We describe microarrays of oligosaccharides as neoglycolipids and their robust display on nitrocellulose. The arrays are obtained from glycoproteins, glycolipids, proteoglycans, polysaccharides, whole organs, or from chemically synthesized oligosaccharides. We show that carbohydrate-recognizing proteins single out their ligands not only in arrays of homogeneous oligosaccharides but also in arrays of heterogeneous oligosaccharides. Initial applications have revealed new findings, including: (i) among O-glycans in brain, a relative abundance of the Lewis(x) sequence based on N-acetyllactosamine recognized by anti-L5, and a paucity of the Lewis(x) sequence based on poly-N-acetyllactosamine recognized by anti-SSEA-1; (ii) insights into chondroitin sulfate oligosaccharides recognized by an antiserum and an antibody (CS-56) to chondroitin sulfates; and (iii) binding of the cytokine interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) and the chemokine RANTES to sulfated sequences such as HNK-1, sulfo-Lewis(x), and sulfo-Lewis(a), in addition to glycosaminoglycans. The approach opens the way for discovering new carbohydrate-recognizing proteins in the proteome and for mapping the repertoire of carbohydrate recognition structures in the glycome.

Theory and empirical evidence suggest that plant-soil feedback (PSF) determines the structure of a plant community and nutrient cycling in terrestrial ecosystems. The plant community alters the nutrient pool size in soil by affecting litter decomposition processes, which in turn shapes the plant community, forming a PSF system. However, the role of microbial decomposers in PSF function is often overlooked, and it remains unclear whether decomposers reinforce or weaken littermediated plant control over nutrient cycling. Here, we present a theoretical model incorporating the functional diversity of both plants and microbial decomposers. Two fundamental microbial processes are included that control nutrient mineralization from plant litter: (i) assimilation of mineralized nutrient into the microbial biomass (microbial immobilization), and (ii) release of the microbial nutrients into the inorganic nutrient pool (net mineralization). With this model, we show that microbial diversity may act as a buffer that weakens plant control over the soil nutrient pool, reversing the sign of PSF from positive to negative and facilitating plant coexistence. This is explained by the decoupling of litter decomposability and nutrient pool size arising from a flexible change in the microbial community composition and decomposition processes in response to variations in plant litter decomposability. Our results suggest that the microbial community plays a central role in PSF function and the plant community structure. Furthermore, the results strongly imply that the plant-centered view of nutrient cycling should be changed to a plant-microbe-soil feedback system, by incorporating the community ecology of microbial decomposers and their functional diversity.here is a long-standing view that a plant controls the soil conditions (e.g., size of inorganic nutrient pool) via litter supply in terrestrial ecosystems. On the basis of this view, a plant community and local soil conditions are understood as an outcome of the plant-soil codevelopment process. A change in the composition of a plant community leads to a change in litter quality, which alters the local nutrient cycling process and soil conditions; the changed soil conditions may in turn drive a further change in plant community composition. Those two processes taken together form a plant-soil feedback (PSF), a major driver of plant community dynamics and nutrient cycling [1, 2 (and references therein), 3].Litter quality is a key plant trait that determines whether PSF supports or inhibits the coexistence of plant species. Both empirical (4-6) and theoretical (7-9) evidence indicate that litter-mediated PSF from the dominant species in a plant community can be positive (favoring species dominance) or negative (favoring competitor invasion), depending on the combinations of litter quality and nutrient competition strategy. If the dominant species favors nutrient-rich sites and produces a quickly decomposing litter, then the accelerated nutrient cycling maintains a competitive advantage...

The variation in the sulfation profile of chondroitin sulfate (CS)/dermatan sulfate (DS) chains regulates central nervous system development in vertebrates. Notably, the disulfated disaccharide D-unit, GlcUA(2-O-sulfate)-GalNAc(6-O-sulfate), correlates with the promotion of neurite outgrowth through the DSD-1 epitope that is embedded in the CS moiety of the proteoglycan DSD-1-PG/phosphacan. Monoclonal antibody (mAb) 473HD inhibits the DSD-1-dependent neuritogenesis and also recognizes shark cartilage CS-D, which is characterized by the prominent D-unit and is also recognized by two other mAbs, CS-56 and MO-225. We investigate the oligosaccharide epitope structures of these CS-D-reactive mAbs by ELISA and oligosaccharide microarrays using lipid-derivatized CS oligosaccharides. CS-56 and MO-225 recognized the octa- and larger oligosaccharides, though the latter also bound one unique hexasaccharide D-A-D, where A denotes the disaccharide A-unit GlcUA-GalNAc(4-O-sulfate). The octasaccharides reactive with CS-56 and MO-225 shared a core A-D tetrasaccharide, whereas the neighboring structural elements located on the reducing and/or nonreducing sides of the A-D gave a differential preference additionally to the recognition sequence for each antibody. In contrast, 473HD reacted with multiple hexa- and larger oligosaccharides, which also contained A-D or D-A tetrasaccharide sequences. Consistent with the distinct specificity of 473HD as compared with CS-56 and MO-225, the 473HD epitope displayed a different expression pattern in peripheral mouse organs as revealed by immunohistology, extending the previously reported CNS-restricted expression. The epitope of 473HD, but not of CS-56 or MO-225, was eliminated from DSD-1-PG by digestion with chondroitinase B, suggesting the close association of L-iduronic acid with the 473HD epitope. Despite such supplemental information, the integral epitope remains to be isolated for identification and comprehensive analytical characterisation. Thus novel information on the sugar sequences containing the A-D tetrasaccharide core was obtained for the epitopes of these three useful mAbs.

