purification-of-low-abundant-cells-in-the-drosophila-visual-system

Purification of Low-abundant Cells in the Drosophila Visual System

Recent improvements in the sensitivity of next generation sequencing have facilitated the application of transcriptomic and genomic analyses to small ...

Harvard Medical School

To update and refine systematic literature review on the association between outpatient statins use and mortality in patients with infectious disease.

Systematic review and meta-analysis on the association between outpatient statins use and infectious disease-related mortality.

In the Phi29 bacteriophage, the DNA packaging nanomotor packs its double-stranded DNA genome into the virus capsid. At the late stage of DNA packaging, the negatively charged genome is increasingly compacted at a higher density in the capsid with a higher internal pressure. During the process, two Donnan effects, osmotic pressure and Donnan equilibrium potentials, are significantly amplified, which, in turn, affect the channel activity of the portal protein, GP10, embedded in the semipermeable capsid shell. In the research, planar lipid bilayer experiments were used to study the channel activities of the viral protein. The Donnan effect on the conformational changes of the viral protein was discovered, indicating GP10 may not be a static channel at the late stage of DNA packaging. Due to the conformational changes, GP10 may generate electrostatic forces that govern the DNA transport. For the section of the genome DNA that remains outside of the connector channel, a strong repulsive force from the viral protein would be generated against the DNA entry; however, for the section of the genome DNA within the channel, the portal protein would become a Brownian motor, which adopts the flash Brownian ratchet mechanism to pump the DNA against the increasingly built-up internal pressure (up to 20 atm) in the capsid. Therefore, the DNA transport in the nanoscale viral channel at the late stage of DNA packaging could be a consequence of Brownian movement of the genomic DNA, which would be rectified and harnessed by the forces from the interior wall of the viral channel under the influence of the Donnan effect. 

Forces from the Portal Govern the Late-Stage DNA Transport in a Viral DNA Packaging Nanomotor.

Laminar arrangement of neural connections is a fundamental feature of neural circuit organization. Identifying mechanisms that coordinate neural connections within correct layers is thus vital for understanding how neural circuits are assembled. In the medulla of the  visual system neurons form connections within ten parallel layers. The M3 layer receives input from two neuron types that sequentially innervate M3 during development. Here we show that M3-specific innervation by both neurons is coordinated by  Fezf (dFezf), a conserved transcription factor that is selectively expressed by the earlier targeting input neuron. In this cell, dFezf instructs layer specificity and activates the expression of a secreted molecule (Netrin) that regulates the layer specificity of the other input neuron. We propose that employment of transcriptional modules that cell-intrinsically target neurons to specific layers, and cell-extrinsically recruit other neurons is a general mechanism for building layered networks of neural connections.

Article	Year
Systematic review and meta-analysis on the association between outpatient statins use and infectious disease-related mortality. PloS one\| PubMed ID: 23284711	2012
Forces from the Portal Govern the Late-Stage DNA Transport in a Viral DNA Packaging Nanomotor. Biophysical journal\| PubMed ID: 27410744	2016
Fezf coordinates laminar-specific connectivity through cell-intrinsic and cell-extrinsic mechanisms. eLife\| PubMed ID: 29513217	2018

Jing Peng

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