252 research outputs found
Identification of a system required for the functional surface localization of sugar binding proteins with class III signal peptides in Sulfolobus solfataricus
The hyperthermophilic archaeon Sulfolobus solfataricus contains an unusual large number of sugar binding proteins that are synthesized as precursors with a class III signal peptide. Such signal peptides are commonly used to direct archaeal flagellin subunits or bacterial (pseudo)pilins into extracellular macromolecular surface appendages. Likewise, S. solfataricus binding proteins have been suggested to assemble in higher ordered surface structures as well, tentatively termed the bindosome. Here we show that S. solfataricus contains a specific system that is needed for the functional surface localization of sugar binding proteins. This system, encoded by the bas (bindosome assembly system) operon, is composed of five proteins: basABC, three homologues of so-called bacterial (pseudo)pilins; BasE, a cytoplasmic ATPase; and BasF, an integral membrane protein. Deletion of either the three (pseudo)pilin genes or the basEF genes resulted in a severe defect of the cells to grow on substrates which are transported by sugar binding proteins containing class III signal peptides, while growth on glucose and maltose was restored when the corresponding genes were reintroduced in these cells. Concomitantly, ΔbasABC and ΔbasEF cells were severely impaired in glucose uptake even though the sugar binding proteins were normally secreted across the cytoplasmic membrane. These data underline the hypothesis that the bas operon is involved in the functional localization of sugar binding proteins at the cell surface of S. solfataricus. In contrast to surface structure assembly systems of Gram-negative bacteria, the bas operon seems to resemble an ancestral simplified form of these machineries.
Direct binding of cytosolic NDP kinases to membrane lipids is regulated by nucleotides
AbstractIn spite of their complete lack of any structural features that characterize membrane proteins, cytosolic nucleoside-diphosphate kinases (NDPKs) have been found repeatedly to associate with membranes. In some instances the recruitment of cytosolic NDPKs to membranes was attributed to interactions with peripheral or integral membrane proteins, but in many cases the mechanism underlying the association of NDPKs with membranes remained unknown. We show here that cytosolic NDPKs bind directly to membrane lipids in a dynamic process that is controlled by its substrates, nucleoside tri- and diphosphates, and can be fully reconstituted with chemically defined, protein-free phospholipids and recombinant NDPK, or with purified NDPK. Our results uncover a novel mechanism for the reversible targeting of soluble NDPKs to membranes, where they may act as a reservoir of high energy phosphate, supporting the operation of membrane-based processes that utilize nucleotides other than ATP, such as intracellular traffic and phospholipid biosynthesis
Receptor Activation Regulates Cortical, but not Vesicular Localization of NDP Kinase
We used immunofluorescence techniques to determine the localization of nucleoside diphosphate (NDP) kinase in NIH-3T3 fibroblasts. We found that cytoplasmic NDP kinase can be separated into two populations according to subcellular localization and response to extracellular stimuli. Specifically, within minutes of stimulation of resting fibroblasts with serum, growth factors or bombesin, a portion of NDP kinase becomes associated with membrane ruffles and lamellipodia. Another pool of NDP kinase accumulates independently of stimulation around intracellular vesicles. Transfection of cells with activated Rac mimics, whereas expression of dominant negative Rac inhibits, the effects of extracellular stimulation on the translocation of NDP kinase to the cell cortex. Neither Rac mutant affects the vesicle-associated pool. Association of NDP kinase with vesicles depends on microtubule integrity and is disrupted by nocodazole. In cell-free assays NDP kinase binds tightly to membrane vesicles associated with taxol-stabilized microtubules. Binding of NDP kinase to this fraction is reduced by ATP and abolished by GTP, as well as guanine nucleotides that are NDP kinase substrates. Thus, the localization of the two NDP kinase pools identified here is regulated independently by distinct cellular components: the appearance of cortical NDP kinase is a consequence of Rac activation, whereas vesicular NDP kinase is responsive to microtubule dynamics and nucleotides, in particular GTP. These results suggest that in fibroblasts NDP kinase participates in Racrelated cortical events and in GTP-dependent processes linked to intracellular vesicle trafficking
Duality and Braiding in Twisted Quantum Field Theory
We re-examine various issues surrounding the definition of twisted quantum
field theories on flat noncommutative spaces. We propose an interpretation
based on nonlocal commutative field redefinitions which clarifies previously
observed properties such as the formal equivalence of Green's functions in the
noncommutative and commutative theories, causality, and the absence of UV/IR
mixing. We use these fields to define the functional integral formulation of
twisted quantum field theory. We exploit techniques from braided tensor algebra
to argue that the twisted Fock space states of these free fields obey
conventional statistics. We support our claims with a detailed analysis of the
modifications induced in the presence of background magnetic fields, which
induces additional twists by magnetic translation operators and alters the
effective noncommutative geometry seen by the twisted quantum fields. When two
such field theories are dual to one another, we demonstrate that only our
braided physical states are covariant under the duality.Comment: 35 pages; v2: Typos correcte
Lattice Perturbation Theory in Noncommutative Geometry and Parity Anomaly in 3D Noncommutative QED
