Publications by authors named "A Bamberger"
Snakes are a phylogenetically diverse (> 3500 species) clade of gape-limited predators that consume diverse prey and have considerable ontogenetic and interspecific variation in size, but empirical data on maximal gape are very limited. To test how overall size predicts gape, we quantified the scaling relationships between maximal gape, overall size, and several cranial dimensions for a wide range of sizes (mass 8-64,100 g) for two large, invasive snake species: Burmese pythons () and brown treesnakes (). Although skull size scaled with negative allometry relative to overall size, isometry and positive allometry commonly occurred for other measurements.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn quorum sensing, bacteria secrete or release small molecules into the environment that, once they reach a certain threshold, trigger a behavioural change in the population. As the concentration of these so-called autoinducers is supposed to reflect population density, they were originally assumed to be continuously produced by all cells in a population. However, here we show that in the α-proteobacterium Sinorhizobium meliloti expression of the autoinducer synthase gene is realized in asynchronous stochastic pulses that result from scarcity and, presumably, low binding affinity of the key activator.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) and cellular workload are tightly balanced by the key cellular regulator, calcium (Ca). Current models assume that cytosolic Ca regulates workload and that mitochondrial Ca uptake precedes activation of matrix dehydrogenases, thereby matching OXPHOS substrate supply to ATP demand. Surprisingly, knockout (KO) of the mitochondrial Ca uniporter (MCU) in mice results in only minimal phenotypic changes and does not alter OXPHOS.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFArticle Synopsis
- Affinity purification coupled to mass spectrometry (AP-MS) often misses identifying dynamic protein-protein interactions, especially with membrane proteins, leading to low bait yields.
- The new method CoPIT (co-interacting protein identification technology) enhances the analysis of membrane protein interactomes, integrating experimental and computational techniques for better identification and visualization of protein interactions.
- CoPIT shows significant improvements with up to 100-fold higher bait yield for membrane proteins like CFTR, while also being applicable to various protein types; the entire experimental process takes less than 3 days, but data analysis may take weeks.