Rolling ES cells down the Waddington landscape with Oct4 and Sox2

Embryonic stem cell (ESC) pluripotency is maintained by core transcriptional circuits whereby critical factors sustain their own expression while preventing the expression of genes required for differentiation. Thomson et al. (2011) now show that two core components of the pluripotency circuit, Oct4 and Sox2, are also critical for germ layer fate choice

Chromatin Preparation and Chromatin Immuno-precipitation from Drosophila Embryos

This protocol provides specific details on how to perform Chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) from Drosophila embryos. ChIP allows the matching of proteins or histone modifications to specific genomic regions. Formaldehyde-cross-linked chromatin is isolated and antibodies against the target of interest are used to determine whether the target is associated with a specific DNA sequence. This can be performed in spatial and temporal manner and it can provide information about the genome-wide localization of a given protein or histone modification if coupled with deep sequencing technology (ChIP-Seq)

Trithorax group proteins: switching genes on and keeping them active

Cellular memory is provided by two counteracting groups of chromatin proteins termed Trithorax group (TrxG) and Polycomb group (PcG) proteins. TrxG proteins activate transcription and are perhaps best known because of the involvement of the TrxG protein MLL in leukaemia. However, in terms of molecular analysis, they have lived in the shadow of their more famous counterparts, the PcG proteins. Recent advances have improved our understanding of TrxG protein function and demonstrated that the heterogeneous group of TrxG proteins is of critical importance in the epigenetic regulation of the cell cycle, senescence, DNA damage and stem cell biology

Redshift-Space Distortions and the Real-Space Clustering of Different Galaxy Types

We study the distortions induced by peculiar velocities on the redshift-space correlation function of galaxies of different morphological types in the Pisces-Perseus redshift survey. Redshift-space distortions affect early- and late-type galaxies in different ways. In particular, at small separations, the dominant effect comes from virialized cluster cores, where ellipticals are the dominant population. The net result is that a meaningful comparison of the clustering strength of different morphological types can be performed only in real space, i.e., after projecting out the redshift distortions on the two-point correlation function xi(r_p,pi). A power-law fit to the projected function w_p(r_p) on scales smaller than 10/h Mpc gives r_o = 8.35_{-0.76}^{+0.75} /h Mpc, \gamma = 2.05_{-0.08}^{+0.10} for the early-type population, and r_o = 5.55_{-0.45}^{+0.40} /h Mpc, \gamma = 1.73_{-0.08}^{+0.07} for spirals and irregulars. These values are derived for a sample luminosity brighter than M_{Zw} = -19.5. We detect a 25% increase of r_o with luminosity for all types combined, from M_{Zw} = -19 to -20. In the framework of a simple stable-clustering model for the mean streaming of pairs, we estimate sigma_12(1), the one-dimensional pairwise velocity dispersion between 0 and 1 /h Mpc, to be 865^{+250}_{-165} km/s for early-type galaxies and 345^{+95}_{-65} km/s for late types. This latter value should be a fair estimate of the pairwise dispersion for ``field'' galaxies; it is stable with respect to the presence or absence of clusters in the sample, and is consistent with the values found for non-cluster galaxies and IRAS galaxies at similar separations.Comment: 17 LaTeX pages including 3 tables, plus 11 PS figures. Uses AASTeX macro package (aaspp4.sty) and epsf.sty. To appear on ApJ, 489, Nov 199

Southern Sky Redshift Survey: Clustering of Local Galaxies

We use the two-point correlation function to calculate the clustering properties of the recently completed SSRS2 survey. The redshift space correlation function for the magnitude-limited SSRS2 is given by xi(s)=(s/5.85 h-1 Mpc)^{-1.60} for separations between 2 < s < 11 h-1 Mpc, while our best estimate for the real space correlation function is xi(r) = (r/5.36 h-1 Mpc)^{-1.86}. Both are comparable to previous measurements using surveys of optical galaxies over much larger and independent volumes. By comparing the correlation function calculated in redshift and real space we find that the redshift distortion on intermediate scales is small. This result implies that the observed redshift-space distribution of galaxies is close to that in real space, and that beta = Omega^{0.6}/b < 1, where Omega is the cosmological density parameter and b is the linear biasing factor for optical galaxies. We also use the SSRS2 to study the dependence of xi on the internal properties of galaxies. We confirm earlier results that luminous galaxies (L>L*) are more clustered than sub-L* galaxies and that the luminosity segregation is scale-independent. We find that early types are more clustered than late types, but that in the absence of rich clusters, the relative bias between early and late types in real space, is not as strong as previously estimated. Furthermore, both morphologies present a luminosity-dependent bias, with the early types showing a slightly stronger dependence on luminosity. We also find that red galaxies are significantly more clustered than blue ones, with a mean relative bias stronger than that seen for morphology. Finally, we find that the relative bias between optical and iras galaxies in real space is b_o/b_I $\sim$ 1.4.Comment: 43 pages, uses AASTeX 4.0 macros. Includes 8 tables and 16 Postscript figures, updated reference

