605 research outputs found
Increased TCR Avidity after T Cell Activation A Mechanism for Sensing Low-Density Antigen
AbstractWhile activated T cells are known to have enhanced biological responses to antigen stimulation, the biophysical basis of this increased sensitivity remains unknown. Here, we show that, on activated T cells, the TCR avidity for peptide-MHC complexes is 20- to 50-fold higher than the TCR avidity of naive T cells. This increased avidity for peptide-MHC depends on TCR reorganization and is sensitive to the cholesterol content of the T cell membrane. Analysis of the binding data indicates the enhanced avidity is due to increases in cross-linking of TCR on activated T cells. Activation-induced membrane (AIM) changes in TCR avidity represent a previously unrecognized means of increasing the sensitivity of activated T cells to small amounts of antigen in the periphery
K-orbit closures on G/B as universal degeneracy loci for flagged vector bundles with symmetric or skew-symmetric bilinear form
We use equivariant localization and divided difference operators to determine
formulas for the torus-equivariant fundamental cohomology classes of -orbit
closures on the flag variety , where G = GL(n,\C), and where is one
of the symmetric subgroups O(n,\C) or Sp(n,\C). We realize these orbit
closures as universal degeneracy loci for a vector bundle over a variety
equipped with a single flag of subbundles and a nondegenerate symmetric or
skew-symmetric bilinear form taking values in the trivial bundle. We describe
how our equivariant formulas can be interpreted as giving formulas for the
classes of such loci in terms of the Chern classes of the various bundles.Comment: Minor revisions and corrections suggested by referees. Final version,
to appear in Transformation Group
Equivariant pretheories and invariants of torsors
In the present paper we introduce and study the notion of an equivariant
pretheory: basic examples include equivariant Chow groups, equivariant K-theory
and equivariant algebraic cobordism. To extend this set of examples we define
an equivariant (co)homology theory with coefficients in a Rost cycle module and
provide a version of Merkurjev's (equivariant K-theory) spectral sequence for
such a theory. As an application we generalize the theorem of
Karpenko-Merkurjev on G-torsors and rational cycles; to every G-torsor E and a
G-equivariant pretheory we associate a graded ring which serves as an invariant
of E. In the case of Chow groups this ring encodes the information concerning
the motivic J-invariant of E and in the case of Grothendieck's K_0 -- indexes
of the respective Tits algebras.Comment: 23 pages; this is an essentially extended version of the previous
preprint: the construction of an equivariant cycle (co)homology and the
spectral sequence (generalizing the long exact localization sequence) are
adde
Syzygies in equivariant cohomology for non-abelian Lie groups
We extend the work of Allday-Franz-Puppe on syzygies in equivariant
cohomology from tori to arbitrary compact connected Lie groups G. In
particular, we show that for a compact orientable G-manifold X the analogue of
the Chang-Skjelbred sequence is exact if and only if the equivariant cohomology
of X is reflexive, if and only if the equivariant Poincare pairing for X is
perfect. Along the way we establish that the equivariant cohomology modules
arising from the orbit filtration of X are Cohen-Macaulay. We allow singular
spaces and introduce a Cartan model for their equivariant cohomology. We also
develop a criterion for the finiteness of the number of infinitesimal orbit
types of a G-manifold.Comment: 28 pages; minor change
Tilt Texture Domains on a Membrane and Chirality induced Budding
We study the equilibrium conformations of a lipid domain on a planar fluid
membrane where the domain is decorated by a vector field representing the tilt
of the stiff fatty acid chains of the lipid molecules, while the surrounding
membrane is fluid and structureless. The inclusion of chirality in the bulk of
the domain induces a novel budding of the membrane, which preempts the budding
induced by a decrease in interfacial tension.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure
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