118 research outputs found
Solubilization of inorganic phosphates and plant growth promotion by Aspergillus niger
Two of 187 fungal isolates (Aspergillus niger 1B and 6A) displaying superior phosphate (P) solubilization and hydrolytic enzyme secretion were studied using P forms of calcium (Ca-P), iron (Fe-P), and aluminum (Al-P). Phosphate solubilization in a sucrose-basal salt (SB) broth was increased and pH decreased by both isolates. In Ca-P medium, solubilization for 6A was approximately 322 mu g P mL(-1) and pH decreased by 4.2 units to 2.3 in 72 h. However, when pH value of the SB broth was lowered to 2.5 using HCl, 65.3 +/- 0.4 mu g mL(-1) of P was released from Ca-P, whereas trace amounts of P were released from Fe-P and Al-P. Both isolates displayed enhanced Al-P solubilization using NH4Cl rather than KNO3 as the N source; final pH values were not significantly different. With Ca-P, gluconic acid was predominantly produced by 1B and 6A, whereas oxalic acid predominated with Fe-P and Al-P. Addition of gluconic acid (final concentration of 8.5 mu mol mL(-1)) to Ca-P-supplemented SB lowered pH (2.9) and solubilized phosphate (146.0 +/- 1.0 mu g mL(-1)). Similarly, addition of oxalic acid (final concentration 6.6 mu mol mL(-1)) to Ca-P- and Fe-P-amended media solubilized P (60.2 +/- 0.9 and 21.6 +/- 2.1 mu g mL(-1), respectively), although these quantities were significantly lower than those detected in unamended SB. The presence of unidentified P solubilized compound(s) in the dialyzed (MW > 500) supernatant warrants further study. In pot experiments, significant increases in plant (Brassica chinensis Linn.) dry weight and N and P contents were observed with the addition of isolate 6A, when a small amount of organic fertilizer together with either rock phosphate (South African apatite) or Ca-P served as the main P sources
A Non-coding RNA of Insect HzNV-1 Virus Establishes Latent Viral Infection through MicroRNA
Heliothis zea nudivirus-1 (HzNV-1) is an insect virus previously known as Hz-1 baculovirus. One of its major early genes, hhi1, is responsible for the establishment of productive viral infection; another gene, pag1, which expresses a non-coding RNA, is the only viral transcript detectable during viral latency. Here we showed that this non-coding RNA was further processed into at least two distinct miRNAs, which targeted and degraded hhi1 transcript. This is a result strikingly similar to a recent report that herpes simplex virus produces tightly-regulated latent specific miRNAs to silence its own key early transcripts. Nevertheless, proof for the establishment of viral latency by miRNA is still lacking. We further showed that HzNV-1 latency could be directly induced by pag1-derived miRNAs in cells infected with a pag1-deleted, latency-deficient virus. This result suggests the existence of a novel mechanism, where miRNAs can be functional for the establishment of viral latency
Histone deacetylase 11 inhibition promotes breast cancer metastasis from lymph nodes
Lymph node (LN) metastases correspond with a worse prognosis in nearly all cancers, yet the occurrence of cancer spreading from LNs remains controversial. Additionally, the mechanisms explaining how cancers survive and exit LNs are largely unknown. Here, we show that breast cancer patients frequently have LN metastases that closely resemble distant metastases. In addition, using a microsurgical model, we show how LN metastasis development and dissemination is regulated by the expression of a chromatin modifier, histone deacetylase 11 (HDAC11). Genetic and pharmacologic blockade of HDAC11 decreases LN tumor growth, yet substantially increases migration and distant metastasis formation. Collectively, we reveal a mechanism explaining how HDAC11 plasticity promotes breast cancer growth as well as dissemination from LNs and suggest caution with the use of HDAC inhibitors
Muon anomalous magnetic moment in the standard model with two Higgs doublets
The muon anomalous magnetic moment is investigated in the standard model with
two Higgs doublets (S2HDM) motivated from spontaneous CP violation. Thus all
the effective Yukawa couplings become complex. As a consequence of the non-zero
phase in the couplings, the one loop contribution from the neutral scalar
bosons could be positive and negative relying on the CP phases. The
interference between one and two loop diagrams can be constructive in a large
parameter space of CP-phases. This will result in a significant contribution to
muon anomalous magnetic moment even in the flavor conserving process with a
heavy neutral scalar boson ( 200 GeV) once the effective muon Yukawa
