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Preimaginal and Adult Experience Modulates the Thermal Response Behavior of Ants.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Colonies of social insects display an amazing degree of flexibility in dealing with long-term and short-term perturbations in their environment. The key organizational element of insect societies is division of labor. Recent literature suggests that interindividual variability in response thresholds plays an important role in the emergence of division of labor among workers (reviewed in [1, 2]). Genetic variation can only partly explain the variability among workers. Here we document the effects of both preimaginal and adult thermal experience on the behavioral differentiation of Camponotus rufipes ant workers. We show...
Source: Current Biology - November 11, 2009 Category: Biology Authors: Weidenmüller A, Mayr C, Kleineidam CJ, Roces F Tags: Curr Biol Source Type: journals

The Role of Experience in Problem Solving and Innovative Tool Use in Crows.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Creative problem solving and innovative tool use in animals are often seen as indicators of advanced intelligence because they seem to imply causal reasoning abilities [1]. However, complex behavior can also arise from relatively simple mechanisms [2, 3], and the cognitive operations underlying seemingly "insightful" behavior are rarely examined [4]. By controlling and varying prior experience, it is possible to determine the minimum information animals require to solve a given problem [5]. We investigated how pretesting experience affects the performance of New Caledonian crows (Corvus moneduloides) when facing a nove...
Source: Current Biology - November 11, 2009 Category: Biology Authors: von Bayern AM, Heathcote RJ, Rutz C, Kacelnik A Tags: Curr Biol Source Type: journals

Proteomic Analysis Reveals the Role of Synaptic Vesicle Cycling in Sustaining the Suprachiasmatic Circadian Clock.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
The central circadian pacemaker of the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) is characterized as a series of transcriptional/posttranslational feedback loops [1, 2]. How this molecular mechanism coordinates daily rhythms in the SCN and hence the organism is poorly understood. We conducted the first systematic exploration of the "circadian intracellular proteome" of the SCN and revealed that approximately 13% of soluble proteins are subject to circadian regulation. Many of these proteins have underlying nonrhythmic mRNAs, so they have not previously been noted as circadian. Circadian proteins of the SCN include rate-limiting fa...
Source: Current Biology - November 11, 2009 Category: Biology Authors: Deery MJ, Maywood ES, Chesham JE, Sládek M, Karp NA, Green EW, Charles PD, Reddy AB, Kyriacou CP, Lilley KS, Hastings MH Tags: Curr Biol Source Type: journals

Dopamine Enhances Expectation of Pleasure in Humans.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Human action is strongly influenced by expectations of pleasure. Making decisions, ranging from which products to buy to which job offer to accept, requires an estimation of how good (or bad) the likely outcomes will make us feel [1]. Yet, little is known about the biological basis of subjective estimations of future hedonic reactions. Here, we show that administration of a drug that enhances dopaminergic function (dihydroxy-L-phenylalanine; L-DOPA) during the imaginative construction of positive future life events subsequently enhances estimates of the hedonic pleasure to be derived from these same events. These findi...
Source: Current Biology - November 11, 2009 Category: Biology Authors: Sharot T, Shiner T, Brown AC, Fan J, Dolan RJ Tags: Curr Biol Source Type: journals

The CRYPTOCHROME Photoreceptor Gates PDF Neuropeptide Signaling to Set Circadian Network Hierarchy in Drosophila.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Circadian clocks in the brain are organized as coupled oscillators that integrate seasonal cues such as light and temperature to time daily behaviors. In Drosophila, the PIGMENT DISPERSING FACTOR (PDF) neuropeptide-expressing morning (M) and non-PDF evening (E) cells are coupled cell groups important for morning and evening behavior, respectively. Depending on day length, either M cells (short days) or E cells (long days) dictate both the morning and the evening phase, a phenomenon that we term network hierarchy. To examine the role of PDF in light-dark conditions, we examined flies lacking both the PDF receptor (PDFR)...
Source: Current Biology - November 11, 2009 Category: Biology Authors: Zhang L, Lear BC, Seluzicki A, Allada R Tags: Curr Biol Source Type: journals

