Alpha-amylase inhibitor increases plasma 3-hydroxybutyric acid in food-restricted rats

The effect on energy metabolism of delayed absorption of starch by inhibition of -amylase was examined by considering levels of plasma glucose and 3-hydroxybutyric acid (3-OHBA) in rats. Addition of -amylase inhibitor (AI) to a high starch diet delayed the plasma glucose response after feeding: peak plasma glucose levels in the control group occurred 15 min after feeding, whereas in the AI group this peak did not occur until 30 min after. The total plasma glucose response was not different between the two groups. Plasma 3-OHBA levels 1 day after food restriction increased approximately five-fold in both groups. After 3 days of food restriction, the AI group maintained the same level of plasma 3-OHBA as after 1 day of food restriction, while the control group showed significantly decreased levels of 3-OHBA. After 3 days of food restriction, plasma insulin levels were significantly decreased in the AI group compared with the corresponding levels of the control group and with levels before the restriction. There was no significant difference in body weight between the two groups. These findings suggest that delayed hyperglycemia due to delayed absorption of starch following AI loading may attenuate insulin secretion, leading to altered metabolism of 3-OHBA during the delayed response to energy deficit.     

Estradiol treatment reduces a cytosol androgen binding protein in male rat liver

Summary The in vivo treatment of male rats with estradiol-17 resulted in a significant decrease in liver cytosol of the protein which binds specifically androstenedione and testosterone.Acknowledgment. This investigation was supported by a grant to N. S. from the Iwate-Keiryokai Medical University Research Foundation.     

DNA sequence and analysis of human chromosome 8

The International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium (IHGSC) recently completed a sequence of the human genome. As part of this project, we have focused on chromosome 8. Although some chromosomes exhibit extreme characteristics in terms of length, gene content, repeat content and fraction segmentally duplicated, chromosome 8 is distinctly typical in character, being very close to the genome median in each of these aspects. This work describes a finished sequence and gene catalogue for the chromosome, which represents just over 5% of the euchromatic human genome. A unique feature of the chromosome is a vast region of approximately 15 megabases on distal 8p that appears to have a strikingly high mutation rate, which has accelerated in the hominids relative to other sequenced mammals. This fast-evolving region contains a number of genes related to innate immunity and the nervous system, including loci that appear to be under positive selection--these include the major defensin (DEF) gene cluster and MCPH1, a gene that may have contributed to the evolution of expanded brain size in the great apes. The data from chromosome 8 should allow a better understanding of both normal and disease biology and genome evolution.     

The decline and fate of an iron-induced subarctic phytoplankton bloom

Iron supply has a key role in stimulating phytoplankton blooms in high-nitrate low-chlorophyll oceanic waters. However, the fate of the carbon fixed by these blooms, and how efficiently it is exported into the ocean's interior, remains largely unknown. Here we report on the decline and fate of an iron-stimulated diatom bloom in the Gulf of Alaska. The bloom terminated on day 18, following the depletion of iron and then silicic acid, after which mixed-layer particulate organic carbon (POC) concentrations declined over six days. Increased particulate silica export via sinking diatoms was recorded in sediment traps at depths between 50 and 125 m from day 21, yet increased POC export was not evident until day 24. Only a small proportion of the mixed-layer POC was intercepted by the traps, with more than half of the mixed-layer POC deficit attributable to bacterial remineralization and mesozooplankton grazing. The depletion of silicic acid and the inefficient transfer of iron-increased POC below the permanent thermocline have major implications both for the biogeochemical interpretation of times of greater iron supply in the geological past, and also for proposed geo-engineering schemes to increase oceanic carbon sequestration.     

Altered thymic T-cell selection due to a mutation of the ZAP-70 gene causes autoimmune arthritis in mice

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA), which afflicts about 1% of the world population, is a chronic systemic inflammatory disease of unknown aetiology that primarily affects the synovial membranes of multiple joints. Although CD4(+) T cells seem to be the prime mediators of RA, it remains unclear how arthritogenic CD4(+) T cells are generated and activated. Given that highly self-reactive T-cell clones are deleted during normal T-cell development in the thymus, abnormality in T-cell selection has been suspected as one cause of autoimmune disease. Here we show that a spontaneous point mutation of the gene encoding an SH2 domain of ZAP-70, a key signal transduction molecule in T cells, causes chronic autoimmune arthritis in mice that resembles human RA in many aspects. Altered signal transduction from T-cell antigen receptor through the aberrant ZAP-70 changes the thresholds of T cells to thymic selection, leading to the positive selection of otherwise negatively selected autoimmune T cells. Thymic production of arthritogenic T cells due to a genetically determined selection shift of the T-cell repertoire towards high self-reactivity might also be crucial to the development of disease in a subset of patients with RA.     

Prediction of auditory spatial acuity from neural images on the owl's auditory space map

The owl can discriminate changes in the location of sound sources as small as 3 degrees and can aim its head to within 2 degrees of a source. A typical neuron in its midbrain space map has a spatial receptive field that spans 40 degrees--a width that is many times the behavioural threshold. Here we have quantitatively examined the relationship between neuronal activity and perceptual acuity in the auditory space map in the barn owl midbrain. By analysing changes in firing rate resulting from small changes of stimulus azimuth, we show that most neurons can reliably signal changes in source location that are smaller than the behavioural threshold. Each source is represented in the space map by a focus of activity in a population of neurons. Displacement of the source causes the pattern of activity in this population to change. We show that this change predicts the owl's ability to detect a change in source location.     

Precise Synthesis of Organometallic Dendrimers

1 Introduction Dendrimers possessing a regularly branched architecture and large spherical dimensions have attracted significant attention because of their unique and tunable properties as well as their potential applications. The incorporation of organometallic species into dendritic molecules has been attracting much attention, because the addition of properties characteristic of organometallic complexes, such as magnetic, electronic, and photo-optical properties, as well as reactivity may l…     

日本那须地区人工草地牧草生物量随时间变化的解析——Ⅰ地上生物量(英文)

为了揭示草地生态系统的现存生物量随时间的变化规律与气候条件和人为干扰(放牧压,施肥量等)之间的关系,从1974年开始至1994年,每年的4月至11月,在位于日本中部那须地区的国立草地研究所内的人造围栏放牧草场进行了放牧试验.结果表明,在1974至1994年的21年间,在不同放牧处理(放牧压分别为轻度和重度/施肥分少量和大量)的条件下,地上现存生物量的季节变化非常明显,其变化范围为:150～380gDWm-2.用4次方多项式检验表明牧草成长模式呈双峰曲线,每一年中不同放牧条件下地上现存生物量的最大值都出现在6月份左右,第二个峰值出现在9,10月份.复合回归分析的结果得出了体现现存生物量和气温,放牧压(或施肥量)之间的定量关系的多项回归方程式.协方差分析结果表明放牧压力,施肥量以及季节和年度的变化,以及他们之间的相互作用对现存生物量有着显著影响(P<0.05)或极显著影响(P<0.01).本研究表明在现存放牧强度下不会对地上生物量造成毁灭性的影响,而是在其承受范围之内.