Association analyses of single nucleotide polymorphisms in bovine stearoyl-CoA desaturase and fatty acid synthase genes with fatty acid composition in commercial cross-bred beef steers

Two previously reported non‐synonymous coding single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of bovine stearoyl‐CoA desaturase (delta‐9‐desaturase) (SCD) (c.878C>T) and fatty acid synthase (FASN) (g:17924A>G) were assessed for their associations with 72 individual and 12 groups of fatty acids in brisket adipose tissue of 223 Canadian commercial cross‐bred beef steers. It was found that the ‘CC’ genotype of the SCD SNP was significantly associated with lower concentrations of saturated fatty acids (SFA) including 10:0, 14:0 and 20:0, higher concentrations of monounsaturated fatty acids including 9c‐14:1, 12c‐16:1 and 13c‐18:1, higher concentrations of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) including 9c,15c‐18:2, 10c,12c‐18:2, 11c,13t‐18:2 and 12c,14t‐18:2, but lower concentrations of other PUFA of 9c,13t/8t,12c and 20:2n‐6 (P < 0.05). The ‘AA’ genotype of the FASN SNP was significantly associated with higher concentrations of SFAs of 10:0, 12:0, 13:0, 14:0 and 15:0, lower concentrations of unsaturated fatty acids of 9c‐18:1 and 20:3n‐6, and higher concentrations of unsaturated fatty acids of 9c‐14:1 and 12c‐16:1 (P < 0.05). Significant epistatic effects between the SCD and FASN SNP genotypes were also found for several fatty acids including 10:0, 23:0, 6t/7t/8t‐18:1, 12t‐18:1, 13t/14t‐18:1, 16t‐18:1, total trans18:1 and 9c,13t/8t,12c‐18:2 (P < 0.05). These results further suggest that SCD and FASN are strong candidate genes influencing fatty acid composition in beef cattle.     

Book Reviews

Book reviewed in this article: Bain Attwood. Rights for Aborigines. Sarah Colley. Uncovering Australia: Archaeology, Indigenous People and the Public. Kirk Dombrowski. Against Culture: Development, Politics, and Religion in Indian Alaska. Anita Jowitt and Tess Newton Cain (eds). Passage of Change: Law, Society and Governance in the Pacific. Sinclair Dinnen with Anita Jowitt and Tess Newton Cain (eds). A Kind of Mending: Restorative Justice in the Pacific Islands. Bruce M. Knauft (ed.). Critically Modern: Alternatives, Alterities, Anthropologies. Helen Gremillion. Feeding Anorexia: Gender and Power at a Treatment Center. Jean Guiart. Et le masque sortit de la mer: Les pays anciens de Hienghène à Témala, Gomèn et Koumac. Robin Hide. Pig Husbandry in New Guinea: A Literature Review and Bibliography. William Mazzarella. Shoveling Smoke: Advertising and Globalization in Contemporary India. Louise Meintjes. Sound of Africa: Making Music Zulu in a South African Studio. Sally Merry and Donald Brenneis (eds). Law and Empire in the Pacific: Fiji and Hawaii. Peter J. M. Nas, Gerard A. Persoon and Rivke Jaffe (eds). Framing Indonesian Realities: Essays in Symbolic Anthropology in Honour of Reimer Schefold. Annemarie Mol. The Body Multiple: Ontology In Medical Practice. Sherry B. Ortner. New Jersey Dreaming: Capital, Culture and the Class of 58. Thomas C. Patterson. Marx's Ghost: Conversations with Archaeologists. Melissa Perry and Stephen Lloyd. Australian Native Title Law. Christopher Pinney and Nicolas Peterson (eds). Photography's Other Histories. Nigel Rapport. I am Dynamite: An Alternative Anthropology of Power. Renato Rosaldo (ed.). Cultural Citizenship in Island Southeast Asia: Nation and Belonging in the Hinterlands. Regina Scheyvens and Donovan Storey. Development Fieldwork: A Practical Guide. David Trigger and Gareth Griffiths (eds). Disputed Territories: Land, Culture and Identity in Settler Societies. Cecilia Van Hollen. Birth on the Threshold: Childbirth and Modernity in South India.     

