Male chickens with the henny feathering trait have a female feathering pattern. In two henny-feathered breeds, the Sebright bantam and the Golden Campine, the synthesis of estrogen is increased as a consequence of increased activity of aromatase, a cytochrome P-450 enzyme that converts androgen to estrogen. The activity of the enzyme is elevated in tissue slices and in cultured fibroblasts from...

Correct organ size is determined by the balance between cell death and proliferation. Perturbation of this delicate balance leads to cancer formation . Hippo (Hpo), the Drosophila ortholog of MST1 and MST2 (Mammalian Sterile 20-like 1 and 2) is a key regulator of a signaling pathway that controls both cell death and proliferation . This pathway is so far composed of two Band 4.1 proteins, Expan...

The genetic control of incubation behavior was investigated in the domestic hen by analysis of the incidence of the behavior in reciprocal crosses between nonbroody White Leghorn (WL) and broody Bantam (B) lines and in a backcross of F1 males (WL male x B female) and WL females. The hypothesis tested was that a sex-linked gene (or genes) plays a dominant role in the expression of incubation beh...

Mechanisms of neuronal mRNA localization and translation are of considerable biological interest. Spatially regulated mRNA translation contributes to cell-fate decisions and axon guidance during development, as well as to long-term synaptic plasticity in adulthood. The Fragile-X Mental Retardation protein (FMRP/dFMR1) is one of the best-studied neuronal translational control molecules and here ...

Tonoplast vesicles were isolated by discontinuous sucrose gradient centrifugation in the presence of Mg(2+) from 5 day old corn (Zea mays L., Golden Cross Bantam) seedling roots. Marker enzyme assays indicated only a low degree of cross-contamination of tonoplast vesicles at the 10/23% (weight/weight) interface by other membrane components. Severalfold enrichment of tonoplast ATPase and pyropho...

Notch (N) signaling is central to the self-renewal of neural stem cells (NSCs) and other tissue stem cells. Its deregulation compromises tissue homeostasis and contributes to tumorigenesis and other diseases. How N regulates stem cell behavior in health and disease is not well understood. Here we show that N regulates bantam (ban) microRNA to impact cell growth, a process key to NSC maintenance...

Maize (Zea mays L. cv Golden Cross Bantam T51) seedlings were grown under full sunlight or 50% sunlight in a temperature-controlled glasshouse at the temperatures of near optimum (30/25 degrees C) and suboptimum (17/13 degrees C) with seven levels of nitrate-N (0.4 to 12 millimolars). The contents of phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase (PEPC), pyruvate orthophosphate dikinase (PPD), and ribulose-1,...