5,479 research outputs found
Characterization of hormone and protein release from alpha-toxin- permeabilized chromaffin cells in primary culture
Addition of Staphylococcus aureus alpha-toxin to adult bovine chromaffin cells maintained in primary culture causes permeabilization of cell membrane as shown by the release of intracellular 86Rb+. The alpha-toxin does not provoke a spontaneous release of either catecholamines or chromogranin A, a protein marker of the secretory granule, showing the integrity of the secretory vesicle membrane. However the addition of micromolar free Ca2+ concentration induced the co-release of noradrenaline and chromogranin A. In alpha-toxin-treated cells, the released chromogranin A could not be sedimented and lactate dehydrogenase was still associated within cells, which provides direct evidence that secretory product is liberated by exocytosis. By contrast, permeabilization of cells with digitonin caused a Ca2+- dependent but also a Ca2+-independent release of secretory product, a dramatic loss of lactate dehydrogenase, as well as release of secretory product in a sedimentable form. Ca2+-dependent exocytosis from alpha- toxin-permeabilized cells required Mg2+-ATP and did not occur in the presence of other nucleotides. Thus alpha-toxin is a convenient tool to permeabilize chromaffin cells, and has the advantage of keeping intracellular structures, specifically the exocytotic machinery, intact
Molecular evidence for increased regulatory conservation during metamorphosis, and against deleterious cascading effects of hybrid breakdown in Drosophila
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Speculation regarding the importance of changes in gene regulation in determining major phylogenetic patterns continues to accrue, despite a lack of broad-scale comparative studies examining how patterns of gene expression vary during development. Comparative transcriptional profiling of adult interspecific hybrids and their parental species has uncovered widespread divergence of the mechanisms controlling gene regulation, revealing incompatibilities that are masked in comparisons between the pure species. However, this has prompted the suggestion that misexpression in adult hybrids results from the downstream cascading effects of a subset of genes improperly regulated in early development.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We sought to determine how gene expression diverges over development, as well as test the cascade hypothesis, by profiling expression in males of <it>Drosophila melanogaster</it>, <it>D. sechellia</it>, and <it>D. simulans</it>, as well as the <it>D. simulans </it>(♀) × <it>D. sechellia </it>(♂) male F1 hybrids, at four different developmental time points (3rd instar larval, early pupal, late pupal, and newly-emerged adult). Contrary to the cascade model of misexpression, we find that there is considerable stage-specific autonomy of regulatory breakdown in hybrids, with the larval and adult stages showing significantly more hybrid misexpression as compared to the pupal stage. However, comparisons between pure species indicate that genes expressed during earlier stages of development tend to be more conserved in terms of their level of expression than those expressed during later stages, suggesting that while Von Baer's famous law applies at both the level of nucleotide sequence and expression, it may not apply necessarily to the underlying overall regulatory network, which appears to diverge over the course of ontogeny and which can only be ascertained by combining divergent genomes in species hybrids.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our results suggest that complex integration of regulatory circuits during morphogenesis may lead to it being more refractory to divergence of underlying gene regulatory mechanisms - more than that suggested by the conservation of gene expression levels between species during earlier stages. This provides support for a 'developmental hourglass' model of divergence of gene expression in <it>Drosophila </it>resulting in a highly conserved pupal stage.</p
Electronic band structure, Fermi surface, and elastic properties of new 4.2K superconductor SrPtAs from first-principles calculations
The hexagonal phase SrPtAs (s.g. P6/mmm; #194) with a honeycomb lattice
structure very recently was declared as a new low-temperature (TC ~ 4.2K)
superconductor. Here by means of first-principles calculations the optimized
structural parameters, electronic bands, Fermi surface, total and partial
densities of states, inter-atomic bonding picture, independent elastic
constants, bulk and shear moduli for SrPtAs were obtained for the first time
and analyzed in comparison with the related layered superconductor SrPt2As2.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figure
Understanding the Clean Interface between Covalent Si and Ionic Al2O3
The atomic and electronic structures of the (001)-Si/(001)-gamma-Al2O3
heterointerface are investigated by first principles total energy calculations
combined with a newly developed "modified basin-hopping" method. It is found
that all interface Si atoms are fourfold coordinated due to the formation of
Si-O and unexpected covalent Si-Al bonds in the new abrupt interface model. And
the interface has perfect electronic properties in that the unpassivated
interface has a large LDA band gap and no gap levels. These results show that
it is possible to have clean semiconductor-oxide interfaces
Kinetic Energy Density Study of Some Representative Semilocal Kinetic Energy Functionals
There is a number of explicit kinetic energy density functionals for
non-interacting electron systems that are obtained in terms of the electron
density and its derivatives. These semilocal functionals have been widely used
in the literature. In this work we present a comparative study of the kinetic
energy density of these semilocal functionals, stressing the importance of the
local behavior to assess the quality of the functionals. We propose a quality
factor that measures the local differences between the usual orbital-based
kinetic energy density distributions and the approximated ones, allowing to
ensure if the good results obtained for the total kinetic energies with these
semilocal functionals are due to their correct local performance or to error
cancellations. We have also included contributions coming from the laplacian of
the electron density to work with an infinite set of kinetic energy densities.
