Tropomyosin induces the synthesis of magnesian calcite in sea urchin spines.

Calcium carbonate is present in many biominerals, including in the exoskeletons of crustaceans and shells of mollusks. High Mg-containing calcium carbonate was synthesized by high temperatures, high pressures or high molecular organic matter. For example, biogenic high Mg-containing calcite is synthesized under strictly controlled Mg concentration at ambient temperature and pressure. The spines of sea urchins consist of calcite, which contain a high percentage of magnesium. In this study, we investigated the factors that increase the magnesium content in calcite from the spines of the sea urchin, Heliocidaris crassispina. X-ray diffraction and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry analyses showed that sea urchin spines contain about 4.8% Mg. The organic matrix extracted from the H. crassispina spines induced the crystallization of amorphous phase and synthesis of magnesium-containing calcite, while amorphous was synthesized without SUE (sea urchin extract). In addition, aragonite was synthesized by SUE treated with protease-K. HC tropomyosin was specifically incorporated into Mg precipitates. Recombinant HC-tropomyosin induced calcite contained 0.1-2.5% Mg synthesis. Western blotting of sea urchin spine extracts confirmed that HC tropomyosin was present in the purple sea urchin spines at a protein weight ratio of 1.5%. These results show that HC tropomyosin is one factor that increases the magnesium concentration in the calcite of H. crassispina spines.

Discovery of primitive CO2-bearing fluid in an aqueously altered carbonaceous chondrite.

Water is abundant as solid ice in the solar system and plays important roles in its evolution. Water is preserved in carbonaceous chondrites as hydroxyl and/or H2O molecules in hydrous minerals, but has not been found as liquid. To uncover such liquid, we performed synchrotron-based x-ray computed nanotomography and transmission electron microscopy with a cryo-stage of the aqueously altered carbonaceous chondrite Sutter's Mill. We discovered CO2-bearing fluid (CO2/H2O > ~0.15) in a nanosized inclusion incorporated into a calcite crystal, appearing as CO2 ice and/or CO2 hydrate at 173 K. This is direct evidence of dynamic evolution of the solar system, requiring the Sutter's Mill's parent body to have formed outside the CO2 snow line and later transportation to the inner solar system because of Jupiter's orbital instability.

The effect of Mg(2+) incorporation on the structure of calcium carbonate clusters: investigation by the anharmonic downward distortion following method.

Mg(2+) is considered to play an important role in the formation of calcium carbonate polymorphs; however, how it affects polymorph selection during the early stages of CaCO3 formation is not yet well understood. In the present study, in order to clarify the effect of Mg(2+) on the nucleation of calcium carbonate polymorphs, the stable structures of anhydrous additive-free and Mg-containing calcium carbonate clusters are derived using the anharmonic downward distortion following method, based on quantum chemical calculations. Optimization is performed at the B3LYP/6-31+G(d) level and the solvent effect is induced by the self-consistent reaction field method using the conductor-like polarized continuum calculation model. Calculation results show that incorporating Mg(2+) into clusters can change the clusters' stable configuration. In the case of dimers and trimers, a Mg ion strongly prefers to locate at the centre of the clusters, which suggests that Mg is easy to incorporate into the clusters once it is released from its tight hydration shell. Notably, structures similar to the crystalline phase appear when only four CaCO3 units aggregate into the cluster: in the stable structure of the additive-free CaCO3 tetramer, the arrangement of Ca and CO3 ions is almost the same as that of the calcite structure, while the structure of the Mg-containing CaCO3 tetramer resembles the aragonite structure in the way that CO3 ions are stacked. These results indicate that Mg can play a key role in aragonite formation not only by inhibiting calcite growth but also by directly promoting aragonite nucleation in the early stages of CaCO3 formation.

Distribution and morphological changes of the Golgi apparatus during Drosophila spermatogenesis.