Book Reviews

Book reviewed in this article: Jeremy Beckett (ed.). Wherever I Go: Myles Lalor's ‘Oral History’. Victor Buchli . An Archaeology of Socialism. Stephanie Hemelryk Donald . Public Secrets, Public Spaces: Cinema and Civility in China. James F. Eder , A Generation Later: Household Strategies and Economic Change in the Rural Philippines. Colin Filer (ed.) . Dilemmas of Development: The Social and Economic Impact of the Porgera Gold Mine 1989–1994. Jill Forshee with Christina Fink and Sandra Cate (eds). Converging Interests: Traders, Travelers, and Tourists in Southeast Asia. Elizabeth Furniss . The Burden of History: Colonialism and the Frontier Myth in a Rural Community. Alfred Gell . The Art of Anthropology: Essays and Diagrams. Edited by E. Hirsch Ernest Gellner . Language and Solitude: Wittgenstein, Malinowski and the Hapsburg Dilemma. Kenneth Henshall . Dimensions of Japanese Society: Gender, Margins and Mainstream. Lane Ryo Hirabayashi . The Politics of Fieldwork: Research in an American Concentration Camp. Mark J. Hudson . Ruins of Identity: Ethnogenesis in the Japanese Islands. Laura Lee Junker . Raiding, Trading, and Feasting: The Political Economy of Philippine Chiefdoms. Robert C. Kiste and M. Marshall (eds) . American Anthropology in Micronesia: An Assessment. Bruce M. Knauft . From Primitive to Postcolonial in Melanesia and Anthropology. David MacDougall . Transcultural Cinema. Zoila S. Mendoza . Shaping Society Through Dance: Mestizo Ritual Performance in the Peruvian Andes. Kirstin Pauka . Theater and Martial Arts in West Sumatra: Randai and Silek of the Minangkabau. Phillip B. Zarilli . When the Body Becomes All Eyes: Paradigms, Discourses, and Practices of Power in Kalaripayattu, a South Indian Martial Art. Michael Pinches (ed.) . Culture and Privilege in Capitalist Asia. Alan Rumsey and James F. Weiner (eds) . Emplaced Myth: Space, Narrative and Knowledge in Aboriginal Australia and Papua New Guinea. Jane Schneider (ed) . Italy's ‘Southern Question’: Orientalism in One Country. Christopher C. Taylor . Sacrifice as Terror: The Rwandan Genocide of 1994. Sandy Toussaint . Phyllis Kaberry and Me: Anthropology, History and Aboriginal Australia.     

Undergraduate teaching in gerodontology in Austria, Switzerland and Germany

Objective: To survey the present state of undergraduate teaching in the domain of gerodontology in Germany, Switzerland and Austria. Study participants: All universities of Austria (A), Germany (D) and Switzerland (CH). Protocol: A questionnaire on undergraduate teaching in gerodontology was mailed to all Deans (A: n = 3; CH: n = 4; D: n = 31) and all independent departments except paediatric dentistry and orthodontics (A: n = 11; CH: n = 15; D: n = 111). Results: The questionnaires were completed and returned by 29 Deans (A: n = 2; CH: n = 4; D: n = 23) and 102 departments (A: n = 7; CH: n = 8; D: n = 87). In Austria, gerodontology is a very small component of the dental curriculum and the Deans did not want this to be increased. Most German universities claimed to teach some aspects of gerodontology to undergraduate students and 87.4% of the Deans voted for separate lectures in gerodontology. In Switzerland, gerodontology seems well established. The results of questionnaires from the independent departments revealed that in all three countries lectures were more prevalent (A: n = 0; CH: n = 4; D: n = 6) than practical training in nursing homes (A: n = 0; CH: n = 3; D: n = 6). Conclusion: Considering the demographical shift which is leading to an increasing proportion of elderly in the population, the weighting of gerodontology in the undergraduate dental curriculum should be considered for revision in Austria and Germany.     