coupling is large (). In general, the one loop contributions
from lepton flavor changing scalar interactions become more important. In
particular, when all contributions are positive in a reasonable parameter space
of CP phases, the recently reported 2.6 sigma experiment vs. theory deviation
can be easily explained even for a heavy scalar boson with a relative small
Yukawa coupling in the S2HDM.Comment: 8 pages, RevTex file, 5 figures, published version Phys. Rev. D 54
(2001) 11501
Novel CP-violating Effects in B decays from Charged-Higgs in a Two-Higgs Doublet Model for the Top Quark
We explore charged-Higgs cp-violating effects in a specific type III
two-Higgs doublet model which is theoretically attractive as it accommodates
the large mass of the top quark in a natural fashion. Two new CP-violating
phases arise from the right-handed up quark sector. We consider CP violation in
both neutral and charged B decays. Some of the important findings are as
follows. 1) Large direct-CP asymmetry is found to be possible for B+- to psi/J
K+-. 2) Sizable D-anti-D mixing effect at the percent level is found to be
admissible despite the stringent constraints from the data on K-anti-K mixing,
b to s gamma and B to tau nu decays. 3) A simple but distinctive CP asymmetry
pattern emerges in decays of B_d and B_s mesons, including B_d to psi/J K_S, D+
D-, and B_s to D_s+ D_s-, psi eta/eta^prime, psi/J K_S. 4) The effect of
D-anti-D mixing on the CP asymmetry in B+- to D/anti-D K+- and on the
extraction of the angle gamma of the unitarity triangle from such decays can be
significant.Comment: 32 pages, 5 figures, section V.A revised, version to appear in PR
The lifetime of B_c-meson and some relevant problems
The lifetime of the B_c-meson is estimated with consistent considerations on
all of the heavy mesons () and the double
heavy meson B_c. In the estimate, the framework, where the non-spectator
effects for nonleptonic decays are taken into account properly, is adopted, and
the parameters needed to be fixed are treated carefully and determined by
fitting the available data. The bound-state effects in it are also considered.
We find that in decays of the meson B_c, the QCD correction terms of the
penguin diagrams and the main component terms c_1O_1, c_2O_2 of the effective
interaction Lagrangian have direct interference that causes an enhancement
about 3 ~ 4% in the total width of the B_c meson.Comment: 27 pages, 0 figur
Charmless hadronic decays and new physics effects in the general two-Higgs doublet models
Based on the low-energy effective Hamiltonian with the generalized
factorization, we calculate the new physics contributions to the branching
ratios of the two-body charmless hadronic decays of and mesons
induced by the new gluonic and electroweak charged-Higgs penguin diagrams in
the general two-Higgs doublet models (models I, II and III). Within the
considered parameter space, we find that: (a) the new physics effects from new
gluonic penguin diagrams strongly dominate over those from the new -
and - penguin diagrams; (b) in models I and II, new physics contributions
to most studied B meson decay channels are rather small in size: from -15% to
20%; (c) in model III, however, the new physics enhancements to the
penguin-dominated decay modes can be significant, , and
therefore are measurable in forthcoming high precision B experiments; (d) the
new physics enhancements to ratios {\cal B}(B \to K \etap) are significant in
model III, , and hence provide a simple and plausible new
physics interpretation for the observed unexpectedly large B \to K \etap
decay rates; (e) the theoretical predictions for and
in model III are still consistent with the data
within errors; (f) the significant new physics enhancements to the
branching ratios of and decays are helpful to improve the
agreement between the data and the theoretical predictions; (g) the theoretical
predictions of in the 2HDM's are generally
consistent with experimental measurements and upper limits ()Comment: 55 pages, Latex file, 17 PS and EPS figures. With minor corrections,
final version to be published in Phys.Rev. D. Repot-no: PKU-TH-2000-4
Charm multiplicity and the branching ratios of inclusive charmless b quark decays in the general two-Higgs-doublet models
In the framework of general two-Higgs-doublet models, we calculate the
branching ratios of various inclusive charmless b decays by using the low
energy effective Hamiltonian including next-to-leading order QCD corrections,
and examine the current status and the new physics effects on the determination
of the charm multiplicity and semileptonic branching ratio .
