Baculovirus expression systems for recombinant proteins have found widespread use because they produce biologically active proteins more reliably than do bacterial or yeast expression systems, and the yields generally exceed those from mammalian expression systems. However, optimization of baculovirus yields remains an important issue, especially when biophysical studies are contemplated. Recen...

Recessive mutations in myosin 15, a class XV unconventional myosin, cause profound congenital deafness in humans and both deafness and vestibular dysfunction in mice homozygous for the shaker 2 and shaker 2(J) alleles. The shaker 2 allele is a previously described missense mutation of a highly conserved residue in the motor domain of myosin XV. The shaker 2(J) lesion, in contrast, is a 14.7 kb ...

Shaker testing is commonly used as a method for measuring forced input in experimental modal analysis. The setup of conventional shakers, stingers and transducers is often the source of test difficulties and avoidable measurement errors. This paper reviews the basic design of shakers as beneficial to modal testing, and the common problems associated with setup issues and resulting measurement e...

Wehave studied the microbial transformation of griseofulvin (I) by Cephalosporium curtipes and the formation of two more polar metabolites was observed in a proportion of 10:1. The compounds have been identified as (+)-5'-hydroxygriseofulvin (axial) (II) and G'-hydroxymethylgriseofulvin (III) (Fig. 1). The microbial transformation of griseofulvin was performed by a 48-hour-old culture of Cephal...

The quiver/sleepless (qvr/sss) gene encodes a small, glycosylphosphatidylinositol-anchored protein that plays a critical role in the regulation of sleep in Drosophila. Loss-of-function mutations in qvr/sss severely suppress sleep and effect multiple changes in in situ Shaker K(+) currents, including decreased magnitude, slower time-to-peak, and cumulative inactivation. Recently, we demonstrated...

We studied the long term effects of a single exposure to immobilization stress (IS) (1 h) on the expression of anorexigenic (Pro-opiomelanocortin: POMC and cocaine amphetamine related transcript: CART) and orexigenic (neuropeptide Y:NPY, Agouti related peptide: AgRP) factors in hypothalamus and dorso vagal complex (DVC). We showed, by using RT-PCR that in the hypothalamus, that the mRNAs of POM...