In spermatogenesis, the Golgi apparatus is important for the formation of the acrosome, which is a sperm-specific organelle essential for fertilization. Comprehensive examinations of the spatiotemporal distribution and morphological characterizations of the Golgi in various cells during spermatogenesis are necessary for functional analyses and mutant screenings in the model eukaryote Drosophila. Here, we examined the distribution and morphology of the Golgi during Drosophila spermatogenesis with immunofluorescence and electron microscopy. In pre-meiotic germ cells, the Golgi apparatuses were distributed evenly in the cytoplasm. In contrast, they were located exclusively in two regions near the poles during the meiotic metaphase, where they were segregated prior to the chromosomes. In cells in anaphase to telophase, the Golgi were predominantly left behind in the equatorial region between the separating daughter nuclei. After completion of meiosis, the dispersed Golgi were assembled at the apical side of the spermatid nucleus to form the acrosome. Further investigation of the Golgi distribution in ß2-tubulin mutants showed aberrant and uneven distributions of the Golgi among sister cells in the meiotic spermatocytes and in the post-meiotic spermatids. At the ultrastructural level, the Golgi apparatus in pre-meiotic spermatocytes comprised a pair of stacks. The two stacks were situated adjacent to each other, as if they had duplicated before entering into meiotic division. These results highlight the dynamic nature of the Golgi during spermatogenesis and provide a framework for analyzing the correlations between the dynamics of the Golgi and its function in sperm development.

Needle-like grains across growth lines in the coral skeleton of Porites lobata.

The skeletal texture and crystal morphology of the massive reef-building coral Porites lobata were observed from the nano- to micrometer scale using an analytical transmission electron microscope (ATEM). The skeletal texture consists of centers of calcification (COCs) and fiber area. Fiber areas contain bundles of needle-like aragonite crystals that are elongated along the crystallographic c-axis and are several hundred nanometers to one micrometer in width and several micrometers in length. The size distribution of aragonite crystals is relatively homogeneous in the fibers. Growth lines are observed sub-perpendicular to the direction of aragonite growth. These growth lines occur in 1-2 µm intervals and reflect a periodic contrast in the thickness of an ion-spattered sample and pass through the interior of some aragonite crystals. These observations suggest that the medium filled in the calcification space maintains a CaCO3-supersaturated state during fiber growth and that a physical change occurs periodically during the aragonite crystals of the fiber area.

High-temperature molecular dynamics simulation of aragonite.

For molecular dynamics simulations using aragonite structure as the initial state, a new phase of space group P6322 (hexagonal aragonite) appeared at temperatures above 510 K at a pressure of 1 atm. It was a first-order phase transition which occurs metastably within the stable region of calcite and the dT/dP slope of the phase boundary between orthorhombic and hexagonal aragonite was about 1.25 × 10³ K GPa⁻¹. In the hexagonal aragonite structure, CO3 groups were rotated by 30° around the c axis and move up and down along the c axis from their position in aragonite, and Ca ions were six-coordinated as they are in calcite. The CaO6 octahedron of hexagonal aragonite was strongly distorted, whereas in the calcite structure it is an almost ideal octahedron. The transition between hexagonal and orthorhombic aragonite involves only small movements of CO3 groups. Therefore, it is possible that hexagonal aragonite plays an important part in the metastable formation of aragonite within the stability field of calcite and in the development of sector trilling in aragonite.

Molecular dynamics simulation of the rotational order-disorder phase transition in calcite.

Molecular dynamics (MD) simulation of calcite was carried out with the interatomic potential model based on ab initio calculations to elucidate the phase relations for calcite polymorphs and the mechanism of the rotational order-disorder transition of calcite at high temperature at the atomic scale. From runs of MD calculations with increasing temperature within a pressure range of 1 atm and 2 GPa, the transition of calcite with [Formula: see text] symmetry into a high-temperature phase with [Formula: see text] symmetry was reproduced. In the high-temperature [Formula: see text] phase, CO(3) groups vibrate with large amplitudes either around the original positions in the [Formula: see text] structure or around other positions rotated ± 60°, and their positions change continuously with time. Moreover, contrary to the suggestion of previous investigators, the motion of CO(3) groups is not two-dimensional. At 1 atm, the transition between [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] is first order in character. Upon increasing temperature at high pressure, however, first a first-order isosymmetric phase transition between the [Formula: see text] phases occurs, which corresponds to the start of ± 120° flipping of CO(3) groups. Then, at higher temperatures, the transition of [Formula: see text] to [Formula: see text] phases happens, which can be considered second order. This set of two types of transitions at elevated pressure can be characterized by the appearance of an 'intermediate' [Formula: see text] phase between the stable region of calcite and the high-temperature [Formula: see text] phase, which may correspond to the CaCO(3)-IV phase.

Molecular dynamics simulation of the phase transition between calcite and CaCO(3)-II.

Molecular dynamics (MD) simulation of calcium carbonate at high pressure was performed to understand the phase transition between calcite [Formula: see text] and CaCO(3)-II (P 2(1)/c). In the 300-800 K temperature range, the transition of calcite to CaCO(3)-II was reproduced at a pressure of around 8 GPa. This transition is of first order and reversible in the MD calculations except for runs at 300 K where a small hysteresis exists. The slope of the dP/dT curve at the phase boundary between calcite and CaCO(3)-II is negative at 300 K and turns positive at around 600 K, which was confirmed by analyzing the enthalpy change. Just below the transition pressure, the P 2(1)/c structure appears and its orientation switches among three positions with time, resulting in the maintenance of the [Formula: see text] structure as a whole. The P 2(1)/c structure resembles the structure of CaCO(3)-II on an increase of temperature. It can be suggested that the existence of the P 2(1)/c structure and the switching of its orientation just below the transition pressure are responsible for the change of the slope of the dP/dT curve at the boundary from negative to positive on an increase of temperature, because the switching increases entropy and results in an expansion of the stability field of calcite.

Precipitation diagram of calcium carbonate polymorphs: its construction and significance.

In order to interpret the formation mechanism of calcium carbonate polymorphs, we propose and construct a new 'precipitation diagram', which has two variables: the driving force for nucleation and temperature. The precipitation experiments were carried out by mixing calcium chloride and sodium carbonate aqueous solutions. As a result, a calcite-vaterite co-precipitation zone, a vaterite precipitation zone, a vaterite-aragonite co-precipitation zone and an aragonite precipitation zone can be defined. Theoretical considerations suggest that the steady state nucleation theory can explain well the appearance of these four zones, and the first-order importance of the temperature dependency of surface free energy in the nucleation of aragonite. Furthermore, the addition of an impurity will likely result in the change of these energies, and this precipitation diagram gives a new basis for interpreting the nature of the polymorphs precipitated in both inorganic and biological environments.

Regeneration of gastric mucosa during ulcer healing follows pathways that correspond to the ontogenetic course of rat fundic glands.

Gastric ulcers in humans are notoriously chronic and recurring lesions. Although the average individual who undergoes no treatments requires many years for healing, most studies on the healing process of the experimentally induced ulcers have mainly focused on the early stages. Natural history of the ulcer healing has not been completely revealed. We have undertaken long-term investigation up to the 150th day after the cryo-injury to shed light on the natural history of the ulcer healing process compared with developmental changes of postnatal fundic glands. By the 30th day, restitutive gastric glands were mostly seen to cover the ulcer lesions, where well-developed gland-type mucous cells, showing Griffonia simplicifolia agglutinin (GSA)-II labeling, appeared to occupy the basal portion. Most of the bromodeoxyuridine-labeled cells were superimposed on the GSA-II-positive cell zone, forming the proliferative zone. By the 150th day, the restitutive glands were complete, with all epithelial components and topology of the normal fundic glands. The process of the ulcer healing was quite compatible with the developmental changes of the postnatal fundic glands. These results imply that the regeneration of gastric epithelium during the ulcer healing follows pathways linked to the ontogenetic course of the fundic gland.

Comparative analysis and characterization of mutated thyroid peroxidases with disturbance expressed on the cell surface.

Five mutated thyroid peroxidases (TPO) with varying degrees of disturbance in cell surface expression, probably owing to misfolding, were comparatively analyzed. CHO-K1 cells transfected with these mutated mRNAs expressed TPO protein in 65.6-82.1% of cells in antibody staining, and the TPOs were located in intracellular structures like the nuclear envelope and ER as well as cytoplasmically like wild-type TPO. When cell surface expression was examined, three mutated TPOs, G533C-, D574/L575del-, and G771R-TPOs, were expressed to varying degrees. In contrast, R175Q- and R665W-TPOs were thought not to be expressed on the cell surface, although a vague increment in R175Q-TPO was observed with increasing amounts of mRNA. In the kinetic study, three mutated TPOs having insufficient expression on the cell surface showed delays in decrease at 4 and 8 h after chase, although between 8 and 24 h after chase they decreased rapidly, as did the two other mutated TPOs. In immunoprecipitation by anti-TPO antibody, G533C-, D574/L575del-, and G771R-TPOs exhibited increasing interaction with calnexin. The combined evidence suggested that some of the mutated TPOs with disturbance in cell surface expression, probably owing to misfolding, exhibited the delay in kinetics of newly synthesized protein as a result of increasing interaction with calnexin and that such TPOs could be expressed to some extent on the cell surface.

