Povetkin, Chagaev Clash for Vacant WBA Heavyweight Title on August 27 / Helenius to Face Liakhovich
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Povetkin, Chagaev clash for vacant WBA Heavyweight Title on August 27 / Helenius to face Liakhovich Alexander Povetkin (21-0, 15 KOs) and Ruslan Chagaev (27-1-1, 17 KOs) will clash for the vacant WBA Heavyweight Title in Erfurt on August 27. In the co-featured main event, WBA & WBO Intercontinental Heavyweight Champion Robert Helenius will collide with Siarhei Liakhovich. “It is going to be a fantastic night of heavyweight boxing,” promoter Kalle Sauerland said. “This will be a great treat for boxing fans all around the world.” After Wladimir Klitschko added the WBA belt to his IBF & WBO titles, the WBA made him super champion and the title became vacant. Top- ranked Chagaev and Povetkin, the number two, now fight for the title. “I am really looking forward to the fight,” Povetkin stated. The 31- year-old, unbeaten in 21 fights, would have loved to fight for the title at an earlier stage, but the death of his father put him through a rough spell last year. “That´s past history now,” Kalle Sauerland added. “Alexander needed some time to get over the sad news. But now he is ready for a world title fight. He has always been one of the most talented heavyweight contenders out there. Now he will finally capture the title.” Chagaev will be eager to regain the title he once won from The Russian Giant Nikolai Valuev in April 2007. “It is going to be an exciting fight of two equally talented fighters,” Universum boss Klaus-Peter Kohl said. “Both had great amateur careers and won world championships, Povetkin even won the Olympic gold medal. Both have a similar physical constitution, but Ruslan has already been world champion as professional. I am convinced he will accomplish his goal of winning the title again.” In the co-featured main event, rising heavyweight contender Robert Helenius (15-0, 10 KOs) will be looking to claim the scalp of Siarhei Liakhovich (25-3, 16 KOs) as he defends his WBA & WBO Intercontinental Titles. The “Nordic Nightmare” knocked out Sam Peter in his last fight in April. He is ranked 2nd at the WBO and 3rd at the IBF. “Robert has a great future ahead,” coach Ulli Wegner stated. “He keeps progressing and he certainly has the talent to be world champion. Liakhovich is a very tough opponent and Robert will be perfectly prepared once he steps through the ropes.” Limulus retinal mRNA induces light-dependent currents in Xenopus oocytes. The Biological Bulletin October 1, 1996 | Mole, E.J.; Schaefer, J.; Mathiesz, K.; Dionne, V.E.; Knox, B.E.; Barlow, R.B., Jr. We are investigating the expression of Limulus retinal mRNA in Xenopus laevis oocytes as a means for examining the properties of Limulus rhodopsin that may influence photoreceptor sensitivity and noise (1,2). Xenopus oocytes were chosen because they contain G-protein-mediated ionic conductances (3) and can express mRNA from both vertebrate and invertebrate retinas (4,5). We report here that oocytes injected with Limulus retinal poly [A.sup.+]RNA and incubated with 11-cis retinal exhibit light-dependent ionic currents. This finding demonstrates that Limulus retinal mRNA is efficiently translated by Xenopus oocytes and is able to direct the synthesis of proteins necessary for light transduction. RNA from retinas excised from Limulus lateral eyes was purified using an acid guanidium method (6), and poly [A.sup.+]RNA was selected using immobilized oligo dT (Promega Company). The RNA was ethanol-precipitated twice, quantitated by UV spectroscopy, and resuspended in water for microinjection. To obtain oocytes, we anesthetized Xenopus frogs with 0.15% tricaine and surgically removed the ovarian lobes. Oocytes were dissociated from the surrounding epithelium and de- folliculated using 2 mg/ml collagenase (type 1A Sigma). Stage V and VI cells were microinjected with 50-100 ml of Limulus retinal poly A+ RNA (0.5 [mu]g/[mu]1 in water), and incubated for 2-6 days at 17[degree]C in Barth’s solution containing sodium pyruvate (5 mM) and gentamicin (10 [mu]g/ml). We localized injections to the animal pole of each oocyte. website test flash player For electrophysiological recording, we placed single oocytes in a recording chamber that was constantly perfused with recording solution and impaled them with two glass microelectrodes (2-4 MOhms). If oocytes had stable resting potentials after about 30 min in darkness, we perfused them with 20[mu]M 11-cis retinal for 45 min and tested them for light sensitivity. Light from an unfiltered tungsten filament lamp was delivered to the oocyte with a fiber-optic light pipe (0.02 mW/[cm.sup.2] at the surface