Search results for " Northern"
showing 10 items of 216 documents
Mediterranean bioconstructions along the Italian coast
2018
Marine bioconstructions are biodiversity-rich, three-dimensional biogenic structures, regulating key ecological functions of benthic ecosystems worldwide. Tropical coral reefs are outstanding for their beauty, diversity and complexity, but analogous types of bioconstructions are also present in temperate seas. The main bioconstructions in the Mediterranean Sea are represented by coralligenous formations, vermetid reefs, deep-sea cold-water corals, Lithophyllum byssoides trottoirs, coral banks formed by the shallow-water corals Cladocora caespitosa or Astroides calycularis, and sabellariid or serpulid worm reefs. Bioconstructions change the morphological and chemicophysical features of prima…
Toll-like receptors are part of the innate immune defense system of sponges (demospongiae: Porifera).
2006
During evolution and with the emergence of multicellular animals, the need arose to ward off foreign organisms that threaten the integrity of the animal body. Among many different receptors that participate in the recognition of microbial invaders, toll-like receptors (TLRs) play an essential role in mediating the innate immune response. After binding distinct microbial components, TLRs activate intracellular signaling cascades that result in an induced expression of diverse antimicrobial molecules. Because sponges (phylum Porifera) are filter feeders, they are abundantly exposed to microorganisms that represent a potential threat. Here, we describe the identification, cloning, and deduced …
Honour, Masculinity and Corporality in the Officer Corps of Early Eighteenth-Century Sweden
2010
Military honour and physical commitment to serve king and fatherland played a central role in the ideals of the army of Charles XII of Sweden. These ideals were formed within a culture in which the role of the warrior, dictated by a code of honour, was constantly challenged. My main empirical primary sources consist of the archivale records of the Swedish Diet, which included Placement Committee records from the Diet of 1723. An honourable man had the right to a livelihood and a respectable position in society. My aim is to show that, in order to obtain such a position, a military man had to present himself as someone who had offered his body in the service of his king and country. An appea…
«Widrige Winde»: Der Abbruch der schonischen Expedition aus der Sicht des preußischen Gesandten, des Freiherrn Friedrich Ernst von Cnyphausen
2017
There are two interpretations of Peter the Great’s motives for refusing to land on the Swedish island of Schonen in historiography: that the tsar feared unforeseen military risks and that he did not trust his allies, Denmark and Great Britain. In this article, the author attempts to analyse in a more detailed way the reasons and consequences for the mistrust in the Northern Alliance by looking at communications by Baron Friedrich Ernst von Cnyphausen, the Prussian ambassador in Copenhagen. It is shown that the Russophobic hysteria which grasped the Danish royal court in September 1716 looks completely irrational when we consider parallel attitudes in the Prussian court. Cnyphausen does not …
Analysis of cytochrome C oxidase subunits III and IV expression in developing rat brain
2004
Abstract Cytochrome c oxidase (COX) complex is built up with both nucleus- and mitochondrion-encoded subunits. Biogenesis and assembly of the complex thus requires fine cross-talk between the two compartments. In order to shed light on the regulation of nuclear–mitochondrial interactions, we studied the expression of COXIII (mitochondrion-encoded) and COXIV (nucleus-encoded) in adult rat tissues and rat developing brain. We found that the levels of COXIV protein and mRNA are not linearly related, thus suggesting a post-transcriptional mode of regulation. In agreement with this observation, we report the presence of a protein that specifically binds to the 3′-untranslated region of COXIV mRN…
Sex-specific windows for high mRNA expression of DNA methyltransferases 1 and 3A and methyl-CpG-binding domain proteins 2 and 4 in human fetal gonads
2006
DNA methyltransferases (DNMTs) and 5-methyl-CpG-binding domain proteins (MBDs) are involved in the acquisition of parent-specific epigenetic modifications in human male and female germ cells. Reverse Northern blot analyses demonstrated sex-specific differences in mRNA expression for the maintenance DNMT1 and the de novo DNMT3A in developing testis and ovary. In fetal testis DNMT1 and DNMT3A expression peaked in mitotically arrested spermatogonia around 21 weeks gestation. In fetal ovary transcriptional upregulation of DNMT1 and DNMT3A occurred during a very brief period at 16 weeks gestation, when the oocytes proceeded through meiotic prophase. Fetal gonads showed several fold higher DNMT3A…
Cloning and sequencing of the gene encoding α-acetolactate decarboxylase fromLeuconostoc oenos
1996
The alsD gene encoding alpha-acetolactate decarboxylase was isolated from a genomic library of Leuconostoc oenos, using a screening procedure developed on microtiter plates. The nucleotide sequence of alsD encodes a putative protein of 239 amino acids showing significant similarity with other bacterial alpha-acetolactate decarboxylases. Upstream from alsD lies an open reading frame (alsS) which is highly similar to bacterial genes coding for catabolic alpha-acetolactate synthases. Northern (RNA) blotting analyses indicated the presence of a 2.4-kb dicistronic transcript of alsS and alsD. This suggests that the alsS and alsD genes are organized in a single operon.
Arginine kinase in the demosponge Suberites domuncula:regulation of its expression and catalytic activity by silicic acid
2005
SUMMARY In Demospongiae (phylum Porifera) the formation of the siliceous skeleton,composed of spicules, is an energetically expensive reaction. The present study demonstrates that primmorphs from the demosponge Suberites domuncula express the gene for arginine kinase after exposure to exogenous silicic acid. The deduced sponge arginine kinase sequence displays the two characteristic domains of the ATP:guanido phosphotransferases; it can be grouped to the `usual' mono-domain 40 kDa guanidino kinases (arginine kinases). Phylogenetic studies indicate that the metazoan guanidino kinases evolved from this ancestral sponge enzyme; among them are also the `unusual'two-domain 80 kDa guanidino kinas…
Ubiquitin and ubiquitination in cells from the marine sponge Geodia cydonium.
1994
Marine sponges, e.g. Geodia cydonium, have been intensively used to investigate the biochemical and molecular biological basis of cell-cell- and cell-matrix adhesion. It has been shown that a family of galactose-specific lectins, which are present in the extracellular space of G. cydonium, is a main component involved in cell-matrix adhesion in the sponge system. In the present study it is outlined that the purified 16-kDa lectin-1 binds to a 67-kDa membrane-associated protein. This lectin-binding protein undergoes mono- and diubiquitination after incubation of dissociated sponge cells with the homologous aggregation factor (AF), a molecule involved in cell-cell adhesion. The gene coding fo…
Molecular characterization of a phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase in the gymnosperm Picea abies (Norway spruce)
1996
Phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase (PEPC) genes and cDNA sequences have so far been isolated from a broad range of angiosperm but not from gymnosperm species. We constructed a cDNA library from seedlings of Norway spruce (Picea abies) and identified cDNAs coding for PEPC. A full-length PEPC cDNA was sequenced. It consists of 3522 nucleotides and has an open reading frame (ORF) that encodes a polypeptide (963 amino acids) with a molecular mass of 109551. The deduced amino acid sequence revealed a higher similarity to the C3-form PEPC of angiosperm species (86-88%) than to the CAM and C4 forms (76-84%). The putative motif (Lys/Arg-X-X-Ser) for serine kinase, which is conserved in all angiosperm …