Recent studies using highly branched mutants of pea, Arabidopsis and rice have demonstrated that strigolactones, a group of terpenoid lactones, act as a new hormone class, or its biosynthetic precursors, in inhibiting shoot branching. Here, we provide evidence that DWARF14 (D14) inhibits rice tillering and may act as a new compo-nent of the strigolactone-dependent branching inhibition pathway. The d14 mutant exhibits increased shoot branch-ing with reduced plant height like the previously characterized strigolactone-deficient and -insensitive mutants d10 and d3, respectively. The d10-1 d14-1 double mutant is phenotypically indistinguishable from the d10-1 and d14-1 single mutants, consistent with the idea that D10 and D14 function in the same pathway. However, unlike with d10, the d14 branching phenotype could not be rescued by exogenous strigolactones. In addition, the d14 mutant contained a higher level of 2'-epi-5-deoxystrigol than the wild type. Positional cloning revealed that D14 encodes a protein of the alpha/beta-fold hydrolase superfamily, some members of which play a role in metabolism or signaling of plant hormones. We propose that D14 functions downstream of strigolactone synthesis, as a component of hormone signaling or as an enzyme that participates in the conversion of strigolactones to the bioactive form.

In this study, we analyzed five tillering dwarf mutants that exhibit reduction of plant stature and an increase in tiller numbers. We show that, in the mutants, axillary meristems are normally established but the suppression of tiller bud activity is weakened. The phenotypes of tillering dwarf mutants suggest that they play roles in the control of tiller bud dormancy to suppress bud activity. However, tillering dwarf mutants show the dependence of both node position and planting density on their growth, which implies that the functions of tillering dwarf genes are independent of the developmental and environmental control of bud activity. Map-based cloning of the D3 gene revealed that it encodes an F-box leucine-trich repeat (LRR) protein orthologous to Arabidopsis MAX2/ORE9. This indicates the conservation of mechanisms controlling axillary bud activity between monocots and eudicots. We suggest that tillering dwarf mutants are suitable for the study of bud activity control in rice and believe that future molecular and genetic studies using them may enable significant progress in understanding the control of tillering and shoot branching.

Ubiquitin-dependent proteolysis is an important mechanism that suppresses the beta-catenin transcription factor in cells without Wnt stimulation. A critical step in this regulatory pathway is to create a SCF(beta-TrCP) E3 ubiquitin ligase binding site for beta-catenin. Here we show that the SCF(beta-TrCP) binding site created by phosphorylation of beta-catenin is highly vulnerable to protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A) and must be protected by the adenomatous polyposis coli (APC) tumor suppressor protein. Specifically, phosphorylated beta-catenin associated with the wild-type APC protein is recruited to the SCF(beta-TrCP) complex, ubiquitin conjugated, and degraded. A mutation in APC that deprives this protective function exposes the N-terminal phosphorylated serine/threonine residues of beta-catenin to PP2A. Dephosphorylation at these residues by PP2A eliminates the SCF(beta-TrCP) recognition site and blocks beta-catenin ubiquitin conjugation. Thus, by acting to protect the E3 ligase binding site, APC ensures the ubiquitin conjugation of phosphorylated beta-catenin.

EGE is more prevalent than EoE in Japan. Patients with EGE have abdominal pain and diarrhea, high peripheral eosinophil counts, and gastrointestinal wall thickening identifiable by CT findings, while EoE is characterized by dysphagia and characteristic endoscopic features.

Anguillid eels have been believed to have a unique catadromous life history completed within a particular ocean current system, and consequently to have extraordinary population structures, with each species comprising a single, virtually panmictic population with a species-specific spawning area far offshore. The giant mottled eel Anguilla marmorata is enigmatic in this respect because it is widely distributed from East Africa to the central South Pacific, where several different current systems exist, and apparently must have multiple spawning areas. To address this issue, the population structure was examined through the mitochondrial (mt) DNA analysis of 162 individuals collected from ten localities representing the overall distributional range. Nucleotide sequencing of a 626-bp segment in the control region of the mtDNA revealed 151 haplotypes, and these were clustered into several major groups supported by high bootstrap probabilities. Sequence differences among geographic samples revealed the existence of five geographic populations around North Pacific, Madagascar, Sumatra, Fiji, and Tahiti. Genetic differentiation among the populations in the Southern Hemisphere was supported by examination of nuclear DNA with amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) analysis performed on 76 individuals from four sampling localities in the Southern Hemisphere. The distribution pattern of five populations was closely associated with the water-mass structure of oceans and major current systems. This observation suggests a hypothesis that present population differentiation in A. marmorata might have resulted from the establishment of new population-specific spawning sites in different oceanic current systems as the species colonized new areas, as its unique catadromous life history of anguillid eels.

