Abnormal subcortical activity in congenital mirror movement disorder with RAD51 mutation.

Purpose: Congenital mirror movement disorder (CMMD) is characterized by unintended, nonsuppressible, homologous mirroring activity contralateral to the movement on the intended side of the body. In healthy controls, unilateral movements are accompanied with predominantly contralateral cortical activity, whereas in CMMD, in line with the abnormal behavior, bilateral cortical activity is observed for unilateral motor tasks. However, task-related activities in subcortical structures, which are known to play critical roles in motor actions, have not been investigated in CMMD previously.

The roles of polyamines in microorganisms.

Polyamines are small polycations that are well conserved in all the living organisms except Archae, Methanobacteriales and Halobacteriales. The most common polyamines are putrescine, spermidine and spermine, which exist in varying concentrations in different organisms. They are involved in a variety of cellular processes such as gene expression, cell growth, survival, stress response and proliferation.

Fission Yeast srm1 is Involved in Stress Response and Cell Cycle.

Polyamines are well-conserved, multifunctional polycations that contribute to a number of processes in the cells such as cell cycle, apoptosis, stress response, and gene expression. Therefore, polyamine levels should be kept under strict regulation by specific polyamine transporters and polyamine synthases. In this study, the aim is to experimentally characterize a predicted spermidine synthase gene srm1, which was identified upon sequence similarity, in fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe.