220 research outputs found
NF-M is an essential target for the myelin-directed “outside-in” signaling cascade that mediates radial axonal growth
Neurofilaments are essential for acquisition of normal axonal calibers. Several lines of evidence have suggested that neurofilament-dependent structuring of axoplasm arises through an “outside-in” signaling cascade originating from myelinating cells. Implicated as targets in this cascade are the highly phosphorylated KSP domains of neurofilament subunits NF-H and NF-M. These are nearly stoichiometrically phosphorylated in myelinated internodes where radial axonal growth takes place, but not in the smaller, unmyelinated nodes. Gene replacement has now been used to produce mice expressing normal levels of the three neurofilament subunits, but which are deleted in the known phosphorylation sites within either NF-M or within both NF-M and NF-H. This has revealed that the tail domain of NF-M, with seven KSP motifs, is an essential target for the myelination-dependent outside-in signaling cascade that determines axonal caliber and conduction velocity of motor axons
The landscape of extreme genomic variation in the highly adaptable Atlantic killifish
© The Author(s), 2017. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Genome Biology and Evolution 9 (2017): 659-676, doi:10.1093/gbe/evx023.Understanding and predicting the fate of populations in changing environments require knowledge about the mechanisms that support phenotypic plasticity and the adaptive value and evolutionary fate of genetic variation within populations. Atlantic killifish (Fundulus heteroclitus) exhibit extensive phenotypic plasticity that supports large population sizes in highly fluctuating estuarine environments. Populations have also evolved diverse local adaptations. To yield insights into the genomic variation that supports their adaptability, we sequenced a reference genome and 48 additional whole genomes from a wild population. Evolution of genes associated with cell cycle regulation and apoptosis is accelerated along the killifish lineage, which is likely tied to adaptations for life in highly variable estuarine environments. Genome-wide standing genetic variation, including nucleotide diversity and copy number variation, is extremely high. The highest diversity genes are those associated with immune function and olfaction, whereas genes under greatest evolutionary constraint are those associated with neurological, developmental, and cytoskeletal functions. Reduced genetic variation is detected for tight junction proteins, which in killifish regulate paracellular permeability that supports their extreme physiological flexibility. Low-diversity genes engage in more regulatory interactions than high-diversity genes, consistent with the influence of pleiotropic constraint on molecular evolution. High genetic variation is crucial for continued persistence of species given the pace of contemporary environmental change. Killifish populations harbor among the highest levels of nucleotide diversity yet reported for a vertebrate species, and thus may serve as a useful model system for studying evolutionary potential in variable and changing environments.This work was primarily supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation (collaborative research grants DEB-1265282, DEB-1120512, DEB-1120013, DEB-1120263, DEB-1120333, DEB-1120398 to J.K.C., D.L.C., M.E.H., S.I.K., M.F.O., J.R.S., W.W., and A.W.). Further support was provided by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (1R01ES021934-01 to A.W., P42ES7373 to T.H.H., P42ES007381 to M.E.H., and R01ES019324 to J.R.S.), the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (P20GM103423 and P20GM104318 to B.L.K.), and the National Science Foundation (DBI-0640462 and XSEDE-MCB100147 to D.G.)
Author Correction: A consensus-based transparency checklist.
An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper
Measurements of and Production in + Collisions at = 200 GeV
We report measurements of charmed-hadron (, ) production cross
sections at mid-rapidity in + collisions at a center-of-mass energy of
200 GeV by the STAR experiment. Charmed hadrons were reconstructed via the
hadronic decays , and their charge conjugates,
covering the range of 0.62.0 GeV/ and 2.06.0 GeV/ for
and , respectively. From this analysis, the charm-pair production cross
section at mid-rapidity is = 170 45
(stat.) (sys.) b. The extracted charm-pair cross section is
compared to perturbative QCD calculations. The transverse momentum differential
cross section is found to be consistent with the upper bound of a Fixed-Order
Next-to-Leading Logarithm calculation.Comment: 15 pages, 16 figures. Revised version submitted to Phys. Rev.
Beam energy dependent two-pion interferometry and the freeze-out eccentricity of pions in heavy ion collisions at STAR
We present results of analyses of two-pion interferometry in Au+Au collisions
at = 7.7, 11.5, 19.6, 27, 39, 62.4 and 200 GeV measured in the
STAR detector as part of the RHIC Beam Energy Scan program. The extracted
correlation lengths (HBT radii) are studied as a function of beam energy,
azimuthal angle relative to the reaction plane, centrality, and transverse mass
() of the particles. The azimuthal analysis allows extraction of the
eccentricity of the entire fireball at kinetic freeze-out. The energy
dependence of this observable is expected to be sensitive to changes in the
equation of state. A new global fit method is studied as an alternate method to
directly measure the parameters in the azimuthal analysis. The eccentricity
shows a monotonic decrease with beam energy that is qualitatively consistent
with the trend from all model predictions and quantitatively consistent with a
hadronic transport model.Comment: 27 pages; 27 figure
Beam-energy dependence of charge separation along the magnetic field in Au+Au collisions at RHIC
Local parity-odd domains are theorized to form inside a Quark-Gluon-Plasma
(QGP) which has been produced in high-energy heavy-ion collisions. The local
parity-odd domains manifest themselves as charge separation along the magnetic
field axis via the chiral magnetic effect (CME). The experimental observation
of charge separation has previously been reported for heavy-ion collisions at
the top RHIC energies. In this paper, we present the results of the beam-energy
dependence of the charge correlations in Au+Au collisions at midrapidity for
center-of-mass energies of 7.7, 11.5, 19.6, 27, 39 and 62.4 GeV from the STAR
experiment. After background subtraction, the signal gradually reduces with
decreased beam energy, and tends to vanish by 7.7 GeV. The implications of
these results for the CME will be discussed.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, accepted by Phys. Rev. Lett (more model
comparisons have been added in version 2
Observation of meson nuclear modifications in Au+Au collisions at = 200 GeV
We report the first measurement of charmed-hadron () production via the
hadronic decay channel () in Au+Au collisions at
= 200\,GeV with the STAR experiment. The charm
production cross-section per nucleon-nucleon collision at mid-rapidity scales
with the number of binary collisions, , from + to central Au+Au
collisions. The meson yields in central Au+Au collisions are strongly
suppressed compared to those in + scaled by , for transverse
momenta GeV/, demonstrating significant energy loss of charm
quarks in the hot and dense medium. An enhancement at intermediate is
also observed. Model calculations including strong charm-medium interactions
and coalescence hadronization describe our measurements.Comment: 7 pages including author list, 4 figures, submit to PRL with revised
versio
Measurement of longitudinal spin asymmetries for weak boson production in polarized proton-proton collisions at RHIC
We report measurements of single- and double- spin asymmetries for
and boson production in longitudinally polarized collisions
at GeV by the STAR experiment at RHIC. The asymmetries for
were measured as a function of the decay lepton pseudorapidity, which
provides a theoretically clean probe of the proton's polarized quark
distributions at the scale of the mass. The results are compared to
theoretical predictions, constrained by recent polarized deep inelastic
scattering measurements, and show a preference for a sizable, positive up
antiquark polarization in the range .Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, Submitted to Physical Review Letters; replaced
with published versio
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