Immunization of mice withPasnodiumyoeli sporozoite surface protein 2 (PySSP2) and cfrcumorozoite protein protects completely against P. yoelii. The amino acid sequence of PySSP2 suggested that the thrombospondinrelated anonymous protein (TRAP) [Robson, K.

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Recombinant beta-toxin from Clostridium perfringens type C was found to increase the conductance of bilayer lipid membranes (BLMs) by inducing channel activity. The channels exhibited a distribution of conductances within the range of 10 to 380 pS, with the majority of the channels falling into two categories of conductance at 110 and 60 pS. The radii of beta-toxin pores found for the conductance states of 110 and 60 pS were 12.7 and 11.1 Å, respectively. The single channels and the steady-state currents induced by beta-toxin across the BLMs exhibited ideal monovalent cation selectivity. Addition of divalent cations (Zn 2؉ , Cd 2؉, or Mg 2؉ ) at a concentration of 2 mM increased the rate of beta-toxin insertion into BLMs and the single-channel conductance, while application of 5 mM Zn 2؉ to a beta-toxin-induced steady-state current decreased the inward current by approximately 45%. The mutation of arginine 212 of beta-toxin to aspartate, previously shown to increase the 50% lethal dose of beta-toxin for mice nearly 13-fold, significantly reduced the ability of beta-toxin to form channels. These data support the hypothesis that the lethal action of beta-toxin is based on the formation of cation-selective pores in susceptible cells.

An experiment was designed to examine the contribution of phonetic information in the processing of words in tachistoscopic recognition masking. Following stimulus presentation, subjects were required to indicate which of two alternatives had appeared. On trials containing word stimuli, the alternatives were either phonetically identical (SENT, CENT) or not (SOLD, COLD). Recognition performance was inferior in the former case, provided conditions were not structured to discourage reliance on phonetic information. The findings were interpreted as showing that more than one type of coding process can underly the word superiority effect. Phonetic information is ordinarily used to code words in this type of task, but an alternative processing tactic (e.g., one relying on visual or perhaps semantic codes) can also be effectively used in word recognition when phonetic information does not discriminate well among response alternatives.

A locus on human chromosome 11q23 tagged by marker rs3802842 was associated with colorectal cancer (CRC) in a genome-wide association study; this finding has been replicated in case–control studies worldwide. In order to identify biologic factors at this locus that are related to the etiopathology of CRC, we used microarray-based target selection methods, coupled to next-generation sequencing, to study 103 kb at the 11q23 locus. We genotyped 369 putative variants from 1,030 patients with CRC (cases) and 1,061 individuals without CRC (controls) from the Ontario Familial Colorectal Cancer Registry. Two previously uncharacterized genes, COLCA1 and COLCA2, were found to be co-regulated genes that are transcribed from opposite strands. Expression levels of COLCA1 and COLCA2 transcripts correlate with rs3802842 genotypes. In colon tissues, COLCA1 co-localizes with crystalloid granules of eosinophils and granular organelles of mast cells, neutrophils, macrophages, dendritic cells and differentiated myeloid-derived cell lines. COLCA2 is present in the cytoplasm of normal epithelial, immune and other cell lineages, as well as tumor cells. Tissue microarray analysis demonstrates the association of rs3802842 with lymphocyte density in the lamina propria (p = 0.014) and levels of COLCA1 in the lamina propria (p = 0.00016) and COLCA2 (tumor cells, p = 0.0041 and lamina propria, p = 6 × 10–5). In conclusion, genetic, expression and immunohistochemical data implicate COLCA1 and COLCA2 in the pathogenesis of colon cancer. Histologic analyses indicate the involvement of immune pathways.