5 research outputs found

    Adjustment of ferromagnetism and improvement of the electronic structure of the TiI3 monolayer by the substitutional doping of 3d transition metal atoms: Ab-initio investigation

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    Two dimensional Van der Waals materials are very attractive for several researchers because of their distinctive properties and their interesting applications in data storage and spintronic devices. Titanium triiodide (TiI3), which is classified among transition metal trihalides (MX3), has received more attention after CrI3 and VI3 monolayers. Here, we explore the structural, electronic and magnetic properties of pure and 3d TM (TM = Sc, V, Cr, Mn and Fe) doped TiI3 monolayer using first-principles calculations, based on the GGA + Ueff approach. We confirmed the dynamic stability of TiI3 monolayer using phonon calculations and the thermal stability of pure and TM-doped TiI3 monolayers by performing AIMD simulation. We further found that the pure TiI3 monolayer is a stable ferromagnetic semiconductor with intrinsic magnetism. The introduction of vacancy defects in the pristine TiI3 monolayer showed that it is desirable to introduce TM atoms into Ti positions, which led to the improvement of its electronic and magnetic properties. The Sc-doped system keeps its semiconductor behavior with a reduction in the width of the band gap, whereas V-, Cr- and Fe-doped TiI3 monolayers turn into half semiconductors (HSC). Even more impressive, the Mn-doped system is found to be a bipolar ferromagnetic semiconductor (BFMS). We applied spin orbit coupling (SOC) on simulated monolayers, and showed that it affected them by changing their band gaps widths, especially in Fe-doped TiI3 monolayer. Furthermore, we found in all doped systems a ferromagnetic stability, an enhancement of the total magnetic moment, up to 10 μB in Cr- and Fe-doped monolayers, high Curie temperatures, up to 260 K, and high magnetic anisotropic energies, especially in Mn-doped TiI3 monolayer which makes it possess a long range ferromagnetic order. These interesting results concerning the electronic and magnetic properties of pure and transition metals-doped TiI3 monolayers are extremely beneficial for tune and enhance electronic and spintronic devices

    A Suv39h-dependent mechanism for silencing S-phase genes in differentiating but not in cycling cells

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    The Rb/E2F complex represses S-phase genes both in cycling cells and in cells that have permanently exited from the cell cycle and entered a terminal differentiation pathway. Here we show that S-phase gene repression, which involves histone-modifying enzymes, occurs through distinct mechanisms in these two situations. We used chromatin immunoprecipitation to show that methylation of histone H3 lysine 9 (H3K9) occurs at several Rb/E2F target promoters in differentiating cells but not in cycling cells. Furthermore, phenotypic knock-down experiments using siRNAs showed that the histone methyltransferase Suv39h is required for histone H3K9 methylation and subsequent repression of S-phase gene promoters in differentiating cells, but not in cycling cells. These results indicate that the E2F target gene permanent silencing mechanism that is triggered upon terminal differentiation is distinct from the transient repression mechanism in cycling cells. Finally, Suv39h-depleted myoblasts were unable to express early or late muscle differentiation markers. Thus, appropriately timed H3K9 methylation by Suv39h seems to be part of the control switch for exiting the cell cycle and entering differentiation

    Differential Cooperation between Heterochromatin Protein HP1 Isoforms and MyoD in Myoblasts*S⃞

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    Mechanisms of transcriptional repression are important during cell differentiation. Mammalian heterochromatin protein 1 isoforms HP1α, HP1β, and HP1γ play important roles in the regulation of chromatin structure and function. We explored the possibility of different roles for the three HP1 isoforms in an integrated system, skeletal muscle terminal differentiation. In this system, terminal differentiation is initiated by the transcription factor MyoD, whose target genes remain mainly silent until myoblasts are induced to differentiate. Here we show that HP1α and HP1β isoforms, but not HP1γ, interact with MyoD in myoblasts. This interaction is direct, as shown using recombinant proteins in vitro. A gene reporter assay revealed that HP1α and HP1β, but not HP1γ, inhibit MyoD transcriptional activity, suggesting a model in which MyoD could serve as a bridge between nucleosomes and chromatin-binding proteins such as HDACs and HP1. Chromatin immunoprecipitation assays show a preferential recruitment of HP1 proteins on MyoD target genes in proliferating myoblasts. Finally, modulation of HP1 protein level impairs MyoD target gene expression and muscle terminal differentiation. Together, our data show a nonconventional interaction between HP1 and a tissue-specific transcription factor, MyoD. In addition, they strongly suggest that HP1 isoforms play important roles during muscle terminal differentiation in an isoform-dependent manner
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