Effect of Baliospermum montanum Root Extract on Phagocytosis by Human Neutrophils.

Aqueous extract of roots of Baliospermum montanum was evaluated on preliminary basis for immunomodulatory activity by studying neutrophil phagocytic function. The different concentration of (25, 50, 100 mug/ml) of aqueous extract of roots of Baliospermum montanum was subjected to study its effect on different in vitro methods of phagocytosis such as neutrophil locomotion, chemotaxis, immunostimulant activity of phagocytosis of killed Candida albicans and qualitative nitroblue tetrazolium test by using human neutrophils. This preliminary study revealed that Baliospermum montanum extract has stimulated chemotactic, phagocytic and intracellular killing potency of human neutrophils at the different concentration. From the results obtained it can be observed that the aqueous extract of Baliospermum montanum stimulate cell-mediated immune system by increasing neutrophil function.

In Vitro Anthelmintic Activity of Baliospermum montanum Muell. Arg roots.

Alcohol and aqueous extracts from the roots of Baliospermum montanum Muell. Arg were investigated for their anthelmintic activity against Pheretima posthuma and Ascardia galli. Various concentrations (10-100 mg/ml) of each extract were tested in the bioassay, which involved determination of time of paralysis and time of death of the worms. Both the extracts exhibited significant anthelmintic activity at highest concentration of 100 mg/ml. Piperazine citrate (10 mg/ml) was included as standard reference and distilled water as control.

Phylogenetic analysis of a retroposon family in african great apes.

The SINE-R retroposon family has been identified by its relationship with the long terminal repeats (LTRs) of human endogenous retrovirus class K (HERV-K) as a mobile element that has evolved recently in the human genome. Here we examined the recent evolutionary history of this class of elements by a PCR approach to genomic DNA from the African great apes and by phylogenetic analysis including comparison with the HERV K10 parent sequence. With primers derived from a cDNA sequence from human brain, we identified 27 sequences from the chimpanzee and 16 from the gorilla. Phylogenetic comparisons with previously recognized sequences from the human and from the orangutan and gibbon revealed wide overlap of elements across species, suggesting multiple origins in the course of hominoid evolution. Two human elements SINE-R.C2 and HS307 were the furthest removed from the HERV-K10 sequence but these two elements were closely related to three elements from the chimpanzee and four elements from the gorilla. This group of elements (our clusters 14 and 15) appears to have transposed late in hominoid evolution. One element (Ch-M16) showed 99.1% sequence identity with the SINE-R.C2 element, which is human-specific. Thus the SINE-R family appears to have continued to be active in transposition throughout the course of primate evolution.

Phylogenetic analysis of HERV-K LTR-like elements in primates: presence in some new world monkeys and evidence of recent parallel evolution in these species and in homo sapiens.

Solitary long terminal repeats (LTRs) of the human endogenous retroviruses K family (HERV-K) have been found to be coexpressed with sequences of closely located genes. We identified forty-three HERV-K LTR-like elements in primates (African great apes, two Old World monkeys, and two New World monkeys) and analyzed them along with human-specific HERV-K LTRs. We report detection of HERV-K LTR-like elements from New World monkeys, as represented by the squirrel monkey and the night monkey, for the first time. Analysis revealed a high degree of sequence homology with human-specific HERV-K LTRs. A phylogenetic tree obtained by the neighbor-joining method revealed that five sequence (SMS-1, 2, 5, 6, 7) from the squirrel monkey and three sequences (NM6-4, 5, 9) from the night monkey are more closely related to human-specific HERV-K LTRs than they are to those of apes (the chimpanzee and gorilla) and Old World monkeys (the African green monkey and rhesus monkey). The findings are consistent with the concept the HERV-K LTR-like elements have proliferated independently and recently in the genome of primates, and that such proliferation has been more recent in Homo sapiens and in these representatives of New World monkeys than in some Old World monkeys.

SINE-R.C2 (a Homo sapiens specific retroposon) is homologous to CDNA from postmortem brain in schizophrenia and to two loci in the Xq21.3/Yp block linked to handedness and psychosis.

We investigated the retroviral/retroposon hypothesis of schizophrenia by generating sequences with PCR primers based on a retroviral sequence recovered by Yee et al. [1998: Schizophr Res 29:92] from a cDNA library from postmortem brain tissue from an individual with psychosis in a genomic region (Xq21.3) that has been tentatively linked to schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder by Laval et al. [1998: Am. J. Med. Genet. (Neuropsychiatr. Genet.) 81:420-427]. Within the block of homology with Yp that was generated by a transposition between the chimpanzee and Homo sapiens we find two sequences, HS307 and HS408, with a high degree of homology to but not identity with the schizophrenic brain cDNA. The closest match of these three sequences is to a family of retroposons, that has evolved from the HERV-K family of endogenous retroviruses, some members of which (e.g., SINE-R.C2) appear to be specific to the human genome. This element has been reported as a cause of Fukuyama-type muscular dystrophy [Kobayashi et al., 1998: Nature 394:388-392]. Such retroposons, as agents of change in the human genome, provide a strategy for investigating pathogenesis. On account of their genomic location in a region that has been subject to change in the course of hominid evolution, and that may have a relationship to psychosis and/or cerebral asymmetry, we conclude that these particular insertions deserve further investigation.

Modelling of the root cap of Zea mays L in relation to temperature.

Rates of mitosis in each of the four tiers of the cap meristem of primary roots of Zea mays L. were measured at uniform root length by a stathmokinetic method and compared with rates for other regions of the apices in seedlings growing at between 15 and 35 °C. The highest elemental rate of cap cell production in the proximal tier and in the cap meristem as a whole occurs at 26 °C and the proportion of cells supplied by the proximal tier rises from 48%, at 15 °C to 90% at 35 °C. The number of cells in the whole cap and in its meristem decreases with increasing temperature. This is due to the general reduction in the width of root apices with age and growth in length being faster at the higher temperatures. The slimming of the apex is effected by a decline in the proportion of divisions that are longitudinal to the files of cells at the quiescent centre. This is enhanced by a slight but continuous increase in the rate of mitosis in the quiescent centre the higher the temperature (in contrast with the rest of the root whose maximal rate is at 2S °C). The decline results in an increase in the elemental rate for longitudinal divisions in the cap initials from 0.02 to 0.17 cells per cell per day between 15 and 35 °C and a consequent change in the cell pattern in the cap.