Demonstration of the presence of G-proteins in hepatic microsomal fraction

The presence of G-proteins in isolated hepatic microsomal vesicles is demonstrated. The G-proteins were identified by their capacity to be ADP-ribosylated by cholera and pertussis toxins. Cholera toxin identified 42 and 45 kDa proteins, corresponding to alpha s-1 and alpha s-2, respectively. Pertussis toxin identified a 40 kDa protein corresponding to alpha i. The microsomal G-proteins are identical to the corresponding G proteins of the plasma membrane, but are present in different proportions; the microsomes have considerably less alpha s proteins than the plasma membrane.     

First report of a green toad (Bufo viridis sensu lato) in the Early Pleistocene of Spain: Palaeobiogeographical and palaeoecological implications

For the first time unequivocal fossil remains of a green toad (Bufo viridis s.l.) are described in the Iberian Peninsula. The fossils come from the Cueva Victoria site, a late Early Pleistocene (ca. 1.1–1.2 Ma) karstic filling in semi-arid southeastern Spain (Murcia region). By extension, other remains from two other Early Pleistocene Spanish localities, Barranco León D (ca. 1.3 Ma) and Almenara-Casablanca 3 (ca. 1.1 Ma), are cautiously attributed to the group B. viridis. The B. viridis group was previously reported with some uncertainty to the west of its current distribution area in Western Europe (Spain and France) in the Pliocene (Bufo cf. viridis) and less probably in the Early Miocene (Bufo aff. viridis). Since no osteological differences have been established between the recently described extant species of B. viridis s.l. (e.g. Bufo balearicus, Bufo siculus, Bufo boulengeri, B. viridis sensu stricto and Bufo variabilis) no precise palaeobiogeographical relationships can be drawn for the Spanish fossils. However, the occurrence of a third species of bufonid toad during the Pleistocene in the South of the Iberian Peninsula raises some interesting ecological questions in relation to the local disappearance of the green toad, which can be hypothetically linked to the intensification of the Pleistocene glacial/interglacial climate dynamic or to probable competition with another toad, Bufo calamita.     

GTP hydrolysis by pure Ni, the inhibitory regulatory component of adenylyl cyclases

The stimulatory and inhibitory regulatory components of adenylyl cyclase (Ns and Ni), purified to apparent homogeneity without the use of regulatory ligands such as Mg, NaF, and guanyl-5'-yl imidodiphosphate, were tested for GTPase activity by incubating them with [gamma-32P]GTP and measuring 32Pi liberation using a charcoal adsorption assay to separate hydrolyzed from nonhydrolyzed radioactivity. We found that Ni is capable of hydrolyzing GTP. The activity was shown to be due to Ni itself and not to presence of one of its minor contaminants by correlating activity with abundance of the 40,000 Da alpha i subunit throughout the last stages of purification and by showing co-migration on a sucrose density gradient of the GTP-hydrolyzing activity with the alpha i, beta, and gamma subunits of Ni and not with any one of three minor contaminants present in the preparation tested. Preparations of Ns, free of detectable Ni, exhibited less than 10% the capacity to hydrolyze GTP, as compared to Ni on an equal protein basis. The basic properties of the GTP-hydrolyzing activity of Ni were determined. The activity is dependent on Mg ion (apparent Km = 5 to 15 nM), and is rapidly lost upon incubation with Mg2+ in the absence of GTP. MgGTP and free GTP serve equally well as substrate (apparent Km about 40 nM). Isotopic dilution studies indicate that the GTP binding site has a relative affinity for guanine nucleotides in the order GTP = GTP gamma S greater than GDP = GMP-P(NH)P greater than GDP beta S with the highest difference (GTP versus GDP beta S) being about 10-fold. NaF inhibited GTP hydrolysis by Ni at concentrations at which it activates Ni in intact membranes.     

The role of humans in the diversification of a threatened island raptor

Background  

Anthropogenic habitat modifications have led to the extinction of many species and have favoured the expansion of others. Nonetheless, the possible role of humans as a diversifying force in vertebrate evolution has rarely been considered, especially for species with long generation times. We examine the influence that humans have had on the colonization and phenotypic and genetic differentiation of an insular population of a long-lived raptor species, the Egyptian vulture (Neophron percnopterus).     

Conscious Brain-to-Brain Communication in Humans Using Non-Invasive Technologies

Human sensory and motor systems provide the natural means for the exchange of information between individuals, and, hence, the basis for human civilization. The recent development of brain-computer interfaces (BCI) has provided an important element for the creation of brain-to-brain communication systems, and precise brain stimulation techniques are now available for the realization of non-invasive computer-brain interfaces (CBI). These technologies, BCI and CBI, can be combined to realize the vision of non-invasive, computer-mediated brain-to-brain (B2B) communication between subjects (hyperinteraction). Here we demonstrate the conscious transmission of information between human brains through the intact scalp and without intervention of motor or peripheral sensory systems. Pseudo-random binary streams encoding words were transmitted between the minds of emitter and receiver subjects separated by great distances, representing the realization of the first human brain-to-brain interface. In a series of experiments, we established internet-mediated B2B communication by combining a BCI based on voluntary motor imagery-controlled electroencephalographic (EEG) changes with a CBI inducing the conscious perception of phosphenes (light flashes) through neuronavigated, robotized transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), with special care taken to block sensory (tactile, visual or auditory) cues. Our results provide a critical proof-of-principle demonstration for the development of conscious B2B communication technologies. More fully developed, related implementations will open new research venues in cognitive, social and clinical neuroscience and the scientific study of consciousness. We envision that hyperinteraction technologies will eventually have a profound impact on the social structure of our civilization and raise important ethical issues.     

