Na 50 Nachlass Arthur Schopenhauer - 'Schopenhauer-Archiv', 277 - Antwortschreiben an Otto Hörth nach langer Krankheit mit Bemerkungen über neu erschienenen Büchern

u.a.: Manuskript des Bruders Philipp Mainländer; Minna Batz;

Na 50 Nachlass Arthur Schopenhauer - 'Schopenhauer-Archiv', 281 - Dankesschreiben an Otto Hörth mit Ausführungen zur so genannten Erlösungs-Philosophie ihres Bruders Philipp Mainländer

u.a.: Hervorhebung Hessens; Buddhismus als Quelle; Minna Batz;

Na 50 Nachlass Arthur Schopenhauer - 'Schopenhauer-Archiv', 275 - Mitteilung an Otto Hörth auf der Rückseite einer Visitenkarte über die separate Zusendung zweier Blätter mit Erläuterungen zu einem Artikel

u.a.: Minna Batz;

Na 50 Nachlass Arthur Schopenhauer - 'Schopenhauer-Archiv', 278 - Weiterleitung des Inhalts an Otto Hörth eines zuvor erhaltenen Briefes von Dr. Vogler

u.a.: Auseinandersetzung mit dem Werk Philipp Mainländers; Minna Batz; Dr. Vogler; Theodor Grieben;

Na 50 Nachlass Arthur Schopenhauer - 'Schopenhauer-Archiv', 282 - Bitte an Otto Hörth zur Durchsicht eines polnischen Aufsatzes

u.a.: Minna Batzr;

Na 50 Nachlass Arthur Schopenhauer - 'Schopenhauer-Archiv', 276 - Antwortschreiben an Otto Hörth mit ausführlicher Beschreibung des hohen philosophischen Stellenwertes ihres Bruders Philipp Mainänder

u.a.: Minna Batz; Arthur Schopenhauer; Philipp Mainländer;

Na 50 Nachlass Arthur Schopenhauer - 'Schopenhauer-Archiv', 280 - Dankesschreiben an Otto Hörth wegen der geleisteten Hilfestellung zu ihrem Buch

u.a.: Minna Batz; Dr. Konrad; Theodor Grieben;

Familienblätter zur Erinnerung an unseren verewigten Vater Raphael J. Karger. Im Namen der Familie

hrsg. von S. Gronemann

Sterol, n-alcohol and n-alkane composition of living fen plants

In groundwater-fed fen peatlands, the surface biomass decays rapidly and, as a result, highly humified peat is formed. A high degree of humification constrains palaeoecological studies because reliable identification of plant remains is hampered. Organic geochemistry techniques as a means of identifying historical plant communities have been successfully applied tobog peat. The method has also been applied to fen peat, but without reference to the composition of fen plants. We have applied selected organic geochemistry methods to determine the composition of the neutral lipid fractions from 12 living fen plants, to investigate the potential for the distributions to characterize and separate different fen plants and plant groups. Our results show correspondence with previous studies, e.g. C23 and C25n-alkanes dominating Sphagnum spp. and C27 to C31 alkanes dominating vascular plants. However, we also found similarities in n-alkane distributions between Sphagnum spp. and the below ground parts of some vascular plants. We tested the efficiency of different n-alkane ratios to separate species and plant groups. The ratios used for bog studies (e.g. n-C23/n-C25 and n-C23/n-C29) did not work as consistently for fen plants. Some differences in sterol distribution were found between vascular plants and mosses; in general vascular plants had a higher concentration of sterols. When distributions of n-alkanes, n-alkane ratios and sterols were all included as variables, redundancy analysis (RDA) separated different plant groups into their own clusters. Our results imply that the pattern for bog biomarkers cannot directly be applied to fen environments. Nevertheless, they encourage further testing to determine whether or not the identification of plant groups, plants or plant parts from highly humified peat is possible by applying fen species-specific biomarker proxies.

The role of secretion systems and small molecules in soft-rot enterobacteriaceae pathogenicity

Soft-rot Enterobacteriaceae (SRE), which belong to the genera Pectobacterium and Dickeya, consist mainly of broad host-range pathogens that cause wilt, rot, and blackleg diseases on a wide range of plants. They are found in plants, insects, soil, and water in agricultural regions worldwide. SRE encode all six known protein secretion systems present in gram-negative bacteria, and these systems are involved in attacking host plants and competing bacteria. They also produce and detect multiple types of small molecules to coordinate pathogenesis, modify the plant environment, attack competing microbes, and perhaps to attract insect vectors. This review integrates new information about the role protein secretion and detection and production of ions and small molecules play in soft-rot pathogenicity.

Computerized polymorphic marker identification: Experimental validation and a predicted human polymorphism catalog

A computational system for the prediction of polymorphic loci directly and efficiently from human genomic sequence was developed and verified. A suite of programs, collectively called pompous (polymorphic marker prediction of ubiquitous simple sequences) detects tandem repeats ranging from dinucleotides up to 250 mers, scores them according to predicted level of polymorphism, and designs appropriate flanking primers for PCR amplification. This approach was validated on an approximately 750-kilobase region of human chromosome 3p21.3, involved in lung and breast carcinoma homozygous deletions. Target DNA from 36 paired B lymphoblastoid and lung cancer lines was amplified and allelotyped for 33 loci predicted by pompous to be variable in repeat size. We found that among those 36 predominately Caucasian individuals 22 of the 33 (67%) predicted loci were polymorphic with an average heterozygosity of 0.42. Allele loss in this region was found in 27/36 (75%) of the tumor lines using these markers. pompous provides the genetic researcher with an additional tool for the rapid and efficient identification of polymorphic markers, and through a World Wide Web site, investigators can use pompous to identify polymorphic markers for their research. A catalog of 13,261 potential polymorphic markers and associated primer sets has been created from the analysis of 141,779,504 base pairs of human genomic sequence in GenBank. This data is available on our Web site (pompous.swmed.edu) and will be updated periodically as GenBank is expanded and algorithm accuracy is improved.

