Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences current issue

[Letters] Are king penguin populations threatened by Southern Ocean warming?

2008-07-01

[Letters] Reply to Barbraud et al.: King penguin population threatened by Southern Ocean warming

2008-07-01

[This Week in PNAS] In This Issue

2008-07-01

[Commentary] A Korarchaeote yields to genome sequencing

Nealson, K. — 2008-07-01

[Commentary] Viral destruction of cell surface receptors

Mesecar, A. D., Ratia, K. — 2008-07-01

[Commentary] Corticotropin-releasing factor, neuroplasticity (sensitization), and alcoholism

Koob, G. F. — 2008-07-01

[Microbiology] Inaugural Article: Integrins {alpha}1{beta}1 and {alpha}2{beta}1 are receptors for the rotavirus enterotoxin

2008-07-01

Rotavirus NSP4 is a viral enterotoxin capable of causing diarrhea in neonatal mice. This process is initiated by the binding...

[Applied_Physical_Sciences] Helical twist controls the thickness of F-actin bundles

Claessens, M. M. A. E., Semmrich, C., Ramos, L., Bausch, A. R. — 2008-07-01

In the presence of condensing agents such as nonadsorbing polymer, multivalent counter ions, and specific bundling proteins, chiral biopolymers typically...

[Astronomy] From the Cover: Is an eclipse described in the Odyssey?

Baikouzis, C., Magnasco, M. O. — 2008-07-01

Plutarch and Heraclitus believed a certain passage in the 20th book of the Odyssey ("Theoclymenus's prophecy") to be a poetic...

[Chemistry] Seminaphthofluorones are a family of water-soluble, low molecular weight, NIR-emitting fluorophores

2008-07-01

A readily accessible new class of near infrared (NIR) molecular probes has been synthesized and evaluated. Specific fluorophores in this...

[Physics] Fermi pockets and quantum oscillations of the Hall coefficient in high-temperature superconductors

Chakravarty, S., Kee, H.-Y. — 2008-07-01

Recent quantum oscillation measurements in high-temperature superconductors in high magnetic fields and low temperatures have ushered in a new era....

[Neuroscience] Spatiotemporal object continuity in human ventral visual cortex

2008-07-01

Coherent visual experience requires that objects be represented as the same persisting individuals over time and motion. Cognitive science research...

[Psychology] From the Cover: Contextual priming: Where people vote affects how they vote

Berger, J., Meredith, M., Wheeler, S. C. — 2008-07-01

American voters are assigned to vote at a particular polling location (e.g., a church, school, etc.). We show these assigned...

[Applied_Biological_Sciences] Multiphoton fabrication of chemically responsive protein hydrogels for microactuation

Kaehr, B., Shear, J. B. — 2008-07-01

We report a method for creating stimuli-responsive biomaterials in which scanning nonlinear excitation is used to photocrosslink proteins at submicrometer...

[Biochemistry] Comparative molecular modeling of Anopheles gambiae CYP6Z1, a mosquito P450 capable of metabolizing DDT

Chiu, T.-L., Wen, Z., Rupasinghe, S. G., Schuler, M. A. — 2008-07-01

One of the challenges faced in malarial control is the acquisition of insecticide resistance that has developed in mosquitoes that...

[Biochemistry] Photochemistry of retinal chromophore in mouse melanopsin

Walker, M. T., Brown, R. L., Cronin, T. W., Robinson, P. R. — 2008-07-01

In mammals, melanopsin is exclusively expressed in intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells (ipRGCs), which play an important role in circadian...

[Biochemistry] The mechanism of micro-RNA-mediated translation repression is determined by the promoter of the target gene

2008-07-01

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are noncoding RNAs that base pair imperfectly to homologous regions in target mRNAs and negatively influence the synthesis...

[Biochemistry] Nucleosome repeat length and linker histone stoichiometry determine chromatin fiber structure

Routh, A., Sandin, S., Rhodes, D. — 2008-07-01

To understand how nuclear processes involving DNA are regulated, knowledge of the determinants of chromatin condensation is required. From recent...

[Biochemistry] A purple acidophilic di-ferric DNA ligase from Ferroplasma

2008-07-01

We describe here an extraordinary purple-colored DNA ligase, LigFa, from the acidophilic ferrous iron-oxidizing archaeon Ferroplasma acidiphilum, a di-ferric enzyme...

