Drep-2 is a novel synaptic protein important for learning and memory

CIDE-N domains mediate interactions between the DNase Dff40/CAD and its inhibitor Dff45/ICAD. In this study, we report that the CIDE-N protein Drep-2 is a novel synaptic protein important for learning and behavioral adaptation. Drep-2 was found at synapses throughout the Drosophila brain and was strongly enriched at mushroom body input synapses. It was required within Kenyon cells for normal olfactory short- and intermediate-term memory. Drep-2 colocalized with metabotropic glutamate receptors (mGluRs). Chronic pharmacological stimulation of mGluRs compensated for drep-2 learning deficits, and drep-2 and mGluR learning phenotypes behaved non-additively, suggesting that Drep 2 might be involved in effective mGluR signaling. In fact, Drosophila fragile X protein mutants, shown to benefit from attenuation of mGluR signaling, profited from the elimination of drep-2. Thus, Drep-2 is a novel regulatory synaptic factor, probably intersecting with metabotropic signaling and translational regulation

Banks-Casher-type relations for complex Dirac spectra

For theories with a sign problem there is no analog of the Banks-Casher relation. This is true in particular for QCD at nonzero quark chemical potential. However, for QCD-like theories without a sign problem the Banks-Casher relation can be extended to the case of complex Dirac eigenvalues. We derive such extensions for the zero-temperature, high-density limits of two-color QCD, QCD at nonzero isospin chemical potential, and adjoint QCD. In all three cases the density of the complex Dirac eigenvalues at the origin is proportional to the BCS gap squared.Comment: 7 pages, talk presented at Lattice 201

Banks-Casher-type relation for the BCS gap at high density

We derive a new Banks-Casher-type relation which relates the density of complex Dirac eigenvalues at the origin to the BCS gap of quarks at high density. Our relation is applicable to QCD and QCD-like theories without a sign problem, such as two-color QCD and adjoint QCD with baryon chemical potential, and QCD with isospin chemical potential. It provides us with a method to measure the BCS gap through the Dirac spectrum on the lattice.Comment: 14 pages, 2 figures, some additions (in particular eq. (4.13)), version to appear in EPJ