Theory agrees with experimental thermal denaturation of short DNA restriction fragments

Experimental melting transitions of several natural DNAs of known nucleotide sequences have recently been obtained. The differential melting curves of these DNAs-phi X174 DNA, fd DNA and SV40 DNA-all show distinctive sets of peaks or fine structure. Theoretical melting curves calculated from the sequences and a few a priori parameters have not accurately predicted the experimental transitions. Although calculated fine structure resembled experimental curves in some cases, the characteristic features of a DNA's differential melting curve could not generally be produced. Azbel and Gabbarro-Arpa et al. have recently obtained good agreement between calculated and experimental curves using a different theoretical approach-only ground-state configurations of DNA were considered for temperatures inside the transition region. Their results suggest that the basic model of DNA melting, common to all theoretical approaches, is accurate. We have used here an exact theoretical approach to calculated melting curves of four DNA restriction fragments of 95-301 base pairs containing the lactose promoter region (Fig. 1). Theoretical curves agree very well with the experimental transitions published by Hardies et al. and obtained in this laboratory.     

Length measurement of gut segments for mucosal transport studies

Résumé La longueur des segments d'intestin de rat, mesurée in vivo sous une anesthésie profonde à l'ether et in vitro, dans une solution tampon à 25 °C, atteint environ le 94% et le 80% de la longueur des segments totalement relâchés. L'une ou l'autre de ces mesures semble assez constante pour être employée dans la standardisation des méthodes en usage dans la plupart des études sur le transport mucosal.

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This work was supported by the Medical Research Council of Canada.     

Ethylene production and cell wall formation in mesophyll protoplasts

Summary The regulation of ethylene synthesis, in relation to the presence of a new cell wall, has been investigated forNicotiana sylvestris leaf protoplasts. It is clear that the production of ethylene is not controlled by the new wall, which has no action on the ethylene formation. The addition of dichlorobenzonitrile to cultivated protoplasts causes the inhibition of wall formation, without any other apparent deleterious effects.