The Amino-Terminal TPR Domain of Dia2 Tethers SCF(Dia2) to the Replisome Progression Complex.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Eukaryotic cells contain multiple versions of the E3 ubiquitin ligase known as the SCF (Skp1/cullin/F box), each of which is distinguished by a different F box protein that uses a domain at the carboxyl terminus to recognize substrates [1, 2]. The F box protein Dia2 is an important determinant of genome stability in budding yeast [3-5], but its mode of action is poorly understood. Here we show that SCF(Dia2) associates with the replisome progression complex (RPC) that assembles around the MCM2-7 helicase at DNA replication forks [6]. This interaction requires the RPC components Mrc1 and Ctf4, both of which associate wi...
Source: Current Biology - November 11, 2009 Category: Biology Authors: Morohashi H, Maculins T, Labib K Tags: Curr Biol Source Type: journals

The Spindle Position Checkpoint Requires Positional Feedback from Cytoplasmic Microtubules.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
The objective of mitosis is to provide a copy of the genome to each progeny of a cell division. This requires the separation of duplicate chromatids by the spindle apparatus and the delivery of one set of chromosomes to each of the daughter cells. In budding yeast, the fidelity of chromosome delivery depends on the spindle position checkpoint, which prolongs mitosis until one end of the anaphase spindle arrives in the bud [1-3]. Here we tested the hypothesis that the activity of the spindle position checkpoint depends on persistent interactions between cytoplasmic microtubules and the mother-bud neck, the future site of cy...
Source: Current Biology - November 11, 2009 Category: Biology Authors: Moore JK, Magidson V, Khodjakov A, Cooper JA Tags: Curr Biol Source Type: journals

Distinct Roles for the Actin Nucleators Arp2/3 and hDia1 during NK-Mediated Cytotoxicity.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
CONCLUSIONS: These studies reveal novel distinctions and relationships among the functions of Arp2/3, formins, and microtubules in cells. Notably, a formin mediates the capture of microtubules at the cell periphery. PMID: 19913427 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher] (Source: Current Biology)
Source: Current Biology - November 11, 2009 Category: Biology Authors: Butler B, Cooper JA Tags: Curr Biol Source Type: journals

Brain Oscillatory Substrates of Visual Short-Term Memory Capacity.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
The amount of information that can be stored in visual short-term memory is strictly limited to about four items [1]. Therefore, memory capacity relies not only on the successful retention of relevant information but also on efficient suppression of distracting information, visual attention, and executive functions [2-5]. However, completely separable neural signatures for these memory capacity-limiting factors remain to be identified. Because of its functional diversity [6-9], oscillatory brain activity may offer a utile solution. In the present study, we show that capacity-determining mechanisms, namely retention of ...
Source: Current Biology - November 11, 2009 Category: Biology Authors: Sauseng P, Klimesch W, Heise KF, Gruber WR, Holz E, Karim AA, Glennon M, Gerloff C, Birbaumer N, Hummel FC Tags: Curr Biol Source Type: journals

Effects of Orientation-Specific Visual Deprivation Induced with Altered Reality.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
What happens to neurons in visual cortex when they are deprived of their preferred stimuli? Long-term deprivation during development, spanning weeks, reduces the number of neurons selective for the deprived orientation [1-4]. In contrast, short-term deprivation in adults, for periods of seconds, can increase neural sensitivity relative to a stimulated baseline [5]. Effects over intermediate timescales remain largely unexplored, however. Here we introduce a new method for manipulating the visual environment of adult humans and report effects of four hours of orientation-specific deprivation. Subjects wore a head-mounted...
Source: Current Biology - November 4, 2009 Category: Biology Authors: Zhang P, Bao M, Kwon M, He S, Engel SA Tags: Curr Biol Source Type: journals

