Reoviruslike agent in stools: association with infantile diarrhea and development of serologic tests

Reoviruslike particles were visualized by electron microscopy in stool filtrates prepared from stools of infants and young children with severe acute gastroenteritis. Patients who had such particles in their stools and whose paired acute and convalescent serums were tested developed an antibody response to the reoviruslike agent, which was measured by immune electron microscopy and by complement fixation. The reoviruslike agent was antigenically related to the epizootic diarrhea of infant mice virus and the Nebraska calf diarrhea virus.     

Clonal depletion in neonatal tolerance

Specific unresponsiveness can be induced in neonatal and adult BALB/c mice by antibody against antigen-specific receptor (antireceptor antibody). When heterologous antireceptor antibody is used in the indirect fluorescence technique, the number of fluorescent cells in these animals is significantly lower than in normal animals. Fluorescent cells appear after a relatively brief incubation of cells from adult-suppressed animals, whereas no fluorescent cells are detected when cells from neonatally treated animals are incubated briefly. Evidently, treating neonatal mice with antireceptor antibody specifically depletes the antigen-responsive clone. In contrast, antireceptor antibody causes reversible blockade of responsive cells in adult-suppressed animals.     

Primary structure of the beta subunit of the DHP-sensitive calcium channel from skeletal muscle

Complementary DNAs for the beta subunit of the dihydropyridine-sensitive calcium channel of rabbit skeletal muscle were isolated on the basis of peptide sequences derived from the purified protein. The deduced primary structure is without homology to other known protein sequences and is consistent with the beta subunit being a peripheral membrane protein associated with the cytoplasmic aspect of the sarcolemma. The protein contains sites that might be expected to be preferentially phosphorylated by protein kinase C and guanosine 3',5'-monophosphate-dependent protein kinase. A messenger RNA for this protein appears to be expressed in brain.     

Electrical resistance of long conjugated molecular wires

The charge transport mechanism of a wire can be revealed by how its electrical resistance varies with length. We have measured the resistance and current-voltage characteristics of conjugated molecular wires ranging in length from 1 to 7 nanometers, connected between metal electrodes. We observe the theoretically predicted change in direct-current transport from tunneling to hopping as a function of systematically controlled wire length. We also demonstrate that site-specific disruption of conjugation in the wires greatly increases resistance in the hopping regime but has only a small effect in the tunneling regime. These nanoscale transport measurements elucidate the role of molecular length and bond architecture on molecular conductivity and open opportunities for greater understanding of electrical transport in conjugated polymer films.     

Specificity and stability in topology of protein networks

Molecular networks guide the biochemistry of a living cell on multiple levels: Its metabolic and signaling pathways are shaped by the network of interacting proteins, whose production, in turn, is controlled by the genetic regulatory network. To address topological properties of these two networks, we quantified correlations between connectivities of interacting nodes and compared them to a null model of a network, in which all links were randomly rewired. We found that for both interaction and regulatory networks, links between highly connected proteins are systematically suppressed, whereas those between a highly connected and low-connected pairs of proteins are favored. This effect decreases the likelihood of cross talk between different functional modules of the cell and increases the overall robustness of a network by localizing effects of deleterious perturbations.     

担子菌中牛磺酸的检测

利用基于离子交换色谱原理氨基酸自动分析仪检测了一些常见食用菌中牛磺酸的含量。牛磺酸在磷酸丝氨酸及磷酸乙醇胺洗脱液中经色谱分析可得到清晰的对称峰。灵芝的牛磺酸含量为每100g干重含3.7～83umol。火菇在所检蘑菇中牛磺酸含量高,每100g湿重含（83.2±6.6)umol,与陆生植物相近。双孢蘑菇与香菇的牛磺酸含量相对较高,每100g湿重含量约49～55umol,牡蛎蘑菇及糙皮侧耳的鲜重含量分别为（8.9±0.712)umol、（3.7±0.3)umol,木耳及甘露地衣的干重含量分别为（19.5±2.1)umol、（9.3±1.5)umol。高牛磺酸、无胆固醇的蘑菇有望作为低胆甾醇类食物的替代品。     

Deleted HTLV-I provirus in blood and cutaneous lesions of patients with mycosis fungoides.

Mycosis fungoides, a rare form of cutaneous T cell leukemia/lymphoma, is suspected of having a viral etiology on the basis of certain similarities to adult T cell leukemia, which is associated with human T cell leukemia/lymphoma virus type I (HTLV-I) infection. Cell lines were established from peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) of an HTLV-I-seronegative patient with mycosis fungoides. DNA hybridization analysis revealed the presence of HTLV-I-related sequences with unusual restriction endonuclease sites. Sequence analysis of subcloned fragments demonstrated the presence of a monoclonally integrated provirus with a 5.5-kilobase deletion involving large regions of gag and env and all of pol. Additional evidence for the presence of deleted proviruses was found by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification of DNA from cutaneous lesions of five other HTLV-I-seronegative patients. The findings suggest that HTLV-I infection may be involved in the etiology of at least certain cases of mycosis fungoides.     

Identifying autism loci and genes by tracing recent shared ancestry

To find inherited causes of autism-spectrum disorders, we studied families in which parents share ancestors, enhancing the role of inherited factors. We mapped several loci, some containing large, inherited, homozygous deletions that are likely mutations. The largest deletions implicated genes, including PCDH10 (protocadherin 10) and DIA1 (deleted in autism1, or c3orf58), whose level of expression changes in response to neuronal activity, a marker of genes involved in synaptic changes that underlie learning. A subset of genes, including NHE9 (Na+/H+ exchanger 9), showed additional potential mutations in patients with unrelated parents. Our findings highlight the utility of "homozygosity mapping" in heterogeneous disorders like autism but also suggest that defective regulation of gene expression after neural activity may be a mechanism common to seemingly diverse autism mutations.