During morphogenesis, epithelial sheets undergo sequential folding to form three-dimensional organ structures. The resulting folds are often irreversible, ensuring that morphogenesis progresses in one direction. However, the mechanism establishing folding irreversibility remains unclear.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMorphogens, locally produced signaling molecules, form a concentration gradient to guide tissue patterning. Tissue patterns emerge as a collaboration between morphogen diffusion and responsive cell behaviors, but the mechanisms through which diffusing morphogens define precise spatial patterns amidst biological fluctuations remain unclear. To investigate how cells respond to diffusing proteins to generate tissue patterns, we develop SYMPLE3D, a 3D culture platform.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe spatial sorting of cells into appropriate tissue compartments is essential for embryogenesis and tissue development. Spatial cell sorting is controlled by the interplay between cell surface affinity and intracellular mechanical properties. However, intracellular signaling that can sufficiently sort cell populations remains unexplored.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCancer cell therapy, particularly chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy for blood cancers, has emerged as a powerful new modality for cancer treatment. Therapeutic cells differ significantly from conventional drugs, such as small molecules and biologics, as they possess cellular information processing abilities to recognize and respond to abnormalities in the body. This capability enables the targeted delivery of therapeutic factors to specific locations and times.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn onion thrips Thrips tabaci, reduced sensitivity of the sodium channel caused by several sodium channel mutations have been correlated with pyrethroid resistance. For this study, using mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I gene sequences, we examined the phylogenetic relation among a total of 52 thelytokous and arrhenotokous strains with different genotypes of the sodium channel mutations. Then, we used flow cytometry to estimate their ploidy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe sex pheromone of the azalea mealybug, Crisicoccus azaleae (Tinsley, 1898) (Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae), includes esters of a methyl-branched medium-chain fatty acid, ethyl and isopropyl (E)-7-methyl-4-nonenoate. These compounds are exceptional among mealybug pheromones, which are commonly monoterpenes. Determination of the absolute configuration is challenging, because both chromatographic and spectrometric separations of stereoisomers of fatty acids with a methyl group distant from the carboxyl group are difficult.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe field of regenerative engineering relies primarily on the dual technical platforms of cell selection/conditioning and biomaterial fabrication to support directed cell differentiation. As the field has matured, an appreciation for the influence of biomaterials on cell behaviors has resulted in engineered matrices that meet biomechanical and biochemical demands of target pathologies. Yet, despite advances in methods to produce designer matrices, regenerative engineers remain unable to reliably orchestrate behaviors of therapeutic cells in situ.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBiophys Physicobiol
December 2022
Organoid, an organ-like tissue reproduced in a dish, has specialized, functional structures in three-dimensional (3D) space. Organoid development replicates the self-organizing process of each tissue development during embryogenesis but does not necessarily require external tissues, illustrating the autonomy of multicellular systems. Herein, we review the developmental processes of epithelial organoids, namely, the intestine, and optic-cup, with a focus on their mechanical aspects.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOrganelles vitally achieve multifaceted functions to maintain cellular homeostasis. Genetic and pharmacological approaches to manipulate individual organelles are powerful in probing their physiological roles. However, many of them are either slow in action, limited to certain organelles, or rely on toxic agents.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn vertebrates, newly emerging transformed cells are often apically extruded from epithelial layers through cell competition with surrounding normal epithelial cells. However, the underlying molecular mechanism remains elusive. Here, using phospho-SILAC screening, we show that phosphorylation of AHNAK2 is elevated in normal cells neighboring RasV12 cells soon after the induction of RasV12 expression, which is mediated by calcium-dependent protein kinase C.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn May 2018, three leaf samples were collected from Japanese pear trees cv. "Hosui" that exhibited typical chlorotic spot symptoms (Supplementary Figure S1) in a germplasm nursery in Tsukuba, Ibaraki. Total RNA was prepared using the rapid CTAB method (Gambino et al.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCells communicate with each other to organize multicellular collective systems and assemble complex, elaborate tissue structures by themselves during development. Despite intensive biological studies, what kind of cell-cell communication can sufficiently drive self-organization of specific tissue architectures remain unclear. Thanks to recent advances on genetic engineering technologies, synthetic biologists start to build customized cell-cell communication with user-defined signal input and gene expression output to program multicellular behaviors using mammalian systems.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn metazoan tissues, cells decide their fates by sensing positional information provided by specialized morphogen proteins. To explore what features are sufficient for positional encoding, we asked whether arbitrary molecules (e.g.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCurr Opin Chem Biol
