Structural studies of an Inv (1, −2) kappa light chain

A Bence Jones protein with phenotype Inv (1, –2) was isolated from the urine of a patient with multiple myeloma. Inv typing of the patient's relatives established the presence of anInv ¹ allele in the kindred, and that the patient's genotype wasInv ¹/Inv ³. Hence, the absence of Inv (2) in the Bence Jones protein was shown to be genetic and not an artifact caused by the disease. The tryptic peptide-containing residues 191 through 194 were isolated and shown to be composed of Leu, Tyr, Ala, Cys, with Leu at the amino end. Hence, the residue at 191 is the same as that present in Inv (1, 2) Bence Jones proteins. More detailed study of the tryptic peptides established that residue 153 is Val rather than Ala as in all other K chains thus far studied. The primary sequence: Ala¹⁵³, Leu¹⁹¹ determines Inv (1, 2); Ala¹⁵³, Val¹⁹¹ determines Inv (3); and Val¹⁵³, Leu¹⁹¹ determines Inv (1). The Val¹⁵³, Val¹⁹¹ sequence has not been observed. It may correspond to Inv (–). These data are strikingly similar to the data for the Kern and Oz isotypes (changes at 154 and 191, respectively) in the chain. As in the case of theK chain, only three of the four possible combinations have been observed. The implications of this parallelism and of crystallographic findings on chains, reported by others, are discussed.     

An application of diagonal electrophoresis to the selective purification of serine phosphate peptides. Serine phosphate peptides from ovalbumin

A diagonal-electrophoresis method for the selective purification of serine phosphate peptides was applied to tryptic, chymotryptic and peptic digests of oxidized ovalbumin. This method is based on the release of the phosphate group bound to serine by treatment with alkaline phosphatase on paper. The identified serine phosphate peptides were purified by paper electrophoresis at pH6.5 and 2.0, dephosphorylation with bacterial alkaline phosphatase, and paper electrophoresis at pH2.0 again, in that order. The presence of two groups of serine phosphate peptides was apparent from the amino acid composition. One group contained no lysine, cysteic acid, proline, leucine or isoleucine (sequence 1) and the other had all those amino acids (sequence 2). Further degradation with subtilisin of those peptides and ;dansyl'-Edman sequence analysis established their partial sequences. The proposed sequences are as follows (with ;SerP' representing serine phosphate): sequence 1, -Ala-Gly-Arg-Glu-Val-Val-Gly-SerP-Ala-Glu-Ala-Gly-Asp-Val-Ala-Ala-Ser-(Val,Glx(2),Ser,Phe)-Arg-; sequence 2, -Asp-Lys-Leu-Pro-Gly-Phe-Gly-Asp-SerP-Ile-Glx-Ala-Glx-CySO(3)H-Gly-(Thr,Ser,Val)-(Asp,His,Val)-. The partial sequence of one of the phosphopeptides, Asp-(Glu,Ile,SerP), reported by Flavin (1954) was used to establish the proposed sequence 2.     

Immunoglobulin λ-chains. The complete amino acid sequence of a Bence-Jones protein

The total amino acid sequence of a lambda Bence-Jones protein has been established. The protein contains 211 residues, which include two methionine residues. Splitting with cyanogen bromide gave three fragments, the largest of which included the C-terminal half, which is common to other Bence-Jones proteins of the same type. The peptides obtained by tryptic, chymotryptic and peptic digestion were isolated and purified by paper-electrophoretic and chromatographic techniques. Reduction followed by carboxymethylation of the cysteine residues with radioactive iodoacetate was found to be a powerful tool in the isolation of some insoluble peptides. Unusual features of the molecule are the fact that it contains six cysteine residues and not five as observed in both kappa and lambda Bence-Jones proteins studied previously, and its size, which seems two residues smaller than the smallest Bence-Jones protein studied hitherto. The similarities and differences between this and other Bence-Jones proteins are discussed.     

