Gender and Racial Issues in the Adaptation of Ancient Greek Tragedy : Performing A Mouthful of Birds by Caryl Churchill

This study aimed to translate and perform the play A Mouthful of Birds by Caryl Churchill and examine the way of directing the stage, which raises problems without reproducing conventional discrimination and prejudice. A Mouthful of Birds, an adaptation of the ancient Greek tragedy Euripides’s The Bacchae, recreates its theme of possession and women’s violence. While this work succeeded in fluctuating politics and stereotypes around gender with both content and format, it carries over the issue of describing the non-Western world as incomprehensible and abnormal. A female character from Trinidad-Tobago, Marcia, demonstrates as being a victim of violence among British white women getting power with violence. When performing the play, the oppressive circumstances around Marcia must be recreated. On the other hand, since the colony of England does not have the same meaning in Japan, it has to take different approaches. Thus, we reconstructed and shot parts of A Mouthful of Birds starring Marcia, posted them on Youtube, and held an online inquiry. Through those research, we attempted to find the most suitable approach without reproducing conventional problems along with adaptations, such as translation using dialect and makeup of blackface

超並列シーケンシングを用いたゲノム機能とその進化に関する研究

学位の種別: 課程博士審査委員会委員 : (主査)東京大学准教授 程 久美子, 東京大学教授 浅井 潔, 東京大学教授 森下 真一, 東京大学教授 高木 利久, 東京大学准教授 兵藤 晋University of Tokyo(東京大学

Possible cross-feeding pathway of facultative methylotroph Methyloceanibacter caenitepidi Gela4 on methanotroph Methylocaldum marinum S8

Non-methanotrophic bacteria such as methylotrophs often coexist with methane-oxidizing bacteria (methanotrophs) by cross-feeding on methane-derived carbon. Methanol has long been considered a major compound that mediates cross-feeding of methane-derived carbon. Despite the potential importance of cross-feeding in the global carbon cycle, only a few studies have actually explored metabolic responses of a bacteria when cross-feeding on a methanotroph. Recently, we isolated a novel facultative methylotroph, Methyloceanibacter caenitepidi Gela4, which grows syntrophically with the methanotroph, Methylocaldum marinum S8. To assess the potential metabolic pathways in M. caenitepidi Gela4 co-cultured with M. marinum S8, we conducted genomic analyses of the two strains, as well as RNA-Seq and chemical analyses of M. caenitepidi Gela4, both in pure culture with methanol and in co-culture with methanotrophs. Genes involved in the serine pathway were downregulated in M. caenitepidi Gela4 under co-culture conditions, and methanol was below the detection limit (< 310 nM) in both pure culture of M. marinum S8 and co-culture. In contrast, genes involved in the tricarboxylic acid cycle, as well as acetyl-CoA synthetase, were upregulated in M. caenitepidi Gela4 under co-culture conditions. Notably, a pure culture of M. marinum S8 produced acetate (< 16 μM) during growth. These results suggested that an organic compound other than methanol, possibly acetate, might be the major carbon source for M. caenitepidi Gela4 cross-fed by M. marinum S8. Co-culture of M. caenitepidi Gela4 and M. marinum S8 may represent a model system to further study methanol-independent cross-feeding from methanotrophs to non-methanotrophic bacteria

Tryptophanase-Catalyzed l-Tryptophan Synthesis from d-Serine in the Presence of Diammonium Hydrogen Phosphate

Tryptophanase, an enzyme with extreme absolute stereospecificity for optically active stereoisomers, catalyzes the synthesis of l-tryptophan from l-serine and indole through a β-substitution mechanism of the ping-pong type, and has no activity on d-serine. We previously reported that tryptophanase changed its stereospecificity to degrade d-tryptophan in highly concentrated diammonium hydrogen phosphate, (NH4)2HPO4 solution. The present study provided the same stereospecific change seen in the d-tryptophan degradation reaction also occurs in tryptophan synthesis from d-serine. Tryptophanase became active to d-serine to synthesize l-tryptophan in the presence of diammonium hydrogen phosphate. This reaction has never been reported before. d-serine seems to undergo β-replacement via an enzyme-bonded α-aminoacylate intermediate to yield l-tryptophan

EMPRESS. IX. Extremely Metal-Poor Galaxies are Very Gas-Rich Dispersion-Dominated Systems: Will JWST Witness Gaseous Turbulent High-z Primordial Galaxies?

