Transmembrane electrical potential and transmembrane pH gradient in the acidophile Thiobacillus ferro-oxidans.

Thiobacillus ferro-oxidans is capable of using the oxidation of Fe2+ by O2 at pH 2.0 as the sole source of energy for growth and CO2 fixation. The bacterium maintains an intracellular pH of 6.

Studies of a factor from dystrophic mouse muscle inhibitory towards protein synthesis.

A substance inhibitory to protein synthesis was purified from mouse skeletal muscle by gel filtration and ion-exchange chromatography, as well as by centrifugation on sucrose gradients. The molecular weight of the inhibitor, determined by sodium dodecyl sulphate/polyacrylamide-gel electrophoresis, was 71000. The inhibitory activity was insensitive to ribonuclease A, deoxyribonuclease I and phospholipase C.

The regulation of extramitochondrial free calcium ion concentration by rat liver mitochondria.

The mechanism whereby rat liver mitochondria regulate the extramitochondrial concentration of free Ca(2+) was investigated. At 30 degrees C and pH7.0, mitochondria can maintain a steady-state pCa(2+) (0) (the negative logarithm of the free extramitochondrial Ca(2+) concentration) of 6.

Liver enzyme induction by 1,1,1-trichloro-2,2-bis-(p-chlorophenyl)ethane (DDT) is accompanied by an increase in the specific activity of elongation factor 1.

Homogenates of liver were obtained from control rats and from rats that had received DDT [1,1,1-trichloro-2,2-bis(p-chlorophenyl)ethane]. The postmicrosomal supernatant fractions were used for the purification of elongation factor 1 by hydroxyapatite chromatography and phosphocellulose chromarography. The amount of binding factor present was essentially the same for both groups of animals, but the specific activity, as measured by the binding assay, was about twice as high in the DDT-treated preparations.

Calcium transport and porton electrochemical potential gradient in mitochondria from guinea-pig cerebral cortex and rat heart.

A method is described for the preparation of ;free' and ;synaptosomal' brain mitochondria from fractions of guinea-pig cerebral cortex respectively depleted and enriched in synaptosomes. Both preparations of mitochondria have a low membrane H(+) conductance, a high capacity to phosphorylate ADP, and a capacity to accumulate Ca(2+) at rates limited by the activity of the respiratory chain. Ca(2+) transport by ;free' brain mitochondria is compared with that of heart mitochondria.

Brown-adipose-tissue mitochondria: photoaffinity labelling of the regulatory site of energy dissipation.

Brown-adipose-tissue mitochondria possess an energy-dissipating ion uniport which is inhibited by purine nucleotides. The regulatory nucleotides bind to a high-affinity site on the outer face of the inner membrane which is independent of the adenine nucleotide translocator. A direct correlation between affinity for the regulatory site and ability to inhibit the ion uniport is demonstrated for a number of nucleotide analogues.

The identification of the component in the inner membrane of brown adipose tissue mitochondria responsible for regulating energy dissipation.

The proton conductance of the inner membrane of hamster brown adipose tissue mitochondria can be regulated in vitro by exogenous purine nucleotides, which bind to a component on the outer face of the inner membrane. This unique mechanism has been proposed to represent the molecular site of non-shivering thermogenesis in this tissue. Using a photo-affinity analogue of ATP, we have identified the nucleotide binding component as a protein of 32,000 daltons.

Effect of 7,12-dimethylbenz(a)anthracene on the binding of aminoacyl transfer RNA in rat liver.

Homogenates of the liver of female rats obtained 2 or 7 days or 3 months after the i.v. injection of 7,12-dimethylbenz(a)anthracene were used to prepare ribosomes and postmicrosomal supernatant fractions and to prepare 0.

Acid phosphatase activity in carcinoma of the bronchus.

