Intraduplex interactions involving the 20th residues in the DD1a (), DD1b () and DD2 () DNA:DNA duplexes, and the 5th residues in the DR2a (), DR2b () and DR2c () DNA:RNA duplexes

<p><b>Copyright information:</b></p><p>Taken from "Crystal structures of DNA:DNA and DNA:RNA duplexes containing 5-(-aminohexyl)carbamoyl-modified uracils reveal the basis for properties as antigene and antisense molecules"</p><p></p><p>Nucleic Acids Research 2007;35(6):1969-1977.</p><p>Published online 6 Mar 2007</p><p>PMCID:PMC1874594.</p><p>© The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved</p> The carbon atoms in the aminohexyl, carbamoyl and methoxyl modifications are colored green, and the water molecules are colored pale blue. Broken and dotted lines indicate possible hydrogen bonds and van der Waals interactions, respectively. The values indicated are in angstroms (Å)

Hydration structures in the minor grooves of the unmodified (), DD1a (), DD1b () and DD2 () DNA:DNA duplexes

<p><b>Copyright information:</b></p><p>Taken from "Crystal structures of DNA:DNA and DNA:RNA duplexes containing 5-(-aminohexyl)carbamoyl-modified uracils reveal the basis for properties as antigene and antisense molecules"</p><p></p><p>Nucleic Acids Research 2007;35(6):1969-1977.</p><p>Published online 6 Mar 2007</p><p>PMCID:PMC1874594.</p><p>© The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved</p> The unmodified duplex is shown in blue lines while the present duplexes are shown in red lines. The aminohexyl, carbamoyl and methoxyl groups are colored green. In the unmodified duplex, the cyan spheres are water molecules and the gray spheres are solvent molecules partially occupied by sodium ions and water molecules. In DD1a and DD1b, the water molecules are in cyan, and the potassium ions are in gray

The minor groove widths in the DD1a (open square), DD1b (○), DD2 (open triangle) and unmodified (multi) DNA:DNA duplexes, and in the DR2a(filled square), DR2b (filled circle), DR2c (filled triangle) and unmodified (asterisk) DNA:RNA hybrid duplexes

<p><b>Copyright information:</b></p><p>Taken from "Crystal structures of DNA:DNA and DNA:RNA duplexes containing 5-(-aminohexyl)carbamoyl-modified uracils reveal the basis for properties as antigene and antisense molecules"</p><p></p><p>Nucleic Acids Research 2007;35(6):1969-1977.</p><p>Published online 6 Mar 2007</p><p>PMCID:PMC1874594.</p><p>© The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved</p> The minor groove width is defined as the distance between the closest interstrand phosphates, diminished by 5.8 Å to account for the van der Waals radii of the phosphate groups (). X is thymine in the unmodified duplexes and U or U in the modified duplexes

Structures of the modified nucleoside analogs (), sequences and numbering schemes (), and thermal denaturation of the DNA:DNA and DNA:RNA duplexes ()

<p><b>Copyright information:</b></p><p>Taken from "Crystal structures of DNA:DNA and DNA:RNA duplexes containing 5-(-aminohexyl)carbamoyl-modified uracils reveal the basis for properties as antigene and antisense molecules"</p><p></p><p>Nucleic Acids Research 2007;35(6):1969-1977.</p><p>Published online 6 Mar 2007</p><p>PMCID:PMC1874594.</p><p>© The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved</p> The thermal denaturation of the duplexes was performed as described in ()

Final 2 − maps contoured at 1σ level for the base pairs: U8:A17 in DD1b () and U5:A14 in DR2a ()

<p><b>Copyright information:</b></p><p>Taken from "Crystal structures of DNA:DNA and DNA:RNA duplexes containing 5-(-aminohexyl)carbamoyl-modified uracils reveal the basis for properties as antigene and antisense molecules"</p><p></p><p>Nucleic Acids Research 2007;35(6):1969-1977.</p><p>Published online 6 Mar 2007</p><p>PMCID:PMC1874594.</p><p>© The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved</p

Crisis of Japanese Vascular Flora Shown By Quantifying Extinction Risks for 1618 Taxa

<div><p>Although many people have expressed alarm that we are witnessing a mass extinction, few projections have been quantified, owing to limited availability of time-series data on threatened organisms, especially plants. To quantify the risk of extinction, we need to monitor changes in population size over time for as many species as possible. Here, we present the world's first quantitative projection of plant species loss at a national level, with stochastic simulations based on the results of population censuses of 1618 threatened plant taxa in 3574 map cells of ca. 100 km². More than 500 lay botanists helped monitor those taxa in 1994–1995 and in 2003–2004. We projected that between 370 and 561 vascular plant taxa will go extinct in Japan during the next century if past trends of population decline continue. This extinction rate is approximately two to three times the global rate. Using time-series data, we show that existing national protected areas (PAs) covering ca. 7% of Japan will not adequately prevent population declines: even core PAs can protect at best <60% of local populations from decline. Thus, the Aichi Biodiversity Target to expand PAs to 17% of land (and inland water) areas, as committed to by many national governments, is not enough: only 29.2% of currently threatened species will become non-threatened under the assumption that probability of protection success by PAs is 0.5, which our assessment shows is realistic. In countries where volunteers can be organized to monitor threatened taxa, censuses using our method should be able to quantify how fast we are losing species and to assess how effective current conservation measures such as PAs are in preventing species extinction.</p></div

Relationships between number of protected cells and number of species remaining as threatened (probability of extinction in the next 100 years ≥10%).

<p>Cells are selected to maximize the reduction of extinction risk (see text for details).</p

Number of extinct species predicted by the population viability analyses (PVAs) of 1618 vascular plant taxa in Japan.

<p>Results correspond to different scenarios in the choice of a rate of change class for the PVAs: classes were drawn (i) only from a pool of observed classes for each taxon in all of Japan (pool <i>P</i> = 1.0); (ii) from both the pool and the classes observed in the same cell at a certain ratio (<i>P</i> = 0.2–0.8); and (iii) only from those observed in the same cell (<i>P</i> = 0.0). Results from assumption (i) always gave the greatest rate of extinction.</p

Contribution of pressure types causing decline of local populations in (a) whole of Japan, (b) national protected areas (cells with >20% of protected areas) and (c) core zones of national protected area (cells with >20% of core zones).

<p>For each combination of pressure type and species, the number of cells with declining population was calculated, and the numbers are summed for each pressure type.</p

List of vascular plant species categorized as Extinct (EX) or Extinct in the Wild (EW) in the Red List compiled by Ministry of the Environment of Japan in 2012.

<p>List of vascular plant species categorized as Extinct (EX) or Extinct in the Wild (EW) in the Red List compiled by Ministry of the Environment of Japan in 2012.</p