Epigenetic phenotypes distinguish microsatellite-stable and -unstable colorectal cancers

Aberrant DNA methylation is a common phenomenon in human cancer, but its patterns, causes, and consequences are poorly defined. Promoter methylation of the DNA mismatch repair gene MutL homologue (MLH1) has been implicated in the subset of colorectal cancers that shows microsatellite instability (MSI). The present analysis of four MspI/HpaII sites at the MLH1 promoter region in a series of 89 sporadic colorectal cancers revealed two main methylation patterns that closely correlated with the MSI status of the tumors. These sites were hypermethylated in tumor tissue relative to normal mucosa in most MSI(+) cases (31/51, 61%). By contrast, in the majority of MSI(−) cases (20/38, 53%) the same sites showed methylation in normal mucosa and hypomethylation in tumor tissue. Hypermethylation displayed a direct correlation with increasing age and proximal location in the bowel and was accompanied by immunohistochemically documented loss of MLH1 protein both in tumors and in normal tissue. Similar patterns of methylation were observed in the promoter region of the calcitonin gene that does not have a known functional role in tumorigenesis. We propose a model of carcinogenesis where different epigenetic phenotypes distinguish the colonic mucosa in individuals who develop MSI(+) and MSI(−) tumors. These phenotypes may underlie the different developmental pathways that are known to occur in these tumors.

Cortical processing of change detection: Dissociation between natural vowels and two-frequency complex tones

We compared magnetoencephalographic responses for natural vowels and for sounds consisting of two pure tones that represent the two lowest formant frequencies of these vowels. Our aim was to determine whether spectral changes in successive stimuli are detected differently for speech and nonspeech sounds. The stimuli were presented in four blocks applying an oddball paradigm (20% deviants, 80% standards): (i) /α/ tokens as deviants vs. /i/ tokens as standards; (ii) /e/ vs. /i/; (iii) complex tones representing /α/ formants vs. /i/ formants; and (iv) complex tones representing /e/ formants vs. /i/ formants. Mismatch fields (MMFs) were calculated by subtracting the source waveform produced by standards from that produced by deviants. As expected, MMF amplitudes for the complex tones reflected acoustic deviation: the amplitudes were stronger for the complex tones representing /α/ than /e/ formants, i.e., when the spectral difference between standards and deviants was larger. In contrast, MMF amplitudes for the vowels were similar despite their different spectral composition, whereas the MMF onset time was longer for /e/ than for /α/. Thus the degree of spectral difference between standards and deviants was reflected by the MMF amplitude for the nonspeech sounds and by the MMF latency for the vowels.

Tolerance of human MSH2+/− lymphoblastoid cells to the methylating agent temozolomide

Members of hereditary nonpolyposis colon cancer (HNPCC) families harboring heterozygous germline mutations in the DNA mismatch repair genes hMSH2 or hMLH1 present with tumors generally two to three decades earlier than individuals with nonfamilial sporadic colon cancer. We searched for phenotypic features that might predispose heterozygous cells from HNPCC kindreds to malignant transformation. hMSH2+/− lymphoblastoid cell lines were found to be on average about 4-fold more tolerant than wild-type cells to killing by the methylating agent temozolomide, a phenotype that is invariably linked with impairment of the mismatch repair system. This finding was associated with an average 2-fold decrease of the steady-state level of hMSH2 protein in hMSH2+/− cell lines. In contrast, hMLH1+/− heterozygous cells were indistinguishable from normal controls in these assays. Thus, despite the fact that HNPCC families harboring mutations in hMSH2 or hMLH1 cannot be distinguished clinically, the early stages of the carcinogenic process in hMSH2 and hMLH1 mutation carriers may be different. Should hMSH2+/− colonocytes and lymphoblasts harbor a similar phenotype, the increased tolerance of the former to DNA-damaging agents present in the human colon may play a key role in the initiation of the carcinogenic process.

The candidate tumor suppressor gene, RASSF1A, from human chromosome 3p21.3 is involved in kidney tumorigenesis

Clear cell-type renal cell carcinomas (clear RCC) are characterized almost universally by loss of heterozygosity on chromosome 3p, which usually involves any combination of three regions: 3p25-p26 (harboring the VHL gene), 3p12-p14.2 (containing the FHIT gene), and 3p21-p22, implying inactivation of the resident tumor-suppressor genes (TSGs). For the 3p21-p22 region, the affected TSGs remain, at present, unknown. Recently, the RAS association family 1 gene (isoform RASSF1A), located at 3p21.3, has been identified as a candidate lung and breast TSG. In this report, we demonstrate aberrant silencing by hypermethylation of RASSF1A in both VHL-caused clear RCC tumors and clear RCC without VHL inactivation. We found hypermethylation of RASSF1A's GC-rich putative promoter region in most of analyzed samples, including 39 of 43 primary tumors (91%). The promoter was methylated partially or completely in all 18 RCC cell lines analyzed. Methylation of the GC-rich putative RASSF1A promoter region and loss of transcription of the corresponding mRNA were related causally. RASSF1A expression was reactivated after treatment with 5-aza-2′-deoxycytidine. Forced expression of RASSF1A transcripts in KRC/Y, a renal carcinoma cell line containing a normal and expressed VHL gene, suppressed growth on plastic dishes and anchorage-independent colony formation in soft agar. Mutant RASSF1A had reduced growth suppression activity significantly. These data suggest that RASSF1A is the candidate renal TSG gene for the 3p21.3 region.