Book Reviews

Book reviewed in this article: J.M. Arthur . Aboriginal English: A Cultural Study. Diane J. Austin-Broos. Jamaica Genesis: Religion and the Politics of Moral Orders. Mick Broderick (ed.) Hibakusha Cinema: Hiroshima, Nagasaki and the Nuclear Image in Japanese Film. Linda Connor, Patsy Asch and Timothy Asch. Jero Tapakan: Balinese Healer. An Ethnographic Film Monograph. Steven Feld and Keith H. Basso (eds). Senses of Place. T. Fujitani. Splendid Monarchy: Power and Pageantry in Modern Japan. David N. Gellner, Joanna Pfaff-Czarnecka and John Whelpton (eds). Nationalism and Ethnicity in a Hindu Kingdom: The Politics of Culture in Contemporary Nepal. Akhil Gupta and James Ferguson (eds). Anthropological Locations: Boundaries and Grounds of a Field Science. Helen Hardacre. Marketing the Menacing Fetus in Japan. Marilyn Ivy. Discourses of the Vanishing: Modernity, Phantasm, Japan. Margaret Jolly. Women of the Place: Kaslom, Colonialism and Gender in Vanuatu. M.P. Levine, P.M. Nardi and J.H. Gagnon (eds). In Changing Times: Gay Men and Lesbians Encounter HIV/AIDS. Nancy C. Lutkehaus and Paul B. Roscoe (eds.) Gender Ritual: Female Initiation in Melanesia. Helen Morton. Becoming Tongan: An Ethnography of Childhood. Herbert Donald Graham Maschner. Darwinian Archaeologies Michael Southon. The Navel of the Perahu: Meaning and Values in the Maritime Trading Economy of a Butonese Village. J. M. Mageo and A. Howard (eds). Spirits in Culture, History and Mind. Virginia Watson. Anyan's Story. A New Guinea Woman in Two Worlds.     

Book Reviews

Book reviewed in this article: A. Haroon Akram‐Lodhi (ed.) . Confronting Fiji Futures. Dwight B. Heath . Drinking Occasions: Comparative Perspectives on Alcohol and Culture. Alphonso Lingis , Dangerous Emotions. Chris Lyttleton . Endangered Relations: Negotiating Sex and AIDS in Thailand. Jeannette Marie Mageo (ed.) . Cultural Memory: Reconfiguring History and Identity in the Postcolonial Pacific. Serena Nanda . Gender Diversity: A Crosscultural Perspective. Douglas Raybeck . Looking Down the Road: A Systems Approach to Future Studies. Tim Rowse . Obliged to be Difficult: Nugget Coombs' Legacy in Indigenous Affairs.     

Book Reviews

Book reviewed in this article: Georgina Born. Rationalizing Culture: IRCAM, Boulez, and the Institutionalization of the Musical Avant-Garde. Sandra Buckley. Broken Silence: Voices of Japanese Feminism. JaHyun Kim Haboush. (Introduction, translation and annotation). The Memoirs of Lady Hyegyông: The Autobiographical Writings of a Crown Princess of Eighteenth-Century Korea. Maurice Hamington. Hail Mary: The Struggle for Ultimate Womanhood in Catholicism. Vilsoni Hereniko. Woven Gods: Female Clowns and Power in Rotuma. Pacific Islands Monograph Series, No. 12. Douglas W. Hollan and Jane C. Wellenkamp. The Thread of Life: Toraja Reflections on the Life Cycle. Jeremy MacClancy (ed.), Sport, Identity and Ethnicity. June Nash. I Spent My Life in the Mines: the Story of Juan Rojas, Bolivian Tin Miner. Rajni Palriwala and Carla Risseeuw , (eds), Shifting Circles Of Support: Contextualizing Kinship and Gender in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. N. Pearson and W. Sanders. Indigenous peoples and reshaping Australian institutions: two perspectives. Peter Rigby. African Images: Racism and the End of Anthropology.     

Book Reviews

Book reviewed in this article: M. Auge and C. Herzlich (eds). The Meaning of Illness. Stanley R. Barrett. Anthropology: A Student's Guide to Theory and Method. Steen Bergendorff. Faingu City: A Modern Mekeo Clan in Papua New Guinea. Ben Burt. Living Tradition: A Changing Life in Solomon Islands. As told by Michael Kwa'ioloa to Ben Burt. Ann Game and Andrew Metcalfe. Passionate Sociology. Matthew C. Gutmann. The Meanings of Macho: Being a Man in Mexico City. Edvard Hviding. Guardians of Marovo Lagoon: Practice, Place and Politics in Maritime Melanesia. Bernard Juillerat. L'Avènement du Père. Rite, représentation, fantasme dans un culte mélanésian. L. Kendall. Getting Married in Korea: Of Gender, Morality, and Modernity. M. Lock. Encounters with Aging: Mythologies of menopause in Japan and North America. Daniel Miller. Capitalism: An Ethnographic Approach. Alcida Rita Ramos. Sanuma Memories: Yanomami Ethnography in Times of Crisis. Stanley J. Tambiah. Leveling Crowds: Ethnonationalist Conflicts and Collective Violence in South Asia.     