A Novel Missense Mutation in the Thyroid Peroxidase Gene, R175Q, Resulting in Insufficient Cell Surface Enzyme in Two Siblings.

Thyroid peroxidase (TPO) abnormality is one of the causes of congenital hypothyroidism. Two missense mutations were found as a compound heterozygous mutation in two siblings with congenital goitrous hypothyroidism. One of these mutations, G614A (R175Q), was a novel mutation. Characterization of the novel mutation and a cotransfection experiment with two mutated TPO mRNAs were carried out. G614A-mRNA introduced into CHO-K1 cells expressed TPO protein with the same molecular weight as that of wild-type mRNA. The R175Q-TPO was thought to possess enzyme activity. In terms of localization, a very small amount of mutated TPO was expressed on the plasma membrane of CHO-K1 cells. This plasma membrane expression of R175Q-TPO was insufficient to perform thyroid hormone synthesis, but was markedly different from R665W-TPO. When G614A- and C2083T-mRNAs were cotransfected, cell surface TPO-positive cells were only 13.1% in contrast to 54.4% for wild-type mRNA. The low positivity and intensity of cell surface TPO suggested that in the patients' thyroids thyroid hormone synthesis was hardly performed. The congenital hypothyroidism of the patients was thought to be a result of the mutations of the TPO gene (G614A/C2083T).

Partial iodide organification defect caused by a novel mutation of the thyroid peroxidase gene in three siblings.

BACKGROUND: Three siblings with goitre and latent to mild hypothyroidism were suspected of having thyroid peroxidase (TPO) abnormality. Direct sequencing of their genomic DNAs showed two novel mutations of the TPO gene, one of which was G1687T (Gly533Cys; exon 9) and the other 1808-13del (Asp574/Leu575del; exon 10). The two mutations were compound heterozygous, as the former was found in their father's DNA as heterozygous, and the latter was found in DNA from their mother, also as heterozygous. As Gly533 and Asp574/Leu575 were well-conserved amino acids in the peroxidase superfamily, Gly533Cys- and Asp574/Leu575del-TPOs were thought to be affected structurally or functionally. In expression studies using CHO-Kl cells and mRNAs introduced with individual mutations, both mutated TPO proteins were expressed at the same molecular size as wild-type TPO and had enzyme activity, although Gly533Cys-TPO was slightly lower in efficiency of expression and more degenerative than wild-type TPO. METHODS: We examined the localization of both mutated TPOs. Gly533Cys-TPO was located on the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and nuclear envelope but not on the plasma membrane, whereas Asp574/Leu575del-TPO was located not only on the ER and nuclear envelope but also on the plasma membrane, as wild-type TPO. Nevertheless, only one point differed between Asp574/Leu575del- and wild-type TPOs: the mutated TPO was expressed on the plasma membrane surface at less than half the rate of wild-type TPO. RESULTS: Gly533Cys-TPO synthesized almost no thyroid hormone because of its defective localization on the apical membrane surface of thyrocytes, whereas Asp574/Leu575del-TPO performed thyroid hormone synthesis at a rate of less half that of wild-type TPO. In cotransfection experiments using three combinations of wild-type and G1687T-mRNAs, wild-type and 1808-13del-mRNAs, and G1687T-, 1808-13del-mRNAs, the three kinds of mRNAs were considered to have no influence on cell surface TPO expression of another mRNA when a 50%-maximal amount of each mRNA was transfected. When a larger amount of each mRNA was transfected, the former two combinations showed the level of cell surface TPO expression obtained from the saturating amount of wild-type mRNA, whereas the last combination of mutated mRNAs covered only about half of the expression level. CONCLUSION: Defective thyroid hormone production resulting from the abnormal TPOs was at a level that caused latent hypothyroidism when the patients were born. With their growth, thyroid hormone volume gradually became inadequate and their thyroid gland enlarged compensatorily.

