1,458 research outputs found
Deletion mutants in COP9/Signalosome subunits in fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe display distinct phenotypes
The COP9/signalosome complex is highly conserved in evolution and possesses significant structural similarity to the 19S regulatory lid complex of the proteasome. It also shares limited similarity to the translation initiation factor eIF3. The signalosome interacts with multiple cullins in mammalian cells. In the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe, the Csn1 subunit is required for the removal of covalently attached Nedd8 from Pcu1, one of three S. pombe cullins. It remains unclear whether this activity is required for all the functions ascribed to the signalosome. We previously identified Csn1 and Csn2 as signalosome subunits in S. pombe. csn1 and csn2 null mutants are DNA damage sensitive and exhibit slow DNA replication. Two further putative subunits, Csn4 and Csn5, were identified from the S. pombe genome database. Herein, we characterize null mutations of csn4 and csn5 and demonstrate that both genes are required for removal of Nedd8 from the S. pombe cullin Pcu1 and that their protein products associate with Csn1 and Csn2. However, neither csn4 nor csn5 null mutants share the csn1 and csn2 mutant phenotypes. Our data suggest that the subunits of the signalosome cannot be considered as a distinct functional unit and imply that different subunits of the signalosome mediate distinct functions
Effects of planting density and the composition of wheat cultivar mixtures on stripe rust: an analysis taking into account limits to the replication of controls
The effect of plant density on disease is not well understood in populations of a single host plant genotype and has been studied even less in mixtures of host genotypes. We performed an experiment to evaluate the effect of wheat planting density on infection by Puccinia striiformis in experimental plots with a single wheat genotype and in plots with two genotypes making up a range of frequencies. Stripe rust severity in single-genotype plots increased with planting density in 1997 but decreased with planting density in 1998. Disease in host mixtures was compared to the weighted mean of disease levels in the corresponding single-genotype plots. The design of the field experiment included limited replication of these reference treatments (that is, there was not a unique pair of single-genotype plots for each mixture plot); therefore, we devised an analysis based on collapsing the data into independent mean observations. Disease reduction due to host diversity was less when one genotype predominated than when both host genotypes were present at nearly equal frequencies. The greatest mean host-diversity effect for reduced disease was at the intermediate planting density of 250 seeds per m2
Near-infrared polarimetric observations of the afterglow of GRB 000301C
Based on near-infrared polarimetric observations we constrain the degree of
linear polarization of the afterglow light of GRB 000301C to less than 30% 1.8
days after the burst.Comment: To appear in: Proc. 20th Texas Symposium on Relativistic
Astrophysics, eds. J. C. Wheeler and H. Marte
The Mass Dependence of Stellar Rotation in the Orion Nebula Cluster
We have determined new rotation periods for 404 stars in the Orion Nebula
Cluster using the Wide Field Imager attached to the MPG/ESO 2.2 m telescope on
La Silla, Chile. Mass estimates are available for 335 of these and most have M
< 0.3 M_sun. We confirm the existence of a bimodal period distribution for the
higher mass stars in our sample and show that the median rotation rate
decreases with increasing mass for stars in the range 0.1 < M <0.4 M_sun. While
the spread in angular momentum (J) at any given mass is more than a factor of
10, the majority of lower mass stars in the ONC rotate at rates approaching 30%
of their critical break-up velocity, as opposed to 5-10% for solar-like stars.
This is a consequence of both a small increase in observed specific angular
momentum (j=J/M) and a larger decrease in the critical value of j with
decreasing mass. Perhaps the most striking fact, however, is that j varies by
so little - less than a factor of two - over the interval 0.1-1.0 M_sun. The
distribution of rotation rates with mass in the ONC (age ~ 1 My) is similar in
nature to what is found in the Pleiades (age ~ 100 My). These observations
provide a significant new guide and test for models of stellar angular momentum
evolution during the proto-stellar and pre-main sequence phases.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figure
Photoelectron spectra of anionic sodium clusters from time-dependent density-functional theory in real-time
We calculate the excitation energies of small neutral sodium clusters in the
framework of time-dependent density-functional theory. In the presented
calculations, we extract these energies from the power spectra of the dipole
and quadrupole signals that result from a real-time and real-space propagation.
For comparison with measured photoelectron spectra, we use the ionic
configurations of the corresponding single-charged anions. Our calculations
clearly improve on earlier results for photoelectron spectra obtained from
static Kohn-Sham eigenvalues
Precession of collimated outflows from young stellar objects
We consider several protostellar systems where either a precessing jet or at
least two misaligned jets have been observed. We assume that the precession of
jets is caused by tidal interactions in noncoplanar binary systems. For Cep E,
V1331 Cyg and RNO 15-FIR the inferred orbital separations and disk radii are in
the range 4-160 AU and 1-80 AU, respectively, consistent with those expected
for pre-main sequence stars. Furthermore, we assume or use the fact that the
source of misaligned outflows is a binary, and evaluate the lengthscale over
which the jets should precess as a result of tidal interactions. For T Tau, HH1
VLA 1/2 and HH 24 SVS63, it may be possible to detect a bending of the jets
rather than 'wiggling'. In HH 111 IRS and L1551 IRS5, 'wiggling' may be
detected on the current observed scale. Our results are consistent with the
existence of noncoplanar binary systems in which tidal interactions induce jets
to precess.Comment: 5 pages (including 1 figure), LaTeX, uses emulateapj.sty, to be
published in ApJ Letters, also available at
http://www.ucolick.org/~ct/home.html and
http://www.tls-tautenburg.de/research/research.htm
Laser cooling with electromagnetically induced transparency: Application to trapped samples of ions or neutral atoms
A novel method of ground state laser cooling of trapped atoms utilizes the
absorption profile of a three (or multi-) level system which is tailored by a
quantum interference. With cooling rates comparable to conventional sideband
cooling, lower final temperatures may be achieved. The method was
experimentally implemented to cool a single Ca ion to its vibrational
ground state. Since a broad band of vibrational frequencies can be cooled
simultaneously, the technique will be particularly useful for the cooling of
larger ion strings, thereby being of great practical importance for
initializing a quantum register based on trapped ions. We also discuss its
application to different level schemes and for ground state cooling of neutral
atoms trapped by a far detuned standing wave laser field.Comment: 9 pages, 13 figures, submitted to Appl Phys B 200
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