Human cathelicidin antimicrobial peptide (CAMP/LL-37) is a cationic antimicrobial peptide that is widely expressed by myeloid and epithelial cells at the human-environment interface. It possesses broad spectrum antimicrobial capacity against bacteria, fungi and viruses. In addition to its direct antimicrobial activity, CAMP/LL-37 also attracts and recruits monocytes, neutrophils and other...
Experiments were performed to determine whether a direct
correlation exists between the growth rates of tall and dwarf peas
grown either in the light or in the dark and endogenous gibberellin
(GA) content. Three separate but related experimental approaches
were utilized: (1) the determination of possible qualitative and /or
quantitative...
Continental flood basalts represent short-lived but immense blasts of mafic magma to the continental crust. The youngest and smallest continental flood basalt worldwide, the Columbia River Basalt, initiated with the eruption of the most mafic member, the Steens Basalt (~16.9 Ma). The Steens Basalt is exposed in southeast Oregon, southwest...
Shoot apex senescence is defined as the collective progressive
and deteriorative processes which ultimately terminate the functional
life of the shoot apex. Senescence of shoot apices of Pisum sativum
L. 'Alaska' as measured by cessation of stem elongation was delayed
by removal of flowers and by treatment with gibberellin A₃...
Because arginine vasotocin (AVT) activates male sexual behaviors in the rough-skinned newt (Taricha granulosa), quantitative autoradiography with radiolabelled arginine vasopressin (³H-AVP) was used to localize and characterize putative AVT receptors in the brain of this amphibian. Binding of ³H-AVP to sites within the medial pallium was saturable, specific, reversible, of...
The toxicity of aluminum (Al) to wheat (Triticum aestivum
Host) was studied under controlled conditions using a technique
designed to evaluate the recovery of root growth following a relatively
brief (48 hour) exposure to nutrient solutions containing
Al, When wheat seedlings were exposed to a minimum critical
concentration of Al,...
The time-concentration interaction of Al toxicity in the root
meristems of Brevor wheat was studied using the L.D. 50 as a criteria
for Al damage. The L.D. 50 represented a precise, well defined
degree of biological damage which was easily reproduced under conditions
where factors like temperature, pH, nutrient concentration,...
In addition to the well-characterized genomic mechanism of steroid action that uses
intracellular receptors, steroid hormones also signal through nongenomic processes
that use membrane receptors. A membrane receptor for corticosterone (CORT) has
been described in brains of the roughskin newt (Taricha granulosa). This receptor is
believed to be a G-protein...
The neurohypophysial peptide system is involved in modulating a
variety of physiological, neurological, and behavioral responses in
vertebrates. The principal forms of these peptides in non-mammalian
tetrapods are vasotocin (VT) and mesotocin (MT). The studies described
in this thesis used pharmacological, molecular, and biochemical
techniques, along with phylogenetic analyses, to...