Leukocyte specificity and binding of human neutrophil attractant/activation protein-1

Neutrophil attractant/activation protein-1 (NAP-1) was previously shown to attract human neutrophils, but not monocytes. The purpose of this study was to determine if NAP-1 interacted with other types of blood leukocytes. In addition to its chemotactic activity for neutrophils, NAP-1 induced chemotactic responses by T lymphocytes and basophils. Chemotactic potency (10(-8) M for an optimal response) was the same for all three cell types. However, NAP-1 caused a chemotactic response in excess of random migration of 7% or 16% of basophils (depending on the medium used) and only 9% of T lymphocytes, in contrast to 30% of neutrophils. This agonist was not chemotactic for partially purified normal human eosinophils. The symmetrical histogram obtained by flow cytometry of neutrophils equilibrated at 0 degree C with fluoresceinated NAP-1 indicates that all neutrophils bound the ligand. A dose-response curve plateau, and inhibition of binding of NAP-1-FITC by unlabeled ligand are evidence for saturable binding to receptors, estimated to be 7000 per cell. Our results suggest that, for induction of an acute inflammatory response, the quantitatively significant action of NAP-1 is on neutrophils.     

Context Matters: Multiple Novelty Tests Reveal Different Aspects of Shyness-Boldness in Farmed American Mink (Neovison vison)

Animal personality research is receiving increasing interest from related fields, such as evolutionary personality psychology. By merging the conceptual understanding of personality, the contributions to both fields of research may be enhanced. In this study, we investigate animal personality based on the definition of personality traits as underlying dispositional factors, which are not directly measurable, but which predispose individuals to react through different behavioural patterns. We investigated the shyness-boldness continuum reflected in the consistency of inter-individual variation in behavioural responses towards novelty in 47 farmed American mink (Neovison vison), which were raised in identical housing conditions. Different stages of approach behaviour towards novelty, and how these related within and across contexts, were explored. Our experimental design contained four tests: two novel object tests (non-social contexts) and two novel animated stimuli tests (social contexts). Our results showed consistency in shyness measures across multiple tests, indicating the existence of personality in farmed American mink. It was found that consistency in shyness measures differs across non-social and social contexts, as well as across the various stages in the approach towards novel objects, revealing that different aspects of shyness exist in the farmed American mink. To our knowledge this is the first study to reveal aspects of the shyness-boldness continuum in the American mink. Since the mink were raised in identical housing conditions, inherited factors may have been important in shaping the consistent inter-individual variation. Body weight and sex had no effect on the personality of the mink. Altogether, our results suggest that the shyness-boldness continuum cannot be explained by a simple underlying dispositional factor, but instead encompasses a broader term of hesitating behaviour that might comprise several different personality traits.     

Molecular diet analysis of two african free-tailed bats (molossidae) using high throughput sequencing

Given the diversity of prey consumed by insectivorous bats, it is difficult to discern the composition of their diet using morphological or conventional PCR-based analyses of their faeces. We demonstrate the use of a powerful alternate tool, the use of the Roche FLX sequencing platform to deep-sequence uniquely 5' tagged insect-generic barcode cytochrome c oxidase I (COI) fragments, that were PCR amplified from faecal pellets of two free-tailed bat species Chaerephon pumilus and Mops condylurus (family: Molossidae). Although the analyses were challenged by the paucity of southern African insect COI sequences in the GenBank and BOLD databases, similarity to existing collections allowed the preliminary identification of 25 prey families from six orders of insects within the diet of C. pumilus, and 24 families from seven orders within the diet of M. condylurus. Insects identified to families within the orders Lepidoptera and Diptera were widely present among the faecal samples analysed. The two families that were observed most frequently were Noctuidae and Nymphalidae (Lepidoptera). Species-level analysis of the data was accomplished using novel bioinformatics techniques for the identification of molecular operational taxonomic units (MOTU). Based on these analyses, our data provide little evidence of resource partitioning between sympatric M. condylurus and C. pumilus in the Simunye region of Swaziland at the time of year when the samples were collected, although as more complete databases against which to compare the sequences are generated this may have to be re-evaluated.     

