Taste buds are sensory structures made up by tightly packed, specialized epithelial cells called taste cells. Taste cells are functionally heterogeneous, and a large proportion of them fire action potentials during chemotransduction. In view of the narrow intercellular spaces within the taste bud, it is expected that the ionic composition of the extracellular fluid surrounding taste cells may b...

in order to investigate the effect of silicon application on some physiological characteristics and growth of wheat (triticum aestivum l.) under late drought stress condition, an experiment was conducted at the agriculture and natural resources university of ramin, khuzestan during year 2012. the experiment was conducted in the open environment as factorial randomized complete block design with...

INTRODUCTION The irradiation of blood components is used to inactivate T-lymphocytes to prevent transfusion-associated graft-versus-host (GVH) disease in susceptible recipients. X-irradiation can be used as an alternative to gamma irradiation and does not involve the use of a radioactive source. This study investigated the effect of X-irradiation on the quality of various red cell concentrates ...

Rice (Oryza sativa) is sensitive to salinity, which affects one-fifth of irrigated land worldwide. Reducing sodium and chloride uptake into rice while maintaining potassium uptake are characteristics that would aid growth under saline conditions. We describe genetic determinants of the net quantity of ions transported to the shoot, clearly distinguishing between quantitative trait loci (QTL) fo...

The effect of plant growth substances (IAA, 2,4-D, zeatin, kinetin, zearalenone) were studied on membrane properties of the cells of embryogenic (E) and non-embryogenic (NE) calli derived from immature inflorescences (inf) or embryos (emb) of winter wheat. Calli initiated from inflorescences show higher permeability. The ion leakage from cells of E calli was higher than from cells of NE calli. ...

We have employed atomic-scale molecular dynamics simulations to address ion leakage through transient water pores in protein-free phospholipid membranes. Our results for phospholipid membranes in aqueous solution with NaCl and KCl salts show that the formation of transient water pores and the consequent ion leakage can be induced and be driven by a transmembrane ionic charge imbalance, an inher...

Serum and potassium deprivation-induced neuronal death on the primary culture of rat cerebellar granule neurons is being widely used as an in vitro model of neurodegeneration and neuronal apoptosis. In our experiments, serum and potassium deprivation for 12 h induced neuronal death in approximately 20% of cerebellar granule neurons as demonstrated by Trypan Blue assay. Neuronal death was accomp...

Fermentation extracts of culture CR115, an unknown plant endophyte originally isolated from Costa Rica, were found to be active against antibiotic-resistant bacteria. The metabolite responsible for activity was identified as a novel diterpenoid antibiotic guanacastepene (mol. wt. 374.47 and mol. formula C22H30O5). Mechanistic studies done in an E. coli imp strain suggested membrane damage as th...

Figure 1A shows an RC (resistor, capacitor) equivalent circuit model for a patch of passive neural membrane. The capacitor represents the fact that cellular membranes are good electrical insulators. The battery represents the sodium-potassium pump that acts to hold the electrical potential of the inside of the cell below that of the outside. This voltage difference is called the resting potenti...