Claudin-2 knockout by TALEN-mediated gene targeting in MDCK cells: claudin-2 independently determines the leaky property of tight junctions in MDCK cells.

Tight junctions (TJs) regulate the movements of substances through the paracellular pathway, and claudins are major determinants of TJ permeability. Claudin-2 forms high conductive cation pores in TJs. The suppression of claudin-2 expression by RNA interference in Madin-Darby canine kidney (MDCK) II cells (a low-resistance strain of MDCK cells) was shown to induce a three-fold increase in transepithelial electrical resistance (TER), which, however, was still lower than in high-resistance strains of MDCK cells.

Loss-of-Function Mutation in APC2 Causes Sotos Syndrome Features.

Sotos syndrome, characterized by intellectual disability and characteristic facial features, is caused by haploinsufficiency in the NSD1 gene. We conducted an etiological study on two siblings with Sotos features without mutations in NSD1 and detected a homozygous frameshift mutation in the APC2 gene by whole-exome sequencing, which resulted in the loss of function of cytoskeletal regulation in neurons. Apc2-deficient (Apc2) mice exhibited impaired learning and memory abilities along with an abnormal head shape.

Population genetics of non-genetic traits: evolutionary roles of stochasticity in gene expression.

The role of stochasticity in evolutionary genetics has long been debated. To date, however, the potential roles of non-genetic traits in evolutionary processes have been largely neglected. In molecular biology, growing evidence suggests that stochasticity in gene expression (SGE) is common and that SGE has major impacts on phenotypes and fitness.

Relationship between aggregation of rewards and the possibility of polymorphism in continuous snowdrift games.

The existence of intra-population variations in cooperation level has often been reported by some empirical studies. Evolutionary conditions of polymorphism in cooperation have been investigated by using a framework of the continuous snowdrift game. However, our insights from this framework have been limited because of an assumption that the cooperative reward is a function of total amount of investments within an interacting group.

An essential role of the arginine vasotocin system in mate-guarding behaviors in triadic relationships of medaka fish (Oryzias latipes).

To increase individual male fitness, males of various species remain near a (potential) mating partner and repel their rivals (mate-guarding). Mate-guarding is assumed to be mediated by two different types of motivation: sexual motivation toward the opposite sex and competitive motivation toward the same sex. The genetic/molecular mechanisms underlying how mate presence affects male competitive motivation in a triadic relationship has remained largely unknown.

Estrogen receptor 1 (ESR1; ERα), not ESR2 (ERβ), modulates estrogen-induced sex reversal in the American alligator, a species with temperature-dependent sex determination.

All crocodilians and many turtles exhibit temperature-dependent sex determination where the temperature of the incubated egg, during a thermo-sensitive period (TSP), determines the sex of the offspring. Estrogens play a critical role in sex determination in crocodilians and turtles, as it likely does in most nonmammalian vertebrates. Indeed, administration of estrogens during the TSP induces male to female sex reversal at a male-producing temperature (MPT).

Restriction-modification system with methyl-inhibited base excision and abasic-site cleavage activities.

The restriction-modification systems use epigenetic modification to distinguish between self and nonself DNA. A modification enzyme transfers a methyl group to a base in a specific DNA sequence while its cognate restriction enzyme introduces breaks in DNA lacking this methyl group. So far, all the restriction enzymes hydrolyze phosphodiester bonds linking the monomer units of DNA.

Gamma Oscillations and Their Cross-frequency Coupling in the Primate Hippocampus during Sleep.

Study Objectives: The mechanism by which sleep consolidates memory is unclear. Based on the two-stage model of memory consolidation, different functions for slow wave sleep (SWS) and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep have been proposed; thus, state-dependent changes of neural oscillations in the hippocampus might clarify this fundamental question.

Methods: We recorded hippocampal local field potentials from freely behaving monkeys via telemetry and analyzed their nonstationary oscillations using Hilbert-Huang transform.

Thalamic adenylyl cyclase 1 is required for barrel formation in the somatosensory cortex.

Cyclic AMP signaling is critical for activity-dependent refinement of neuronal circuits. Global disruption of adenylyl cyclase 1 (AC1), the major calcium/calmodulin-stimulated adenylyl cyclase in the brain, impairs formation of whisker-related discrete neural modules (the barrels) in cortical layer 4 in mice. Since AC1 is expressed both in the thalamus and the neocortex, the question of whether pre- or postsynaptic (or both) AC1 plays a role in barrel formation has emerged.

Learning delayed influences of biological systems.

Boolean networks are widely used model to represent gene interactions and global dynamical behavior of gene regulatory networks. To understand the memory effect involved in some interactions between biological components, it is necessary to include delayed influences in the model. In this paper, we present a logical method to learn such models from sequences of gene expression data.

Repulsive parallel MCMC algorithm for discovering diverse motifs from large sequence sets.

Motivation: The motif discovery problem consists of finding recurring patterns of short strings in a set of nucleotide sequences. This classical problem is receiving renewed attention as most early motif discovery methods lack the ability to handle large data of recent genome-wide ChIP studies. New ChIP-tailored methods focus on reducing computation time and pay little regard to the accuracy of motif detection.

Brain-machine interface to control a prosthetic arm with monkey ECoGs during periodic movements.

Brain-machine interfaces (BMIs) are promising technologies for rehabilitation of upper limb functions in patients with severe paralysis. We previously developed a BMI prosthetic arm for a monkey implanted with electrocorticography (ECoG) electrodes, and trained it in a reaching task. The stability of the BMI prevented incorrect movements due to misclassification of ECoG patterns.

New developments in electron microscopy for serial image acquisition of neuronal profiles.

