Azospirillum brasilense is a nitrogen-fixing bacterium associated with important agricultural crops such as rice, wheat and maize. The expression of genes responsible for nitrogen fixation (nif genes) in this bacterium is dependent on the transcriptional activator NifA. This protein contains three structural domains: the N-terminal domain is responsible for the negative control by fixed nitroge...

Nuclear IKKα regulates gene transcription by phosphorylating specific substrates and has been linked to cancer progression and metastasis. However, the mechanistic connection between tumorigenesis and IKKα activity remains poorly understood. We have now analyzed 288 human colorectal cancer samples and found a significant association between the presence of nuclear IKK and malignancy. Importantl...

Disruption in apoptosis are involved in cancer development and progression. Livin-β, has been identified as a critical modulator for cell death in several tumor cell lines. It was demonstrated that a truncated fragment of Livin-β (tLivin) without its N-terminal 52 amino acids is produced in cells through protein cleavage. However, the biological consequence of the cleavage remains largely ignor...

The MHC-encoded MHC class I-related chains A (MICA) glycoproteins are known to enhance the functions of NK and T cells by ligating the stimulating receptor NKG2D and appear to play an important role in host defense. Human CMV (HCMV) evades the immune response in many different ways, but has not previously been found to down-regulate MICA. We have found that a common form of MICA, which has a nu...

chemokine and chemokine receptors show several variations which may affect resistance to infectious disease. a 32 base pair deletion in the open reading frame of the human ccr5 gene (ccr5?32) results in producing a truncated antigen which fails to be presented on the surface of target cells. ccr5?32 variant is not a functional co receptor for hiv-1 entrance and delay the onset of acquired immun...

In the present study, the onset of double diffusive reaction-convection in a uid layer with viscous fluid, heated and salted from below subject to chemical equilibrium on the boundaries, has been investigated. Linear and nonlinear stability analysis have been performed. For linear analysis normal mode technique is used and for nonlinear analysis minimal representation of truncated Fourier serie...

The present study is the first report providing evidence for a physiological role of a truncated form of the mRNA cap-binding protein eIF4E1 (eukaryotic initiation factor 4E1). Our initial observation was that eIF4E, which mediates the mRNA cap function by recruiting the eIF4F complex (composed of eIF4E, 4G and 4A), occurs in two forms in porcine endometrial tissue in a strictly temporally rest...

We study the pairing within the Peierls-HubbardModel for electronand hole-doped analogs of C60 accessible to exact diagonalization techniques (cube, truncated tetrahedron, etc.). We discuss how inclusion of electronphonon interactions can substantially modify the conclusions about pairing obtained when this coupling is neglected. We also discuss potential pitfalls in the extrapolation from thes...