Esters of serine and threonine in hydrolysates of histones and protamines, and attendant errors in amino acid analyses of proteins

1. Partial acid hydrolysates of histones from various origins and of protamine were analysed by a two-dimensional ionophoretic procedure to reveal strongly acidic ninhydrin-positive components. 2. Histone fractions prepared by extraction with sulphuric acid gave rise to spots identified as serine O-sulphate and threonine O-sulphate. These two compounds, which were not found in hydrolysates of corresponding fractions prepared by extraction with hydrochloric acid, were artifacts. 3. Hydrolysis of proteins in the presence of traces of sulphate can lead to the formation of the O-sulphates of serine and threonine. This can cause errors, which may sometimes be serious, in amino acid analyses of proteins. 4. O-Phosphoserine was obtained in small amounts from some histone fractions and from protamine, but was undetectable in other histone fractions, notably those of lower lysine content.     

Isolation of Aulacomya paramyosin

Tropomyosin A or paramyosin has been isolated from the adductor muscle of Aulacomya magellanica. It has in common with other tropomyosins A the method used for extracting it from adductor muscle, its solubility, facility of crystallization, ammonium sulphate range of precipitation, amino acid composition and behaviour when digested with trypsin. As a particular feature it exhibits an unusual low viscosity for this type of tropomyosin. Its molecular weight, determined by the Archibald approach-to-sedimentation-equilibrium method, is 258000+/-16000.     

Fungal biodegradation of lignopolystyrene graft copolymers.

White rot basidiomycetes were able to biodegrade styrene (1-phenylethene) graft copolymers of lignin containing different proportions of lignin and polystyrene [poly(1-phenylethylene)]. The biodegradation tests were run on lignin-styrene copolymerization products which contained 10.3, 32.2, and 50.4% (wt/wt) lignin. The polymer samples were incubated with the white rot fungi Pleurotus ostreatus, Phanerochaete chrysosporium, and Trametes versicolor and the brown rot fungus Gloeophyllum trabeum. White rot fungi degraded the plastic samples at a rate which increased with increasing lignin content in the copolymer sample. Both polystyrene and lignin components of the copolymer were readily degraded. Polystyrene pellets were not degradable in these tests. Degradation was verified for both incubated and control samples by weight loss, quantitative UV spectrophotometric analysis of both lignin and styrene residues, scanning electron microscopy of the plastic surface, and the presence of enzymes active in degradation during incubation. Brown rot fungus did not affect any of the plastics. White rot fungi produced and secreted oxidative enzymes associated with lignin degradation in liquid media during incubation with lignin-polystyrene copolymer.     

Phylogeny of Greya (Lepidoptera: Prodoxidae), based on nucleotide sequence variation in mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I and II: congruence with morphological data

The phylogeny of Greya Busck (Lepidoptera: Prodoxidae) was inferred from nucleotide sequence variation across a 765-bp region in the cytochrome oxidase I and II genes of the mitochondrial genome. Most parsimonious relationships of 25 haplotypes from 16 Greya species and two outgroup genera (Tetragma and Prodoxus) showed substantial congruence with the species relationships indicated by morphological variation. Differences between mitochondrial and morphological trees were found primarily in the positions of two species, G. variabilis and G. pectinifera, and in the branching order of the three major species groups in the genus. Conflicts between the data sets were examined by comparing levels of homoplasy in characters supporting alternative hypotheses. The phylogeny of Greya species suggests that host-plant association at the family level and larval feeding mode are conservative characters. Transition/transversion ratios estimated by reconstruction of nucleotide substitutions on the phylogeny had a range of 2.0-9.3, when different subsets of the phylogeny were used. The decline of this ratio with the increase in maximum sequence divergence among taxa indicates that transitions are masked by transversions along deeper internodes or long branches of the phylogeny. Among transitions, substitutions of A-->G and T-->C outnumbered their reciprocal substitutions by 2-6 times, presumably because of the approximately 4:1 (77%) A+T-bias in nucleotide base composition. Of all transversions, 73%-80% were A<-->T substitutions, 85% of which occurred at third positions of codons; these estimates did not decrease with an increase in maximum sequence divergence of taxa included in the analysis. The high frequency of A<-->T substitutions is either a reflection or an explanation of the 92% A+T bias at third codon positions.