Anoxybacillus sp. SO B1–Immobilized Amberlite XAD-16 for Solid-Phase Preconcentration of Cu(II) and Pb(II) and Their Determinations by Flame Atomic Absorption Spectrometry

A new method for the determination of Cu(II) and Pb(II) by flame atomic absorption spectrometry (FAAS) after preconcentrating on a column containing Anoxybacillus sp. SO B1–immobilized Amberlite XAD-16 was developed. The functional groups of Anoxybacillus sp. SO B1 immobilized on Amberlite XAD-16 were characterized in KBr tablets by Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectrometry. Various parameters such as pH, amount of the adsorbent, eluent type and volume, and flow rate of the sample solution were studied. The optimum pH values of quantitative sorption for Cu(II) and Pb(II) were found to be pH 7.0 and 5.0 and Cu(II) and Pb(II) ions could be quantitatively eluted with 5.0 ml of 1.0 mol L^?1 HCI and 10.0 ml of 0.25 mol L^?1 HNO₃, respectively. Recoveries of Cu(II) and Pb(II) were found to be 100.9 ± 1.57% and 100.3 ± 0.49% (N = 5), the limits of detection of Cu(II) and Pb(II) in the determination by FAAS (3 s, N = 10) were found to be 0.8 and 1.6 μg L^?1, respectively. The proposed enrichment method was applied for metal ion determination from water samples such as two parts of Tigris River water in Diyarbak?r and Elaz??, Lake of Hazar in Elaz??, and tap water in Diyarbak?r. Furthermore, the accuracy of the proposed method was verified by studying the analytical recovery and by analyzing certified reference material (NCS-DC 73350 leaves of poplar).     

An uncommon association of vacterl complex with hypertrophic pyloric stenosis and horseshoe lung

We report a case of VACTERL complex which had concomitant horseshoe lung, laryngeal cleft, and hypertrophic pyloric stenosis, which has not been previously reported.     

Partial purification of pepsin from turkey proventriculus

In the present study, turkey proventriculus (stomach) was mixed with 10% NaCl (1:2 w/v) and extracted by centrifugation to produce crude extract. The partial purification of the extract was carried out by using Sephadex G-75 resin in gel filtration column chromatography. Crude extract (CE) and fractions obtained by gel filtration were analysed for milk-clotting activity (MCA), protein content, proteolytic activity (PA), and SDS-PAGE electrophoresis. The first 7 fractions did not have any activities; the fraction of 9, 10 and 11 had the most milk-clotting and proteolytic activities. Electrophoretic patterns proved that further purification steps should be applied for better results.     

Segregation of molecules at cell division reveals native protein localization

We introduce a nonintrusive method exploiting single-cell variability after cell division to validate protein localization. We found that Clp proteases, widely reported to form biologically relevant foci, were uniformly distributed in Escherichia coli cells, and that many commonly used fluorescent proteins caused severe mislocalization when fused to homo-oligomers. Retagging five other reportedly foci-forming proteins with the most monomeric fluorescent protein tested suggests that the foci were caused by the fluorescent tags.     

Effect of salinity on growth of Abant trout Salmo trutta abanticus

Abant trout Salmo trutta abanticus were grown for 154 days at three salinities of 0, 9 or 18 to assess mass gain, condition factor, food conversion ratio and food consumption. Appetite was significantly higher at 0 than at salinities of 9 or 18. Salinities >18 may have detrimental effects on biomass production. The mean ± S.E. of the condition factor at the three salinities were 1.29 ± 0.20 at 0, 1.22 ± 0.22 at 9 and 1.10 ± 0.20 at 18. Fish reared at a salinity of 0 showed higher mass gain, food conversion ratio and food consumption.     

