Albert Léon Charles Calmette (1863-1933) and the antituberculous BCG vaccination.

Albert Léon Charles Calmette was the first person to develop an anti-venom serum. His work revolutionized the treatment of snakebite in men and domestic animals. He is also well known for his development of the Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine for the prevention of tuberculosis. This article reviews the life experiences of this pioneer bioscientist, the current status of BCG in preventing tuberculosis, and the potential of BCG in immunotherapy for cancer.

Karyotypic analysis of the cotton boll weevil, Anthonomus grandis Boheman.

The diploid chromosome number of the cotton boll weevil, Anthonomus grandis Boheman, is 44. Both C- and N-banding techniques of mitotic cells demonstrated constitutive heterochromatin in the p arm of the eight largest chromosomes, the p arm of the X chromosome, and the centromeric region of autosomal groups A-D. Neither the y nor the group E autosomes appeared to contain constitutive heterochromatin. Supernumerary chromosomes were not found in the boll weevil. Restriction endonuclease banding of primary spermatocytes revealed a rod-shaped Xy tetrad in which the X and y were terminally associated. The p arm of the large, submetacentric X was C-band positive. While two of the autosomal tetrads were typically ring-shaped in primary spermatocytes, the remaining 19 autosomal tetrads were rod-shaped.

Hematologic and enzymatic analysis of Ctenopharyngodon idella x Hypophthalmichthys nobilis F1 hybrids.

1. Erythrocyte counts, hemoglobin concentrations and hematocrit values were determined for diploid and triploid Ctenopharyngodon idella X Hypophthalmichthys nobilis hybrids and the parental species. 2. Comparisons of diploid and triploid hybrids with the parental species revealed low erythrocyte counts for triploids, high mean corpuscular hemoglobin values for triploids, elevated hematocrits for diploids and triploids and similar hemoglobin concentrations for all fish. 3. Alkaline phosphatase, aldolase, and lactate dehydrogenase specific activities were determined spectrophotometrically. Levels of specific activity of these enzymes in the hybrids were consistently elevated above that of the parental species. These higher levels of enzyme activities in hybrids were probably the result of a breakdown in gene regulation.

Bacteriostatic inhibition of Klebsiella pneumoniae by three human transferrins.

Three human transferrin variants verified by rivanol precipitation were separated using vertical block polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis followed by elution convection. A bacteriostatic inhibition measurement in vitro of the three transferrins was made. The data indicate that human transferrin variants exhibit different degrees of inhibition on Klebsiella pneumoniae.

Esterases of laboratory-reared and field-collected cotton boll weevils, Anthonomus grandis Boh.: polymorphism of adult esterases and formal genetics of esterase II.

The esterases of the cotton boll weevil were separated by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis into four major regions. These were named Est I-IV in order of migration from anode to origin. Polymorphism was observed in all regions. The Est II region was shown to consist of no more than two bands (fast and slow). The inheritance of the fast and slow bands of Est II was demonstrated to be controlled by codominant autosomal alleles. Analysis of the gene frequency of the Est II region showed that one field population was consistent with the Hardy-Weinberg law (P = 0.995), while a second field population was not at equilibrium (P less than 0.001).

Isozymes in androgenetic and gynogenetic white amur, gynogenetic carp, and carp-amur hybrids.

Gynogentic and androgenetic progeny appeared in crosses between white amur, Ctenopharyngodon idella, and carp, Cyprinus carpio. Hemoglobin, plasma general proteins, and plasma isoenzymes were studied by electrophoresis to determine inheritance patterns. Electrophoretic bands indicated that gynogenetic white amur had no paternal inheritance from carp and that adrogenetic white amur also were pure white amur. Gynogeneiss in carp was confirmed by the absence of paternal inheritance. Hemoglobins, general proteins, and esterases distinguished the two species. Within a species there were no differences in proteins between gynogenetic, adrogenetic and normal fish. Lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) differed between carp and white amur and was a good marker for detecting heterologous inheritance in adrogenesis or gynogenesis because expression of LDH alleles from white amur was inhibited by the carp genome. Alkaline phosphatase and malate dehydrogenase had similar electrophoretic mobility in the two species.