Immobilizing single lipid and channel molecules in artificial lipid bilayers with annexin A5

The effects of annexin A5 on the lateral diffusion of single-molecule lipids and single-molecule proteins were studied in an artificial lipid bilayer membrane. Annexin A5 is a member of the annexin superfamily, which binds preferentially to anionic phospholipids in a Ca2+-dependent manner. In this report, we were able to directly monitor single BODIPY 1,2-dihexadecanoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphoethanolamine (DHPE) and ryanodine receptor type 2 (RyR2) labeled with Cy5 molecules in lipid bilayers containing phosphatidylserine (PS) by using fluorescence microscopy. The diffusion coefficients were calculated at various annexin A5 concentrations. The diffusion coefficients of BODIPY-DHPE and Cy5-RyR2 in the absence of annexin A5 were 4.81 x 10(-8) cm(2)/s and 2.13 x 10(-8) cm(2)/s, respectively. In the presence of 1 microM annexin A5, the diffusion coefficients of BODIPY-DHPE and Cy5-RyR2 were 2.2 x 10(-10) cm(2)/s and 9.5 x 10(-11) cm(2)/s, respectively. Overall, 1 microM of annexin A5 was sufficient to induce a 200-fold decrease in the lateral diffusion coefficient. Additionally, we performed electrophysiological examinations and determined that annexin A5 has little effect on the function of RyR2. This means that annexin A5 can be used to immobilize RyR2 in a lipid bilayer when imaging and analyzing RyR2.     

Photochemical formation of hydroxyl radicals in tissue extracts of the coral Galaxea fascicularis

Various stresses induce the formation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in biological cells. In addition to stress-induced ROS, we studied the photochemical formation of hydroxyl radicals (˙OH), the most potent ROS, in coral tissues using phosphate buffer-extracted solutions and a simulated sunlight irradiation system. ˙OH formation was seen in extracts of both coral host and endosymbiont zooxanthellae. This study is the first to report quantitative measurements of ˙OH photoformation in coral tissue extracts. Our results indicated that whether or not coral bleaching occurred, coral tissues and symbiotic zooxanthellae have the potential to photochemically produce ˙OH under sunlight. However, no significant difference was found in the protein content-normalized formation rates of ˙OH between corals incubated under different temperatures and irradiance conditions. ˙OH formation rates were reduced by 40% by reducing the UV radiation in the illumination. It was indicated that UV radiation strongly affected ˙OH formation in coral tissue and zooxanthellae, in addition to its formation through photoinhibition processes.     

5-Shredders in 5-connected graphs

For a graph G, a subset S of V(G) is called a shredder if G−S consists of three or more components. We show that if G is a 5-connected graph with |V(G)|≥135, then the number of shredders of cardinality 5 of G is less than or equal to (2|V(G)|−10)/3.     

Tuning the magnetic dimensionality by charge ordering in the molecular TMTTF salts

We theoretically investigate the interplay between charge ordering and magnetic states in quasi-one-dimensional molecular conductors TMTTF(2)X, motivated by the observation of a complex variation of competing and/or coexisting phases. We show that the ferroelectric-type charge order increases two-dimensional antiferromagnetic spin correlation, whereas in the one-dimensional regime two different spin-Peierls states are stabilized. By using first-principles band calculations for the estimation for the transfer integrals and comparing our results with the experiments, we identify the controlling parameters in the experimental phase diagram to be not only the interchain transfer integrals but also the amplitude of the charge order.     

Novel liquid crystal multistage circular polarization switch for three-dimensional laser pico projectors

Crosstalk is one of the most important factors affecting the image quality of polarization switching three-dimensional (3D) projectors. The variation in the phase difference of a polarization switch owing to dispersion degrades crosstalk performance. We propose a novel multistage circular polarization switch comprising liquid crystal devices using a ferroelectric liquid crystal (FLC) in-plane fast switch and a thick nematic liquid crystal (NLC) retarder. In this paper, we present a proof-of-concept model of a 3D laser pico projector using a scanning MEMS head in combination with the polarization switch. We also evaluate the crosstalk and 3D performance of the projector.