Conformational changes of calmodulin upon Ca2+ binding studied with a microfluidic mixer

A microfluidic mixer is applied to study the kinetics of calmodulin conformational changes upon Ca2+ binding. The device facilitates rapid, uniform mixing by decoupling hydrodynamic focusing from diffusive mixing and accesses time scales of tens of microseconds. The mixer is used in conjunction with multiphoton microscopy to examine the fast Ca2+-induced transitions of acrylodan-labeled calmodulin. We find that the kinetic rates of the conformational changes in two homologous globular domains differ by more than an order of magnitude. The characteristic time constants are ≈490 μs for the transitions in the C-terminal domain and ≈20 ms for those in the N-terminal domain of the protein. We discuss possible mechanisms for the two distinct events and the biological role of the stable intermediate, half-saturated calmodulin

Structural and functional characterizations of mung bean mitochondrial nucleoids

Mitochondrial nucleoids isolated from mung bean seedlings exhibited a chromatin-like structure associated with a membrane component. A similar structure, which underwent discrete changes during cotyledon development, was identified in situ. Isolated nucleoids consisted of essentially the same phospholipids, including cardiolipin, as whole mitochondria and proteins of inner- and outer-mitochondrial-membrane origin. Actin was consistently found with mitochondrial nucleoids prepared with different detergent concentrations. Formaldehyde cross-linking of cytochalasin B- and proteinase K-treated mitochondria further revealed that actin was associated with DNA in nucleoids. Mitochondrial nucleoids were self-sufficient in directing DNA synthesis in vitro in a pattern mimicking mtDNA synthesis in isolated mitochondria. In pulse-field gel electrophoresis, newly synthesized mtDNA separated into two major components, well-bound and fast-moving forms. Nucleoids DNA synthesis was resistant to aphidicolin but sensitive to N-ethylmaleimide, which indicates that a γ-type DNA polymerase was responsible for this activity. Mitochondrial nucleoids were capable of self-directed RNA transcription in a non-random fashion in vitro. Consistent with and complementary to results from fungi and human cells done mostly in situ, our present work helps to establish the important paradigm that mitochondrial nucleoids in eukaryotes are more than mere mtDNA compaction and segregation entities but are centers of mtDNA maintenance and expression

Green Consumers, Greenwashing and the Misperception of Environmental Quality

In this paper we analyse a setup where consumers are heterogeneous in the perception of environmental quality. The equilibrium is verified in a setting with horizontal and vertical (green) differentiation. Profits are increasing in the misperception of quality, while, the investment in green quality decreases the more the goods are substitutes. We further consider the introduction of either an emission tax or an environmental standard. The former rises the investment in environmental quality due to the higher cost of production, whereas in equilibrium quality always improves after the introduction of the latter. We show that an optimal environmental standard is an effective regulatory instrument against greenwashing and that the efficacy of the interventions is conditioned to the damage distribution and the aggregate level of emission

Measurement of the multi-TeV neutrino cross section with IceCube using Earth absorption

Neutrinos interact only very weakly, so they are extremely penetrating. However, the theoretical neutrino-nucleon interaction cross section rises with energy such that, at energies above 40 TeV, neutrinos are expected to be absorbed as they pass through the Earth. Experimentally, the cross section has been measured only at the relatively low energies (below 400 GeV) available at neutrino beams from accelerators \cite{Agashe:2014kda, Formaggio:2013kya}. Here we report the first measurement of neutrino absorption in the Earth, using a sample of 10,784 energetic upward-going neutrino-induced muons observed with the IceCube Neutrino Observatory. The flux of high-energy neutrinos transiting long paths through the Earth is attenuated compared to a reference sample that follows shorter trajectories through the Earth. Using a fit to the two-dimensional distribution of muon energy and zenith angle, we determine the cross section for neutrino energies between 6.3 TeV and 980 TeV, more than an order of magnitude higher in energy than previous measurements. The measured cross section is $1.30^{+0.21}_{-0.19}$ (stat.) $^{+0.39}_{-0.43}$ (syst.) times the prediction of the Standard Model \cite{CooperSarkar:2011pa}, consistent with the expectation for charged and neutral current interactions. We do not observe a dramatic increase in the cross section, expected in some speculative models, including those invoking new compact dimensions \cite{AlvarezMuniz:2002ga} or the production of leptoquarks \cite{Romero:2009vu}.Comment: Preprint version of Nature paper 10.1038/nature2445