La construcción del pasado arqueológico en diferentes sectores del Área Ecotonal Húmedo-Seca Pampeana

El Centro de Estudios Arqueológicos Regionales (CEAR) constituye un espacio de discusión e interacción entre investigadores que estudian las sociedades pasadas desde una perspectiva arqueológica, en diferentes sectores del Área Ecotonal Húmedo-Seca Pampeana (AEHSP), con mayor sistematicidad en el Sistema Serrano de Ventanía. Este territorio ha sido definido como una franja que posee condiciones ambientales de transición entre la Pampa Húmeda y la Pampa Seca, las cuales facilitan la presencia de recursos vegetales y animales propios de ambas regiones, conformando un sector con una riqueza y variabilidad de recursos mayor a la de zonas circundantes. Los diferentes proyectos de investigación que se efectuaron durante las tres últimas décadas posibilitaron el desarrollo de diversas líneas de trabajo, las cuales generaron un cúmulo de conocimiento significativo en una escala espacial amplia. El abordaje de diferentes sectores del AEHSP permite establecer comparaciones en cuanto a características de las evidencias arqueológicas recuperadas, ocupación temporal y espacial por parte de las sociedades indígenas, materias primas empleadas en la tecnología lítica, representaciones simbólicas, desarrollo de las investigaciones en el marco de la historia de la arqueología pampeana, y construcción del pasado indígena en vinculación con los imaginarios acerca del patrimonio arqueológico local.The Center of Regional Archaeological Studies (CEAR) constitutes a space for discussion and interaction between researchers who study past societies from an archaeological perspective, in different sectors of the Area Ecotonal Humedo-Seca Pampeana (AEHSP), with greater systematicity in the Ventania Hill System. This territory has been defined as a strip of transitional environmental conditions between the humid Pampa and the dry Pampa, which facilitate the presence of plant and animals resources of both regions, forming a sector with a greater richness and variability of resources than the surrounding areas. During the last three decades different research projects generated a mass of significant knowledge in a broad spatial scale developing different lines of work. Those researches which include different sectors of the AEHSP, allow comparisons in terms of different characteristics of the archaeological evidence recovered: temporal and spatial occupation by indigenous societies, raw materials used in lithic technology, symbolic representations, development of research within the framework of the history of the pampean archaeology, and construction of the indigenous past in connection with the imaginaries about local archaeological heritage. The actions developed by the CEAR are guided by specific aims. First, its purpose is to generate information about the human groups that inhabited this region in the past from the archaeological record; and second, to socialize the knowledge with local communities, in order to build consensus around the cultural heritage that will ensure social inclusion, equity in access to knowledge and behaviors of conservation and protection of this heritage through time. It should be noted that the comparative framework established in this work allows us to develop some considerations on general and specific processes of indigenous peoples of the region

La construcción del pasado arqueológico en diferentes sectores del Área Ecotonal Húmedo-Seca Pampeana. Investigación y extensión desde el Centro de Estudios Arqueológicos Regionales

Fil: Oliva, Fernando. Centro de Estudios Arqueológicos Regionales. Facultad de Humanidades y Artes. Universidad Nacional de Rosario; ArgentinaFil: Panizza, María Cecilia. Centro de Estudios Arqueológicos Regionales. Facultad de Humanidades y Artes. Universidad Nacional de Rosario; ArgentinaFil: Catella, Luciana. División Arqueología. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo. Universidad Nacional de La Plata; ArgentinaFil: Moirano, Jorge Santiago. Centro de Estudios Arqueológicos Regionales. Facultad de Humanidades y Artes. Universidad Nacional de Rosario; ArgentinaFil: Morales, Natalia. Centro de Estudios Arqueológicos Regionales. Facultad de Humanidades y Artes. Universidad Nacional de Rosario; ArgentinaFil: Algrain, Mariana. Centro de Estudios Arqueológicos Regionales. Facultad de Humanidades y Artes. Universidad Nacional de Rosario; ArgentinaFil: Devoto, Gimena. Centro de Estudios Arqueológicos Regionales. Facultad de Humanidades y Artes. Universidad Nacional de Rosario; ArgentinaFil: Iannelli, Lucía. Centro de Estudios Arqueológicos Regionales. Facultad de Humanidades y Artes. Universidad Nacional de Rosario; ArgentinaFil: Oliva, Camila. Centro de Estudios Arqueológicos Regionales. Facultad de Humanidades y Artes. Universidad Nacional de Rosario; ArgentinaFil: Pereyra, Belén. Centro de Estudios Arqueológicos Regionales. Facultad de Humanidades y Artes. Universidad Nacional de Rosario; ArgentinaFil: Sfeir, Anabella. Centro de Estudios Arqueológicos Regionales. Facultad de Humanidades y Artes. Universidad Nacional de Rosario; Argentin

