A New Cell Death Inhibitor, Bax-inhibiting-peptide (BIP) Derived from Ku70(Animal Biology, Animal Reproduction)

Programmed cell death (apoptosis) plays a pivotal role in the homeostasis of multicellular organisms. Bax is a key mediator of apoptosis. Apoptotic stress induces the translocation of Bax from the cytosol to mitochondria, and then Bax induces mitochondria-dependent cell death. Recently, we have found that Ku70 inhibits the translocation of Bax from the cytosol to mitochondria, suggesting that Ku70 inhibits mitochondria-dependent cell death (Sawada et al., 2003b). Moreover, we have designed a new type of cell death inhibitor, Bax-inhibiting-peptide (BIP) derived from Ku70 (Sawada et al., 2003b; Yoshida et al., 2004). We have demonstrated that BIPs inhibit the cell death induced by anti-cancer drugs, UVC irradiation, and tropic factor deprivation (Sawada et al., 2003b; Yoshida et al., 2004). BIP directly binds Bax and inhibits the cytotoxic activity of Bax. BIP may become a new tool to control degenerative diseases.ApoptosisKu70BaxBax-inhibiting-peptide (BIP)cell death inhibito

The E-box DNA binding protein Sgc1p suppresses the gcr2 mutation, which is involved in transcriptional activation of glycolytic genes in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

AbstractGlycolytic gene expression is mediated by the Gcr1p-Gcr2p transcriptional activation complex. A screen for multicopy suppressors of gcr2 yielded SGC1. SGC1’s suppression activity was specific to gcr2, it did not extend to gcr1. Disruption of SGC1 moderately affected glycolytic enzyme activities, although no growth defect was evident. Sgc1p exhibits a bHLH motif which is characteristic of E-box DNA-binding proteins. DNA footprinting experiments demonstrated Sgc1p’s ability to bind at an E-box. However, its binding specificity was less than 10-fold, which is also characteristic of E-box binding proteins. LexA fusion experiments demonstrated that Sgc1p has weak intrinsic activating activity independent of GCR1 and GCR2. We propose that Sgc1p binds at E-boxes of glycolytic genes and contributes to their activation

Ca' Foscari Japanese Studies 7, Arts and Literature 2, Rethinking Nature in Japan from Tradition to Modernity

It is a pleasure for us to present this book, with the contributions of the Inter- national Symposium Rethinking Nature in Japan: from Tradition to Modernity held at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice in the Auditorium Santa Margherita. This was the Second International Conference organized in Venice: in 2013 we celebrated the first Symposium Rethinking Nature in Contemporary Japan. Science, Economics, Politics, published by Edizioni Cafoscari in 2014. The aim of the Symposium was the analysis of Japanese society and the international relationships after the accident at Fukushima nuclear plant in March 2011. Its wide-ranging consequences on everyday life of Japanese citizens brought into the limelight issues such as the protection of the environment, the man- agement of natural resources, and food safety, both within the country and abroad, as fundamental challenges to our globalised society. In 2013, the participation of scholars from Europe, Japan and United States helped us to achieve a deeper insight into this multifaceted issue, combining several disciplines under a multidisciplinary and comparative approach. At the root of all these problems stand the basic theme of the relation between man and nature. Historically, Japan has developed through the centuries an extremely rich tradition on this complex topic, in the intel- lectual field as well as in terms of material culture. That is the reason why we decided to choose as the theme of this Sym- posium in 2014 the cultural representations of the idea of Nature in the transition from tradition to modernity. This Symposium, “Rethinking Nature in Japan: From Tradition to Mo- dernity”, was centered on Fine Arts, Religion and Thought, Literature, Theatre and Cinema. We had four panel sessions: “Nature and Environment in Japanese Fine Arts: from Tradition to Modernity”, in Japanese Literature, in Japanese Thought and in Performing Arts. First of all, as a representative of Ca’ Foscari University and of our colleagues, we would like to thank all students, guests and colleagues for their presence at the Symposium, and thank also our special guests from Japan, from the United State, from Europe and from Italy for their (pre- cious) contributions. We believe for all the participants [students, scholars, lecturers, for you and for us] our Symposium was very interesting and fruitful and we hope that the same will be also for this book We would like to thank the representatives of our University, the Rector of Ca’ Foscari University, prof. Carlo Carraro and prof. Tiziana Lippiello, Director of the Department of Asian and North African Studies for their constant support. We are much indebeted to the Director Matsunaga Fumio and to the Japan Foundation for their special attention to the Japanese Studies Sec- tion of our Department. As for our sponsors, we would like to express our thanks to SAGA [School of Asian Studies and Business Management] for the generous financial support. We are also grateful to the artist Miyayama Hiroaki who painted the wisteria branch in the poster of the program and generously allowed us to use it as the logo of our Symposium, and prof. Caterina Virdis Limentani of Padua University who organized the exhibition: Splendori dal Giappone, Le storie del principe Genji nella tradizione Edo e nelle incisioni di Miyayama Hiroaki and the relation between this work and Miyayama’s prints in Padua at Palazzo Zuckermann from March 1st to 31st, 2014. Last but not least, we would thank again all the students who attended the Symposium, the speakers/contributors from Japan, United State, Eu- rope, Italy, the student staff, all our colleagues of the Japanese Section, our young researchers, the organizing committee: Paolo Calvetti, Massimo Raveri, Luisa Bienati, Aldo Tollini, Marcella Mariotti, Giovanni Bulian, Ca- terina Mazza, Toshio Miyake, Andrea Revelant and Pierantonio Zanotti, to all the administration st