Estimation of genetic diversity Among Turkish kale populations (Brassica oleracea var. acephala L.) using RAPD markers

20 populations of kale (B. oleracea var. acephala L.) selected from 127 populations for fresh consumption terms of yield and leaf quality characteristics as superior types using weight-based ranking method from the Black Sea Region of Turkey were evaluated at the DNA level using randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) markers compared to some morphological characters. The 7 primers selected from 100 decamers used generated 110 bands, of which 60 (54.5%) were polymorphic. Jaccard's genetic distances were calculated and dendogram was generated using the UPGMA algorithm. The dendogram obtained were classified into three main groups and four subgroups. The accessions showed a limited clustering in compare to morphological characters such as the number of leaf, leaf intentation of the margin, leaf and midrib color and thickness of midrib than geographical characteristics. Leaf color and midrib thickness characters clustered in the same group as OR49 and G18 accessions; S20, G6 and OR37 accessions, respectively.     

Apparent Lenz microphthalmia syndrome: a patient with unusual manifestations

Lenz microphthalmia syndrome was first described by Lenz et al. in 1955 (9). The cardinal features of the syndrome are microphthalmia or anophthalmia, microcephaly, mental retardation, external ear, digital, cardiac, skeletal, dental and genitourinary anomalies. Here we present a case of Lenz microphthalmia syndrome that shows the typical characteristics and, additionally, macrophallus, a broad chest with widely spaced nipples, wide gap between first and second toes, which are unusual manifestations in Lenz Microphthalmia Syndrome.     

Genetic and geographic variation of bulbous barley (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Hordeum bulbosum</Emphasis> L.) assessed by RAPD markers

Genetic relationships among 21 barley accessions (17 of bulbous barley H. bulbosum L. and 4 of cultivated barley (H. vulgare L.) collected from different part of Turkey were investigated using Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD). Eleven informative primers amplified 111 markers of which 98 (89.8%) were polymorphic. A dendogram was constructed using the UPGMA method based on the RAPD markers. The range of genetic similarity was from 0.111 to 0.815. The accessions were grouped into two main clusters based on the molecular data. The H. vulgare and H. bulbosum separated into two groups in the principle component analysis. The text was submitted by the authors in English.     

Vesicle encapsulation studies reveal that single molecule ribozyme heterogeneities are intrinsic

Single-molecule measurements have revealed that what were assumed to be identical molecules can differ significantly in their static and dynamic properties. One of the most striking examples is the hairpin ribozyme, which was shown to exhibit two to three orders of magnitude variation in folding kinetics between molecules. Although averaged behavior of single molecules matched the bulk solution data, it was not possible to exclude rigorously the possibility that the variations around the mean values arose from different ways of interacting with the surface environment. To test this, we minimized the molecules' interaction with the surface by encapsulating DNA or RNA molecules inside 100- to 200-nm diameter unilamellar vesicles, following the procedures described by Haran and coworkers. Vesicles were immobilized on a supported lipid bilayer via biotin-streptavidin linkages. We observed no direct binding of DNA or RNA on the supported bilayer even at concentrations exceeding 100 nM, indicating that these molecules do not bind stably on the membrane. Since the vesicle diameter is smaller than the resolution of optical microscopy, the lateral mobility of the molecules is severely constrained, allowing long observation periods. We used fluorescence correlation spectroscopy, nuclease digestion, and external buffer exchange to show that the molecules were indeed encapsulated within the vesicles. When contained within vesicles, the natural form of the hairpin ribozyme exhibited 50-fold variation in both folding and unfolding rates in 0.5 mM Mg2+, which is identical to what was observed from the molecules tethered directly on the surface. This strongly indicates that the observed heterogeneity in dynamic properties does not arise as an artifact of surface attachment, but is intrinsic to the nature of the molecules.     

Genetic and geographic polymorphism of cultivated tobaccos (Nicotiana tabacum) in Turkey

Nicotiana tabacum (2n = 48) is a natural amphidiploid and shows a distribution over a geographical area in eastern anatolia. Random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) technique was used to evaluate both genetic diversity among 21 primitive tobacco accessions comparing flue cure virginia genotype (FCV) and their geographical polymorphism as a source of genetic variations for breeding programs. Only 13 of all the 60 random primers used in RAPD showed polymorphism acceptable for characterization of these accessions. Totally 118 RAPD fragments were generated from thirteen decamer primer and sixtyfour of them were found polymorphic (54.2%). Mus and FCV showed the smallest genetic distance among accessions cultivated in the eastern anatolia. These results shows that the RAPD assay is a powerful approach for identifying genetic and geographic polymorphism.