Complete fusion of a transposon and herpesvirus created the Teratorn mobile element in medaka fish.

Mobile genetic elements (e.g., transposable elements and viruses) display significant diversity with various life cycles, but how novel elements emerge remains obscure.

Reduced tubulin polyglutamylation suppresses flagellar shortness in Chlamydomonas.

Ciliary length control is an incompletely understood process essential for normal ciliary function. The flagella of Chlamydomonas mutants lacking multiple axonemal dyneins are shorter than normal; previously it was shown that this shortness can be suppressed by the mutation suppressor of shortness 1 (ssh1) via an unknown mechanism. To elucidate this mechanism, we carried out genetic analysis of ssh1 and found that it is a new allele of TPG2 (hereafter tpg2-3), which encodes FAP234 functioning in tubulin polyglutamylation in the axoneme.

Direct evidence for root growth of vertically aligned single-walled carbon nanotubes by microwave plasma chemical vapor deposition.

The root growth mode of extremely dense and vertically aligned single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) synthesized by microwave plasma chemical vapor deposition was clarified by a new method, marker growth, which does not require transmission electron microscopy. SWNT layers were grown intermittently on a substrate, and a line between the layers was used as a marker to identify the growth mode. Micro-Raman spectroscopy revealed that the SWNT layers have the same diameter distribution.