Month: September 2022

FORMIC ACID MATH. "The beetle reloads the glands at a rate of 126 μg of formic acid per day. For the approximately 500 secretory cells of the glands, this means an hourly output of 10 ng of formic acid per cell, or about 5% of cell volume. Replenishing empty glands to their full formic acid load takes the beetle an estimated 37 days. Replenishing the 0.7 mg of formic acid expended in a single discharge takes 5.5 days." https://lnkd.in/eRxPvPM View in LinkedIn

"RATE OF SECRETION of three cells (Ng/hour): G. Lecontei beetle formic acid gland: 10 Ng; human parietal cell secreting HCl: 0.4 Ng; human pancreatic beta cell secreting insulin: 6.3 x 10(-4)." In terms of net amount of formic acid produced, this exceeds the rate of hydrochloric acid production by human parietal cells, and (by far, as expected) the rate of hormone production by an endocrine cell." https://lnkd.in/ePUU9mM View in LinkedIn

FIRE ANT VENOM. "The overall average venom dose was 0.56 mg...Thus, a typical worker contains around 32 average venom doses, each of which represents 3.1% of her total venom supply. At the initial venom synthesis rate of 1.17 mg/mm3/day, it takes a worker with a headwidth of 1 mm about 11.5 h after eclosion to generate one average venom dose (0.56 mg)." https://lnkd.in/emaJzBX View in LinkedIn

RELOADING. "For the beetle to refurbish the 0.7 mg of formic acid expended in a single discharge would demand 9 mg of protein, while synthesizing formic acid at the observed rate would require 1.6 mg of protein per day, or 1% of beetle body mass. Defense, evidently, does not come “free” for G. lecontei." https://lnkd.in/ePUU9mM View in LinkedIn

TOTAL PRODUCTION. "Assuming a standing population of 160,000 workers, 35% of whom are majors, an average mature S. invicta colony contains roughly 3.2 g of venom. With 2.4 million workers produced during an average colony’s 7-year life span a grand total of roughly 43 g of venom is generated, representing 2.2% of an approximate total 2 kg of ants." (Fire ants). https://lnkd.in/emaJzBX View in LinkedIn

SHEEP SCRAPIE. "Many distinct strains of scrapie prions have been derived from sheep scrapie isolates. Because different strains can be propagated in a single inbred mouse line (homozygous with regard to its PrP gene) the same PrP molecule must be able to mediate different strain phenotypes." https://lnkd.in/ey5nHGn View in LinkedIn

YEAST PRIONS. "Self-propagating abnormal proteins, prions, have been identified in yeast; asparagine/glutamine-rich ‘prion domains’ within these proteins can inactivate the linked functional domains; new prion domains and reporters have been used to make ‘synthetic prions’, leading to discoveries of new natural prions." https://lnkd.in/eersnh6 View in LinkedIn

HARD TO KILL. "Prions, however, are infectious by their effect on normal versions of the protein. Sterilizing prions, therefore, requires the denaturation of the protein to a state in which the molecule is no longer able to induce the abnormal folding of normal proteins. In general, prions are quite resistant to proteases, heat, radiation, and formalin treatments, although their infectivity can be reduced by such treatments." https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prion View in LinkedIn

CONTAMINATION. "Researchers called for further work into the possibility that metal instruments used in medical procedures could pick up harmful proteins which survive conventional sterilisation with formaldehyde." http://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/sep/09/protein-linked-to-alzheimers-could-be-spread-during-surgery-say-researchers View in LinkedIn

INDEX CASES. "The concern comes after scientists found that a small number of people who died from Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) after being treated with growth hormone taken from cadavers, developed brain changes seen in Alzheimer’s disease." http://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/sep/09/protein-linked-to-alzheimers-could-be-spread-during-surgery-say-researchers View in LinkedIn