Cryofixation processing is an excellent method to improve the retention of adrenomedullin antigenicity.

We reappraised the precise immunohistochemical localization of adrenomedullin (AM) by means of the combined use of the catalyzed signal amplification (CSA) system and plunge freezing (PF)/freeze substitution (FS) for light microscopy or high-pressure freezing (HPF)/FS for electron microscopy, focusing on the rat adrenal gland and heart. In the case of adrenal glands, the PF processing showed that almost all medullary cells were intensively immunoreactive, while the cortical cells showed weak immunoreaction. In the heart, almost all cardiac muscle cells of the atria were also vividly stained with the PF/FS and the CSA enhancement. On the contrary, traces of immunoreactions were seen in most of the ventricular cells. These results are consistent with the previous reports of AM radioimmunoassays and the expression of AM mRNA. However, the chemical fixation processing revealed heterogeneous immunostaining in the atrial and ventricular myocardium as well as the adrenal medulla. Intensity of the immunostaining in the chemically fixed tissues was not likely to correspond with that of AM radioimmunoassays. The HPF/FS processing clearly demonstrated the immunogold labeling on secretory granules of adrenal medullary cells as well as cardiac muscle cells of the right auricles. Immunogold labeling intensity of the cryofixed specimens was 3- to 25-fold higher than that of the chemically fixed ones.

Identification and characterization of an insect homologue of the vertebrate Golgi apparatus protein 1 (MG-160/cysteine-rich fibroblast growth factor receptor/E-selectin ligand-1/latent transforming growth factor-beta complex protein-1) with a Golgi-specific monoclonal antibody.

A monoclonal antibody 14F10 was raised against Golgi fractions from Sf21 cells and selected as Golgi specific. Immunohistochemical stainings with the antibody localized the antigen in Golgi cisterns of the cells. The antigen was purified and shown to be a 130-K membrane protein with N-glycans and intrachain disulfide bonds. Amino acid sequencing of its peptide fragments revealed that the antigen contained homologous sequences to those encoded by CG7190 and CG7193 Drosophila melanogaster genes. No possible transmembrane domain existed in these deduced amino acid sequences, while one did in that encoded by CG7195, an adjacent gene to CG7193. Furthermore, 5' and 3' expression sequence tags of LD19434 had been mapped to CG7190 and a downstream region of CG7195, respectively. These findings supported that all of these genes actually composed a single gene, which encoded an orthologous protein to a vertebrate Golgi-resident protein, Golgi apparatus protein 1, also called cysteine-rich FGF receptor, E-selectin ligand-1, or latent TGF-beta complex protein-1. Our results suggested that the Golgi apparatus protein 1 played a critical role in the Golgi cisterns through the animal kingdom.

Two novel missense mutations in the thyroid peroxidase gene, R665W and G771R, result in a localization defect and cause congenital hypothyroidism.

OBJECTIVE: Thyroid peroxidase (TPO) deficiency is one of the causes of thyroid dyshormonogenesis, because TPO plays a key role in thyroid hormone biosynthesis. To determine the frequency and pattern of TPO abnormalities, we have been screening TPO genes of patients with congenital goitrous hypothyroidism. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: TPO genes of a patient with congenital goitrous hypothyroidism and her parents were directly sequenced, and two novel missense mutations (R665W and G771R) were found. The former was derived from her father and the latter from her mother. R665 and G771 were well conserved in the peroxidase superfamily. When mRNAs containing each of the mutations were transfected into CHO-K1 cells, each cell showed faint TPO enzyme activity. However, immunofluorescence and immunoelectron microscopic analyses revealed that neither of the mutated TPOs reached the plasma membrane. CONCLUSIONS: Two novel missense mutations in the TPO gene were found. TPO proteins encoded by these mutated alleles showed abnormal cellular localization; namely, localization on the plasma membrane was disturbed. The loss of plasma membrane localization in mutated TPOs brought about the iodide organification defect, which was diagnosed as congenital hypothyroidism.