Doppler-free frequency modulation spectroscopy of atomic erbium in a hollow cathode discharge cell

The erbium atomic system is a promising candidate for an atomic Bose-Einstein condensate of atoms with a non-vanishing orbital angular momentum ($L \neq 0$) of the electronic ground state. In this paper we report on the frequency stabilization of a blue external cavity diode laser system on the 400.91 $nm$ laser cooling transition of atomic erbium. Doppler-free saturation spectroscopy is applied within a hollow cathode discharge tube to the corresponding electronic transition of several of the erbium isotopes. Using the technique of frequency modulation spectroscopy, a zero-crossing error signal is produced to lock the diode laser frequency on the atomic erbium resonance. The latter is taken as a reference laser to which a second main laser system, used for laser cooling of atomic erbium, is frequency stabilized

The Sno Oncogene Antagonizes Wingless Signaling during Wing Development in Drosophila

The Sno oncogene (Snoo or dSno in Drosophila) is a highly conserved protein and a well-established antagonist of Transforming Growth Factor-β signaling in overexpression assays. However, analyses of Sno mutants in flies and mice have proven enigmatic in revealing developmental roles for Sno proteins. Thus, to identify developmental roles for dSno we first reconciled conflicting data on the lethality of dSno mutations. Then we conducted analyses of wing development in dSno loss of function genotypes. These studies revealed ectopic margin bristles and ectopic campaniform sensilla in the anterior compartment of the wing blade suggesting that dSno functions to antagonize Wingless (Wg) signaling. A subsequent series of gain of function analyses yielded the opposite phenotype (loss of bristles and sensilla) and further suggested that dSno antagonizes Wg signal transduction in target cells. To date Sno family proteins have not been reported to influence the Wg pathway during development in any species. Overall our data suggest that dSno functions as a tissue-specific component of the Wg signaling pathway with modest antagonistic activity under normal conditions but capable of blocking significant levels of extraneous Wg, a role that may be conserved in vertebrates

Negative regulation of Jun/AP-1: conserved function of glycogen synthase kinase 3 and the Drosophila kinase shaggy

Transcription factor AP-1 is constituted by the products of the various fos and jun genes. AP-1 activity is modulated by second messengers and appears to involve post-translational modifications of Fos and Jun. It has been shown that phosphorylation mediated by glycogen synthase kinase 3 (GSK-3) is involved in negative regulation of c-Jun DNA-binding function in vitro. Here we show that two forms of GSK-3 function to decrease the DNA-binding activity as well as the transcriptional activation elicited by c-Jun in vivo. Similarly, the other members of the jun family, JunB, JunD and v-Jun, are negatively regulated by GSK-3 in vivo, although to a slightly lesser extent than c-Jun. We have also tested the proteins encoded by the Drosophila shaggy gene (sgg) in our assays. The sgg proteins share homology with the mammalian GSK-3 and appear to be important for the normal segregation of bristle precursor cells in the imaginal epithelium in Drosophila. Here we show that the products of the sgg gene can also function as negative regulators of Jun/AP-1

Control of Metabolism and Growth Through Insulin-Like Peptides in Drosophila

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