Using immunofluorescent labeling and laser-scanning confocal microscopy, we show that isoforms of histone H4 acetylated on lysine 5, 8 and/or 12 (H4.Ac5-12), as well as RNA polymerase II, become enriched at the nuclear periphery around the time of zygotic gene activation, i.e., the 2-cell stage, in the preimplantation mouse embryo. In contrast, DNA and H4 acetylated on lysine 16 are uniformly d...

Pectin, a plant polysaccharide, is mostly a linear homopolymer of poly(1-->4)-alpha-D-GalpA with < 5% neutral sugars: its molecular size has a broad distribution around 400 kDa, and the degree of esterification is < 5%. The structure of the capsular polysaccharide of Salmonella typhi (Vi) differs from pectin in that it is N acetylated at C-2 and O acetylated at C-3, and has a molecular size of ...

Three of four mRNAs that are specific to the differentiation of Naegleria gruberi amebae into flagellates (Mar, J., J. H. Lee, D. Shea, and C. J. Walsh, 1986, J. Cell Biol., 102:353-361) have been identified as coding for flagellar proteins. The products of these mRNAs, which are coordinately regulated during the differentiation, were identified by in vitro translation of hybrid-selected RNA fo...

The function of alpha-melanocyte-stimulating hormone (alpha-MSH) is not known in mammals. It is well-established in the amphibian Xenopus laevis in which alpha-MSH mediates the process of adaptation to a dark background. The amino acid sequence of this hormone is, however, not known in amphibians. In order to determine the primary structure of the precursor protein for alpha-MSH, which in mamma...

In hemoglobin (Hb) Thionville, the substitution of a glutamic acid for the alpha-chain NH2-terminal valine inhibits the cleavage of the initiator methionine which is then acetylated. The elongation of the alpha-chain NH2 terminus modifies the three-dimensional structure of hemoglobin at a region that is known to have an important role in the allosteric regulation of oxygen binding. Relative to ...

Neurite formation by dissociated chick sympathetic neurons in vitro begins when one of the many filopodia that emanate from the cell body of a neuron is invaded by cytoplasm containing microtubules and other components of axoplasm (Smith, 1994). This study was undertaken to determine whether this process depends on assembly of microtubules. To inhibit microtubule assembly, neurons were grown in...