterase revealed non-linear double-reciprocal plots for the hydrolysis of both cyclic AMP and cyclic GMP, with Michaelis constants of approximately 10 mu M and 20 mu M; (7) The hydrolysis of both cyclic nucleotides appears in part to be the function of a single enzyme or related enzymes in the insect central nervous system. It follows that the intracellular level of one cyclic nucleotide may influence the concentration of the other by inhibiting its DEGRADATION.