The fire blight pathogen Erwinia amylovora requires the rpoN gene for pathogenicity in apple

RpoN is a σ⁵⁴ factor regulating essential virulence gene expression in several plant pathogenic bacteria, including Pseudomonas syringae and Pectobacterium carotovorum. In this study, we found that mutation of rpoN in the fire blight pathogen Erwinia amylovora caused a nonpathogenic phenotype. The E. amylovora rpoN Tn5 transposon mutant rpoN1250::Tn5 did not cause fire blight disease symptoms on shoots of mature apple trees. In detached immature apple fruits, the rpoN1250::Tn5 mutant failed to cause fire blight disease symptoms and grew to population levels 12 orders of magnitude lower than the wild‐type. In addition, the rpoN1250::Tn5 mutant failed to elicit a hypersensitive response when infiltrated into nonhost tobacco plant leaves, and rpoN1250::Tn5 cells failed to express HrpN protein when grown in hrp (hypersensitive response and pathogenicity)‐inducing liquid medium. A plasmid‐borne copy of the wild‐type rpoN gene complemented all the rpoN1250::Tn5 mutant phenotypes tested. The rpoN1250::Tn5 mutant was prototrophic on minimal solid and liquid media, indicating that the rpoN1250::Tn5 nonpathogenic phenotype was not caused by a defect in basic metabolism or growth. This study provides clear genetic evidence that rpoN is an essential virulence gene of E. amylovora, suggesting that rpoN has the same function in E. amylovora as in P. syringae and Pe. carotovorum.     

Book Reviews

Book reviewed in this article: Robert M. Ariss with Gary Dowsett . Against Death: The Practice of Living with HIV. Thomas Barfield . (ed.). The Dictionary of Anthropology. Donna Birdwell‐Pheasant and D. Lawrence‐Zuñiga . (eds.). House Life‐Space, Place and Family in Europe. Jan van Bremen and Akitoshi Shimizu . (eds). Anthropology and Colonialism in Asia and Oceania: Reflections on the Japanese, Dutch, Chinese and Indian Experiences. Donald L. Donham . History, Power, Ideology: Central Issues in Marxism and Anthropology. Derek Freeman . The Fateful Hoaxing of Margaret Mead: A Historical Analysis of her Samoan Research. Michael W. Young . Malinowski's Kiriwina: Fieldwork Photography 1915–1918. Susan F. Hirsch . Pronouncing and Preserving Gender and the Discourses of Disputing in an African Islamic Court. Michael Humphrey . Islam, Multiculturalism and Transnationalism: from the Lebanese Diaspora. Richard Jenkins , (ed.). Questions of Competence: Culture, Classification and Intellectual Disability. Sarah Joseph . Interrogating Culture: Critical Perspectives on Contemporary Social Theory. Thousand Oaks Verena Keck . (ed.). Common Worlds and Single Lives: Constituting Knowledge in Pacific Societies. Andrew B. Kipnis . Producing Guanxi: Sentiment, Self and Subculture in a North China Village. George E. Marcus . (ed.). Critical Anthropology Now: Unexpected Contexts, Shifting Constituencies, Changing Agendas. Anne Maxwell . Colonial Photography and Exhibitions: Representations of the ‘Native’ and the Making of European Identities. Lise McKean . Divine Enterprise: Gurus and the Hindu Nationalist Movement. Virginia D. Nazarea . (ed.). Ethnoecology: Situated Knowledge/Located Lives. Mark Nuttall . Protecting the Arctic: Indigenous Peoples and Cultural Survival. Rowena Robinson . Conversion, Continuity and Change: Lived Christianity in Southern Goa. Mena Roces . Women, Power, and Kinship Politics: Female Power in Post‐War Philippines. Dorothy Shineberg . The People Trade: Pacific Islander Laborers and New Caledonia, 1865–1930. Daya Somasundaram . Scarred Minds: The Psychological Impact of War on Sri Lankan Tamils. Mandy Thomas . Dreams in the Shadows: Vietnamese‐Australian Lives in Transition. Sydney: Allen and Unwin. 1999. 220pp., index, bibliog., $A38.43 (Hc.), ISBN 1–86448‐862‐X. Andrew Walker . The Legend of the Golden Boat: Regulation, Trade and Traders in the Borderlands of Laos, Thailand, China and Burma.     

