Tremorogenic effect of thyrotropin releasing hormone in rats

Zusammenfassung Thyrotropin-Releasing Hormon (TRH) erzeugt unmittelbar nach i.v. Injektion an Pentobarbital-narkotisierten Ratten einen feinschlägigen Tremor und Haarsträuben. Diese Symptome werden durch eine direkte zentralnervöse Wirkung von TRH und nicht durch Stimulation der Schilddrüse ausgelöst. Die Wirkung ist dosisabhängig und spezifisch für das Tripeptid pGlu-His-Pro.

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Acknowledgments. The authors gratefully acknowledge the advice of Dr.P. A. Desaulles and Dr.W. Rittel and the skilled technical assistance of Mr.B. Latscha and Mr.J. C. Dalmer.     

Anomaly of the polypeptide and oligosaccharide chains of alpha-2-neuraminoglycoprotein in various types of hereditary angioneurotic edema

Using two-dimensional immuno-electrophoresis to study a morphological abnormality of the alpha 2-neuramino-glycoprotein (alpha 2-NGP) we have been able to observe allelic exclusion in patients afflicted by hereditary angioneurotic oedema [1]. With the aid of two-dimensional immuno-affino-electrophoresis, we have been able to show that in some cases, there exists a double abnormality of alpha 2-NGP associating a deficiency in post translating glycosylation with a loss of the inhibitory function of the C1 esterase.     

Femtosecond X-ray protein nanocrystallography

X-ray crystallography provides the vast majority of macromolecular structures, but the success of the method relies on growing crystals of sufficient size. In conventional measurements, the necessary increase in X-ray dose to record data from crystals that are too small leads to extensive damage before a diffraction signal can be recorded. It is particularly challenging to obtain large, well-diffracting crystals of membrane proteins, for which fewer than 300 unique structures have been determined despite their importance in all living cells. Here we present a method for structure determination where single-crystal X-ray diffraction 'snapshots' are collected from a fully hydrated stream of nanocrystals using femtosecond pulses from a hard-X-ray free-electron laser, the Linac Coherent Light Source. We prove this concept with nanocrystals of photosystem I, one of the largest membrane protein complexes. More than 3,000,000 diffraction patterns were collected in this study, and a three-dimensional data set was assembled from individual photosystem I nanocrystals (～200?nm to 2?μm in size). We mitigate the problem of radiation damage in crystallography by using pulses briefer than the timescale of most damage processes. This offers a new approach to structure determination of macromolecules that do not yield crystals of sufficient size for studies using conventional radiation sources or are particularly sensitive to radiation damage.     

Phylogenomic analyses unravel annelid evolution

Annelida, the ringed worms, is a highly diverse animal phylum that includes more than 15,000 described species and constitutes the dominant benthic macrofauna from the intertidal zone down to the deep sea. A robust annelid phylogeny would shape our understanding of animal body-plan evolution and shed light on the bilaterian ground pattern. Traditionally, Annelida has been split into two major groups: Clitellata (earthworms and leeches) and polychaetes (bristle worms), but recent evidence suggests that other taxa that were once considered to be separate phyla (Sipuncula, Echiura and Siboglinidae (also known as Pogonophora)) should be included in Annelida. However, the deep-level evolutionary relationships of Annelida are still poorly understood, and a robust reconstruction of annelid evolutionary history is needed. Here we show that phylogenomic analyses of 34 annelid taxa, using 47,953 amino acid positions, recovered a well-supported phylogeny with strong support for major splits. Our results recover chaetopterids, myzostomids and sipunculids in the basal part of the tree, although the position of Myzostomida remains uncertain owing to its long branch. The remaining taxa are split into two clades: Errantia (which includes the model annelid Platynereis), and Sedentaria (which includes Clitellata). Ancestral character trait reconstructions indicate that these clades show adaptation to either an errant or a sedentary lifestyle, with alteration of accompanying morphological traits such as peristaltic movement, parapodia and sensory perception. Finally, life history characters in Annelida seem to be phylogenetically informative.     

Incorporation of 5-bromodeoxyuridine in the total and ribosomal DNA of synchronously dividing chick embryo fibroblasts

The pattern of 5-bromodeoxyuridine incorporation into ribosomal DNA is quantitatively different from that for total DNA. It is concluded that 5-bromodeoxyuridine incorporation along the DNA chain is not a random process.