Ring-Y chromosomes are recovered infrequently from crosses of ring-Y-bearing males to females of certain strains (OSTER 1964). Experiments described here have unveiled a diverse class of genes that exert a maternal effect on the behavior during cleavage of these "filicidal" ring chromosomes. Cytological observations of inviable embryos have revealed that the ring-Y chromosome causes gross disor...

The relevance of the β-proteobacterial Burkholderiales order in the degradation of a vast array of aromatic compounds, including several priority pollutants, has been largely assumed. In this review, the presence and organization of genes encoding oxygenases involved in aromatics biodegradation in 80 Burkholderiales genomes is analysed. This genomic analysis underscores the impressive catabolic...

Successful cleavage of animal cells requires co-ordinated regulation of the actomyosin contractile ring and cleavage furrow ingression. Data from a variety of systems implicate phosphoinositol lipids and calcium release as potential regulators of this fundamental process. Here we examine the requirement for various steps of the phosphatidylinositol (PtdIns) cycle in dividing crane fly (Nephroto...

The addition of lithium amides to cyclobutenediones provides access 2-oxo-but-3-enamides and tetrasubstituted furans via a new mode ring opening involving enone cleavage via O- C-lithium transfer.

In animal cells cytokinesis relies on the contraction of an actomyosin ring that pulls the plasma membrane to create a cleavage furrow, whose ingression finally divides the mother cell into two daughter cells. Fungal cells are surrounded by a tough and flexible structure called cell wall, which is considered to be the functional equivalent of the extracellular matrix in animal cells. Therefore,...

As part of a study on the assimilation of organic compounds by autotrophic microorganisms, enrichment cultures were set up for thiobacilli. A facultatively autotrophic Thiobacillus was isolated in pure culture and grew heterotrophically on many organic compounds including p-hydroxybenzoate (PHBz). Since degradation of aromatic compounds is carried out by a limited range of bacterial genera, the...