Unravelling the lipoyl‐relay of exogenous lipoate utilization in Bacillus subtilis

Lipoate is an essential cofactor for key enzymes of oxidative and one-carbon metabolism. It is covalently attached to E2 subunits of dehydrogenase complexes and GcvH, the H subunit of the glycine cleavage system. Bacillus subtilis possess two protein lipoylation pathways: biosynthesis and scavenging. The former requires octanoylation of GcvH, insertion of sulfur atoms and amidotransfer of the lipoate to E2s, catalyzed by LipL. Lipoate scavenging is mediated by a lipoyl protein ligase (LplJ) that catalyzes a classical two-step ATP-dependent reaction. Although these pathways were thought to be redundant, a ∆lipL mutant, in which the endogenous lipoylation pathway of E2 subunits is blocked, showed growth defects in minimal media even when supplemented with lipoate and despite the presence of a functional LplJ. In this study, we demonstrate that LipL is essential to modify E2 subunits of branched chain ketoacid and pyruvate dehydrogenases during lipoate scavenging. The crucial role of LipL during lipoate utilization relies on the strict substrate specificity of LplJ, determined by charge complementarity between the ligase and the lipoylable subunits. This new lipoyl-relay required for lipoate scavenging highlights the relevance of the amidotransferase as a valid target for the design of new antimicrobial agents among Gram-positive pathogens.Fil: Rasetto, Natalí Belén. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Rosario. Instituto de Biología Molecular y Celular de Rosario. Universidad Nacional de Rosario. Facultad de Ciencias Bioquímicas y Farmacéuticas. Instituto de Biología Molecular y Celular de Rosario; ArgentinaFil: Lavatelli, Antonela. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Rosario. Instituto de Biología Molecular y Celular de Rosario. Universidad Nacional de Rosario. Facultad de Ciencias Bioquímicas y Farmacéuticas. Instituto de Biología Molecular y Celular de Rosario; ArgentinaFil: Martin, Natalia. Michigan State University; Estados Unidos. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Rosario. Instituto de Biología Molecular y Celular de Rosario. Universidad Nacional de Rosario. Facultad de Ciencias Bioquímicas y Farmacéuticas. Instituto de Biología Molecular y Celular de Rosario; ArgentinaFil: Mansilla, Maria Cecilia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Rosario. Instituto de Biología Molecular y Celular de Rosario. Universidad Nacional de Rosario. Facultad de Ciencias Bioquímicas y Farmacéuticas. Instituto de Biología Molecular y Celular de Rosario; Argentin

Spin Glass Ordering in Diluted Magnetic Semiconductors: a Monte Carlo Study

We study the temperature-dilution phase diagram of a site-diluted Heisenberg antiferromagnet on a fcc lattice, with and without the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya anisotropic term, fixed to realistic microscopic parameters for $IIB_{1-x} Mn_x Te$ (IIB=Cd, Hg, Zn). We show that the dipolar Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya anisotropy induces a finite-temperature phase transition to a spin glass phase, at dilutions larger than 80%. The resulting probability distribution of the order parameter P(q) is similar to the one found in the cubic lattice Edwards-Anderson Ising model. The critical exponents undergo large finite size corrections, but tend to values similar to the ones of the Edwards-Anderson-Ising model.Comment: 4 pages plus 3 postscript figure

The PHENIX Experiment at RHIC

The physics emphases of the PHENIX collaboration and the design and current status of the PHENIX detector are discussed. The plan of the collaboration for making the most effective use of the available luminosity in the first years of RHIC operation is also presented.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure. Further details of the PHENIX physics program available at http://www.rhic.bnl.gov/phenix

High-dimensional interior crisis in the Kuramoto-Sivashinsky equation

An investigation of interior crisis of high dimensions in an extended spatiotemporal system exemplified by the Kuramoto-Sivashinsky equation is reported. It is shown that unstable periodic orbits and their associated invariant manifolds in the Poincaré hyperplane can effectively characterize the global bifurcation dynamics of high-dimensional systems.A. C.-L. Chian, E. L. Rempel, E. E. Macau, R. R. Rosa, and F. Christianse

Search for displaced vertices arising from decays of new heavy particles in 7 TeV pp collisions at ATLAS

We present the results of a search for new, heavy particles that decay at a significant distance from their production point into a final state containing charged hadrons in association with a high-momentum muon. The search is conducted in a pp-collision data sample with a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV and an integrated luminosity of 33 pb^-1 collected in 2010 by the ATLAS detector operating at the Large Hadron Collider. Production of such particles is expected in various scenarios of physics beyond the standard model. We observe no signal and place limits on the production cross-section of supersymmetric particles in an R-parity-violating scenario as a function of the neutralino lifetime. Limits are presented for different squark and neutralino masses, enabling extension of the limits to a variety of other models.Comment: 8 pages plus author list (20 pages total), 8 figures, 1 table, final version to appear in Physics Letters

Measurement of the polarisation of W bosons produced with large transverse momentum in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV with the ATLAS experiment

This paper describes an analysis of the angular distribution of W->enu and W->munu decays, using data from pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector at the LHC in 2010, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of about 35 pb^-1. Using the decay lepton transverse momentum and the missing transverse energy, the W decay angular distribution projected onto the transverse plane is obtained and analysed in terms of helicity fractions f0, fL and fR over two ranges of W transverse momentum (ptw): 35 < ptw < 50 GeV and ptw > 50 GeV. Good agreement is found with theoretical predictions. For ptw > 50 GeV, the values of f0 and fL-fR, averaged over charge and lepton flavour, are measured to be : f0 = 0.127 +/- 0.030 +/- 0.108 and fL-fR = 0.252 +/- 0.017 +/- 0.030, where the first uncertainties are statistical, and the second include all systematic effects.Comment: 19 pages plus author list (34 pages total), 9 figures, 11 tables, revised author list, matches European Journal of Physics C versio

Observation of a new chi_b state in radiative transitions to Upsilon(1S) and Upsilon(2S) at ATLAS

The chi_b(nP) quarkonium states are produced in proton-proton collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV and recorded by the ATLAS detector. Using a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.4 fb^-1, these states are reconstructed through their radiative decays to Upsilon(1S,2S) with Upsilon->mu+mu-. In addition to the mass peaks corresponding to the decay modes chi_b(1P,2P)->Upsilon(1S)gamma, a new structure centered at a mass of 10.530+/-0.005 (stat.)+/-0.009 (syst.) GeV is also observed, in both the Upsilon(1S)gamma and Upsilon(2S)gamma decay modes. This is interpreted as the chi_b(3P) system.Comment: 5 pages plus author list (18 pages total), 2 figures, 1 table, corrected author list, matches final version in Physical Review Letter

Measurement of the inclusive isolated prompt photon cross-section in pp collisions at sqrt(s)= 7 TeV using 35 pb-1 of ATLAS data

A measurement of the differential cross-section for the inclusive production of isolated prompt photons in pp collisions at a center-of-mass energy sqrt(s) = 7 TeV is presented. The measurement covers the pseudorapidity ranges |eta|<1.37 and 1.52<=|eta|<2.37 in the transverse energy range 45<=E_T<400GeV. The results are based on an integrated luminosity of 35 pb-1, collected with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The yields of the signal photons are measured using a data-driven technique, based on the observed distribution of the hadronic energy in a narrow cone around the photon candidate and the photon selection criteria. The results are compared with next-to-leading order perturbative QCD calculations and found to be in good agreement over four orders of magnitude in cross-section.Comment: 7 pages plus author list (18 pages total), 2 figures, 4 tables, final version published in Physics Letters