Comparative Genetic Mapping and Discovery of Linkage Disequilibrium Across Linkage Groups in White Clover (Trifolium repens L.)

White clover (Trifolium repens L.) is an allotetraploid species (2n = 4X = 32) that is widely distributed in temperate regions and cultivated as a forage legume. In this study, we developed expressed sequence tag (EST)–derived simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers, constructed linkage maps, and performed comparative mapping with other legume species. A total of 7982 ESTs that could be assembled into 5400 contigs and 2582 singletons were generated. Using the EST sequences that were obtained, 1973 primer pairs to amplify EST-derived SSR markers were designed and used for linkage analysis of 188 F1 progenies, which were generated by a cross between two Japanese plants, ‘273-7’ and ‘T17-349,’ with previously published SSR markers. An integrated linkage map was constructed by combining parental-specific maps, which consisted of 1743 SSR loci on 16 homeologous linkage groups with a total length of 2511 cM. The primer sequences of the developed EST-SSR markers and their map positions are available on http://clovergarden.jp/. Linkage disequilibrium (LD) was observed on 9 of 16 linkage groups of a parental-specific map. The genome structures were compared among white clover, red clover (T. pratense L.), Medicago truncatula, and Lotus japonicus. Macrosynteny was observed across the four legume species. Surprisingly, the comparative genome structure between white clover and M. truncatula had a higher degree of conservation than that of the two clover species

High-density Integrated Linkage Map Based on SSR Markers in Soybean

A well-saturated molecular linkage map is a prerequisite for modern plant breeding. Several genetic maps have been developed for soybean with various types of molecular markers. Simple sequence repeats (SSRs) are single-locus markers with high allelic variation and are widely applicable to different genotypes. We have now mapped 1810 SSR or sequence-tagged site markers in one or more of three recombinant inbred populations of soybean (the US cultivar ‘Jack’ × the Japanese cultivar ‘Fukuyutaka’, the Chinese cultivar ‘Peking’ × the Japanese cultivar ‘Akita’, and the Japanese cultivar ‘Misuzudaizu’ × the Chinese breeding line ‘Moshidou Gong 503’) and have aligned these markers with the 20 consensus linkage groups (LGs). The total length of the integrated linkage map was 2442.9 cM, and the average number of molecular markers was 90.5 (range of 70–114) for the 20 LGs. We examined allelic diversity for 1238 of the SSR markers among 23 soybean cultivars or lines and a wild accession. The number of alleles per locus ranged from 2 to 7, with an average of 2.8. Our high-density linkage map should facilitate ongoing and future genomic research such as analysis of quantitative trait loci and positional cloning in addition to marker-assisted selection in soybean breeding

Coincidence analysis to search for inspiraling compact binaries using TAMA300 and LISM data

Japanese laser interferometric gravitational wave detectors, TAMA300 and LISM, performed a coincident observation during 2001. We perform a coincidence analysis to search for inspiraling compact binaries. The length of data used for the coincidence analysis is 275 hours when both TAMA300 and LISM detectors are operated simultaneously. TAMA300 and LISM data are analyzed by matched filtering, and candidates for gravitational wave events are obtained. If there is a true gravitational wave signal, it should appear in both data of detectors with consistent waveforms characterized by masses of stars, amplitude of the signal, the coalescence time and so on. We introduce a set of coincidence conditions of the parameters, and search for coincident events. This procedure reduces the number of fake events considerably, by a factor $\sim 10^{-4}$ compared with the number of fake events in single detector analysis. We find that the number of events after imposing the coincidence conditions is consistent with the number of accidental coincidences produced purely by noise. We thus find no evidence of gravitational wave signals. We obtain an upper limit of 0.046 /hours (CL $= 90$) to the Galactic event rate within 1kpc from the Earth. The method used in this paper can be applied straightforwardly to the case of coincidence observations with more than two detectors with arbitrary arm directions.Comment: 28 pages, 17 figures, Replaced with the version to be published in Physical Review