A new disease-related mutation for mitochondrial encephalopathy lactic acidosis and strokelike episodes (MELAS) syndrome affects the ND4 subunit of the respiratory complex I.

The molecular lesions in two patients exhibiting classical clinical manifestations of MELAS (mitochondrial encephalopathy, lactic acidosis, and strokelike episodes) syndrome have been investigated. A recently reported disease-related A----G base substitution at nt 3243 of the mtDNA, in the DHU loop of tRNA(Leu), was detected by restriction-enzyme analysis of the relevant PCR-amplified segment of the mtDNA of one patient but was not observed, by either restriction-enzyme analysis or nucleotide sequencing, in the other. To define the molecular lesion in the patient who does not have the A----G base substitution at nt 3243, the total mitochondrial genome of the patient has been sequenced. An A----G base substitution at nt 11084, leading to a Thr-to-Ala amino acid replacement in the ND4 subunit of the respiratory complex I, is suggested to be a disease-related mutation.     

A tRNA(Lys) mutation in the mtDNA is the causal genetic lesion underlying myoclonic epilepsy and ragged-red fiber (MERRF) syndrome.

Skeletal muscle mtDNA of three patients with mitochondrial encephalomyopathy, characterized clinically by myoclonic epilepsy and ragged-red fiber (MERRF) syndrome, has been sequenced to determine the underlying molecular defect(s). An A-to-G substitution of nt 8344 in the tRNA(Lys) gene, a substitution suggested to be associated with MERRF encephalomyopathy, was detected in these patients. Abnormal patterns of mitochondrial translation products were observed in the skeletal muscle of patients, consistent with the expected consequential defect in protein synthesis. The genealogical studies of the three patients, as well as mtDNA from one published MERRF patient and from nine other normal and disease controls, revealed that the tRNA(Lys) mutations in the MERRF patients have arisen independently. These observations provided evidence that the base substitution is a causal mutation for MERRF.     

Tissue segregation of a heteroplasmic mtDNA mutation in MERRF (Myoclonic epilepsy with ragged red fibers) encephalomyopathy

The distributrion of the causal 8344AG mtDNA mutation has been examined in six tissues of a patient with myoclonic epilepsy with ragged red fibers (MERRF), to study the developmental genetics of this type of mitochondrial disorder, and to determine the pathophysiological importance of the mtDNA heteroplasmy generally observed in such patients. Heteroplasmy of the mtDNA was observed in all six tissues (cerebellum, cerebrum, pancreas, liver, muscle, and heart) suggesting that, whereas the mtDNA mutation is relatively new, the mutated population must have existed before the formation of the three primary embryonic layers. The tissue distribution reveals significant variations in the ratio between the mutated and the normal mtDNA species, indicating the randomness of mtDNA segregation during developmental cell division and differentiation events. The result suggests the existence of tissue-specific nuclear factor(s) that determines the expression of the 8344AG mutation in various tissues; in MERRF syndrome, expression is mainly in the central nervous system.     

Novel mutations in <Emphasis Type="Italic">katG</Emphasis> gene of a clinical isolate of isoniazid-resistant <Emphasis Type="Italic">Mycobacterium tuberculosis</Emphasis>

Most of isoniazid-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis evolved due to mutation in the katG gene encoding catalase-peroxidase. A set of new mutations, namely T1310C, G1388T, G1481A, T1553C, and A1660G, which correspond to amino acid substitutions of L437P, R463L, G494D, I518T, and K554E, in the katG gene of the L10 clinical isolate M. tuberculosis was identified. The wild-type and mutant KatG proteins were expressed in Escherichia coli BL21(DE3) as a protein of 80 kDa based on sodium dodecyl sulphate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis analysis. The mutant KatG protein exhibited catalase and peroxidase activities of 4.6% and 24.8% toward its wild type, respectively, and retained 19.4% isoniazid oxidation activity. The structure modelling study revealed that these C-terminal mutations might have induced formation of a new turn, perturbing the active site environment and also generated new intramolecular interactions, which could be unfavourable for the enzyme activities.