We formulate lattice perturbation theory for gauge theories in noncommutative
geometry. We apply it to three-dimensional noncommutative QED and calculate the
effective action induced by Dirac fermions. In particular "parity invariance"
of a massless theory receives an anomaly expressed by the noncommutative
Chern-Simons action. The coefficient of the anomaly is labelled by an integer
depending on the lattice action, which is a noncommutative counterpart of the
phenomenon known in the commutative theory. The parity anomaly can also be
obtained using Ginsparg-Wilson fermions, where the masslessness is guaranteed
at finite lattice spacing. This suggests a natural definition of the
lattice-regularized Chern-Simons theory on a noncommutative torus, which could
enable nonperturbative studies of quantum Hall systems.Comment: 31 pages. LaTeX, feynmf. Minor changes, references added and typos
corrected. Final version published in JHE
Time dependent solitons of noncommutative Chern-Simons theory coupled to scalar fields
We study one- and two-soliton solutions of noncommutative Chern-Simons theory
coupled to a nonrelativistic or a relativistic scalar field. In the
nonrelativistic case, we find a tower of new stationary time-dependent
solutions, all with the same charge density, but with increasing energies. The
dynamics of these solitons cannot be studied using traditional moduli space
techniques, but we do find a nontrivial symplectic form on the phase space
indicating that the moduli space is not flat. In the relativistic case we find
the metric on the two soliton moduli space.Comment: 22 pages, 2 figures, JHEP3 style. v2: This paper is a thoroughly
revised version. We thank P.A. Horvathy, L. Martina and P.C. Stichel for
illuminating comments that led us to reconsider some of our previously
reported results; see note added at the end of the paper. v3:
Acknowledgements adde
Spectrum of Schroedinger field in a noncommutative magnetic monopole
The energy spectrum of a nonrelativistic particle on a noncommutative sphere
in the presence of a magnetic monopole field is calculated. The system is
treated in the field theory language, in which the one-particle sector of a
charged Schroedinger field coupled to a noncommutative U(1) gauge field is
identified. It is shown that the Hamiltonian is essentially the angular
momentum squared of the particle, but with a nontrivial scaling factor
appearing, in agreement with the first-quantized canonical treatment of the
problem. Monopole quantization is recovered and identified as the quantization
of a commutative Seiberg-Witten mapped monopole field.Comment: 16 pages; references adde
Prospects for observations of high-energy cosmic tau neutrinos
We study prospects for the observations of high-energy cosmic tau neutrinos
(E \geq 10^6 GeV) originating from proton acceleration in the cores of active
galactic nuclei. We consider the possibility that vacuum flavor neutrino
oscillations induce a tau to muon neutrino flux ratio greatly exceeding the
rather small value expected from intrinsic production. The criterias and event
rates for under water/ice light Cerenkov neutrino telescopes are given by
considering the possible detection of downgoing high-energy cosmic tau
neutrinos through characteristic double shower events.Comment: 10 pages, Revtex, 3 figures included with eps
Numerical simulations of a non-commutative theory: the scalar model on the fuzzy sphere
We address a detailed non-perturbative numerical study of the scalar theory
on the fuzzy sphere. We use a novel algorithm which strongly reduces the
correlation problems in the matrix update process, and allows the investigation
of different regimes of the model in a precise and reliable way. We study the
modes associated to different momenta and the role they play in the ``striped
phase'', pointing out a consistent interpretation which is corroborated by our
data, and which sheds further light on the results obtained in some previous
works. Next, we test a quantitative, non-trivial theoretical prediction for
this model, which has been formulated in the literature: The existence of an
eigenvalue sector characterised by a precise probability density, and the
emergence of the phase transition associated with the opening of a gap around
the origin in the eigenvalue distribution. The theoretical predictions are
confirmed by our numerical results. Finally, we propose a possible method to
detect numerically the non-commutative anomaly predicted in a one-loop
perturbative analysis of the model, which is expected to induce a distortion of
the dispersion relation on the fuzzy sphere.Comment: 1+36 pages, 18 figures; v2: 1+55 pages, 38 figures: added the study
of the eigenvalue distribution, added figures, tables and references, typos
corrected; v3: 1+20 pages, 10 eps figures, new results, plots and references
added, technical details about the tests at small matrix size skipped,
version published in JHE
Algebraic approach to quantum field theory on a class of noncommutative curved spacetimes
In this article we study the quantization of a free real scalar field on a
class of noncommutative manifolds, obtained via formal deformation quantization
using triangular Drinfel'd twists. We construct deformed quadratic action
functionals and compute the corresponding equation of motion operators. The
Green's operators and the fundamental solution of the deformed equation of
motion are obtained in terms of formal power series. It is shown that, using
the deformed fundamental solution, we can define deformed *-algebras of field
observables, which in general depend on the spacetime deformation parameter.
This dependence is absent in the special case of Killing deformations, which
include in particular the Moyal-Weyl deformation of the Minkowski spacetime.Comment: LaTeX 14 pages, no figures, svjour3.cls style; v2: clarifications and
references added, compatible with published versio
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