Book Reviews

Book reviewed in this article: Peter Eseli . Eseli's Notebook. Translated from Kala Lagaw Ya into English, edited and annotated by Anna Shnukal and Rod Mitchell with Yuriko Nagata Michaele Thurgood Haynes. Dressing Up Debutantes: Pageantry and Glitz in Texas. Stefan Helmreich. Silicon Second Nature: Culturing Artificial Life in a Digital World. Webb Keane. Signs of Recognition: Powers and Hazards of Representation in an Indonesian Society. Don Kulick. Travesti: Sex, Gender and Culture among Brazilian Transgendered Prostitutes. Laura Rival (ed.). The Social Life of Trees: Anthropological Perspectives on Tree Symbolism. Richard Shweder (ed.). Welcome to Middle Age (And Other Cultural Fictions). David E. Sutton. Memories Cast in Stone: The Relevance of the Past in Everyday Life. William Washabaugh. Flamenco: Passion, Politics and Popular     

New species of Epitoniidae (Gastropoda: Epitonioidea) from the Red Sea

Based on material stored in the Zoological Museum of the University of Bologna (MZB), four new species of epitoniids from the shallow waters of the Red Sea are described: Epitonium (Laeviscala) yemenita n. sp., Epitonium (Laeviscala) morassii n. sp., Epitonium (Labeoscala) zabargadense n. sp. and Epitonium (Labeoscala) aranea n. sp. Scanning electron microscope illustrations of type specimens of Scalaria gracilis Sowerby, 1844, Scalaria fucata Pease, 1861, Graciliscala histricosa Jousseaume, 1912, Graciliscala rostrata Jousseaume, 1912, Scala rissoinaeformis Melvill, 1903 and Scala thelcteria Melvill & Standen, 1903 are given. Systematic remarks on some species belonging to the subgenus Laeviscala are treated in additional notes. A lectotype of Graciliscala histricosa is designated.

http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:8304A24D-5985-43D5-AEBF-1A7ED39A1F1C     

Art in the Making

Abstract

There's Pigs and Pigs: Erik Blegvad, The Three Little Pigs, Atheneum: New York, 1980, 32 pages, $8.95.

There's Pigs and Pigs: Joseph Jacobs, The Story of the Three Little Pigs (illust. by Lorinda B. Cauley), Putnam: New York, 1980, unpaged, $8.95.

There's Pigs and Pigs: Margaret Wise Brown (illust. by Ann Strugnell), Once Upon a Time in a Pigpen, Addison-Wesley: Reading, Mass., 1980, 64 pages, $10.95.

There's Pigs and Pigs: Miska Miles (illust. by Leslie Morrill), This Little Pig, Dutton: New York, 1980, unpaged, $6.95.

Picture Books: William Steig, Gorky Rising, Farrar, Strauss &; Giroux: New York, 1980, unpaged, $10.95.

Picture Books: Charles Keeping, Willie's Fire-Engine, Oxford University: New York, 1980, unpaged, $10.95 (boards).

Picture Books: Lydia Pender (illust. by Judith Cowell), The Useless Donkeys, Warne: New York, 1979, unpaged, $9.95.

Picture Books: Lillie D. Chaffin (illust. by Lloyd Bloom), We Be Warm Till Springtime Comes, Macmillan: New York, 1980, unpaged, $9.95.

Picture Books: Kate Canning, A Painted Tale, Barrons: Woodbury, N.Y.: 1979, unpaged, $6.95 (boards).

Historical Explorations: Maurice Boutet de Monvel, Joan of Arc, Viking: New York, 1980, 55 pages, $12.95.

Historical Explorations: Mitsumasa, Anno, Anno's Medieval World, Philomel Books: New York, 1980, 48 pages, $9.99.

Historical Explorations: Peter Spier, People, Doubleday: New York, 1980, unpaged, $10.00.

Historical Explorations: John S. Goodall, An Edwardian Season, Atheneum: New York, 1980, unpaged, $7.95.

Historical Explorations: Miriam Schlein (illust. by Erik Hilgert), I, Tut, Four Winds Press: New York, 1979, unpaged, $7.95.     