Newborns' Cry Melody Is Shaped by Their Native Language.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Human fetuses are able to memorize auditory stimuli from the external world by the last trimester of pregnancy, with a particular sensitivity to melody contour in both music and language [1-3]. Newborns prefer their mother's voice over other voices [4-8] and perceive the emotional content of messages conveyed via intonation contours in maternal speech ("motherese") [9]. Their perceptual preference for the surrounding language [10-12] and their ability to distinguish between prosodically different languages [13-15] and pitch changes [16] are based on prosodic information, primarily melody. Adult-like processing of pitch...
Source: Current Biology - November 4, 2009 Category: Biology Authors: Mampe B, Friederici AD, Christophe A, Wermke K Tags: Curr Biol Source Type: journals

The Temporal Interplay between Conscious and Unconscious Perceptual Streams.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
An optimal correspondence of temporal information between the physical world and our perceptual world is important for survival. In the current study, we demonstrate a novel temporal illusion in which the cause of a perceptual event is perceived after the event itself. We used a paradigm referred to as motion-induced blindness (MIB), in which a static visual target presented on a constantly rotating background disappears and reappears from awareness periodically [1-3], with the dynamic characteristics of bistable perception [4]. A sudden stimulus onset (e.g., a flash) presented during a period of perceptual suppression...
Source: Current Biology - November 4, 2009 Category: Biology Authors: Wu CT, Busch NA, Fabre-Thorpe M, Vanrullen R Tags: Curr Biol Source Type: journals

The Privileged Brain Representation of First Olfactory Associations.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Authors [1], poets [2], and scientists [3-6] have been fascinated by the strength of childhood olfactory memories. Indeed, in long-term memory, the first odor-to-object association was stronger than subsequent associations of the same odor with other objects [7]. Here we tested the hypothesis that first odor associations enjoy a privileged brain representation. Because emotion impacts memory [8-10], we further asked whether the pleasantness of an odor would influence such a representation. On day 1, we associated the same visual objects initially with one, and subsequently with a second, set of pleasant and unpleasant ...
Source: Current Biology - November 4, 2009 Category: Biology Authors: Yeshurun Y, Lapid H, Dudai Y, Sobel N Tags: Curr Biol Source Type: journals

ARF6-Regulated Shedding of Tumor Cell-Derived Plasma Membrane Microvesicles.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
CONCLUSIONS: Microvesicle shedding in tumor cells occurs via an actomyosin-based membrane abscission mechanism that is regulated by nucleotide cycling on ARF6. Microvesicle shedding appears to release selected cellular components, particularly those involved in cell adhesion and motility, into the surrounding environment. These findings suggest that ARF6 activation and the proteolytic activities of microvesicles, both of which are thought to correlate directly with tumor progression, could potentially serve as biomarkers for disease. PMID: 19896381 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher] (Source: Current Biology)
Source: Current Biology - November 4, 2009 Category: Biology Authors: Muralidharan-Chari V, Clancy J, Plou C, Romao M, Chavrier P, Raposo G, D'Souza-Schorey C Tags: Curr Biol Source Type: journals

Insect insights.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
PMID: 19899209 [PubMed - in process] (Source: Current Biology)
Source: Current Biology - November 3, 2009 Category: Biology Authors: Williams N Tags: Curr Biol Source Type: journals

Climate countdown.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
PMID: 19899224 [PubMed - in process] (Source: Current Biology)
Source: Current Biology - November 3, 2009 Category: Biology Authors: Williams N Tags: Curr Biol Source Type: journals

Tom Kirkwood.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
PMID: 19899225 [PubMed - in process] (Source: Current Biology)
Source: Current Biology - November 3, 2009 Category: Biology Authors: Kirkwood T Tags: Curr Biol Source Type: journals

Orangutans.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
PMID: 19889362 [PubMed - in process] (Source: Current Biology)
Source: Current Biology - November 3, 2009 Category: Biology Authors: Russon A Tags: Curr Biol Source Type: journals

Walcott, the Burgess Shale and rumours of a post-Darwinian world.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
PMID: 19889363 [PubMed - in process] (Source: Current Biology)
Source: Current Biology - November 3, 2009 Category: Biology Authors: Conway Morris S Tags: Curr Biol Source Type: journals

Toxins and venoms.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
PMID: 19889364 [PubMed - in process] (Source: Current Biology)
Source: Current Biology - November 3, 2009 Category: Biology Authors: Brodie ED Tags: Curr Biol Source Type: journals

