Rad62 protein functionally and physically associates with the Smc5/Smc6 protein complex and is required for chromosome integrity and recombination repair in fission yeast

Smc5 and Smc6 proteins form a heterodimeric SMC (structural maintenance of chromosome) protein complex like SMC1-SMC3 cohesin and SMC2-SMC4 condensin, and they associate with non-SMC proteins Nse1 and Nse2 stably and Rad60 transiently. This multiprotein complex plays an essential role in maintaining chromosome integrity and repairing DNA double strand breaks (DSBs). This study characterizes a Schizosaccharomyces pombe mutant rad62-1, which is hypersensitive to methyl methanesulfonate (MMS) and synthetically lethal with rad2 (a feature of recombination mutants). rad62-1 is hypersensitive to UV and gamma rays, epistatic with rhp51, and defective in repair of DSBs. rad62 is essential for viability and genetically interacts with rad60, smc6, and brc1. Rad62 protein physically associates with the Smc5-6 complex. rad62-1 is synthetically lethal with mutations in the genes promoting recovery from stalled replication, such as rqh1, srs2, and mus81, and those involved in nucleotide excision repair like rad13 and rad16. These results suggest that Rad62, like Rad60, in conjunction with the Smc5-6 complex, plays an essential role in maintaining chromosome integrity and recovery from stalled replication by recombination

Dirac fermion reflector by ballistic graphene sawtooth-shaped npn junctions

We have realized a Dirac fermion reflector in graphene by controlling the ballistic carrier trajectory in a sawtooth-shaped npn junction. When the carrier density in the inner p-region is much larger than that in the outer n-regions, the first straight np interface works as a collimator and the collimated ballistic carriers can be totally reflected at the second zigzag pn interface. We observed clear resistance enhancement around the np+n regime, which is in good agreement with the numerical simulation. The tunable reflectance of ballistic carriers could be an elementary and important step for realizing ultrahigh-mobility graphene field effect transistors utilizing Dirac fermion optics in the near future

Turbid intrusion below the thermal staircase in the seasonal thermocline of Lake Biwa

Thermal 'staircase', a layer of constant temperature between the sheets of the steep gradients, was formed in the seasonal thermocline, which was 2.5 m above the bottom at a point of 18 m deep on the boundary slope in Lake Biwa. Following a sediment resuspension event when a moderate onshore wind blew, bed materials should be suspended up to the thermocline, then settled down forming a staircase above the turbid intrusion. Comparing the observed downward hear flux with the settling flux of sediment, it was found that double-diffusive convection would play an important role on the formation of the whole structure consisting of the staircase and turbid intrusion along with chemical anomalies and dense population of phytoplankters, which were fed by nutrients supplied from the bottom sediment under a typical condition of drought. Laboratory experiments were conducted to demonstrate the thermal and sediment processes in the stratified lake. Resuspension process due to surface and internal waves was examined using a tank with a sloping bottom, while the settling process was investigated by using a deep, diffusive tank. Formative process and scales of the staircase and intrusion were discussed relating with the intensity of resuspension and the buoyancy fluxes

Analytical Approach for Oscillation Properties of Soft Materials

Abstract. It is well known that the Brusselator model reveals simple oscillations and damped oscillations by the suitable parameters. However there is no chemical reactor system that corresponds to the Brusselator model. We have a good real physical system that corresponds to the Brusselator model under some conditions. The system is a free damped oscillation of soft material and described by an equation of motion. In this paper, we show the relation between the Brusselator model and the physical system. We also estimate the experimental data of the physical system

Circadian-regulated expression of a nuclear-encoded plastid σ factor gene (sigA) in wheat seedlings

AbstractThe activity of a light-responsive psbD promoter in plastids is known to be regulated by a circadian clock. However, the mechanism of the circadian regulation of the psbD light-responsive promotor, which is recognized by an Escherichia coli-type RNA polymerase, is not yet known. We examined the time course of mRNA accumulation of two E. coli-type RNA polymerase subunit genes, sigA and rpoA, under a continuous light condition after 12 h light/12 h dark entrainment. Accumulation of the sigA mRNA was found to be regulated by a circadian clock, while rpoA mRNA did not show any significant oscillation throughout the experiment