Jagannatha Compared:The politics of appropriation, re-use and regional traditions in India

Many in Orissa, experts and lay devotees alike, think of the ‘cult of Jagannatha’ as unique, and specific to Orissa. This is not unusual because space has a special connotation in Hinduism and Jagannatha, though, technically, the Lord of the Universe, is seen by Oriyas as ‘their’ god. Similar identification of particular gods with particular spaces and people can be seen all over India. However, looked at more closely and comparatively, the political and cultural dynamic that goes into the making of the cult is more general than the cult itself. Available evidence shows that the partial process that underpins India’s regional traditions is based on mutual accommodation of rival sacred beliefs, in other regions of India as well. Based on the comparative accounts and the history of Jagannatha of Orissa, and of temples from north and south India which have been converted either by the Jaina or the Lingayat communities, the paper examines the processes of the re-use of sacred sites and material by the holders of political power and the use of such hybrid sacred objects in the making of regional state traditions

TGFβ/SMAD signalling modulates MLL and MLL-AF4 mediated 5-lipoxygenase promoter activation

5-Lipoxygenase (5-LO) catalyzes the initial two steps of the conversion of arachidonic acid to leukotrienes which represent a group of pro-inflammatory lipid mediators involved in immune defense reactions as well as inflammation, allergy and cancer. Transforming growth factor-β (TGFβ) and calcitriol strongly upregulate 5-LO expression during myeloid cell differentiation and MLL-AF4 has been shown to strongly activate the 5-LO promoter. Here, we investigated the role of TGFβ/SMAD signalling in 5-LO promoter activation. We identified two functional SMAD binding elements in the proximal part of the 5-LO promoter which significantly induce 5-LO promoter activity via TGFβ and SMAD3/4. Since aberrant 5-LO gene expression has been linked with mixed lineage leukemia (MLL) which is characterized by the presence of MLL fusion proteins (e.g. MLL-AF4), we also investigated the influence of TGFβ/SMADs on MLL- and MLL-AF4-mediated 5-LO promoter activation. Our data show that induction of 5-LO promoter activity by SMAD3/4 is MLL-dependent and that knockdown of the MLL complex component MEN1 attenuates the SMAD effect. Our data suggest that induction of 5-LO gene expression by TGFβ is at least in part due to stimulation of transcript initiation