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Kiwi fruit (Actinidia deliciosa), originating from the Yangtze Valley in China, was initially cultured in New Zealand in the 1900s as a fruit tree. Its breeding history is short compared with many other plants. Presently, kiwi fruit is not only valued for its good taste, but also contains various vitamins and proteinases; therefore, the demand for kiwi fruit is increasing worldwide. In addition, further improvements are needed since there have been problems such as more diseases caused by bacteria, insect damage and decreased sweetness and softening during transportation (International Kiwifruit Organization Conference 1988).

Rice storage protein glutelin genes are coordinately regulated during seed development. A previous 5' deletion analysis using transgenic tobacco revealed that the minimum 5' region necessary for endosperm specificity was within -245 bp of the transcription start site, and included the AACA and GCN4 motifs that are highly conserved in the 5'-flanking regions of all glutelin genes. In this paper, the sequence elements essential for endosperm-specific expression are characterized in stable transgenic tobacco plants by both loss-of-function and gain-of-function experiments using this minimum promoter. Base substitution analysis shows that the proximal AACA motif between -73 and -61, and the GCN4 motif between -165 and -158 act as critical elements. An ACGT motif between -81 and -75, and Skn-I-like elements between -173 and -169 also play important roles in controlling the seed-specific expression. When the distal region between -245 and -145 containing the AACA and the GCN4 motifs or the proximal region between -113 and -46 containing the ACGT and AACA motifs is fused to a truncated promoter (-90 to +9) of the CaMV 35S gene fused to the beta-glucuronidase (GUS) reporter gene, high levels of seed-specific expression are observed in these fusions, thereby indicating that either pair of motifs is sufficient to confer seed expression in these fusions. However, when substituted for by the CaMV 35S core promoter (-46 to +1), seed expression is abolished, suggesting that the sequence between -90 and -46 of the CaMV 35S promoter containing G-box-like motif (as-1 element) is required for such specific expression in addition to AACA and GCN4 motifs. Therefore, we conclude that at least three cis-regulatory elements, the AACA motif, GCN4 motif and ACGT motif, are necessary to mediate endosperm expression of the GluB-1 glutelin gene.

To investigate the mechanism of sugar accumulation in fruit vacuoles, a full length cDNA (CitVATP-A) encoding the vacuolar H+-ATPase 69-kDa catalytic subunit was isolated from a cDNA library constructed from citrus fruit (Citrus unshiu Marc.). A 2304-bp insert of CitVATP-A was coded for a 623 amino acid polypeptide with a predicted molecular mass of 68.68 kDa. The deduced amino acid sequence for CitVATP-A showed a 96.5% homology with the carrot homologue. Genomic Southern blot analysis suggested that CitVATP-A is a low-copy number gene. Northern blot analysis of leaves and fruits during the developing stages showed that the level of expression is high in young leaves and is low in mature leaves, and that it increased in both the edible parts and the peel, during fruit growth and maturity.

Renal and electrolyte disturbances in 91 patients with chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) were analyzed over a period of these twenty years. At diagnosis, renal and electrolytes were studied in 72 patients including 65 in chronic cases, 5 in accelerated phase and 2 in blastic crisis. There were 8 cases of hypocalcemia among 62 patients and 5 cases of hyperphosphatemia among 48 patients. The cases of hyperphosphatemia and renal dysfunction had short median survival. There were no significant differences of renal and electrolyte disturbances between before and after chemotherapy. Various electrolyte disturbances, that is, hyponatremia, hypo-, hyperkalemia, hypocalcemia, hypo-, hyperphosphatemia, were found in the blastic crisis of CML. In the last admission, renal dysfunction and various electrolyte disturbances were present in almost half of the cases. Pathological studies were performed in 18 autopsy cases. Acute tubular insufficiency or necrosis, hypercalcemic nephropathy, and renal infiltration of leukemic cells were recognized in patients who had renal dysfunction.

One hundred patients with diffuse non-Hodgkin's lymphoma were treated with combination chemotherapy including adriamycin. Seventy-one patients were under age 70 and 29 were 70 years or older. The clinical characteristics of the two groups were similar, except that the patients showed elevated serum BUN were in the elderly group. The complete remission rate in the elderly patients (66%) was slightly lower than that in the younger patients (75%) (p = NS). The average length of survival in the elderly patients was significantly shorter than in the younger patients (p less than 0.05) (projected 5-year survival: 28 +/- 11% vs 52 +/- 7%). The duration of remission for all patients in the elderly patients did not differ from that in the younger patients (projected 2-year survival: 40 +/- 10% vs 45 +/- 6%). Death during the induction chemotherapy from causes other than lymphoma occurred in 14% of patients over 70-year-old and in one percent of younger patients. At relapse, the response rate was significantly lower in the elderly patients than in the younger patients (CR+PR: 28% vs 78%, p = 0.03). To prevent toxic death in remission induction therapy, drug dose elderly patients should be attenuated according to their general conditions and performance status.