Within the considered parameter space, the enhancement to the ratio due to the charged-Higgs penguins can be as large as a factor of 8 (3) in
the model III (II), while the ratio can be increased from
the standard model prediction of 2.49% to 4.91% (2.99%) in the model III (II).
Consequently, the value of and can be decreased simultaneously
in the model III. The central value of will be lowered slightly by
about 0.003, but the ratio can be reduced significantly from the
theoretical prediction of in the SM to , for GeV, respectively. We find that
the predicted and the measured now agree within roughly one
standard deviation after taking into account the effects of gluonic charged
Higgs penguins in the model III with a relatively light charged Higgs boson.Comment: 25 pages, Latex file, axodraw.sty, 6 figures. Final version to be
published in Phys.Rev.
Fragmentation Function and Hadronic Production of the Heavy Supersymmetric Hadrons
The light top-squark \sto may be the lightest squark and its lifetime may
be `long enough' in a kind of SUSY models which have not been ruled out yet
experimentally, so colorless `supersymmetric hadrons (superhadrons)' (\sto
\bar{q}) ( is a quark except -quark) may be formed as long as the light
top-squark \sto can be produced. Fragmentation function of \sto to heavy
`supersymmetric hadrons (superhadrons)' (\sto \bar{Q}) ( or
) and the hadronic production of the superhadrons are investigated
quantitatively. The fragmentation function is calculated precisely. Due to the
difference in spin of the SUSY component, the asymptotic behavior of the
fragmentation function is different from those of the existent ones. The
fragmentation function is also applied to compute the production of heavy
superhadrons at hadronic colliders Tevatron and LHC under the so-called
fragmentation approach. The resultant cross-section for the heavy superhadrons
is too small to observe at Tevatron, but great enough at LHC, even when all the
relevant parameters in the SUSY models are taken within the favored region for
the heavy superhadrons. The production of `light superhadrons' (\sto \bar{q})
() is also roughly estimated. It is pointed out that the production
cross-sections of the light superhadrons (\sto \bar{q}) may be much greater
than those of the heavy superhadrons, so that even at Tevatron the light
superhadrons may be produced in great quantities.Comment: 20 pages, 9 figure
Factor XIIIA-expressing inflammatory monocytes promote lung squamous cancer through fibrin cross-linking
Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide, and lung squamous carcinomas (LUSC) represent about 30% of cases. Molecular aberrations in lung adenocarcinomas have allowed for effective targeted treatments, but corresponding therapeutic advances in LUSC have not materialized. However, immune checkpoint inhibitors in sub-populations of LUSC patients have led to exciting responses. Using computational analyses of The Cancer Genome Atlas, we identified a subset of LUSC tumors characterized by dense infiltration of inflammatory monocytes (IMs) and poor survival. With novel, immunocompetent metastasis models, we demonstrated that tumor cell derived CCL2-mediated recruitment of IMs is necessary and sufficient for LUSC metastasis. Pharmacologic inhibition of IM recruitment had substantial anti-metastatic effects. Notably, we show that IMs highly express Factor XIIIA, which promotes fibrin cross-linking to create a scaffold for LUSC cell invasion and metastases. Consistently, human LUSC samples containing extensive cross-linked fibrin in the microenvironment correlated with poor survival
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