MLL leukemia-associated rearrangements in peripheral blood lymphocytes from healthy individuals

Chromosomal translocations are characteristic of hematopoietic neoplasias and can lead to unregulated oncogene expression or the fusion of genes to yield novel functions. In recent years, different lymphoma/leukemia-associated rearrangements have been detected in healthy individuals. In this study, we used inverse PCR to screen peripheral lymphocytes from 100 healthy individuals for the presence of MLL (Mixed Lineage Leukemia) translocations. Forty-nine percent of the probands showed MLL rearrangements. Sequence analysis showed that these rearrangements were specific for MLL translocations that corresponded to t(4;11)(q21;q23) (66%) and t(9;11) (20%). However, RT-PCR failed to detect any expression of t(4;11)(q21;q23) in our population. We suggest that 11q23 rearrangements in peripheral lymphocytes from normal individuals may result from exposure to endogenous or exogenous DNA-damaging agents. In practical terms, the high susceptibility of the MLL gene to chemically-induced damage suggests that monitoring the aberrations associated with this gene in peripheral lymphocytes may be a sensitive assay for assessing genomic instability in individuals exposed to genotoxic stress

Tapetal Ultrastructural Changes During Pollen Development. I. Studies on Antirrhinum Maius

SUMMARYAnther sections of Antirrhinum maius in various stages of development have been examined with the electron microscope and the ultrastructural modifications of the tapetal cells have been followed during the development of the pollen grains. Characteristic of the early stages of development is the presence of a great number of intensely proliferating Golgi bodies and of spherical bodies, located in the perinuclear space in proximity of the plasmalemma and in the endoplasmic reticulum. They are bounded by a single membrane on which ribosomes are regularly ranged facing the body cavity. Probably the bodies located in the perinuclear space play a role in the nuclear-cytoplasmic information exchanges, while those in connection with the endoplasmic reticulum seem to be simply related to an enhanced endoplasmic reticulum activity. In the late tetrad stage a second body population appears. These bodies are spherical, electrondense and without bounding membrane. They are located at the cell periphery toward..