Chronique archéologique de la religion grecque (ChronARG)

01. Athènes, Attique, Mégaride (Isabelle Algrain) 01.00 – Généralités – Chr. Vlassopoulou répertorie les plaques à reliefs attiques, à usage votif, fabriquées en terre cuite. L’A. les divise en trois groupes selon leur lieu de découverte : un premier groupe se compose des plaques découvertes sur l’Acropole et ses pentes, un deuxième est constitué des dépôts votifs mis au jour par l’ASCSA au N de l’Acropole et le troisième est composé des plaques provenant du sanctuaire d’Artémis à Brauron, au..

Ezrin interacts with the SARS coronavirus spike protein and restrains infection at the entry stage

© 2012 Millet et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.Background: Entry of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) and its envelope fusion with host cell membrane are controlled by a series of complex molecular mechanisms, largely dependent on the viral envelope glycoprotein Spike (S). There are still many unknowns on the implication of cellular factors that regulate the entry process. Methodology/Principal Findings: We performed a yeast two-hybrid screen using as bait the carboxy-terminal endodomain of S, which faces the cytosol during and after opening of the fusion pore at early stages of the virus life cycle. Here we show that the ezrin membrane-actin linker interacts with S endodomain through the F1 lobe of its FERM domain and that both the eight carboxy-terminal amino-acids and a membrane-proximal cysteine cluster of S endodomain are important for this interaction in vitro. Interestingly, we found that ezrin is present at the site of entry of S-pseudotyped lentiviral particles in Vero E6 cells. Targeting ezrin function by small interfering RNA increased S-mediated entry of pseudotyped particles in epithelial cells. Furthermore, deletion of the eight carboxy-terminal amino acids of S enhanced S-pseudotyped particles infection. Expression of the ezrin dominant negative FERM domain enhanced cell susceptibility to infection by SARS-CoV and S pseudotyped particles and potentiated S-dependent membrane fusion. Conclusions/Significance: Ezrin interacts with SARS-CoV S endodomain and limits virus entry and fusion. Our data present a novel mechanism involving a cellular factor in the regulation of S-dependent early events of infection.This work was supported by the Research Grant Council of Hong Kong (RGC#760208)and the RESPARI project of the International Network of Pasteur Institutes

La construcción del pasado arqueológico en diferentes sectores del Área Ecotonal Húmedo-Seca Pampeana: investigación y extensión desde el Centro de Estudios Arqueológicos Regionales

