Plasmalogen distribution in the subcellular fractions of the vertebrate brain

Studies have been made on plasmalogen and diacylic forms of phospholipids, i. e. phosphatidylethanolamine and phosphatidylcholine (their relative content and ratio), in subcellular fractions isolated from the brain of the trout Salmo trideus, frog Rana temporaria, pigeon Columba livia, tortoise Testudo horsfieldi, and rabbit. Investigation was carried out on 5 subcellular fractions (myelin, nuclei, microsomes, mitochondria, synaptosomes) as well as on brain homogenates. In all the fractions, relative content of plasmalogens is the lowest in the trout, increasing in parallel with the increase in the complexity of the nervous system and reaching the highest values in pigeons and rabbits.     

Identification of the Molecular Partners of Lymphocyte Phosphatase-Associated Phosphoprotein (LPAP) That Are Involved in Human Lymphocyte Activation

Molecular Biology - Lymphocyte phosphatase-associated phosphoprotein (LPAP) is a small transmembrane protein that is found in lymphocytes and is tightly associated with the phosphatase CD45. The...     

The effect of anabiosis autoinducers on the bacterial genome

The mutagenic activity of chemical analogues of microbial anabiosis autoinducers (the autoregulatory d1 factors of cell differentiation), which act to inhibit cell proliferation, to enhance cell tolerance, and to induce the transition of cells to anabiotic state, was studied using the Ames test. In the range of concentrations studied (0.1 to 100 micrograms/ml), alkyl-substituted hydroxybenzenes (AHBs) differing in hydrophobicity, i.e., methylresorcinol (C1-AHB) and hexylresorcinol (C6-AHB), as well as unsubstituted resorcinol, showed different growth-inhibiting and mutagenic effects. C6-AHB was found to inhibit the growth of Salmonella typhimurium TA100 and to induce its mutagenesis at a rate of 1.8 revertants/nmol. C1-AHB taken at low concentrations not only failed to inhibit bacterial growth but even stimulated it and exerted an antimutagenic effect. Unsubstituted resorcinol virtually did not influence bacterial growth and showed weak mutagenic activity. The growth-inhibiting effect of elevated C6-AHB concentrations correlated with the degree of the transition of the original phenotype producing S-type colonies to a phenotype producing R-type colonies. The role of AHB homologues, as microbial autoregulators with mutagenic activity, in the regulation and correlation of two processes (the phenotypic dissociation of microbial populations and the formation of resting microbial forms) is discussed. The accumulation of AHBs in senescent microbial cultures may induce adaptive mutations, change the expression of genes, and promote the development of minor cell subpopulations (phenotypes), thus providing for the adaptation of these cultures to varying environmental conditions.     

Phenomenon of “Siamese embryos” in cereals in vivo and in vitro: Cleavage polyembryony and fasciations

The genesis of wheat microsporial polyembryoids in vitro was analyzed in detail. The nature of different phenotypes of cereal polymeric embryos was identified. They represent the class “multiple shoot meristems,” which results from a cleavage polyembryony and is accompanied by organ fasciations of all known types (radial, flat, or ring). The morphological nature of cereal embryonic organs has been clarified: shoot meristem—axial organ; scutellum—lateral outgrowth of this axis; coleoptile—derivative of shoot meristem but fused with scutellum; terminality of scutellum—the result of linear fasciation that occurred historically. An explanation is given on how the structural model of an auxin polar transport works during the establishment of bilateral symmetry in a cereal embryo that is associated with the inverted polarization of the carrier protein PIN1 on cell membranes and, correspondingly, with the inverted auxin transport performed by this carrier (Fischer-Iglesias et al., 2001; Forestan et al., 2010).     

Dominance of parental genomes in embryonic stem cell/fibroblast hybrid cells depends on the ploidy of the somatic partner