[Biochemistry] The FACT Spt16 "peptidase" domain is a histone H3-H4 binding module

2008-07-01

The FACT complex is a conserved cofactor for RNA polymerase II elongation through nucleosomes. FACT bears histone chaperone activity and...

[Biochemistry] Crystal structure of human thymine DNA glycosylase bound to DNA elucidates sequence-specific mismatch recognition

Maiti, A., Morgan, M. T., Pozharski, E., Drohat, A. C. — 2008-07-01

Cytosine methylation at CpG dinucleotides produces m⁵CpG, an epigenetic modification that is important for transcriptional regulation and genomic stability in...

[Biochemistry] Protonation and sugar binding to LacY

Smirnova, I. N., Kasho, V., Kaback, H. R. — 2008-07-01

The effect of bulk-phase pH on the apparent affinity (K_d^app) of purified wild-type lactose permease (LacY) for sugars was studied....

[Biochemistry] cis-Diammine(pyridine)chloroplatinum(II), a monofunctional platinum(II) antitumor agent: Uptake, structure, function, and prospects

2008-07-01

We have identified unique chemical and biological properties of a cationic monofunctional platinum(II) complex, cis-diammine(pyridine)chloroplatinum(II), cis-[Pt(NH₃)₂(py)Cl]⁺ or cDPCP, a coordination...

[Biochemistry] Communication between subunits critical to DNA binding by hexameric helicase of bacteriophage T7

Lee, S.-J., Qimron, U., Richardson, C. C. — 2008-07-01

The DNA helicase encoded by bacteriophage T7 consists of six identical subunits that form a ring through which the DNA...

[Biochemistry] An epoxide hydrolase involved in the biosynthesis of an insect sex attractant and its use to localize the production site

Abdel-latief, M., Garbe, L. A., Koch, M., Ruther, J. — 2008-07-01

Epoxide hydrolases (EHs) are enzymes occurring in virtually any living organism. They catalyze the hydrolysis of epoxide containing lipids and...

[Biophysics] Force-generation and dynamic instability of microtubule bundles

Laan, L., Husson, J., Munteanu, E. L., Kerssemakers, J. W. J., Dogterom, M. — 2008-07-01

Individual dynamic microtubules can generate pushing or pulling forces when their growing or shrinking ends are in contact with cellular...

[Biophysics] Systematic analysis of nucleation-dependent polymerization reveals new insights into the mechanism of amyloid self-assembly

Xue, W.-F., Homans, S. W., Radford, S. E. — 2008-07-01

Self-assembly of misfolded proteins into ordered fibrillar aggregates known as amyloid results in numerous human diseases. Despite an increasing number...

[Biophysics] A generative, probabilistic model of local protein structure

2008-07-01

Despite significant progress in recent years, protein structure prediction maintains its status as one of the prime unsolved problems in...

[Biophysics] The kinesin-1 motor protein is regulated by a direct interaction of its head and tail

2008-07-01

Kinesin-1 is a molecular motor protein that transports cargo along microtubules. Inside cells, the vast majority of kinesin-1 is regulated...

[Cell_Biology] Recruitment of Stat1 to chromatin is required for interferon-induced serine phosphorylation of Stat1 transactivation domain

2008-07-01

The transcription factor Stat1 plays an essential role in responses to interferons (IFNs). Activation of Stat1 is achieved by phosphorylation...

[Cell_Biology] An autocrine axis in the testis that coordinates spermiation and blood-testis barrier restructuring during spermatogenesis

Yan, H. H. N., Mruk, D. D., Wong, E. W. P., Lee, W. M., Cheng, C. Y. — 2008-07-01

The mechanism(s) that regulate and coordinate the events of spermiation and blood–testis barrier (BTB) restructuring in the seminiferous epithelium that...

[Cell_Biology] Excess MCM proteins protect human cells from replicative stress by licensing backup origins of replication

Ibarra, A., Schwob, E., Mendez, J. — 2008-07-01

The six main minichromosome maintenance proteins (Mcm2–7), which presumably constitute the core of the replicative DNA helicase, are present in...

[Developmental_Biology] Remodeling the exocrine pancreas at metamorphosis in Xenopus laevis

Mukhi, S., Mao, J., Brown, D. D. — 2008-07-01

At metamorphosis the Xenopus laevis tadpole exocrine pancreas remodels in two stages. At the climax of metamorphosis thyroid hormone (TH)...

