Ibaraki Virus,an Agent of Epizootic Disease of Cattle Resembling Bluetongue

Replication of Ibaraki virus was not inhibited by 5-iodo-2′-deoxyuridine, indicating that the virus is an RNA virus. The virus was resistant to ether, chloroform and deoxycholate, sensitive to trypsin, very labile at acidic pH but stable at pH 6.4 or higher, and was resistant to repeated freezing and thawing. The virus was readily inactivated at 56 C or higher, was fairly stable at 37 C, and very stable at 4 C, while it rapidly lost infectivity when stored frozen at —20 C. The virus was readily sedimented by centrifugation at 40 000Xg for 60 min. It readily passed through membrane filters of 200 mμ pore size, passed through 100 μfilters but only with some titer loss and did not through 50 mμ filters. In these tests, the bluetongue virus used as a control behaved in the same manner as Ibaraki virus. These findings provide additional evidence for the similarity of Ibaraki virus to bluetongue virus which had been previously demonstrated on the basis of seasonal incidence, symptomatology and pathology of the diseases caused by these viruses and the behavior of the viruses in cell cultures, embryonated eggs and laboratory animals. The present study, however, provided no evidence for any serological relation between these two viruses. More Information is needed to reach a final decision on the classification of Ibaraki virus, particularly regarding the morphology of the virion, the doublestrandedness of the viral RNA and other basic features.     

Analysis of Flow Phenomena in Gastric Contents Induced by Human Gastric Peristalsis Using CFD

This paper uses computational fluid dynamics to simulate and analyze intragastric fluid motions induced by human peristalsis. We created a two-dimensional computational domain of the distal stomach where peristalsis occurs. The motion of the gastric walls induced by an antral contraction wave (ACW) on the wall of the computational domain was well simulated using a function defined in this study. Retropulsive flow caused by ACW was observed near the occluded region, reaching its highest velocity of approximately 12 mm/s in the narrowest region. The viscosity of the model gastric contents applied in this study hardly affected the highest velocity, but greatly affected the velocity profile in the computational domain. The shear rate due to gastric fluid motion was calculated using the numerical output data. The shear rate reached relatively high values of approximately 20 s⁻¹ in the most occluded region. The shear rate profile was almost independent of the fluid viscosity. We also simulated mass transfer of a gastric digestive enzyme (pepsin) in model gastric content when peristalsis occurs on the gastric walls. The visualized simulation results suggest that gastric peristalsis is capable of efficiently mixing pepsin secreted from the gastric walls with an intragastric fluid.     

Mdm20 Modulates Actin Remodeling through the mTORC2 Pathway via Its Effect on Rictor Expression

NatB is an N-terminal acetyltransferase consisting of a catalytic Nat5 subunit and an auxiliary Mdm20 subunit. In yeast, NatB acetylates N-terminal methionines of proteins during de novo protein synthesis and also regulates actin remodeling through N-terminal acetylation of tropomyosin (Trpm), which stabilizes the actin cytoskeleton by interacting with actin. However, in mammalian cells, the biological functions of the Mdm20 and Nat5 subunits are not well understood. In the present study, we show for the first time that Mdm20-knockdown (KD), but not Nat5-KD, in HEK293 and HeLa cells suppresses not only cell growth, but also cellular motility. Although stress fibers were formed in Mdm20-KD cells, and not in control or Nat5-KD cells, the localization of Trpm did not coincide with the formation of stress fibers in Mdm20-KD cells. Notably, knockdown of Mdm20 reduced the expression of Rictor, an mTORC2 complex component, through post-translational regulation. Additionally, PKCα^S657 phosphorylation, which regulates the organization of the actin cytoskeleton, was also reduced in Mdm20-KD cells. Our data also suggest that FoxO1 phosphorylation is regulated by the Mdm20-mTORC2-Akt pathway in response to serum starvation and insulin stimulation. Taken together, the present findings suggest that Mdm20 acts as a novel regulator of Rictor, thereby controlling mTORC2 activity, and leading to the activation of PKCα^S657 and FoxO1.     

