Isolation of bacteriophages from the bovine rumen

Zusammenfassung Die Isolierung der im Pansen vorkommenden Bakteriophagen wird erstmals beschrieben. Bakteriophagen, dieStreptococcus bovis und PansenSerratiae spp. angreifen, wurden aus vielen Pansen-Proben isoliert und eingehend untersucht;Bacteroides ruminicola Phage wurde dabei nicht aufgefunden.     

Evidence for a neurological zoom system in vision from angular changes in some receptive fields of single neurons with changes in fixation distance in the human visual cortex

Résumé Dans le cortex visuel humain de 3 champs réceptifs de neurones individuels 2 présentent des changements d'angle correspondant aux changements de perception à distance. Ces changements peuvent être la base neurologique du système perceptif de stabilité, de «zoom» ou de graduation de la vision.     

Use of human tissue to assess the oncogenic activity of melanoma-associated mutations

Multiple genetic alterations occur in melanoma, a lethal skin malignancy of increasing incidence. These include mutations that activate Ras and two of its effector cascades, Raf and phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K). Induction of Ras and Raf can be caused by active N-Ras and B-Raf mutants as well as by gene amplification. Activation of PI3K pathway components occurs by PTEN loss and by AKT3 amplification. Melanomas also commonly show impairment of the p16(INK4A)-CDK4-Rb and ARF-HDM2-p53 tumor suppressor pathways. CDKN2A mutations can produce p16(INK4A) and ARF protein loss. Rb bypass can also occur through activating CDK4 mutations as well as by CDK4 amplification. In addition to ARF deletion, p53 pathway disruption can result from dominant negative TP53 mutations. TERT amplification also occurs in melanoma. The extent to which these mutations can induce human melanocytic neoplasia is unknown. Here we characterize pathways sufficient to generate human melanocytic neoplasia and show that genetically altered human tissue facilitates functional analysis of mutations observed in human tumors.     

Fine structure of the tip of chemosensitive hairs in two blow flies and the stable fly

Zusammenfassung Licht- und elektronenmikroskopische Studien der chemorezeptiven Spitze von Geschmackshaaren wurden bei den FliegenPhormia regina, Calliphora vicina undStomoxys calcitrans durchgeführt. Die Geschmackshaare dieser Fliegen ähneln sich strukturell bis auf einen ausgeprägten Öffnungs- und Schliessmechanismus, der für die Geschmackshaare vonStomoxys calcitrans lichtmikroskopisch nicht nachgewiesen werden konnte. Die Resultate werden hinsichtlich der Lokalisation der chemosensiblen Membran diskutiert.     

Maternal influences on cardiovascular pathophysiology

Elevated blood pressure (BP) is of special clinical significance because of its association with pathophysiologies such as heart disease, renal failure, and stroke. We described the development of a protocol for use with hypertensive rats in which prepubertal exposure to a high salt (8% NaCl) diet results in a pathophysiological syndrome including rapid increase in BP, failure to maintain normal weight gain, renal damage, cerebrovascular lesions, and early mortality. These phenomena are described for the inbred spontaneously hypertensive rat (SHR), and for reciprocal F₁ hybrids of a cross between SHR and the Dahl salt-sensitive (SS/Jr) inbred strain. The study with reciprocal F₁s revealed striking effects of maternal environment on pathophysiological response to a high salt diet. F₁s nurtured by SHR mothers weighed less at 35 days of age, and after exposure to the high salt diet suffered more rapid BP increases, greater incidence of stroke, body weight loss, and mortality, than F₁s nurtured by SS/Jr dams. These results suggest that maternal mediation of the nutritional status of the animal may play an important role in determining susceptibility to elevated BP and subsequent pathophysiology associated with exposure to a high salt diet. The implication of these findings for human hypertension is briefly discussed.     

Semi-annual oscillations in Saturn's low-latitude stratospheric temperatures

Observations of oscillations of temperature and wind in planetary atmospheres provide a means of generalizing models for atmospheric dynamics in a diverse set of planets in the Solar System and elsewhere. An equatorial oscillation similar to one in the Earth's atmosphere has been discovered in Jupiter. Here we report the existence of similar oscillations in Saturn's atmosphere, from an analysis of over two decades of spatially resolved observations of its 7.8-microm methane and 12.2-microm ethane stratospheric emissions, where we compare zonal-mean stratospheric brightness temperatures at planetographic latitudes of 3.6 degrees and 15.5 degrees in both the northern and the southern hemispheres. These results support the interpretation of vertical and meridional variability of temperatures in Saturn's stratosphere as a manifestation of a wave phenomenon similar to that on the Earth and in Jupiter. The period of this oscillation is 14.8 +/- 1.2 terrestrial years, roughly half of Saturn's year, suggesting the influence of seasonal forcing, as is the case with the Earth's semi-annual oscillation.