High level of divergence of male-reproductive-tract proteins, between Drosophila melanogaster and its sibling species, D. simulans

We compared male-reproductive-tract polypeptides of Drosophila melanogaster and D. simulans by using two-dimensional gel electrophoresis. Approximately 64% of male-reproductive-tract polypeptides were identical between two randomly chosen isofemale lines from these two species, compared with 83% identity for third-instar imaginal wing-disc polypeptides. Qualitatively similar differences were found between reproductive tracts and imaginal discs when D. sechellia was compared with D. melanogaster and with D. simulans. When genic polymorphism was taken into account, approximately 10% of male- reproductive-tract polypeptides were apparently fixed for different alleles between D. melanogaster and D. simulans; this proportion is the same as that found for soluble enzymes by one-dimensional gel electrophoresis. Strikingly, approximately 20% of male-reproductive- tract polypeptides of either D. melanogaster or D. simulans had no detectable homologue in the other species. We propose that proteins of the Drosophila male reproductive tract may have diverged more extensively between species than have other types of proteins and that much of this divergence may involve large changes in levels of polypeptide expression.      

Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy of biopolymers: membrane proteins, bacteriorhodopsin and rhodopsin adsorbed on silver electrodes and silver hydrosols

Surface-enhanced Raman (SER) spectra of purple membranes of Halobacterium halobium and photoreceptor disks of the rod outer segments adsorbed on silver hydrosols were analysed. It has been shown that the intensity of SER spectra of bacterial and visual rhodopsins increases 5 X 10(4) times at adsorption. Concentration relationship of the signal intensity of SER spectra has the maximum at bacteriorhodopsin concentration about 2 X 10(-7) M. It has been shown that adsorption on silver hydrosol leads to fixation of light-induced photochemical transformations in bacterial and visual rhodopsins. Adsorption on the "smooth" electrodes at the potential of the zero charge of silver does not affect the photocycle of bacteriorhodopsin. An increase or decrease of the electrode potential relative to the zero charge point of silver leads to the accumulation of kinetic intermediate K610 and a decrease of the concentration of the form BRh570. It has been shown that on the "smooth" electrode primarily the long-range component of the SER mechanism is realized. Bands corresponding to the vibrations of the atom groups directly contacting with the metal are mainly intensified after redox cycle which increases the concentration of chemosorption centres. A conclusion is drawn that the method of SER spectroscopy of biomolecules adsorbed on "smooth" electrodes, permits obtaining information similar to that obtained from the analysis of Raman spectra of unadsorbed molecules, but at concentrations by two orders less. Adsorption on the electrodes treated with the help of redox cycle permits to obtain highly oriented preparations and to study topography of biopolymers in water solutions and suspensions.     

Most nuclear systemic autoantigens are extremely disordered proteins: implications for the etiology of systemic autoimmunity

Patients with systemic autoimmune diseases usually produce high levels of antibodies to self-antigens (autoantigens). The repertoire of common autoantigens is remarkably limited, yet no readily understandable shared thread links these apparently diverse proteins. Using computer prediction algorithms, we have found that most nuclear systemic autoantigens are predicted to contain long regions of extreme structural disorder. Such disordered regions would generally make poor B cell epitopes and are predicted to be under-represented as potential T cell epitopes. Consideration of the potential role of protein disorder may give novel insights into the possible role of molecular mimicry in the pathogenesis of autoimmunity. The recognition of extreme autoantigen protein disorder has led us to an explicit model of epitope spreading that explains many of the paradoxical aspects of autoimmunity – in particular, the difficulty in identifying autoantigen-specific helper T cells that might collaborate with the B cells activated in systemic autoimmunity. The model also explains the experimentally observed breakdown of major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class specificity in peptides associated with the MHC II proteins of activated autoimmune B cells, and sheds light on the selection of particular T cell epitopes in autoimmunity. Finally, the model helps to rationalize the relative rarity of clinically significant autoimmunity despite the prevalence of low specificity/low avidity autoantibodies in normal individuals.     