Recent developments in electron microscopy largely automate the continuous acquisition of serial electron micrographs (EMGs), previously achieved by laborious manual serial ultrathin sectioning using an ultramicrotome and ultrastructural image capture process with transmission electron microscopy. The new systems cut thin sections and capture serial EMGs automatically, allowing for acquisition of large data sets in a reasonably short time. The new methods are focused ion beam/scanning electron microscopy, ultramicrotome/serial block-face scanning electron microscopy, automated tape-collection ultramicrotome/scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscope camera array.

Novel coiled-coil proteins regulate exocyst association with cortical microtubules in xylem cells via the conserved oligomeric golgi-complex 2 protein.

Xylem vessel cells develop secondary cell walls in distinct patterns. Cortical microtubules are rearranged into distinct patterns and regulate secondary cell wall deposition; however, it is unclear how exocytotic membrane trafficking is linked to cortical microtubules. Here, we show that the novel coiled-coil proteins vesicle tethering 1 (VETH1) and VETH2 recruit EXO70A1, an exocyst subunit essential for correct patterning of secondary cell wall deposition, to cortical microtubules via the conserved oligomeric Golgi complex (COG) 2 protein.

Image statistics underlying natural texture selectivity of neurons in macaque V4.

Our daily visual experiences are inevitably linked to recognizing the rich variety of textures. However, how the brain encodes and differentiates a plethora of natural textures remains poorly understood. Here, we show that many neurons in macaque V4 selectively encode sparse combinations of higher-order image statistics to represent natural textures.

Chemical corrector treatment ameliorates increased seizure susceptibility in a mouse model of familial epilepsy.

Epilepsy is one of the most common and intractable brain disorders. Mutations in the human gene LGI1, encoding a neuronal secreted protein, cause autosomal dominant lateral temporal lobe epilepsy (ADLTE). However, the pathogenic mechanisms of LGI1 mutations remain unclear.

Auto-oxidation products of epigallocatechin gallate activate TRPA1 and TRPV1 in sensory neurons.

The sensation of astringency is elicited by catechins and their polymers in wine and tea. It has been considered that catechins in green tea are unstable and auto-oxidized to induce more astringent taste. Here, we examined how mammalian transient receptor potential V1 (TRPV1) and TRPA1, which are nociceptive sensors, are activated by green tea catechins during the auto-oxidation process.

Determination of major sialylated N-glycans and identification of branched sialylated N-glycans that dynamically change their content during development in the mouse cerebral cortex.

Oligosaccharides of glycoproteins expressed on the cell surface play important roles in cell-cell interactions, particularly sialylated N-glycans having a negative charge, which interact with sialic acid-binding immunoglobulin-like lectins (siglecs). The entire structure of sialylated N-glycans expressed in the mouse brain, particularly the linkage type of sialic acid residues attached to the backbone N-glycans, has not yet been elucidated. An improved method to analyze pyridylaminated sugar chains using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was developed to determine the entire structure of sialylated N-linked sugar chains expressed in the adult and developing mouse cerebral cortices.

Effects of luminance contrast on the color selectivity of neurons in the macaque area v4 and inferior temporal cortex.

Appearance of a color stimulus is significantly affected by the contrast between its luminance and the luminance of the background. In the present study, we used stimuli evenly distributed on the CIE-xy chromaticity diagram to examine how luminance contrast affects neural representation of color in V4 and the anterior inferior temporal (AITC) and posterior inferior temporal (PITC) color areas (Banno et al., 2011).

The foraging benefits of being fat in a highly migratory marine mammal.

Foraging theory predicts that breath-hold divers adjust the time spent foraging at depth relative to the energetic cost of swimming, which varies with buoyancy (body density). However, the buoyancy of diving animals varies as a function of their body condition, and the effects of these changes on swimming costs and foraging behaviour have been poorly examined. A novel animal-borne accelerometer was developed that recorded the number of flipper strokes, which allowed us to monitor the number of strokes per metre swam (hereafter, referred to as strokes-per-metre) by female northern elephant seals over their months-long, oceanic foraging migrations.

Sleep is associated with offline improvement of motor sequence skill in children.

In adults, sleep is necessary for the offline improvement of certain skills, such as sequential finger tapping, but whether children show a similar effect is still debatable. Here, we tested whether sleep is associated with offline performance improvement in children. Nine- and 11-year-old children trained on an explicit sequential finger tapping task.

Genome-wide linkage and exome analyses identify variants of HMCN1 for splenic epidermoid cyst.

Background: Splenic epidermoid cyst is a benign tumor-like lesion affecting the spleen and sometimes occurs in familial form. The causality of such rare diseases remain challenging, however recently, with the emergence of exome re-sequencing, the genetics of many diseases have been unveiled. In the present study, we performed a combinatorial approach of genome-wide parametric linkage and exome analyses for a moderate-sized Japanese family with frequent occurrence of splenic epidermoid cyst to identify the genetic causality of the disease.

Propofol-induced pain sensation involves multiple mechanisms in sensory neurons.

Propofol, a commonly used intravenous anesthetic agent, is known to at times cause pain sensation upon injection in humans. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying this effect are not fully understood. Although propofol was reported to activate human transient receptor potential ankyrin 1 (TRPA1) in this regard, its action on human TRP vanilloid 1 (TRPV1), another nociceptive receptor, is unknown.

Collective structural changes in vermiculite clay suspensions induced by cesium ions.

Following the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in 2011, Cs radioisotopes have been dispersed over a wide area. Most of the Cs has remained on the surface of the soil because Cs(+) is strongly adsorbed in the interlayer spaces of soil clays, particularly vermiculite. We have investigated the microscopic structure of an aqueous suspension of vermiculite clay over a wide length scale (1-1000 Å) by small-angle X-ray scattering.