CYTOLOGICAL AND CYTOCHEMICAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE EARLY STAGE OF INFECTION OF TOMATO HAIR CELLS BY TOBACCO MOSAIC VIRUS

Strips of epidermal tissue bearing hair cells were removed fromtomato stems. The lower surface exposed by the stripping wasinoculated with tobacco mosaic virus and the progress of infectionof the hair cells was followed microscopically and by extractionof infectivity. Shortly before infectivity could be extractedfrom the hair cells, the nuclei were observed to have migratedtowards the tran sverse wall of the basal hair cell nearestthe epidermis, apparently the site at which infection of thecell commences. After infection was apparent, the staining characteristicsof the nuclei, before and after RNase and DNase treatment, suggestedan accumulation of RNA. A granular body, different from X-bodiesmaintained a close association with the nucleus of TMV infectedhair cells, and was found to be rich in RNA, suggesting thatviral RNA of the nucleus may have been entering the cytoplasmvia the granular body. A possible mechanism of X-body formationarising from the granular body is suggested. ¹ Supported in part by a grant E-536 (C9) from the U. S. PublicHealth Service. ² Present address: Plant Pathology Laboratory, Faculty of Agriculture,Nagoya University, Anjo, Aichi (Japan). (Received March 4, 1963; )     

Examination of the relationships between jaw opener and closer rhythmical muscle activity in an in vitro brainstem jaw-attached preparation

An in vitro jaw-attached brainstem preparation was developed to investigate the relationship between jaw opener and closer muscle activity during chemically induced rhythmical jaw movements in neonatal rats. In the majority of preparations examined, where a defined region of brainstem was isolated and the neuronal innervation of the jaw opener and closer muscles was left intact, bath application of the excitatory amino acid agonist N -methyl-D,L-aspartate (NMA, 20-40 muM) in combination with bicuculline (BIC 10 muM), a GABAA antagonist, produced rhythmical electromyogram (EMG) activity in jaw opener and closer muscles, bilaterally, in conjunction with rhythmical jaw movements. Low concentrations of NMA (20 muM) in combination with BIC produced temporally coordinated activity between the jaw opener and closer muscles, ipsilaterally. With higher doses of NMA (40 muM), each muscle group exhibited bursting, but temporal coordination between them was difficult to establish. Similarly, NMA application in combination with the glycine antagonist strychnine (STR, 10 muM), also produced rhythmical EMG activity from both opener and closer muscles, ipsilaterally, but showed no temporal coordination between the antagonist muscle pair. However, coordination of opener and closer muscle discharge could be restored by the addition of BIC to the bath. We suggest that there exist separate, but coordinated, rhythm generator circuits for opener and closer motoneuronal discharge located in close proximity to the trigeminal motor nucleus and under GABAergic control for production of temporal coordination between rhythmogenic circuits.