BOOK REVIEWS

Book reviewed in this article: Lissant Bolton. Unfolding the Moon: Enacting Women's Kastom in Vanuatu. Rebecca Cassidy. The Sport of Kings: Kinship, Class and Thoroughbred Breeding in Newcastle. Kate Fox. The Racing Tribe: Watching the Horse Watchers. Robert J. Foster. Materializing the Nation: Commodities, Consumption and Media in Papua New Guinea. Faye D. Ginsburg, Lila Abu‐Lughod and Brian Larkin (eds). Media Worlds: Anthropology on New Terrain. Leo Howe. Hinduism and Hierarchy in Bali. Bruce M. Knauft. Exchanging the Past: A Rainforest World of Before and After. Linda Sue Lewis. Laying Claim to the Memory of May: A Look Back at the 1980 Kwangju Uprising. Vicki Lukere and Margaret Jolly (eds). Birthing in the Pacific: Beyond Tradition and Modernity? Julie Marcus. The Indomitable Miss Pink: A Life in Anthropology. David McKnight. From Hunting to Drinking: The Devastating Effects of Alcohol on an Australian Aboriginal Community. Annemarie Mol. The Body Multiple: Ontology In Medical Practice. Raul Pertierra, Eduardo F. Ugarte, Alicia Pingol, Joel Hernandez and Nikos Lexis Dacanay. Txt‐ing Selves: Cellphones and Philippine Modernity. Urs Ramseyer. The Art and Culture of Bali. Urs Ramseyer and I. Gusti Panji Tisna (eds). Photographs by Rama Surya. Bali: Living in Two Worlds: A Critical Self‐portrait. Anthony Siaguru. In‐House in Papua New Guinea. Peggy Reeves Sanday. Women at the Center: Life in a Modern Matriarchy. Neil L. Whitehead. Dark Shamans: Kanaima and the Poetics of Violent Death.     

Acetyltransferase p300 regulates NBS1-mediated DNA damage response

The role of p300 in DNA damage response is unclear. To understand how ATM-dependent phosphorylation of p300 affects its function in response to DNA damage, we present evidence that S106 of p300, which is phosphorylated by ATM, regulates stability of NBS1 and recruitment into damaged DNA, possibly leading to regulation of DNA repair. Non-phosphorylatable p300 (S106A) destabilized NBS1 and decreased NBS1–p300 interaction. The recruitment of NBS1 into damaged DNA was impaired in the presence of S106A. Also, a dominant negative p300 lacking enzymatic activity induced destabilization of NBS1, suggesting that its acetyltransferase is required for NBS1 stability. These results indicate that phosphorylation of p300 can regulate NBS1-mediated DNA damage response, and that these events occur in an acetylation-dependent manner.

Structured summary

MINT-8058074, MINT-8058083: p300 (uniprotkb:Q09472) physically interacts (MI:0915) with NBS1 (uniprotkb:O60934) by anti bait coimmunoprecipitation (MI:0006)MINT-8058111: p300 (uniprotkb:Q09472) and NBS1 (uniprotkb:O60934) colocalize (MI:0403) by fluorescence microscopy (MI:0416)MINT-8058657: p300 (uniprotkb:Q09472) physically interacts (MI:0915) with NBS1 (uniprotkb:O60934) by two hybrid (MI:0018)MINT-8058093: p300 (uniprotkb:Q09472) physically interacts (MI:0915) with NBS1 (uniprotkb:O60934) by anti tag coimmunoprecipitation (MI:0007)     

BOOK REVIEWS

Book reviewed in this article: Lorraine V. Aragon. Fields of the Lord: Animism, Christian Minorities and State Development in Indonesia. Jill Forshee. Between the Folds: Stories of Cloth, Lives, and Travel from Sumba. Joy Hendry. The Orient Strikes Back: A Global View of Cultural Display. Peter A. Jackson and Nerida M. Cook (eds). Genders and Sexualities in Modern Thailand. Alice Beck Kehoe. Shamans and Religion: An Anthropological Exploration in Critical Thinking. Patrick Vinton Kirch. On the Road of the Winds: An Archaeological History of the Pacific Islands Before European Contact. Helen Reeves Lawrence (ed.). Traditionalism and Modernity in the Music and Dance of Oceania: Essays in Honour of Barbara B. Smith. Kin Liu. In One's Own Shadow: An Ethnographic Account of the Condition of Post‐Reform China. Daniel Miller and Don Slater. The Internet: An Ethnographic Approach. Fred Myers (ed). The Empire of Things: Regimes of Value and Material Culture. Roy Wagner. An Anthropology of the Subject: Holographic Worldview in New Guinea and its Meaning and Significance for the World of Anthropology. Kathy Whimp and Mark Busse. Protection of Intellectual, Biological and Cultural Property in Papua New Guinea.     

