Plasmid partition: sisters drifting apart

Plasmid partition: sisters drifting apart.

Remarkably little is known about how bacterial chromosomes and their plasmids are partitioned to daughter cells prior to cell division, despite extensive experimentation and bioinformatic analysis. An in vitro study described in the current issue of The EMBO Journal recapitulates many features of plasmid partition in vivo and provides insight into how protein patterning on the nucleoid, determi...

Drifting Apart? European Journalists and Their Audiences

Co-segregation of yeast plasmid sisters under monopolin-directed mitosis suggests association of plasmid sisters with sister chromatids

The 2-micron plasmid, a high copy extrachromosomal element in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, propagates itself with nearly the same stability as the chromosomes of its host. Plasmid stability is conferred by a partitioning system consisting of the plasmid-coded proteins Rep1 and Rep2 and a cis-acting locus STB. Circumstantial evidence suggests that the partitioning system couples plasmid segregation...

New Roles for Gα and RGS Proteins: Communication Continues despite Pulling Sisters Apart

Large G protein alpha subunits and their attendant regulators of G-protein signaling (RGS) proteins control both intercellular signaling and asymmetric cell divisions by distinct pathways. The classical pathway, found throughout higher eukaryotic organisms, mediates intercellular communication via hormone binding to G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs). Recent studies have led to the discovery o...

Drifting together or falling apart? The empirics of regional economic growth in post-unification Germany

The objective of this article is to address the question of convergence across German districts in the first decade after German unification by drawing out and emphasizing some stylized facts of regional per capita income dynamics. We achieve this by employing nonparametric techniques which focus on the evolution of the entire cross-sectional income distribution. In particular, we follow a dist...