To elucidate the precise molecular mechanisms underlying stratum corneum (SC) elasticity, we investigated the molecular dynamics of chemical residues within keratin fibers of human plantar SC under various conditions by cross polarization/magic angle spinning 13C-nuclear magnetic resonance. The intensities of nuclear magnetic resonance spectra responsible for amide carbonyl, C alpha methine, and side-chain aliphatic carbons in the intact SC decreased markedly with increasing water content of up to 30% in dry SC, and then remained constant at greater than 30%. Lipid extraction of intact SC with acetone/ether (1:1) did not induce any significant change in the nuclear magnetic resonance spectrum, whereas additional treatment with water, which released natural moisturizing factors (mainly amino acids), caused the SC to lose elasticity. The observed decrease in elasticity of the SC recovered after treatment with basic and neutral amino acids, but not after treatment with acidic amino acid. With the latter treatment, movement of amino acid molecules was significantly disturbed, suggesting a strong interaction with keratin fibers. Parallel studies of the complex elastic modulus of a pig SC sheet with a rheovibron also demonstrated that removal of natural moisturizing factor reduced the elasticity of the SC; this effect was also reversed by the application of basic and neutral amino acids, but not by the application of acidic amino acid. These findings suggest that structural keratin proteins, mainly consisting of 10-nm filaments, acquire their elasticity with the help of hydrated natural moisturizing factor via the reduction of intermolecular forces, probably through nonhelical regions between keratin fibers.

SUMMARY We have studied 14 patients with aortopulmonary window (10 male and 4 female, age range 1 month to 41 years). Four ofthese had a distal defect with characteristic haemodynamic and angiographic features. Aortopulmonary window may be classified into 3 types: type I (proximal) defects occur in the proximal part of aortopulmonary septum; type II (distal) defects occur in the distal part of the aortopulmonary septum adjacent to the right pulmonary artery; the type III defect is a combination of types I and II.In type I, injection of contrast media into the aortic root opacifies the main pulmonary trunk and then both pulmonary arteries. In type II, the right pulmonary artery is preferentially opacified simulating the finding of right pulmonary artery arising from the ascending aorta. In one case of type II, injection into the right ventricle showed preferential flow to the left pulmonary artery, because of the large shunt of unopacified blood into the right pulmonary artery, but in both types I and II the left and right pulmonary arteries are usually opacified simultaneously after injection into the main pulmonary trunk.In type I either transaortic or transpulmonary closure is the appropriate surgical procedure. In types II and III, the transaortic approach provides better exposure and facilitates the operative repair.Aortopulmonary window is a relatively rare con-right pulmonary artery and the pulmonary trunk genital anomaly involving the great arteries. Patients (Kimoto et al., 1957;Nakaya, 1963; Wright with this anomaly in whom there is an increased et al., 1968). pulmonary flow and pulmonary hypertensionIn a 19-year period from 1958 to 1976, 14 patients usually develop symptoms in the neonatal period or with aortopulmonary window were studied at the in early infancy, and without operation have a Heart Institute of Japan (Table 1), and 4 of the 14 uniformly poor prognosis. The high mortality rate had the distal type of communication. The purpose in these babies is the result of congestive heart of this report is to describe 4 cases of the distal failure and of pulmonary complications caused by type of aortopulmonary window and to discuss an excessive left-to-right shunt through the aorto-diagnostic and surgical problems in 3 varieties of pulmonary window. Since cure is effected by sur-this defect. gical closure of the defect, precise preoperative recognition of the type and the location of the Case reports window is essential.In the majority of cases, the defect is in the left Clinical data are summarised in Table 2. lateral wall of the ascending aorta and communicates with the right lateral wall of the pulmonary CASE 1 trunk; the window is then anterior to the ostium of J.A., a 6-month old girl, was first seen at the age of the right pulmonary artery when viewed from the 30 days after an episode of unconsciousness, with lumen of the pulmonary trunk. In another type, opisthotonus. She was then an underdeveloped, however, there is a distal communication between poorly nourished infant, and had failed to thri...

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