Cloning and characterization of PO22, a pollen-expressed gene in alfalfa

Genomic and cDNA clones have been isolated for a new gene (PO22) expressed in mature pollen of alfalfa. PO22 represents a single- or low-copy gene containing 4 introns, 2 transcriptional start sites, and coding for a predicted protein of 340 amino acids with no signal peptide and a coiled coil structure of 39 amino acids near the carboxyl end. The amino acid sequence of PO22 is 38% identical to that of an early nodule-specific gene (ENOD8), also from alfalfa.

PO149, a new member of pollen pectate lyase-like gene family from alfalfa

PO149 is a low-copy-number gene expressed in the late stages of pollen development. The promoter region contains no similarities in DNA sequence to those of other pollen-specific genes, except for a tobacco sequence (AAATGA), which occurs four times in this alfalfa gene and much further upstream than in tobacco. Four distinct TATA boxes were detected in the promoter with the distal and proximal TATA boxes being separated by a spacer of 269 nucleotides. Hairpin loop structures were found in the 5'- and 3'-untranslated regions of PO149 mRNA. The coding region of PO149 is interrupted by two introns and encodes a putative prepeptide of 450 amino acids with homology to pollen pectate lyase-like proteins and pollen allergens. The coding region also contains sequences characteristic of both a signal peptide and a nuclear localization signal.

Cytogenetic and clinical characteristics of a case involving complete duplication of Xpter-->Xq13

True isochromosomes for Xp probably do not exist in a liveborn. We describe a rare case of complete Xp duplication and retention of the inactivation centre at Xq13. Cytogenetically, it is described as a nonmosaic 46,X,psu idic(X)(q13). Complete duplication of Xpter-->Xq13 was confirmed by banded analysis and FISH probes for X centromere, Xp21, XIST locus, and whole chromosome paints for X and Y. The abnormal X was always late replicating. Clinically, the patient was short statured, had primary amenorrhoea, and incomplete development of secondary sexual characteristics, but otherwise was phenotypically normal. There are no non-mosaic reported cases with complete duplication of i(Xp) confirmed by FISH or molecular techniques. Those cases with partial duplication of Xp and presence of the inactivation centre share the traits of amenorrhoea and poor secondary sexual development. To develop a clinical profile of duplication of Xp (in presence of Xq13) there is a need to study more cases.

A moderately repetitive DNA sequence in alfalfa is transcribed in a floral-specific manner

Based on DNA sequence analysis of 5 clones of repetitive DNA from alfalfa (Medicago sativa), we propose the existence of a dispersed middle repetitive element about 3400 bp long with a copy number in the range of 2-3 x 10(3) per haploid genome. The average A+T content of the sequences was 54.6%, compared with 61.4% for the alfalfa genome. Sequence homologies between overlapping regions of the clones ranged from 85 to 89.5% with an average of 86.6%; sequence divergence was due largely to single base pair changes, with deletions or insertions occurring randomly across sequences. An open reading frame (ORF) in one clone, RPE15, contained homologies to cereal prolamin genes and a legumin box was located upstream of the coding region. A Northern blot of RNA from various alfalfa tissues, probed with the above clone containing this ORF, showed an extensive heterodispersed pattern of hybridization in the late stages of flower bud development but in no other tissues.

The Nebraska "Network of Drug-Free Youth" program

This paper describes Nebraska's six-year experience with a successful prevention program to form and maintain local drug-free youth groups. More than 4,500 youth were involved at the time of a six-year evaluation survey. Nearly 91% of group members who responded reported being alcohol-free in the previous 30 days and almost all (97%) reported being tobacco-free. Thirty-eight percent of members met one or more of the federal criteria for "high-risk" youth. Sixty-eight percent of responding high-risk youth who previously used alcohol credited group membership with helping them quit or reduce use. The program appears to assist in delaying onset of alcohol, tobacco, and other drug use for youth in the program, and to assist in decreasing or eliminating use of alcohol and tobacco by adolescents who used before participating.

Stable transformation of alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) by particle bombardment

Stable transformation of alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) was obtained by particle bombardment of calli (derived from petiole and stem sections cultured for three weeks on SH medium), followed by delayed selection with 50 mg/l kanamycin on BOi2Y medium. Selection at a lower level of kanamycin (25 mg/l) in late stages of culture resulted only in escapes. Analysis of seven transgenic plants revealed that all were derived from one transformation event. Segregation of the neomycin phosphotransferase gene in test cross progeny followed a 1∶1 Mendelian ratio for a single locus insertion in a heterozygous state.

