Joining of Immunoglobulin Heavy Chain Gene Segments: Implications from a Chromosome with Evidence of Three D-JH Fusions

A chromosomal segment with a unique structure around the immunoglobulin heavy chain joining region (JH) has been molecularly cloned from an Abelson murine leukemia virus-transformed cell line. Attached to JH3 in the cloned DNA, in inverted sequence, is the DNA from JH1 to the JH2 recognition sequence. The inverted segment is attached at its other end to the 5' recognition sequence of a diversity segment (D). To form this structure, three joining events must have occurred on the same chromosome. One of these events could have been a normal D-JH joining but the others must have been irregular events including ones that result in inversions. One of the joining events left fused recognition elements from JH2 and a D whose sequence shows that, during joining, reciprocal joinings of the recognition elements must occur to fuse the heptameric elements back to back. Because joined D and JH undergo deletion of terminal coding sequence during recombination but the joined heptameric recognition sequences do not contain the deleted sequence, joining must be a nonreciprocal event. Also, extra nucleotides are inserted between D and JH as part of the joining process; it is suggested that this added sequence is a product of the activity of terminal deoxynucleotidyltransferase at the D/JH (and probably the VH/D) joints and that it represents a new element of heavy chain gene structure, the N region

Nutrition and Health in Human Evolution-Past to Present

Anyone who wants to understand the biological nature of humans and their special characteristics must look far back into evolutionary history. Today\u27s way of life is drastically different from that of our ancestors. For almost 99% of human history, gathering and hunting have been the basis of nutrition. It was not until about 12,000 years ago that humans began domesticating plants and animals. Bioarchaeologically and biochemically, this can be traced back to our earliest roots. Modern living conditions and the quality of human life are better today than ever before. However, neither physically nor psychosocially have we made this adjustment and we are paying a high health price for it. The studies presented allow us to reconstruct food supply, lifestyles, and dietary habits: from the earliest primates, through hunter-gatherers of the Paleolithic, farming communities since the beginning of the Anthropocene, to the Industrial Age and the present. The comprehensive data pool allows extraction of all findings of medical relevance. Our recent lifestyle and diet are essentially determined by our culture rather than by our millions of years of ancestry. Culture is permanently in a dominant position compared to natural evolution. Thereby culture does not form a contrast to nature but represents its result. There is no doubt that we are biologically adapted to culture, but it is questionable how much culture humans can cope wit

Precision preparation of strings of trapped neutral atoms

We have recently demonstrated the creation of regular strings of neutral caesium atoms in a standing wave optical dipole trap using optical tweezers [Y. Miroshnychenko et al., Nature, in press (2006)]. The rearrangement is realized atom-by-atom, extracting an atom and re-inserting it at the desired position with sub-micrometer resolution. We describe our experimental setup and present detailed measurements as well as simple analytical models for the resolution of the extraction process, for the precision of the insertion, and for heating processes. We compare two different methods of insertion, one of which permits the placement of two atoms into one optical micropotential. The theoretical models largely explain our experimental results and allow us to identify the main limiting factors for the precision and efficiency of the manipulations. Strategies for future improvements are discussed.Comment: 25 pages, 18 figure

Three charged particles in the continuum. Astrophysical examples

We suggest a new adiabatic approach for description of three charged particles in the continuum. This approach is based on the Coulomb-Fourier transformation (CFT) of three body Hamiltonian, which allows to develop a scheme, alternative to Born-Oppenheimer one. The approach appears as an expansion of the kernels of corresponding integral transformations in terms of small mass-ratio parameter. To be specific, the results are presented for the system $ppe$ in the continuum. The wave function of a such system is compared with that one which is used for estimation of the rate for triple reaction $p+p+e\to d+\nu,$ which take place as a step of $pp$-cycle in the center of the Sun. The problem of microscopic screening for this particular reaction is discussed

Molecular basis of heavy-chain class switching and switch region deletion in an Abelson virus-transformed cell line

We demonstrated that a subclone of an Abelson murine leukemia virus-transformed B-lymphoid cell line switched from mu to gamma 2b expression in vitro, by the classical recombination-deletion mechanism. In this line, the expressed VHDJH region and the C gamma 2b constant region gene were juxtaposed by a recombination event which linked the highly repetitive portions of the S mu and S gama 2b regions and resulted in the loss of the C mu gene from the intervening region. An additional recombination event in this subclone involved an internal deletion in the S mu region of the expressed (switched) allele. One end of this deletion occurred very close to the switch recombination point. Despite the recombination-deletion mechanism of switching, the gamma 2b-producing line retained two copies of the C mu gene and two copies of the sequence just 5' to the S gamma 2b recombination point. The possible significance of the retention of these sequences to the mechanism of class switching is discussed

Target-searching on the percolation

We study target-searching processes on a percolation, on which a hunter tracks a target by smelling odors it emits. The odor intensity is supposed to be inversely proportional to the distance it propagates. The Monte Carlo simulation is performed on a 2-dimensional bond-percolation above the threshold. Having no idea of the location of the target, the hunter determines its moves only by random attempts in each direction. For lager percolation connectivity $p\gtrsim 0.90$, it reveals a scaling law for the searching time versus the distance to the position of the target. The scaling exponent is dependent on the sensitivity of the hunter. For smaller $p$, the scaling law is broken and the probability of finding out the target significantly reduces. The hunter seems trapped in the cluster of the percolation and can hardly reach the goal.Comment: 5 figure

Three- and Four-Body Scattering Calculations including the Coulomb Force

The method of screening and renormalization for including the Coulomb interaction in the framework of momentum-space integral equations is applied to the three- and four-body nuclear reactions. The Coulomb effect on the observables and the ability of the present nuclear potential models to describe the experimental data is discussed.Comment: Proceedings of the Critical Stability workshop, Erice, Sicily, October 2008, to be published in Few-Body System

Cold Atom Physics Using Ultra-Thin Optical Fibers: Light-Induced Dipole Forces and Surface Interactions

The strong evanescent field around ultra-thin unclad optical fibers bears a high potential for detecting, trapping, and manipulating cold atoms. Introducing such a fiber into a cold atom cloud, we investigate the interaction of a small number of cold Caesium atoms with the guided fiber mode and with the fiber surface. Using high resolution spectroscopy, we observe and analyze light-induced dipole forces, van der Waals interaction, and a significant enhancement of the spontaneous emission rate of the atoms. The latter can be assigned to the modification of the vacuum modes by the fiber.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure