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An eleven-month old male F344/DuCrj (F344) rat was found dead and had right kidney mass at necropsy. Histopathologically, the mass was composed of nests of neoplastic stellate cells. At the center of the nests, neoplastic epithelial cells formed a tubular structure. In the fibrous connective tissue surrounding the nests, neoplastic cells with striations demonstrable by phosphotungstic acid hematoxylin were observed. Immunohistochemically, neoplastic stellate cells were partially positive for Wilms Tumor 1 and vimentin, and neoplastic cells with striations were partially positive for desmin. We diagnosed this tumor as a nephroblastoma with striated muscle differentiation. To our knowledge, this is the first case of nephroblastoma with apparent striated muscle differentiation in an F344 rat. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Enhancement of root hair development in response to phosphate (Pi) deficit has been reported extensively. Root hairs are involved in major root functions such as the absorption of water, acquisition of nutrients and secretion of organic acids and enzymes. Individual root hair cells maintain these functions and appropriate structure under various physiological conditions. We carried out a study to identify protein(s) which maintain the structure and function of root hairs, and identified a protein (SEED AND ROOT HAIR PROTECTIVE PROTEIN, SRPP) that was induced in root hairs under Pi-deficient conditions. Promoter assay and mRNA quantification revealed that SRPP was expressed in root hairs and seeds. A knockout mutant, srpp-1, consistently displayed defects in root hairs and seeds. Root hairs in srpp-1 were short and the phenotypes observed under Pi-deficient conditions were also detected in ethylene-treated srpp-1 plants. Propidium iodide stained most root hairs of srpp-1 grown under Pi-deficient conditions, suggesting cell death. In addition to root hairs, most srpp-1 seeds were withered and their embryos were dead. SRPP tagged with green fluorescent protein was detected in the cell wall. Electron microscopy showed abnormal morphology of the cell wall. Wild-type phenotypes were restored when the SRPP gene was expressed in srpp-1. These data strongly suggest that SRPP contributes to the construction of robust cell walls, whereby it plays a key role in the development of root hairs and seeds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The vacuolar Zn2+/H+ antiporter of Arabidopsis thaliana, AtMTP1, has a long cytosolic histidine-rich loop. A mutated AtMTP1 in which the first half of the loop (His-half) was deleted exhibited a 11-fold higher transport velocity in yeast cells. Transgenic lines overexpressing the His-half-deleted AtMTP1 in the loss-of-function mutant were evaluated for growth and metal content in the presence of various zinc concentrations. These overexpressing lines (35S-AtMTP1 and 35SHis- half lines) showed high tolerance to excess concentrations of zinc at 150 mM, as did the wild type, compared with the lossof- function line. The His-half AtMTP1 transported cobalt in a heterologous expression assay in yeast, but the cumulative amount of cobalt in 35S-His-half plants was not increased. Moreover, the accumulation of calcium and iron was not changed in plants. Under zinc-deficient conditions, growth of 35SHis- half lines was markedly suppressed. Under the same conditions, the 35S-His-half lines accumulated larger amounts of zinc in roots and smaller amounts of zinc in shoots compared with the other lines, suggesting an abnormal accumulation of zinc in the roots of 35S-His-half lines. As a result, the shoots may exhibit zinc deficiency. Taken together, these results suggest that the His-loop acts as a sensor of cytosolic zinc to maintain an essential level in the cytosol and that the dysfunction of the loop results in an uncontrolled accumulation of zinc in the vacuoles of root cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study which reports on the hispathological examination of a female sea otter that exhibited symptoms such as convulsions, arrhythmia and hyperthemia, dying a week after. Findings included neoplastic proliferation of small round cells with scant cytoplasm in the thalamus, the cerebral parenchyma and perivascular areas and were immunopositive for the cluster of differentiation 3 (CD3) T-cell protein. This is the first case of primary cerebral T-cell lymphoma in sea otter.