Repetitive motion hand disorders.

The clinical management of cumulative trauma disorder is based upon the identification and treatment of individual component pathologies and, frequently, referral to a knowledgeable occupational therapist with an understanding of ergonomic behavioral, postural, and workspace modification. Most commonly these individual pathologic entities are carpal tunnel syndrome, cubital tunnel syndrome, trigger finger, and De Quervain's tenosynovitis. In this article, the anatomy, diagnosis, and treatment of each of these disorders will be considered separately. In addition, since these clinical entities are often use-related, special attention should be directed toward biomechanical and ergonomic considerations.

Stimulation of the growth of cutaneous strains of Peptococcus saccharolyticus by iron, haematin and blood.

The growth of nine strains of Peptococcus saccharolyticus was assessed quantitatively by culture Trypticase Soy/yeast extract/Tween 80 agar (TSY-TW) with and without supplementation with iron or haematin and on blood agar, in aerobic, reduced 02 (3% O2 with 8% CO2, 8% H2 and 81% N2) and anaerobic atmospheres. All strains grew better anaerobically and under reduced O2 conditions than aerobically on supplemented or unsupplemented TSY-TW. Supplementation of TSY-TW with iron or haematin resulted in an average 4.4-fold increase in bacterial count in a reduced O2 atmosphere and an average 4.2-fold increase under anaerobic conditions. Under aerobic conditions the increase in count ranged from O to greater than 5000-fold, as some strains failed to grow on unsupplemented TSY-TW but responded well to the supplements of iron or haematin. The highest bacterial counts were obtained on Columbia blood agar incubated anaerobically. However, P. saccharolyticus failed to grow aerobically on plain or heated Columbia blood agar with or without supplements. TSY-TW blood agar supported the growth of the one strain tested under all three atmospheric conditions. The type strain (ATCC 14953) differed from all others in its failure to grow aerobically or in a reduced O2 atmosphere on supplement or unsupplemented media. Colony size varied greatly on different media, in different atmospheres and from strain to strain, being greatest in a reduced O2 atmosphere on Columbia blood agar. There was no correlation between the viable bacterial count and colony size.

Genetic co-regulation of galactose and melibiose utilization in Saccharomyces.

The gal3 mutation of Saccharomyces, which is associated with an impairment in the utilization of galactose, has been shown to be pleiotropic, causing similar impairments in the utilization of melibiose and maltose. Milibiose utilization and alpha-galactosidase production are directly controlled by the galactose regulatory elements i, c, and GAL4. The fermentation of maltose and the induction of alpha-glucosidase are regulated independently of the i, c, GAL4 system. The production of alpha-galactosidase and galactose-1-phosphate uridyl transferase is coordinate in galactokinaseless strains. Galactose serves as a nonmetabolized, gratuitous inducer of alpha-galactosidase in strains lacking the genes for one or more of the Leloir pathway enzymes.

Uninducible mutants in the gal i locus of Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

Uninducible galactose nonfermenter mutants of Saccharomyces cerevisiae have been isolated and mapped in the gal i locus. They appear to be analogous to the i(s) mutations found in the regulatory genes of the Escherichia coli lactose and galactose systems. The susceptibility to suppression by an ochre suppressor of an i allele in an i(s)i(-) double mutant suggests that the i locus in S. cerevisiae codes for a protein.

Relationship between solute permeability and osmotic remediability in a galactose-negative strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

An osmotic remedial allele, gal 7-1, in the galactose pathway of Saccharomyces cerevisiae responds to either penetrating (ethylene glycol and diethylene glycol) or nonpenetrating (KCl, NaCl, and sorbitol) solutes in the growth medium. Extracts from cells grown under restrictive conditions gave no increase in enzyme activity (gal-1-phosphate, uridylyl transferase) when exposed to the penetrating solutes; thus protein synthesis or possibly polymer assembly is proposed as the critical step remedied by the addition of the solutes.

Nucleic acid homologies among species of Saccharomyces.

Evolutionary divergence among species of the yeast genus Saccharomyces was estimated from measurements of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA)/DNA and ribosomal ribonucleic acid (RNA)/DNA homology. Much diversity was found in the DNA base sequences with several species showing little or no homology to the three reference species, S. cerevisiae, S. lactis, and S. fragilis. These three reference species also showed little or no homology to each other. On the other hand the diversity among ribosomal RNA base sequences was small since most species showed a high degree of homology to the reference species. The arrangement of species based on ribosomal RNA homologies agrees in most cases with current taxonomic groupings. A yeast hybrid (S. fragilis x S. lactis) was shown to contain two nonhomologous genomes. A minimum genome size of 9.2 x 10(9) daltons for S. cerevisiae was calculated from the rate of DNA renaturation.

Electrophoretic variants of phosphoglucomutase in Saccharomyces species.

Strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae and species with which S. cerevisiae is interfertile display a characteristic pattern of electrophoretic variants of phosphoglucomutase (PGM) consisting of a major component and one or two minor components, all of which migrate toward the cathode. The patterns are consistent with an earlier finding that two unlinked genes, one of which has two known alleles, determine the synthesis of PGM in S. cerevisiae. The PGM patterns of strains of S. fragilis, S. lactis, and S. marxianus, species thought to be closely related to each other and only distantly related to S. cerevisiae, also displayed a characteristic pattern of PGM variants, but it was quite different from that of S. cerevisiae. In these species five or six electrophoretic variants could be detected, all of which migrated toward the anode. We interpret the differences in the PGM variants of the two groups of species as a reflection of differences in genetic composition which have arisen in two phylogenetically distinct groups that have become sexually isolated from each other.

Genetic control of phosphoglucomutase variants in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

The three electrophoretic variants of phosphoglucomutase in Saccharomyces cerevisiae breeding stocks are produced by two unlinked genes, pgm-1 and pgm-2; pgm-1 contains two known alleles, pgm-1a and pgm-1b, each of which specifies a minor phosphoglucomutase component, and pgm-2 specifies the major phosphoglucomutase component.

Osmotic remedial response in a galactose-negative mutant of Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

We investigated an osmotic remedial mutant of Saccharomyces which was deficient in galactose-1-phosphate uridyl transferase. Both the rate of growth and the transferase activity of the mutant culture were dependent on the osmotic activity of the growth medium. Organic and ionic solutes proved to be equally effective in inducing the osmotic remedial response. The galactose pathway enzymes were separable by ultracentrifugation, indicating that a stable interenzyme complex was not formed. The results were consistent with the hypothesis that the corrective effect occurs at the tertiary or quaternary level of organization in an environmentally sensitive protein. The possibility that the osmotic remedial response represents an effect of translation is discussed.