Suppressed multiplication of pulmonary tubercle bacilli in bacillary trypsin extract-immunized mice

Zusammenfassung Extrakte aus Tuberkelbazillen, die mit Trypsin verdaut werden, erzeugen in Mäusen eine Tbc-Immunität, die jener durch BCG entspricht.     

Reconstructing the early evolution of Fungi using a six-gene phylogeny

The ancestors of fungi are believed to be simple aquatic forms with flagellated spores, similar to members of the extant phylum Chytridiomycota (chytrids). Current classifications assume that chytrids form an early-diverging clade within the kingdom Fungi and imply a single loss of the spore flagellum, leading to the diversification of terrestrial fungi. Here we develop phylogenetic hypotheses for Fungi using data from six gene regions and nearly 200 species. Our results indicate that there may have been at least four independent losses of the flagellum in the kingdom Fungi. These losses of swimming spores coincided with the evolution of new mechanisms of spore dispersal, such as aerial dispersal in mycelial groups and polar tube eversion in the microsporidia (unicellular forms that lack mitochondria). The enigmatic microsporidia seem to be derived from an endoparasitic chytrid ancestor similar to Rozella allomycis, on the earliest diverging branch of the fungal phylogenetic tree.     

The inositol tris/tetrakisphosphate pathway--demonstration of Ins(1,4,5)P3 3-kinase activity in animal tissues

Recent advances in our understanding of the role of inositides in cell signalling have led to the central hypothesis that a receptor-stimulated phosphodiesteratic hydrolysis of phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate (PtdIns(4,5)P2) results in the formation of two second messengers, diacylglycerol and inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate (Ins(1,4,5)P3). The existence of another pathway of inositide metabolism was first suggested by the discovery that a novel inositol trisphosphate, Ins(1,3,4)P3, is formed in stimulated tissues; the metabolic kinetics of Ins(1,3,4)P3 are entirely different from those of Ins(1,4,5)P3 (refs 6, 7). The probable route of formation of Ins(1,3,4)P3 was recently shown to be via a 5-dephosphorylation of inositol 1,3,4,5-tetrakisphosphate (Ins(1,3,4,5)P4), a compound which is rapidly formed on muscarinic stimulation of brain slices, and which can be readily converted to Ins(1,3,4)P3 by a 5-phosphatase in red blood cell membranes. However, the source of Ins(1,3,4,5)P4 is unclear, and an attempt to detect a possible parent lipid, phosphatidylinositol 3,4,5-trisphosphate (PtdIns(3,4,5)P3), was unsuccessful. The recent discovery that the higher phosphorylated forms of inositol (InsP5 and InsP6) also exist in animal cells suggested that inositol phosphate kinases might not be confined to plant and avian tissues, and here we show that a variety of animal tissues contain an active and specific Ins(1,4,5)P3 3-kinase. We therefore suggest that an inositol tris/tetrakisphosphate pathway exists as an alternative route to the dephosphorylation of Ins(1,4,5)P3. The function of this novel pathway is unknown.