LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Puma (Felidae)
built 632 days ago
Mice lacking both Bim and Puma were generated by intercrossing double heterozygotes (bim+/–/puma+/–) and subsequently by intercrossing bim+/–/puma–/– males with double heterozygous females. Consistent with the previously reported partial embryonic lethality of bim–/– mice in intercrosses of bim+/– heterozygotes on the mixed 129SVxC57BL/6 background (6), only 44% of bim–/– and 40% of the expected numbers of bim–/–/puma–/– mice were born alive on the inbred C57BL/6 background. This indicates that a substantial percentage of bim–/– and bim–/–/puma–/– embryos die in utero and suggests that Bim and Puma do not have overlapping functions during embryogenesis. Additional bim–/–/puma–/– mice were generated by crossing bim–/–/puma–/– males with bim+/–/puma–/– females.
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Erlacher M, Michalak EM, Kelly PN, Labi V, Niederegger H, Coultas L, Adams JM, Strasser A, and Villunger A. BH3-only proteins Puma and Bim are rate-limiting for -radiation- and glucocorticoid-induced apoptosis of lymphoid cells in vivo. Blood 106: 4131–4138, 2005.[Abstract/FreeFullText]
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Pumas (Puma concolor) attacked and injured nine people in eight incidents in California since 1985 (plus one fatality not confirmed as a puma attack). In the previous 96 years, three people were attacked in two incidents. Five of the 12 people died as a result of the attacks. Possibly lowering the recent attack rate, 10 pumas were killed in 1994 to protect public safety. It is likely that many non-fatal attacks were not reported during earlier years (Beier, 1991). Even so, the increase to known incidents per year from two incidents in 96 years to eight in 10 years is dramatic.
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This specimen of Puma concolor, a female, was made available to The University of Texas High-Resolution X-ray CT Facility for scanning courtesy of Drs. Blaire Van Valkenburgh and Jessica Theodor, Department of Organismic Biology, Ecology, and Evolution, University of California, Los Angeles. Funding for scanning was provided by Dr. Van Valkenburgh and by a National Science Foundation Digital Libraries Initiative grant to Dr. Timothy Rowe of The University of Texas at Austin. The puma is one of several felid carnivorans included in ongoing research of respiratory turbinates by Drs. Van Valkenburgh and Theodor.
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The extensive lymphoid hyperplasia strongly suggests that lymphocytes lacking both Bim and Puma may exhibit severe apoptosis defects. To assess quantitative differences in stress-induced apoptosis, we isolated immature DP thymocytes and mature splenic T and B cells of 8–12-wk-old WT, bim–/–, puma–/–, bim–/–/puma–/–, and vav-bcl-2 tg mice, put them into culture, and subjected them to cytokine withdrawal, treatment with the GC dexamethasone, the phorbol ester PMA, the calcium ionophore ionomycin, the broad- spectrum kinase inhibitor staurosporine, irradiation, the DNA-damaging drug etoposide, or the glycosylation inhibitor and ER stressor tunicamycin. Cell viability was monitored over a period of 96 h by means of annexin V/propidium iodide (PI) staining and flow cytometric analysis. Thymocytes lacking both Bim and Puma survived cytokine deprivation, irradiation, and treatment with staurosporine, tunicamycin, or etoposide significantly better than cells lacking only Bim or Puma and, of course, WT cells (P 0.04; Fig. 4 a and not depicted). In contrast, other death stimuli such as phorbol ester or ionomycin killed primarily in a Puma- or Bim-dependent manner, respectively (Fig.
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If E2F and/or p73 contribute to the induction of Puma in the heart by hypoxia and/or ischemia, these conditions must activate these factor(s). This could occur by changes in the posttranslational regulatory pathways. There is some evidence for this. Both p53 and p73 are subject to ubiquitination and proteasomal degradation. Degradation of p53 is determined by its binding to the murine double minute-2 ubiquitin ligase and p73 by binding to the Hect ubiquitin ligase Itch (14). Binding of p73 to Itch promotes ubiquitination and rapid proteasome-dependent degradation.
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Puma (Felidae)