distributed sensings on temperature and strain have been extensively investigated based on Raman [1] and Brillouin [2] scattering methods, respectively. During the course of our developments on a new sensor which can work as one of sensing elements for multi-point detection using a Rayleighscattering based OTDR through an optical fiber network, a hetero-core fiber optic sensor was exploratively...

Several different gap junction channel subunit isotypes, known as connexins, were synthesized in a cell-free translation system supplemented with microsomal membranes to study the mechanisms involved in gap junction channel assembly. Previous results indicated that the connexins were synthesized as membrane proteins with their relevant transmembrane topology. An integrated biochemical and bioph...

Chaperonins are large, essential, oligomers that facilitate protein folding in chloroplasts, mitochondria, and eubacteria. Plant chloroplast chaperonins are comprised of multiple homologous subunits that exhibit unique properties. We previously characterized homogeneous, reconstituted, chloroplast-chaperonin oligomers in vitro, each composed of one of three highly homologous beta subunits from ...

Na,K-ATPase is a hetero-oligomer of an α- and a β-subunit. The α-subunit (Na,K-α) possesses the catalytic function, whereas the β-subunit (Na,K-β) has cell-cell adhesion function and is localized to the apical junctional complex in polarized epithelial cells. Earlier, we identified two distinct conserved motifs on the Na,K-β(1) transmembrane domain that mediate protein-protein interactions: a g...

MOTIVATION In recent years, much structural information on protein domains and their pair-wise interactions has been made available in public databases. However, it is not yet clear how best to use this information to discover general rules or interaction patterns about structural protein-protein interactions. Improving our ability to detect and exploit structural interaction patterns will help...

The solid-state NMR spectra of many NMR active elements are often extremely broad due to the presence of chemical shift anisotropy (CSA) and/or the quadrupolar interaction (for nuclei with spin I > 1/2). These NMR interactions often give rise to wideline solid-state NMR spectra which can span hundreds of kHz or several MHz. Here we demonstrate that by using fast MAS, proton detection and dipola...

Precise mapping and unraveling the mechanism of interaction or degradation of a certain type of collagen triple helix requires the generation of short and stable collagenous fragments. This is a great challenge especially for hetero-trimeric collagens, where chain composition and register (stagger) are important factors. No system has been reported that can be efficiently used to generate a nat...

The coatomer module of the nuclear pore complex borders the cylinder-like nuclear pore-membrane domain of the nuclear envelope. In evolution, a single coatomer module increases in size from hetero-heptamer (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) to hetero-octamer (Schizosaccharomyces pombe) to hetero-nonamer (Metazoa). Notably, the heptamer-octamer transition proceeds through the acquisition of the nucleopo...

BACKGROUND αB-crystallin and HSP27 are mammalian intracellular small heat shock proteins. RESULTS These proteins exchange subunits in a rapid and temperature-dependent manner. CONCLUSION This facile subunit exchange suggests that differential expression could be used by the cell to regulate the response to stress. SIGNIFICANCE A robust technique defines parameters for the dynamic interact...

Since vancomycin-intermediate Staphylococcus aureus (VISA) was first reported in Japan in 1997, there has been great concern that heterogeneous vancomycin-intermediate S. aureus (hetero-VISA) is the putative precursor of VISA. To investigate the prevalence, clinical significance, and molecular epidemiology of S. aureus with reduced susceptibility to vancomycin, all consecutive isolates of S. au...