October 2019
Cell-cell communication governs the biological behaviors of multicellular populations such as developmental and immunological systems. Thanks to intense genetic analytical studies, the molecular components of cell-cell communication pathways have been well identified. We also have been developing synthetic biology tools to control cellular sensing and response systems that enable engineering of new cell-cell communication with design-based regulatory features.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA common theme in the self-organization of multicellular tissues is the use of cell-cell signaling networks to induce morphological changes. We used the modular synNotch juxtacrine signaling platform to engineer artificial genetic programs in which specific cell-cell contacts induced changes in cadherin cell adhesion. Despite their simplicity, these minimal intercellular programs were sufficient to yield assemblies with hallmarks of natural developmental systems: robust self-organization into multidomain structures, well-choreographed sequential assembly, cell type divergence, symmetry breaking, and the capacity for regeneration upon injury.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Insect Physiol
December 2015
Bat-and-moth is a good model system for understanding predator-prey interactions resulting from interspecific coevolution. Night-flying insects have been under predation pressure from echolocating bats for 65Myr, pressuring vulnerable moths to evolve ultrasound detection and evasive maneuvers as counter tactics. Past studies of defensive behaviors against attacking bats have been biased toward noctuoid moth responses to short duration pulses of low-duty-cycle (LDC) bat calls.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFApoptotic cells are engulfed and digested by macrophages to maintain homeostasis in animals. If dead cells are not engulfed swiftly, they undergo secondary necrosis and release intracellular components that activate the immune system. Apoptotic cells are efficiently cleared due to phosphatidylserine (PtdSer) exposed on the cell surface that acts as an "eat me" signal.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMales use courtship signals to inform a conspecific female of their presence and/or quality, or, alternatively, to 'cheat' females by imitating the cues of a prey or predator. These signals have the single function of advertising for mating. Here, we show the dual functions of the courtship song in the yellow peach moth, Conogethes punctiferalis, whose males generate a series of short pulses and a subsequent long pulse in a song bout.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDefinitive erythropoiesis takes place at erythroblastic islands, where erythroblasts proliferate and differentiate in association with central macrophages. At the final stage of erythropoiesis, pyrenocytes (nuclei surrounded by plasma membranes) are excluded from erythroblasts, expose phosphatidylserine (PtdSer), and are engulfed by the macrophages in a PtdSer-dependent manner. However, the molecular mechanism(s) involved in the engulfment of pyrenocytes are incompletely understood.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFApoptotic cells are swiftly engulfed by macrophages to prevent the release of noxious materials from dying cells. Apoptotic cells expose phosphatidylserine (PtdSer) on their surface, and macrophages engulf them by recognizing PtdSer using specific receptors and opsonins. Here, we found that mouse resident peritoneal macrophages expressing Tim4 and MerTK are highly efficient at engulfing apoptotic cells.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFApoptotic cells expose phosphatidylserine on their surface as an "eat me" signal, and macrophages respond by engulfing them. Although several molecules that specifically bind phosphatidylserine have been identified, the molecular mechanism that triggers engulfment remains elusive. Here, using a mouse pro-B cell line, Ba/F3, that grows in suspension, we reconstituted the engulfment of apoptotic cells.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn the onion thrips, Thrips tabaci Lindeman (Thysanoptera: Thripidae), the development of resistance to pyrethroid insecticides has become a problem worldwide. To identify this species' resistance mechanism, we analyzed partial nucleotides and deduced the amino acid sequences of the para-orthologous sodium channel gene by using 10 Japanese strains of T. tabaci that have a variety of susceptibility levels to pyrethroids.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNew virus-like sequences, TvAQ7 and TvP15, were found in a Japanese grapevine accession of OKY-AQ7 (cv. Aki Queen) and of OKY-P15 (cv. Pione) by nested RT-PCR to simultaneously amplify a segment of the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) gene from members of the genera Vitivirus and Foveavirus.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRestricted migration and habitat fragmentation promote genetic differentiation between populations. Because most of the hosts of Panonychus citri are woody plants, mainly citrus trees that are usually planted at intervals of several metres, this mite likely faces more risks (e.g.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTwo kinds of bioelectronic gas sensors (bio-sniffer) incorporating alcohol oxidase (AOD) and aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) were developed for the convenient analysis of ethanol and acetaldehyde in expired gas, respectively. The sniffer devices for gaseous ethanol and acetaldehyde were constructed by immobilizing enzyme on electrodes covered with filter paper and hydrophilic PTFE membrane, respectively. The AOD and ALDH sniffers were used in the gas phase to measure ethanol vapor from 1.
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