180 research outputs found
Expanding Cosmologies in Brane Geometries
Five dimensional gravity coupled, both in the bulk and on a brane, to a
scalar Liouville field yields a geometry confined to a strip around the brane
and with time dependent scale factors for the four geometry. In various limits
known models can be recovered as well as a temporally expanding four geometry
with a warp factor falling exponentially away from the brane. The effective
theory on the brane has a time dependent Planck mass and ``cosmological
constant''. Although the scale factor expands, the expansion is not an
acceleration.Comment: 7 pages, LaTex/RevTex
The Major Roles of DNA Polymerases Epsilon and Delta at the Eukaryotic Replication Fork Are Evolutionarily Conserved
Coordinated replication of eukaryotic genomes is intrinsically asymmetric, with continuous leading strand synthesis preceding discontinuous lagging strand synthesis. Here we provide two types of evidence indicating that, in fission yeast, these two biosynthetic tasks are performed by two different replicases. First, in Schizosaccharomyces pombe strains encoding a polδ-L591M mutator allele, base substitutions in reporter genes placed in opposite orientations relative to a well-characterized replication origin are strand-specific and distributed in patterns implying that Polδ is primarily involved in lagging strand replication. Second, in strains encoding a polε-M630F allele and lacking the ability to repair rNMPs in DNA due to a defect in RNase H2, rNMPs are selectively observed in nascent leading strand DNA. The latter observation demonstrates that abundant rNMP incorporation during replication can be tolerated and that they are normally removed in an RNase H2-dependent manner. This provides strong physical evidence that Polε is the primary leading strand replicase. Collectively, these data and earlier results in budding yeast indicate that the major roles of Polδ and Polε at the eukaryotic replication fork are evolutionarily conserved
Circular asymmetry of the paleomagnetic directions observed at low latitude volcanic sites
DNA damage alters DNA polymerase δ to a form that exhibits increased discrimination against modified template bases and mismatched primers
Human DNA polymerase δ (Pol δ4), a key enzyme in chromosomal replication, is a heterotetramer composed of the p125, p50, p68 and p12 subunits. Genotoxic agents such as UV and alkylating chemicals trigger a DNA damage response in which Pol δ4 is converted to a trimer (Pol δ3) by degradation of p12. We show that Pol δ3 has altered enzymatic properties: it is less able to perform translesion synthesis on templates containing base lesions (O6-MeG, 8-oxoG, an abasic site or a thymine-thymine dimer); a greater proofreading activity; an increased exonuclease/polymerase activity ratio; a decreased tendency for the insertion of wrong nucleotides, and for the extension of mismatched primers. Overall, our findings indicate that Pol δ3 exhibits an enhanced ability for the detection of errors in both primers and templates over its parent enzyme. These alterations in Pol δ3 show that p12 plays a major role in Pol δ4 catalytic functions, and provides significant insights into the rationale for the conversion of Pol δ4 to Pol δ3 in the cellular response to DNA damage
Unique Signature of Dark Matter in Ancient Mica
Mica can store (for >1 Gy) etchable tracks caused by atoms recoiling from
WIMPs. Because a background from fission neutrons will eventually limit this
technique, a unique signature for WIMPs in ancient mica is needed. Our motion
around the center of the Galaxy causes WIMPs, unlike neutrons, to enter the
mica from a preferred direction on the sky. Mica is a directional detector and
despite the complex rotations that natural mica crystals make with respect to
this WIMP ``wind,'' there is a substantial dependence of etch pit density on
present day mica orientation.Comment: 5 pages, LaTeX, 2 figures. Accepted for publication at Phys. Rev.
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The fundamental constants and their variation: observational status and theoretical motivations
This article describes the various experimental bounds on the variation of
the fundamental constants of nature. After a discussion on the role of
fundamental constants, of their definition and link with metrology, the various
constraints on the variation of the fine structure constant, the gravitational,
weak and strong interactions couplings and the electron to proton mass ratio
are reviewed. This review aims (1) to provide the basics of each measurement,
(2) to show as clearly as possible why it constrains a given constant and (3)
to point out the underlying hypotheses. Such an investigation is of importance
to compare the different results, particularly in view of understanding the
recent claims of the detections of a variation of the fine structure constant
and of the electron to proton mass ratio in quasar absorption spectra. The
theoretical models leading to the prediction of such variation are also
reviewed, including Kaluza-Klein theories, string theories and other
alternative theories and cosmological implications of these results are
discussed. The links with the tests of general relativity are emphasized.Comment: 56 pages, l7 figures, submitted to Rev. Mod. Phy
Paleomagnetism of Pliocene to Pleistocene lava flows in the northern part of Hyogo prefecture, Southwest Japan and Brunhes Chron paleosecular variation in Japan
Removal of Misincorporated Ribonucleotides from Prokaryotic Genomes: An Unexpected Role for Nucleotide Excision Repair
Stringent steric exclusion mechanisms limit the misincorporation of ribonucleotides by high-fidelity DNA polymerases into genomic DNA. In contrast, low-fidelity Escherichia coli DNA polymerase V (pol V) has relatively poor sugar discrimination and frequently misincorporates ribonucleotides. Substitution of a steric gate tyrosine residue with alanine (umuC_Y11A) reduces sugar selectivity further and allows pol V to readily misincorporate ribonucleotides as easily as deoxynucleotides, whilst leaving its poor base-substitution fidelity essentially unchanged. However, the mutability of cells expressing the steric gate pol V mutant is very low due to efficient repair mechanisms that are triggered by the misincorporated rNMPs. Comparison of the mutation frequency between strains expressing wild-type and mutant pol V therefore allows us to identify pathways specifically directed at ribonucleotide excision repair (RER). We previously demonstrated that rNMPs incorporated by umuC_Y11A are efficiently removed from DNA in a repair pathway initiated by RNase HII. Using the same approach, we show here that mismatch repair and base excision repair play minimal back-up roles in RER in vivo. In contrast, in the absence of functional RNase HII, umuC_Y11A-dependent mutagenesis increases significantly in ΔuvrA, uvrB5 and ΔuvrC strains, suggesting that rNMPs misincorporated into DNA are actively repaired by nucleotide excision repair (NER) in vivo. Participation of NER in RER was confirmed by reconstituting ribonucleotide-dependent NER in vitro. We show that UvrABC nuclease-catalyzed incisions are readily made on DNA templates containing one, two, or five rNMPs and that the reactions are stimulated by the presence of mispaired bases. Similar to NER of DNA lesions, excision of rNMPs proceeds through dual incisions made at the 8th phosphodiester bond 5′ and 4th-5th phosphodiester bonds 3′ of the ribonucleotide. Ribonucleotides misinserted into DNA can therefore be added to the broad list of helix-distorting modifications that are substrates for NER
Molecular Phylogeny and Biogeography of the Native Rodents of Madagascar (Muridae: Nesomyinae): A Test of the Single-Origin Hypothesis
Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/72349/1/j.1096-0031.1999.tb00267.x.pd
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