542 research outputs found
Mitochondrial RNA editing in Trypanoplasma borreli: new tools, new revelations
The kinetoplastids are unicellular flagellates that derive their name from their ‘kinetoplast’, a region within each flagellate’s single mitochondrion harboring its organellar genome of high DNA content. Some protein products of this mitochondrial genome are encoded as cryptogenes; their transcripts require editing to generate an open reading frame. This happens through an RNA editing process, whereby small regulatory guide RNAs direct the proper insertion and deletion of one or more uridines at each editing site within specific transcript regions. An accurate perspective of the mitochondrial DNA expansion of kinetoplastids and the evolution of their unique uridine insertion/deletion editing across the entire group has been difficult to achieve. Here, we resolved outstanding questions about the organization of the mitochondrial genome and its editing in the kinetoplastid Trypanoplasma borreli that is evolutionarily distant from the frequently-studied trypanosomatids. We find that its mitochondrial DNA consists of circular molecules of 42 kb that harbor the rRNA and mRNAs, and 17 different contigs of approximately 70 kb carrying an average of 23 putative guide RNA loci per contig. These contigs may be linear molecules; they contain repetitive termini. Our analysis uncovered a putative gRNA population with unique length and sequence parameters that is massive relative to the editing needs of this parasite. We validated or determined the sequence identity of each of the four edited mRNA species – including one coding for ATP synthase 6 that was previously thought to be missing. We utilized our computational methods to show that the T. borreli transcriptome includes a substantial number of transcripts with editing patterns not consistent with the identified product, a result of non-canonical editing. We also discovered that this species is more likely than other kinetoplastids to utilize uridine deletion to enforce amino acid conservation of cryptogene products, although deletion is still less common than insertion. Finally, in three tested kinetoplastid mitochondrial transcriptomes, uridine deletion is more common in the raw mitochondrial read population than it appears when the fully edited translationally competent mRNAs only are considered. We conclude that the organization of mitochondrial DNA across all kinetoplastids can be described as variations on several central themes. These themes include partitioned coding and repetitive regions of a circular molecule encoding mRNA and rRNA, and guide RNA loci positioned on a malleable population of multiple molecules that differ in relative abundance in different strains. Likewise, while all kinetoplastids possess the central mechanism of uridine insertion/deletion RNA editing, its output parameters are species-specific
Combined QCD and electroweak analysis of HERA data
A simultaneous fit of parton distribution functions (PDFs) and electroweak
parameters to HERA data on deep inelastic scattering is presented. The input
data are the neutral current and charged current inclusive cross sections which
were previously used in the QCD analysis leading to the HERAPDF2.0 PDFs. In
addition, the polarisation of the electron beam was taken into account for the
ZEUS data recorded between 2004 and 2007. Results on the vector and
axial-vector couplings of the Z boson to u- and d-type quarks, on the value of
the electroweak mixing angle and the mass of the W boson are presented. The
values obtained for the electroweak parameters are in agreement with Standard
Model predictions.Comment: 32 pages, 10 figures, accepted by Phys. Rev. D. Small corrections
from proofing process and small change to Fig. 12 and Table
Limits on the effective quark radius from inclusive scattering at HERA
The high-precision HERA data allows searches up to TeV scales for Beyond the
Standard Model contributions to electron-quark scattering. Combined
measurements of the inclusive deep inelastic cross sections in neutral and
charged current scattering corresponding to a luminosity of around 1
fb have been used in this analysis. A new approach to the beyond the
Standard Model analysis of the inclusive data is presented; simultaneous
fits of parton distribution functions together with contributions of "new
physics" processes were performed. Results are presented considering a finite
radius of quarks within the quark form-factor model. The resulting 95% C.L.
upper limit on the effective quark radius is cm.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, accepted by Phys. Lett.