Ants use the panoramic skyline as a visual cue during navigation.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
PMID: 19889365 [PubMed - in process] (Source: Current Biology)
Source: Current Biology - November 3, 2009 Category: Biology Authors: Graham P, Cheng K Tags: Curr Biol Source Type: journals

Evolutionary history of the Falklands wolf.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
PMID: 19889366 [PubMed - in process] (Source: Current Biology)
Source: Current Biology - November 3, 2009 Category: Biology Authors: Slater GJ, Thalmann O, Leonard JA, Schweizer RM, Koepfli KP, Pollinger JP, Rawlence NJ, Austin JJ, Cooper A, Wayne RK Tags: Curr Biol Source Type: journals

Embryogenesis: Degenerate phosphatases control the oocyte-to-embryo transition.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
The oocyte-to-embryo transition requires drastic reorganizations within a short timeframe. Recent studies show that, in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, phosphotyrosine-binding pseudo-phosphatases are key regulators of this critical developmental transition. PMID: 19889367 [PubMed - in process] (Source: Current Biology)
Source: Current Biology - November 3, 2009 Category: Biology Authors: Heighington CS, Kipreos ET Tags: Curr Biol Source Type: journals

Social cognition: Evolutionary history of emotional engagements with infants.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
A new mother and baby gaze into each other's eyes, mutually engaging with facial expressions, kisses and greetings. A new study shows that this behaviour is not uniquely human: such intersubjective interactions may have an evolutionary history of at least 30 million years. PMID: 19889368 [PubMed - in process] (Source: Current Biology)
Source: Current Biology - November 3, 2009 Category: Biology Authors: Bard KA Tags: Curr Biol Source Type: journals

Microbial evolution: enforcing cooperation by partial kin selection.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
How do bacterial cells mediate effective cooperation? A new paper suggests two routes: converting the uninitiated to their cause by lateral gene transfer, and enforcing cooperative behavior by killing revertants. PMID: 19889369 [PubMed - in process] (Source: Current Biology)
Source: Current Biology - November 3, 2009 Category: Biology Authors: Lawrence JG Tags: Curr Biol Source Type: journals

Visual maps: To merge or not to merge.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
A recent study of a child born with one cerebral hemisphere has revealed an extreme developmental reorganization of visual cortex. Self-organizing visual maps demonstrate a surprisingly flexible restructuring in response to cortical loss. PMID: 19889370 [PubMed - in process] (Source: Current Biology)
Source: Current Biology - November 3, 2009 Category: Biology Authors: Brewer AA Tags: Curr Biol Source Type: journals

Human prehistory: Hunting for the earliest farmers.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
The degree to which the spread of farming into Europe was accompanied by demographic shifts is subject to intense debate. Genetic evidence from Europe's first farmers and their hunter-gatherer counterparts now suggests an important role for the immigration of farmers. PMID: 19889371 [PubMed - in process] (Source: Current Biology)
Source: Current Biology - November 3, 2009 Category: Biology Authors: Rowley-Conwy P Tags: Curr Biol Source Type: journals

Calcium signals: STIM dynamics mediate spatially unique oscillations.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Receptor-induced Ca(2+) oscillations provide 'digitized' signals that confer precise activation of downstream targets. New studies reveal that STIM proteins - sensors of endoplasmic reticulum Ca(2+) levels - cyclically translocate during oscillations, transiently coupling to activate cell-surface Ca(2+) entry channels, resulting in a spatially unique signal that selectively triggers immediate-early gene expression. PMID: 19889372 [PubMed - in process] (Source: Current Biology)
Source: Current Biology - November 3, 2009 Category: Biology Authors: Mancarella S, Wang Y, Gill DL Tags: Curr Biol Source Type: journals

Morphological evolution: by any means necessary?Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Recent debate has focused on the role of cis-regulatory mutations in the evolution of genes controlling morphology. Identification of the molecular basis of naturally occurring variation in leaf hair (trichome) density in Arabidopsis, combined with earlier work in the same system, sheds light on this debate. PMID: 19889373 [PubMed - in process] (Source: Current Biology)
Source: Current Biology - November 3, 2009 Category: Biology Authors: Larkin JC Tags: Curr Biol Source Type: journals

Evolution: spatial scaling of microbial interactions.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Intraspecific incompatibility in the soil bacterium Myxococcus xanthus demonstrates that the social life of microbes is antagonistic on local and global scales. Antagonistic interactions and non-self recognition are likely to promote microbial diversity in local populations. PMID: 19889374 [PubMed - in process] (Source: Current Biology)
Source: Current Biology - November 3, 2009 Category: Biology Authors: Whitaker RJ Tags: Curr Biol Source Type: journals

Neuroscience: The chain reaction of dendritic integration.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Central neurons receive thousands of synaptic inputs. A recent study shows how pyramidal neurons of the mammalian neocortex integrate synaptic input in a parallel manner, illustrating how a chain of dendritic integration mechanisms act to signal distal dendritic excitatory synaptic input. PMID: 19889375 [PubMed - in process] (Source: Current Biology)
Source: Current Biology - November 3, 2009 Category: Biology Authors: Williams SR, Wozny C Tags: Curr Biol Source Type: journals

Social attention and the brain.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Humans and other animals pay attention to other members of their groups to acquire valuable social information about them, including information about their identity, dominance, fertility, emotions, and likely intent. In primates, attention to other group members and the objects of their attention is mediated by neural circuits that transduce sensory information about others and translate that information into value signals that bias orienting. This process likely proceeds via two distinct but integrated pathways: an ancestral, subcortical route that mediates crude but fast orienting to animate objects and faces; and a...
Source: Current Biology - November 3, 2009 Category: Biology Authors: Klein JT, Shepherd SV, Platt ML Tags: Curr Biol Source Type: journals

The Fission Yeast TACC Protein Mia1p Stabilizes Microtubule Arrays by Length-Independent Crosslinking.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Microtubule (MT) arrays are mechanistic effectors of polarity specification and cell division. Linear bundles in which MTs are bridged laterally [1, 2] are dynamically assembled in systems ranging from differentiated metazoan cells to fungi in a process that remains poorly understood. Often, bundled MTs slide with respect to each other via molecular motors [3, 4]. In interphase cells of the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe, MT nucleation frequently occurs at preexisting arrays [5, 6]. As the nascent MT lengthens, stable antiparallel MT overlaps are thought to form through competition between motion of the minus-...
Source: Current Biology - October 28, 2009 Category: Biology Authors: Thadani R, Ling YC, Oliferenko S Tags: Curr Biol Source Type: journals

Genetic Assimilation and the Postcolonization Erosion of Phenotypic Plasticity in Island Tiger Snakes.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
In 1942, C.H. Waddington [1] suggested that colonizing populations could initially succeed by flexibly altering their characteristics (phenotypic plasticity; [2-4]) in fitness-inducing traits, but selective forces would rapidly eliminate that plasticity to result in a canalized trait [1, 5, 6]. Waddington termed this process "genetic assimilation"[1, 7]. Despite the potential importance of genetic assimilation to evolutionary changes in founder populations [8-10], empirical evidence on this topic is rare, possibly because it happens on short timescales and is therefore difficult to detect except under unusual circumsta...
Source: Current Biology - October 28, 2009 Category: Biology Authors: Aubret F, Shine R Tags: Curr Biol Source Type: journals

Increased Cell Bond Tension Governs Cell Sorting at the Drosophila Anteroposterior Compartment Boundary.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Subdividing proliferating tissues into compartments is an evolutionarily conserved strategy of animal development [1-6]. Signals across boundaries between compartments can result in local expression of secreted proteins organizing growth and patterning of tissues [1-6]. Sharp and straight interfaces between compartments are crucial for stabilizing the position of such organizers and therefore for precise implementation of body plans. Maintaining boundaries in proliferating tissues requires mechanisms to counteract cell rearrangements caused by cell division; however, the nature of such mechanisms remains unclear. Here ...
Source: Current Biology - October 28, 2009 Category: Biology Authors: Landsberg KP, Farhadifar R, Ranft J, Umetsu D, Widmann TJ, Bittig T, Said A, Jülicher F, Dahmann C Tags: Curr Biol Source Type: journals