[Developmental_Biology] Central projections of photoreceptor axons originating from ectopic eyes in Drosophila

Clements, J., Lu, Z., Gehring, W. J., Meinertzhagen, I. A., Callaerts, P. — 2008-07-01

Ectopic expression of the retinal determination gene eyeless (ey) induces the formation of supernumerary eyes on antennae, legs, wings, and...

[Ecology] The stochastic nature of larval connectivity among nearshore marine populations

2008-07-01

Many nearshore fish and invertebrate populations are overexploited even when apparently coherent management structures are in place. One potential cause...

[Evolution] A unique life history among tetrapods: An annual chameleon living mostly as an egg

Karsten, K. B., Andriamandimbiarisoa, L. N., Fox, S. F., Raxworthy, C. J. — 2008-07-01

The 28,300 species of tetrapods (four-limbed vertebrates) almost exclusively have perennial life spans. Here, we report the discovery of a...

[Evolution] Categorical perception of a natural, multivariate signal: Mating call recognition in tungara frogs

Baugh, A. T., Akre, K. L., Ryan, M. J. — 2008-07-01

Categorical perception is common in humans, but it is not known whether animals perceive continuous variation in their own multidimensional...

[Evolution] From the Cover: Assembly of the cnidarian camera-type eye from vertebrate-like components

2008-07-01

Animal eyes are morphologically diverse. Their assembly, however, always relies on the same basic principle, i.e., photoreceptors located in the...

[Evolution] Structurally different alleles of the ath-MIR824 microRNA precursor are maintained at high frequency in Arabidopsis thaliana

de Meaux, J., Hu, J.-Y., Tartler, U., Goebel, U. — 2008-07-01

In plants and animals, gene expression can be down-regulated at the posttranscriptional level by microRNAs (miRNAs), a class of small...

[Genetics] Acetylation in the globular core of histone H3 on lysine-56 promotes chromatin disassembly during transcriptional activation

Williams, S. K., Truong, D., Tyler, J. K. — 2008-07-01

Promoter chromatin disassembly is a widely used mechanism to regulate eukaryotic transcriptional induction. Delaying histone H3/H4 removal from the yeast...

[Genetics] Identification of the TFII-I family target genes in the vertebrate genome

Chimge, N.-O., Makeyev, A. V., Ruddle, F. H., Bayarsaihan, D. — 2008-07-01

GTF2I and GTF2IRD1 encode members of the TFII-I transcription factor family and are prime candidates in the Williams syndrome, a...

[Genetics] Congenital disease SNPs target lineage specific structural elements in protein kinases

Torkamani, A., Kannan, N., Taylor, S. S., Schork, N. J. — 2008-07-01

The catalytic domain of protein kinases harbors a large number of disease-causing single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and common or neutral...

[Immunology] Differential function of the NACHT-LRR (NLR) members Nod1 and Nod2 in arthritis

2008-07-01

The pathogenesis of chronic joint inflammation remains unclear, although the involvement of pathogen recognition receptors has been suggested recently. In...

[Immunology] The complement protein properdin binds apoptotic T cells and promotes complement activation and phagocytosis

Kemper, C., Mitchell, L. M., Zhang, L., Hourcade, D. E. — 2008-07-01

Apoptotic cells must be rapidly eliminated to avoid harmful inflammatory and autoimmune reactions. Innate immunity is designed/poised to identify dying...

[Immunology] Affinity maturation of antibodies assisted by in silico modeling

Barderas, R., Desmet, J., Timmerman, P., Meloen, R., Casal, J. I. — 2008-07-01

Rational engineering methods can be applied with reasonable success to optimize physicochemical characteristics of proteins, in particular, antibodies. Here, we...

[Immunology] The Nalp3 inflammasome is essential for the development of silicosis

2008-07-01

Inhalation of crystalline silica and asbestos is known to cause the progressive pulmonary fibrotic disorders silicosis and asbestosis, respectively. Although...

[Immunology] IL-6 blockade inhibits the induction of myelin antigen-specific Th17 cells and Th1 cells in experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis

2008-07-01

The development of Th17 cells is a key event in the pathogenesis of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), a murine model...

[Medical_Sciences] Epigenetic histone H3 lysine 9 methylation in metabolic memory and inflammatory phenotype of vascular smooth muscle cells in diabetes

2008-07-01

Diabetic patients continue to develop inflammation and vascular complications even after achieving glycemic control. This poorly understood "metabolic memory" phenomenon...

