A lung type prostaglandin F synthase is expressed in bovine liver: cDNA sequence and expression in E. coli.

Using the cDNA of bovine lung prostaglandin F synthase (EC 1.1.1.2) as a probe, we isolated a clone from a bovine liver cDNA library which differed in only eleven nucleotides from the probe. The corresponding protein contained three amino acid substitutions, including a leucine residue which is conserved throughout all aldo-keto reductases. We inserted the liver cDNA into expression vector pUC19 and expressed the recombinant liver enzyme in E.coli. The purified liver enzyme reduced prostaglandin H2 as well as prostaglandin D2 and various carbonyl compounds. The high relative activity against prostaglandin H2 in combination with a high Km value for prostaglandin D2 identified this liver enzyme as a lung type prostaglandin F synthase. However, the binding constant for NADPH of the liver enzyme was 3.5 fold higher than that of lung prostaglandin F synthase.     

Modelling intraspecific resting egg shape variation in a freshwater fairy shrimp Tanymastix stagnalis (L., 1758) (Crustacea, Branchiopoda)

The shape of the resting eggs of a large branchiopod crustacean, the Anostraca Tanymastix stagnalis , is represented very accurately by analytical expressions. The occurrence of atypical shape of some T. stagnalis eggs may be viewed as a simple change of the analytical expression describing the usual egg shape. Their unusual shape may be explained by a higher embryo volume within an envelope of a given size. Biological implications are briefly discussed and hypothesized in an evolutionary point of view.  © 2007 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society , 2007, 90 , 55–60.     

The influence of peripheral nerve graft's predegeneration stage on the regrowth of hippocampal injured neurites and concomitant changes in submicrosomal fraction proteins of grafts.

The present work has a twofold aim: 1. To ascertain whether the stimulative influence of peripheral nerve grafts on injured hippocampal neurons depends on the time lapse after transection and; 2. To examine whether the mentioned effect runs parallel to the time-dependent changes of proteins contents and composition in the submicrosomal fraction from transected rat sciatic nerves. Fluorescence microscope examination revealed that FITC-HRP labeled cells extending their neurites into the implanted peripheral nerve segments were particularly numerous among the hippocampal neurons when 7- and 35-day-old predegenegated distal stumps were used as grafts. Discontinuous SDS-slab polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of submicrosomal fraction proteins obtained from distal stumps of rat sciatic nerves was performed at the 7, 14, 21 and 35 days after transection. Among the obtained protein fractions the most interesting seem to be the ones of 47 and 54 kDa, which reached maximal levels at the 7th day and the 50 kDa fraction with a maximum at the 35th experimental day. It is possible that the growth promoting power of the employed grafts depends on the presence of proper proteins.     

Magnetic interaction of manganese with pheophytin anion-radical and chlorophyll cation-radical in reaction centers of the photosystem II

The influence of Mn on saturation curves of ESR spectra of Ph(-) and P(+)(680) at 1-200K in samples with different content of Mn has been studied. An analysis of these data and those on photoinduced changes of fluorescence yield of chlorophyll leads to the conclusion that the Mn-containing centre in Photosystem 2 is a cluster of 4 Mn atoms, two of which can be replaced by Mg(2+) or any other divalent metal. The distances between Mn Na Ph as well as between Mn and P(680) have been estimated.     

Adult movements between populations in the specialist butterfly Proclossiana eunomia (Lepidoptera, Nymphalidae)

Abstract.

• 1 The structure of local populations of a monophagous butterfly, the bog fritillary Proclossiana eunomia, was studied in a complex of suitable habitat patches separated by spruce plantations or fertilized pasture.
• 2 An unexpected high level of adult movements between habitat patches was detected by a mark—release—recapture technique. Local populations were connected by adult movements across unsuitable habitats, leading to a meta-population structure.
• 3 This evidence of the metapopulation structure of a specialist butterfly challenges the supposed relationship between habitat specialization and closed, isolated populations.
• 4 Males and females of P.eunomia exhibited different spatial behaviours; females were more likely to emigrate and dispersed further than males. These differences in spatial behaviour are related to the mating system.

     

Photosynthetic oxygen evolution and CO2 photoassimilation by cyanobacteria that form water-bloom spots in a sulfur spring with a high sulfide content

Cyanobacteria belonging mainly to the genera Anabaena and Oscillatoria were isolated from water-bloom spots of a sulfur spring in Staraya Matsesta. Their suspensions evolved O2 at a rate of 6--8 nM/min per 1 mg of dry cell weight at an intensity of solar radiation being 60--75 mV/cm2 per 1 sec. The cells were also capable of CO2 photoassimilation in the presence of solfide at a rate of 10(-4) mg C per mg per hour. DCMU at a concentration of 10(-5) M completely inhibited O2 evolution and inhibited CO2 fixation by 80%. Oxygen assimilation in dark by the suspensions did not depend on the addition of cyanide and was caused apparently by nonenzymatic reduction of O2 with sulfide dissolved in the spring water. Oxygen assimilation by the suspensions in light in the presence of DCMU was by 20--30% greater than in dark. Therefore, the cells of cyanobacteria are characterized by photorespiration at the level of photosystem I. Presumably, sulfide at a concentration of 9 mM cannot significantly inhibit the photosynthetic processes in cyanobacteria producing water-bloom spots in the sulfur spring.     

Inheritance of malignancy in somatic cell hybrids

After a recall of the importance of early basic developments of in vitro established cell lines for investigations on malignant transformation, a survey of essential steps in the study of malignancy by means of somatic cell hybridization is presented. Since the early sixties, in vitro crosses of malignant versus nonmalignant parental cells have provided many experimental models in which mechanisms of expression of malignancy have been approached. Allogenic as well as xenogenic cell matings resulted in tumor-producing or nontumorigenic hybrids which have been analyzed, particularly in terms of karyology in order to determine possible chromosomal patterns linked with inheritance of malignancy and its suppression. The authors discuss the successive concepts devised for interpretation of experimental data, implicating specific genetic "normalizing" information, genetic dosage as well as, more recently, epigenetic and cytoplasmic mechanisms.