1,761 research outputs found
Acylation of glucosaminyl phosphatidylinositol revisited. Palmitoyl-CoA dependent palmitoylation of the inositol residue of a synthetic dioctanoyl glucosaminyl phosphatidylinositol by hamster membranes permits efficient mannosylation of the glucosamine residue
Two critical steps in the assembly of yeast and mammalian glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI) anchor precursors are palmitoylation of the inositol residue and mannosylation of the glucosamine residue of the glucosaminyl phosphatidylinositol (GlcNα-PI) intermediate. Palmitoylation has been reported to be acyl-CoA dependent in yeast membranes (Costello, L. C., and Orlean, P. (1992) J. Biol. Chem. 267, 8599-8603) but strictly acyl- CoA independent in rodent membranes (Stevens, V. L., and Zhang, H. (1994) J. Biol. Chem. 269, 31397-31403), and thus poorly conserved. In addition, it was suggested that acylation must precede mannosylation in both yeast (Costello, L. C., and Orlean, P. (1992) J. Biol. Chem. 276, 8599-8603) and rodent (Urakaze, M., Kamitani, T., DeGasperi, R., Sugiyama, E., Chang, H.-M., Warren, C. D., and Yeh, E. T. H. (1992) J. Biol. Chem. 267, 6459-6462) cells because GlcNα-acyl-PI accumulates in vivo when mannosylation is blocked. However, GlcNα-acyl-PI accumulation would also be expected if mannosylation and acylation were independent of each other. These issues were addressed by the use of a synthetic dioctanoyl GlcNα-PI analogue (GlcNα-PI(C8)) as an in vitro substrate for GPI-synthesizing enzymes in Chinese hamster ovary cell membranes. GlcNα-PI(C8) was acylated in an manner requiring acyl-CoA. Thus, the process involving acyl-CoA reported for yeast has been conserved in mammals. Furthermore, both GlcNα-PI(C8) and GlcNα-acyl-PI(C8) could be mannosylated in vitro, but mannosylation of the latter was significantly more efficient. This provides direct support for the earlier suggestion that acylation precedes mannosylation in rodents cells. A similar result was also observed with the Saccharomyces cerevisiae mannosyltransferase. In contrast, it has been reported that mannosylation of endogenous GlcNα-PI by Trypansoma brucei membranes occurs without prior acylation. The same result was obtained with GlcNα-PI(C8), confirming that the mannosyltransferase of trypanosomes is divergent from those in yeasts and rodents
Hydrodynamic interaction in quasi-two-dimensional suspensions
Confinement between two parallel surfaces is found, theoretically and
experimentally, to drastically affect the hydrodynamic interaction between
colloid particles, changing the sign of the coupling, its decay with distance
and its concentration dependence. In particular, we show that three-body
effects do not modify the coupling at large distances as would be expected from
hydrodynamic screening.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figure
BEAMS: separating the wheat from the chaff in supernova analysis
We introduce Bayesian Estimation Applied to Multiple Species (BEAMS), an
algorithm designed to deal with parameter estimation when using contaminated
data. We present the algorithm and demonstrate how it works with the help of a
Gaussian simulation. We then apply it to supernova data from the Sloan Digital
Sky Survey (SDSS), showing how the resulting confidence contours of the
cosmological parameters shrink significantly.Comment: 23 pages, 9 figures. Chapter 4 in "Astrostatistical Challenges for
the New Astronomy" (Joseph M. Hilbe, ed., Springer, New York, forthcoming in
2012), the inaugural volume for the Springer Series in Astrostatistic
Overview of the Nordic Seas CARINA data and salinity measurements
Water column data of carbon and carbon relevant hydrographic and hydrochemical parameters from 188 previously non-publicly available cruises in the Arctic, Atlantic, and Southern Ocean have been retrieved and merged into a new database: CARINA (CARbon IN the Atlantic). The data have been subject to rigorous quality control (QC) in order to ensure highest possible quality and consistency. The data for most of the parameters included were examined in order to quantify systematic biases in the reported values, i.e. secondary quality control. Significant biases have been corrected for in the data products, i.e. the three merged files with measured, calculated and interpolated values for each of the three CARINA regions; the Arctic Mediterranean Seas (AMS), the Atlantic (ATL) and the Southern Ocean (SO). With the adjustments the CARINA database is consistent both internally as well as with GLODAP (Key et al., 2004) and is suitable for accurate assessments of, for example, oceanic carbon inventories and uptake rates and for model validation. The Arctic Mediterranean Seas include the Arctic Ocean and the Nordic Seas, and the quality control was carried out separately in these two areas. This contribution provides an overview of the CARINA data from the Nordic Seas and summarises the findings of the QC of the salinity data. One cruise had salinity data that were of questionable quality, and these have been removed from the data product. An evaluation of the consistency of the quality controlled salinity data suggests that they are consistent to at least ±0.005
CYP-13A12 of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans is a PUFA-epoxygenase involved in behavioural response to reoxygenation
