Investigation of the Oxidation/Reduction of PRMT1, Substrate Interaction with PRMT1, and the Role of Arginine Methylation in RNA Surveillance

Protein arginine methylation is an abundant post-translational modification catalyzed by protein arginine methyltransferases (PRMTs). Arginine methylation plays important roles in a variety of cellular pathways and human diseases. PRMT1, the predominant PRMT, catalyzes approximately 85% of all protein arginine methylation in vivo. While many details of how PRMT1 functions have been uncovered through the past two decades, there are many details which remain unclear, including how arginine methylation is regulated, how PRMT1 binds substrates, and what role PRMTs play in RNA surveillance. Our recent data presented in this thesis showed that reduction of the PRMT1 enzyme, following recombinant expression and purification, changes both enzymatic activity and oligomeric state. A cysteine residue(s) was found to be responsible for the observed redox chemistry in PRMT1 and at least one parameter in the kinetic mechanism, S-adenosylmethionine (AdoMet) binding, was faster with a reduced enzyme. This work suggests exciting potential for the regulation of PRMTs in vivo by oxidative stress. In addition to studying the effects of reduction/oxidation on PRMT1, a foundation for future experiments was laid. These experiments investigate substrate recognition by PRMTs and what the role arginine methylation may play in RNA processing and surveillance. To better understand how PRMTs selectively bind a wide variety of substrates, I have designed and preliminarily characterized several Hmt1 (the S. cerevisiae homologue of PRMT1) variants. These variants will be used for crystallization trials of a homogeneous complex, containing Hmt1, AdoMet, and a peptide substrate, capable of revealing specific chemical interactions between Hmt1 and the peptide substrate. To further our understanding of Hmt1\u27s role in RNA processing and surveillance, particularly in RNA degradation pathways, I extracted yeast RNA from both wild type and Hmt1-null cells. The RNA was probed using a S. cerevisiae whole-genome microarray. This analysis revealed that Hmt1 exhibits statistically significant effects in several broad areas including molecular function, biological processes, cellular components, and some KEGG pathways. The presented studies have revealed the exciting potential for an in vivo regulatory mechanism of PRMT1 and each study is primed for further investigation both in vivo and in vitro

Navigating the Third Offset Strategy

This article suggests adding a “craftsman” at lower ranks to steer private-sector projects through the Third Offset Strategy. This strategy was established by experienced leadership at the Pentagon to increase military acquisitions of automation and artificial intelligence technology

Revival of Silenced Echo and Quantum Memory for Light

We propose an original quantum memory protocol. It belongs to the class of rephasing processes and is closely related to two-pulse photon echo. It is known that the strong population inversion produced by the rephasing pulse prevents the plain two-pulse photon echo from serving as a quantum memory scheme. Indeed gain and spontaneous emission generate prohibitive noise. A second $\pi$-pulse can be used to simultaneously reverse the atomic phase and bring the atoms back into the ground state. Then a secondary echo is radiated from a non-inverted medium, avoiding contamination by gain and spontaneous emission noise. However, one must kill the primary echo, in order to preserve all the information for the secondary signal. In the present work, spatial phase mismatching is used to silence the standard two-pulse echo. An experimental demonstration is presented.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figure

The role of the AFD neuron in C. elegans thermotaxis analyzed using femtosecond laser ablation

BACKGROUND: Caenorhabditis elegans actively crawls down thermal gradients until it reaches the temperature of its prior cultivation, exhibiting what is called cryophilic movement. Implicit in the worm's performance of cryophilic movement is the ability to detect thermal gradients, and implicit in regulating the performance of cryophilic movement is the ability to compare the current temperature of its surroundings with a stored memory of its cultivation temperature. Several lines of evidence link the AFD sensory neuron to thermotactic behavior, but its precise role is unclear. A current model contends that AFD is part of a thermophilic mechanism for biasing the worm's movement up gradients that counterbalances the cryophilic mechanism for biasing its movement down gradients. RESULTS: We used tightly-focused femtosecond laser pulses to dissect the AFD neuronal cell bodies and the AFD sensory dendrites in C. elegans to investigate their contribution to cryophilic movement. We establish that femtosecond laser ablation can exhibit submicrometer precision, severing individual sensory dendrites without causing collateral damage. We show that severing the dendrites of sensory neurons in young adult worms permanently abolishes their sensory contribution without functional regeneration. We show that the AFD neuron regulates a mechanism for generating cryophilic bias, but we find no evidence that AFD laser surgery reduces a putative ability to generate thermophilic bias. In addition, although disruption of the AIY interneuron causes worms to exhibit cryophilic bias at all temperatures, we find no evidence that laser killing the AIZ interneuron causes thermophilic bias at any temperature. CONCLUSION: We conclude that laser surgical analysis of the neural circuit for thermotaxis does not support a model in which AFD opposes cryophilic bias by generating thermophilic bias. Our data supports a model in which the AFD neuron gates a mechanism for generating cryophilic bias

Direct Hopf Bifurcation in Parametric Resonance of Hybridized Waves

We study parametric resonance of interacting waves having the same wave vector and frequency. In addition to the well-known period-doubling instability we show that under certain conditions the instability is caused by a Hopf bifurcation leading to quasiperiodic traveling waves. It occurs, for example, if the group velocities of both waves have different signs and the damping is weak. The dynamics above the threshold is briefly discussed. Examples concerning ferromagnetic spin waves and surface waves of ferro fluids are discussed.Comment: Appears in Phys. Rev. Lett., RevTeX file and three postscript figures. Packaged using the 'uufiles' utility, 33 k