Reaction of small heat-shock proteins to different kinds of cellular stress in cultured rat hippocampal neurons

Upregulation of small heat-shock proteins (sHsps) in response to cellular stress is one mechanism to increase cell viability. We previously described that cultured rat hippocampal neurons express five of the 11 family members but only upregulate two of them (HspB1 and HspB5) at the protein level after heat stress. Since neurons have to cope with many other pathological conditions, we investigated in this study the expression of all five expressed sHsps on mRNA and protein level after sublethal sodium arsenite and oxidative and hyperosmotic stress. Under all three conditions, HspB1, HspB5, HspB6, and HspB8 but not HspB11 were consistently upregulated but showed differences in the time course of upregulation. The increase of sHsps always occurred earlier on mRNA level compared with protein levels. We conclude from our data that these four upregulated sHsps (HspB1, HspB5, HspB6, HspB8) act together in different proportions in the protection of neurons from various stress conditions.     

Plastid transformation in greening scales of the onion bulb (Allium cepa,Alliaceae)

The greening of the upper part of the outerAllium cepa L. bulb scales, in particular along the vascular regions, is limited to the hypodermal cells in which typical leucoplasts are transformed to normal and functional chloroplasts. This process is light dependent and cannot afterwards be reversed or modified by darkness. The changes in fine structure are described and briefly discussed.Dedicated to Prof. DrLothar Geitler on the occasion of his 90th birthday and 55 years after the publication of his Grundriß der Cytologie.     

Letters to the metanarrative: Totalitarian “enjoyment” and self representation in postcommunist Serbia

Conclusion This outline of the instrumentality of the technology/technique of representation in postcommunist Serbia is but a brief attempt to address the modes of production of identity in postmodernism, its legitimation in/of dominant discourse, and their embedding in common sense language and practice. Postcommunist Serbia is obviously a special situation:²³ a particular case of the social appropriation and construction of enjoyment and desire, intimately related to the desires and various enjoyments of the members of the community, precarious in its collective affirmation. Based on the idea of contingent collectivity, faction-fiction, in its meta-critique seems to signal the emergence of a new régime in the relation between historical reality and its representation in historical narratives.This new régime, obviously, cannot be exhaustively (or even extensively) discussed in a brief paper like this one. Nevertheless, some (three) points of departure for the general discussion of postmodern modes of representation are still possible. One such point of departure is the contingence of representation, another the apparent paradigmatic similarity between trash talk-shows and Echoes and Reactions. And finally, much of iek's discussion does not seem to be restricted to the totalitarian metanarrative, and can be a significant contribution to the debate on power relations.Nikola Stojin is a Serbian Writer and Graduate Student in Comparative Literature at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey.     

Rhizobacteria associated with Miscanthus x giganteus improve metal accumulation and plant growth in the flotation tailings

Plant and Soil - Flotation tailings represent an extremely unfriendly substrate for plant colonization due to toxic metal concentrations and marked macronutrient deficiencies. The perennial grass...