Results of the search for inspiraling compact star binaries from TAMA300's observation in 2000-2004

We analyze the data of TAMA300 detector to search for gravitational waves from inspiraling compact star binaries with masses of the component stars in the range 1-3Msolar. In this analysis, 2705 hours of data, taken during the years 2000-2004, are used for the event search. We combine the results of different observation runs, and obtained a single upper limit on the rate of the coalescence of compact binaries in our Galaxy of 20 per year at a 90% confidence level. In this upper limit, the effect of various systematic errors such like the uncertainty of the background estimation and the calibration of the detector's sensitivity are included.Comment: 8 pages, 4 Postscript figures, uses revtex4.sty The author list was correcte

Impact of neoadjuvant intensity-modulated radiation therapy on borderline resectable pancreatic cancer with arterial abutment; a prospective, open-label, phase II study in a single institution

BACKGROUND: Borderline resectable pancreatic cancer (BRPC) is a category of pancreatic cancer that is anatomically widely spread, and curative resection is uncommon with upfront surgery. Intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) is a form of radiation therapy that delivers precise radiation to a tumor while minimizing the dose to surrounding normal tissues. Here, we conducted a phase 2 study to estimate the curability and efficacy of neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy using IMRT (NACIMRT) for patients with BRPC with arterial abutment (BRPC-A). METHODS: A total of 49 BRPC-A patients were enrolled in this study and were treated at our hospital according to the study protocol between June 2013 and March 2021. The primary endpoint was microscopically margin-negative resection (R0) rates and we subsequently analyzed safety, histological effect of the treatment as well as survivals among patients with NACIMRT. RESULTS: Twenty-nine patients (59.2%) received pancreatectomy after NACIMRT. The R0 rate in resection patients was 93.1% and that in the whole cohort was 55.1%. No mortality was encountered. Local therapeutic effects as assessed by Evans classification showed good therapeutic effect (Grade 1, 3.4%; Grade 2a, 31.0%; Grade 2b, 48.3%; Grade 3, 3.4%; Grade 4, 3.4%). Median disease-free survival was 15.5 months. Median overall survival in the whole cohort was 35.1 months. The only independent prognostic pre-NACIMRT factor identified was serum carbohydrate antigen 19-9 (CA19-9) > 400 U/ml before NACIMRT. CONCLUSIONS: NACIMRT showed preferable outcome without significant operative morbidity for BRPC-A patients. NACIMRT contributes to good local tumor control, but a high initial serum CA19-9 implies poor prognosis even after neoadjuvant treatment. TRIAL REGISTRATION: UMIN-CTR Clinical Trial: https://upload.umin.ac.jp/cgi-open-bin/ctr_e/ctr_view.cgi?recptno=R000011776 Registration number: UMIN000010113. Date of first registration: 01/03/2013

Characterization of the Soybean Genome Using EST-derived Microsatellite Markers

We generated a high-density genetic linkage map of soybean using expressed sequence tag (EST)-derived microsatellite markers. A total of 6920 primer pairs (10.9%) were designed to amplify simple sequence repeats (SSRs) from 63 676 publicly available non-redundant soybean ESTs. The polymorphism of two parent plants, the Japanese cultivar ‘Misuzudaizu’ and the Chinese line ‘Moshidou Gong 503’, were examined using 10% polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Primer pairs showing polymorphism were then used for genotyping 94 recombinant inbred lines (RILs) derived from a cross between the parents. In addition to previously reported markers, 680 EST-derived microsatellite markers were selected and subjected to linkage analysis. As a result, 935 marker loci were mapped successfully onto 20 linkage groups, which totaled 2700.3 cM in length; 693 loci were detected using the 668 EST-derived microsatellite markers developed in this study, the other 242 loci were detected with 105 RFLP markers, 136 genome-derived microsatellite markers, and one phenotypic marker. We examined allelic variation among 23 soybean cultivars/lines and a wild soybean line using 668 mapped EST-derived microsatellite markers (corresponding to 686 marker loci), in order to determine the transferability of the markers among soybean germplasms. A limited degree of macrosynteny was observed at the segmental level between the genomes of soybean and the model legume Lotus japonicus, which suggests that considerable genome shuffling occurred after separation of the species and during establishment of the paleopolyploid soybean genome