920 research outputs found
The Cell Density Factor CMF Regulates the Chemoattractant Receptor cAR1 in Dictyostelium
Starving Dictyostelium cells aggregate by chemotaxis to cAMP when a secreted protein called conditioned medium factor (CMF) reaches a threshold concentration. Cells expressing CMF antisense mRNA fail to aggregate and do not transduce signals from the cAMP receptor. Signal transduction and aggregation are restored by adding recombinant CMF. We show here that two other cAMP-induced events, the formation of a slow dissociating form of the cAMP receptor and the loss of ligand binding, which is the first step of ligand-induced receptor sequestration, also require CMF. Vegetative cells have very few CMF and cAMP receptors, while starved cells possess ~40,000 receptors for CMF and cAMP. Transformants overexpressing the cAMP receptor gene cAR1 show a 10-fold increase of [3H]cAMP binding and a similar increase of [125I]CMF binding; disruption of the cAR1 gene abolishes both cAMP and CMF binding. In wild-type cells, downregulation of cAR1 with high levels of cAMP also downregulates CMF binding, and CMF similarly downregulates cAMP and CMF binding. This suggests that the cAMP binding and CMF binding are closely linked. Binding of ~200 molecules of CMF to starved cells affects the affinity of the majority of the cAR1 cAMP receptors within 2 min, indicating that an amplifying mechanism allows one activated CMF receptor to regulate many cARs. In cells lacking the G-protein ÎČ subunit, cAMP induces a loss of cAMP binding, but not CMF binding, while CMF induces a reduction of CMF binding without affecting cAMP binding, suggesting that the linkage of the cell density-sensing CMF receptor and the chemoattractant cAMP receptor is through a G-protein.
The terminal redundancy of the retrovirus genome facilitates chain elongation by reverse transcriptase
Transcription of DNA from the RNA genome of retroviruses by reverse transcriptase involves an unusual translocation of the growing chain from the 5' end to the 3' end of the RNA template. In order to elucidate the mechanism by which this translocation occurs, we have used chain termination to analyze nascent viral DNA synthesized in vitro by avian sarcoma virus, and we have determined the nucleotide sequence of appropriate regions of viral DNA isolated from infected cells and cloned into prokaryotic vectors. Our results provide direct experimental evidence for a previously proposed model in which a short terminal redundancy in viral RNA, and a DNA copy of the redundant sequence, are used to allow the growing DNA chain to move from the 5' to the 3' end of the template. Transcription of avian sarcoma virus RNA with purified reverse transcriptase also generates an anomalous product, a hairpin DNA that arises when the initial DNA transcript folds back on itself to continue synthesis. The foldback is mediated by an inverted repeat of 5 nucleotides in the sequence of nascent DNA. Anomalous hairpin DNA is not produced by detergent-activated virions. Thus, constituents of the virons or the configuration of encapsidated viral RNA must faciliatate correct transcription
Autopoiesis in creativity and art
The term autopoiesis, (meaning âselfâ) and âpoiesisâ (mean- ing âcreation, productionâ) defines a system capable of repro- ducing and maintaining itself. The term was introduced by the theoretical biologists, Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela, in 1972 to define the self-maintaining chemistry of living cells. The term has subsequently also been applied to the fields of systems theory and sociology. In this paper we apply this model to characterise creativity in art practise
Aspect-ratio dependence of the spin stiffness of a two-dimensional XY model
We calculate the superfluid stiffness of 2D lattice hard-core bosons at
half-filling (equivalent to the S=1/2 XY-model) using the squared winding
number quantum Monte Carlo estimator. For L_x x L_y lattices with aspect ratio
L_x/L_y=R, and L_x,L_y -> infinity, we confirm the recent prediction [N.
Prokof'ev and B.V. Svistunov, Phys. Rev. B 61, 11282 (1999)] that the
finite-temperature stiffness parameters \rho^W_x and \rho^W_y determined from
the winding number differ from each other and from the true superfluid density
\rho_s. Formally, \rho^W_y -> \rho_s in the limit in which L_x -> infinity
first and then L_y -> infinity. In practice we find that \rho^W_y converges
exponentially to \rho_s for R>1. We also confirm that for 3D systems, \rho^W_x
= \rho^W_y = \rho^W_z = \rho_s for any R. In addition, we determine the
Kosterlitz-Thouless transition temperature to be T_KT/J=0.34303(8) for the 2D
model.Comment: 7 pages, 8 figures, 1 table. Minor changes to published versio
Bose-Einstein condensation and superfluidity of dilute Bose gas in a random potential
We develop the dilute Bose gas model with random potential in order to
understand the Bose system in random media such as 4He in porous glass. Using
the random potential taking account of the pore size dependence, we can compare
quantitatively the calculated specific heat with the experimental results,
without free parameters. The agreement is excellent at low temperatures, which
justifies our model. The relation between Bose condensation and superfluidity
is discussed. Our model can predict some unobserved phenomena in this system.Comment: 9 pages, 11 figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.