For all the functionals but one we have found that their success in the
evaluation of the total kinetic energy are due to global error cancellations,
whereas the local behavior of their kinetic energy density becomes worse than
that corresponding to the Thomas-Fermi functional.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figure
A structured model of photosynthesis in anacystis nidulans
No Abstract.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/37885/1/260200110_ftp.pd
Detection and quantification of inverse spin Hall effect from spin pumping in permalloy/normal metal bilayers
Spin pumping is a mechanism that generates spin currents from ferromagnetic
resonance (FMR) over macroscopic interfacial areas, thereby enabling sensitive
detection of the inverse spin Hall effect that transforms spin into charge
currents in non-magnetic conductors. Here we study the spin-pumping-induced
voltages due to the inverse spin Hall effect in permalloy/normal metal bilayers
integrated into coplanar waveguides for different normal metals and as a
function of angle of the applied magnetic field direction, as well as microwave
frequency and power. We find good agreement between experimental data and a
theoretical model that includes contributions from anisotropic
magnetoresistance (AMR) and inverse spin Hall effect (ISHE). The analysis
provides consistent results over a wide range of experimental conditions as
long as the precise magnetization trajectory is taken into account. The spin
Hall angles for Pt, Pd, Au and Mo were determined with high precision to be
, , and ,
respectively.Comment: 11 page
Further Characterization of Dopamine Release by Permeabilized PC 12 Cells
Rat pheochromocytoma cells (PC 12) permeabilized with staphylococcal α-toxin release [3H]dopamine after addition of micromolar Ca2+. This does not require additional Mg2+-ATP (in contrast to bovine adrenal medullary chromaffin cells). We also observed Ca2+-dependent [3H]-dopamine release from digitonin-permeabilized PC 12 cells. Permeabilization with α-toxin or digitonin and stimulation of the cells were done consecutively to wash out endogenous Mg2+-ATP. During permeabilization, ATP was removed effectively from the cytoplasm by both agents but the cells released [3H]dopamine in response to micromolar Ca2+ alone. Replacement by chloride of glutamate, which could sustain mitochondrial ATP production in permeabilized cells, does not significantly alter catecholamine release induced by Ca2+. However, Mg2+ without ATP augments the Ca2+-induced release. The release was unaltered by thiol-, hydroxyl-, or calmodulin-interfering substances. Thus Mg2+-ATP, calmodulin, or proteins containing -SH or -OH groups are not necessary for exocytosis in permeabilized PC 12 cells
Quantifying spin Hall angles from spin pumping: Experiments and Theory
Spin Hall effects intermix spin and charge currents even in nonmagnetic
materials and, therefore, ultimately may allow the use of spin transport
without the need for ferromagnets. We show how spin Hall effects can be
quantified by integrating permalloy/normal metal (N) bilayers into a coplanar
waveguide. A dc spin current in N can be generated by spin pumping in a
controllable way by ferromagnetic resonance. The transverse dc voltage detected
along the permalloy/N has contributions from both the anisotropic
magnetoresistance (AMR) and the spin Hall effect, which can be distinguished by
their symmetries. We developed a theory that accounts for both. In this way, we
determine the spin Hall angle quantitatively for Pt, Au and Mo. This approach
can readily be adapted to any conducting material with even very small spin
Hall angles.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Unanticipated proximity behavior in ferromagnet-superconductor heterostructures with controlled magnetic noncollinearity
Magnetization noncollinearity in ferromagnet-superconductor (F/S)
heterostructures is expected to enhance the superconducting transition
temperature (Tc) according to the domain-wall superconductivity theory, or to
suppress Tc when spin-triplet Cooper pairs are explicitly considered. We study
the proximity effect in F/S structures where the F layer is a Sm-Co/Py
exchange-spring bilayer and the S layer is Nb. The exchange-spring contains a
single, controllable and quantifiable domain wall in the Py layer. We observe
an enhancement of superconductivity that is nonmonotonic as the Py domain wall
is increasingly twisted via rotating a magnetic field, different from
theoretical predictions. We have excluded magnetic fields and vortex motion as
the source of the nonmonotonic behavior. This unanticipated proximity behavior
suggests that new physics is yet to be captured in the theoretical treatments
of F/S systems containing noncollinear magnetization.Comment: 17 pages, 4 figures. Physical Review Letters in pres
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