A simple preparative method for the isolation of amylose and amylopectin from potato starch

The defatted starch was dispersed in NaOH (1 M) and neutralized with HCl (1 M). The amylose 1-butanol complex is adsorbed on defatted cellulose powder in the solvent system containing acetate buffer (pH 4.8,0.1 M) + urea (2 M) + 1-butanol (8.5%, v/v). The complex adsorbed on cellulose powder is separated by centrifugation (2418 g). The sediment is washed with the solvent system-I to obtain the intermediate fraction. The adsorbed amylose is eluted with urea (2 M) in acetate buffer (pH 4.8, 0.1 M). The amylose, intermediate fraction and amylopectin were precipitated with ethanol, washed free of urea and air dried. They were characterized by determining their blue value and beta -amylolysis limit.     

Big flies, small repeats: the "Thr-Gly" region of the period gene in Diptera

The region of the clock gene period (per) that encodes a repetitive tract of threonine-glycine (Thr-Gly) pairs has been compared between Dipteran species both within and outside the Drosophilidae. All the non- Drosophilidae sequences in this region are short and present a remarkably stable picture compared to the Drosophilidae, in which the region is much larger and extremely variable, both in size and composition. The accelerated evolution in the repetitive region of the Drosophilidae appears to be mainly due to an expansion of two ancestral repeats, one encoding a Thr-Gly dipeptide and the other a pentapeptide rich in serine, glycine, and asparagine or threonine. In some drosophilids the expansion involves a duplication of the pentapeptide sequence, but in Drosophila pseudoobscura both the dipeptide and the pentapeptide repeats are present in larger numbers. In the nondrosophilids, however, the pentapeptide sequence is represented by one copy and the dipeptide by two copies. These observations fulfill some of the predictions of recent theoretical models that have simulated the evolution of repetitive sequences.      

Evolutionary origin of human and primate malarias: evidence from the circumsporozoite protein gene

We have analyzed the conserved regions of the gene coding for the circumsporozoite protein (CSP) in 12 species of Plasmodium, the malaria parasite. The closest evolutionary relative of P. falciparum, the agent of malignant human malaria, is P. reichenowi, a chimpanzee parasite. This is consistent with the hypothesis that P. falciparum is an ancient human parasite, associated with humans since the divergence of the hominids from their closest hominoid relatives. Three other human Plasmodium species are each genetically indistinguishable from species parasitic to nonhuman primates; that is, for the DNA sequences included in our analysis, the differences between species are not greater than the differences between strains of the human species. The human P. malariae is indistinguishable from P. brasilianum, and P. vivax is indistinguishable from P. simium; P. brasilianum and P. simium are parasitic to New World monkeys. The human P. vivax-like is indistinguishable from P. simiovale, a parasite of Old World macaques. We conjecture that P. malariae, P. vivax, and P. vivax-like are evolutionarily recent human parasites, the first two at least acquired only within the last several thousand years, and perhaps within the last few hundred years, after the expansion of human populations in South America following the European colonizations. We estimate the rate of evolution of the conserved regions of the CSP gene as 2.46 x 10(-9) per site per year. The divergence between the P. falciparum and P. reichenowi lineages is accordingly dated 8.9 Myr ago. The divergence between the three lineages leading to the human parasites is very ancient, about 100 Myr old between P. malariae and P. vivax (and P. vivax-like) and about 165 Myr old between P. falciparum and the other two.      

Excitation of System I and System II in Photosynthesis as a Possible Control Mechanism of Glycolate Metabolism in the Blue-Green Alga Anacystis nidulans

Photosynthetic enhancement studies performed at 619 nm (excitation of Systems I and II) and at 446 nm (mainly excitation of System I) revealed an 18% photosynthetic enhancement simultaneously with a 31% reduction in glycolate excretion. This observation supports the hypothesis that some glycolate may be consumed in an oxidation process associated with System I when System II is poorly excited and the supply of electrons from the water splitting process of photosynthesis is low.     

Assessment of the genotoxic potential of riboflavin and lumiflavin. B. Effect of light.

On exposure to visible light, riboflavin and lumiflavin produced reactive oxygen species such as singlet oxygen and superoxide radicals. The reaction was found to be time- and concentration-dependent. Both riboflavin and lumiflavin, upon illumination, showed mutagenic response in the umu test as well as in the Ames/Salmonella assay with Salmonella typhimurium TA102. The mutagenic response was partially abolished by superoxide dismutase while sodium azide did not have any effect. No mutagenicity was observed if the compounds were not illuminated. The results suggested the involvement of superoxide radicals in light-induced mutagenicity of riboflavin as well as lumiflavin.     

Relative effectiveness of neutrons and X-rays in induction of crossing over in drosophila males

Relative biological effectiveness of neutrons vs. X-rays in inducing crossing-over in males of D. melanogaster was investigated using 812 and 834 rad of neutrons and the same dose of X-rays. Crossing-over was induced in spermatocytes and spermatogonia of adults and pupae. Neutrons were 4 times more effective in spermatocytes of adults and their effectiveness in pupal spermatocytes was even more. Neutrons also induced more exchanges in spermatogonial cells including predefinitive spermatogonia. Higher effectiveness of neutrons can be attributed to their high linear energy transfer.