Chromosome cohesion and segregation in mitosis and meiosis

The faithful segregation of the genetic material into daughter cells during cell division is crucial for the production of healthy progeny. Sister chromatid cohesion and separation are fundamental to this process. Progress has been made in our molecular understanding of cohesion and mechanisms for the dissolution of cohesion have been uncovered.     

Peptide signalling in plants

Peptide signals play crucial roles in all aspects of the plant life cycle. An understanding of peptide signal production and reception mechanisms is beginning to emerge. Studies on the signal-transduction cascades that follow the reception of peptide signals are just beginning.     

Genetic mechanism and evolutionary significance of the origin of parthenogenetic insects

There is a high proportion of parthenogenesis in insecta, and the parthenogenetic potential of insects is an important but often ignored threaten factor for the agricultural and forestry production. The maintenance of parthenogenetic species is a puzzling issue in evolutionary biology. In recent years, although the cellular mechanisms during parthenogenesis in some species have been well studied, the underlying genetic mechanisms that cause the switch from sexual reproduction to parthenogenesis have not been defined. While, understanding the genetic mechanism and evolutionary significance of the origin of parthenogenetic insects is crucial for preventing the pests in agricultural and forestry production. Here we summarized recent studies aimed at identifying the underlying genetic mechanism of parthenogenesis in insects, and briefly discussed its potential application in this filed.     

Multi-scale models of lung fibrosis

The architectural complexity of the lung is crucial to its ability to function as an organ of gas exchange; the branching tree structure of the airways transforms the tracheal cross-section of only a few square centimeters to a blood-gas barrier with a surface area of tens of square meters and a thickness on the order of a micron or less. Connective tissue comprised largely of collagen and elastic fibers provides structural integrity for this intricate and delicate system. Homeostatic maintenance of this connective tissue, via a balance between catabolic and anabolic enzyme-driven processes, is crucial to life. Accordingly, when homeostasis is disrupted by the excessive production of connective tissue, lung function deteriorates rapidly with grave consequences leading to chronic lung conditions such as pulmonary fibrosis. Understanding how pulmonary fibrosis develops and alters the link between lung structure and function is crucial for diagnosis, prognosis, and therapy. Further information gained could help elaborate how the healing process breaks down leading to chronic disease. Our understanding of fibrotic disease is greatly aided by the intersection of wet lab studies and mathematical and computational modeling. In the present review we will discuss how multi-scale modeling has facilitated our understanding of pulmonary fibrotic disease as well as identified opportunities that remain open and have produced techniques that can be incorporated into this field by borrowing approaches from multi-scale models of fibrosis beyond the lung.     

Lexical learning and lexical processing in children with developmental language impairments

Lexical skills are a crucial component of language comprehension and production. This paper reviews evidence for lexical-level deficits in children and young people with developmental language impairment (LI). Across a range of tasks, LI is associated with reduced vocabulary knowledge in terms of both breadth and depth and difficulty with learning and retaining new words; evidence is emerging from on-line tasks to suggest that low levels of language skill are associated with differences in lexical competition in spoken word recognition. The role of lexical deficits in understanding the nature of LI is also discussed.     

Iron homeostasis and fortification in rice

Iron (Fe) is an important micronutrient used by all living organisms for proper development. A deficiency in that element causes a metabolic imbalance that is deleterious to plant growth, making it a significant worldwide health concern. In response to limited Fe supplies, rice plants use a combination of strategies to take up iron from the soil. As a major staple crop, rice varieties that contain high levels of Fe would be vital for improving public nutritional status. Therefore, understanding the molecular components for Fe homeostasis and fortification in rice is crucial to the production of high-iron grains.     

丝状真菌纤维素酶合成诱导及转录调控

利用廉价可再生木质纤维素资源水解产生的可发酵糖生产生物能源和生物基化学品是近年来国内外研究的热点。纤维素酶酶解是木质纤维素原料生物降解的重要手段,但目前纤维素酶生产成本过高,限制了纤维素生物转化和生物炼制的工业化应用。对丝状真菌纤维素酶基因表达和调控进行研究,有利于进一步选育纤维素酶高产菌株,降低纤维素酶生产成本。随着高通量测序及丝状真菌遗传操作等技术的进步,对丝状真菌纤维素酶诱导和基因表达调控机理有了更深入的认识。本文综述了近年来丝状真菌纤维素酶诱导和纤维素酶基因表达调控的最新进展,重点论述糖转运蛋白、转录因子和染色质重塑对纤维素酶表达调控的影响,并对利用人工锌指蛋白进行丝状真菌纤维素酶诱导调控研究进行了展望。     

Turning cells red: signal transduction mediated by erythropoietin

Erythropoietin (EPO) is the crucial cytokine regulator of red blood-cell production. Since the discovery of EPO in 1985 and the isolation of its cognate receptor four years later, there has been significant interest in understanding the unique ability of this ligand-receptor pair to promote erythroid mitogenesis, survival and differentiation. The development of knockout mice has elucidated the precise role of the ligand, receptor and downstream players in murine erythroid development. In this review, we summarize EPO-mediated signaling pathways and examine their significance in vivo.     

