235 research outputs found
Remarkable Ancient Divergences Amongst Neglected Lorisiform Primates
Lorisiform primates (Primates: Strepsirrhini: Lorisiformes) represent almost 10% of the living primate species and are widely distributed in sub-Saharan Africa and South/South-East Asia; however, their taxonomy, evolutionary history, and biogeography are still poorly understood. In this study we report the largest molecular phylogeny in terms of the number of represented taxa. We sequenced the complete mitochondrial cytochrome b gene for 86 lorisiform specimens, including ∼80% of all the species currently recognized. Our results support the monophyly of the Galagidae, but a common ancestry of the Lorisinae and Perodicticinae (family Lorisidae) was not recovered. These three lineages have early origins, with the Galagidae and the Lorisinae diverging in the Oligocene at about 30 Mya and the Perodicticinae emerging in the early Miocene. Our mitochondrial phylogeny agrees with recent studies based on nuclear data, and supports Euoticus as the oldest galagid lineage and the polyphyletic status of Galagoides. Moreover, we have elucidated phylogenetic relationships for several species never included before in a molecular phylogeny. The results obtained in this study suggest that lorisiform diversity remains substantially underestimated and that previously unnoticed cryptic diversity might be present within many lineages, thus urgently requiring a comprehensive taxonomic revision of this primate group
Attenuated PDGF signaling drives alveolar and microvascular defects in neonatal chronic lung disease
Neonatal chronic lung disease (nCLD) affects a significant number of neonates receiving mechanical ventilation with oxygen-rich gas (MV-O2). Regardless, the primary molecular driver of the disease remains elusive. We discover significant enrichment for SNPs in the PDGF-Rα gene in preterms with nCLD and directly test the effect of PDGF-Rα haploinsufficiency on the development of nCLD using a preclinical mouse model of MV-O2. In the context of MV-O2, attenuated PDGF signal
Study of and
The decays and have been
investigated with a sample of 225.2 million events collected with the
BESIII detector at the BEPCII collider. The branching fractions are
determined to be and . Distributions of the angle
between the proton or anti-neutron and the beam direction are well
described by the form , and we find
for and
for . Our branching-fraction
results suggest a large phase angle between the strong and electromagnetic
amplitudes describing the decay.Comment: 16 pages, 13 figures, the 2nd version, submitted to PR
First observation of the M1 transition
Using a sample of 106 million \psi(3686) events collected with the BESIII
detector at the BEPCII storage ring, we have made the first measurement of the
M1 transition between the radially excited charmonium S-wave spin-triplet and
the radially excited S-wave spin-singlet states: \psi(3686)\to\gamma\eta_c(2S).
Analyses of the processes \psi(2S)\to \gamma\eta_c(2S) with \eta_c(2S)\to
\K_S^0 K\pi and K^+K^-\pi^0 gave an \eta_c(2S) signal with a statistical
significance of greater than 10 standard deviations under a wide range of
assumptions about the signal and background properties. The data are used to
obtain measurements of the \eta_c(2S) mass (M(\eta_c(2S))=3637.6\pm
2.9_\mathrm{stat}\pm 1.6_\mathrm{sys} MeV/c^2), width
(\Gamma(\eta_c(2S))=16.9\pm 6.4_\mathrm{stat}\pm 4.8_\mathrm{sys} MeV), and the
product branching fraction (\BR(\psi(3686)\to \gamma\eta_c(2S))\times
\BR(\eta_c(2S)\to K\bar K\pi) = (1.30\pm 0.20_\mathrm{stat}\pm
0.30_\mathrm{sys})\times 10^{-5}). Combining our result with a BaBar
measurement of \BR(\eta_c(2S)\to K\bar K \pi), we find the branching fraction
of the M1 transition to be \BR(\psi(3686)\to\gamma\eta_c(2S)) = (6.8\pm
1.1_\mathrm{stat}\pm 4.5_\mathrm{sys})\times 10^{-4}.Comment: 7 pages, 1 figure, 1 tabl
Two-photon widths of the states and helicity analysis for \chi_{c2}\ar\gamma\gamma}
Based on a data sample of 106 M events collected with the
BESIII detector, the decays \psi^{\prime}\ar\gamma\chi_{c0, 2},\chi_{c0,
2}\ar\gamma\gamma are studied to determine the two-photon widths of the
states. The two-photon decay branching fractions are determined
to be {\cal B}(\chi_{c0}\ar\gamma\gamma) = (2.24\pm 0.19\pm 0.12\pm
0.08)\times 10^{-4} and {\cal B}(\chi_{c2}\ar\gamma\gamma) = (3.21\pm 0.18\pm
0.17\pm 0.13)\times 10^{-4}. From these, the two-photon widths are determined
to be keV,
keV, and
, where the uncertainties
are statistical, systematic, and those from the PDG {\cal
B}(\psi^{\prime}\ar\gamma\chi_{c0,2}) and errors,
respectively. The ratio of the two-photon widths for helicity and
helicity components in the decay \chi_{c2}\ar\gamma\gamma is
measured for the first time to be .Comment: 10 pages, 4 figure
Genetic risk and a primary role for cell-mediated immune mechanisms in multiple sclerosis.
