Trevithick, John R. (University of Wisconsin Medical School, Madison), and Robert L. Metzenberg. Molecular sieving by Neurospora cell walls during secretion of invertase isozymes. J. Bacteriol. 92: 1010-1015. 1966.-The secretion of invertase by young mycelia of Neurospora was studied. The process of secretion was found to be dependent upon growth. The results indicate that fractionation of light invertase, the monomer, from heavy invertase, the aggregated form, occurs at the cell wall. Neurospora strains wild type, crisp, osmotic, and the double mutant crisp osmotic were tested. An inverse relation exists between the fraction of the total invertase activity of the culture which the mold secretes into the medium and the degree of fractionation, defined as the ratio of the fraction of the invertase secreted into the medium that is light invertase to the fraction of the invertase remaining associated with the cells that is light invertase. The hypothesis is offered that the increased secretion of invertase and decreased degree of fractionation seen in osmotic mutants, and to a lesser extent in the other mutants, can be explained by an increased porosity of the cell wall.

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PubMed1966

Genetic alteration of pore size and other properties of the Neurospora cell wall.

Trevithick, John R. (University of Wisconsin Medical School, Madison), Robert L. Metzenberg and Donald F. Costello. Genetic alteration of pore size and other properties of the Neurospora cell wall. J. Bacteriol. 92:1016-1020. 1966.-Several properties of the cell walls of wild type and the osmotic mutant of Neurospora crassa have been examined. The peameability of the isolated cell walls to polyethylene glycol and dextran polymers of different molecular weights was investigated by the volume of distribution technique. The exclusion thresholds were evaluated by a statistical treatment. The molecular weights corresponding to these thresholds for wild type and osmotic were approximately 4,750 and 18,500, respectively; these values are significantly different. The cell walls of osmotic appeared to be thinner, more easily broken, and more easily compressed to ribbonlike shapes, whereas those of wild type were tubular and strong. Chemical analysis showed that osmotic walls had roughly a 30-fold higher galactosamine-glucosamine ratio than did wild type. It is proposed that the osmotic mutant has a cell wall with abnormally large pores, and that this may account for the increased rate of egress of invertase and the decreased fractionation of light from heavy invertase in this strain.

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PubMed1964

The invertase isozyme formed by Neurospora protoplasts.

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Shaken, not stirred: bioanalytical study of the antioxidant activities of martinis.

BACKGROUND: Moderate consumption of alcoholic drinks seems to reduce the risks of developing cardiovascular disease, stroke, and cataracts, perhaps through antioxidant actions of their alcohol, flavonoid, or polyphenol contents. "Shaken, not stirred" routinely identifies the way the famous secret agent James Bond requires his martinis. OBJECTIVES: As Mr Bond is not afflicted by cataracts or cardiovascular disease, an investigation was conducted to determine whether the mode of preparing martinis has an influence on their antioxidant capacity. DESIGN: Stirred and shaken martinis were assayed for their ability to quench luminescence by a luminescent procedure in which hydrogen peroxide reacts with luminol bound to albumin. Student's t test was used for statistical analysis. RESULTS: Shaken martinis were more effective in deactivating hydrogen peroxide than the stirred variety, and both were more effective than gin or vermouth alone (0.072% of peroxide control for shaken martini, 0.157% for stirred v 58.3% for gin and 1.90% for vermouth). The reason for this is not clear, but it may well not involve the facile oxidation of reactive martini components: control martinis through which either oxygen or nitrogen was bubbled did not differ in their ability to deactivate hydrogen peroxide (0.061% v 0. 057%) and did not differ from the shaken martini. Moreover, preliminary experiments indicate that martinis are less well endowed with polyphenols than Sauvignon white wine or Scotch whisky (0.056 mmol/l (catechin equivalents) shaken, 0.060 mmol/l stirred v 0.592 mmol/l wine, 0.575 mmol/l whisky). CONCLUSIONS: 007's profound state of health may be due, at least in part, to compliant bartenders.

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