Various kinds of stretch-activated ion channels from plant cell to vertebrate receptor cells are reviewd, with some of their general kinetics. The sensory axon terminal in muscle spindles possess a high density of mechano-transduction channles. In the isolated and decapsulated preparation of the frog muscle spindle, cyclic nucleotides are found to play a role in the encoding mechanisms and in a feedback control of these transduction channels.
Intermediate filaments are a major component of the cytoskeleton of eukaryotic cells. We report here evidence that site/domain-specific phosphorylation of intermediate filament proteins induces disassembly of the filament structure. These evidence connect the previous view of intermediate filament structure with the notion that phosphorylation could influence intracellular organization of intermediate filaments.
It has been widely assumed that the transmission of the gravitropic effector following gravistimulation of roots is a slow, rate-limiting process. Hormones are thought to have roles not only in the control of elongation but also in transmission of the gravitropic signal, and the slow movement and action of hormones might contribute to the slow gravitrropic response of roots. However, the earliest detectable changes following gravistimulation are electrical. In this study, membrane potential distributions and fluctuations were measured using a microelectrode system mounted on a precise tiltable bench. Gravi-induced "electrical transmission" as measured by rapid changes in menbrane potential occurred in the tip region of the root as far back as the apical portion of the elongation zone.
The principle of non invasive optical measurement of tissue oxygenation was described with the special emphasis of near infrared region. Near infrared light is rather transparent to the living tissue. The spectroscopic data in this region can be quantitatively treated by discriminating temporally and spatially the passage of an instantaneous light pulse through the tissue. And it would then be possible to produce a CT (Computed Tomography) of the tissues indicating variations in oxygenating status if it could spatially localize the signal.