Direct intracardiac injection of umbilical cord-derived stromal cells and umbilical cord blood-derived endothelial cells for the treatment of ischemic cardiomyopathy

The development of new therapeutic strategies is necessary to reduce the worldwide social and economic impact of cardiovascular disease, which produces high rates of morbidity and mortality. A therapeutic option that has emerged in the last decade is cell therapy. The aim of this study was to compare the effect of transplanting human umbilical cord-derived stromal cells (UCSCs), human umbilical cord blood-derived endothelial cells (UCBECs) or a combination of these two cell types for the treatment of ischemic cardiomyopathy (IC) in a Wistar rat model. IC was induced by left coronary artery ligation, and baseline echocardiography was performed seven days later. Animals with a left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) of ≤40% were selected for the study. On the ninth day after IC was induced, the animals were randomized into the following experimental groups: UCSCs, UCBECs, UCSCs plus UCBECs, or vehicle (control). Thirty days after treatment, an echocardiographic analysis was performed, followed by euthanasia. The animals in all of the cell therapy groups, regardless of the cell type transplanted, had less collagen deposition in their heart tissue and demonstrated a significant improvement in myocardial function after IC. Furthermore, there was a trend of increasing numbers of blood vessels in the infarcted area. The median value of LVEF increased by 7.19% to 11.77%, whereas the control group decreased by 0.24%. These results suggest that UCSCs and UCBECs are promising cells for cellular cardiomyoplasty and can be an effective therapy for improving cardiac function following IC.     

EFFECTS OF HUMAN ACTIVITIES ON STRUCTURE AND COMPOSITION OF WOODY SPECIES OF THE NOKREK BIOSPHERE RESERVE OF MEGHALAYA,NORTHEAST INDIA

Aims Our study was conducted in the Nokrek Biosphere Reserve (NBR) in the Garo hills districts of Meghalaya, Northeast India. Our aim was to assess the effects of human activities on plant diversity,population structure and regeneration.Methods We selected a representative 1.2 hm2 stand in both the core and buffer zones of NBR. Structure and composition were determined by randomly sampling square quadrats, population structure was assessed by determining age structure, and regeneration was assessed by measuring densities of seedling, sapling and adult trees.Important findings More woody species were recorded from the core zone than the buffer zone (87 vs. 81 species), and there were a large number of tropical, temperate, and Sino-Himalayan, Burma-Malaysian and Malayan elements, primitive families and primitive genera. The trees were distributed in three distinct strata,canopy, subcanopy and sapling. Subcanopy and sapling layers had the highest species richness (81％ -88％ ). Lauraceae and Euphorbiaceae were the dominant families in terms of the number of species, and a large number of families were represented by single species. Most woody species (57 ％ - 79 ％ ) were contagiously distributed and had low frequency ( ＜ 20％ ). Although stand density was high in the buffer zone, its basal area was low compared to the stand in the core zone. Low similarity and high β-diversity indicate marked differences in species composition of the stands. Shannon diversity index was high in both the stands, while Simpson dominance index was low. The diameter-class distribution for dominant species revealed that the most had a large number of young individuals in their populations. Preponderance of tree seedlings, followed by a steep decline in population density of saplings and adult trees, indicated that the seedling to sapling stage was the most critical in the life cycle of the tree populations. Most species (42 ％ - 48 ％ ) had no regeneration,25 ％ - 35 ％ had good/fair regeneration, and the rest had poor regeneration or reoccurred as immigrants.     

Core–shell silver nanoparticles for optical labeling of cells

Silver nanoparticles have been modified with self-assembled monolayers of hydroxyl-terminated long chain thiols and encapsulated with a silica shell. The resulting core–shell nanoparticles were used as optical labels for cell analysis using flow cytometry and microscopy. The excitation of plasmon resonances in nanoparticles results in strong depolarized scattering of visible light, permitting detection at the single nanoparticle level. The nanoparticles were modified with neutravidin via epoxide–azide coupling chemistry, to which biotinylated antibodies targeting cell surface receptors were bound. The nanoparticle labels exhibited long-term stability in solutions with high salt concentrations without aggregation or silver etching. Labeled cells exhibited two orders of magnitude enhancement of the scattering intensity compared with unlabeled cells.     

