[The resistance of plants Setaria veridis (L.) Beauv. to the influence of cadmium].

It was shown that cadmium causes a slowdown of green foxtail Setaria veridis (L.) Beauv. shoots; however it had no effect on root growth or accumulation of underground and above-ground biomass.

Human recombinant Fab fragments with sub-nanomolar affinities for acetylated histones.

Acetylation of lysines at different sites in the N-terminus of core histones is a common mode of chromatin modification; different combinations of such modifications are associated with distinct patterns of gene expression, replication and repair. Antibodies are usually used to identify and localize particular histone modifications and to correlate their presence with transcription or other cellular processes. This requires antibodies of sufficient specificity and affinity for each of the many modifications that have now been observed.

Analysis of the autoimmune epitopes on human testicular NASP using recombinant and synthetic peptides.

The human nuclear autoantigenic sperm protein, NASP, is a testicular histone-binding protein of 787 amino acids to which most vasectomized men develop autoantibodies. In this study to define the boundaries of antigenic regions and epitope recognition pattern, recombinant deletion mutants spanning the entire protein coding sequence and a human NASP cDNA sublibrary were screened with vasectomy patients' sera. Employing panel sera from 21 vasectomy patients with anti-sperm antibodies, a heterogeneous pattern of autoantibody binding to the recombinant polypeptides was detected in ELISA and immunoblotting.

Characterization of the histone H1-binding protein, NASP, as a cell cycle-regulated somatic protein.

Nuclear autoantigenic sperm protein (NASP), initially described as a highly autoimmunogenic testis and sperm-specific protein, is a histone-binding protein that is a homologue of the N1/N2 gene expressed in oocytes of Xenopus laevis. Here, we report a somatic form of NASP (sNASP) present in all mitotic cells examined, including mouse embryonic cells and several mouse and human tissue culture cell lines. Affinity chromatography and histone isolation demonstrate that NASP from myeloma cells is complexed only with H1, linker histones.

Human sperm surface glycoprotein involved in sperm-zona pellucida interaction.

To identify peptide-specific antibodies which define sperm surface antigens, hybridomas were derived from the splenocytes of mice immunized with swollen human spermatozoa which had been subjected to limited proteolytic cleavage under reducing conditions prior to immunization. A total of 13.7% of the hybrid clones secreted antibodies which reacted with deglycosylated human seminal plasma glycoproteins when screened by an ELISA.