Dimerization of the plant photoreceptor phototropin is probably mediated by the LOV1 domain

AbstractPhototropin is a membrane-bound UV-A/blue light photoreceptor of plants responsible for phototropism, chloroplast migration and stomatal opening. Characteristic are two LOV domains, each binding one flavin mononucleotide, in the N-terminal half and having a serine/threonine kinase domain in the C-terminal half of the molecule. We purified the N-terminal half of oat phototropin 1, containing LOV1 and LOV2 domains, as a soluble fusion protein with the calmodulin binding peptide (CBP) by expression in Escherichia coli. Gel chromatography showed that it was dimeric in solution. While the fusion protein CBP-LOV2 was exclusively monomeric in solution, the fusion protein CBP-LOV1 occurred as monomer and dimer. The proportion of dimer increased on prolonged incubation. We conclude that native phototropin is a dimer and that the LOV1 domain is probably responsible for dimerization

New Directions and New Problems for Arms Transfers Policy

The climate for the transfer of American arms to other countries has changed in the year since Ronald Reagan became President. In the fin-a months of President Carter\u27s term there was a commitment to constraint. But it was undermined by events during the last two years of Mr. Carter\u27s Presidency. Just as substantial obstacles prevented President Carter from restraining the sale of arms as much as he would have liked, so roo wilI President Reagan confront many obstacles in his plan to increase arms transfers

Set & Drift: Conflicting Trends for Arms Transfer Restraint

President Carter stated that the United States could not be both the world\u27s champion of peace and the world\u27s leading supplier of the weapons of war

Mutant Thyroid Hormone Receptors and the Potential Effects on Cancer

Thyroid hormone receptor a1 (TRa1) mediates the expression of thyroid hormone-responsive genes, and is vital for normal human metabolic function and development. Wild-type TRa1 resides primarily in the nucleus, but undergoes rapid shuttling between the nucleus and cytoplasm. Mutated TRa1 has been found in a number of different cancers, including renal clear cell carcinoma (rc) and thyroid papillary carcinoma (tc). To test the hypothesis that receptor mislocalization is associated with oncogenesis, the intracellular distribution patterns of two cancer-associated mutants were characterized by transient transfection in HeLa cells (human cells) of expression plasmids for fluorescent protein-tagged rc6-TRα1 (I116N, A225T, M388I) and tc15-TRα1 (S183N, H184Q, R228H). rc6-TRα1 was found to have a significantly increased cytoplasmic localization compared to wild-type TRα1, and a phenotype characterized by aggregate formation. In cotransfection assays, rc6-TRα1 also colocalized with v-ErbA, a highly mutated, retroviral oncogenic form of TR. rc6-TRα1 was also found to colocalize with GFP-170 and GFP-250, bona fide markers for nuclear and cytoplasmic aggresomes, respectively. Aggresomes are highly organized protein aggregates that serve as a defense mechanism from cellular stress, in order to minimize the damage of misfolded proteins. Taken together, these results suggest that rc6-TRα1 may follow similar cellular pathways to v-ErbA and have similar effects on the cell. tc15-TRα1 was found to have no significant shift in nucleocytoplasmic localization and lacked aggregate and aggresome formation, suggesting an alternate pathway by which this mutant contributes to oncogenesis

Die Struktur der Einkommensunterschiede in Ost- und Westdeutschland ein Jahr nach der Vereinigung

Bei der Vereinheitlichung der Lebensverhältnisse in Ost- und Westdeutschland spielen die Arbeitseinkommen eine zentrale Rolle. Nach der Übernahme des westdeutschen Tarifsystems werden auch in Ostdeutschland die Arbeitseinkommen durch Tarifverhandlungen von Arbeitnehmer- und Arbeitgebervertretern festgelegt. Dabei werden häufig die tariflichen Einkommen des Westens mit einem bestimmten Abschlagssatz auf den Osten übertragen. In dieser Arbeit wird untersucht, inwieweit die tatsächlichen, individuellen Arbeitseinkommen nach der Vereinigung in den beiden Teilen Deutschlands voneinander abweichen, wenn man diese neuen tariflichen Regelungen adäquat berücksichtigt, und wovon die Unterschiede in den effektiven Lohndifferenzen im einzelnen abhängen. --

Resilience decision-making for complex systems

Complex systems-such as gas turbines, industrial plants, and infrastructure networks- are of paramount importance to modern societies. However, these systems are subject to various threats. Novel research does not only focus on monitoring and improving the robustness and reliability of systems but also focus on their recovery from adverse events. The concept of resilience encompasses these developments. Appropriate quantitative measures of resilience can support decision-makers seeking to improve or to design complex systems. In this paper, we develop comprehensive and widely adaptable instruments for resilience-based decision-making. Integrating an appropriate resilience metric together with a suitable systemic risk measure, we design numerically efficient tools aiding decision-makers in balancing different resilience-enhancing investments. The approach allows for a direct comparison between failure prevention arrangements and recovery improvement procedures, leading to optimal tradeoffs with respect to the resilience of a system. In addition, the method is capable of dealing with the monetary aspects involved in the decision-making process. Finally, a grid search algorithm for systemic risk measures significantly reduces the computational effort. In order to demonstrate its wide applicability, the suggested decision-making procedure is applied to a functional model of a multistage axial compressor, and to the U-Bahn and S-Bahn system of Germany's capital Berlin. Copyright © 2020 by ASME