Protocadherins have homophilic adhesion properties and mediate selective cell-cell adhesion and cell sorting. Knockdown of paraxial protocadherin (PAPC) function in the Xenopus embryo impairs tissue separation, a process that regulates separation of cells of ectodermal and mesodermal origin during gastrulation. We show that PAPC can modulate the activity of the Rho GTPase and c-jun N-terminal k...

We tested predictions of the hypothesis that pectin methylesterase in the root cap plays a role in cell wall solubilization leading to separation of root border cells from the root tip. Root cap pectin methylesterase activity was detected only in species that release large numbers of border cells daily. In pea (Pisum sativum) root caps, enzyme activity is correlated with border cell separation ...

A new method for magnetic separation of cells is described. Based on cellular concentration of complexed paramagnetic cations from a carrier solution, the method achieves highly repeatable separations, at lower magnetization fields, than existing HGMS cell-separation methods. Feasibility has been shown for erbium and dysprosium, with whole blood as the sample. Single-pass magnetic separation ef...

We present a simple computational model of the dentate gyrus to evaluate the hypothesis that pattern separation, defined as the ability to transform a set of similar input patterns into a less-similar set of output patterns, is dynamically regulated by hilar neurons. Prior models of the dentate gyrus have generally fallen into two categories: simplified models that have focused on a single gran...

The precise identification and separation of living cell types is critical to both study cell function and prepare cells for medical applications. However, intracellular information to distinguish live cells remains largely inaccessible. Here, we develop a method for high-resolution identification and separation of cell types by quantifying multiple microRNA (miRNA) activities in live cell popu...