The assessing of acidophilia with Biebrich scarlet, ponceau de xylidine and woodstain scarlet.

Horobin and Bennion stated in 1973 that the bonding of Biebrich scarlet at an alkaline pH is hydrophobic as the isomers of Biebrich scarlet (ponceau de xylidine and woodstain scarlet) do not stain at that pH. If correct this would negate the use of Biebrich scarlet as proposed by Spicer and Lillie in 1961 as a measure of acidophilia. We have found all three isomers to stain similarly at an alkaline pH. Goldstein stated in 1963 that Biebrich scarlet saturated with urea stained elastic fibers only faintly or not at all. This we confirmed; we also found that the staining of other acidophilic structures (Paneth cell granules, sperm heads, etc.) was blocked. If only hydrogen bonding and not ionic bonding is blocked in an aqueous dye solution saturated with urea then the exact meaning of alkaline Biebrich scarlet staining is unknown.     

Molecular evolution among someDrosophila species groups as indicated by two-dimensional electrophoresis

Summary The evolutionary and phylogenetic relationships of sevenDrosophila species groups (represented byD. melanogaster, D. mulleri, D. mercatorum, D. robusta, D. virilis, D. immigrans, D. funebris, andD. melanica) were investigated by the use of two-dimensional electrophoresis. The resulting phylogeny is congruent with the current views of evolution among these groups based on morphological characters and immunological distances. Previous studies indicated that the ability of one-dimensional electrophoresis to resolve relationships between distantly related taxa extended to about the Miocene [25 million years (Myr) ago], but the present study demonstrates that two-dimensional electrophoresis is a useful indicator of phylogeny even back to the Paleocene (65 Myr ago). In addition, two-dimensional electrophoresis is shown to be a useful technique for detecting slowly evolving structural proteins such as actins and tropomyosins.     

Histochemical Identification of Basic Proteins with Biebrich Scarlet at Alkaline pH

Staining at graded alkaline pH levels with the sulfonated dye, Biebrich scarlet, shows basic proteins in various histologic sites, and differentiates the sites according to their relative basicity. Certain structures stain at pH 6.0 but not at 8.0 or above. Others stain maximally up to pH 93 and a few stain strongly as high as pH 103. The most strongly basic sites resist more than the others the destruction of acidophilia by nitrosation, acetylation or exposure to formaldehyde.     

Molecular phylogeny of the chipmunks inferred from Mitochondrial cytochrome b and cytochrome oxidase II gene sequences

There are currently 25 recognized species of the chipmunk genus Tamias. In this study we sequenced the complete mitochondrial cytochrome b (cyt b) gene of 23 Tamias species. We analyzed the cyt b sequence and then analyzed a combined data set of cyt b along with a previous data set of cytochrome oxidase subunit II (COII) sequence. Maximum-likelihood was used to further test the fit of models of evolution to the cyt b data. Other sciurid cyt b sequence was added to examine the evolution of Tamias in the context of other sciurids. Relationships among Tamias species are discussed, particularly the possibility of a current sorting event among taxa of the southwestern United States and the extreme divergences among the three subgenera (Neotamias, Eutamias, and Tamias).     

Respiratory impairment in crustaceans and molluscs due to exposure to heavy metals.

1. We have assessed, using current literature, the respiratory consequences of water-borne heavy metal exposure in crustaceans and molluscs. 2. We suggest that in lethal and sub-lethal concentrations the essential metals Cu and Zn act on the respiratory system primarily by disrupting gill function which results in the development of internal hypoxia, although reparation can be accomplished even at "high" sub-lethal concentrations. 3. The more toxic xenobiotes such as Hg (and perhaps to a lesser extent Cd) may interfere with the respiratory system at every level of organisation including cellular respiration itself.     

Cytochemistry of the skin of patients with mucopolysaccharidoses.

The distribution of complex carbohydrates has been investigated at the light and electron microscope levels in sweat glands of normal subjects and patients with Hurler's or Hunter's disease. Normal sweat glands examined with a battery of light microscopic histochemical methods revealed sulphated complex carbohydrate in secretory granules of the dark cells. These granules lacked affinity for dialysed iron (DI) at the light and electron microscope levels. The DI method demonstrated acid complex carbohydrates ultrastructurally on the surface of the intercellular canaliculi and central lumen in normal sweat glands. DI-reactive acidic material, presumably of mucopolysaccharide nature, surrounded and extended between collagen bundles in the stroma of normal skin, but was absent from the band which ensheathed the sweat gland and consisted of individual rather than bundled collagen fibrils. DI-reactive mucopolysaccharide lined and partially filled vacuoles of dark cells showing a laminar distribution in vacuoles of clear cells in sweat glands of a Hunter patient. The DI method also visualized mucopolysaccharide distributed throughout vacuoles in fibroblasts of this patient. DI-reactive acid material covered the luminal surface of the sweat gland, coated collagen bundles in the stroma and spared the periglandular collagenous sheath in skin from Hurler and Hunter patients as in that from normal controls. Acid phosphatase was localized ultrastructually in vacuoles and nearby cytoplasm and on plasmalemmae of clear cells, dark cells and myoepithelial cells of sweat glands from Hurler and Hunter patients. Vacuoles of dermal fibroblasts and Schwann cells in these specimens also exhibited strong acid phosphatase activity.