Pleiotropic effects of the chitinase gene from Serratia plymuthica in transgenic potato

The pleiotropic effects of transgenesis includes different consequences of the insertion of a transgene that are not related to the direct action of its product. It is necessary to evaluate the outlook for the application in selection of the transgenic potato strain containing the bacterial chitinase gene chiA we created for studying the possible nonspecific influence of the introduction of the transgene on the phenotypical properties of the transgenic lines. In the present investigation we will consider the effect of the introduction of the chitinase transgene on such agronomically important characteristics as yield and nonspecific resistance.     

Variability in several ecologic-physiologic traits of different populations of the Asiatic Arctic suslik Citellus parryi]

In several geographic populations of the Arctic ground squirrel C. parryi, studies have been made on changes in oxygen consumption during decrease of the ambient temperature from 25 to 3-4 degrees, thermal preference, hemoglobin content of the blood and composition of the adipose tissue (both brown and white, subcutaneous and visceral). Significant shifts of these indices were found. In animals from various parts of the species area, different sensitivity to cooling was found, as indicated by determinations of oxygen consumption at different temperatures and the prefered temperature: different hemoglobin content of the blood was also found together with differences in the level of two unsaturated fatty acids - the oleic and linoleic ones. Comparison of these data with similar results obtained on various populations of the Siberian ground squirrel C. undulatus revealed obvious differences between these close species with respect to the indices studied.     

Organization of early forms of kitten behavior after partial oral deprivation

Study of development of early forms of behaviour was carried out on intact kittens of the first month of life, who endured in 5 days age uni- and bilateral sections of the lingual nerve, and on shame-operated and undernourished animals. It was shown that bilateral deafferentation caused significant disturbance of alimentary behaviour at the stage of sucking, manifested in disturbance of natural sucking and appearance of shame sucking, i.e. rhythmic sucking movement without nipple grasping. At the one-month age, in conditions of artificial feeding, natural sucking in operated animals was restored and the shame one disappeared. Bilateral section of the lingual nerve led to acceleration of ripening of sensory and motor systems and accelerated development of homing, exploratory and playing behaviour. Possible role is discussed of sensory trigeminal nuclei neurones in organization of normal patterned sucking and at limited sensory inflow. It is suggested that elimination of sensory input developing in the norm earlier than others, changes natural terms of other channels development, what accelerates the change of early behaviour forms.     

Magnetic interaction of manganese with pheophytin anion-radical and chlorophyll cation-radical in reaction centers of the photosystem II

The influence of Mn on saturation curves of ESR spectra of Ph(-) and P(+)(680) at 1-200K in samples with different content of Mn has been studied. An analysis of these data and those on photoinduced changes of fluorescence yield of chlorophyll leads to the conclusion that the Mn-containing centre in Photosystem 2 is a cluster of 4 Mn atoms, two of which can be replaced by Mg(2+) or any other divalent metal. The distances between Mn Na Ph as well as between Mn and P(680) have been estimated.