An Hh-Dependent Pathway in Lateral Plate Mesoderm Enables the Generation of Left/Right Asymmetry.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Breaking bilateral symmetry is critical for vertebrate morphogenesis. In the mouse, directional looping of the heart and rotation of the embryo, the first overt evidence of left/right asymmetry (L/R), are observed at early somite stages ( approximately E8.5) [1, 2]. Activation of a Nodal-Pitx2 regulatory pathway specifically within the left lateral plate mesoderm (LPM) is critical for these events [3-10]. Asymmetric expression of Nodal is thought to be triggered by left-oriented, cilia-generated flow within the ventral, midline node [11, 12]. Genetic removal of Hedgehog (Hh) signaling in the mouse demonstrates a requir...
Source: Current Biology - October 28, 2009 Category: Biology Authors: Tsiairis CD, McMahon AP Tags: Curr Biol Source Type: journals

Convergent Evolution of Novel Protein Function in Shrew and Lizard Venom.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
How do proteins evolve novel functions? To address this question, we are studying the evolution of a mammalian toxin, the serine protease BLTX [1], from the salivary glands of the North American shrew Blarina brevicauda. Here, we examine the molecular changes responsible for promoting BLTX toxicity. First, we show that regulatory loops surrounding the BLTX active site have evolved adaptively via acquisition of small insertions and subsequent accelerated sequence evolution. Second, these mutations introduce a novel chemical environment into the catalytic cleft of BLTX. Third, molecular-dynamic simulations show that the ...
Source: Current Biology - October 28, 2009 Category: Biology Authors: Aminetzach YT, Srouji JR, Kong CY, Hoekstra HE Tags: Curr Biol Source Type: journals

Deviant Kinetochore Microtubule Dynamics Underlie Chromosomal Instability.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
The persistent malattachment of microtubules to chromosomes at kinetochores is a major mechanism of chromosomal instability (CIN) [1, 2]. In normal diploid cells, malattachments arise spontaneously and are efficiently corrected to preserve genomic stability [3]. However, it is unknown whether cancer cells with CIN possess the ability to efficiently correct attachment errors. Here we show that kinetochore microtubule attachments in cancer cells with CIN are inherently more stable than those in normal diploid RPE-1 cells. The observed differences in attachment stability account for the persistence of malattachments into ...
Source: Current Biology - October 28, 2009 Category: Biology Authors: Bakhoum SF, Genovese G, Compton DA Tags: Curr Biol Source Type: journals

Social Conflict in Centimeter- and Global-Scale Populations of the Bacterium Myxococcus xanthus.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Social interactions among microbes that engage in cooperative behaviors are well studied in laboratory contexts [1, 2], but little is known about the scales at which initially cooperative microbes diversify into socially conflicting genotypes in nature. The predatory soil bacterium Myxococcus xanthus responds to starvation by cooperatively forming multicellular fruiting bodies in which a portion of the population differentiates into stress-resistant spores [3, 4]. Natural M. xanthus populations are spatially structured [5], and genetically divergent isolates from distant origins exhibit striking developmental antagonis...
Source: Current Biology - October 28, 2009 Category: Biology Authors: Vos M, Velicer GJ Tags: Curr Biol Source Type: journals

EGG-4 and EGG-5 Link Events of the Oocyte-to-Embryo Transition with Meiotic Progression in C. elegans.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
The molecular underpinnings of the oocyte-to-embryo transition are poorly understood. Here we show that two protein tyrosine phosphatase-like (PTPL) family proteins, EGG-4 and EGG-5, are required for key events of the oocyte-to-embryo transition in Caenorhabditis elegans. The predicted EGG-4 and EGG-5 amino acid sequences are 99% identical and their functions are redundant. In embryos lacking EGG-4 and EGG-5, we observe defects in meiosis, polar body formation, the block to polyspermy, F-actin dynamics, and eggshell deposition. During oogenesis, EGG-4 and EGG-5 assemble at the oocyte cortex with the previously identifi...
Source: Current Biology - October 28, 2009 Category: Biology Authors: Parry JM, Velarde NV, Lefkovith AJ, Zegarek MH, Hang JS, Ohm J, Klancer R, Maruyama R, Druzhinina MK, Grant BD, Piano F, Singson A Tags: Curr Biol Source Type: journals

