Searching for Axino-Like Particle at Fixed Target Experiments

We investigate the detectability of axino-like particle, which is defined as a supersymmetric partner of axion-like particle and can be a good candidate for dark matter in our Universe. Especially, we consider the fixed target experiments to search for the light axino-like particle with a neutralino as the next-to-lightest supersymmetric particle. We calculate the production and decay rate of neutralinos and the consequent number of events (such as photons and charged leptons) that are produced when the neutralinos decay to the axino-like particles.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures, Published in Physics of the Dark Univers

Single-cell transcriptome atlas of Drosophila gastrula 2.0

ショウジョウバエ原腸胚における1細胞遺伝子発現アトラスを作成 --ゲノム情報による発生制御の解明に向けた基盤的リソース--. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2023-07-11.During development, positional information directs cells to specific fates, leading them to differentiate with their own transcriptomes and express specific behaviors and functions. However, the mechanisms underlying these processes in a genome-wide view remain ambiguous, partly because the single-cell transcriptomic data of early developing embryos containing accurate spatial and lineage information are still lacking. Here, we report a single-cell transcriptome atlas of Drosophila gastrulae, divided into 77 transcriptomically distinct clusters. We find that the expression profiles of plasma-membrane-related genes, but not those of transcription-factor genes, represent each germ layer, supporting the nonequivalent contribution of each transcription-factor mRNA level to effector gene expression profiles at the transcriptome level. We also reconstruct the spatial expression patterns of all genes at the single-cell stripe level as the smallest unit. This atlas is an important resource for the genome-wide understanding of the mechanisms by which genes cooperatively orchestrate Drosophila gastrulation

Diagnostic utility of C-reactive Protein combined with brain natriuretic peptide in acute pulmonary edema: a cross sectional study

Introduction Discriminating acute lung injury (ALI) or acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) from cardiogenic pulmonary edema (CPE) using the plasma level of brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) alone remains controversial. The aim of this study was to determine the diagnostic utility of combination measurements of BNP and C-reactive protein (CRP) in critically ill patients with pulmonary edema

PRDM14 Drives OCT3/4 Recruitment via Active Demethylation in the Transition from Primed to Naive Pluripotency

Primordial germ cells (PGCs) are specified from epiblast cells in mice. Genes associated with naive pluripotency are repressed in the transition from inner cell mass to epiblast cells, followed by upregulation after PGC specification. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying the reactivation of pluripotency genes are poorly characterized. Here, we exploited the in vitro differentiation of epiblast-like cells (EpiLCs) from embryonic stem cells (ESCs) to elucidate the molecular and epigenetic functions of PR domain-containing 14 (PRDM14). We found that Prdm14 overexpression in EpiLCs induced their conversion to ESC-like cells even in the absence of leukemia inhibitory factor in adherent culture. This was impaired by the loss of Kruppel-like factor 2 and ten-eleven translocation (TET) proteins. Furthermore, PRDM14 recruited OCT3/4 to the enhancer regions of naive pluripotency genes via TET-base excision repair-mediated demethylation. Our results provide evidence that PRDM14 establishes a transcriptional network for naive pluripotency via active DNA demethylation

Unified Total Synthesis, Stereostructural Elucidation, and Biological Evaluation of Sarcophytonolides

Sarcophytonolides are cembranolide diterpenes isolated from the soft corals of genus Sarcophyton. Unified total synthesis of sarcophytonolides C, E, F, G, H, and J and isosarcophytonolide D was achieved. The synthetic routes feature NaHMDS- or SmI2-mediated fragment coupling, alkoxycarbonylallylation, macrolactonization, and transannular ring-closing metathesis. These total syntheses led to the absolute configurational confirmation of sarcophytonolide H, elucidation of sarcophytonolides C, E, F, and G, and revision of sarcophytonolide J and isosarcophytonolide D. We also evaluated the antifouling activity and toxicity of the synthetic sarcophytonolides H and J and their analogues as well as the cytotoxicity of the synthetic sarcophytonolides and the key synthetic intermediates