The nuclear protein kinase ATR is a key regulator of genome integrity that functions at checkpoints for damaged or incompletely replicated DNA. In this issue of Cell, Kumagai et al. (2006) shed light on the molecular mechanism that controls ATR. They report that a physical interaction between ATR and a distinct domain of TopBP1 greatly enhances ATR kinase activity.

The interaction between noncoding endogenous target mimicry (eTM) and its corresponding microRNA (miRNA) is a newly discovered regulatory mechanism and plays pivotal roles in various biological processes in plants. Tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) is a model plant for studying secondary metabolite alkaloids, of which nicotine accounts for approximately 90%. In this work, we identified four unique to...

Over 124,300 heat pipes were installed in vertical support members on the Trans Alaska Pipeline System. Infrared surveys in the early 1980s revealed cold topping on some of these heat pipes. The cold topping was due to an accumulation of non-condensable gases, a by-product of corrosion or chemical dissociation of anhydrous ammonia. In 2000, Alyeska Pipeline Service Company undertook an experime...

In Central Europe, full-tree (FT) harvesting is an increasingly common harvesting method in steep terrain harvesting due to the increased use of highly economical processor tower yarders. In conventional FT harvesting, nutrient removal from harvest sites is substantially higher than in cut-to-length (CTL) harvesting due to the extraction of nutrient-rich branches and foliage. One strategy to re...

The crop will be free from the control of apical dominance and axillary buds develop into branches after topping. However, there are relatively few studies on this subject soybean. In order to further improve soybean grain yield, unbranched type high-yield variety was used as test material, effects topping at first trifoliate stage plant growth, dry matter accumulation, yield components five pl...