of the oocyte). Light responses after 3 days of incubation were small or non- existent, but after 4 days they were robust and readily recordable. Five of 10 injected oocytes responded to the light. Figure 1A shows the current clamp response of an oocyte to a 25-s light flash. After a 6-s delay from light onset, the membrane depolarized to a level of -12 mV, and it returned to prestimulus baseline about 1 min after light offset. Responses of all other oocytes were similar to this, depolarizing to -12 to -23mV, with latencies that ranged from 6 to 24 s. Figure 1B shows the response of another oocyte to light while voltage clamped at various potentials. Light flashes evoked sustained inward currents at clamp potentials more negative than -25mV, and outward currents at potentials more positive than -20mV. The cause of the reduction in inward current before light offset at clamp potentials of -30 and -40mV is not known and was not observed in other oocytes. The reversal potential for the current for this oocyte was -23mV. Light-evoked currents for other oocytes reversed direction at holding potentials between -12 and -23mV, suggesting that this response is mediated by the endogenous calcium-activated chloride conductance (7, 8). Many other expressed receptor proteins also are known to couple into this pathway, and the long response latency we observed is typical of the activation of this chloride conductance (9). No light responses were detected in mRNA-injected oocytes before the application of 11-cis retinal. Other studies using the same expression system detected no responses in non-injected oocytes after incubation with 11-cis retinal (5). Figure 1C shows that repetitive flashes of light can evoke repetitive responses from oocytes without the need for additional incubation with 11-cis retinal. This sustained fight sensitivity supports an earlier finding that Limulus metarhodopsin is a relatively stable and photoreversible photoproduct of Limulus rhodopsin (10). This is not the case for bovine rhodopsin expressed in Xenopus oocytes (5), which requires additional incubation with 11-cis retinal to maintain light sensitivity. Note that the light-evoked currents in Figure 1C increased in amplitude in response to repeated light flashes of a constant intensity, while the response latencies decreased from 10 s for the first response to about 4 s for subsequent responses. Decreasing the intensity of the light flashes decreased both the response amplitude and the steady state level. Flashes of low intensity often failed to evoke any response to the first test flash, but not to subsequent ones (data not shown). Assuming that repetitive flashes of equal intensity generate equal levels of activated rhodopsin, the increasing response amplitude in Figure 1C may reflect the accumulation of an internal transmitter involved in the transduction cascade that yields the light-dependent currents we record. The occasional failure of the first test flash in a series to evoke a response points to the existence of a threshold for action for one or more internal constituents of this transduction pathway. We have not explored this facilitory response to subsequent light flashes in sufficient detail to determine either the exact threshold for action for the internal transmitter or the time course of its delay. web site test flash player In conclusion, we have demonstrated that Xenopus oocytes efficiently translate Limulus retinal mRNA and provide a suitable system for studying the characteristics of light transduction. We will combine this technology with molecular biological techniques to study how the properties of Limulus rhodopsin influence photoreceptor sensitivity and noise. Supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health, and the National Science Foundation. Literature Cited [1.] Barlow, R. B., R. R. Birge, E. Kaplan, and J. R. Tallent. 1993. Nature 366: 64-66. [2.] Birge, R. R., and R. B. Barlow. 1995. Biophys. Chem. 5: 115-126. [3.] Dascal N., C. Ifune, R. Hopkins, T. P. Snutch, H. Lubbert, M. I. Simon, N. Davidson, and H. Lester. 1986. Molec. Brain Res. 1: 201-209. [4.] Khorana H. G., B. Knox, E. Nasi, R. Swanson, and D. A. Thompson. 1988. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 85:7917-7921. [5.] Knox, B. E., H. G. Khorana, and E. Nasi. 1993. J Physiol. 466: 157-172. [6.] Chomczynski, P., and N.Sacci. 1987. Anal. Biochem. 162: 156-159. [7.] Miledi, R. 1982. Proc. Roy. Soc. B. 215: 491-497. [8.] Barish, M.E. 1983. J Physiol. 342: 309-325. [9.] Snutch, T.P. 1988. TINS 11: 250-256. [10.] Lisman, J. E., and Y. Sheline. 1976. J Gen. Physiol. 68: 487-501. Mole, E.J.; Schaefer, J.; Mathiesz, K.; Dionne, V.E.; Knox, B.E.; Barlow, R.B., Jr..