Imprinted genes tend to occur in clusters. We have identified a cluster in distal mouse chromosome (Chr) 2, known from early genetic studies to contain both maternally and paternally imprinted, but unspecified, genes. Subsequently, one was identified as Gnas, which encodes a G protein alpha subunit, and there is clinical and biochemical evidence that the human homologue GNAS1, mutated in patien...

The furanocoumarin compound bergapten is a plant secondary metabolite that has anti-insect function. When incorporated into artificial diet, it retarded cowpea bruchid development, decreased fecundity, and caused mortality at a sufficient dose. cDNA microarray analysis indicated that cowpea bruchid altered expression of 543 midgut genes in response to dietary bergapten. Among these bergapten-re...

Intrinsically disordered regions (IDRs) play important roles in proteins that regulate gene expression. A prominent example is the intracellular domain of the Notch receptor (NICD), which regulates the transcription of Notch-responsive genes. The NICD sequence includes an intrinsically disordered RAM region and a conserved ankyrin (ANK) domain. The 111-residue RAM region mediates bivalent inter...

The generation of rapidly tunable optical vortex (OV) beams is one the most demanding research areas present era as they possess orbital angular momentum (OAM) with additional degrees freedom that can be exploited to enhance signal-carrying capacity by using mode division multiplexing and information encoding in communication. Particularly, OAM devices at a fixed wavelength telecom band stir ex...

Antiferromagnets are beneficial for future spintronic applications due to their zero magnetic moment and ultrafast dynamics. But gaining direct access antiferromagnetic order identifying the properties of individual sublattices, especially in thin films small-scale devices, remains a formidable challenge. So far, existing read-out techniques such as anisotropic magnetoresistance, tunneling spin...

The peculiar nature of temperature-induced vesicle aggregation (TIVA) in some catanionic surfactant systems is systematically investigated. On the basis of a general analysis of the intervesicular interactions, the main driving force for this phenomenon is considered to be the intervesicular hydrophobic interaction among the exposed hydrophobic part of the surfactant headgroups. The addition of...

Iron plays a critical role in survival and virulence of the opportunistic pathogen Aspergillus fumigatus. Two transcription factors, the GATA-factor SreA and the bZip-factor HapX oppositely monitor iron homeostasis with HapX activating iron acquisition pathways (e.g., siderophores) and shutting down iron consumptive pathways (and SreA) during iron starvation conditions whereas SreA negatively r...

Here we report the development of an aqueous, self-assembling system of oppositely charged colloids leading towards particle arrangements with controlled order. The colloidal system consists of two types of particles, each consisting of refractive index matched colloidal core-shell microgel particles, which are either negatively charged or amphoteric. By slowly decreasing the pH of our system b...

– The complexation of oppositely charged colloidal objects is considered in this paper as a thermodynamic micellization process where each kind of object needs the others to micellize. This requirement gives rise to quantitatively different behaviors than the so-called mixed-micellization where each specie can micellize separately. A simple model of the grand potential for micelles is proposed ...