The Southern Ocean biogeochemical divide

Modelling studies have demonstrated that the nutrient and carbon cycles in the Southern Ocean play a central role in setting the air-sea balance of CO(2) and global biological production. Box model studies first pointed out that an increase in nutrient utilization in the high latitudes results in a strong decrease in the atmospheric carbon dioxide partial pressure (pCO2). This early research led to two important ideas: high latitude regions are more important in determining atmospheric pCO2 than low latitudes, despite their much smaller area, and nutrient utilization and atmospheric pCO2 are tightly linked. Subsequent general circulation model simulations show that the Southern Ocean is the most important high latitude region in controlling pre-industrial atmospheric CO(2) because it serves as a lid to a larger volume of the deep ocean. Other studies point out the crucial role of the Southern Ocean in the uptake and storage of anthropogenic carbon dioxide and in controlling global biological production. Here we probe the system to determine whether certain regions of the Southern Ocean are more critical than others for air-sea CO(2) balance and the biological export production, by increasing surface nutrient drawdown in an ocean general circulation model. We demonstrate that atmospheric CO(2) and global biological export production are controlled by different regions of the Southern Ocean. The air-sea balance of carbon dioxide is controlled mainly by the biological pump and circulation in the Antarctic deep-water formation region, whereas global export production is controlled mainly by the biological pump and circulation in the Subantarctic intermediate and mode water formation region. The existence of this biogeochemical divide separating the Antarctic from the Subantarctic suggests that it may be possible for climate change or human intervention to modify one of these without greatly altering the other.     

山西省地表水水功能区划分及其管理

水功能区的划分是实现水资源综合开发、合理利用、积极保护、科学管理的基础工作。根据“全国水功能区划技术细则”,结合对山西省黄河流域的自然、社会情况,尤其是水资源状况的综合分析,系统介绍了水功能区划的方法,对山西省黄河流域河流地表水进行了水功能区划并提出管理建议。     

Transglutaminase is essential in receptor-mediated endocytosis of alpha 2-macroglobulin and polypeptide hormones

The receptor-mediated endocytosis of alpha 2-macroglobulin can be inhibited by a diverse group of chemical compounds all of which share the property of being inhibitors of one form of cellular transglutaminase. The present results strongly suggest that protein cross-linking may be essential for receptor-mediated endocytosis of some protein and polypeptide hormones.     

Electrochemical, photoelectrochemical, electrocatalytic and catalytic reduction of redox proteins

Redox proteins catalyse the reactions of a wide variety of otherwise intractable substrates, such as dinitrogen, alkanes, arenes, terpenes and steroids. Two major factors impede the utilization of these enzymes--the inefficient electron transfer between the enzyme and electrode, and the properties often, but not inevitably, associated with enzymes, such as instability, complexity, and expense. We have now shown that the former can be overcome and that proteins can be coupled, via electrodes, to a number of energy sources; the latter is the subject of much effort elsewhere. We demonstrated previously that certain redox proteins can be reduced very efficiently electrochemically (Fig. 1a). Light and hydrogen are the two other convenient energy sources that could be used for such reductions, and we now report the reduction of cytochrome c by these means.     

Functional and molecular organisation of an antigen-specific suppressor factor from a T-cell hybridoma

Thymus-dependent (T) lymphocytes have been shown to have antigen specificity. The antigen receptor on T lymphocytes, in contrast to that on B lymphocytes, does not appear to be of the conventional immunoglobulin (Ig) type. Studies on the antigen-specific factors derived from helper and suppressor T cells (Ts) demonstrated that they possess determinants with antigen binding affinity and products of genes in the H-2 complex (MHC). Furthermore, antibodies against the variable region of Ig heavy chains or idiotypes have been shown to react with T-cell antigen receptors as well as antigen-specific helper and suppressor T-cell factors (TsF). It is, therefore, conceivable that at least two gene products are involved in the structural entity of these receptors: one each coded for by genes in either. To establish the molecular nature of the recognition component of T cells we have used homogeneous TsF from a T-cell hybridoma with a specific function. We report here that the antigen binding and I-J coded molecules on TsF are independently synthesised in the cytoplasm, and are secreted as an associated form of the two molecules; this association is required for antigen-specific suppression of antibody response.     

Crystallographic studies on the activity of glycogen phosphorylase b

High resolution studies on the crystal structure of glycogen phosphorylase b have identified the catalytic site to which the substrate glucose-1-phosphate binds strongly with some local conformational changes. The site is situated 8 A (phosphate-to-phosphate distance) from pyridoxal phosphate, an essential cofactor of all glycogen phosphorylases. The catalytic site is 33 A from the site in the N-terminal portion of the molecule to which adenine nucleotides bind. In contrast to phosphorylase a (the active form of the enzyme which is phosphorylated at Ser 14), the positions of the first 19 residues of phosphorylase b are not well defined.     

Insulin-like growth factor-II gene expression in Wilms' tumour and embryonic tissues

Wilms' tumour (nephroblastoma) is an embryonal neoplasm occurring in hereditary and spontaneous forms. Both types show rearrangements of the short arm of chromosome 11. The germ line of children with the rare inherited triad of aniridia, genito-urinary abnormality and mental retardation carry a chromosome 11 that has a deletion in its short arm (band 11p13) and these children are at increased risk of developing Wilms' tumour. Neonates with the Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome, in which there may be duplication of the 11p13-11p15 region, are similarly predisposed. In the spontaneous form of the tumour a deletion of the 11p14 band in tumour cells, but not in normal cells, has been reported, and the development of homozygosity for recessive mutations in the 11p region is implicated in the aetiology of Wilms' tumour. In view of these chromosomal rearrangements and because Wilms' tumour is histologically indistinguishable from the early stages of kidney development, we have now examined the expression of genes localized to 11p in Wilms' tumour and human embryonic tissue. In 12 sporadic tumours examined, the expression of the gene coding for insulin-like growth factor-II (IGF-II), localized to the 11p15 region, was markedly increased relative to adult tissues, but was comparable to the level of expression in several fetal tissues including kidney, liver, adrenals and striated muscle. This may reflect the stage of tumour differentiation, but could also contribute to the malignant process, as IGF-II is an embryonal mitogen.