Strain difference in the radiosensitivity of immunocompetent cells and its influence on the residual host-vs-graft reaction in lethally irradiated mice grafted with semiallogeneic bone marrow

A striking difference in radiosensitivity was noted between C3H/He (H-2k) and C57BL/6J (H-2b) strain mice when assessed by primary anti-SRBC PFC response of intact animals and primary cell-mediated lympholysis (CML) response of spleen cells to allogeneic cells in vitro, the C3H strain being more radioresistant. On the other hand, when C3H and B6 mice were exposed to 6.62 to 10.40 grays (Gy) of x-rays and then were transplanted with 2 X 10(6) bone marrow cells from B6C3F1 (H-2b/k) donor mice within 3 hr or at 24 hr after radiation exposure, the early mortality caused by residual host-vs-graft (HVG) reaction was much higher when C3H mice were used as recipients. Furthermore, the proportion of surviving animals manifesting host-type lymphohemopoiesis, i.e., host-type revertants, was much higher in B6C3F1 to C3H than in B6C3F1 to B6 combination. Spleen cells from such host-type revertants manifested strong anti-donor reactivity when assessed by mixed lymphocyte reaction (MLR) and/or CML in vitro. Increase of radiation doses to the recipients to 10.40 Gy resulted in 100% survival and 100% donor-type lymphohemopoiesis in both groups of chimeras. These results indicate strongly that a genetic difference in radiosensitivity of immune system of the recipients can greatly influence the magnitude of residual HVG reactions observed in hybrid to parental strain bone marrow transplantation in mice.     

Asexual reproductive organ-specific expression of the glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase 2 gene of Pilobolus crystallinus

Pilobolus crystallinus has three putative glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (gapdh) genes (pcgapdh1, pcgapdh2 and pcgapdh3). The results of this study demonstrate that expression of pcgapdh2 was increased by irradiation and that this increased expression was correlated with the formation of asexual reproductive organs (trophocysts). Interestingly, expression of pcgapdh2 was restricted to trophocysts. The formation of trophocysts was likely promoted by light, and the expression of pcgapdh2 was increased as a result of trophocyst formation. This is the first report that shows the regulation of a gapdh gene in an organ-specific manner in fungi.     

Retinal Attachment Instability Is Diversified among Mammalian Melanopsins

Melanopsins play a key role in non-visual photoreception in mammals. Their close phylogenetic relationship to the photopigments in invertebrate visual cells suggests they have evolved to acquire molecular characteristics that are more suited for their non-visual functions. Here we set out to identify such characteristics by comparing the molecular properties of mammalian melanopsin to those of invertebrate melanopsin and visual pigment. Our data show that the Schiff base linking the chromophore retinal to the protein is more susceptive to spontaneous cleavage in mammalian melanopsins. We also find this stability is highly diversified between mammalian species, being particularly unstable for human melanopsin. Through mutagenesis analyses, we find that this diversified stability is mainly due to parallel amino acid substitutions in extracellular regions. We propose that the different stability of the retinal attachment in melanopsins may contribute to functional tuning of non-visual photoreception in mammals.     

Pr-SNTX,a short-chain three-finger toxin from Papuan pigmy mulga snake,is an antagonist of muscle-type nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (α2βδε)

Three-finger toxins (3FTxs) are one of the major components in snake venoms. In this study, we isolated a cDNA encoding a short-chain 3FTx, Pr-SNTX, from Pseudechis rossignolii. The amino acid sequence of Pr-SNTX is nearly identical to that of its ortholog in Pseudechis australis. Pr-SNTX protein inhibited muscle-type (α₂βδε), but not neuronal α7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) activity.     

Effects of Exogenous Amino Acids on Iron Uptake in Relation to their Effects on Photoperiodic Flowering in Lemna paucicostata 6746

The flowering of Lemna paucicostata 6746 grown on 14-h photoperiodwas enhanced by the addition of high concentrations of ironto the medium, which also increased the endogenous iron concentration.The addition of asparagine, aspartate, glutamate, -alanine,glycine or serine to the medium also increased the endogenousiron level, resulting in the promotion of flowering. In contrast,the addition of cysteine, cystine, glutamine, arginine, threonineor phenylalanine lowered the endogenous iron level, resultingin the inhibition of flowering. Glycine and asparagine added to the medium during an inductive96-h dark period did not promote iron uptake and had no effecton flowering, but when added during the subsequent 120-h lightperiod, they promoted both iron uptake and flowering response.The increase in the endogenous iron level seems to favor floraldevelopment rather than induction of photoperiodic floweringof Lemna paucicostata 6746. (Received September 8, 1986; Accepted March 31, 1987)     

Primary structures of human protein kinase C beta I and beta II differ only in their C-terminal sequences

Two types of cDNA clones encoding human protein kinase C (PKC) were isolated from a spleen cDNA library using rabbit protein kinase C beta I/beta II cDNA as a hybridization probe. Nucleotide sequence analyses of these cDNA inserts revealed complete primary structures of two distinct types of human protein kinase C beta I and beta II which differ only in their C-terminal 50 or 52 amino acid residues. It was concluded that there exist four distinct types of PKC, PKC alpha, beta I, beta II and gamma, in human as well as rabbit, and that the corresponding sequences are strictly conserved among mammalian species.