Effect of Tokaj wine in combination with water and 10% alcohol solution on long-life and development of alcohol progeria in Wistar SPF rats.

Whole-life consumption of the pure Tokaj wine (The Furmint variety) with documented antioxidative activity significantly elongated (p<0.05) the life of laboratory animals in comparison to the control group consuming water and in comparison to group consuming ethanol (10%). Whole-life intake of ethanol (10%) diluted with water neither shortened nor elongated life of laboratory animals in comparison to control group consuming water. An increased dosing of the Tokaj wine combined with water shortened life expectation (p<0.001). Obviously mixing of wine and water increases the absorption of toxic elements influenced by an acid medium through the change of anions to cations, but also increased appetite resulting into obesity on the basis of hyperphagia.

An evaluation of the outer membrane charge and softness of Thiobacillus ferrooxidans by the Ohshima's electrophoretic model of a "soft" particle.

The surface charge of bacterial cells plays an important role in their interfacial physiology and adhesion to substrata mediated by the electrostatic double-layer interaction. The surface charge or potential of biological cells is generally calculated from the experimentally measurable electrophoretic velocity of these cells migrating in an external electric field, applying the well-known Smoluchowski equation which is valid for "hard" particles with a sharp interface. However, bacterial cells possessing a structured outer membrane of a finite thickness (dependent on the ionic strength and pH of the surrounding liquid medium) are expected to obey Ohshima's electrophoretic mobility equation derived recently for "soft" particles. The electrophoretic mobility of Thiobacillus ferrooxidans was measured here by the fully automated technique of electrophoretic light scattering, based on the proportionality between the mobility and the Doppler shift in the frequency of light scattered by electrophoresing cells. Agreement was obtained between the experimentally determined electrophoretic mobility expressed as a function of low ionic strength (60-6000 mumol/L) at different pH values and the best-fit theoretical predictions of the "soft" particle electrophoresis theory, which is better than in the case of applying the Smoluchowski formula. The best-fit surface-charge and softness parameters predict a rather rigid and low-charge outer membrane of the bacterium examined, as compared to the parameters obtained for other bacteria in media of high ionic strength.

A unique pollen wall mutation in the family Compositae: ultrastructure and genetics.

During a routine screening of pollen fertility in the n = 2 chromosome race of Haplopappus gracilis, a spineless pollen wall mutation was discovered that renders the otherwise functional pollen grains completely unrecognizable as Compositae pollen. Normal Haplopappus pollen is characterized by an outer layer, the ektexine, consisting of large spines supported by a roof (tectum), which in turn is supported by collumellae that are joined basally. A large cavity (cavea) stretches from aperture to aperture and separates columellae bases from the final ektexine unit, the foot layer. The spines, tectum, columellae, and columellae bases are filled with perforations (internal foramina), while the foot layer is without them. Immediately underlying the foot layer is a thickened, lamellate, disrupted, internal foramina-free second exine layer, the endexine. In contrast, the mutant pollen ektexine is a jumble of components with randomly dispersed spines as the only clearly definable unit. The endexine layer is similar to the endexine in normal pollen. The mutation apparently disrupts only the organization of ektexine units, and mutant pollen appears to be without the caveae and foot layer characteristic of normal pollen. In genetic tests, the mutant allele is recessive. There is a simple Mendelian pattern of inheritance of the mutant gene, and its phenotype is under sporophytic control.

Hexamethyldisilazane as a drying agent for pollen scanning electron microscopy.

Use of hexamethyldisilazane (HMDS) as a final dehydrating solution provides robust, undistorted secondary electron images of a variety of angiosperm and gymnosperm pollen grains, including those considered to be susceptible to collapse in the scanning electron microscope. Ease of handling, low cost, lack of specialized equipment, minimal expenditure of time, and high rate of success are factors that favor HMDS over other drying agents for preparing pollen grains for scanning electron microscopy.

Subcellular localization of isocitrate lyase in nongreen tissue culture cells.

Density gradient centrifugation and electron microscopy were used to establish that isocitrate lyase present in Rosa cv. Paul's Scarlet cells was located in the mitochondria and not other membrane fractions. The enzyme may be important in glycine and serine synthesis. A comparison between the enzymic activity of isocitrate lyase and the amount of glycine and serine synthesized during logarithmic growth indicated that the activity was great enough to account for all of the carbon entering these amino acids during that stage of growth.

Primitively columellaless pollen: a new concept in the evolutionary morphology of angiosperms.

Comparative study of pollen of the ranalean complex has revealed a remarkable, hitherto unrecognized characteristic of primitive angiosperm pollen, namely, its complete lack of columellae. Pollen with such exine has been desnated atectate anid taxa in the Magnoliaceae. Degenzeriaceae, Eupomatiaceae, Annonraceae, and possibly Himantandraceae and Nymphaeaceae have pollen which is considered to be primitively columellaless.