ABSTRACT
Aegorhinus nodipennis (Hope) (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) is an important native pest in fruit crops that is mainly found in European hazelnut fields in the south of Chile. We investigated the behavioral response of A. nodipennis to volatile compounds released from the essential oil of Achillea millefolium and its main constituent using olfactometric bioassays. Gas chromatographic and mass spectral analysis of the A. millefolium essential oil revealed the presence of 11 compounds. Monoterpene ß-thujone (96.2%) was the main component of the oil. Other compounds identified were α-thujone, 1,8-cineole, p-cymene, and 4-terpineol, all with percentages below 1%. Both A. millefolium essential oil and thujone exhibited a repellent activity against this insect at the higher doses tested (285.7 ng/cm(2)), demonstrating their potential as repellents for this species.
Subject(s)
Achillea , Insect Repellents/pharmacology , Oils, Volatile/pharmacology , Weevils/drug effects , Animals , Chile , Oils, Volatile/metabolism , Weevils/metabolismABSTRACT
We present a sensitive homologous radioimmunoassay (RIA) for the quantitative determination of human relaxin (hRLX) in human serum, plasma, seminal plasma, and urine. This assay is based on a rabbit antiserum which was generated using recombinant hRLX-2 as immunogen. Using 125I-hRLX-2 as tracer and a total incubation time of 20 - 24 hours the radioimmunoassay showed linearity in a range of 60 - 4000 ng/l, a lower detection limit of 38 ng/l and a mean recovery rate of 98.5%. Intraassay variation was 4.0% (mean = 526 ng/l) and 11.9% (mean = 2368 ng/l), and interassay variation 10.7% (mean = 256 ng/l) and 13.1% (mean = 2368 ng/l). Using hRLX-2 hexapeptides on polystyrene pins, epitopes recognized by the hRLX-2 specific rabbit antiserum were determined experimentally, and compared to predicted epitopes. Both methods led to comparable results. The antiserum, recognizing different epitopes, showed no cross-reactivity with human insulin, hZn-insulin, hIGF-I, hIGF-II, human inhibin alpha-subunit, two different forms of seminal plasma inhibin like peptide, spermolaxin, ubiquitin, prolactin, LH, FSH and hCG.
Subject(s)
Antibodies/immunology , Epitope Mapping , Radioimmunoassay/methods , Relaxin/analysis , Amino Acid Sequence , Estradiol/administration & dosage , Estradiol/therapeutic use , Estrogen Replacement Therapy , Female , Humans , Male , Models, Molecular , Molecular Sequence Data , Pregnancy , Protein Conformation , Relaxin/blood , Relaxin/immunology , Relaxin/urine , Semen/chemistry , Sensitivity and SpecificityABSTRACT
With the complete human genomic sequence being unraveled, the focus will shift to gene identification and to the functional analysis of gene products. The generation of a set of cDNAs, both sequences and physical clones, which contains the complete and noninterrupted protein coding regions of all human genes will provide the indispensable tools for the systematic and comprehensive analysis of protein function to eventually understand the molecular basis of man. Here we report the sequencing and analysis of 500 novel human cDNAs containing the complete protein coding frame. Assignment to functional categories was possible for 52% (259) of the encoded proteins, the remaining fraction having no similarities with known proteins. By aligning the cDNA sequences with the sequences of the finished chromosomes 21 and 22 we identified a number of genes that either had been completely missed in the analysis of the genomic sequences or had been wrongly predicted. Three of these genes appear to be present in several copies. We conclude that full-length cDNA sequencing continues to be crucial also for the accurate identification of genes. The set of 500 novel cDNAs, and another 1000 full-coding cDNAs of known transcripts we have identified, adds up to cDNA representations covering 2%--5 % of all human genes. We thus substantially contribute to the generation of a gene catalog, consisting of both full-coding cDNA sequences and clones, which should be made freely available and will become an invaluable tool for detailed functional studies.
Subject(s)
DNA, Complementary/genetics , Databases, Factual , Genes , Proteins/genetics , Sequence Analysis, DNA , 3' Untranslated Regions/genetics , 5' Untranslated Regions/genetics , Alternative Splicing , Amino Acid Sequence , Chromosomes, Human, Pair 21/genetics , Chromosomes, Human, Pair 22/genetics , Cloning, Molecular , DNA, Complementary/classification , Gene Expression Profiling , Gene Library , Humans , Molecular Sequence Data , Organ Specificity/genetics , Sequence Analysis, DNA/methodsABSTRACT
Two polyclonal antisera from goat and mouse and two monoclonal antibodies against human parathyroid hormone (1-34) were characterised by epitope mapping. Hexapeptides were synthesized on polystyrene pins, the sequences of which overlapped and represented the entire sequence of hPTH(1-34). Binding of antibodies to these hexapeptides was determined and antigenic determinants thus characterized. At least one predominant binding sequence was detected in the region of hPTH(7-14).
