572 research outputs found
Asymbiotic germination of immature seeds, plantlet development and ex vitro establishment of plants of Dendrobium tosaense Makino - A medicinally important orchid
Shi-hu (Dendrobium spp. or Dendrobii Herba) is one of the important traditional Chinese medicines. The commercially available crude drug in the traditional medicine market is composed mainly of three species: Dendrobium tosaense, D. nobile, and D. moniliforme. An efficient method of propagation has been developed via asymbiotic germination of seeds in vitro for the medicinally important D. tosaense. Seeds from capsules of D. tosaense collected 8-14 wk after artificial pollination germinated after being cultured on full-strength or half-strength Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium devoid of plant growth regulators and with 3% sucrose. Germination of seeds varied with the medium type and seed maturity. Germinated seedlings after transfer to MS medium with 1.5% sucrose and 8% banana homogenate or potato juice or coconut water and 20 wk of incubation developed into healthy plantlets. Well-developed plantlets were transplanted to moss or moss and tree fern or tree fern as substrates in plastic trays and transferred to a greenhouse for hardening. All plants survived, attained maturity, and developed normal flower and capsule after one and a half years. This protocol of successful plant regeneration by asymbiotic seed germination should permit rapid propagation and conservation of this medicinally important Dendrobium species
Xylose-configured cyclophellitols as selective inhibitors for glucocerebrosidase
Glucocerebrosidase (GBA), a lysosomal retaining beta-d-glucosidase, has recently been shown to hydrolyze beta-d-xylosides and to transxylosylate cholesterol. Genetic defects in GBA cause the lysosomal storage disorder Gaucher disease (GD), and also constitute a risk factor for developing Parkinson's disease. GBA and other retaining glycosidases can be selectively visualized by activity-based protein profiling (ABPP) using fluorescent probes composed of a cyclophellitol scaffold having a configuration tailored to the targeted glycosidase family. GBA processes beta-d-xylosides in addition to beta-d-glucosides, this in contrast to the other two mammalian cellular retaining beta-d-glucosidases, GBA2 and GBA3. Here we show that the xylopyranose preference also holds up for covalent inhibitors: xylose-configured cyclophellitol and cyclophellitol aziridines selectively react with GBA over GBA2 and GBA3 in vitro and in vivo, and that the xylose-configured cyclophellitol is more potent and more selective for GBA than the classical GBA inhibitor, conduritol B-epoxide (CBE). Both xylose-configured cyclophellitol and cyclophellitol aziridine cause accumulation of glucosylsphingosine in zebrafish embryo, a characteristic hallmark of GD, and we conclude that these compounds are well suited for creating such chemically induced GD models.NWO737.016.002Bio-organic SynthesisMedical Biochemistr
H-Ras oncogene counteracts the growth-inhibitory effect of genistein in T24 bladder carcinoma cells
Among eight human bladder cancer cell lines we examined, only T24 cells were resistant to the growth inhibition effect of genistein, an isoflavone and potent anticancer drug. Since the T24 cell line was the only cell line known to overexpress oncogenic H-Ras(val12), we investigated the role of H-Ras(val 12) in mediating drug resistance. Herein, we demonstrate that the phenotype of T24 cells could be dramatically reversed and became relatively susceptible to growth inhibition by genistein if the synthesis of H- Ras(val 12) or its downstream effector c-Fos had been suppressed. The inhibition of Ras-mediated signalling with protein kinase inhibitors, such as PD58059 and U0126 which inhibited MEK and ERK, in T24 cells also rendered the identical phenotypic reversion. However, this reversion was not observed when an inhibitor was used to suppress the protein phosphorylation function of PI3 K or PKC. These results suggest that the signal mediated by H-Ras(val 12) is predominantly responsible for the resistance of the cells to the anticancer drug genistein
Lepton Flavour Violating Leptonic/Semileptonic Decays of Charged Leptons in the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model
We consider the leptonic and semileptonic (SL) lepton flavour violating (LFV)
decays of the charged leptons in the minimal supersymmetric standard model
(MSSM). The formalism for evaluation of branching fractions for the SL LFV
charged-lepton decays with one or two pseudoscalar mesons, or one vector meson
in the final state, is given. Previous amplitudes for the SL LFV charged-lepton
decays in MSSM are improved, for instance the -penguin amplitude is
corrected to assure the gauge invariance. The decays are studied not only in
the model-independent formulation of the theory in the frame of MSSM, but also
within the frame of the minimal supersymmetric SO(10) model within which the
parameters of the MSSM are determined. The latter model gives predictions for
the neutrino-Dirac Yukawa coupling matrix, once free parameters in the model
are appropriately fixed to accommodate the recent neutrino oscillation data.