Phylogeny, speciation and species turnover. The case of the Mediterranean gastropods of genus Cyclope Risso, 1826

The genus Cyclope Risso, 1826 (family Nassariidae) has appeared in the fossil record since the Pliocene. Although it is still found today, the teleoconch morphology has never undergone modification, despite the fact that the protoconch morphologies of fossils (multispiral) and living forms (paucispiral) are different. They vary in their embryological and larval development and, hence, are two different species: C. migliorinii (Bevilacqua, 1928), the fossil species, and C. neritea (Linnaeus, 1758), the living species. We discuss the morphologic modifications in the evolution of this genus: the speciation that leads to its appearance and the speciation driving the Pliocene species to the living one. The order and the direction of these changes are based on phylogenetic analysis. No intermediate forms have been found showing a gradual morphological change that could have been worked by natural selection. Our analysis takes as the origin of the morphological novelties the genetic modifications in the ontogenetic processes which resulted in rapid and important phenotypic changes. Both speciation processes are sympatric cladogenetic. The changes that determine the appearance of the genus affect only the teleoconch, not the larval development. The modifications that lead from one species to the other, within the genus Cycope, affect the larval development exclusively. This points to a certain disconnection between the development of the embryo-larval phase and the young-adult formation, such that evolutionary processes could have occurred independently in different ontogenetic stages. The influence of larval ecology in relation to extinction of the ancestor and persistence of the derived species is also analysed. We hypothesize that climatic fluctuations may have affected the planktonic larvae of the fossil species, driving it to extinction. The living species, developing without the planktonic phase, would have resisted these climatic changes. We consider that the mechanisms described as drivers of the evolution of this genus can be of more general validity in prosobranch gastropods.     

Immobilized cells: behaviour of carrageenan entrapped yeast during continuous ethanol fermentation

Summary Data of cell concentration, viability and microscopic observation of cell distribution inside carrageenan immobilized yeast beads are reported. Results were obtained from a continuous packed-bed reactor performing alcoholic fermentation and the main observations made on cell activity are in agreement with the fermentation profiles inside the fermenter.     

C-terminal labelling of beta-casein

This paper is the first to report specific labelling of a native protein at its C-terminal end by carboxypeptidase Y-catalyzed transpeptidation between beta-casein and tritiated Phe amide. A tryptic digest of the radiolabelled protein was resolved by reversed-phase HPLC and a single labelled peptide was isolated therefrom. Sequence determination and FAB mass spectrometry showed that the last 2 residues (Val-209, Ile-208) of beta-casein had been deleted and Ile 207 substituted by Phe, deamidation presumably occurring after transpeptidation. Identical results were obtained by transpeptidating the isolated C-terminal tryptic heptapeptide (203-209) of native beta-casein.     

Reconstitution of somatostatin and muscarinic receptor mediated stimulation of K+ channels by isolated GK protein in clonal rat anterior pituitary cell membranes

Somatostatin (SS) inhibits secretion from many cells, including clonal GH3 pituitary cells, by a complex mechanism that involves a pertussis toxin (PTX)-sensitive step and is not limited to its cAMP lowering effect, since secretion induced by cAMP analogs and K+ depolarization are also inhibited. SS also causes membrane hyperpolarization which may lead to decreases in intracellular Ca2+ need for secretion. Using patch clamp techniques we now demonstrate: 1) that both (SS) and acetylcholine applied through the patch pipette to the extracellular face of a patch activate a 55-picosiemens K+ channel without using a soluble second messenger; 2) that, after patch excision, the active state of the ligand-stimulated channel is dependent on GTP in the bath, is abolished by treatment of the cytoplasmic face of the patch with activated PTX and NAD+, and after inactivation by PTX, is restored in a GTP-dependent manner by addition of a nonactivated human erythrocyte PTX-sensitive G protein, and 3) that the 55-picosiemens K+ channel can also be activated in a ligand-independent manner with guanosine [gamma-thio] triphosphate (GTP gamma S) or with Mg2+/GTP gamma S-activated erythrocyte G protein. We call this protein GK. It is an alpha-beta-gamma trimer of which we have previously shown that the alpha-subunit is the substrate for PTX and that it dissociates on activation with Mg2+/GTP gamma S into alpha-GTP gamma S plus beta-gamma. A similarly activated and dissociated preparation of GS, the stimulatory regulatory component of adenylyl cyclase, having a different alpha-subunit but the same beta-gamma-dimer, was unable to cause K+ opening.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)