Ultimobranchial body and parathyroid gland of the parrot Psittacula psittacula in response to experimental hypercalcemia

Psittacula psittacula when subjected to long term hypercalcemia by intramuscular injections of vitamin D2 (20,000 I.U.) on alternate days and by increasing dietary calcium, exhibit a rise in the serum calcium level after 10, 20 and 30 days of treatment as compared to their corresponding controls. The ultimobranchial cells show progressive hypertrophy up to 20th day of the treatment. From 20th day till the end of the experiment (30 days) these cells show feeble staining response. The parathyroid glands suffer from degenerative changes due to its inactivity under chronic hypercalcemia.     

Endocytic pathways of pathogenic protein aggregates in neurodegenerative diseases

Endocytosis is the fundamental uptake process through which cells internalize extracellular materials and species. Neurodegenerative diseases (NDs) are characterized by a progressive accumulation of intrinsically disordered protein species, leading to neuronal death. Misfolding in many proteins leads to various NDs such as Alzheimer's disease (AD), Parkinson's disease (PD), Huntington's disease (HD), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and other disorders. Despite the significance of disordered protein species in neurodegeneration, their spread between cells and the cellular uptake of extracellular species is not entirely understood. This review discusses the major internalization mechanisms of the different conformer species of these proteins and their endocytic mechanisms. We briefly introduce the broad types of endocytic mechanisms found in cells and then summarize what is known about the endocytosis of monomeric, oligomeric and aggregated conformations of tau, Aβ, α-Syn, Huntingtin, Prions, SOD1, TDP-43 and other proteins associated with neurodegeneration. We also highlight the key players involved in internalizing these disordered proteins and the several techniques and approaches to identify their endocytic mechanisms. Finally, we discuss the obstacles involved in studying the endocytosis of these protein species and the need to develop better techniques to elucidate the uptake mechanisms of a particular disordered protein species.     

Determinants of the high-methionine trait in wild and exotic germplasm may have escaped selection during early cultivation of maize

The 18 kDa high-methionine δ-class zein gene from maize has been cloned, and its regulation, structure, and map position studied. These studies have shown that (i) zein genes may also contain tryptophan and lysine codons, (ii) the 18 kDa and the related 10 kDa zein gene are coordinately regulated, but their products accumulate to different levels in a genotype-dependent manner, (iii) the duplication of δ-zein genes probably involved unequal crossing over, (iv) no copy correction in either direction has occurred from teosinte to modern corn, and (v) the duplication of of the 18 kDa zein gene probably occurred before the tetraploidization of a progenitor chromosome. The work shows that important nutritional quality determinants like the high-methionine seed proteins are abundant in several exotic and wild corn varieties and low in most of the inbreds screened. The lack of a selectable phenotype for such quality traits during initial domestication and breeding of corn would have eliminated cis and trans regulatory determinants from the germplasm used in modern corn breeding. Examples of the high-methionine δ-class zeins shown here may be generally applicable in explaining the low nutritional quality of most present-day corn grown.     

Bimodal oxygen uptake in juveniles and adults amphibious fish,Channa (= Ophiocephalus) marulius

Oxygen uptake of Channa marulius was studied under water with and without access to air. There was a significant increase in the oxygen uptake through the gills when access to air was prevented. However, this value (0.863 ± 0.058 mlO₂/indiv./h) was quite low in comparison to the total bimodal oxygen uptake (2.04 ± 0.14 mlO₂/indiv./h) in juveniles. In adult fish the oxygen uptake per unit time increased appreciably (4.673 ± 0.404 mlO₂/indiv./h). In juveniles as well as in adults the air breathing dominated over aquatic breathing. This fish showed a definite circadian rhythm in the bimodal oxygen uptake during different hours of the day.This work was performed in the Ichthyology Laboratory, P. G. Dept. of Zoology, Bhagalpur University, and was supported by a research grant from Bhagalpur University     

Removing the threat of diclofenac to critically endangered Asian vultures

Veterinary use of the nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory (NSAID) drug diclofenac in South Asia has resulted in the collapse of populations of three vulture species of the genusGyps to the most severe category of global extinction risk. Vultures are exposed to diclofenac when scavenging on livestock treated with the drug shortly before death. Diclofenac causes kidney damage, increased serum uric acid concentrations, visceral gout, and death. Concern about this issue led the Indian Government to announce its intention to ban the veterinary use of diclofenac by September 2005. Implementation of a ban is still in progress late in 2005, and to facilitate this we sought potential alternative NSAIDs by obtaining information from captive bird collections worldwide. We found that the NSAID meloxicam had been administered to 35 captiveGyps vultures with no apparent ill effects. We then undertook a phased programme of safety testing of meloxicam on the African white-backed vultureGyps africanus, which we had previously established to be as susceptible to diclofenac poisoning as the endangered AsianGyps vultures. We estimated the likely maximum level of exposure (MLE) of wild vultures and dosed birds by gavage (oral administration) with increasing quantities of the drug until the likely MLE was exceeded in a sample of 40G. africanus. Subsequently, sixG. africanus were fed tissues from cattle which had been treated with a higher than standard veterinary course of meloxicam prior to death. In the final phase, ten Asian vultures of two of the endangered species(Gyps bengalensis,Gyps indicus) were dosed with meloxicam by gavage; five of them at more than the likely MLE dosage. All meloxicam-treated birds survived all treatments, and none suffered any obvious clinical effects. Serum uric acid concentrations remained within the normal limits throughout, and were significantly lower than those from birds treated with diclofenac in other studies. We conclude that meloxicam is of low toxicity toGyps vultures and that its use in place of diclofenac would reduce vulture mortality substantially in the Indian subcontinent. Meloxicam is already available for veterinary use in India.     

A new species of the genus Cirrhimuraena (Anguilliformes: Ophichthidae) from the Bay of Bengal,India

A new species of the genus Cirrhimuraena (Anguilliformes: Ophichthidae), Cirrhimuraena indica sp. nov., is described based on eight specimens collected from the Paradip (Odisha) and Petuaghat harbours (West Bengal) along the Bay of Bengal. The species is distinct in having the upper jaw fringed with 16–17 cirri before posterior nostril and 4–5 in between the anterior and posterior nostrils on the side; dorsal fin originates above the level of gill opening, predorsal length is 9.3–10.9 in total length; the head is relatively large, the length is 9.3–9.8 in total length; no infraorbital pores are observed between the nostrils; teeth are numerous, small, conical and in bands on each jaw; pores are present before the gill opening 10–11 and before anus 47–48; pectoral-fin length is 2.4–2.8 in head length; predorsal vertebrae are 8–10, pre-anal vertebrae 43–47 and total vertebrae 164–169. In the maximum likelihood tree analysis for COI gene, the new species belongs to the same clade as the other congener of Cirrhimuraena chinensis and is separated from the species morphologically and genetically.