Effect of plant genotype on the transformation of cultivated alfalfa (Medicago sativa) by Agrobacterium tumefaciens

The trait for somatic embryogenesis is being introduced sexually into alfalfa (Medicago sativa) breeding populations to facilitate genetic transformation of this crop. Cocultivation experiments were conducted with an agronomically-improved embryogenic clone from one such population as well as with two other embryogenic clones, one of which was the source of the embryogenic trait in the breeding populations. Transgenic plants were produced from the agronomically-improved clone whereas none were produced from the other two clones. Among the 16 transgenic plants analyzed there was a range in both copy number and number of integration sites for the NPT-II gene; those plants regenerated after a prolonged selection phase in vitro generally had the highest numbers in both respects. There was no evidence of sectoral chimerism of the transgene in a subsample of transgenic plants analyzed by PCR.

Predicting response to amitriptyline in posttraumatic stress disorder

OBJECTIVE

This study evaluated the relation between baseline clinical phenomena and response to amitriptyline in patients with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

METHOD

Data were obtained from an 8-week placebo-controlled, double-blind study of combat veterans. Bivariate and multivariate statistics were used to evaluate the relations between the following variables and outcome: age, depression, anxiety, severity of PTSD symptoms, personality, psychiatric comorbidity, level of exposure to trauma, and individual symptoms of depression, anxiety, and traumatic stress. Outcome measures were scores on the Clinical Global Impression scale, Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression, Hamilton Rating Scale for Anxiety, and Impact of Event Scale.

RESULTS

Drug response was related to lower baseline levels of depression, neuroticism, combat intensity, anxious mood, impaired concentration, somatic symptoms, feelings of guilt, and one intrusion and four avoidance symptoms of PTSD.

CONCLUSIONS

The results demonstrate that response to amitriptyline is related to measures of depression, anxiety, PTSD, personality, and intensity of combat trauma. Similar relationships were not observed in the placebo group, suggesting a specific relationship to the drug.

An AT-rich satellite DNA sequence, E180, in alfalfa (Medicago sativa)

A DNA fragment of approximately 750 bp was cloned from EcoRI-digested nuclear DNA of alfalfa (Medicago sativa). Southern blot and sequence analysis showed that the cloned DNA fragment represents a tetramer of a highly tandemly repeated DNA sequence of 185-188 bp (E180). The consensus sequence deduced from the four repeating units is 189 bp in length with an AT content of 67%. The copy number of the satellite DNA was estimated to be approximately 1.8 x 10(5) per genome and constitutes about 1% of the alfalfa genome. Sequence comparison revealed no identity to any repetitive DNA sequences that have been published to date. Digestion with HpaII and MspI indicated a high degree of methylation at the internal C of the restriction site CCGG within E180.

Age and smoking-adjusted lung cancer incidence in a Utah county with a steel mill

In a recent study of urban air pollution, a Utah county with a steel mill was compared with a county without a steel mill. The result was that 38% of respiratory cancer deaths could be attributed to the air pollution emanating from the mill. Rates for smoking in this previous study were not adjusted, but assumed rats were similar in both counties. We used smoking information obtained from an ongoing radon and lung cancer case-control study to adjust for smoking, and no difference was found in incidence rates of respiratory cancer in the county with the steel mill, compared with the other urban counties and the rural counties among male and female nonsmokers and male smokers. There was a slight excess of lung cancer among female smokers in the county with the steel mill when compared with the other urban counties (rate ratio [RR] = 1.3, 95% confidence interval [95% CI] = 1.0-1.6), but there was no effect in nonsmoking women. We conclude that the findings of the previous study can be explained by differences in smoking rates between the county with the steel mill and the other counties.

Pentalogy of Cantrell and ectopia cordis, a familial developmental field complex

The association of sternal fusion defects with various cardiac, diaphragmatic, and anterior body wall defects represents a developmental field complex that includes the Pentalogy of Cantrell and ectopia cordis. No familial cases have been reported previously. We present 3 consecutively born brothers with extensive diaphragmatic defects, 2 who had the Pentalogy of Cantrell. One of the 2 also had ectopia cordis.