Using this unambiguous neutrino-Dirac Yukawa couplings, we calculate the LFV
leptonic and SL decay processes assuming the minimal supergravity scenario. A
very detailed numerical analysis is done to constrain the MSSM parameters.
Numerical results for SL LFV processes are given, for instance for tau -> e
(mu) pi0, tau -> e (mu) eta, tau -> e (mu) eta', tau -> e (mu) rho0, tau -> e
(mu) phi, tau -> e (mu) omega, etc.Comment: 36 pages, 3 tables, 5 .eps figure
Deconstructing classical water models at interfaces and in bulk
Using concepts from perturbation and local molecular field theories of
liquids we divide the potential of the SPC/E water model into short and long
ranged parts. The short ranged parts define a minimal reference network model
that captures very well the structure of the local hydrogen bond network in
bulk water while ignoring effects of the remaining long ranged interactions.
This deconstruction can provide insight into the different roles that the local
hydrogen bond network, dispersion forces, and long ranged dipolar interactions
play in determining a variety of properties of SPC/E and related classical
models of water. Here we focus on the anomalous behavior of the internal
pressure and the temperature dependence of the density of bulk water. We
further utilize these short ranged models along with local molecular field
theory to quantify the influence of these interactions on the structure of
hydrophobic interfaces and the crossover from small to large scale hydration
behavior. The implications of our findings for theories of hydrophobicity and
possible refinements of classical water models are also discussed
Future Oscillation Experiments and Present Data
Our goal in this paper is to examine the discovery potential of laboratory
experiments searching for the oscillation , in the light of recent data on solar and atmospheric neutrino
experiments, which we analyse together with the most restrictive results from
laboratory experiments on neutrino oscillations. In order to explain
simultaneously present results we use a four-neutrino framework, with an
additional sterile neutrino. Our predictions are rather pessimistic for the
upcoming experiments NOMAD and CHORUS, which, we find, are able to explore only
a small area of the oscillation parameter space. On the other hand, the
discovery potential of future experiments is much larger. We consider three
examples. E803, which is approved to operate in the future Fermilab main
injector beam line, MINOS, a proposed long-baseline experiment also using the
Fermilab beam, and NAUSICAA, an improved detector which improves by an order of
magnitude the performance of CHORUS/NOMAD and can be operated either at CERN or
at Fermilab beams. We find that those experiments can cover a very substantial
fraction of the oscillation parameter space, having thus a very good chance of
discovering and oscillation modes.Comment: Latex file using ReVTeX and epsifig.sty. 40 Pages. Revised version
includes new references and changed Fig.
Role of β-glucosidase 2 in aberrant glycosphingolipid metabolism: model of glucocerebrosidase deficiency in zebrafish
β-glucosidases (GBA1 [glucocerebrosidase], GBA2, and GBA3) are ubiquitous, essential enzymes. Lysosomal GBA1 and cytosol-facing GBA2 degrade glucosylceramide (GlcCer); GBA1 deficiency causes Gaucher disease (GD), a lysosomal storage disorder characterized by lysosomal accumulation of GlcCer, which is partly converted to glucosylsphingosine (GlcSph). GBA1 and GBA2 also may transfer glucose from GlcCer to cholesterol, yielding glucosylated cholesterol (GlcChol). Here, we aimed to clarify the role of zebrafish Gba2 in glycosphingolipid metabolism during Gba1 deficiency in zebrafish (Danio rerio), which are able to survive total Gba1 deficiency. We developed Gba1 and Gba2 zebrafish knockouts (gba1-/- and gba2-/-, respectively) using CRISPR/Cas9, modulated glucosidases genetically and pharmacologically, studied GlcCer metabolism in individual larvae, and explored the feasibility of pharmacologic or genetic interventions. Activity-based probes and quantification of relevant glycolipid metabolites confirmed enzyme deficiency. GlcSph increased in gba1-/- larvae (0.09 pmol/fish) but did not increase more in gba1-/-:gba2-/- larvae. GlcCer was comparable in gba1-/- and wild-type (WT) larvae but increased in gba2-/- and gba1-/-:gba2-/- larvae. Independent of Gba1 status, GlcChol was low in all gba2-/- larvae (0.05 vs. 0.18. pmol/fish in WT). Pharmacologic inactivation of zebrafish Gba1 comparably increased GlcSph. Inhibition of glucosylceramide synthase in Gba1-deficient larvae reduced GlcCer and GlcSph, and concomitant inhibition of glucosylceramide synthase and Gba2 with iminosugars also reduced excessive GlcChol. Finally, overexpression of human GBA1 and injection of recombinant GBA1 both decreased GlcSph. We determined that zebrafish larvae offer an attractive model to study glucosidase actions in glycosphingolipid metabolism in vivo, and we identified distinguishing characteristics of zebrafish Gba2 deficiency. Animal science