The XXL Survey VIII: MUSE characterisation of intracluster light in a z∼\sim0.53 cluster of galaxies

Within a cluster, gravitational effects can lead to the removal of stars from their parent galaxies. Gas hydrodynamical effects can additionally strip gas and dust from galaxies. The properties of the ICL can therefore help constrain the physical processes at work in clusters by serving as a fossil record of the interaction history. The present study is designed to characterise this ICL in a ~10^14 M_odot and z~0.53 cluster of galaxies from imaging and spectroscopic points of view. By applying a wavelet-based method to CFHT Megacam and WIRCAM images, we detect significant quantities of diffuse light. These sources were then spectroscopically characterised with MUSE. MUSE data were also used to compute redshifts of 24 cluster galaxies and search for cluster substructures. An atypically large amount of ICL has been detected in this cluster. Part of the detected diffuse light has a very weak optical stellar component and apparently consists mainly of gas emission, while other diffuse light sources are clearly dominated by old stars. Furthermore, emission lines were detected in several places of diffuse light. Our spectral analysis shows that this emission likely originates from low-excitation parameter gas. The stellar contribution to the ICL is about 2.3x10^9 yrs old even though the ICL is not currently forming a large number of stars. On the other hand, the contribution of the gas emission to the ICL in the optical is much greater than the stellar contribution in some regions, but the gas density is likely too low to form stars. These observations favour ram pressure stripping, turbulent viscous stripping, or supernovae winds as the origin of the large amount of intracluster light. Since the cluster appears not to be in a major merging phase, we conclude that ram pressure stripping is the most plausible process that generates the observed ICL sources.Comment: Accepted in A&A, english enhanced, figure location different than in the A&A version due to different style files, shortened abstrac

HP1 drives de novo 3D genome reorganization in early Drosophila embryos

Fundamental features of 3D genome organization are established de novo in the early embryo, including clustering of pericentromeric regions, the folding of chromosome arms and the segregation of chromosomes into active (A-) and inactive (B-) compartments. However, the molecular mechanisms that drive de novo organization remain unknown. Here, by combining chromosome conformation capture (Hi-C), chromatin immunoprecipitation with high-throughput sequencing (ChIP–seq), 3D DNA fluorescence in situ hybridization (3D DNA FISH) and polymer simulations, we show that heterochromatin protein 1a (HP1a) is essential for de novo 3D genome organization during Drosophila early development. The binding of HP1a at pericentromeric heterochromatin is required to establish clustering of pericentromeric regions. Moreover, HP1a binding within chromosome arms is responsible for overall chromosome folding and has an important role in the formation of B-compartment regions. However, depletion of HP1a does not affect the A-compartment, which suggests that a different molecular mechanism segregates active chromosome regions. Our work identifies HP1a as an epigenetic regulator that is involved in establishing the global structure of the genome in the early embryo

Galaxy Clustering Evolution in the UH8K Weak Lensing Fields

We present measurements of the two-point galaxy angular correlation function as a function of apparent magnitude, color, and morphology. We present new galaxy number counts to limiting magnitudes of I=24.0 and V=25.0. We find $\omega(\theta)$ to be well described by a power-law of slope -0.8. We find the amplitude of the correlation function to decrease monotonically with increasingly faint apparent magnitude. We compare with predictions utilizing redshift distributions based on deep spectroscopic observations. We conclude that simple redshift-dependent models which characterize evolution by means of the epsilon parameter inadequately describe the observations. We find a strong clustering dependence on V-I color because galaxies of extreme color lie at similar redshifts and the angular correlation functions for these samples are minimally diluted by chance projections. We then present the first attempt to investigate the redshift evolution of clustering, utilizing a population of galaxies of the same morphological type and absolute luminosity. We study the dependence of $\omega(\theta)$ on redshift for Lstar early-type galaxies in the redshift range 0.2<z<0.9. Although uncertainties are large, we find the evolution in the clustering of these galaxies to be consistent with stable clustering [epsilon=0]. We find Lstar early-type galaxies to cluster slightly more strongly (rnought = 5.25\pm0.28 \hMpc assuming epsilon=0) than the local full field population. This is in good agreement with the 2dFGRS value for Lstar early-type galaxies in the local universe (abridged).Comment: 41 pages, including 12 figs, 10 tables, to appear in Ap