Correlation between levels of immunoglobulins and immune complexes in plasma of C57BL/6 and C57L/J mice infected with MAIDS retrovirus

Infection with helper-free, defective MAIDS murine leukemia virus (MuLV) caused a rapid polyclonal activation of B cells in 0.75-, 2-, and 6-month-old C57L/J mice (H-2b, Fv-1n/n), similar to that in C57BL/6 mice (H-2b, Fv-1b/b), which was recognized by elevated plasma immunoglobulin concentrations. However, changes in plasma immunoglobulin levels differed in C57BL/J and C57BL/6 mice. In C57L/J mice, infection resulted in a rapid increase in plasma IgM and IgG2a, and the elevation of IgG2a persisted undiminished for 21 weeks. Levels of IgG2b also became slightly elevated, but those of IgG1 and IgG3 were not significantly affected. Plasma of 6 to 7-month-old C57BL/6 mice contained already high levels of IgM (30-40 mg/ml), which persisted undiminished in uninfected mice but decreased progressively in infected mice to 10% of the original concentration during 25 weeks of observation. In C57BL/6 mice, plasma IgG1 and IgG2b as well as IgG2a became similarly elevated after infection but also only transiently. Their levels began to decrease progressively about 10 weeks after infection and fell to far below the maximum concentration observed. The drastic loss of plasma IgM and IgGs observed in C57BL/6 mice during the later stages of MAIDS MuLV infection did not seem to be a consequence of the polyclonal activation of B cells per se but seemed to reflect additional immunological abnormalities arising in infected C57BL/6 but not C57L/J mice. In both mouse strains these changes in plasma Ig levels correlated with the formation of Ig-containing immune complexes that bound to high-affinity, protein-binding ELISA plates in the absence of antigen coating, which may represent unusual forms of self-antigen-antibody complexes.

A nested set of eight RNAs is formed in macrophages infected with lactate dehydrogenase-elevating virus

Total RNA was extracted from primary cultures of mouse macrophages isolated from 10-day-old mice 6 to 12 h postinfection with lactate dehydrogenase-elevating virus (LDV). Poly(A)+ RNA was extracted from spleens of 18-h LDV-infected mice. The RNAs were analyzed by Northern (RNA) blot hybridization with a number of LDV-specific cDNAs as probes. A cDNA representing the nucleocapsid protein (VP-1) gene located at the 3' terminus of the viral genome (E. K. Godeny, D. W. Speicher, and M. A. Brinton, Virology 177:768-771, 1990) hybridized to viral genomic RNA of about 13 kb plus seven subgenomic RNAs ranging in size from about 1 to about 3.6 kb. Two other cDNA clones hybridized only to the four or five largest subgenomic RNAs, respectively. In contrast, two cDNAs encoding continuous open reading frames with replicase and zinc finger motifs hybridized only to the genomic RNA. The replicase motif exhibited 75% amino acid identity to that of the 1b protein of equine arteritis virus (EAV) and 44% amino acid identity to those of the 1b proteins of coronaviruses and Berne virus. Combined, the results indicate that LDV replication involves formation of a 3'-coterminal-nested set of mRNAs as observed for coronaviruses and toroviruses as well as for EAV, with which LDV shares many other properties. Overall, LDV, like EAV, possesses a genome organization resembling that of the coronaviruses and toroviruses. However, EAV and LDV differ from the latter in the size of their genomes, virion size and structure, nature of the structural proteins, and symmetry of the nucleocapsids.

Paternal inheritance of mitochondria in rapeseed (Brassica napus)

Transfer of a mitochondrially associated plasmid following sexual crosses in Brassica napus rapeseed suggested that paternal mitochondria were being transferred to the cytoplasm of the egg. To examine this possibility further, plants carrying the chloroplast (cp) marker of triazine resistance, but which had lost the plasmid associated with the mitochondria of this cytoplasm, were crossed as females to males carrying the polima cytoplasm. The males carried a nuclear fertility restorer gene on an extra chromosome to overcome the male sterility marker conferred by the mitochondria of this cytoplasm. Approximately 10% of the F1 progeny displayed the male sterility and flower morphology of the male parent. Mitochondrial (mt) DNA from the progeny showed the combined restriction patterns of both parents, but this mt heterogeneity did not continue into subsequent generations. All progeny retained the cp DNA restriction patterns of the maternal plant as well as resistance to the herbicide atrazine. To date, sexually mediated cybrid plants have shown no morphological abnormalities and have maintained their unique combination of cp and mt traits through several sexual generations.

