Neuroticism Delays Detection of Facial Expressions

The rapid detection of emotional signals from facial expressions is fundamental for human social interaction. The personality factor of neuroticism modulates the processing of various types of emotional facial expressions; however, its effect on the detection of emotional facial expressions remains unclear. In this study, participants with high- and low-neuroticism scores performed a visual search task to detect normal expressions of anger and happiness, and their anti-expressions within a crowd of neutral expressions. Anti-expressions contained an amount of visual changes equivalent to those found in normal expressions compared to neutral expressions, but they were usually recognized as neutral expressions. Subjective emotional ratings in response to each facial expression stimulus were also obtained. Participants with high-neuroticism showed an overall delay in the detection of target facial expressions compared to participants with low-neuroticism. Additionally, the high-neuroticism group showed higher levels of arousal to facial expressions compared to the low-neuroticism group. These data suggest that neuroticism modulates the detection of emotional facial expressions in healthy participants; high levels of neuroticism delay overall detection of facial expressions and enhance emotional arousal in response to facial expressions.     

A role for strain differences in waveforms of ultrasonic vocalizations during male-female interaction

Male mice emit ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) towards females during male-female interaction. It has been reported that USVs of adult male mice have the capability of attracting females. Although the waveform pattern of USVs is affected by genetic background, differences among strains with respect to USV and the effects of these differences on courtship behavior have not been analyzed fully. We analyzed USV patterns, as well as actual social behavior during USV recording, in 13 inbred mouse strains, which included laboratory and wild-derived strains. Significant effects of strain were observed for the frequency of USV emission, duration, and frequency of the waveform category. Principal component (PC) analysis showed that PC1 was related to frequency and duration, and PC2-4 were related to each waveform. In the comparison of USV patterns and behaviors among strains, wild-derived KJR mice displayed the highest scores for PC2-4, and female mice paired with KJR males did not emit rejection-related click sounds. It is assumed that the waveforms emitted by KJR males have a positive effect in male-female interaction. Therefore, we extracted waveforms in PC2-4 from the USV recordings of KJR mice to produce a sound file, "HIGH2-4". As a negative control, another sound file ("LOW2-4") was created by extracting waveforms in PC2-4 from strains with low scores for these components. In the playback experiments using these sound files, female mice were attracted to the speaker that played HIGH2-4 but not the speaker that played LOW2-4. These results highlight the role of strain differences in the waveforms of male USVs during male-female interaction. The results indicated that female mice use male USVs as information when selecting a suitable mate.     

Immortalized dendritic cell line with efficient cross-priming ability established from transgenic mice harboring the temperature-sensitive SV40 large T-antigen gene

The uptake of an antigen and its presentation to specific T cells by dendritic cells (DCs) is a primary event in initiation of humoral and cellular immune responses as well as the induction of cytotoxic T cells (CTLs). DCs are induced by culturing bone marrow cells in the presence of GM-CSF. However, the resulting DCs are short-lived and the culture usually contains CD11c-negative non-DC cells, which adversely affects reproducibility and makes interpretation of the experimental results difficult. Therefore, it would be useful if DCs could be readily immortalized with their functions being retained. In this study we established a novel, immortalized murine DC line with antigen-presenting capacity in vitro as well as an augmenting effect on humoral and cellular immune responses in vivo, utilizing bone marrow cells from transgenic mice harboring the temperature-sensitive SV40 large T-antigen gene. In the presence of GM-CSF, the resulting DC line, termed SVDC, could be continuously subcultured for more than 12 months. When pulsed with OVA alone or OVA-IgG immune complexes via Fcgamma receptors, SVDC augmented OVA-specific T cell proliferation efficiently in vitro, and elicited OVA-specific IgG production in vivo on the adoptive transfer of pulsed SVDC into naive mice. Interestingly, SVDC exhibited significantly high cross-priming ability compared to DCs in a short-term culture, thus leading to their extremely high effectiveness in inducing anti-tumor immunity in vivo. Thus, SVDC is useful for the detailed characterization of antigen presentation, and for research on the various therapeutic benefits of DC vaccination to elicit specific immune responses in immunodeficiencies, infectious diseases and cancer.     

Establishment of the evergreen broad-leaved tree species Castanopsis cuspidata in an abandoned secondary forest in western Japan

Recently, populations of Castanopsis cuspidata have often expanded into secondary forests in western Japan. To determine the establishment processes of this species, we analyzed its spatial distribution in a secondary forest dominated by Quercus variabilis and Quercus serrata that is located adjacent to a stand dominated by C. cuspidata. Saplings, defined as ≥30 cm stem length (SL) and <5 cm diameter at breast height (DBH), were abundant and their size distribution was inversely J-shaped, indicating continuous recruitment. Although seedlings (SL < 30 cm) and small saplings (30 ≤ SL < 50 cm) of C. cuspidata were aggregated near flowering trees of this species, some were found ≥40 m from the nearest adults, suggesting that there is animal-aided dispersal of acorns. The distribution of larger-sized individuals (≥100 cm SL) of C. cuspidata was unrelated to distance from the nearest flowering C. cuspidata or dominant Quercus species (≥5 cm DBH), but was associated with dead Pinus densiflora trees, which were abundant at the site. Thus, the establishment of C. cuspidata in this forest is controlled mainly by two factors, viz. patterns of acorn dispersal by animals, and forest disturbance regime (i.e., deaths of pine trees).     

A genomewide survey of developmentally relevant genes in Ciona intestinalis. IX. Genes for muscle structural proteins

Ascidians are simple chordates that are related to, and may resemble, vertebrate ancestors. Comparison of ascidian and vertebrate genomes is expected to provide insight into the molecular genetic basis of chordate/vertebrate evolution. We annotated muscle structural (contractile protein) genes in the completely determined genome sequence of the ascidian Ciona intestinalis, and examined gene expression patterns through extensive EST analysis. Ascidian muscle protein isoform families are generally of similar, or lesser, complexity in comparison with the corresponding vertebrate isoform families, and are based on gene duplication histories and alternative splicing mechanisms that are largely or entirely distinct from those responsible for generating the vertebrate isoforms. Although each of the three ascidian muscle types - larval tail muscle, adult body-wall muscle and heart - expresses a distinct profile of contractile protein isoforms, none of these isoforms are strictly orthologous to the smooth-muscle-specific, fast or slow skeletal muscle-specific, or heart-specific isoforms of vertebrates. Many isoform families showed larval-versus-adult differential expression and in several cases numerous very similar genes were expressed specifically in larval muscle. This may reflect different functional requirements of the locomotor larval muscle as opposed to the non-locomotor muscles of the sessile adult, and/or the biosynthetic demands of extremely rapid larval development.