Search for a narrow baryonic state decaying to and in deep inelastic scattering at HERA
A search for a narrow baryonic state in the and
system has been performed in collisions at HERA with the ZEUS detector
using an integrated luminosity of 358 pb taken in 2003-2007. The search
was performed with deep inelastic scattering events at an centre-of-mass
energy of 318 GeV for exchanged photon virtuality, , between 20 and 100
. Contrary to evidence presented for such a state around 1.52
GeV in a previous ZEUS analysis using a sample of 121 pb taken in
1996-2000, no resonance peak was found in the invariant-mass
distribution in the range 1.45-1.7 GeV. Upper limits on the production cross
section are set.Comment: 16 pages, 4 figures, accepted by Phys. Lett. B. Minor changes from
journal reviewing process, including a small correction to figure
Measurement of the cross-section ratio sigma_{psi(2S)}/sigma_{J/psi(1S)} in deep inelastic exclusive ep scattering at HERA
The exclusive deep inelastic electroproduction of and
at an centre-of-mass energy of 317 GeV has been studied with the ZEUS
detector at HERA in the kinematic range GeV,
GeV and GeV, where is the photon virtuality, is the
photon-proton centre-of-mass energy and is the squared four-momentum
transfer at the proton vertex. The data for GeV were taken in
the HERA I running period and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 114
pb. The data for GeV are from both HERA I and HERA II
periods and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 468 pb. The decay
modes analysed were and for the
and for the . The cross-section ratio
has been measured as a function of
and . The results are compared to predictions of QCD-inspired
models of exclusive vector-meson production.Comment: 24 pages, 8 figure
Measurement of neutral current e+/-p cross sections at high Bjorken x with the ZEUS detector
The neutral current e+/-p cross section has been measured up to values of
Bjorken x of approximately 1 with the ZEUS detector at HERA using an integrated
luminosity of 187 inv. pb of e-p and 142 inv. pb of e+p collisions at sqrt(s) =
318GeV. Differential cross sections in x and Q2, the exchanged boson
virtuality, are presented for Q2 geq 725GeV2. An improved reconstruction method
and greatly increased amount of data allows a finer binning in the high-x
region of the neutral current cross section and leads to a measurement with
much improved precision compared to a similar earlier analysis. The
measurements are compared to Standard Model expectations based on a variety of
recent parton distribution functions.Comment: 39 pages, 9 figure
Measurement of the diffractive structure function in deep inelastic scattering at HERA
This paper presents an analysis of the inclusive properties of diffractive
deep inelastic scattering events produced in interactions at HERA. The
events are characterised by a rapidity gap between the outgoing proton system
and the remaining hadronic system. Inclusive distributions are presented and
compared with Monte Carlo models for diffractive processes. The data are
consistent with models where the pomeron structure function has a hard and a
soft contribution. The diffractive structure function is measured as a function
of \xpom, the momentum fraction lost by the proton, of , the momentum
fraction of the struck quark with respect to \xpom, and of . The \xpom
dependence is consistent with the form \xpoma where
in all bins of and
. In the measured range, the diffractive structure function
approximately scales with at fixed . In an Ingelman-Schlein type
model, where commonly used pomeron flux factor normalisations are assumed, it
is found that the quarks within the pomeron do not saturate the momentum sum
rule.Comment: 36 pages, latex, 11 figures appended as uuencoded fil
Measurement of inclusive D*+- and associated dijet cross sections in photoproduction at HERA
Inclusive photoproduction of D*+- mesons has been measured for photon-proton
centre-of-mass energies in the range 130 < W < 280 GeV and a photon virtuality
Q^2 < 1 GeV^2. The data sample used corresponds to an integrated luminosity of
37 pb^-1. Total and differential cross sections as functions of the D*
transverse momentum and pseudorapidity are presented in restricted kinematical
regions and the data are compared with next-to-leading order (NLO) perturbative
QCD calculations using the "massive charm" and "massless charm" schemes. The
measured cross sections are generally above the NLO calculations, in particular
in the forward (proton) direction. The large data sample also allows the study
of dijet production associated with charm. A significant resolved as well as a
direct photon component contribute to the cross section. Leading order QCD
Monte Carlo calculations indicate that the resolved contribution arises from a
significant charm component in the photon. A massive charm NLO parton level
calculation yields lower cross sections compared to the measured results in a
kinematic region where the resolved photon contribution is significant.Comment: 32 pages including 6 figure
Measurement of event shapes in deep inelastic scattering at HERA
Inclusive event-shape variables have been measured in the current region of
the Breit frame for neutral current deep inelastic ep scattering using an
integrated luminosity of 45.0 pb^-1 collected with the ZEUS detector at HERA.
The variables studied included thrust, jet broadening and invariant jet mass.
The kinematic range covered was 10 < Q^2 < 20,480 GeV^2 and 6.10^-4 < x < 0.6,
where Q^2 is the virtuality of the exchanged boson and x is the Bjorken
variable. The Q dependence of the shape variables has been used in conjunction
with NLO perturbative calculations and the Dokshitzer-Webber non-perturbative
corrections (`power corrections') to investigate the validity of this approach.Comment: 7+25 pages, 6 figure
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