, , 472-477. Two cases are presented in which an undifferentiated small-cell carcinoma of the bronchus was associated with a considerably raised serum tartrate-labile acid phosphatase concentration. In neither case was there any evidence of a carcinoma of the prostate which, with a few rare exceptions, is the only condition associated with such increased enzyme activity.

The effective proton conductance of the inner membrane of mitochondria from brown adipose tissue. Dependency on proton electrochemical potential gradient.

The nucleotide-sensitive H+ (OH-) conducting pathway of mitochondria from the brown-adipose tissue of cold-adapted guinea-pigs passes an effective proton current which is directly proportional to the proton electrochemical gradient. At 23 degrees C and pH 7.0 this conductance is 16 nmol H+ - min-1 - mg-1 - mV-1.

Fatal digoxin overdose.

Overdosage with cardiac glycosides is well documented, but not usually fatal. A case is described in which cardiac arrest in asystole was associated with a serum digoxin level of 50-4 microgram/1, the highest concentration yet reported after oral administration.

Protein synthesis in dystrophic muscle. Activity of the pH 5 supernatant fraction of muscle in dystrophic mice.

The pH 5 supernatant fractions prepared from homogenates of tissues of normal and dystrophic mice were used to study the incorporation of [14C]phenylalanyl-tRNA into peptide. The incorpoation was markedly reduced using the muscle pH 5 supernatant fraction from dystrophic animals but no reduction was seen with brain, liver or heart preparations from dystrophic mice. The lower incorporation with dystrophic muscle pH 5 supernatant was not due to altered activity of ribonuclease, elongation factors, proteolytic enzymes, GTP or sulfhydryl reagents, but was attributable to the presence of activity that was inhibitory to protein synthesis.

An environmental chemical, polychlorinated biphenyl, increases the protein synthesizing activity of liver and kidney pH 5 supernatant fractions.

Homogenates of liver and of kidney cortex were obtained from control rats and from rats treated with the polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), Aroclor 1254, and were separated into ribosomes and into the postmicrosomal supernatant fraction. The latter fraction from liver and kidney was used to prepare the pH 5 supernatant fraction, containing elongation factors 1 and 2 (EF 1 and EF 2) for protein biosynthesis. These fractions were incubated with KCl-washed ribosomes obtained from control rat liver.

The calcium conductance of the inner membrane of rat liver mitochondria and the determination of the calcium electrochemical gradient.

1. A method is described for establishing steady-state conditions of calcium transport across the inner membrane of rat liver mitochondria and for determining the current of Ca2+ flowing across the membrane, together with the Ca2+ electrochemical gradient across the native Ca2+ carrier. These parameters were used to quantify the apparent Ca2+ conductance of the native carrier.

Hamster brown-adipose-tissue mitochondria. Purine nucleotide control of the ion conductance of the inner membrane, the nature of the nucleotide binding site.

The inner membrane of hamster brown adipose tissue mitochondria possesses a mechanism for the conductance of protons (or hydroxyl ions) and halide anions which may be specifically inhibited by exogenous purine nucleoside di- or triphosphates. The mechanism of the nucleotide interaction is examined. The added nucleotides can inhibit the ion conductances without equilibrating with the matrix pools of purine nucleotides.

fMet-tRNA F Met binding and peptidyl transferase function in free and bound ribosomes from normal and puromycin aminonucleoside-treated rats.

Treatment of rats with the aminonucleoside of puromycin, which increases the incorporation of labelled phenylalanyl-tRNA into polypeptide chains in liver ribosome preparations studied in vitro, did not change the factor-dependent binding of fMet-tRNA f Met to ribosomes nor the peptidyl transferase function of the ribosomes. Peptidyl transferase function, as measured by fMet-tRNA f Met-puromycin formation, was comparable in the free and bound ribosome preparations. Similarly, the factor-dependent binding of fMet-tRNA f Met to ribosomes was the same in free ribosome preparations obtained from rat liver as it was in bound ribosome preparations that had been freed of membranes by puromycin incubation and high salt wash.