Diverse transitional giant fleas from the Mesozoic era of China

Fleas are one of the major lineages of ectoparasitic insects and are now highly specialized for feeding on the blood of birds or mammals. This has isolated them among holometabolan insect orders, although they derive from the Antliophora (scorpionflies and true flies). Like most ectoparasitic lineages, their fossil record is meagre and confined to Cenozoic-era representatives of modern families, so that we lack evidence of the origins of fleas in the Mesozoic era. The origins of the first recognized Cretaceous stem-group flea, Tarwinia, remains highly controversial. Here we report fossils of the oldest definitive fleas--giant forms from the Middle Jurassic and Early Cretaceous periods of China. They exhibit many defining features of fleas but retain primitive traits such as non-jumping hindlegs. More importantly, all have stout and elongate sucking siphons for piercing the hides of their hosts, implying that these fleas may be rooted among the pollinating 'long siphonate' scorpionflies of the Mesozoic. Their special morphology suggests that their earliest hosts were hairy or feathered 'reptilians', and that they radiated to mammalian and bird hosts later in the Cenozoic.     

Reappearance of HCG-receptors in immature rat ovary after HCG-treatment is not due to receptor synthesis.

In 24-day-old rats the reappearance of ovarian HCG-receptors after the injection of 200 IU HCG in independent of protein synthesis. The reutilization of occupied receptors in immature female rats is due to dissociation of the receptor-hormone complex.     

Free amino acid patterns and other chemical constituents of rabbits' blood and blood vessels

Zusammenfassung Die Verteilung der freien Aminosäuren, von Protein, Fett und Cholesterin im Blut und in verschiedenen Gefässen normaler und hypercholesteremischer Kaninchen wurde untersucht. Geschädigte Aortaabschnitte erhielten mehr Protein, Fett und Cholesterin, aber weniger freie Aminosäuren als normale.

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Supported by grant H-2534 (C-3) from the National Heart Institute, N.I.H., and by a grant from the Eli Lilly Co.     

HCG-insensitivity of the postnatal rat ovary is due to the lack of a specific receptor

Summary Rat ovary is insensitive to luteinizing hormone and human chorionic gonadotrophin till to the 8th to 10th day of postnatal development. This insensitivity is due to the lack of a specific hormone receptor.This work was supported in part by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (SFB 46). Purified HCG was a gift of Schering AG, Berlin-West. We thank Dr F. Peters for performing the iodination of HCG.     

Über zwei neue kristallisierte Alkaloide ausErythrophleum guineense Don

Summary In addition to cassaine, two new alkaloids have been isolated from the bark ofErythrophleum guineense Don, in crystalline form. Their empirical formulæ have been established by analysis of the free bases and of some of their crystalline salts.     

采用应变梯度硬化模型预测黄铜薄板微弯曲弯矩

通过黄铜板料微弯曲实验,发现其弯曲弯矩存在明显的尺寸效应现象,随板料厚度的减小,弯曲弯矩增大.采用经典塑性理论和不同的应变梯度理论对微弯曲弯矩进行了预测,对比分析结果表明：修正的Nix Gao模型的预测结果更接近于实验结果,并且得出了合理的内禀尺寸表达式;该内禀尺寸与材料的剪切模量、初始屈服极限、柏氏矢量和板料厚度方向上的孪晶数有关.     

Antagonism between DNA hypermethylation and enhancer-blocking activity at the H19 DMD is uncovered by CpG mutations

Imprinted expression at the H19-Igf2 locus depends on a differentially methylated domain (DMD) that acts both as a maternal-specific, methylation-sensitive insulator and as a paternal-specific site of hypermethylation. Four repeats in the DMD bind CCCTC-binding factor (CTCF) on the maternal allele and have been proposed to attract methylation on the paternal allele. We introduced point mutations into the DMD to deplete the repeats of CpGs while retaining CTCF-binding and enhancer-blocking activity. Maternal inheritance of the mutations left H19 expression and Igf2 imprinting intact, consistent with the idea that the DMD acts as an insulator. Conversely, paternal inheritance of these mutations disrupted maintenance of DMD methylation, resulting in biallelic H19 expression. Furthermore, an insulator was established on the paternally inherited mutated allele in vivo, reducing Igf2 expression and resulting in a 40% reduction in size of newborn offspring. Thus, the nine CpG mutations in the DMD showed that the two parental-specific roles of the H19 DMD, methylation maintenance and insulator assembly, are antagonistic.