Rho GTPase function in flies: insights from a developmental and organismal perspective.

Morphogenesis is a key event in the development of a multicellular organism and is reliant on coordinated transcriptional and signal transduction events. To establish the segmented body plan that underlies much of metazoan development, individual cells and groups of cells must respond to exogenous signals with complex movements and shape changes. One class of proteins that plays a pivotal role in the interpretation of extracellular cues into cellular behavior is the Rho family of small GTPases. These molecular switches are essential components of a growing number of signaling pathways, many of which regulate actin cytoskeletal remodeling. Much of our understanding of Rho biology has come from work done in cell culture. More recently, the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster has emerged as an excellent genetic system for the study of these proteins in a developmental and organismal context. Studies in flies have greatly enhanced our understanding of pathways involving Rho GTPases and their roles in development

When timing is everything: Role of cell cycle regulation in asymmetric division

10.1016/j.semcdb.2005.02.005Seminars in Cell and Developmental Biology163423-437SCDB

Whispering gallery mode dielectric resonators for the millimeter wave near field sensing applications

Scientific Council of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine on Radio-Physics and Microwave Electronics4th International Kharkov Symposium on Physics and Engineering of Millimeter and Sub-Millimeter Waves, MSMW 2001 --4 June 2001 through 9 June 2001 -- --The resonance characteristics of whispering gallery modes (WGMs) in parallel-plate type cylindrical dielectric resonators (DRs) are numerically considered to optimise their characteristics for sensing applications. Results for the dependency of the resonant frequency, Q-factor, slow-down factor and electric energy filling factor of the modes on resonator parameters for both isotropic and anisotropic DR are presented. The possible applications of the results for millimeter wave near field nondestructive measurements are discussed. © 2001 IEEE

Molecular Dissection of Cytokinesis by RNA Interference in Drosophila Cultured Cells

We have used double-stranded RNA-mediated interference (RNAi) to study Drosophila cytokinesis. We show that double-stranded RNAs for anillin, acGAP, pavarotti, rho1, pebble, spaghetti squash, syntaxin1A, and twinstar all disrupt cytokinesis in S2 tissue culture cells, causing gene-specific phenotypes. Our phenotypic analyses identify genes required for different aspects of cytokinesis, such as central spindle formation, actin accumulation at the cell equator, contractile ring assembly or disassembly, and membrane behavior. Moreover, the cytological phenotypes elicited by RNAi reveal simultaneous disruption of multiple aspects of cytokinesis. These phenotypes suggest interactions between central spindle microtubules, the actin-based contractile ring, and the plasma membrane, and lead us to propose that the central spindle and the contractile ring are interdependent structures. Finally, our results indicate that RNAi in S2 cells is a highly efficient method to detect cytokinetic genes, and predict that genome-wide studies using this method will permit identification of the majority of genes involved in Drosophila mitotic cytokinesis

Analysis of two P-element enhancer-trap insertion lines that show expression in the giant fibre neuron of Drosophila melanogaster

The giant fibre system (GFS) of Drosophila is a simple neural circuit that mediates escape responses in adult flies. Here we report the initial characterization of two genes that are preferentially expressed in the GFS. Two P-element insertion lines, carrying the GAL4 transcriptional activator, were identified that exhibited pronounced expression in elements of the GFS and relatively low levels elsewhere within the adult central nervous system. Genomic DNA flanking the P-element insertion site was recovered from each of these lines, sequenced, and nearby transcripts identified and confirmed to exhibit GFS expression by in situ hybridization. This analysis revealed that these P-elements were in previously characterized genes. Line P[GAL4]-A307 has an insert in the gene short stop for which we have identified a novel transcript, while line P[GAL4]-141 has an insert in the transcription factor ken and barbie. Here we show that ken and barbie mutants have defects in escape behaviour, behavioural responses to visual stimuli and synaptic functions in the GFS. We have therefore revealed a neural role for a transcription factor that previously had no implicated neural function

Молодежь в политической и социокультурной жизни Африки

Представляемая работа является первым за последние 25 лет монографическим изданием, посвященным проблемам африканской молодежи и ее роли в становлении и развитии молодых государств. Особое внимание уделяется вопросам социализации и формирования идентичности как в традиционном, так и в современном обществах, спецификt молодежных политических движений и молодежной политике государственных структур. Затрагиваются вопросы демографического фактора и влияния средств массовой информации на решении проблемы занятости