A nationwide survey of urinalysis practices of methadone maintenance clinics. Utilization of laboratory services

The urinalysis practices of 324 methadone maintenance clinics were surveyed by using a brief self-report questionnaire. Results indicated that there was a wide variability in collection practices and utilization of laboratory techniques. The most frequent collection schedules were monthly (40%) and weekly (32%). The most frequent laboratory techniques used for initial screening were thin-layer chromatography and enzyme immunoassay. Confirmatory testing by a second technique was used by 69% of the laboratories. The most popular confirmatory techniques used were thin-layer chromatography, enzyme immunoassay, and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. The geographic differences in urinalysis practices also were noted. The implications for drug abuse treatment were determined.

Physiologic and metabolic response to progressive and prolonged exercise in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Physical work capacity in 35 ALS patients and 6 untrained controls was evaluated during progressive bicycle ergometry. In the ALS patients, maximum oxygen consumption (VO2max) and work capacity (Wmax) drop in relation to the decrease in ALS functional score. However, the oxygen cost (ml O2/kpm) of submaximal exercise was significantly increased. Prolonged submaximal exercise tests in six ALS patients and six matched untrained controls indicated that the exercise-induced increase in plasma free fatty acids, beta-hydroxybutyrate, esterified carnitine, and muscle esterified carnitine was significantly retarded in ALS patients.

Isokinetic assessment in ALS

Three measures of lower extremity function were compared in a homogenous population of ALS patients. Isokinetic dynamometry was shown to be a sensitive tool for change in strength over time. It demonstrated positive correlations with gait velocity as well as other behavioral measures. Manual muscle tests were relatively insensitive and no more reliable than isokinetics. Isokinetics are a useful adjunct in the assessment of ALS.

Intravenous thyrotropin releasing hormone in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: autonomic effects

Heart rate, respiratory rate, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, and oral and skin temperature changes following intravenous administration of TRH occur at lower infusion rates in patients with ALS and bulbar involvement than in patients with ALS without bulbar involvement. This autonomic sensitivity to TRH infusion is characteristic of a more advanced stage of ALS with difficulties in speaking and swallowing. Patients who will be receiving neuropeptides, such as TRH, must be carefully studied to determine whether subclinical bulbar involvement is present. Such patients may require a lower initial dose or dose rate adjustment as well as continual monitoring during neuropeptide administration.

Effect of biological toxins on gap-junctional intercellular communication in Chinese hamster V79 cells

Since chemical modulation of gap-junctional intercellular communication has been implicated in several toxicological endpoints, a study to examine the ability of several biological toxins to inhibit this process was undertaken. Eight biological toxins were tested for their ability to inhibit metabolic cooperation, a measure of gap-junctional intercellular communication, in the Chinese V79 cell system. Aplysiatoxin, anhydrodebromoaplysiatoxin and debromoaplysiatoxin showed the strongest ability to inhibit metabolic cooperation while T2-toxin and vomitoxin inhibited metabolic cooperation to a lesser degree. Aflatoxin B1, aflatoxin B2 and palytoxin were inactive in the Chinese V79 system. Palytoxin, which was extremely cytotoxic, might act as a tumor promoter if it induces compensatory hyperplasia in vivo.

Comparison of the importance of Alcoholics Anonymous and outpatient counseling to maintenance of sobriety among alcohol abusers

36 alcohol abusers who had attended outpatient counseling and Alcoholics Anonymous were asked to rate the importance of outpatient counseling and Alcoholics Anonymous to their maintenance of sobriety. They also reported the number of outpatient and Alcoholics Anonymous sessions they attended in the last 90 days. Alcoholics Anonymous was rated significantly higher in importance to maintenance of sobriety by participants with above median days (160 days) of sobriety than those with below median days of sobriety or than outpatient counseling by those with below or above median days of sobriety. A significant, positive correlation of .79 between attendance at Alcoholics Anonymous and days of sobriety was found.