A Comparative Study of the Structures of {alpha}-Glucans from Suspension-Cultured Nonglutinous and Glutinous Rice Cells

-Glucans (average mol wt, 1.3 ? 10⁴) extracted with perchloricacid from 8-day-old suspension-cultured nonglutinous (var. Sasanishiki)and glutinous rice (var. Miyakogane) cells were compared. Theresults of hydrolysis by alpha;-, ß- and iso-amylasesand methylation analysis of the -glucans suggested that theirbasic structures are almost the same. These -glucans are highly-branchedpolysaccharides with an average chain length of about 9–10,with exterior and interior chain lengths of about 6–7and 2–3, respectively. ¹Current address: Laboratory of Food Science, Faculty of Education,Hirosaki University, Hirosaki, Aomori 036, Japan. (Received April 27, 1987; Accepted March 2, 1988)     

Phylogeny of gymnosperms inferred fromrbcL gene sequences

Partial nucleotide sequences of the large subunit of ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase (rubisco) gene (1333 base pairs: about 90% of the gene) from several seed plants were determined. Phylogenetic trees based on amino acid sequences were inferred by using the neighbor joining and maximum likelihood methods. The results indicate (1) monophyly of gnetum group (Ephedra, Gnetum, Welwitschia), (2) monophyly of extant gymnosperms containing gnetum group, which contradicts the results of morphological data.     

Reduction of Aluminum Toxicity by Addition of a Conditioned Medium from Aluminum-Tolerant Cells of Carrot

The toxic effect of aluminum (Al) on the growth of Carrot cells(SO-l) decreased to a greater degree with addition of a mediumconditioned by Al-tolerant carrot cells (TA-l) than with a mediumconditioned by SO-l cells. The toxic effect of Al was reducedgreatly by adding an acidic fraction of the conditioned media,but little or not at all by a neutral or basic fraction. Offour organic acids detected in the acidic fraction, the majorone was citric acid which was present in a much greater amountin the conditioned medium of TA-l cells than in that of SO-lcells. The toxic effect of Al was reduced by adding citric or malicacid instead of the conditioned medium, but not by succinicor fumaric acid. Chelating abilities of the organic acids wereevaluated by shifts in their titration curves, and were foundto be closely correlated with the detoxification effects. Thus,the Al tolerance of TA-l cells may in fact be due to the chelatingeffect of citric acid which is abundantly released into themedium by the Al-tolerant carrot cells. (Received July 9, 1984; Accepted November 22, 1984)     

Relationship between beta-lactamase activity and resistance to beta-lactam antibiotics in Mycobacterium smegmatis

Penicillin-susceptible mutants and beta-lactamase-negative mutants were isolated from Mycobacterium smegmatis after nitrosoguanidine mutagenesis. Both the mutants were found to be susceptible to low levels of penicillin and cephalosporins by twofold dilution testing. Clavulanic acid reduced the minimal inhibitory concentrations of beta-lactamase-labile beta-lactams for the penicillin-susceptible mutants and the parent strain, but had no effect on the susceptibility of the beta-lactamase-negative mutants. Comparison of the beta-lactamase activities found in these mutants and the parent strain indicated that there was a rough correlation between the beta-lactamase level in these organisms and their susceptibility to beta-lactams.     

Antigen presentation by human antigen-presenting cells to antigen-specific xenogeneic murine T cells

Successful antigen presentation by xenogeneic human antigen-presenting cells (APC) to stimulate the proliferation of antigen-specific, keyhole limpet hemocyanin (KLH)-specific, ovalbumin (OVA)-specific, and purified protein derivative of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (PPD)-specific murine T cells was observed. Evidence indicating a direct cell interaction between antigen-specific murine T cells and xenogeneic human APC was given by experiments using antigen-specific murine T cell clones. The OVA-specific B10.S(9R) T cell line (9-0-A1) and PPD-specific B10.A(4R) T cell line (4-P-1) were stimulated by both xenogeneic human APC and murine APC from syngeneic or I-A compatible strains, while the PPD-specific human T cell line (Y-P-5) was stimulated by autologous human APC but not by murine APC. Anti-HLA-DR monoclonal antibodies (MoAb) blocked the xenogeneic human APC-antigen-specific murine T cell clone interaction. Thus, human xenogeneic APC can stimulate antigen-specific murine T cells through HLA-DR molecules in the same manner as syngeneic murine APC do through Ia molecules coded for by the I region of the H-2 complex, while murine APC failed to present antigen to stimulate human antigen-specific T cells.     

Vascular systems in the magnoliaceae

Journal of Plant Research - The vascular anatomy of seven genera of Magnoliaceae:Elmerrillia, Liriodendron, Magnolia, Manglietia, Michelia, Paramichelia andTalauma, was examined. Based on the...