El Centro de Estudios Arqueológicos Regionales (CEAR) constituye un espacio de discusión e interacción entre investigadores que estudian las sociedades pasadas desde una perspectiva arqueológica, en diferentes sectores del Área Ecotonal Húmedo-Seca Pampeana (AEHSP), con mayor sistematicidad en el Sistema Serrano de Ventania. Este territorio ha sido definido como una franja que posee condiciones ambientales de transición entre la Pampa Húmeda y la Pampa Seca, las cuales facilitan la presencia de recursos vegetales y animales propios de ambas regiones, conformando un sector con una riqueza y variabilidad de recursos mayor a la de zonas circundantes. Los diferentes proyectos de investigación que se efectuaron durante las tres últimas décadas posibilitaron el desarrollo de diversas líneas de trabajo, las cuales generaron un cúmulo de conocimiento significativo en una escala espacial amplia. El abordaje de diferentes sectores del AEHSP permite establecer comparaciones en cuanto a características de las evidencias arqueológicas recuperadas, ocupación temporal y espacial por parte de las sociedades indígenas, materias primas empleadas en la tecnología lítica, representaciones simbólicas, desarrollo de las investigaciones en el marco de la historia de la arqueología pampeana, y construcción del pasado indígena en vinculación con los imaginarios acerca del patrimonio arqueológico local.The Center of Regional Archaeological Studies (CEAR) constitutes a space for discussion and interaction between researchers who study past societies from an archaeological perspective, in different sectors of the Area Ecotonal Humedo-Seca Pampeana (AEHSP), with greater systematicity in the Ventania Hill System. This territory has been defined as a strip of transitional environmental conditions between the humid Pampa and the dry Pampa, which facilitate the presence of plant and animals resources of both regions, forming a sector with a greater richness and variability of resources than the surrounding areas. During the last three decades different research projects generated a mass of significant knowledge in a broad spatial scale developing different lines of work. Those researches which include different sectors of the AEHSP, allow comparisons in terms of different characteristics of the archaeological evidence recovered: temporal and spatial occupation by indigenous societies, raw materials used in lithic technology, symbolic representations, development of research within the framework of the history of the pampean archaeology, and construction of the indigenous past in connection with the imaginaries about local archaeological heritage. The actions developed by the CEAR are guided by specific aims. First, its purpose is to generate information about the human groups that inhabited this region in the past from the archaeological record; and second, to socialize the knowledge with local communities, in order to build consensus around the cultural heritage that will ensure social inclusion, equity in access to knowledge and behaviors of conservation and protection of this heritage through time. It should be noted that the comparative framework established in this work allows us to develop some considerations on general and specific processes of indigenous peoples of the region.Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Muse

Ezrin enrichment on curved membranes requires a specific conformation or interaction with a curvature-sensitive partner

One challenge in cell biology is to decipher the biophysical mechanisms governing protein enrichment on curved membranes and the resulting membrane deformation. The ERM protein ezrin is abundant and associated with cellular membranes that are flat, positively or negatively curved. Using in vitro and cell biology approaches, we assess mechanisms of ezrin's enrichment on curved membranes. We evidence that wild-type ezrin (ezrinWT) and its phosphomimetic mutant T567D (ezrinTD) do not deform membranes but self-assemble antiparallelly, zipping adjacent membranes. EzrinTD's specific conformation reduces intermolecular interactions, allows binding to actin filaments, which reduces membrane tethering, and promotes ezrin binding to positively-curved membranes. While neither ezrinTD nor ezrinWT senses negative curvature alone, we demonstrate that interacting with curvature-sensing I-BAR-domain proteins facilitates ezrin enrichment in negatively-curved membrane protrusions. Overall, our work demonstrates that ezrin can tether membranes, or be targeted to curved membranes, depending on conformations and interactions with actin and curvature-sensing binding partners.Peer reviewe

The FERM and PDZ Domain-Containing Protein Tyrosine Phosphatases, PTPN4 and PTPN3, Are Both Dispensable for T Cell Receptor Signal Transduction

PTPN3 and PTPN4 are two closely-related non-receptor protein tyrosine phosphatases (PTP) that, in addition to a PTP domain, contain FERM (Band 4.1, Ezrin, Radixin, and Moesin) and PDZ (PSD-95, Dlg, ZO-1) domains. Both PTP have been implicated as negative-regulators of early signal transduction through the T cell antigen receptor (TCR), acting to dephosphorylate the TCRζ chain, a component of the TCR complex. Previously, we reported upon the production and characterization of PTPN3-deficient mice which show normal TCR signal transduction and T cell function. To address if the lack of a T cell phenotype in PTPN3-deficient mice can be explained by functional redundancy of PTPN3 with PTPN4, we generated PTPN4-deficient and PTPN4/PTPN3 double-deficient mice. As in PTPN3 mutants, T cell development and homeostasis and TCR-induced cytokine synthesis and proliferation were found to be normal in PTPN4-deficient and PTPN4/PTPN3 double-deficient mice. PTPN13 is another FERM and PDZ domain-containing non-receptor PTP that is distantly-related to PTPN3 and PTPN4 and which has been shown to function as a negative-regulator of T helper-1 (Th1) and Th2 differentiation. Therefore, to determine if PTPN13 might compensate for the loss of PTPN3 and PTPN4 in T cells, we generated mice that lack functional forms of all three PTP. T cells from triple-mutant mice developed normally and showed normal cytokine secretion and proliferative responses to TCR stimulation. Furthermore, T cell differentiation along the Th1, Th2 and Th17 lineages was largely unaffected in triple-mutants. We conclude that PTPN3 and PTPN4 are dispensable for TCR signal transduction