We isolated the cDNA encoding a novel member (207 amino acids) of the fibroblast growth factor (FGF) family from rat embryos. Because this protein is the 18th documented member of the FGF family, we tentatively termed it FGF-18. We have also determined mouse and human FGF-18 with high amino acid identity (99.5 and 99.0%) to rat FGF-18, respectively. Among FGF family members, FGF-18 is most similar (52.7% amino acid identity) to FGF-8 and FGF-17. FGF-18 has a typical signal sequence at its amino terminus. Recombinant rat FGF-18, which was efficiently secreted by High Five insect cells infected with recombinant baculovirus containing the cDNA, induced neurite outgrowth in PC12 cells. The expression of FGF-18 mRNA was examined in adult rat tissues and embryos by Northern blotting analysis and in situ hybridization. FGF-18 mRNA of ϳ2.7 kilobases was preferentially detected in the lung among adult rat tissues examined. In rat embryos, FGF-18 mRNA was detected in several discrete regions at embryonic days 14.5 and 19.5 but not at E10.5. The temporal and spatial patterns of FGF-18 mRNA expression in embryos are quite different from those of FGF-8 and FGF-17 mRNAs reported. The present results indicate that FGF-18 is a unique secreted signaling molecule in the adult lung and developing tissues.

Analysis of a household survey from the Philippines shows that the behavior of sharecroppers with a kinship relation with their landlord is not affected by the disincentive effects of product and factor sharing, while behavior of the other sharecroppers responds to the contract terms. We characterize the meaning of kinship ties through a survey of opinion conducted among tenants. The survey shows that kin landlords help or are expected to help more frequently in case of emergency than other landlords, and they do so with a wider range of instruments, providing the incentive for cooperative behavior in sharecropping contracts among kin. Copyright 1997, Oxford University Press.

Glycophorin A was digested with glycoprotease (Pasteurella haemolytica) and the digest was fractionated by a combination of high-pressure column chromatographies to produce the glycopeptides GPA-1 to GPA-6. Sequence analysis of the glycopeptides revealed that two serine residues (Ser-14 and Ser-15) are not glycosylated, Thr-17 and Ser-19 being glycosylated instead, in disagreement with the accepted structure. The glycopeptides thus obtained were treated with sialidase and (3-galactosidase. The Tn antigenicity, as assayed by the binding to a monoclonal anti-Tn antibody (MLS 128), was found exclusively in the glycopeptides including three (cluster I) or four (cluster II) consecutive residues of GaINAc-Ser/Thr, whereas the glycopeptide (GPA-2) containing two nonconsecutive GaINAc-Ser/Thr residues had practically no Tn antigenicity. The immunoreactivities of GPA-1 and GPA-3, containing both clusters I and II, and GPA-4, containing cluster II, were 63% (calcd. 67%), 81% (calcd. 86%), and 50% (calcd. 50%), respectively, of the immunoreactivity of GPA-5 or GPA-6, containing cluster I (the average being taken as the basis), based on the reactivity per GalNAc residue. These results indicate that clusters I and II react with the antibody to the same extent. The structure consisting of three consecutive glycosylated Ser/Thr residues may be essential for Tn antigenicity in the light of previous results for ovine submaxillary mucin.Dausset et al. (1) Among glycopeptides prepared from protease digests of asialo-OSM, Leu-Ser-Glu-Ser-Thr-Thr-Glu-Leu-Pro-Gly was a minimum glycopeptide with Tn antigenicity, where the bold type denotes amino acid residues to which an a-GalNAc residue is attached, indicating that three consecutive GalNAc-Ser/Thr residues are essential for the epitopic structure (6). Since Tn glycophorin A contains two such sequences, cluster I at residues 2-4 and cluster II at residues 10-15 (7), it seemed to be a suitable material for studying Tn antigenicity. EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURESEstablishment of Monoclonal Antibodies. Monoclonal antibody MLS 128 (IgG3, K) was established as described previously (5). The other anti-Tn antibodies, NCC-LU-35 and CA 3239, were kindly provided by S. Hirohashi of the National Cancer Institute (Tokyo) and F. Springer of Northwestern University (Evanston, IL), respectively.Reactivity of Glycophorin A and Glycopeptides with Monoclonal Antibodies. A binding assay using microplates was used to minimize the amount of glycopeptide required. A polyvinyl chloride plate (96 wells; Costar) was coated with glycophorin A and glycopeptides according to Fukui et al. (8), and then the uncoated surfaces were coated with 1% bovine serum albumin (BSA) in 20 mM phosphate-buffered saline (PBS), pH 7.2. An appropriate amount of MLS 128, NCC-LU-35, or CA 3239 in PBS containing 0.1% BSA was added to each well and the plate was left standing overnight at 4°C, and then the wells were washed three times with PBS containing 1% BSA.For determination of the amount of MLS 128 bound to the plate, 125I-lab...

We evaluated the effect of projected increasing temperatures due to climate change on the yield and quality of rice, as well as the effectiveness of shifting the transplanting date as an adaptation measure, throughout Japan. As an indicator of rice quality, we adopted the heat stress index HD_m26, which is related to the decreased percentage of first grade rice due to high temperature, calculated as the cumulative temperature within 20 days after the heading date. We used a process-based rice growth model to assess the effect. We implemented the model for the period 1981 -2100, and shifted the transplanting dates at 7-day intervals from -70 to +70 days from the standard transplanting date. The estimated yield was categorized into three classes with different degrees of quality degradation risk according to values of HD_ m26. Relative to the current transplanting date, nationwide total production was estimated to increase slightly in most climate change scenarios, although the proportion of production with quality degradation risk may increase with the rise in temperature. It may be possible to avoid this increased risk while maintaining total production by selecting an optimum transplanting date in consideration of both yield and quality. However, a large decrease in yield was found in some areas, suggesting that the current rice producing regions in Japan would become separated into suitable and unsuitable areas as temperatures increase.

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