A water-soluble form of porin from the mitochondrial outer membrane of Neurospora crassa

Mitochondrial porin, the outer membrane pore-forming protein, was isolated in the presence of detergents and converted into a water- soluble form. This water-soluble porin existed under nondenaturing conditions as a mixture of dimers and oligomers. The proportion of dimers increased with decreasing porin concentration during conversion. Water-soluble porin inserted spontaneously into artificial bilayers as did detergent-solubilized porin. Whereas the latter form had no specific requirements for the lipid composition of the bilayer, water- soluble porin inserted only into membranes containing a sterol, and only in the presence of very low concentrations of Triton X-100 (0.001% w/v) in the solution bathing the bilayer. The channels formed by water- soluble porin were indistinguishable from those formed by detergent- purified porin with respect to specific conductance and voltage dependence of conductance. Water-soluble porin bound tightly in a saturable fashion to isolated mitochondria. The bound form was readily accessible to added protease, indicating its presence on the mitochondrial surface. The number of binding sites was in the range of 5-10 pmol/mg of mitochondrial protein. Water-soluble porin apparently binds to a site on the assembly pathway of the porin precursor, since mitochondria whose binding sites were saturated with the water-soluble form did not import porin precursor synthesized in a cell-free system

Ultrafast electronic read-out of diamond NV centers coupled to graphene

Nonradiative transfer processes are often regarded as loss channels for an optical emitter1, since they are inherently difficult to be experimentally accessed. Recently, it has been shown that emitters, such as fluorophores and nitrogen vacancy centers in diamond, can exhibit a strong nonradiative energy transfer to graphene. So far, the energy of the transferred electronic excitations has been considered to be lost within the electron bath of the graphene. Here, we demonstrate that the trans-ferred excitations can be read-out by detecting corresponding currents with picosecond time resolution. We electrically detect the spin of nitrogen vacancy centers in diamond electronically and con-trol the nonradiative transfer to graphene by electron spin resonance. Our results open the avenue for incorporating nitrogen vacancy centers as spin qubits into ultrafast electronic circuits and for harvesting non-radiative transfer processes electronically

A genetic investigation of sex bias in the prevalence of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder

Background Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) shows substantial heritability and is 2-7 times more common in males than females. We examined two putative genetic mechanisms underlying this sex bias: sex-specific heterogeneity and higher burden of risk in female cases. Methods We analyzed genome-wide autosomal common variants from the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium and iPSYCH Project (20,183 cases, 35,191 controls) and Swedish populationregister data (N=77,905 cases, N=1,874,637 population controls). Results Genetic correlation analyses using two methods suggested near complete sharing of common variant effects across sexes, with rg estimates close to 1. Analyses of population data, however, indicated that females with ADHD may be at especially high risk of certain comorbid developmental conditions (i.e. autism spectrum disorder and congenital malformations), potentially indicating some clinical and etiological heterogeneity. Polygenic risk score (PRS) analysis did not support a higher burden of ADHD common risk variants in female cases (OR=1.02 [0.98-1.06], p=0.28). In contrast, epidemiological sibling analyses revealed that the siblings of females with ADHD are at higher familial risk of ADHD than siblings of affected males (OR=1.14, [95% CI: 1.11-1.18], p=1.5E-15). Conclusions Overall, this study supports a greater familial burden of risk in females with ADHD and some clinical and etiological heterogeneity, based on epidemiological analyses. However, molecular genetic analyses suggest that autosomal common variants largely do not explain the sex bias in ADHD prevalence

Wie die Danziger Liebfrauengemeinde entstand

17 cm

Lectotypification of the name Polycnemum majus (Amaranthaceae s.str.)

As part of a revision of the genus Polycnemum Linnaeus (1753: 35) in Europe we here present a nomenclatural study of the untypified name Polycnemum majus A. Braun ex Bogenhard (1841: 151–152). This study is also related to a joint nomenclatural investigation of the Linnaean names of Camphorosma Linnaeus (1753: 122), where we detected that most original material of C. acuta Linnaeus (1753: 122) agrees with P. majus. That matter and a corresponding formal proposal to conserve P. majus so as to maintain that name will be published elsewhere