Recognition hysteresis of the acetylcholine receptor of torpedo Californica

The nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAcChR) of the electric organ of Torpedo californica fish exhibits a pronounced hysteresis loop in the high affinity binding of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine (AcCh). When increasing amounts of AcCh are added (pulse mode) an extremely long-lived, metastable conformer distribution is obtained (lower hysteresis branch) between low affinity AcCh binding states (R_l) and high (R_h) and very high (R_vh) affinity states. Dialysis conditions always lead to the equilibrium binding curve (upper hysteresis branch; K̄_A = 5 × 10⁻⁹M, 4°C; one A bound to the R-monomer of M_r ≈ 290 000). Cyclic, pulse mode addition and dilution of AcCh results in scanning loops within the main hysteresis. The kinetic analysis of the changes in free and bound AcCh during the open-system conditions of dialysis, that releases the metastability, shows that the AcCh (A) binding proceeds along an induced-fit pathway according to A+R_h ⇋ AR_n ⇋ AR_vh. The rate constant of the step AR_h → AR_vh is k₂ = 6 × 10⁻³s⁻¹ and that of the reverse step is k₋₂ = 3 × 10⁻⁴s⁻¹. Direct binding of A to free R_vh can be excluded. Therefore, the state R_vh does not preexist, it is induced and only stable, as AR_vh, by bound AcCh. The metastability can be described in terms of long-lived AR_vh ·R₁ hybrid dimers. Physiologically, the metastable hybrid may be viewed as a saving device: the functionally important, channel-active R₁ conformer is, at low AcCh-concentrations [A] < 1μM, prevented to convert to the desensitized states R_h and AR_vh. Furtheron, AcCh enhances the phosphorylation of phosphatidyl inositol and the auto-phosphorylation of the receptor. If the AcCh binding hysteresis causes a phosphorylation hysteresis the desensitized nAcChR may serve as a memory molecule of the transsynaptic information signalling of the neurotransmission.     

Measurement of lattice damage caused by ion-implantation doping of semiconductors†

Two new techniques have been used to measure the lattice damage produced in gallium arsenide by the implantation of 60 keV cadmium ions. In one of these methods, optical reflection spectra of the ion-implanted samples were measured in the wavelength range from 2000 to 4600Å. The decrease in reflectivity resulting from ion- implantation was used to determine the relative amount of lattice damage as a function of ion dose. The second technique employed the scanning electron microscope. Patterns very similar in appearance to Kikuchi electron diffraction patterns are obtained when the secondary and/or backscattered electron intensity is displayed in the scanning electron microscope as a function of the angle of incidence of the electron beam on a single crystal surface. The degradation of these ‘Coates-Kikuchi’ patterns resulting from ion implantation was used to obtain a quantitative measure of the lattice damage caused by the implantation process. The results of measurements made by both of the methods described have been compared with each other, and with data obtained by the more established method of measuring lattice damage by Rutherford scattering of 1 MeV helium ions.     

The Weil–Petersson Isometry Group

We prove that, for 3g–3+n>1 and (g,n)(1,2), the group of Weil–Petersson isometries of the Teichmüller space T _g,n coincides with the extended mapping class group.     

Photophysical effect of the coordination of water by ruthenium(II) bipyridyl complexes containing hemilabile phosphine-ether ligands

A substantial concentration-dependent red shift of the absorption and emission spectra (77 K) of [Ru(bpy)(2)(POMe-P,O)](2+) (1) (POMe = (2-methoxyphenyl)diphenylphosphine) is reported. NMR experiments show this shift to be due to equilibration of 1 with an aquo complex (1b) (K(eff) = (6 +/- 3) x 10(-3)) that forms upon displacement of the coordinated ether in the hemilabile POMe ligand. The excited-state lifetimes of 1 and 1b at 77 K in solid 2:1 ethanol/acetone solution are tau = 2.13 +/- 0.02 and 1.95 +/- 0.02 mus, respectively. The preparation and X-ray crystal structure of a related complex, [Ru(bpy)(2)(PO(i)Pr-P)(OH(2))](PF(6))(2) (2b) (PO(i)Pr-P = (2-(2-propoxy)phenyl)diphenylphosphine), is also reported. In solution, this species exists as an equilibrium mixture of complexes that cannot be readily separated. This species also has concentration-dependent absorption spectra in 2:1 ethanol/acetone solution, with a significant red shift (20 nm) at lower concentrations.     

Prevalence of unstable attractors in networks of pulse-coupled oscillators

We present and analyze the first example of a dynamical system that naturally exhibits attracting periodic orbits that are unstable. These unstable attractors occur in networks of pulse-coupled oscillators, and become prevalent with increasing network size for a wide range of parameters. They are enclosed by basins of attraction of other attractors but are remote from their own basin volume such that arbitrarily small noise leads to a switching among attractors.