A Model of Oxidative Stress Management: Moderation of Carbohydrate Metabolizing Enzymes in SOD1-Null Drosophila melanogaster

The response to oxidative stress involves numerous genes and mutations in these genes often manifest in pleiotropic ways that presumably reflect perturbations in ROS-mediated physiology. The Drosophila melanogaster SOD1-null allele (cSODn108) is proposed to result in oxidative stress by preventing superoxide breakdown. In SOD1-null flies, oxidative stress management is thought to be reliant on the glutathione-dependent antioxidants that utilize NADPH to cycle between reduced and oxidized form. Previous studies suggest that SOD1-null Drosophila rely on lipid catabolism for energy rather than carbohydrate metabolism. We tested these connections by comparing the activity of carbohydrate metabolizing enzymes, lipid and triglyceride concentration, and steady state NADPH:NADP+ in SOD1-null and control transgenic rescue flies. We find a negative shift in the activity of carbohydrate metabolizing enzymes in SOD1-nulls and the NADP+-reducing enzymes were found to have significantly lower activity than the other enzymes assayed. Little evidence for the catabolism of lipids as preferential energy source was found, as the concentration of lipids and triglycerides were not significantly lower in SOD1-nulls compared with controls. Using a starvation assay to impact lipids and triglycerides, we found that lipids were indeed depleted in both genotypes when under starvation stress, suggesting that oxidative damage was not preventing the catabolism of lipids in SOD1-null flies. Remarkably, SOD1-nulls were also found to be relatively resistant to starvation. Age profiles of enzyme activity, triglyceride and lipid concentration indicates that the trends observed are consistent over the average lifespan of the SOD1-nulls. Based on our results, we propose a model of physiological response in which organisms under oxidative stress limit the production of ROS through the down-regulation of carbohydrate metabolism in order to moderate the products exiting the electron transport chain

The Emergence of Emotions

Emotion is conscious experience. It is the affective aspect of consciousness. Emotion arises from sensory stimulation and is typically accompanied by physiological and behavioral changes in the body. Hence an emotion is a complex reaction pattern consisting of three components: a physiological component, a behavioral component, and an experiential (conscious) component. The reactions making up an emotion determine what the emotion will be recognized as. Three processes are involved in generating an emotion: (1) identification of the emotional significance of a sensory stimulus, (2) production of an affective state (emotion), and (3) regulation of the affective state. Two opposing systems in the brain (the reward and punishment systems) establish an affective value or valence (stimulus-reinforcement association) for sensory stimulation. This is process (1), the first step in the generation of an emotion. Development of stimulus-reinforcement associations (affective valence) serves as the basis for emotion expression (process 2), conditioned emotion learning acquisition and expression, memory consolidation, reinforcement-expectations, decision-making, coping responses, and social behavior. The amygdala is critical for the representation of stimulus-reinforcement associations (both reward and punishment-based) for these functions. Three distinct and separate architectural and functional areas of the prefrontal cortex (dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, orbitofrontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex) are involved in the regulation of emotion (process 3). The regulation of emotion by the prefrontal cortex consists of a positive feedback interaction between the prefrontal cortex and the inferior parietal cortex resulting in the nonlinear emergence of emotion. This positive feedback and nonlinear emergence represents a type of working memory (focal attention) by which perception is reorganized and rerepresented, becoming explicit, functional, and conscious. The explicit emotion states arising may be involved in the production of voluntary new or novel intentional (adaptive) behavior, especially social behavior

EVIDENCE FOR A NARROW WIDTH BOSON OF MASS 2.95-GeV

In a search for resonances coupled to the pp pi /sup -/ system, pi /sup -/p interactions at 16 GeV/c giving a forward antiproton have been studied, using the Omega spectrometer at CERN. In the final states involving a p, p and pi /sup -/ a 5.6 (6.3) standard deviation enhancement is observed in the pp pi /sup -/ mass spectrum at (2.95+or-0.01) GeV with a width consistent with the resolution ( sigma =15 MeV). The production cross section*branching ratio is estimated to be of the order 1 mu b. The data are consistent with a resonance decaying partly via intermediate pp final states. (5 refs)