Extreme sexual size dimorphism (SSD) in temperate species is expected to be proximally caused, at least partially, by sex-specific growth rates due to the limited time available for growth and reproduction. Hence sex-specific foraging strategies are predicted to mediate differential growth rates. However, little is known about how sex differences in foraging behaviour and growth trajectories re...

Small cell lung cancer (SCLC) is an aggressive type of lung cancer, and the detection of SCLCs at an early stage is necessary for successful therapy and for improving cancer survival rates. Fucosylation is one of the most common glycosylation-based modifications. Increased levels of fucosylation have been reported in a number of pathological conditions, including cancers. In this study, we aime...

The Aleuria aurantia lectin (AAL) derived from orange peel fungus contains five fucose-binding sites that recognizes fucose bound in α-1,2, α-1,3, α-1,4, and α-1,6 linkages to N-acetylglucosamine and galactose. Recently, we have created several recombinant AAL (rAAL) proteins that had altered binding affinity to fucose linkages. In this report, we further characterize the binding specificity of...

Interaction with water causes shrinkage and significant changes in the structure of spider dragline silks, which has been referred to as supercontraction in the literature. Preferred orientation or alignment of protein chains with respect to the fiber axis is extensively changed during this supercontraction process. Synchrotron x-ray micro-fiber diffraction experiments have been performed on Ne...

A protein from the cell lysate of Aspergillus oryzae was purified by column chromatography immobilized with a ferrichrysin (Fcy), which is one of the siderophores of A. oryzae. It is produced only in an iron-deficient culture and its molecular weight is estimated as 35,000 by SDS-PAGE. Two internal amino acid sequences of the protein obtained by lysylendopeptidase digestion were analyzed. Molec...

The orb webs of the four species Araneus pima (species nova), Araneus diadematus (Clerck), Argiope aurantia (Lucas), and Neoscona domiciliorum (Hentz) built under controlled laboratory conditions were compared and evaluated quantitatively at two different points in the life cycle in regard to size, regularity, shape, and fine structure. Orb webs of two species from one genus can be distinguishe...

Glycoconjugates and their programmed changes during the course of development in the cell-surface as well as in the extracellular matrix, are known to affect cell differentiation, cellular interaction and other developmental phenomena during embryogenesis. The purpose of this study was to localize N-acetylgalactosamin as well as fucose-containing glycoconjugates in situ during thymus developmen...