07-05-2013 | Tsung-Pin Pai; Chun-Chao Chen; Hui-Hao Lin; An-Lun Chin; Jason Sih-Yu Lai; Pei-Tseng Lee; Tim Tully; Ann-Shyn Chiang, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences current issue, 2013

Memory is initially labile and gradually consolidated over time through new protein synthesis into a long-lasting stable form. Studies of odor-shock associative learning in Drosophila have established the mushroom body (MB) as a key brain structure involved in olfactory long-term memory (LTM) ...

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07-05-2013 | Jan D. Baranski; Ritika R. Chaturvedi; Kelly R. Stevens; Jeroen Eyckmans; Brian Carvalho; Ricardo D. Solorzano; Mich ..., Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences current issue, 2013

Tissue vascularization and integration with host circulation remains a key barrier to the translation of engineered tissues into clinically relevant therapies. Here, we used a microtissue molding approach to demonstrate that constructs containing highly aligned “cords” of endothelial cells ...

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07-05-2013 | Jing Li; Saher A. Shaikh; Giray Enkavi; Po-Chao Wen; Zhijian Huang; Emad Tajkhorshid, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences current issue, 2013

Membrane transporters rely on highly coordinated structural transitions between major conformational states for their function, to prevent simultaneous access of the substrate binding site to both sides of the membrane—a mode of operation known as the alternating access model. Although this ...

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30-04-2013 | Eva Nývltová; Robert Šuták; Karel Harant; Miroslava Šedinová; Ivan Hrdý; Jan Pačes; Čestmír Vlček; Jan Tachezy, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences current issue, 2013

In most eukaryotes, the mitochondrion is the main organelle for the formation of iron-sulfur (FeS) clusters. This function is mediated through the iron-sulfur cluster assembly machinery, which was inherited from the α-proteobacterial ancestor of mitochondria. In Archamoebae, including ...

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30-04-2013 | Hiromi Ikadai; Kathryn Shaw Saliba; Stefan M. Kanzok; Kyle J. McLean; Takeshi Q. Tanaka; Jun Cao; Kim C. Williamson; ..., Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences current issue, 2013

Gametocytes are essential for Plasmodium transmission, but little is known about the mechanisms that lead to their formation. Using piggyBac transposon-mediated insertional mutagenesis, we screened for parasites that no longer form mature gametocytes, which led to the isolation of 29 clones ...

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23-04-2013 | Duc-Huy T. Nguyen; Sarah C. Stapleton; Michael T. Yang; Susie S. Cha; Colin K. Choi; Peter A. Galie; Christopher S. Chen, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences current issue, 2013

Angiogenesis is a complex morphogenetic process whereby endothelial cells from existing vessels invade as multicellular sprouts to form new vessels. Here, we have engineered a unique organotypic model of angiogenic sprouting and neovessel formation that originates from preformed artificial ...

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23-04-2013 | Ying-Hsuan Lin; Haofei Zhang; Havala O. T. Pye; Zhenfa Zhang; Wendy J. Marth; Sarah Park; Maiko Arashiro; Tianqu Cui ..., Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences current issue, 2013

Isoprene is a substantial contributor to the global secondary organic aerosol (SOA) burden, with implications for public health and the climate system. The mechanism by which isoprene-derived SOA is formed and the influence of environmental conditions, however, remain unclear. We present ...

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23-04-2013 | Simone Casolo; Gian Franco Tantardini; Rocco Martinazzo, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences current issue, 2013

Hydrogen formation is a key process for the physics and the chemistry of interstellar clouds. Molecular hydrogen is believed to form on the carbonaceous surface of dust grains, and several mechanisms have been invoked to explain its abundance in different regions of space, from cold ...

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23-04-2013 | Joshua B. Radke; Olivier Lucas; Erandi K. De Silva; YanFen Ma; William J. Sullivan, Jr.; Louis M. Weiss; Manuel Llin ..., Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences current issue, 2013

Cellular differentiation leading to formation of the bradyzoite tissue cyst stage is the underlying cause of chronic toxoplasmosis. Consequently, mechanisms responsible for controlling development in the Toxoplasma intermediate life cycle have long been sought. Here, we identified 15 ...

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16-04-2013 | Lior Izhar; Omer Ziv; Isadora S. Cohen; Nicholas E. Geacintov; Zvi Livneh, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences current issue, 2013

DNA lesions can block replication forks and lead to the formation of single-stranded gaps. These replication complications are mitigated by DNA damage tolerance mechanisms, which prevent deleterious outcomes such as cell death, genomic instability, and carcinogenesis. The two main tolerance ...

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