Two dozen hybrid clones were produced by fusion of diploid embryonic stem (ES) cells positive for green fluorescent protein (GFP) with tetraploid fibroblasts derived from DD/c and C57BL-I(I)1RK mice. Cytogenetic analysis demonstrated that most cells from these hybrid clones contained near-hexaploid chromosome sets. Additionally, the presence of chromosomes derived from both parental cells was confirmed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analysis of polymorphic microsatellites. All hybrid cells were positive for GFP and demonstrated growth characteristics and fibroblast-like morphology. In addition, most hybrid cells were positive for collagen type I, fibronectin, and lamin A/C but were negative for Oct4 and Nanog proteins. Methylation status of the Oct4 and Nanog gene promoters was evaluated by bisulfite genomic sequencing analysis. The methylation sites (CpG-sites) of the Oct4 and Nanog gene promoters were highly methylated in hybrid cells, whereas the CpG-sites were unmethylated in the parental ES cells. Thus, the fibroblast genome dominated the ES genome in the diploid ES cell/tetraploid fibroblast hybrid cells. Immunofluorescent analysis of the pluripotent and fibroblast markers demonstrated that establishment of the fibroblast phenotype occurred shortly after fusion and that the fibroblast phenotype was further maintained in the hybrid cells. Fusion of karyoplasts and cytoplast derived from tetraploid fibroblasts with whole ES cells demonstrated that karyoplasts were able to establish the fibroblast phenotype of the reconstructed cells but not fibroblast cytoplasts. Thus, these data suggest that the dominance of parental genomes in hybrid cells of ES cell/somatic cell type depends on the ploidy of the somatic partner.     

Effect of low-molecular amines on DNA conformation and stability of the double helix]

Interaction of low-molecular amines (cystamine, cysteamine, cystaphose, asparagine, beta-alanine) with DNA was studied. The amines change the positive circular dichroism (CD) band of DNA as well as temperature and range width of melting. Effect of amines on DNA depends on ionic strength of the solvent, concentration and structure of the ligand. Monamines cause destabilization of DNA double helix followed by stabilization as ligand concentration increases. At concentrations stabilizing the double helix DNA conformation undergoes transition from the B- to C-form. The results obtained enable to relate the stabilizing effect of low-molecular amines and conformational B leads to C-transition to the non-specific interaction of ligand amino groups with DNA phosphates, and the destabilizing effect of monoamines of low concentrations to their interaction with bases, mainly in the denaturated sites of DNA. It is proposed that a stronger effectiveness of amines as compared to monovalent metals in the conformational shift of DNA towards the C-form is due to the additional effect of disturbance of hydrophobic interactions in DNA double helix.     

The use of the spectrophotometric analysis for the calculation of the thermodynamic parameters in actinocin derivative-DNA systems

The spectral properties of the actinocin derivative ActII in complexes with DNA were studied by UV visible spectrophotometry. Two binding models with one and two binding sites for competitive binding with different values of parameters were considered. To choose an optimal model of complexation, the optimization program of spectrophotometric concentration dependencies DALSMOD was used. Using this program, it was concluded that at least three complexes with different absorption spectra are present in the system ActII-DNA. The logarithms of K2 and K3 for DNA-ActII mixtures, calculated for models I and II at different sodium ion concentrations, were in good agreement with predictions of the counterion condensation theory. The analysis of the absorption spectra of ActII-DNA mixtures at different temperatures made it possible to obtain the values of deltaH and deltaS for each type of complexes. The values of entropy deltaS were positive in the 0.02 M NaCl solution and negative in the 0.15 M NaCI solution.     

Colour polymorphism in relation to population dynamics of the leaf beetle, Chrysomela lapponica

We studied colour morph diversity and frequencies of light and dark morphs in non-fluctuating and fluctuating populations of willow feeding leaf beetle Chrysomela lapponica in the Kola Peninsula, NW Russia. Population-specific Shannon–Weaver diversity index positively correlated with dark morph frequencies, indicating that the larger part of colour polymorphism is related with numbers and diversity of dark morphs. Among-population variation in studied characters was not explained by pollution load or predation rates, but depended on the type of the population and the stage of density change in the fluctuating populations: both colour morph diversity and frequency of dark morphs were low in declining post-outbreak populations but equally high in non-fluctuating populations and in fluctuating populations at peak densities. In time-series, both diversity index and frequency of dark morphs decreased with post-outbreak density decline in the fluctuating population, but did not change in the non-fluctuating population. In the experiment, when adults received low quality food (plants from post-outbreak site), mortality of dark morphs during the hibernation was almost doubled relative to the mortality of light morphs, whereas on high quality food the colour morphs demonstrated similar mortality. This may indicate, that decrease in colour polymorphism extent and dark morph frequencies in the declining populations is due to selective mortality of dark morphs imposed by density dependent (induced by heavy herbivore damage during an outbreak) decrease in host-plant quality (delayed inducible resistance, DIR). DIR is known as one of the factors driving herbivore populations, but our result is the first evidence that DIR may act as a factor of natural selection. Dark morphs are not only susceptible to low food quality, but also have smaller size compared to light morphs, and therefore the dark females are presumably less fecund. Thus, decrease in frequency of low-fitness (dark) individuals in post-outbreak populations and accumulation of low-fitness phenotypes at the popu-lation peak may create feedbacks contributing to regulation of density fluctuations in Ch. lapponica.