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Brain evolution in Old World monkeys.

Sulcal patterns of 14 genera of Old World monkeys were analyzed from 107 endocasts. Colobines and cercopithecines differ in patterns of cerebral convolutions, and functional and evolutionary hypotheses are here proposed regarding those differences. The cercopithecine pattern seems to be the more derived since it suggests relative expansion of prefrontal, and inferior temporal integration cortices as compared to the colobine pattern.     

A catalog of bird specimens associated with Prince Maximilian of Wied-Neuwied and potential type material in the natural history collection in Wiesbaden

Bird specimens collected by 19^th century explorer and ornithologist Prince Maximilian of Wied-Neuwied form one of the foundation collections of the American Museum of Natural History in New York. However, parts of his collection remained in Germany and came to the Museum Wiesbaden. Since Wied described numerous new species without designating types, some of these specimens might be type material. Here we present a catalog of the 30 Wiesbaden specimens associated with him and discuss their potential type status. We conclude that 17 individuals in 11 species are potential type specimens that should be considered in future taxonomic work.     

Fenestrated capillaries in the ventral sebaceous gland of the Djungarian hamster, Phodopus sungorus

The ventral sebaceous gland of the Djungarian hamster is a macroscopically visible organ situated in the midventral area of the abdominal wall. It consists of densely packed acini arranged in lobules with common excretory ducts. The rich vascular network of the gland is characterized by fenestrated capillaries. Fenestrated endothelium has not yet been reported as a characteristic and regular finding within sebaceous glands. Results are discussed with regard to proliferation rate of sebocytes and the demand of fluid and nutrient supply.     

The Hemagglutinin of Bat-Associated Influenza Viruses Is Activated by TMPRSS2 for pH-Dependent Entry into Bat but Not Human Cells

New World bats have recently been discovered to harbor influenza A virus (FLUAV)-related viruses, termed bat-associated influenza A-like viruses (batFLUAV). The internal proteins of batFLUAV are functional in mammalian cells. In contrast, no biological functionality could be demonstrated for the surface proteins, hemagglutinin (HA)-like (HAL) and neuraminidase (NA)-like (NAL), and these proteins need to be replaced by their human counterparts to allow spread of batFLUAV in human cells. Here, we employed rhabdoviral vectors to study the role of HAL and NAL in viral entry. Vectors pseudotyped with batFLUAV-HAL and -NAL were able to enter bat cells but not cells from other mammalian species. Host cell entry was mediated by HAL and was dependent on prior proteolytic activation of HAL and endosomal low pH. In contrast, sialic acids were dispensable for HAL-driven entry. Finally, the type II transmembrane serine protease TMPRSS2 was able to activate HAL for cell entry indicating that batFLUAV can utilize human proteases for HAL activation. Collectively, these results identify viral and cellular factors governing host cell entry driven by batFLUAV surface proteins. They suggest that the absence of a functional receptor precludes entry of batFLUAV into human cells while other prerequisites for entry, HAL activation and protonation, are met in target cells of human origin.     

Kinetic mechanisms of inhibitor binding: relevance to the fast-acting slow-binding paradigm.

Although phlorizin inhibition of Na+-glucose cotransport occurs within a few seconds, 3H-phlorizin binding to the sodium-coupled glucose transport protein(s) requires several minutes to reach equilibrium (the fast-acting slow-binding paradigm). Using kinetic models of arbitrary dimension that can be reduced to a two-state diagram according to Cha's formalism, we show that three basic mechanisms of inhibitor binding can be identified whereby the inhibitor binding step either (A) represents, (B) precedes, or (C) follows the rate-limiting step in a binding reaction. We demonstrate that each of mechanisms A-C is associated with a set of unique kinetic properties, and that the time scale over which one may expect to observe mechanism C is conditioned by the turnover number of the catalytic cycle. In contrast, mechanisms A and B may be relevant to either fast-acting or slow-binding inhibitors. However, slow-binding inhibition according to mechanism A may not be compatible with a fast-acting behavior on the steady-state time scale of a few seconds. We conclude that the recruitment hypothesis (mechanism C) cannot account for slow phlorizin binding to the sodium-coupled glucose transport protein(s), and that mechanism B is the only alternative that may explain the fast-acting slow-binding paradigm.     

IL-1 induces high affinity IL-2 receptor expression of CD4-8- thymocytes

We investigated the role of cytokines for the growth of CD4-8-thymocytes (double negative thymocytes) (DNT) in vitro and found that IL-1-induced IL-2-dependent proliferation of only the IL-2R-positive DNT subpopulation. The presence of IL-1 during the first 18 h of culture was sufficient for an optimal response and suggested that IL-1 induced DNT differentiation. We could indeed show by RNA dot blot analysis that IL-1 stimulated de novo expression of the p55 chain of the IL-2R thus initiating high affinity IL-2 binding and a proliferative response. Because macrophages and epithelial cells in the thymus produce IL-1 we propose that IL-1 is involved in early events during maturation of immature thymocytes.