[Medical_Sciences] Topoisomerase levels determine chemotherapy response in vitro and in vivo

2008-07-01

Topoisomerase poisons are chemotherapeutic agents that are used extensively for treating human malignancies. These drugs can be highly effective, yet...

[Microbiology] From the Cover: In silico activity profiling reveals the mechanism of action of antimalarials discovered in a high-throughput screen

2008-07-01

The growing resistance to current first-line antimalarial drugs represents a major health challenge. To facilitate the discovery of new antimalarials,...

[Microbiology] Structure of coronavirus hemagglutinin-esterase offers insight into corona and influenza virus evolution

2008-07-01

The hemagglutinin-esterases (HEs) are a family of viral envelope glycoproteins that mediate reversible attachment to O-acetylated sialic acids by acting...

[Neuroscience] From the Cover: Corticotropin-releasing factor-1 receptor involvement in behavioral neuroadaptation to ethanol: A urocortin1-independent mechanism

2008-07-01

A common expression of neuroadaptations induced by repeated exposure to addictive drugs is a persistent sensitized behavioral response to their...

[Neuroscience] Chiral discrimination of the Japanese beetle sex pheromone and a behavioral antagonist by a pheromone-degrading enzyme

Ishida, Y., Leal, W. S. — 2008-07-01

The sophistication of the insect olfactory system is elegantly demonstrated by the reception of sex pheromone by the Japanese beetle....

[Neuroscience] Mammalian-like features of sleep structure in zebra finches

Low, P. S., Shank, S. S., Sejnowski, T. J., Margoliash, D. — 2008-07-01

A suite of complex electroencephalographic patterns of sleep occurs in mammals. In sleeping zebra finches, we observed slow wave sleep...

[Neuroscience] Neuroligin-1 is required for normal expression of LTP and associative fear memory in the amygdala of adult animals

2008-07-01

Neuroligin-1 is a potent trigger for the de novo formation of synaptic connections, and it has recently been suggested that...

[Neuroscience] An activity-regulated microRNA controls dendritic plasticity by down-regulating p250GAP

2008-07-01

Activity-regulated gene expression is believed to play a key role in the development and refinement of neuronal circuitry. Nevertheless, the...

[Pharmacology] Beta-caryophyllene is a dietary cannabinoid

2008-07-01

The psychoactive cannabinoids from Cannabis sativa L. and the arachidonic acid-derived endocannabinoids are nonselective natural ligands for cannabinoid receptor type...

[Physiology] Cyclic adenosine monophosphate differentiated {beta}-endorphin neurons promote immune function and prevent prostate cancer growth

2008-07-01

Pituitary adenylate cyclase-activating peptide (PACAP), a cAMP-activating agent, is highly expressed in the hypothalamus during the period when many neuroendocrine...

[Physiology] Multimeric nature of voltage-gated proton channels

Koch, H. P., Kurokawa, T., Okochi, Y., Sasaki, M., Okamura, Y., Larsson, H. P. — 2008-07-01

Voltage-gated potassium channels are comprised of four subunits, and each subunit has a pore domain and a voltage-sensing domain (VSD)....

[Plant_Biology] A TCP domain transcription factor controls flower type specification along the radial axis of the Gerbera (Asteraceae) inflorescence

2008-07-01

Several key processes in plant development are regulated by TCP transcription factors. CYCLOIDEA-like (CYC-like) TCP domain proteins have been shown...

[Plant_Biology] Intraplastidial trafficking of a phage-type RNA polymerase is mediated by a thylakoid RING-H2 protein

2008-07-01

The plastid genome of dicotyledonous plants is transcribed by three different RNA polymerases; an eubacterial-type enzyme, PEP; and two phage-type...

[errata] Correction for Zhang, The drifting human genome

2008-07-01

[errata] Correction for Macdonald and Pike, Heterogeneity in EGF-binding affinities arises from negative cooperativity in an aggregating system

2008-07-01

[errata] Correction for Ames et al., Crystal structure and functional analysis of tetracenomycin ARO/CYC: Implications for cyclization specificity of aromatic polyketides

2008-07-01

[errata] Correction for Sun et al., EB1 promotes Aurora-B kinase activity through blocking its inactivation by protein phosphatase 2A

2008-07-01

[errata] Correction for Kannan et al., The hallmark of AGC kinase functional divergence is its C-terminal tail, a cis-acting regulatory module

2008-07-01

[errata] Correction for Pandey and Sassetti, Mycobacterial persistence requires the utilization of host cholesterol

2008-07-01