A Tetragonal Lattice in Mammalian Lens Junctions

Author(s):  
J.D. Robertson ◽  
G. Zampighi ◽  
S. Simon ◽  
T.J. McIntosh ◽  
M.J. Costello

A pure fraction of junctional membranes has been isolated in milligram quantities from bovine lens without detergents. SDS-PAGE analysis shows a major band at 27,000 d and a minor one at 21,000 d. Thin section electron microscopy (EM) of this fraction revealed junctions of two closely apposed membranes with an overall thickness of 135-140 Å with a wavy contour and lengths greater than 10 μm. Negative stain and freeze-fracture (FF) EM (only unetched specimens so far) and X-ray diffraction studies of unfixed and unglycerinated specimens were in agreement regarding the structure of the junctions. They consisted primarily of extensive domains of sub-units arranged in a 66 Å tetragonal lattice. Specimens were spun down centrifugally in a Beem capsule and partially dried for the x-ray diffraction studies. The X-ray patterns contained several reflections which indexed on a tetragonal lattice of 66 Å in the equatorial direction parallel to the plane of the membranes and several bands of a continuous transform in the meridional direction consistent with membrane pairs. No diffraction was seen at 85 Å in the equatorial direction.

Author(s):  
S. W. Hui ◽  
T. P. Stewart

Direct electron microscopic study of biological molecules has been hampered by such factors as radiation damage, lack of contrast and vacuum drying. In certain cases, however, the difficulties may be overcome by using redundent structural information from repeating units and by various specimen preservation methods. With bilayers of phospholipids in which both the solid and fluid phases co-exist, the ordering of the hydrocarbon chains may be utilized to form diffraction contrast images. Domains of different molecular packings may be recgnizable by placing properly chosen filters in the diffraction plane. These domains would correspond to those observed by freeze fracture, if certain distinctive undulating patterns are associated with certain molecular packing, as suggested by X-ray diffraction studies. By using an environmental stage, we were able to directly observe these domains in bilayers of mixed phospholipids at various temperatures at which their phases change from misible to inmissible states.


Author(s):  
Thomas S. Leeson ◽  
C. Roland Leeson

Numerous previous studies of outer segments of retinal receptors have demonstrated a complex internal structure of a series of transversely orientated membranous lamellae, discs, or saccules. In cones, these lamellae probably are invaginations of the covering plasma membrane. In rods, however, they appear to be isolated and separate discs although some authors report interconnections and some continuities with the surface near the base of the outer segment, i.e. toward the inner segment. In some species, variations have been reported, such as longitudinally orientated lamellae and lamellar whorls. In cross section, the discs or saccules show one or more incisures. The saccules probably contain photolabile pigment, with resulting potentials after dipole formation during bleaching of pigment. Continuity between the lamina of rod saccules and extracellular space may be necessary for the detection of dipoles, although such continuity usually is not found by electron microscopy. Particles on the membranes have been found by low angle X-ray diffraction, by low temperature electron microscopy and by freeze-etching techniques.


Author(s):  
K. H. Downing ◽  
S. G. Wolf ◽  
E. Nogales

Microtubules are involved in a host of critical cell activities, many of which involve transport of organelles through the cell. Different sets of microtubules appear to form during the cell cycle for different functions. Knowledge of the structure of tubulin will be necessary in order to understand the various functional mechanisms of microtubule assemble, disassembly, and interaction with other molecules, but tubulin has so far resisted crystallization for x-ray diffraction studies. Fortuitously, in the presence of zinc ions, tubulin also forms two-dimensional, crystalline sheets that are ideally suited for study by electron microscopy. We have refined procedures for forming the sheets and preparing them for EM, and have been able to obtain high-resolution structural data that sheds light on the formation and stabilization of microtubules, and even the interaction with a therapeutic drug.Tubulin sheets had been extensively studied in negative stain, demonstrating that the same protofilament structure was formed in the sheets and microtubules. For high resolution studies, we have found that the sheets embedded in either glucose or tannin diffract to around 3 Å.


Author(s):  
William H. Massover

Molecules of the metalloprotein, ferritin, have an outer shell comprised of a polymeric assembly of 24 polypeptide subunits (apoferritin). This protein shell encloses a hydrated space, the central cavity, within which up to several thousand iron atoms can be deposited as the biomineral, ferrihydrite. The actual pathway taken by iron moving across the protein shell is not known; an analogous question exists for the demonstrated entrance of negative stains into the central cavity. Intersubunit interstices at the 4-fold and 3-fold symmetry axes have been defined with x-ray diffraction, and were hypothesized to provide a pathway for penetration through the outer shell; however, since these channels are only 4Å in width, they are much too small to allow simple permeation of either hydrated iron or stain ions. A different hypothesis, based on studies of subunit dissociation from highly diluted ferritin, proposes that transient gaps in the protein shell are created by a rapid reversible subunit release and permit the direct passage of large ions into the central cavity.


Minerals ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 84 ◽  
Author(s):  
Satoru Urakawa ◽  
Toru Inoue ◽  
Takanori Hattori ◽  
Asami Sano-Furukawa ◽  
Shinji Kohara ◽  
...  

The structure of hydrous amorphous SiO2 is fundamental in order to investigate the effects of water on the physicochemical properties of oxide glasses and magma. The hydrous SiO2 glass with 13 wt.% D2O was synthesized under high-pressure and high-temperature conditions and its structure was investigated by small angle X-ray scattering, X-ray diffraction, and neutron diffraction experiments at pressures of up to 10 GPa and room temperature. This hydrous glass is separated into two phases: a major phase rich in SiO2 and a minor phase rich in D2O molecules distributed as small domains with dimensions of less than 100 Å. Medium-range order of the hydrous glass shrinks compared to the anhydrous SiO2 glass by disruption of SiO4 linkage due to the formation of Si–OD deuterioxyl, while the response of its structure to pressure is almost the same as that of the anhydrous SiO2 glass. Most of D2O molecules are in the small domains and hardly penetrate into the void space in the ring consisting of SiO4 tetrahedra.