Wild Chimpanzees Rely on Cultural Knowledge to Solve an Experimental Honey Acquisition Task.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Population and group-specific behavioral differences have been taken as evidence for animal cultures [1-10], a notion that remains controversial. Skeptics argue that ecological or genetic factors, rather than social learning, provide a more parsimonious explanation [11-14]. Work with captive chimpanzees has addressed this criticism by showing that experimentally created traditions can be transmitted through social learning [15-17]. Recent fieldwork further suggests that ecological and genetic factors are insufficient to explain the behavioral differences seen between communities, but the data are only observational [18...
Source: Current Biology - October 21, 2009 Category: Biology Authors: Gruber T, Muller MN, Strimling P, Wrangham R, Zuberbühler K Tags: Curr Biol Source Type: journals

Testing for Direct and Indirect Effects of Mate Choice by Manipulating Female Choosiness.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Despite a massive research effort, our understanding of the evolution of female mate choice remains incomplete [1, 2]. A central problem is that the predominating empirical research tradition has focused on male traits, yet the key question is whether female choice traits are maintained because of direct effects on female fitness or because of indirect genetic effects in offspring that may be associated with such traits. Here, we address this question by using a novel research strategy that employs experimental phenotypic manipulation of a female choice trait in an insect model system, the seed beetle Callosobruchus ch...
Source: Current Biology - October 21, 2009 Category: Biology Authors: Maklakov AA, Arnqvist G Tags: Curr Biol Source Type: journals

Oriented Cell Division as a Response to Cell Death and Cell Competition.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
The imaginal disc epithelia that give rise to the adult ectoderm of Drosophila can compensate to produce normal adult organs after damage. We looked at the local response to cell death by using two genetic methods to elevate cell death rates. During cell competition, sporadic cell death occurs predictably along the boundaries between populations of competing wild-type and "Minute" cells (M/+) [1]. Boundaries between M/+ and wild-type populations show an unusual degree of mixing, associated with mitotic reorientation of wild-type cells toward M/+ territory that they take over. Apoptosis of M/+ cells was the cue, and reo...
Source: Current Biology - October 21, 2009 Category: Biology Authors: Li W, Kale A, Baker NE Tags: Curr Biol Source Type: journals

Crowding in Peripheral Vision: Why Bigger Is Better.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
We enjoy the illusion that visual resolution is high across the entire field of vision. However, this illusion can be easily dispelled by trying to identify objects in a cluttered environment out of the corner of your eye. This reflects, in part, the well-known decline in visual resolution in peripheral vision; however, the main bottleneck for reading or object recognition in peripheral vision is crowding. Objects that can be easily identified in isolation seem indistinct and jumbled in clutter. Crowding is thought to reflect inappropriate integration of the target and flankers in peripheral vision [1, 2]. Here, we unc...
Source: Current Biology - October 21, 2009 Category: Biology Authors: Levi DM, Carney T Tags: Curr Biol Source Type: journals

The C. elegans Dosage Compensation Complex Propagates Dynamically and Independently of X Chromosome Sequence.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
CONCLUSIONS: A highly conserved chromatin complex is appropriated to accomplish domain-scale transcriptional regulation during C. elegans development. Unlike X recognition, which is specified partly by DNA sequence, spreading is sequence independent and coupled to transcriptional activity. Similarities to the X recognition and spreading strategies used by the Drosophila DCC suggest mechanisms fundamental to chromosome-scale gene regulation. PMID: 19853451 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher] (Source: Current Biology)
Source: Current Biology - October 21, 2009 Category: Biology Authors: Ercan S, Dick LL, Lieb JD Tags: Curr Biol Source Type: journals