Multiple sclerosis is a common disease of the central nervous system in which the interplay between inflammatory and neurodegenerative processes typically results in intermittent neurological disturbance followed by progressive accumulation of disability. Epidemiological studies have shown that genetic factors are primarily responsible for the substantially increased frequency of the disease seen in the relatives of affected individuals, and systematic attempts to identify linkage in multiplex families have confirmed that variation within the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) exerts the greatest individual effect on risk. Modestly powered genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have enabled more than 20 additional risk loci to be identified and have shown that multiple variants exerting modest individual effects have a key role in disease susceptibility. Most of the genetic architecture underlying susceptibility to the disease remains to be defined and is anticipated to require the analysis of sample sizes that are beyond the numbers currently available to individual research groups. In a collaborative GWAS involving 9,772 cases of European descent collected by 23 research groups working in 15 different countries, we have replicated almost all of the previously suggested associations and identified at least a further 29 novel susceptibility loci. Within the MHC we have refined the identity of the HLA-DRB1 risk alleles and confirmed that variation in the HLA-A gene underlies the independent protective effect attributable to the class I region. Immunologically relevant genes are significantly overrepresented among those mapping close to the identified loci and particularly implicate T-helper-cell differentiation in the pathogenesis of multiple sclerosis
Probing the bradycardic drug binding receptor of HCN-encoded pacemaker channels
If (or Ih), encoded by the hyperpolarization-activated, cyclic nucleotide-gated (HCN1–4) channel gene family, contributes significantly to cardiac pacing. Bradycardic agents such as ZD7288 that target HCN channels have been developed, but the molecular configuration of their receptor is poorly defined. Here, we probed the drug receptor by systematically introducing alanine scanning substitutions into the selectivity filter (C347A, I348A, G349A, Y350A, G351A in the P-loop), outer (P355A, V356A, S357A, M358A in the P-S6 linker), and inner (M377A, F378A, V379A in S6) pore vestibules of HCN1 channels. When heterologously expressed in human embryonic kidney 293 cells for patch-clamp recordings, I348A, G349A, Y350A, G351A, P355A, and V356A did not produce measurable currents. The half-blocking concentration (IC50) of wild type (WT) for ZD7288 was 25.8 ± 9.7 μM. While the IC50 of M358A was identical to WT, those of C347A, S357A, F378A, and V379A markedly increased to 137.6 ± 56.4, 113.3 ± 34.1, 587.1 ± 167.5, and 1726.3 ± 673.4 μM, respectively (p < 0.05). Despite the proximity of the S6 residues studied, M377A was hypersensitive (IC50 = 5.1 ± 0.7 μM; p < 0.05) implicating site specificity. To explore the energetic interactions among the S6 residues, double and triple substitutions (M377A/F378A, M377A/V379A, F378A/V379A, and M377A/F378A/V379A) were generated for thermodynamic cycle analysis. Specific interactions with coupling energies (ΔΔG) >1 kT for M377–F378 and F378–V379 but not M377–V379 were identified. Based on these new data and others, we proposed a refined drug-blocking model that may lead to improved antiarrhythmics and bioartificial pacemaker designs
- …