Complex organic chemical balms of Pharaonic animal mummies

Millions of votive mummies of mammals, birds and reptiles were produced throughout ancient Egypt, with their popularity increasing during the reign of Amenhotep III (1400 bc) and thereafter. The scale of production has been taken to indicate that relatively little care and expense was involved in their preparation compared with human mummies. The accepted view is that animals were merely wrapped in coarse linen bandages and/or dipped in 'resin' before death. However, as with human mummification there was a range of qualities of treatments, and visual inspection of animal mummies suggests that the procedures used were often as complex as those used in humans (for example, evisceration and elaborate bandaging). Moreover, the ancient Egyptians treated animals with great respect, regarding them both as domestic pets and representatives of the gods; for example, the cat symbolized the goddess Bastet; the hawk, Horus; the ibis, Thoth, and so on. We report here the results of chemical investigations of tissues and wrappings from Pharaonic cat, hawk and ibis mummies using gas chromatography, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, thermal desorption-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and pyrolysis-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. The analyses reveal the presence of highly complex mixtures of n-alkyl and cyclic biomarker components characteristic of fats, oils, beeswax, sugar gum, petroleum bitumen, and coniferous, Pistacia and possibly cedar resins. The mixture of balms is of comparable complexity to those used to mummify humans from the same period.     

Production of pharmaceutical proteins in milk

There is every reason to expect that it will be possible within the next few years to begin to use farm animals to produce large quantities of some of the human proteins that are needed for the treatment of disease. Revolutionary new opportunities for the production of novel proteins in milk have been created by the development of methods for gene transfer. Exploitation of these opportunities depends upon selection and cloning of milk protein genes and identification of the sequences that govern tissue specific hormonally induced expression in the mammary gland. Studies with three genes, ovine -lactoglobulin, rat -casein and whey acidic protein of rat and mouse, suggest that they may all meet this requirement. Fragments of the ovine -lactoglobulin, murine whey acidic protein and rabbit -casein genes have directed production of novel proteins in the milk of transgenic mice, sheep, rabbits and pigs. The proteins were biologically active and usually co-migrated with authentic proteins. In early experiments, protein concentration was low, but our recent observations suggest that fusion genes containing genomic clones direct production of concentrations of protein that are suitable for commercial exploitation. In the longer term, two approaches may offer the potential of more reliable expression. Control elements capable of directing expression that is independent of site of insertion of the gene, but dependent on the number of copies of the gene, have been identified for a small number of genes. The availability of such elements for the milk protein genes would increase the reliability of gene expression considerably. Alternatively, targeted mutation of genes may allow the insertion of coding sequences within an existing gene so avoiding position effects.     

Centractin is an actin homologue associated with the centrosome.

Actin is one of the most ubiquitous, abundant and well-conserved proteins of eukaryotes, participating in many crucial cellular processes including the maintenance of cell shape, motility and cell division. Actins from the most divergent sources still share amino-acid identities in excess of 70% (ref. 3). This may well explain why low-abundance homologues of actin have been difficult to isolate. Genes encoding distant relatives of actin in budding and fisson yeast have now been cloned. We report here the discovery of a vertebrate actin-like protein, which we name centractin. A full-length complementary DNA clone was isolated whose sequence reveals amino-acid identities with actin of over 50%, increasing to more than 70% when conservative amino-acid changes are considered. Northern analysis and western blotting indicate a ubiquitous tissue and species distribution. Morphological and biochemical criteria show that centractin is associated with centrosomes.     

Loss of plant species after chronic low-level nitrogen deposition to prairie grasslands

Rates of atmospheric deposition of biologically active nitrogen (N) are two to seven times the pre-industrial rates in many developed nations because of combustion of fossil fuels and agricultural fertilization. They are expected to increase similarly over the next 50 years in industrializing nations of Asia and South America. Although the environmental impacts of high rates of nitrogen addition have been well studied, this is not so for the lower, chronic rates that characterize much of the globe. Here we present results of the first multi-decadal experiment to examine the impacts of chronic, experimental nitrogen addition as low as 10 kg N ha(-1) yr(-1) above ambient atmospheric nitrogen deposition (6 kg N ha(-1) yr(-1) at our site). This total input rate is comparable to terrestrial nitrogen deposition in many industrialized nations. We found that this chronic low-level nitrogen addition rate reduced plant species numbers by 17% relative to controls receiving ambient N deposition. Moreover, species numbers were reduced more per unit of added nitrogen at lower addition rates, suggesting that chronic but low-level nitrogen deposition may have a greater impact on diversity than previously thought. A second experiment showed that a decade after cessation of nitrogen addition, relative plant species number, although not species abundances, had recovered, demonstrating that some effects of nitrogen addition are reversible.     

GPS monitoring of the crustal motion in southwestern China

Through GPS carrier phases observation in southwestern China during 1991–1997, the velocity field within eastern Qinghai-Xizang (Tibet) and its neighbour regions has been established. The velocity of those sites in and west of Chuan-Dian block is mostly 5–10 mm · a^™1 relative to the fiduciary station CHDU (Chengdu), and the motion in Chuan-Qing and Yangtze blocks east of the Xianshuihe-Xiaojiang fault is weak with a velocity of about 0–7 mm · a⁻¹. The velocity vector in these areas indicates a clockwise rotation vortex rather than the so-called intensive eastward pushing or eastward escape. The main pattern of the crustal deformation is a clockwise rotation vortex structure and a differential slip along the boundary fault between different blocks.     

Zircon U/Pb ages for gniess from Qianshan, Anhui

Zircon U/Pb ages were measured for Qianshan gneiss at the ultrahigh pressure metamorphic (UHPM) complex in the Southern Dabie Terrain (SDT). According to morphology, Th and U contents of eight fractions of zircon and data distribution on the discordia, it is indicated that they should be treated as metamorphic overgrowth mixing zircons, in which the cores mainly are magmatic and the outers were metamorphic. The intercept ages show that the gneiss underwent UHPM. There is no direct correlation for zircon between morphological feature and genesis.