Ten patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma originated in the nasal cavity (four patients) and in the paranasal sinuses (six patients) were treated mainly with irradiation and combination chemotherapy including adriamycin. According to the TNM AJC staging system, four patients were in stage T1-T2, and six patients were in stage T3-T4. Nine patients, other than one with stage IV (Ann Arbor) disease, achieved complete remission. Death due to lymphoma occurred in four patients, 4 to 39 months following diagnosis. Three of these patients developed systemic extranodal dissemination, and died in a short time after relapse. Death due to second malignancies occurred in two patients. One died of acute myelogenous leukemia, and the other died of colon cancer, 26 and 53 months after diagnosis, respectively. Four patients were alive and disease-free, from 23 to 68 months following diagnosis (median 40 months). Out of four patients who died of disease, three were in stage T3-T4, and one was in stage T1. Two patients with stage T1 originated in the nasal cavity were both alive and disease-free. Except for lymphomas with stage T1 originated in the nasal cavity, more intensive chemotherapy should be instituted in an attempt to achieve better disease-free survival.

A 42-year-old woman was admitted to our hospital because of easy fatigability in Jan. 1976. Laboratory examination revealed severe macrocytic anemia and slight lymphocytosis. She was diagnosed as having pure red cell aplasia (PRCA). She went into hematological remission 6 weeks following 40 mg/day treatment with prednisolone, but the anemia relapsed frequently when the dosage was lessened. She was then treated with 50 mg/day of cyclophosphamide, 50 mg/day of azathioprine, splenectomy, and methylprednisolone pulse therapy, but the recovery from anemia was temporary after each treatment. Since 1984, peripheral lymphocyte counts were 1-30,000/microliters, and reticulocyte counts were 0. She died of sepsis of Listeria in Sep. 1986. Peripheral lymphocytes had large azurophilic granules and an immunophenotype of OKT3+8+11+Ia1+Leu7+.

The preservation of genetic resources in trees has been carried out in the field by the maintenance of adult trees. This method is convenient in investigating morphological characters of the species whenever necessary, and also for the cross pollinations in breeding experiment. However, this method requires plenty of space, labour and expense. Furthermore, these stock trees in the field are amenable to diseases, pests or disasters, which may lead to the loss of germplasm. Therefore, to secure the maintenance of genetic resources of trees, storage of pollen grains is effective (Akihama et al. 1978, 1979).

The antigenic determinant of thermally denatured DNA reactive with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) sera was examined by hapten inhibition assay. We used oligonucleotides with different chain lengths (2-8) derived from DNase I digests of salmon sperm DNA in Farr's radioimmunoassay with thermally denatured mouse embryo 3H-DNA as antigen, and the effect of dextran sulphate addition to the assay mixture on the inhibitory activity of oligonucleotides was examined. A characteristic oligonucleotide inhibition pattern on DNA binding by SLE sera was observed in the assay system without dextran sulphate. Di-and/or trinucleotide inhibited the binding more effectively than tetra-and/or pentanucleotide. These patterns were also observed in DNA-normal serum interaction. When dextran sulphate was added to the mixture, the inhibition pattern changed; the inhibitory activity of oligonucleotides increased with chain length in both serum groups. The inhibitory potency of di- and trinucleotide was higher on DNA-SLE sera than on DNA-normal sera interaction. The high potency of short-chain oligomers in SLE sera is obviously different from that in experimentally elicited anti-DNA sera suggesting that different mechanism(s) are involved in antibody production in normal individuals and SLE patients.

Thirty kidney specimens obtained from 26 patients with intrarenal amyloid deposition were evaluated. The deposited amyloid belonged to AL protein in 15 cases and AA protein in 11. The intrarenal distribution was examined. Intraglomerular nodular pattern showed a wider extraglomerular distribution of amyloid with a florid accumulation along the vasa recta in the outer medulla, whereas intraglomerular diffuse pattern had amyloid deposition confined mainly to a narrow range surrounding the glomeruli. However, no essential difference was appreciated between AL and AA proteins in the intrarenal distribution, although the former more often disclosed the diffuse pattern. There were many morphological expressions resembling diabetic nephropathy; in addition to the diffuse and nodular pictures, capsular drop-like deposits along Bowman's capsule, simultaneous deposition in the afferent and efferent arterioles, glomerular microaneurysm of early stage, and accumulation along the tubular basement membrane were observed in amyloid nephropathy. Thus, the spicule formation in renal amyloidosis and the diffuse thickening of glomerular and tubular basement membranes in the diabetic emerged as the respective specific lesion. The implicated pathogenesis of diabetic nephropathy was also discussed.

p-Fluorophenylalanine reduced germination and growth of diploid seedlings of grape (Vitis vinifera L. cv. Neo Muscat) and induced variation in chromosome numbers from haploidy to tetraploidy including aneuploidy in root cells.

The induction of shoot differentiation from anther-derived callus of Vitis thunbergii Sieb. et Zucc. is described.

New shoots of a tetraploid grape (Vitis vinifera L. × V. labrusca L. cv. Kyoho; 2n = 76) treated with p-fluorophenylalanine produced a mutant shoot with 57 chromosomes. The mutant shoot had small, thin leaves and a bushy growth habit.