No abstract

Different preparations of human rhinovirus serotype 2 (HRV2), a common cold virus, were analyzed by capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE) in untreated fused-silica capillaries using borate buffer (100 mmol/L, pH 8.3) and sodium dodecyl sulfate (10 mmol/L) as additive to prevent wall adsorption. The electropherograms showed one major peak at 205- and 254-nm detection wavelengths. The identity of the peak as originating from native virus was confirmed by several indirect methods. Heating to 56 degrees C is known to lead to release of the genomic RNA from the viral capsid; this treatment resulted in the disappearance of the major peak and the emergence of a new predominant peak that was identified as RNA by enzymatic digestion. As expected, RNase treatment of the unheated sample remained without effect as the viral genome is inaccessible in the native viral shell. A monoclonal, virus-aggregating antibody was used for immunodepletion of native virus; again, the major peak disappeared upon removal of viral aggregates by centrifugation prior to CZE analysis. In combination, these results allowed for the unambiguous identification of the main peak as native HRV2 and of the minor peaks as contaminants present in various amounts in the different viral preparations. It is demonstrated that CZE allows for an extremely easy and rapid assessment of conformational state and purity of virions in a given viral preparation.

Despite their simple auditory systems, some insect species recognize certain temporal aspects of acoustic stimuli with an acuity equal to that of vertebrates; however, the underlying neural mechanisms and coding schemes are only partially understood. In this study, we analyze the response characteristics of the peripheral auditory system of grasshoppers with special emphasis on the representation of species-specific communication signals. We use both natural calling songs and artificial random stimuli designed to focus on two low-order statistical properties of the songs: their typical time scales and the distribution of their modulation amplitudes.Based on stimulus reconstruction techniques and quantified within an information-theoretic framework, our data show that artificial stimuli with typical time scales of Ͼ40 msec can be read from single spike trains with high accuracy. Faster stimulus variations can be reconstructed only for behaviorally relevant amplitude distributions. The highest rates of information transmission (180 bits/sec) and the highest coding efficiencies (40%) are obtained for stimuli that capture both the time scales and amplitude distributions of natural songs.Use of multiple spike trains significantly improves the reconstruction of stimuli that vary on time scales Ͻ40 msec or feature amplitude distributions as occur when several grasshopper songs overlap. Signal-to-noise ratios obtained from the reconstructions of natural songs do not exceed those obtained from artificial stimuli with the same low-order statistical properties. We conclude that auditory receptor neurons are optimized to extract both the time scales and the amplitude distribution of natural songs. They are not optimized, however, to extract higher-order statistical properties of the song-specific rhythmic patterns. Key words: auditory receptor; neural coding; acoustic communication; natural stimuli; stimulus reconstruction; insectEvolutionary processes have shaped acoustic communication behaviors of remarkable complexity (Hauser, 1996;Bradbury and Vehrenkamp, 1998). These behaviors are made possible by sophisticated neural systems in both sender and receiver. In human beings, for example, highly specialized cortical areas process auditory stimuli, extract language information, and generate finetuned motor signals required for proper speech production (Levelt, 1993;Ehret and Romand, 1997).Auditory systems of insects have a much simpler architecture, and with up to a few hundred neurons, they are orders of magnitude smaller than those of most vertebrates. Nevertheless, these systems are capable of astounding computations. Some grasshoppers, for instance, detect gaps in conspecific songs as short as 1-2 msec (von Helversen, 1972), a performance level similar to that reached by birds and mammals.These observations trigger the general question of how a small insect auditory system could possibly be organized to process acoustic signals reliably and with high temporal precision. Important clues will come from understanding the au...

No abstract

Desert ants (Cataglyphis) are renowned for their ability to perform large-scale foraging excursions and then return to the nest by path integration. They do so by integrating courses steered and the distances travelled into a continually updated home vector. Whereas the angular orientation is based on skylight cues, how the ants gauge the distances travelled has remained largely unclear. Furthermore, almost all studies on path integration in Cataglyphis, as well as in spiders, rodents, and humans, have aimed at understanding how the animals compute homebound courses in the horizontal plane. Here, we investigate for the first time how an animal's odometer operates when a path integration task has to be accomplished that includes a vertical component. We trained Cataglyphis ants within arrays of uphill and downhill channels, and later tested them on flat terrain, or vice versa. In all these cases, the ants indicated homing distances that corresponded not to the distances actually travelled but to the ground distances; that is, to the sum of the horizontal projections of the uphill and downhill segments of the ants' paths.

Minor group human rhinoviruses (HRVs) use members of the low-density lipoprotein receptor family for cell entry. To investigate the utility of receptor fragments as viral inhibitors, various polypeptide segments derived from the ligand binding domain of human very-low-density lipoprotein receptor (VLDLR) were expressed in a soluble form in bacteria. Whereas none of the fragments was active in virus binding immediately after recovery from the cell lysates, constructs encompassing complement type repeats 1-3, 1-6, and 1-8 spontaneously acquired virus binding activity by incubation at 4 degrees C in buffer containing Ca(2+) ions and lacking any redox system. When immobilized receptor-associated protein (RAP), a specific chaperone for VLDLR, was present during the incubation, the yield of protein active in ligand binding was substantially increased. A VLDLR fragment with repeats 4-6 failed to bind virus; however, it bound RAP. Bacterial expression of truncated VLDLR 1-3 at high yield, easy purification, and folding together with high inhibitory activity toward HRV2 makes this protein a promising starting point for the development of an oligopeptide-based antiviral agent. Using sucrose density gradient centrifugation, we demonstrate the formation of virus-receptor complexes. The recombinant receptors can thus be used for structure determination by electron cryo-microscopy.

Desert ants of the genus Cataglyphis perform large-scale foraging excursions from which they return to their nest by path integration. They do so by integrating courses steered and the distances travelled into a continually updated home vector. While it is known that the angular orientation is based on skylight cues, it still is largely enigmatic how the ants measure distances travelled. We extended the ants' task into the third dimension by training them to walk within an array of uphill and downhill channels, and later testing them on flat terrain, or vice versa. In these tests the ants indicated homing distances that did not correspond to the distances actually travelled, but to the ground distances; that is, to the sum of the horizontal projections of the uphill and downhill segments of the ants' paths. These results suggest a much more sophisticated mechanism of distance estimation than hitherto thought. The ants must be able to measure the slopes of undulating terrain and to integrate this information into their "odometer" for the distance estimation process.

In females of the acridid grasshopperChorthippus biguttulus, thoracic auditory interneurons were investigated with respect to their selectivity for temporal parameters of the conspecific song. Special attention was given to the detection of small gaps in the 'syllables' of the song, since behavioural experiments have shown that the presence or absence of gaps is critical for the female's Innate Releasing Mechanism (cf. Fig. 1).The spiking response of one ascending interneuron, the AN4, shows filtering properties which closely resemble the behavioural reactions (cf. Figs. 1, 3 and 5b). The difference in the AN4's reaction to stimuli with gaps and uninterrupted stimuli is maintained over the behaviourally relevant intensity range (Fig. 4). This reaction is reliable enough that the stimulus type could be inferred by higher centres even from single stimulus presentations. Hence, this neuron is likely to participate in the task of gap detection and probably is a part of the neuronal filter network which determines the characteristics of the Innate Releasing Mechanism of this species. However, this interneuron is not species-specific: A homologue exists in other acridids as well and, in Locusta migratoria, has similar response characteristics (Fig. 6). The inferences of this observation for the evolution of an Innate Releasing Mechanism are discussed.