In vitro assessment of the toxicity of metal compounds

A review of in vitro mutagenesis assessment of metal compounds in mammalian and nonmammalian test systems has been compiled. Prokaryotic assays are ineffective or inconsistent in their detection of most metals as mutagens, with the notable exception of hexavalent chromium. Mammalian assay systems appear to be similarly inappropriate for the screening of metal compounds based upon the limited number of studies that have employed those compounds having known carcinogenic activity. Although of limited value as screening tests for the detection of potentially carcinogenic metal compounds, the well-characterized in vitro mutagenesis systems may prove to be of significant value as a means to elucidate mechanisms of metal genotoxicity.     

Species loss leads to community closure

Global extinction of a species is sadly irreversible. At a local scale, however, extinctions may be followed by re-invasion. We here show that this is not necessarily the case and that an ecological community may close its doors for re-invasion of species lost from it. Previous studies of how communities are assembled have shown that there may be rules for that process and that limitations are set to the order by which species are introduced and put together. Instead of focusing on the assembly process we randomly generated simple competitive model communities that were stable and allowed for two to 10 coexisting species. When a randomly selected single species was removed from the community, the cascading species loss was recorded and frequently the resulting community was more than halved. Cascading extinctions have previously been recorded, but we here show that the relative magnitude of the cascade is dependent on community size (and not only trophic structure) and that the reintroduction of the original species lost often is impossible. Hence, species loss does not simply leave a void potentially refilled, but permanently alters the entire community structure and consequently the adaptive landscape for potential re-invaders.     

Regulation of lung endothelin content by the glucocorticosteroid budesonide.

Intratracheal instillation of Sephadex beads induced a long-lasting inflammation in the rat lung as seen by an increase in lung weights. Repeated instillation enhanced this reaction and increased lung endothelin-1 content 3.5 times. Budesonide given s.c. abolished these effects and even reduced basal endothelin-1 content by 72%. The tissue content of the sensory neuropeptide neurokinin A were unaffected by both treatments. Endothelin has been proposed to play a part in the pathogenesis of bronchial asthma. If it is so, the ability of budesonide to reduce endothelin-1 content could thus be added to the list of beneficial effects of glucocorticosteroids in these conditions.     

Trace elements in rock salt and their bioavailability estimated from solubility in acid

In this study, 18 partly commercially available samples of rock salt from Austria, Germany, Pakistan, Poland, Switzerland, and Ukraine were investigated with respect to their content of trace elements using instrumental neutron activation analysis. Elements detected were Al, Ba, Br, Ca, Ce, Cl, Co, Cr, Cs, Eu, Fe, Hf, La, Mn, Na, Rb, Sb, Sc, Sm, Sr, Ta, Tb, Th, and Zn, some of them only in individual cases. An estimation of the bioavailability of these trace elements was performed by dissolving an equivalent of the sodium chloride samples in diluted hydrochloric acid (simulating stomach acid), filtering off the insoluble components, and analyzing the evaporated filtrate. It could be shown that in most cases bioactive trace elements like Fe can be found in rock salt in the form of almost insoluble compounds and are therefore not significantly bioavailable, whereas thorium, for example, was partly bioavailable in two cases. A significant contribution to the recommended daily intake of metal trace elements by using rock salt for nutrition can be excluded.     

Entropy-driven polymerization of protein from the E66 strain of tobacco mosaic virus

Protein of the tobacco mosaic virus mutant E66 has lysine replacing asparagine of the type strain, vulgare, at position 140. Thus, E66 protein should have one more positive or one less net negative charge than vulgare at pH 6 to 7. To investigate the effect of charge, a comparative study of the polymerization of E66 and vulgare proteins at pH 6.0, 6.2, 6.4, 6.6, and 6.8 at ionic strengths 0.15, 0.10, and 0.05 was made by turbidimetry. Polymerization of E66 protein always proceeded at a lower temperature than vulgare. However, the extent of polymerization was much lower in E66, especially at the higher ionic strengths. Sedimentation velocity results paralleled those from turbidity measurements in that E66 protein polymerizes at lower temperatures than vulgare; the 20 S component is more abundant in E66 protein. Osmotic pressure measurements also show that E66 protein is more polymerized than vulgare, especially at lower pH values. Hydrogen ion titrations of E66 protein were carried out from pH 8 to 5 and back to pH 8 in 0.10 m KCl at three temperatures, 4, 10, and 15 °C. These titrations were reversible when carried out slowly. The isoionic point is near pH 5; thus the charge at pH 7.5 is ?3. The reversible titration results were correlated with the aggregates present at the various pH values and temperatures, determined from the areas under the schlieren peaks in sedimentation velocity experiments. It is found that hydrogen ion binding at the three pH values is correlated with the disappearance of the smallest aggregates and is independent of the type of higher polymer formed. To investigate the effect of ionic strength and pH on the characteristic temperature corresponding to an optical density increment of 0.01 by the method used previously for vulgare, two sets of turbidity measurements were carried out. In the first one the ionic strength was changed from 0.025 to 0.15 in increments of 0.025 at pH 6.0 and 6.4. In the other set, the ionic strength was kept constant at 0.10 and the pH changed from 5.9 to 6.7 in increments of 0.1 pH units. When the analysis of these data was carried out, $\text{Δ}\text{H}{}^1\text{= 30}\text{kcal/mol}$ was obtained. For the salting out constant a value of 1.7 was found, compared to 2.2 for vulgare, a result consistent with the fact that E66 should be less hydrophobic than vulgare. The electrical work term ΔW_el also turns out to be about one-half that for vulgare, which is expected from the lower net negative charge on E66 protein.     

Genome‐wide scans to detect positive selection in Large White and Tongcheng pigs

Due to the direction, intensity, duration and consistency of genetic selection, especially recent artificial selection, the production performance of domestic pigs has been greatly changed. Therefore, we reasoned that there must be footprints or selection signatures that had been left during domestication. In this study, with porcine 60K BeadChip genotyping data from both commercial Large White and local Chinese Tongcheng pigs, we calculated the extended haplotype homozygosity values of the two breeds using the long‐range haplotype method to detect selection signatures. We found 34 candidate regions, including 61 known genes, from Large White pigs and 25 regions comprising 57 known genes from Tongcheng pigs. Many selection signatures were found on SSC1, SSC4, SSC7 and SSC14 regions in both populations. According to quantitative trait loci and network pathway analyses, most of the regions and genes were linked to growth, reproduction and immune responses. In addition, the average genetic differentiation coefficient F_ST was 0.254, which means that there had already been a significant differentiation between the breeds. The findings from this study can contribute to further research on molecular mechanisms of pig evolution and domestication and also provide valuable references for improvement of their breeding and cultivation.