Measurement of the B0-anti-B0-Oscillation Frequency with Inclusive Dilepton Events

The $B^0$-$\bar B^0$ oscillation frequency has been measured with a sample of 23 million \B\bar B pairs collected with the BABAR detector at the PEP-II asymmetric B Factory at SLAC. In this sample, we select events in which both B mesons decay semileptonically and use the charge of the leptons to identify the flavor of each B meson. A simultaneous fit to the decay time difference distributions for opposite- and same-sign dilepton events gives $\Delta m_d = 0.493 \pm 0.012{(stat)}\pm 0.009{(syst)}$ ps$^{-1}$.Comment: 7 pages, 1 figure, submitted to Physical Review Letter

Reconstitution and Characterization of Budding Yeast γ-Tubulin Complex

Nucleation of microtubules is central to assembly of the mitotic spindle, which is required for each cell division. γ-Tubulin is a universal component essential for microtubule nucleation from centrosomes. To elucidate the mechanism of microtubule nucleation in budding yeast we reconstituted and characterized the yeast γ-tubulin complex (Tub4p complex) produced in insect cells. The recombinant complex has the same sedimentation coefficient (11.6 S) as the native complex in yeast cell extracts and contains one molecule of Spc97p, one molecule of Spc98p, and two molecules of Tub4p. The reconstituted Tub4p complex binds preformed microtubules and has a low nucleating activity, allowing us to begin a detailed analysis of conditions that enhance this nucleating activity. We tested whether binding of the recombinant Tub4p complex to the spindle pole body docking protein Spc110p affects its nucleating activity. The solubility of recombinant Spc110p in insect cells is improved by coexpression with yeast calmodulin (Cmd1p). The Spc110p/Cmd1p complex has a small sedimentation coefficient (4.2 S) and a large Stokes radius (14.3 nm), indicative of an elongated structure. The Tub4p complex binds Spc110p/Cmd1p via Spc98p and the K(d) for binding is 150 nM. The low nucleation activity of the Tub4p complex is not enhanced when it is bound to Spc110p/Cmd1p, suggesting that it requires additional components or modifications to achieve robust activity. Finally, we report the identification of a large 22 S Tub4p complex in yeast extract that contains multimers of Spc97p similar to γ-tubulin ring complexes found in higher eukaryotic cells

A Fourth Component of the Fission Yeast γ-Tubulin Complex, Alp16, Is Required for Cytoplasmic Microtubule Integrity and Becomes Indispensable When γ-Tubulin Function Is Compromised

γ-Tubulin functions as a multiprotein complex, called the γ-tubulin complex (γ-TuC), and composes the microtubule organizing center (MTOC). Fission yeast Alp4 and Alp6 are homologues of two conserved γ-TuC proteins, hGCP2 and hGCP3, respectively. We isolated a novel gene, alp16(+), as a multicopy suppressor of temperature-sensitive alp6-719 mutants. alp16(+) encodes a 759-amino-acid protein with two conserved regions found in all other members of γ-TuC components. In addition, Alp16 contains an additional motif, which shows homology to hGCP6/Xgrip210. Gene disruption shows that alp16(+) is not essential for cell viability. However, alp16 deletion displays abnormally long cytoplasmic microtubules, which curve around the cell tip. Furthermore, alp16-deleted mutants are hypersensitive to microtubule-depolymerizing drugs and synthetically lethal with either temperature-sensitive alp4-225, alp4-1891, or alp6-719 mutants. Overproduction of Alp16 is lethal, with defective phenotypes very similar to loss of Alp4 or Alp6. Alp16 localizes to the spindle pole body throughout the cell cycle and to the equatorial MTOC at postanaphase. Alp16 coimmunoprecipitates with γ-tubulin and cosediments with the γ-TuC in a large complex (>20 S). Alp16 is, however, not required for the formation of this large complex. We discuss evolutional conservation and divergence of structure and function of the γ-TuC between yeast and higher eukaryotes

The BaBar detector: Upgrades, operation and performance

Contains fulltext : 121729.pdf (preprint version ) (Open Access

A measurement of the charged and neutral B meson lifetimes using fully reconstructed decays

Data collected with the BABAR detector at the PEP-II asymmetric B Factory at SLAC are used to study the lifetimes of the B^0 and B^+ mesons. The data sample consists of 7.4 fb-1 collected near the Y(4S) resonance. B^0 and B^+ mesons are fully reconstructed in several exclusive hadronic decay modes to charm and charmonium final states. The B lifetimes are determined from the flight length difference between the two B mesons which are pair-produced in the Y(4S) decay. The preliminary measurements of the lifetimes are tau_B0 = 1.506+/-0.052(stat)+/-0.029(syst) ps, tau_B+ = 1.602+/-0.049(stat)+/-0.035(syst) ps, and of their ratio is tau_B+/tau_B0 = 1.065+/-0.044(stat)+/-0.021(syst