Heterologous expression of Anabaena sp. PCC7120 cyanophycin metabolism genes cphA1 and cphB1 in Sinorhizobium (Ensifer) meliloti 1021

Sinorhizobium meliloti infects leguminous plants resulting in a nitrogen-fixing symbiosis. Free living cells accumulate poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) (PHB) as carbon and energy source under imbalanced growth conditions. The cphA1 ₇₁₂₀ gene encoding a cyanophycin (CGP) synthetase of Anabaena sp. PCC7120 in plasmids pVLT31::cphA1 ₇₁₂₀ and pBBR1MCS-3::cphA1 ₇₁₂₀ was expressed in the wild-type S. meliloti 1021 and in a phbC-negative mutant generated in this study. Expression of cphA1 ₇₁₂₀ and accumulation of CGP in cells were studied in various media. Yeast mannitol broth (YMB) and pBBR1MCS-3::cphA1 ₇₁₂₀ yielded the highest CGP contents in both S. meliloti 1021 strains. Supplying the YMB medium with isopropyl-β-D-thiogalactopyranoside, aspartic acid, and arginine enhanced CGP contents about 2.5- and 2.8-fold in S. meliloti 1021 (pBBR1MCS-3::cphA1 ₇₁₂₀) and S. meliloti 1021 phbCΩKm (pBBR1MCS-3::cphA1 ₇₁₂₀), respectively. Varying the nitrogen-to-carbon ratio in the medium enhanced the CGP content further to 43.8% (w/w) of cell dry weight (CDW) in recombinant cells of S. meliloti 1021 phbCΩKm (pBBR1MCS-3::cphA1 ₇₁₂₀). Cells of S. meliloti 1021 (pBBR1MCS-3::cphA1 ₇₁₂₀) accumulated CGP up to 39.6% in addition to 12.1% PHB (w/w, of CDW). CGP from the S. meliloti strains consisted of equimolar amounts of aspartic acid and arginine and contained no other amino acids even if the medium was supplemented with glutamic acid, citrulline, ornithine, or lysine. CGP isolated from cells of S. meliloti 1021 (pBBR1MCS-3::cphA1 ₇₁₂₀) and S. meliloti 1021 phbCΩKm (pBBR1MCS-3::cphA1 ₇₁₂₀) exhibited average molecular weights between 20 and 25 kDa, whereas CGP isolated from Escherichia coli S17-1 (pBBR1MCS-3::cphA1 ₇₁₂₀) exhibited average molecular weight between 22 and 30 kDa. Co-expression of cyanophycinase from Anabaena sp. PCC7120 encoded by cphB1 ₇₁₂₀ in cphA1 ₇₁₂₀-positive E. coli S17-1, S. meliloti 1021, and its phbC-negative mutant gave cyanophycinase activities in crude extracts, and no CGP granules occurred. A higher PHB content in S. meliloti 1021 (pBBR1MCS-3::cphB1 ₇₁₂₀::cphA1 ₇₁₂₀) in comparison to the control indicated that the cells used CGP degradation product (β-aspartate-arginine dipeptide) to fuel PHB biosynthesis.     

The switching gene swi6 affects recombination and gene expression in the mating-type region of Schizosaccharomyces pombe

Summary The products of 11 switching (swi) genes are required for efficient mating-type (MT) switching in homothallic (h ⁹⁰) strains of Schizosaccharomyces pombe. The MT region of h ⁹⁰ comprises three cassette genes: the expression site mat1: 1 and two silent loci, mat2: 2 and mat3: 3. Besides reducing MT switching, the swi6 mutation leads to deletions in the MT region caused by intrachromosomal cross-overs between two paired cassettes. These deletions only arise if DNA double-strand breaks are present at mat1: 1, which initiate MT switching. Furthermore, swi6 allows meiotic recombination in the K region, a region of 16 kb between mat2: 2 and mat3: 3; in wild-type strains no recombination occurs in K. swi6 also allows the simultaneous expression of two different cassettes in the same haploid cell. Thus swi6 may have an influence on the general chromatin structure in the MT region.     

