corona Is Required for Higher-Order Assembly of Transverse Filaments into Full-Length Synaptonemal Complex in Drosophila Oocytes

The synaptonemal complex (SC) is an intricate structure that forms between homologous chromosomes early during the meiotic prophase, where it mediates homolog pairing interactions and promotes the formation of genetic exchanges. In Drosophila melanogaster, C(3)G protein forms the transverse filaments (TFs) of the SC. The N termini of C(3)G homodimers localize to the Central Element (CE) of the SC, while the C-termini of C(3)G connect the TFs to the chromosomes via associations with the axial elements/lateral elements (AEs/LEs) of the SC. Here, we show that the Drosophila protein Corona (CONA) co-localizes with C(3)G in a mutually dependent fashion and is required for the polymerization of C(3)G into mature thread-like structures, in the context both of paired homologous chromosomes and of C(3)G polycomplexes that lack AEs/LEs. Although AEs assemble in cona oocytes, they exhibit defects that are characteristic of c(3)G mutant oocytes, including failure of AE alignment and synapsis. These results demonstrate that CONA, which does not contain a coiled coil domain, is required for the stable ‘zippering’ of TFs to form the central region of the Drosophila SC. We speculate that CONA's role in SC formation may be similar to that of the mammalian CE proteins SYCE2 and TEX12. However, the observation that AE alignment and pairing occurs in Tex12 and Syce2 mutant meiocytes but not in cona oocytes suggests that the SC plays a more critical role in the stable association of homologs in Drosophila than it does in mammalian cells

Ouabain Stimulates a Na+/K+-ATPase-Mediated SFK-Activated Signalling Pathway That Regulates Tight Junction Function in the Mouse Blastocyst

The Na+/K+-ATPase plays a pivotal role during preimplantation development; it establishes a trans-epithelial ionic gradient that facilitates the formation of the fluid-filled blastocyst cavity, crucial for implantation and successful pregnancy. The Na+/K+-ATPase is also implicated in regulating tight junctions and cardiotonic steroid (CTS)-induced signal transduction via SRC. We investigated the expression of SRC family kinase (SFK) members, Src and Yes, during preimplantation development and determined whether SFK activity is required for blastocyst formation. Embryos were collected following super-ovulation of CD1 or MF1 female mice. RT-PCR was used to detect SFK mRNAs encoding Src and Yes throughout preimplantation development. SRC and YES protein were localized throughout preimplantation development. Treatment of mouse morulae with the SFK inhibitors PP2 and SU6656 for 18 hours resulted in a reversible blockade of progression to the blastocyst stage. Blastocysts treated with 10−3 M ouabain for 2 or 10 minutes and immediately immunostained for phosphorylation at SRC tyr418 displayed reduced phosphorylation while in contrast blastocysts treated with 10−4 M displayed increased tyr418 fluorescence. SFK inhibition increased and SFK activation reduced trophectoderm tight junction permeability in blastocysts. The results demonstrate that SFKs are expressed during preimplantation development and that SFK activity is required for blastocyst formation and is an important mediator of trophectoderm tight junction permeability

Using Hidden Markov Models for the accurate linguistic analysis of process model activity labels

\u3cp\u3eMany process model analysis techniques rely on the accurate analysis of the natural language contents captured in the models’ activity labels. Since these labels are typically short and diverse in terms of their grammatical style, standard natural language processing tools are not suitable to analyze them. While a dedicated technique for the analysis of process model activity labels was proposed in the past, it suffers from considerable limitations. First of all, its performance varies greatly among data sets with different characteristics and it cannot handle uncommon grammatical styles. What is more, adapting the technique requires in-depth domain knowledge. We use this paper to propose a machine learning-based technique for activity label analysis that overcomes the issues associated with this rule-based state of the art. Our technique conceptualizes activity label analysis as a tagging task based on a Hidden Markov Model. By doing so, the analysis of activity labels no longer requires the manual specification of rules. An evaluation using a collection of 15,000 activity labels demonstrates that our machine learning-based technique outperforms the state of the art in all aspects.\u3c/p\u3

3-methyl-1,2,3-butanetricarboxylic acid : an atmospheric tracer for terpene secondary organic aerosol

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Transgenerational effects and the cost of ant tending in aphids

In mutualistic interactions, partners obtain a net benefit, but there may also be costs associated with the provision of benefits for a partner. The question of whether aphids suffer such costs when attended by ants has been raised in previous work. Transgenerational effects, where offspring phenotypes are adjusted based on maternal influences, could be important in the mutualistic interaction between aphids and ants, in particular because aphids have telescoping generations where two offspring generations can be present in a mature aphid. We investigated the immediate and transgenerational influence of ant tending on aphid life history and reproduction by observing the interaction between the facultative myrmecophile Aphis fabae and the ant Lasius niger over 13 aphid generations in the laboratory. We found that the effect of ant tending changes dynamically over successive aphid generations after the start of tending. Initially, total aphid colony weight, aphid adult weight and aphid embryo size decreased compared with untended aphids, consistent with a cost of ant association, but these differences disappeared within four generations of interaction. We conclude that transgenerational effects are important in the aphid–ant interactions and that the costs for aphids of being tended by ants can vary over generations