Modern methods of plant analysis
01 Jan 1964-
About: The article was published on 1964-01-01 and is currently open access. It has received 1991 citations till now.
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TL;DR: With protoplasts from petiole parenchyma and vacuoles isolated from them it was demonstrated that 28% of the total soluble acid invertase of the tissue was in the apoplast and 72 % in the vacuole.
Abstract: SUMMARY
Mannitol and sucrose are produced photosynthetically in the mesophyll and translocated in the phloem of celery leaves. The thick and fleshy petioles of these leaves act as reversible carbohydrate sinks, storing mainly mannitol, glucose and fructose but very little sucrose (less than 3.3 mg ml-1 sap) in their parenchyma. The concentrations of soluble carbohydrates and the activities of enzymes of sucrose cleavage were asayed in the petiole parenchyma during leaf development. Mannitol (about 20 mg ml-1 sap), glucose and fructose (about 10 to 15 mg ml-1 sap each), changed little with development. Soluble acid invertase accounted for over 95 % of the total enzymic sucrose cleavage measured in vitro. Its activity was closely related to development with a sharp decrease during leaf maturation.
With protoplasts from petiole parenchyma and vacuoles isolated from them it was demonstrated that 28% of the total soluble acid invertase of the tissue was in the apoplast and 72 % in the vacuole. Alkaline invertase and sucrose synthase were totally cytosolic. Glucose and fructose, the main storage sugars of these protoplasts, were vacuolar in location, whereas mannitol was both cytosolic (19%) and vacuolar (81%).
58 citations
TL;DR: The results indicate that MONB has an inhibitory effect on airway inflammation and possesses an antiasthmatic property through modulation of the relationship between Th1/Th2 cytokine imbalances.
Abstract: Moringaceae, which belongs to the Moringa oleifera Lam. family, is a well-known herb used in Asian medicine as an antiallergic drug. In the present study, the efficacy of the n-butanol extract of the seeds of the plant (MONB) is examined against ovalbumin-induced airway inflammation in guinea pigs. The test drugs (MONB or dexamethasone) are administered orally prior to challenge with aerosolized 0.5% ovalbumin. During the experimental period, bronchoconstriction tests are performed, and lung function parameters are measured. The blood and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid are collected to assess cellular content, and serum is used for cytokine (tumor necrosis factor-alpha, interleukin-4, and interleukin-6) assays. Histamine assays of lung tissue are performed using lung tissue homogenate. The results suggest that in ovalbumin-sensitized model control animals, tidal volume is decreased, respiration rate is increased, and both the total and differential cell counts in blood and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid are increased significantly compared with nonsensitized controls. MONB treatment shows improvement in all parameters except bronchoalveolar lavage tumor necrosis factor-alpha and interleukin-4. Moreover, MONB treatment demonstrates protection against acetylcholine-induced bronchoconstriction and airway inflammation. These results indicate that MONB has an inhibitory effect on airway inflammation. Thus, MONB possesses an antiasthmatic property through modulation of the relationship between Th1/Th2 cytokine imbalances.
58 citations
TL;DR: The distribution of isotope (P 32 ) into the RNA mononucleotides is not uniform, but is characterized by somewhat higher specific radioactivities associated with adenylic and uridylic acids than with cytidylic and guanylic acids.
58 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the effects of precooling, modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) and controlled atmosphere (CA) storage on the storability of snow pea pods ( Pisum sativum L. var. saccharatum ) at 5°C were determined.
58 citations
TL;DR: The amount of nickel accumulated was higher in the organs of animals exposed to lethal but, it increased over time of exposure in both the concentrations and the degree of accumulation also differed in different organs of the fish and mussel.
58 citations
References
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01 Jan 1963
TL;DR: In this article, a physiologischer Vorgang auf eine enzymatische Wirkung zuruckgefuhrt werden (vgl. S. 301), besteht die folgende Aufgabe darin, Naheres uber die Eigenschaften des beteiligten Enzyms zu ermitteln.
Abstract: Kann ein physiologischer Vorgang auf eine enzymatische Wirkung zuruckgefuhrt werden (vgl. S. 301), so besteht die folgende Aufgabe darin, Naheres uber die Eigenschaften des beteiligten Enzyms zu ermitteln. Hierzu gehoren die Bestimmung der Reaktions- und Substratspezifitat sowie die Ermittlung der Bedingungen, unter denen eine optimale Wirkung des Enzyms gegeben ist. Wesentlich zur Charakterisierung ist ferner die Untersuchung der Stabilitat des Enzyms und dabei insbesondere die Feststellung, ob es sich um ein Ferment handelt, das zur vollen Aktivitat dialysable Cofaktoren benotigt. Falls diese Frage bejaht wird, ist auch die Bestimmung der unerlaslichen Cofaktoren anzuschliesen. Uberdies bietet auch der Nachweis der Lokalisation des Enzyms in der Zelle (oder im Zellverband) eine entscheidende Moglichkeit zur Charakterisierung des Fermentes. Hinzu kommt schlieslich noch die Untersuchung der Wirkung einzelner Inhibitoren1 auf das Enzym, die zu weitgehender Klarung des Reaktionsmechanismus beitragen kann und eine Abgrenzung der Eigenschaften des untersuchten Fermentes gegenuber ahnlichen Enzymen erlaubt.
2 citations
01 Jan 1962
TL;DR: Optical rotation has been found to be one of the most convenient methods of following the denaturation of proteins and rotatory dispersion is capable of providing information on the folding of the polypeptide chain in proteins and the changes accompanying denaturation.
Abstract: Optical rotation has been found to be one of the most convenient methods of following the denaturation of proteins. Generally speaking denaturation can be defined as a process or sequence of processes in which the spatial arrangement of the polypeptide chains within the molecule is changed from that typical of the native protein to a more disordered arrangement (Kauzmann 1959). The terms “configuration”, “conformation” and “state of folding” are widely used for spatial arrangement. It is probably best to follow the suggestion of Blout (1960) and restrict the use of “configuration” to its original sense, i.e. the spatial arrangement around an asymmetric carbon atom, and to use “conformation” for the shape of the molecule in its entirety. The properties discussed in the previous Chapter i.e., viscosity, diffusion, sedimentation, and light scattering — can all furnish information on the overall shape of proteins or other macromolecules and changes in this shape with environment. Thus Doty, Bradbury and Holtzer (1956) were able to show using these methods, together with streaming birefringence, that poly-γ-benzyl-L-glutamate could exist in two conformations, the α-helix and the solvated randomly coiled form, depending on the solvent. The change from α-helix to random coil was accompanied by marked changes in the optical rotatory properties of the polypeptides. It is to be expected that an α-helical structure should contribute to the rotatory power of a polypeptide since helices are asymmetric and not superimposable on their mirror images. The work on polypeptides has shown that rotatory dispersion is capable of providing information on the folding of the polypeptide chain in proteins and the changes accompanying denaturation.
1 citations