To identify candidate royal jelly (RJ) proteins that might affect the physiologic status of honeybee colony members, we used shotgun proteomics to comprehensively identify the RJ proteome as well as proteomes of the hypopharyngeal gland (HpG), postcerebral gland (PcG), and thoracic gland (TG), from which RJ proteins are assumed to be derived. We identified a total of 38 nonredundant RJ proteins, including 22 putative secretory proteins and Insulin-like growth factor-binding protein complex acid labile subunit. Among them, 9 proteins were newly identified from RJ. Comparison of the RJ proteome with the HpG, PcG, and TG proteomes revealed that 17 of the 22 putative secretory RJ proteins were derived from some of these glands, suggesting that the RJ proteome is a cocktail of proteins from these three glands. Furthermore, pathway analysis suggested that the HpG proteome represents the molecular basis of the extremely high protein-synthesizing ability, whereas the PcG proteome suggests that the PcG functions as a reservoir for the volatile compounds and a primer pheromone. Finally, to further characterize the possible total RJ proteome, we identified putative secretory proteins in the proteomes of these three glands. This will be useful for predicting novel RJ protein components in future studies.

To clarify the molecular mechanism underlying the lysophosphatidylcholine (LPC) signaling, we studied the effect of LPC on the intracellular free calcium concentration ([Ca2+]i) in murine peritoneal macrophages. LPC when added alone induced biphasic elevation of [Ca2+]i, which consisted of a rapid increase followed by sustained elevation. LPC, when added with equimolar cholesterol, induced only the rapid increase in [Ca2+]i, which was blocked by WEB-2086, a selective platelet-activating factor (PAF) receptor antagonist. These results suggest LPC exerts a specific Ca2+ signaling. The sustained elevation reflected the cell lysis. Furthermore, we confirmed its pathway in a more specific manner using cloned PAF receptors expressed in Chinese hamster ovary cells. LPC induced an elevation of [Ca2+]i in a concentration-dependent manner only when the PAF receptor had been expressed, and the elevation of [Ca2+]i was blocked by WEB-2086. Taken together, LPC transduces Ca2+ signaling via the PAF receptor. Activation of the PAF receptor by LPC may indicate its novel important role in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis.

The driving and damping mechanism of plasma flow is an important issue because flow shear has a significant impact on turbulence in a plasma, which determines the transport in the magnetized plasma. Here we report clear evidence of the flow damping due to stochastization of the magnetic field. Abrupt damping of the toroidal flow associated with a transition from a nested magnetic flux surface to a stochastic magnetic field is observed when the magnetic shear at the rational surface decreases to 0.5 in the large helical device. This flow damping and resulting profile flattening are much stronger than expected from the Rechester–Rosenbluth model. The toroidal flow shear shows a linear decay, while the ion temperature gradient shows an exponential decay. This observation suggests that the flow damping is due to the change in the non-diffusive term of momentum transport.

We report the transport properties in the vortex liquid states induced by quantum fluctuations at low temperature in the layered organic superconductor -(BEDT-TTF) 2 Cu(NCS) 2 . A steep drop of the resistivity observed below about 1 K separates the liquid state into two regions. In the low-resistance state at lower temperature, a finite resistivity with weak temperature dependence persists down to 100 mK at least. The finite resistivity in the vortex state at TӍ0 K indicates the realization of quantum vortex liquid assisted by the strong quantum fluctuations instead of the thermal one. A possible origin for separating these liquid states is a remnant vortex melting line at the original position, which is obscured and suppressed by the quantum fluctuations. A nonlinear behavior of the in-plane resistivity appears at large current density in only the low-resistance state, but not in another vortex liquid state at higher temperature, where the thermal fluctuations are dominant. The transport properties in the low-resistance state are well understood in the vortex slush concept with a shortrange order of vortices. Thus the low-resistance state below 1 K is considered to be a novel quantum vortex slush state.

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