Dynein Antagonizes Eg5 by Crosslinking and Sliding Antiparallel Microtubules.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Mitotic spindle assembly requires the combined activity of various molecular motor proteins, including Eg5 [1] and dynein [2]. Together, these motors generate antagonistic forces during mammalian bipolar spindle assembly [3]; what remains unknown, however, is how these motors are functionally coordinated such that antagonism is possible. Given that Eg5 generates an outward force by crosslinking and sliding apart antiparallel microtubules (MTs) [4-6], we explored the possibility that dynein generates an inward force by likewise sliding antiparallel MTs. We reasoned that antiparallel overlap, and therefore the magnitude ...
Source: Current Biology - October 13, 2009 Category: Biology Authors: Ferenz NP, Paul R, Fagerstrom C, Mogilner A, Wadsworth P Tags: Curr Biol Source Type: journals

The MST1 and hMOB1 Tumor Suppressors Control Human Centrosome Duplication by Regulating NDR Kinase Phosphorylation.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
CONCLUSIONS: Our observations propose a novel pathway in control of human centriole duplication after recruitment of HsSAS-6 to centrioles. PMID: 19836237 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher] (Source: Current Biology)
Source: Current Biology - October 13, 2009 Category: Biology Authors: Hergovich A, Kohler RS, Schmitz D, Vichalkovski A, Cornils H, Hemmings BA Tags: Curr Biol Source Type: journals

Stress-Induced Phosphorylation of S. pombe Atf1 Abrogates Its Interaction with F Box Protein Fbh1.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
The Atf1 transcription factor is critical for directing stress-induced gene expression in fission yeast [1]. Upon exposure to stress, Atf1 is hyperphosphorylated by the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) Sty1 [2, 3], which results in its stabilization [4]. The resulting increase in Atf1 is vital for a robust response to certain stresses [4]. Here we investigated the mechanism by which phosphorylation stabilizes Atf1. We show that Atf1 is a target for the ubiquitin-proteasome system and that its degradation is dependent upon an SCF E3 ligase containing the F box protein Fbh1. Turnover of Atf1 requires an intact F b...
Source: Current Biology - October 13, 2009 Category: Biology Authors: Lawrence CL, Jones N, Wilkinson CR Tags: Curr Biol Source Type: journals

UIF, a New mRNA Export Adaptor that Works Together with REF/ALY, Requires FACT for Recruitment to mRNA.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Messenger RNA (mRNA) export adaptors play an important role in the transport of mRNA from the nucleus to the cytoplasm. They couple early mRNA processing events such as 5' capping and 3' end formation with loading of the TAP/NXF1 export receptor onto mRNA. The canonical adaptor REF/ALY/Yra1 is recruited to mRNA via UAP56 and subsequently delivers the mRNA to NXF1 [1]. Knockdown of UAP56 [2, 3] and NXF1 [4-7] in higher eukaryotes efficiently blocks mRNA export, whereas knockdown of REF only causes a modest reduction, suggesting the existence of additional adaptors [8-10]. Here we identify a new UAP56-interacting factor,...
Source: Current Biology - October 13, 2009 Category: Biology Authors: Hautbergue GM, Hung ML, Walsh MJ, Snijders AP, Chang CT, Jones R, Ponting CP, Dickman MJ, Wilson SA Tags: Curr Biol Source Type: journals

Independent Recruitment of F Box Genes to Regulate Hermaphrodite Development during Nematode Evolution.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Elucidating the molecular mechanisms that created ancient complex traits like insect wings is difficult. Fortunately, some complex traits have arisen recently. For example, hermaphroditic reproduction evolved independently many times during recent nematode evolution [1-3]. Although C. elegans hermaphrodites require fog-2[4], which encodes an F box protein that regulates the translation of tra-2 mRNAs [5, 6], the related species C. briggsae lacks fog-2[7]. We identified a critical regulator of hermaphrodite development in C. briggsae, named she-1. Analysis of double mutants indicates that she-1 acts upstream of tra-2 in...
Source: Current Biology - October 13, 2009 Category: Biology Authors: Guo Y, Lang S, Ellis RE Tags: Curr Biol Source Type: journals