Preservation of biological specimens for observation in a confocal fluorescence microscope and operational principles of confocal fluorescence microscopy.
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Animals↗
Biomedical subjects
R Bacallao
Publications and source records attributed to R Bacallao.
The subcellular organization of Madin-Darby canine kidney cells during the formation of a polarized epithelium.
Studies of the developing trophectoderm in the mouse embryo have shown that extensive cellular remodeling occurs during epithelial formation. In this investigation, confocal immunofluorescence microscopy is used to examine the three-dimensional changes in cellular architecture that take place during the polarization of a terminally differentiated epithelial cell line. Madin-Darby canine kidney cells were plated at a low density on permeable filter supports. Antibodies that specifically recognize components of the tight junction, adherens junction, microtubules, centrosomes, and the Golgi complex were used to study the spatial remodeling of the cytoarchitecture during the formation of the polarized cell layer. The immunofluorescence data were correlated with establishment of functional tight junctions as measured by transepithelial resistance and back-exchange of the cell surface, labeled with metabolites of the fluorescent lipid analogue N-(7-[4-nitrobenzo-2-oxa-1,3-diazole]) aminocaproyl sphingosine. 1 d after plating, single cells had microtubules, radiating from a broad region, that contained the centrosomes and the Golgi complex. 2 d after plating, the cells had grown to confluence and had formed functional tight junctions close to the substratum. The centrioles had split and no longer organized the microtubules which were running above and below the nucleus. The Golgi complex had spread around the nucleus. By the fifth day after plating, the final polarized state had been achieved. The junctional complex had moved greater than 10 microns upward from its basal location. The centrioles were together below the apical membrane, and the Golgi complex formed a ribbon-like convoluted structure located in the apical region above the nucleus. The microtubules were organized in an apical web and in longitudinal microtubule bundles in the apical-basal axis of the columnar cell. The longitudinal microtubules were arranged with their minus ends spread over the apical region of the cell and their plus ends toward the basal region. These findings show that there is an extensive remodeling of epithelial cytoarchitecture after formation of cell-cell contacts. Reorganization of the microtubule network results in functional polarization of the cytoplasm.
Animals↗
Molecular events in the organization of renal tubular epithelium: from nephrogenesis to regeneration.
Information from studies of embryonic nephrons and established renal tubular cell lines in culture can be integrated to derive a picture of how the renal tubule develops and regenerates after acute injury. During development, the formation of a morphologically polarized epithelium from committed nephric mesenchymal cells requires an external signal for mitogenesis and differentiation. Polypeptide growth factors, in some cases mediated through oncogene expression, act in an autocrine or paracrine fashion to stimulate the production of extracellular matrix proteins that probably provide the earliest orientation signal for the cell. Interaction of these proteins with cell surface receptors leads to early organization of the cytoskeletal actin network, which is the major scaffolding for further differentiation and for definition of plasma membrane domains. The formation of cell-cell contacts via specialized adhesion molecules integrates the epithelium into a polarized monolayer and maintains its fence function, i.e., separation of plasma membrane domains. Microtubules probably participate in the delivery of vesicles to specific plasma membrane domains and in the spatial organization of intracellular organelles. Following acute renal injury, this sequence of events appears to be reversed, resulting in partial or complete loss of differentiated features. Regeneration seems to follow the same pattern of sequential differentiation steps as nephrogenesis. The integrity of the epithelium is restored by reestablishing only those stages of differentiation that have been lost. Where cell death occurs, mitogenesis in adjacent cells restores the continuity of the epithelium and the entire sequence of differentiation events is initiated in the newly generated cells.
Animals↗
Multiple methods of visualizing the yeast vacuole permit evaluation of its morphology and inheritance during the cell cycle.
The vacuole of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae was visualized with three unrelated fluorescent dyes: FITC-dextran, quinacrine, and an endogenous fluorophore produced in ade2 yeast. FITC-dextran, which enters cells by endocytosis, had been previously developed as a vital stain for yeast vacuoles. Quinacrine, which diffuses across membranes and accumulates in acidic compartments in mammalian cells, can also be used as a marker for yeast vacuoles. ade2 yeast accumulate an endogenous fluorophore in their vacuoles. Using these stains, yeast were examined for vacuole morphology throughout the cell division cycle. In both the parent cell and the bud, a single vacuole was the most common morphology at every stage. Two or more vacuoles could also be found in the mother cell or in the bud; however, this morphology was not correlated with any stage of the cell division cycle. Even small buds (in early S phase) often contained a small vacuole. By the time the bud was half the diameter of the mother cell, it almost always bore a vacuole. This picture of vacuole division and segregation differs from what is seen with synchronized cultures. In ade2 yeast, the bud usually inherits a substantial portion of its vacuole contents from the mother cell. We propose that vacuolar segregation is accomplished by vesicular traffic between the parent cell and the bud.
Cell Cycle↗
The secY protein can act post-translationally to promote bacterial protein export.
Conditionally lethal Escherichia coli mutants in secY (prlA) show defective export of proteins to the periplasm and outer membrane. It has been proposed that this gene and other sec genes must act on pro-OmpA at an early stage of protein synthesis in order to allow later translocation to occur. We have described a temperature-sensitive mutation in which the secYts function is impaired at the nonpermissive temperature (Ito, K. (1984) Mol. Gen. Genet. 197, 204-208). A plasmid bearing the wild-type secY gene under the control of the lactose operon (Shiba, K., Ito, K., Yura, T., and Cerretti, D. P. (1984) EMBO J. 3, 631-635) has been introduced into this mutant strain. We now report that the in vivo chase of pulse-labeled full length pro-OmpA to mature OmpA is accelerated by inducing the synthesis of the wild-type secY protein at the end of the period of pulse labeling. We have also assayed the requirements for secY function for in vitro protein translocation. Membranes derived from secY ts cells which were incubated at 42 degrees C were inactive in vitro in the post-translational uptake and processing of pro-OmpA. Thus, the secY protein can act post-translationally, enhancing the translocation of completed pro-OmpA polypeptide chains across the plasma membrane.
Bacterial Proteins↗