Post-translational arginylation of ornithine decarboxylase from rat hepatocytes.

Ornithine decarboxylase (ODC) was purified 6500-fold from NMRI mouse kidneys under conditions designed to inhibit degradation by proteinases. The enzyme was homogeneous by SDS/polyacrylamide-gel electrophoresis, and the specific activity was among the highest reported. The yield was 70%. A monoclonal antibody against this preparation was generated and used in studies to investigate the half-life of ODC in cultured rat hepatocytes labelled with [35S]methionine. This value was 39 +/- 4 min and was unchanged when either NH4Cl (as a lysosomotropic agent) or leupeptin (as a lysosomal proteinase inhibitor) was added to the culture medium. Thus the intracellular turnover of ODC in cultured hepatocytes occurs mainly in extra-lysosomal compartments. Arginylation of rat ODC was investigated in vitro by incubation with L-[3H]arginyl-tRNA, and the incorporation of the label was compared with that of total cytosolic proteins. Arginylated ODC had a specific radioactivity 8600 times that of the bulk of cytosolic protein. Edman degradation of this ODC showed that the post-translational arginylation occurred only at the alpha-amino end of the enzyme. The inhibitor of arginyl-tRNA:protein arginyltransferase (EC 2.3.2.8), L-glutamyl-L-valyl-L-phenylalanine, increased the half-life of ODC in cultured hepatocytes from 39 min to more than 90 min. The possible significance of the preferential post-translational arginylation of ornithine decarboxylase to its rapid turnover is discussed.     

Synergistic activation of 2-deoxy-D-glucose uptake in rat and murine peritoneal macrophages by human macrophage colony-stimulating factor-stimulated coupling between transport and hexokinase activity and phorbol-dependent stimulation of pentose phosphate-shunt activity.

1. Transport and accumulation of 2-deoxy-D-glucose (2dGlc) in rat and murine peritoneal macrophages were investigated by using C-1-3H-labelled and C-2,6-3H-labelled 2dGlc. 2. There was active accumulation of both C-1- and C-2,6-labelled 2dGlc by quiescent rat and murine macrophages via a phloretin-inhibitable transport system. 3. The rate of uptake and accumulation of 2dGlc (C-1 label) was increased by exposure to human macrophage colony-stimulating factor (mCSF-1) (1000 units/ml) in both murine and rat macrophages. This indicates that mCSF-1 enhances coupling between hexokinase activity and glucose transport at the endofacial surface of the transporter. 4. Phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate ('phorbol') at 40 nM stimulated 2dGlc in rat macrophages entirely by increasing the C-2,6 label uptake. This indicates that phorbol stimulates 2dGlc uptake mainly by increasing the activity of the pentose phosphate pathway. 5. Simultaneous exposure to phorbol and mCSF-1 stimulates 2dGlc uptake to a greater extent than found with either phorbol or mCSF-1 alone. This result is explained by a simultaneous enhancement of pentose phosphate-pathway activity and of hexokinase activity acting at the endofacial surface of the cell membrane. The dual activation of these serial processes coupled to the loss of the reaction products of the pentose phosphate-shunt pathway from the cells in the form of reactive oxygen intermediates, protons and CO2 could explain the synergistic action of phorbol and mCSF-1 in activation of sugar transport in macrophages.     

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.