A specific behavioural response of Caenorhabditis elegans, the rapid increase of locomotion in response to anoxia/reoxygenation called the O2-ON response, has been used to model key aspects of ischaemia/reperfusion injury. A genetic suppressor screen demonstrated a direct causal role of CYP (cytochrome P450)-13A12 in this response and suggested that CYP-eicosanoids, which in mammals influence the contractility of cardiomyocytes and vascular smooth muscle cells, might function in C. elegans as specific regulators of the body muscle cell activity. In the present study we show that co-expression of CYP-13A12 with the NADPH-CYP-reductase EMB-8 in insect cells resulted in the reconstitution of an active microsomal mono-oxygenase system that metabolized EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid) and also AA (arachidonic acid) to specific sets of regioisomeric epoxy and hydroxy derivatives. The main products included 17,18-EEQ (17,18-epoxyeicosatetraenoic acid) from EPA and 14,15-EET (14,15-epoxyeicosatrienoic acid) from AA. Locomotion assays showed that the defective O2-ON response of C20-PUFA (polyunsaturated fatty acid)-deficient, Δ-12 and Δ-6 fatty acid desaturase mutants (fat-2 and fat-3 respectively) can be restored by feeding the nematodes AA or EPA, but not ETYA (eicosatetraynoic acid), a non-metabolizable AA analogue. Short-term incubation with 17,18-EEQ was sufficient to rescue the impaired locomotion of the fat-3 strain. The endogenous level of free 17,18-EEQ declined during anoxia and was rapidly restored in response to reoxygenation. On the basis of these results, we suggest that CYP-dependent eicosanoids such as 17,18-EEQ function as signalling molecules in the regulation of the O2-ON response in C. elegans. Remarkably, the exogenously administered 17,18-EEQ increased the locomotion activity under normoxic conditions and was effective not only with C20-PUFA-deficient mutants, but to a lesser extent also with wild-type worms
The Electron-Phonon Interaction in the Presence of Strong Correlations
We investigate the effect of strong electron-electron repulsion on the
electron-phonon interaction from a Fermi-liquid point of view: the strong
interaction is responsible for vertex corrections, which are strongly dependent
on the ratio. These corrections generically lead to a strong
suppression of the effective coupling between quasiparticles mediated by a
single phonon exchange in the limit. However, such effect
is not present when . Analyzing the Landau stability
criterion, we show that a sizable electron-phonon interaction can push the
system towards a phase-separation instability. A detailed analysis is then
carried out using a slave-boson approach for the infinite-U three-band Hubbard
model. In the presence of a coupling between the local hole density and a
dispersionless optical phonon, we explicitly confirm the strong dependence of
the hole-phonon coupling on the transferred momentum versus frequency ratio. We
also find that the exchange of phonons leads to an unstable phase with negative
compressibility already at small values of the bare hole-phonon coupling. Close
to the unstable region, we detect Cooper instabilities both in s- and d-wave
channels supporting a possible connection between phase separation and
superconductivity in strongly correlated systems.Comment: LateX 3.14, 04.11.1994 Preprint no.101
Gauged Lifshitz scalar field theories in two dimensions
We present two-dimensional gauged Lifshitz scalar field theories by
considering the duality relation between the source current and the Noether
current. Requiring the duality partially, we obtain a gauged model which
recovers the bosonized Schwinger model for the IR limit. For the exact duality,
however, the source current is not conserved, which means that the resulting
theory is anomalous, so that the number of degrees of freedom is increased. The
second model is consistently formulated by adding the Wess-Zumino type action
to maintain the gauge invariance.Comment: 11 page
Breakthrough capability for the NASA Astrophysics Explorer Program: Reaching the darkest sky
We describe a mission architecture designed to substantially increase the
science capability of the NASA Science Mission Directorate (SMD) Astrophysics
Explorer Program for all AO proposers working within the near-UV to
far-infrared spectrum. We have demonstrated that augmentation of Falcon 9
Explorer launch services with a 13 kW Solar Electric Propulsion (SEP) stage can
deliver a 700 kg science observatory payload to extra-Zodiacal orbit. This new
capability enables up to ~13X increased photometric sensitivity and ~160X
increased observing speed relative to a Sun-Earth L2, Earth-trailing, or Earth
orbit with no increase in telescope aperture. All enabling SEP stage
technologies for this launch service augmentation have reached sufficient
readiness (TRL-6) for Explorer Program application in conjunction with the
Falcon 9. We demonstrate that enabling Astrophysics Explorers to reach
extra-zodiacal orbit will allow this small payload program to rival the science
performance of much larger long development time systems; thus, providing a
means to realize major science objectives while increasing the SMD Astrophysics
portfolio diversity and resiliency to external budget pressure. The SEP
technology employed in this study has strong applicability to SMD Planetary
Science community-proposed missions. SEP is a stated flight demonstration
priority for NASA's Office of the Chief Technologist (OCT). This new mission
architecture for astrophysics Explorers enables an attractive realization of
joint goals for OCT and SMD with wide applicability across SMD science
disciplines.Comment: Submitted to proceedings of the SPIE Astronomical Telescopes and
Instrumentation conference, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, July 201
Radiative Corrections to Neutralino and Chargino Masses in the Minimal Supersymmetric Model
We determine the neutralino and chargino masses in the MSSM at one-loop. We
perform a Feynman diagram calculation in the on-shell renormalization scheme,
including quark/squark and lepton/slepton loops. We find generically the
corrections are of order 6%. For a 20 GeV neutralino the corrections can be
larger than 20%. The corrections change the region of
parameter space which is ruled out by LEP data. We demonstrate that, e.g., for
a given and the lower limit on the parameter can shift
by 20 GeV.Comment: 11 pages, JHU-TIPAC-930030, PURD-TH-93-13, uses epsf.sty, 6 uuencoded
postscript figures, added one sentence and a referenc
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