Ezrin Ubiquitylation by the E3 Ubiquitin Ligase, WWP1, and Consequent Regulation of Hepatocyte Growth Factor Receptor Activity

The membrane cytoskeleton linker ezrin participates in several functions downstream of the receptor Met in response to Hepatocyte Growth Factor (HGF) stimulation. Here we report a novel interaction of ezrin with a HECT E3 ubiquitin ligase, WWP1/Aip5/Tiul1, a potential oncogene that undergoes genomic amplification and overexpression in human breast and prostate cancers. We show that ezrin binds to the WW domains of WWP1 via the consensus motif PPVY477 present in ezrin’s C-terminus. This association results in the ubiquitylation of ezrin, a process that requires an intact PPVY477 motif. Interestingly ezrin ubiquitylation does not target the protein for degradation by the proteasome. We find that ezrin ubiquitylation by WWP1 in epithelial cells leads to the upregulation of Met level in absence of HGF stimulation and increases the response of Met to HGF stimulation as measured by the ability of the cells to heal a wound. Interestingly this effect requires ubiquitylated ezrin since it can be rescued, after depletion of endogenous ezrin, by wild type ezrin but not by a mutant of ezrin that cannot be ubiquitylated. Taken together our data reveal a new role for ezrin in Met receptor stability and activity through its association with the E3 ubiquitin ligase WWP1. Given the role of Met in cell proliferation and tumorigenesis, our results may provide a mechanistic basis for understanding the role of ezrin in tumor progression

A glimpse of the ERM proteins

In all eukaryotes, the plasma membrane is critically important as it maintains the architectural integrity of the cell. Proper anchorage and interaction between the plasma membrane and the cytoskeleton is critical for normal cellular processes. The ERM (ezrin-radixin-moesin) proteins are a class of highly homologous proteins involved in linking the plasma membrane to the cortical actin cytoskeleton. This review takes a succinct look at the biology of the ERM proteins including their structure and function. Current reports on their regulation that leads to activation and deactivation was examined before taking a look at the different interacting partners. Finally, emerging roles of each of the ERM family members in cancer was highlighted

Tunneling Nanotubes Provide a Unique Conduit for Intercellular Transfer of Cellular Contents in Human Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma

Tunneling nanotubes are long, non-adherent F-actin-based cytoplasmic extensions which connect proximal or distant cells and facilitate intercellular transfer. The identification of nanotubes has been limited to cell lines, and their role in cancer remains unclear. We detected tunneling nanotubes in mesothelioma cell lines and primary human mesothelioma cells. Using a low serum, hyperglycemic, acidic growth medium, we stimulated nanotube formation and bidirectional transfer of vesicles, proteins, and mitochondria between cells. Notably, nanotubes developed between malignant cells or between normal mesothelial cells, but not between malignant and normal cells. Immunofluorescent staining revealed their actin-based assembly and structure. Metformin and an mTor inhibitor, Everolimus, effectively suppressed nanotube formation. Confocal microscopy with 3-dimensional reconstructions of sectioned surgical specimens demonstrated for the first time the presence of nanotubes in human mesothelioma and lung adenocarcinoma tumor specimens. We provide the first evidence of tunneling nanotubes in human primary tumors and cancer cells and propose that these structures play an important role in cancer cell pathogenesis and invasion