LSPR Sensor Combining Sharp Resonance and Differential Optical Measurements

A new optical sensor based on the localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) in 2D arrays of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) combined with a differential optical measurement method is developed. LSPR substrates comprised of self-assembled, 2D arrays of AgNPs exhibit coherent plasmon coupling manifested as a sharp peak in the blue spectral region. A bottom-up approach was used to fabricate reproducible and cost-effective substrates with a figure of merit (FOM) of ~24. The LSPR shift was determined by measuring the difference between light extinction at two wavelengths selected on each side of the sharp peak. The sharpness of the coherent plasmon resonance together with the differential measurement method enabled a record sensing resolution in bulk for a LSPR sensor of ~4.8E-6 RIU.     

Microelectrode studies of the active Na transport pathway of frog skin

When the outer surface of short-circuited frog skin was penetrated with microelectrodes, stable negative potentials that averaged near -100 mV were recorded consistently, confirming the results of Nagel (W. Nagel. 1975. Abstracts of the 5th International Biophysics Congress, Copenhagen. P-147.). The appearance of these stable potentials, V(O), concurrent with the observations that (a) a high resistance outer barrier R(O) accounting for approximately 75 percent or more of the transcellular resistance of control skins had been penetrated and that (b) 10(-5) M amiloride and reduced [Na] outside caused the values of V(O) to increase towards means value near -130 mV while the values of percent R(O) increased to more than 90 percent. It was of relationships were the same as the values of E(1) observed in studies of the current-voltage relationships were the same as the values of E’(1) defined as the values of voltage at the inner barrier when the V(O) of the outer barrier was reduced to zero by voltage clamping of the skins. Accordingly, these data are interpreted to mean that the values of E(1), approximately 130 mV, represent the E(Na) of the sodium pump at the inner barrier. 2,4-DNP was observed to decrease the values of transepithelial voltage less than E(1) the V(O) was negative. These data can be interpreted with a simple electrical equivalent circuit of the active sodium transport pathway of the frog skin that includes the idea that the outer membrane behaves as an electrical rectifier for ion transport.     

The chromophore-binding site of bacteriorhodopsin. Resonance Raman and surface-enhanced resonance Raman spectroscopy and quantum chemical study

Surface-enhanced Raman spectra of membrane protein, located in native mem brane, bacteriorhodopsin, adsorbed by silver electrodes and hydrosols have been obtained for the first time. The distance between the retinal Schiff’s base and the external side of purple membrane of Halobacteriim halobiim was shown to be 6–9 A. The possible distribition of the point charges aroind protonated retinal Schiff’s base has been proposed on the basis of the resonance Raman data and quantim chemical CNDO/S-CI calculations. Such a model contains tyrosine residue located near the retinal Schiff’s base and connected with COO^- groipvia hydrogen bond COO^- group acts as a protonated Schiff’s base counterion. The distance between oxygen atoms of COO^- group and retinal Schiff’s base plane is 2.5–3.0A. The hydrogen bond (O-H. . .O^-) length between oxygen atom of OH-group and oxygen atom of COO^- group has been chosen 2.7±0.1Å Tyrosine hydroxyl group is located at 2.8–3.5 A from retinal Schiff’s base plane. It was shown that in contrast to generally accepted Honig and Nakanishi model the spectral properties of Brh570, K610, L550 and M4Ï2 forms of bacteriorhodopsin photocycle as well as observed tyrosine deprotonation and COO^- group protonation during M412 formation can be explained reasonably well by the suggested charge distribution. Furthermore, such a model of bacteriorhodopsin active site microenvironment allows to explain catalyzing of photo-induced protonated retinal Schiff’s base deprotonation observed in our preliminary experiments.