RAD-Seq analysis of wild Japanese garlic (Allium macrostemon Bunge) growing in Japan revealed that this neglected crop was previously actively utilized.

Allium macrostemon Bunge, commonly referred to as "no-biru" in Japan, is a widespread wild onion species found across the country. Despite being deeply entwined in ancient Japanese culture, it remains an underutilized crop in Japan. Determining the origins of its domestic populations and understanding their genetic composition is crucial to highlighting the plant's historical significance in Japan.

Peptide-nucleotide microdroplets as a step towards a membrane-free protocell model.

Although phospholipid bilayers are ubiquitous in modern cells, their impermeability, lack of dynamic properties, and synthetic complexity are difficult to reconcile with plausible pathways of proto-metabolism, growth and division. Here, we present an alternative membrane-free model, which demonstrates that low-molecular-weight mononucleotides and simple cationic peptides spontaneously accumulate in water into microdroplets that are stable to changes in temperature and salt concentration, undergo pH-induced cycles of growth and decay, and promote α-helical peptide secondary structure. Moreover, the microdroplets selectively sequester porphyrins, inorganic nanoparticles and enzymes to generate supramolecular stacked arrays of light-harvesting molecules, nanoparticle-mediated oxidase activity, and enhanced rates of glucose phosphorylation, respectively.

Crystallization and preliminary X-ray analysis of 2,3-diketo-5-methylthiopentyl-1-phosphate enolase from Bacillus subtilis.

2,3-Diketo-5-methylthiopentyl-1-phosphate enolase (DK-MTP-1P enolase) from Bacillus subtilis was crystallized using the hanging-drop vapour-diffusion method. Crystals grew using PEG 3350 as the precipitant at 293 K. The crystals diffracted to 2.

Dendronized macromonomers for three-dimensional data storage.

A series of dendritic macromonomers have been synthesized and utilized as the photoactive component in holographic storage systems leading to high performance, low shrinkage materials.

Roles of hydrophobic interaction in a volume phase transition of alkylacrylamide gel induced by the hydrogen-bond-driving alkylphenol binding.

It was found that a degree of the binding of alkylphenols to N-alkylacrylamide gel increased transitionally to induce the volume phase transition of gel. Binding isotherms of nonylphenol (n-Ph), propylphenol (p-Ph), ethylphenol (e-Ph), methylphenol (m-Ph), and phenol (Ph) to N-isopropylacrylamide (NIPA), N,N-diethylacrylamide (DEA), N,N-dimethylacrylamide (DMA), and acrylamide (AM) gels were examined. Two types of binding, the site binding at beta < 1 and the multimolecular binding at beta > 1, were observed, where beta was a degree of binding to a monomeric unit of the chain.

Nanostructures of polyelectrolyte gel-surfactant complexes in uniaxially stretched networks.

Nanostructures of poly(acrylate) gel and dodecylpyridinium complexes equlibrated with the NaCl aqueous solution (from 5 to 100mM) and their time evolution after stretching uniaxially were investigated by means of time-resolved small-angle x-ray scattering. The scattering profile revealed the existence of the cubic nanostructure belonging to Pm3n space group in the gel before and long after the stretch. Each of the three intensive peaks was found to be resolved into two, which suggested the existence of two cubic structures with the slightly different lattice spacings.