We present kinematics of 6 local extremely metal-poor galaxies (EMPGs) with low metallicities ($0.016-0.098\ Z_{\odot}$) and low stellar masses ($10^{4.7}-10^{7.6} M_{\odot}$). Taking deep medium-high resolution ($R\sim7500$) integral-field spectra with 8.2-m Subaru, we resolve the small inner velocity gradients and dispersions of the EMPGs with H$\alpha$ emission. Carefully masking out sub-structures originated by inflow and/or outflow, we fit 3-dimensional disk models to the observed H$\alpha$ flux, velocity, and velocity-dispersion maps. All the EMPGs show rotational velocities ($v_{\rm rot}$) of 5--23 km s$^{-1}$ smaller than the velocity dispersions ($\sigma_{0}$) of 17--31 km s$^{-1}$, indicating dispersion-dominated ($v_{\rm rot}/\sigma_{0}=0.29-0.80<1$) systems affected by inflow and/or outflow. Except for two EMPGs with large uncertainties, we find that the EMPGs have very large gas-mass fractions of $f_{\rm gas}\simeq 0.9-1.0$. Comparing our results with other H$\alpha$ kinematics studies, we find that $v_{\rm rot}/\sigma_{0}$ decreases and $f_{\rm gas}$ increases with decreasing metallicity, decreasing stellar mass, and increasing specific star-formation rate. We also find that simulated high-$z$ ($z\sim 7$) forming galaxies have gas fractions and dynamics similar to the observed EMPGs. Our EMPG observations and the simulations suggest that primordial galaxies are gas-rich dispersion-dominated systems, which would be identified by the forthcoming James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) observations at $z\sim 7$.Comment: Submitted to ApJ; After revisio

Automation of yeast spot assays using an affordable liquid handling robot

The spot assay of the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae is an experimental method that is used to evaluate the effect of genotypes, medium conditions, and environmental stresses on cell growth and survival. Automation of the spot assay experiments from preparing a dilution series to spotting to observing spots continuously has been implemented based on large laboratory automation devices and robots, especially for high-throughput functional screening assays. However, there has yet to be an affordable solution for the automated spot assays suited to researchers in average laboratories and with high customizability for end-users. To make reproducible spot assay experiments widely available, we have automated the plate-based yeast spot assay of budding yeast using Opentrons OT-2 (OT-2), an affordable liquid-handling robot, and a flatbed scanner. We prepared a 3D-printed mount for the Petri dish to allow for precise placement of the Petri dish inside the OT-2. To account for the uneven height of the agar plates, which were made by human hands, we devised a method to adjust the z-position of the pipette tips based on the weight of each agar plate. During the incubation of the agar plates, a flatbed scanner was used to automatically take images of the agar plates over time, allowing researchers to quantify and compare the cell density within the spots at optimal time points a posteriori. Furthermore, the accuracy of the newly developed automated spot assay was verified by performing spot assays with human experimenters and the OT-2 and quantifying the yeast-grown area of the spots. This study will contribute to the introduction of automated spot assays and the automated acquisition of growth processes in conventional laboratories that are not adapted for high-throughput laboratory automation

SAGAS: Simulated annealing and greedy algorithm scheduler for laboratory automation

During laboratory automation of life science experiments, coordinating specialized instruments and human experimenters for various experimental procedures is important to minimize the execution time. In particular, the scheduling of life science experiments requires the consideration of time constraints by mutual boundaries (TCMB) and can be formulated as the “scheduling for laboratory automation in biology” (S-LAB) problem. However, existing scheduling methods for the S-LAB problems have difficulties in obtaining a feasible solution for large-size scheduling problems at a time sufficient for real-time use. In this study, we proposed a fast schedule-finding method for S-LAB problems, SAGAS (Simulated annealing and greedy algorithm scheduler). SAGAS combines simulated annealing and the greedy algorithm to find a scheduling solution with the shortest possible execution time. We have performed scheduling on real experimental protocols and shown that SAGAS can search for feasible or optimal solutions in practicable computation time for various S-LAB problems. Furthermore, the reduced computation time by SAGAS enables us to systematically search for laboratory automation with minimum execution time by simulating scheduling for various laboratory configurations. This study provides a convenient scheduling method for life science automation laboratories and presents a new possibility for designing laboratory configurations