Two primate-specific small non-protein-coding RNAs in transgenic mice: neuronal expression, subcellular localization and binding partners

In a rare occasion a single chromosomal locus was targeted twice by independent Alu-related retroposon insertions, and in both cases supported neuronal expression of the respective inserted genes encoding small non-protein coding RNAs (npcRNAs): BC200 RNA in anthropoid primates and G22 RNA in the Lorisoidea branch of prosimians. To avoid primate experimentation, we generated transgenic mice to study neuronal expression and protein binding partners for BC200 and G22 npcRNAs. The BC200 gene, with sufficient upstream flanking sequences, is expressed in transgenic mouse brain areas comparable to those in human brain, and G22 gene, with upstream flanks, has a similar expression pattern. However, when all upstream regions of the G22 gene were removed, expression was completely abolished, despite the presence of intact internal RNA polymerase III promoter elements. Transgenic BC200 RNA is transported into neuronal dendrites as it is in human brain. G22 RNA, almost twice as large as BC200 RNA, has a similar subcellular localization. Both transgenically expressed npcRNAs formed RNP complexes with poly(A) binding protein and the heterodimer SRP9/14, as does BC200 RNA in human. These observations strongly support the possibility that the independently exapted npcRNAs have similar functions, perhaps in translational regulation of dendritic protein biosynthesis in neurons of the respective primates

Impact of wild-type and genetically modified Pseudomonas fluorescens on soil enzyme activities and microbial population structure in the rhizosphere of pea

The definitive version is available at www.blackwell-synergy.com. Copyright Blackwell Publishing DOI : 10.1046/j.1365-294x.1998.00367.xThe aim of this work was to determine the impact of wild type along with functionally and non-functionally modified Pseudomonas fluorescens strains in the rhizosphere. The wild type F113 strain carried a gene encoding the production of the antibiotic 2,4 diacetylphloroglucinol (DAPG) useful in plant disease control, and was marked with a lacZY gene cassette. The first modified strain was a functional modification of strain F113 with repressed production of DAPG, creating the DAPG negative strain F113 G22. The second paired comparison was a non-functional modification of wild type (unmarked) strain SBW25, constructed to carry marker genes only, creating strain SBW25 EeZY-6KX. Significant perturbations were found in the indigenous bacterial population structure, with the F113, (DAPG+) strain causing a shift towards slower growing colonies (K strategists) compared with the non-antibiotic producing derivative (F113 G22) and the SBW25 strains. The DAPG+ strain also significantly reduced, in comparison with the other inocula, the total Pseudomonas populations but did not affect the total microbial populations. The survival of F113 and F113 G22 were an order of magnitude lower than the SBW 25 strains. The DAPG+ strain caused a significant decrease in the shoot to root ratio in comparison to the control and other inoculants, indicating plant stress. F113 increased soil alkaline phosphatase, phosphodiesterase and aryl sulphatase activities compared to the other inocula, which themselves reduced the same enzyme activities compared to the control. In contrast to this, the -glucosidase, -galactosidase and N-acetyl glucosaminidase activities decreased with the inoculation of the DAPG+ strain. These results indicate that soil enzymes are sensitive to the impact of GMM inoculation.Peer reviewe

The insurance industry in Brazil: a long-term view

This paper surveys the formation and development of insurance business in Brazil. It describes its very first steps, from the colonial times and imperial era to recent events. Particular attention is given to regulatory changes, showing how they evolved in response to macroeconomic shocks that affected the Brazilian economy during this period.Insurance, Brazil, Regulation. JEL Code: G22, G38, L50, N46.

Captive insurance companies and the management of non-conventional corporate risks

We examine under what conditions setting up a captive insurance company with reinsurance is an optimal solution for risk-averse firms when the insured firm, the insurer and the reinsurer do not know the probability distribution of some risks, and have conflicting estimates of this distribution.corporate insurance, reinsurance, uncertainty, ambiguity, non-conventional risks, captive insurance companies, Risk and Uncertainty, D81, G22, Q2,

Minimisation of a one-loop charge breaking effective potential

We compute the field derivatives of a one-loop charge breaking effective potential and analyse their effect in its minimisation. The impact on charge breaking bounds on the MSSM parameters is discussed.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figures. One figure added and conclusions made cleare

Scalar Mass Bounds in Two Supersymmetric Extended Electroweak Gauge Models

In two recently proposed supersymmetric extended electroweak gauge models, the reduced Higgs sector at the 100-GeV energy scale consists of only two doublets, but they have quartic scalar couplings different from those of the minimal supersymmetric standard model. In the SU(2) X SU(2) X U(1) model, there is an absolute upper bound of about 145 GeV on the mass of the lightest neutral scalar boson. In the SU(3) X U(1) model, there is only a parameter-dependent upper bound which formally goes to infinity in a particular limitComment: 9 pages (6 figures not included), UCRHEP-T128 (July 1994