Stereochemical recognition in nucleic acid-amino acid interactions and its implications in biological coding: a model approach.
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to L B Hendry.
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Space-filling molecular models of selected phytohormones and DNA, employed as described herein, illustrate possible in vivo stereochemical recognition between nucleic acids and intercalated phytohormones. In this regard, the absolute chirality of certain phytohormones, and that of DNA may be essential for the recognition process. It is speculated further that the specific interactions shown by molecular models have significance in the evolution of plant regulatory mechanisms.
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The question of the origin of insect pheromones is discussed in the light of new published information on the communication system of the oak leaf roller. It is concluded that compounds found in diets may be partially responsible for insect sexual behavior and that substructuring of insect populations in ecological and evolutionary time through dietary chemicals remains a hypothesis worthy of further testing.
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Compounds identified as sex attractant pheromones in a number of phytophagous insects were found in a variety of host plants. These agents vary in chemical composition in different plant species, which suggests that dietary factors may provide an evolutionary mechanism for diversification of certain insect species. A theoretical framework to explain this phenomenon is postulated on the basis of experiments with the oak leaf roller moth.
The sex pheromone of the oak leaf roller, Archips semiferanus Walker, is composed of a complex mixture of chemical signals. The attractant component of the pheromone contains a series of tetradecenyl acetates having double bonds in positions 2 to 12. Mass fragmentography of the ozonolysis products of the attractant component was used to locate the double bonds in the various isomer.
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Larvae of the sawfly Neodiprion sertifer (Hymenoptera: Diprionidae), when disturbed, discharge an oily oral effluent essentially identical chemically to the terpenoid resin of its host plant (Pinus sylvestris). The resin is sequestered by the larva upon feeding, and stored in two compressible diverticular pouches of the foregut. The fluid is effectively deterrent to predators. The defensive use by an insect of a plant resin provides an instance of secondary utilization by a herbivore of the protective chemical weaponry of its host.
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The defensive froth emitted by the grasshopper Romalea microptera contains several odorous compounds (phenols, terpenes, benzoquinone), including a chlorinated aromatic compound, 2,5-dichlorophenol. This compound, which is repellent to ants and therefore defensively useful to the grasshopper, probably stems from herbicide or herbicide derivative ingested by the insect with its diet. Although there is precedent for the defensive employ by one species of chemical agents produced by another, no instance was known involving secondary utilization of a pesticide dispensed by man.
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The estrogenic activity of 11 beta-acetoxy estradiol, 11 beta-hydroxy estradiol, 11 alpha-hydroxy estradiol and 9 beta-estradiol was compared to estradiol using the restoration of uterine weight and prevention of LH rise in immature ovariectomized rats as endpoints of the assay. There was a good correlation between results using the two methods and estrogenic activity was found to be in the following order: 11 beta-acetoxy estradiol greater than estradiol greater than 9 beta-estradiol greater than 11 beta-hydroxy estradiol greater than 11 alpha-hydroxy estradiol. The biological activities of these compounds could be explained on the basis of stereochemical complementarity to the structure of DNA.
Thyroid hormones regulate neuronal proliferation, migration, process outgrowth, synaptic development, and myelin formation in specific brain regions. Because brain development occurs during discrete windows of time, inappropriate levels of thyroid hormones in definitive periods can produce permanent damage, the nature of which depends upon the timing and magnitude of the insult. Thyroid hormones cross the placenta and enter the brain primarily as thyroxine (T4); therefore, conditions selectively lowering serum T4 levels alter brain hormone availability. Triiodothyronine (T3) is the predominant form of the hormone that binds to the receptor. T3 is produced from T4 in the brain by the enzyme type II, 5'-deiodinase. Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are synthetic environmental toxicants that bear a striking structural resemblance to the active thyroid hormones and can, depending upon the species, dosage, and congener used, act as agonists, antagonists, and partial agonists to thyroid hormones.