C-banding pattern and nucleolar organizer regions of Cynoglossus semilaevis Günther, 1873

The C-banding pattern and nucleolar organizer regions of the metaphase chromosomes of Cynoglossus semilaevis are reported. The interstitial regions in all chromosomes including the pair of sex chromosomes had positive C-bands, and the 6th and 12th pairs of chromosomes were entirely stained in most cases. Some chromosomes such as the 1st, 2nd, 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th pairs showed C-bands at centromeric or distal ends. The C-banding heretochromatin occupies 30.03% of the total chromosome surface in C. semilaevis,which is similar to that of amphibians such as Mixophyes fasciolatus (30.2%) and M. schevilli (20.7%), but is rather lower than that of cephalochordate Branchiostoma belcheri (54.3%). Silver staining revealed a single pair of nucleolar organizer regions (NORs) located in the telomeric regions of Chromosome 2. The association of NORs with heterochromatin observed in vertebrates also occurs in C. semilaevis as the telomeric regions of Chromosome 2 are always stained positively with C-banding.     

Fettsäuren aus dehydratisiertem Rizinusöl mit sog. Vitamin-F-Wirkung

Summary The fatty acids from dehydrated castor oil, mainly consisting of 9,11- and 9,12-linoleic acid, show in biological tests vitamin effects similar to those of the so-called essential fatty acids.     

Activation of a C. elegans Antennapedia homologue in migrating cells controls their direction of migration.

Anterior-posterior patterning in insects, vertebrates and nematodes involves members of conserved Antennapedia-class homeobox gene clusters (HOM-C) that are thought to give specific body regions their identities. The effects of these genes on region-specific body structures have been described extensively, particularly in Drosophila, but little is known about how HOM-C genes affect the behaviours of cells that migrate into their domains of function. In Caenorhabditis elegans, the Antennapedia-like HOM-C gene mab-5 not only specifies postembryonic fates of cells in a posterior body region, but also influences the migration of mesodermal and neural cells that move through this region. Here we show that as one neuroblast migrates into this posterior region, it switches on mab-5 gene expression; mab-5 then acts as a developmental switch to control the migratory behaviour of the neuroblast descendants. HOM-C genes can therefore not only direct region-specific patterns of cell division and differentiation, but can also act within migrating cells to programme region-specific migratory behaviour.