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Identification of Chromatin-Associated Regulators of MSL Complex Targeting in Drosophila Dosage Compensation
Sex chromosome dosage compensation in Drosophila provides a model for understanding how chromatin organization can modulate coordinate gene regulation. Male Drosophila increase the transcript levels of genes on the single male X approximately two-fold to equal the gene expression in females, which have two X-chromosomes. Dosage compensation is mediated by the Male-Specific Lethal (MSL) histone acetyltransferase complex. Five core components of the MSL complex were identified by genetic screens for genes that are specifically required for male viability and are dispensable for females. However, because dosage compensation must interface with the general transcriptional machinery, it is likely that identifying additional regulators that are not strictly male-specific will be key to understanding the process at a mechanistic level. Such regulators would not have been recovered from previous male-specific lethal screening strategies. Therefore, we have performed a cell culture-based, genome-wide RNAi screen to search for factors required for MSL targeting or function. Here we focus on the discovery of proteins that function to promote MSL complex recruitment to “chromatin entry sites,” which are proposed to be the initial sites of MSL targeting. We find that components of the NSL (Non-specific lethal) complex, and a previously unstudied zinc-finger protein, facilitate MSL targeting and display a striking enrichment at MSL entry sites. Identification of these factors provides new insight into how MSL complex establishes the specialized hyperactive chromatin required for dosage compensation in Drosophila
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Symbiont strain is the main determinant of variation in Wolbachia-mediated protection against viruses across Drosophila species
Wolbachia is a common heritable bacterial symbiont in insects. Its evolutionary success lies in the diverse phenotypic effects it has on its hosts coupled to its propensity to move between host species over evolutionary timescales. In a survey of natural host-symbiont associations in a range of Drosophila species, we found that 10 of 16 Wolbachia strains protected their hosts against viral infection. By moving Wolbachia strains between host species, we found that the symbiont genome had a much greater influence on the level of antiviral protection than the host genome. The reason for this was that the level of protection depended on the density of the symbiont in host tissues, and Wolbachia rather than the host-controlled density. The finding that virus resistance and symbiont density are largely under the control of symbiont genes in this system has important implications both for the evolution of these traits and for public health programmes using Wolbachia to prevent mosquitoes from transmitting disease.This study was funded by the Wellcome Trust grant WT094664MA (http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/) and the European Research Council (ERC) grant 281668 DrosophilaInfection
Reasons and Means to Model Preferences as Incomplete
Literature involving preferences of artificial agents or human beings often
assume their preferences can be represented using a complete transitive binary
relation. Much has been written however on different models of preferences. We
review some of the reasons that have been put forward to justify more complex
modeling, and review some of the techniques that have been proposed to obtain
models of such preferences
phot1 inhibition of ABCB19 primes lateral auxin fluxes in the shoot apex required for phototropism
It is well accepted that lateral redistribution of the phytohormone auxin underlies the bending of plant organs towards light. In monocots, photoreception occurs at the shoot tip above the region of differential growth. Despite more than a century of research, it is still unresolved how light regulates auxin distribution and where this occurs in dicots. Here, we establish a system in Arabidopsis thaliana to study hypocotyl phototropism in the absence of developmental events associated with seedling photomorphogenesis. We show that auxin redistribution to the epidermal sites of action occurs at and above the hypocotyl apex, not at the elongation zone. Within this region, we identify the auxin efflux transporter ATP-BINDING CASSETTE B19 (ABCB19) as a substrate target for the photoreceptor kinase PHOTOTROPIN 1 (phot1). Heterologous expression and physiological analyses indicate that phosphorylation of ABCB19 by phot1 inhibits its efflux activity, thereby increasing auxin levels in and above the hypocotyl apex to halt vertical growth and prime lateral fluxes that are subsequently channeled to the elongation zone by PIN-FORMED 3 (PIN3). Together, these results provide new insights into the roles of ABCB19 and PIN3 in establishing phototropic curvatures and demonstrate that the proximity of light perception and differential phototropic growth is conserved in angiosperm
Effects of deposition time and post-deposition annealing on the physical and chemical properties of electrodeposited CdS thin films for solar cell application
CdS thin films were cathodically electrodeposited by means of a two-electrode deposition system
for different durations. The films were characterised for their structural, optical, morphological
and compositional properties using x-ray diffraction (XRD), spectrophotometry, scanning
electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive x-ray (EDX) respectively. The results obtained
show that the physical and chemical properties of these films are significantly influenced by the
deposition time and post-deposition annealing. This influence manifests more in the as-deposited
materials than in the annealed ones. XRD results show that the crystallite sizes of the different
films are in the range (9.4 – 65.8) nm and (16.4 – 66.0) nm in the as-deposited and annealed
forms respectively. Optical measurements show that the absorption coefficients are in the range
(2.7×104 – 6.7×104) cm-1 and (4.3×104 – 7.2×104) cm-1 respectively for as-deposited and annealed
films. The refractive index is in the range (2.40 – 2.60) for as-deposited films and come to the
value of 2.37 after annealing. The extinction coefficient varies in the range (0.1 – 0.3) in asdeposited
films and becomes 0.1 in annealed films. The estimated energy bandgap of the films is
in the range (2.48 – 2.50) eV for as-deposited films and becomes 2.42 eV for all annealed films.
EDX results show that all the films are S-rich in chemical composition with fairly uniform Cd/S
ratio after annealing. The results show that annealing improves the qualities of the films and
deposition time can be used to control the film thickness.
Keywords: Electrodeposition; two-electrode system; CdS; annealing; deposition time; thin-film
Local structure study about Co in YBa(CuCo)O thin films using polarized XAFS
We have studied the local structure around Co in
YBa(CuCo)O thin films with three different
concentrations: x=0.07, 0.10, 0.17, and in a
PrBa(CuCo)O thin film of concentration x=0.05
using the X-ray Absorption Fine Structure (XAFS) technique. Data were collected
at the Co -edge with polarizations both parallel and perpendicular to the
film surface. We find that the oxygen neighbors are well ordered and shortened
in comparison with YBCO Cu-O values to 1.80 \AA{} and 1.87 \AA{} in the
-axis and -plane, respectively. A comparison of further neighbors in the
thin film and powder data show that these peaks in the film are suppressed in
amplitude relative to the powder samples, which suggests there is more disorder
and/or distortions of the Co environment present in the thin films.Comment: 14 pages; To be submitted to Phys. Rev.
Modes of Foreign Entry under Asymmetric Information about Potential Technology Spillovers
This paper studies the effect of technology spillovers on the entry decision of a multinational enterprise into a foreign market. Two alternative entry modes for a foreign direct investment are considered: Greenfield investment versus acquisition. We find that with quantity competition a spillover makes acquisitions less attractive, while with price competition acquisitions become more attractive. Asymmetric information about potential spillovers always reduces the number of
acquisitions independently of whether the host country or the entrant has private information. Interestingly, we find that asymmetric information always hurts the entrant, while it sometimes is in favor of the host country
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