The thioredoxin TRX-1 regulates adult lifespan extension induced by dietary restriction in Caenorhabditis elegans

Dietary restriction (DR) is the only environmental intervention known to extend adult lifespan in a wide variety of animal models. However, the genetic and cellular events that mediate the anti-aging programs induced by DR remain elusive. Here, we used the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans to provide the first in vivo evidence that a thioredoxin (TRX-1) regulates adult lifespan extension induced by DR. We found that deletion of the gene trx-1 completely suppressed the lifespan extension caused by mutation of eat-2, a genetic surrogate of DR in the worm. However, trx-1 deletion only partially suppressed the long lifespan caused by mutation of the insulin-like receptor gene daf-2 or by mutation of the sensory cilia gene osm-5. A trx-1::GFP translational fusion expressed from its own promoter in ASJ neurons (Ptrx-1::trx-1::GFP) rescued the trx-1 deletion-mediated suppression of the lifespan extension caused by mutation of eat-2. This rescue was not observed when trx-1::GFP was expressed from the ges-1 promoter in the intestine. In addition, overexpression of Ptrx-1::trx-1::GFP extended lifespan in wild type, but not in eat-2 mutants. trx-1 deletion almost completely suppressed the lifespan extension induced by dietary deprivation (DD), a non-genetic, nutrient-based model of DR in the worm. Moreover, DD upregulated the expression of a trx-1 promoter-driven GFP reporter gene (Ptrx-1::GFP) in ASJ neurons of aging adults, but not that of control Pgpa-9::GFP (which is also expressed in ASJ neurons). We propose that DR activates TRX-1 in ASJ neurons during aging, which in turn triggers TRX-1-dependent mechanisms to extend adult lifespan in the worm.     

Book Reviews

Book reviewed in this article: Nadia Abu El‐Haj . Facts on the Ground: Archaeological Practice and Territorial Self‐Fashioning in Israeli Society. Arjun Appadurai (ed.) Globalization. Ben Burt and Michael Kwa'ioloa (eds) . A Solomon Islands Chronicle, as Told by Samuel Alasa'a. Michael Kwa'ioloa and Ben Burt . Our Forest of Kwara'ae: Our Life in Solomon Islands and the Things Growing in our Home. Lionel Caplan . Children of Colonialism: Anglo‐Indians in a Postcolonial World. Erve Chambers . Native Tours: The Anthropology of Travel and Tourism. Gaur Desai . Subject to Colonialism: African Self‐Fashioning and the Colonial Library. Barbara Entwisle and Gail E. Henderson (eds) . Re‐Drawing Boundaries: Work, Households, and Gender in China. Richard Handler (ed.) . Excluded Ancestors, Inventible Traditions: Essays Toward a More Inclusive History of Anthropology. Steven Harrell (ed.) . Perspectives on the Yi of Southwest China. Philip Hayward . Tide Lines: Music, Tourism and Cultural Transition in the Whitsunday Islands (and adjacent coast). Michael Herzfeld . Anthropology: Theoretical Practice in Culture and Society. Christopher Houston . Islam, Kurds and the Turkish Nation State. Brij V. Lal (ed.) . Before the Storm: Elections and the Politics of Development. Cheryl Mattingly and Linda C. Garro (eds) . Narrative and the Cultural Construction of Illness and Healing. Brian J. McVeigh . Wearing Ideology: State, Schooling and Self‐Presentation in Japan. Marc L. Moskowitz . The Haunting Fetus: Abortion, Sexuality and the Spirit World in Taiwan. David Parker and Miri Song (eds) . Rethinking ‘Mixed Race’. Thomas, C. Patterson . A Social History of Anthropology in the United States. Jude Philp . Past Time: Torres Strait Islander Material from the Haddon Collection, 1888–1905. A National Museum of Australia Exhibition from the University of Cambridge. Peter Read . Belonging: Australians, Place and Aboriginal Ownership. Nancy Rosenberger . Gambling with Virtue: Japanese Women and the Search for Self in a Changing World. Andrew Russell, Elisa J. Sobo and Mary S. Thompson (eds) . Contraception Across Cultures: Technologies, Choices, Constraints. D. E. Smith (ed.) . Indigenous Families and the Welfare System: Two Community Case Studies. J. Taylor, J. Bern, and K.A. Senior . Ngukurr at the Millennium: A Baseline Profile for Social Impact Planning in South‐East Arnhem Land. J. Taylor and N. Westbury . Aboriginal Nutrition and the Nyirranggulung Health Strategy in Jawoyn Country. David J. Stuart‐Fox . Pura Besakih: Temple, Religion and Society in Bali. Murray L. Wax . Western Rationality and the Angel of Dreams: Self, Psyche, Dreaming. Mary Weismantel . Cholas and Pishtacos: Stories of Race and Sex in the Andes.