Solar Energy in South Carolina: Its Potential Use and How to Further Implement it

In this paper, I explore the question of the supply, demand, potential, and obstacles to the development of solar energy in South Carolina. I have researched how much annual sunlight South Carolina annually receives, as well as how much land in South Carolina is suitable for the development of solar farms, and have determined that there is the potential to have a substantial part of its power grid supplemented by solar energy. After determining that the potential is there, I researched the demand for increased solar energy in South Carolina, and I discovered that the demand for solar energy greatly exceeds the supply, so this is not the reason for so little development of solar energy in South Carolina. I then researched the incentives offered by the major energy company in South Carolina, SCE&G, and determined that they offer almost no incentive to use renewable energy. After a little more research, I discovered that the utility companies in South Carolina had been fighting tooth and nail to prevent solar development in South Carolina. Due to this, I have determined that it will be largely policy change that will aid in the development of solar energy in South Carolina, and that can be seen with the impact that Act 236 has had. South Carolina does have the potential to have 25% of the State’s energy being produced by solar energy

Endonuclease G from mammalian nuclei is identical to the major endonuclease of mitochondria.

Two Mg(2+)-dependent DNA endonucleases have been isolated from mammalian cells which have a strong preference to nick within long tracts of guanine residues in vitro. One endonuclease activity is mitochondrial (mt). The other endonuclease, called Endonuclease G, is associated with isolated nuclei, and is released when the nuclear chromatin is exposed to moderate ionic strength. Our laboratory has previously purified the mt endonuclease to near homogeneity from mitochondria of bovine heart and reported the enzyme to be a homodimer of a approximately 29 kDa polypeptide [Cummings, O. W. et al. (1987) J. Biol. Chem., 262, 2005-2015]. Although the purified mt endonuclease will extensively fragment M13 viral ssDNA and plasmid dsDNAs in vitro, the enzyme displays an unusually strong preference to nick within a (dG)12:(dC)12 sequence tract which resides just upstream from the origin of DNA replication in the mitochondrial genome. The nuclear Endonuclease G first identified from its selective targeting of several (dG)n:(dC)n tracts in vitro (where N = 3-29), was subsequently purified from calf thymus nuclei and shown to be a homodimer of a approximately 26-kDa polypeptide [Côté, J. et al. (1989) J. Biol. Chem., 264, 3301-3310]. In the present study, we find that Endonuclease G partially purified from calf thymus nuclei will extensively degrade both viral ss- and dsDNAs in vitro, and that the enzyme possesses biochemical properties and specificity for nucleotide sequences in DNA that are strongly related or identical to those of the mt endonuclease. These findings and the discovery of sequence identity between the proteins strengthen the conclusion that the nuclear Endonuclease G is the same enzyme as the mt endonuclease

The Effect of Chromosome Geometry on Genetic Diversity

Although organisms with linear chromosomes must solve the problem of fully replicating their chromosome ends, this chromosome configuration has emerged repeatedly during bacterial evolution and is evident in three divergent bacterial phyla. The benefit usually ascribed to this topology is the ability to boost genetic variation through increased recombination. But because numerous processes can impact linkage disequilibrium, such an effect is difficult to assess by comparing across bacterial taxa that possess different chromosome topologies. To test directly the contribution of chromosome architecture to genetic diversity and recombination, we examined sequence variation in strains of Agrobacterium Biovar 1, which are unique among sequenced bacteria in having both a circular and a linear chromosome. Whereas the allelic diversity among strains is generated principally by mutations, intragenic recombination is higher within genes situated on the circular chromosome. In contrast, recombination between genes is, on average, higher on the linear chromosome, but it occurs at the same rate as that observed between genes mapping to the distal portion of the circular chromosome. Collectively, our findings indicate that chromosome topology does not contribute significantly to either allelic or genotypic diversity and that the evolution of linear chromosomes is not based on a facility to recombine

Constitutive Expression of the β-Ketothiolase Gene in Transgenic Plants. A Major Obstacle for Obtaining Polyhydroxybutyrate-Producing Plants

Polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) is a member of a class of thermoelastic polymers called polyhydroxyalkanoates that serve many bacteria as intracellular storage molecules for carbon and energy. Transgenic plants provide a potential means of producing this polymer cost-effectively. To date, however, few reports of the successful production of this polymer have been published, with the exception of work with transgenic Arabidopsis. Using a variety of chimeric constructs, we have determined that the constitutive, chloroplast-localized expression of one of the genes involved in PHB production—the β-ketothiolase (phbA) gene—is detrimental to the efficient production of transgenic PHB. The alternate use of either inducible or somatically activated promoters allowed the construction of transgenic PHB-producing potato (Solanum tuberosum) and tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) plants, although the amount of PHB formed was still rather low. Taking advantage of an inducible promoter, the maximal amount of PHB produced in transgenic potato was 0.09 mg g(−1) dry weight. In transgenic tobacco using a somatically activated promoter, up to 3.2 mg g(−1) dry weight was accumulated. In Arabidopsis, the formation of high levels of PHB had previously been shown to be accompanied by severe negative effects on growth and development of the plant. Phasins are proteins known from PHB-producing bacteria speculated to serve as protectants against the highly hydrophobic surface of the PHB granules in the bacterial intracellular milieu. Co-expression of the phasin gene in parallel with the PHB synthesis genes, however, did not lead to reduced symptom development