Water availability controls microbial temperature responses in frozen soil CO2 production

Soil processes in high-latitude regions during winter are important contributors to global carbon circulation, but our understanding of the mechanisms controlling these processes is poor and observed temperature response coefficients of CO₂ production in frozen soils deviate markedly from thermodynamically predicted responses (sometimes by several orders of magnitude). We investigated the temperature response of CO₂ production in 23 unfrozen and frozen surface soil samples from various types of boreal forests and peatland ecosystems and also measured changes in water content in them after freezing. We demonstrate that deviations in temperature responses at subzero temperatures primarily emanates from water deficiency caused by freezing of the soil water, and that the amount of unfrozen water is mainly determined by the quality of the soil organic matter, which is linked to the vegetation cover. Factoring out the contribution of water limitation to the CO₂ temperature responses yields response coefficients that agree well with expectations based on thermodynamic theory concerning biochemical temperature responses. This partitioning between a pure temperature response and the effect of water availability on the response of soil CO₂ production at low temperatures is crucial for a thorough understanding of low-temperature soil processes and for accurate predictions of C-balances in northern terrestrial ecosystems.     

Genome analysis of marine photosynthetic microbes and their global role

Four recently completed genome projects on marine Cyanobacteria have started the age of comparative genomics for marine microbes. Cyanobacteria are a group of photoautotrophic bacteria that have traditionally been under-represented in studies of complete genome sequences, as have microbes from the marine environment in general. The new genome information is of crucial importance to understanding their role in oceanic primary production, global carbon cycling and functioning of the biosphere. Marine microbes are a still almost untapped resource for the identification of novel beneficial metabolites and activities. The availability of an increasing number of genome sequences will eventually lead to a sustained development of marine biotechnology.     

Hydrophobins: New prospects for biotechnology

Hydrophobins are small amphipathic molecules found uniquely in fungi. They perform crucial roles in allowing filamentous species to break through interfaces during aerial hyphae formation, sporulation, fruit body production and cell penetration. Initial biotechnological applications have exploited materials coated with hydrophobins to switch hydrophobic surfaces to hydrophilic and vice versa. Recent improvements in our understanding of the biophysics of hydrophobin layer formation, including the use of mixed types of molecules, together with advances in genomics promise to extend greatly the potential for hydrophobin biotechnologies.     

Using model membranes for the study of amyloid beta:lipid interactions and neurotoxicity

One of the major tasks in understanding the etiopathogenesis of amyloid beta-induced neurotoxicity of Alzheimer's disease (AD), is in fully capturing the large number of the biochemical processes that influence each other during the course of the disease, in vivo. Model membranes possess, as their main strength, the ability to enable the researcher to manipulate a 'biological' micro-vesicle under a controlled environment. This review narrowly focuses on discussing the exploitation of model membranes for improved understanding of some of the mechanisms governing AD's amyloid beta-induced neurotoxicity. Amyloid beta (Abeta) is cleaved from a membrane-located amyloid precursor protein by membrane-located enzymes. The relative spatial localization of the involved biomolecules within the membrane bilayer is crucial in influencing Abeta production, its aggregation on the membrane surface or insertion into the membrane, and fibril formation: all important processes in causing neurotoxicity. The lipid composition of the bilayer is similarly important. The review also attempts to highlight current and future challenges in using model membranes for studying biochemical processes.     

Le site Paléolithique de Suyanggae, Corée

The Suyanggae site is an open-air site in central part of South Korea. This site was discovered in 1980 and seven excavations have been carried out from 1983 to 1996. As a result, many stone artefacts were unearthed and 49 stone tool workshops were known. This site contains 5 cultural layers and the most important one is the Upper Paleolithic layer. This layer is dated to be 16,400 ~ 18,630 BP by ¹⁴C dating. It shows a massive blade production and microblade technique. It is one of the crucial sites for understanding the Upper Paleolithic of Korea.     

Emerging tools,concepts and ideas to track the modulator genes underlying plant drought adaptive traits: An overview

Crop vulnerability to multiple abiotic stresses is increasing at an alarming rate in the current global climate change scenario, especially drought. Crop improvement for adaptive adjustments to accomplish stress tolerance requires a comprehensive understanding of the key contributory processes. This requires the identification and careful analysis of the critical morpho-physiological plant attributes and their genetic control. In this review we try to discuss the crucial traits underlying drought tolerance and the various modes followed to understand their molecular level regulation. Plant stress biology is progressing into new dimensions and a conscious attempt has been made to traverse through the various approaches and checkpoints that would be relevant to tackle drought stress limitations for sustainable crop production.     

The neutral sphingomyelinase family: identifying biochemical connections

Neutral sphingomyelinases (N-SMases) are considered to be key mediators of stress-induced ceramide production. The extended family of N-SMases is a subset of the DNaseI superfamily and comprises members from bacteria, yeast and mammals. In recent years, the identification and cloning of mammalian N-SMase family members has led to significant advances in understanding their physiological roles and regulation. However, there is still limited information on their regulation at the biochemical and molecular level. In this review, we summarize current knowledge about the biochemical regulation of the eukaryotic N-SMases and identify the major areas where knowledge is lacking. In recent years, research into the roles and regulation of N-SMases has moved in great strides with the cloning and characterization of multiple N-SMase isoforms and the development of knockout mice. However, as researchers continue to move forward in understanding the physiological functions of these various N-SMase isoforms, it has become exceedingly important to define howthese isoforms are regulated at the biochemical and molecular level. This is crucial for the development of future tools to study N-SMase signaling such as, for example, phospho-specific antibodies designating activation states. This is also an important part of identifying novel roles of N-SMases in physiological and pathological states. Finally, only by obtaining a more complete understanding of the workings of these enzymes at the molecular level, will investigators be able to design appropriate compounds that can target and inhibit their activity both efficiently and specifically. Certainly, the last of these is crucial when considering the potential of N-SMases as therapeutic targets. With this in mind, we sincerely hope that the next decade of research will even surpass the last ten years in advancing our understanding of the eukaryotic N-SMase family.