1994 ◽  
Vol 342 ◽  
Author(s):  
I. BÁrsony ◽  
J.G.E. Klappe ◽  
É. Vázsonyi ◽  
T. Lohner ◽  
M. Fried

ABSTRACTChemical and mechanical stability of porous silicon layers (PSL) is the prerequisite of any active (luminescent) or passive (e.g. porous substrate) integrated applications. In this work X-ray diffraction (XRD) was used to analyze quantitatively the strain distribution obtained in different morphology PSL that were prepared on (100) p and p+Si substrates. Tetragonal lattice constant distortion can be as high as 1.4% in highly porous “as-prepared” samples. Incoherent optical heating RTO is governed by the absorption in the oxidized specimen. PSL show vertical inhomogeneity according to interpretation of spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE) data. Oxygen incorporation during RTO is controlled by specific surface (in p+ proportional, in p inversely proportional with porosity), while the developing compressive stress depends on pore size, and decreases with porosity in both morphologies.


1968 ◽  
Vol 16 (11) ◽  
pp. 673-677 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. D. EANES ◽  
G. G. GLENNER

The filamentous protein component of amyloid-laden tissue was studied by x-ray diffraction procedures. The principal features of the x-ray pattern from nonoriented amyloid material consist of a sharp, intense ring at 4.75 Å overlaying a diffuse halo at 4.3 Å, and a broad and less intense ring at 9.8 Å. When oriented, the material gives a "cross-β" x-ray pattern. The x-ray findings are interpreted in terms of a "pleated sheet" structure formed by the amyloid polypeptide chain folding in a regular manner on itself such that adjacent chain segments are laterally arranged in an antiparallel manner. The x-ray patterns from oriented amyloid suggest further that the axes of the chain segments run transverse to the filament axis.


Author(s):  
A. V. Maletsky ◽  
T. E. Konstantinova ◽  
D. R. Belichko ◽  
G. K. Volkova ◽  
V. V. Burkhovetsky

The paper presents results of the study of the effect of doping with yttrium oxide on ceramics of the composition (γ + θ) Al2O3 + nY2O3 (n = 0, 1, 2, 3 wt%), sintered at 1550°C for 2 h, from powders of the specified composition annealed at temperatures of 500 , 800, 1000°С. X-ray diffraction analysis established the formation in ceramics of yttrium aluminum garnet Y3Al5O12 (YAG) and a metastable phase of the same composition with a tetragonal lattice type in powders at temperatures above 1200°C. The effect of YAG on the physical and mechanical properties was established: high properties were demonstrated by ceramics of the composition α-Al2O3 + 2wt% Y2O3, obtained from a powder annealed at 1000°C. In addition, high physical and mechanical properties were observed in ceramics of the composition α-Al2O3 + 0wt% Y2O3, obtained from a powder annealed at 800°C. The effect of the so-called “mutual protection against crystallization” was discovered, which consists in the mutual inhibition of crystallization processes in powders of the Al2O3 – Y2O3 system.


1997 ◽  
Vol 11 (07) ◽  
pp. 323-331 ◽  
Author(s):  
V. P. S. Awana ◽  
Rajvir Singh ◽  
D. A. Landinez Tellez ◽  
J. M. Ferreira ◽  
J. Albino Aguiar ◽  
...  

We present the results of superconductivity, normal state magnetic susceptibility and heat capacity measurements on the tetragonal CaLa 1-x Pr x BaCu 3 O 7 compound. Ac susceptibility measurements show that the transition temperature T c of the unsubstituted sample decreases with an increase in the Pr concentration. Normal state dc magnetic susceptibility measurements performed in an applied field of 0.5 T show a Curie–Weiss behaviour in terms of the paramagnetic moment of Pr. The effective paramagnetic moment of Pr appears to be intermediate between those of the free Pr 3+ and Pr 4+ ions. For the nonsuperconducting samples i.e., x = 0.70 and 1.0, we observe an antiferromagnetic ordering temperature T N of nearly 4 K and 8 K respectively. The X-ray diffraction results show that the CaPrBaCu 3 O 7 compound is free from other phases, having a minor (less than 8%, in terms of peak intensity) impurity phase. The lower T N (8 K) of PrBaCaCu 3 O 7 as compared to the known antiferromagnetic ordering temperature of 17 K for PrBa 2 Cu 3 O 7 indicates a less deleterious effect of Pr in the present case.


2002 ◽  
Vol 09 (02) ◽  
pp. 937-941 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. LUCHES ◽  
C. GIOVANARDI ◽  
T. MOIA ◽  
S. VALERI ◽  
F. BRUNO ◽  
...  

CoO layers have been grown by exposing to oxygen the (001) body-centered-tetragonal (bct) surface of a Co ultrathin film epitaxially grown on Fe(001). Different oxide thicknesses in the 2–15 ML range have been investigated by means of synchrotron-radiation-based techniques. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy has been used to check the formation of the oxide films; X ray photoelectron diffraction has given information concerning the symmetry of their unit cell; grazing incidence X-ray diffraction has allowed to evaluate precisely their in-plane lattice constant. The films show a CoO(001) rocksalt structure, rotated by 45° with respect to the bct Co substrate, with the [100] direction parallel to the substrate [110] direction. Their in-plane lattice constant increases as a function of thickness, to release the in-plane strain due to the 3% mismatch between the bulk CoO phase and the underlying substrate.


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