Photoemission Spectroscopy from Inhomogeneous Models of Cuprates
We investigate the electronic dynamics in the underdoped cuprates focusing on
the effects of one-dimensional charge stripes. We address recent experimental
Angular-Resolved Photoemission Spectra results on
(LaNdSr)CuO. We find that various inhomogeneous
models can account for the distribution of quasiparticle weights close to
momentum and symmetry related points. The observed flat
dispersion region around the same point can only be addressed by
certain classes of those inhomogeneous models which locally break spin
symmetry. Homogeneous models including hopping elements up to second neighbors
cannot reproduce the experimental quasiparticle weight, since most of it is
centered around .Comment: 5 pages, color figure
Quantum lattice dynamical effects on the single-particle excitations in 1D Mott and Peierls insulators
As a generic model describing quasi-one-dimensional Mott and Peierls
insulators, we investigate the Holstein-Hubbard model for half-filled bands
using numerical techniques. Combining Lanczos diagonalization with Chebyshev
moment expansion we calculate exactly the photoemission and inverse
photoemission spectra and use these to establish the phase diagram of the
model. While polaronic features emerge only at strong electron-phonon
couplings, pronounced phonon signatures, such as multi-quanta band states, can
be found in the Mott insulating regime as well. In order to corroborate the
Mott to Peierls transition scenario, we determine the spin and charge
excitation gaps by a finite-size scaling analysis based on density-matrix
renormalization group calculations.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure
Transduction of a cellular oncogene: The genesis of Rous sarcoma virus
The oncogene of Rous sarcoma virus (v-src) arose by transduction of a cellular gene (c-src). In an effort to explore the mechanism of transduction, we have identified the splice acceptor site used in the genesis of mRNA for v-src, shown that an equivalent site is used in the splicing of mRNA for c-src, and determined the nucleotide sequence from the boundaries of homology between v-src and c-src. Our data indicate that (i) only a portion of c-src is represented within v-src, (ii) the leftward recombination between the genome of the transducing virus and c-src occurred in an intron of the cellular gene, (iii) v-src is in part a spliced version of the corresponding portion of c-src, and (iv) nucleotide sequences represented once in the genome of the transducing virus become duplicated to flank v-src. These findings indicate that the first step in transduction is probably recombination between DNA forms of the transducing viral genome and c-src and otherwise support the prevailing model for transduction by retroviruses. The carboxyl termini of the proteins encoded by v-src and c-src differ appreciably. An unidentified domain of 127 or 128 nucleotides is located at different positions in the genomes of two strains of RSV and gives evidence of being a foreign element that entered the viral genomes by genetic transposition independent of the transduction of src
Well-Posed Initial-Boundary Evolution in General Relativity
Maximally dissipative boundary conditions are applied to the initial-boundary
value problem for Einstein's equations in harmonic coordinates to show that it
is well-posed for homogeneous boundary data and for boundary data that is small
in a linearized sense. The method is implemented as a nonlinear evolution code
which satisfies convergence tests in the nonlinear regime and is robustly
stable in the weak field regime. A linearized version has been stably matched
to a characteristic code to compute the gravitational waveform radiated to
infinity.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figures; added another convergence plot to Fig. 2 + minor
change
Instability of generalised AdS black holes and thermal field theory
We study black holes in AdS-like spacetimes, with the horizon given by an
arbitrary positive curvature Einstein metric. A criterion for classical
instability of such black holes is found in the large and small black hole
limits. Examples of large unstable black holes have a B\"ohm metric as the
horizon. These, classically unstable, large black holes are locally
thermodynamically stable. The gravitational instability has a dual description,
for example by using the version of the AdS/CFT
correspondence. The instability corresponds to a critical temperature of the
dual thermal field theory defined on a curved background.Comment: 1+16 pages. 1 figure. LaTeX. Minor clarification
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