Heavy quarkonium: progress, puzzles, and opportunities
A golden age for heavy quarkonium physics dawned a decade ago, initiated by
the confluence of exciting advances in quantum chromodynamics (QCD) and an
explosion of related experimental activity. The early years of this period were
chronicled in the Quarkonium Working Group (QWG) CERN Yellow Report (YR) in
2004, which presented a comprehensive review of the status of the field at that
time and provided specific recommendations for further progress. However, the
broad spectrum of subsequent breakthroughs, surprises, and continuing puzzles
could only be partially anticipated. Since the release of the YR, the BESII
program concluded only to give birth to BESIII; the -factories and CLEO-c
flourished; quarkonium production and polarization measurements at HERA and the
Tevatron matured; and heavy-ion collisions at RHIC have opened a window on the
deconfinement regime. All these experiments leave legacies of quality,
precision, and unsolved mysteries for quarkonium physics, and therefore beg for
continuing investigations. The plethora of newly-found quarkonium-like states
unleashed a flood of theoretical investigations into new forms of matter such
as quark-gluon hybrids, mesonic molecules, and tetraquarks. Measurements of the
spectroscopy, decays, production, and in-medium behavior of c\bar{c}, b\bar{b},
and b\bar{c} bound states have been shown to validate some theoretical
approaches to QCD and highlight lack of quantitative success for others. The
intriguing details of quarkonium suppression in heavy-ion collisions that have
emerged from RHIC have elevated the importance of separating hot- and
cold-nuclear-matter effects in quark-gluon plasma studies. This review
systematically addresses all these matters and concludes by prioritizing
directions for ongoing and future efforts.Comment: 182 pages, 112 figures. Editors: N. Brambilla, S. Eidelman, B. K.
Heltsley, R. Vogt. Section Coordinators: G. T. Bodwin, E. Eichten, A. D.
Frawley, A. B. Meyer, R. E. Mitchell, V. Papadimitriou, P. Petreczky, A. A.
Petrov, P. Robbe, A. Vair
Search for a W' boson decaying to a bottom quark and a top quark in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV
Results are presented from a search for a W' boson using a dataset
corresponding to 5.0 inverse femtobarns of integrated luminosity collected
during 2011 by the CMS experiment at the LHC in pp collisions at sqrt(s)=7 TeV.
The W' boson is modeled as a heavy W boson, but different scenarios for the
couplings to fermions are considered, involving both left-handed and
right-handed chiral projections of the fermions, as well as an arbitrary
mixture of the two. The search is performed in the decay channel W' to t b,
leading to a final state signature with a single lepton (e, mu), missing
transverse energy, and jets, at least one of which is tagged as a b-jet. A W'
boson that couples to fermions with the same coupling constant as the W, but to
the right-handed rather than left-handed chiral projections, is excluded for
masses below 1.85 TeV at the 95% confidence level. For the first time using LHC
data, constraints on the W' gauge coupling for a set of left- and right-handed
coupling combinations have been placed. These results represent a significant
improvement over previously published limits.Comment: Submitted to Physics Letters B. Replaced with version publishe
Search for the standard model Higgs boson decaying into two photons in pp collisions at sqrt(s)=7 TeV
A search for a Higgs boson decaying into two photons is described. The
analysis is performed using a dataset recorded by the CMS experiment at the LHC
from pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV, which corresponds to an
integrated luminosity of 4.8 inverse femtobarns. Limits are set on the cross
section of the standard model Higgs boson decaying to two photons. The expected
exclusion limit at 95% confidence level is between 1.4 and 2.4 times the
standard model cross section in the mass range between 110 and 150 GeV. The
analysis of the data excludes, at 95% confidence level, the standard model
Higgs boson decaying into two photons in the mass range 128 to 132 GeV. The
largest excess of events above the expected standard model background is
observed for a Higgs boson mass hypothesis of 124 GeV with a local significance
of 3.1 sigma. The global significance of observing an excess with a local
significance greater than 3.1 sigma anywhere in the search range 110-150 GeV is
estimated to be 1.8 sigma. More data are required to ascertain the origin of
this excess.Comment: Submitted to Physics Letters
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