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Prominent Member (prominent + member)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Life Sciences	50%
Humanities and Social Sciences	33%

Selected Abstracts

Svenzea zeai, a Caribbean reef sponge with a giant larva, and Scopalina ruetzleri: a comparative fine-structural approach to classification (Demospongiae, Halichondrida, Dictyonellidae)

INVERTEBRATE BIOLOGY, Issue 3 2003
Klaus Rützler
Abstract. Svenzea zeai, abundant on many deep Caribbean fore-reef habitats but of uncertain systematic position within the Demospongiae, is closely examined histologically and cytologically for evidence of its phylogenetic relationship beyond the traditional analysis of gross morphology and skeletal structure. We document that S. zeai is a bacteriosponge containing substantial quantities of unicellular photosynthetic and autotrophic microbes; that the most abundant cell type is an unusual cell with refractile granules that only few species share and whose composition and function are still enigmatic; and that it produces the largest,by a factor of 3,embryos and larvae recorded in the phylum Porifera. A combination of characters such as the granular cells, ciliary pattern, and aspects of larval shape and behavior are comparable with those of Scopalina ruetzleri, family Dictyonellidae, a prominent member of the Caribbean mangrove community. These results support our earlier decision to establish Svenzea as a new genus in Dictyonellidae to accommodate its unprecedented skeletal structure, styles in isodictyal reticulation. [source]

Chaperone-like activity and hydrophobicity of ,-crystallin

IUBMB LIFE, Issue 11 2006
G. Bhanuprakash Reddy
Abstract ,-Crystallin, a prominent member of small heat shock protein (sHsp) family and a major structural protein of the eye lens is a large polydisperse oligomer of two isoforms, ,A- and ,B-crystallins. Numerous studies have demonstrated that ,-crystallin functions like a molecular chaperone in preventing the aggregation of various proteins under a wide range of stress conditions. The molecular chaperone function of ,-crystallin is thus considered to be vital in the maintenance of lens transparency and in cataract prevention. ,-Crystallin selectively interacts with non-native proteins thereby preventing them from aggregation and helps maintain them in a folding competent state. It has been proposed and generally accepted that ,-crystallin suppresses the aggregation of other proteins through the interaction between hydrophobic patches on its surface and exposed hydrophobic sites of partially unfolded substrate protein. However, a quantifiable relationship between hydrophobicity and chaperone-like activity remains a matter to be concerned about. On an attentive review of studies on ,-crystallin chaperone-like activity, particularly the studies that have direct or indirect implications to hydrophobicity and chaperone-like activity, we found several instances wherein the correlation between hydrophobicity and its chaperone-like activity is paradoxical. We thus attempted to provide an overview on the role of hydrophobicity in chaperone-like activity of ,-crystallin, the kind of evaluation done for the first time. iubmb Life, 58: 632 - 641, 2006 [source]

Romance and resistance: narratives of chivalry in mid-Tudor England

RENAISSANCE STUDIES, Issue 4 2010
Edward Wilson-Lee
This article considers evidence regarding the printing, translating, and reading of chivalric romance in late sixteenth-century England. After analysing the market conditions that influenced the printing ventures of William Copland, the main mid-century printer of chivalric romances, evidence of readership is considered in the form of ownership inscriptions and marginalia in his editions of romances. The case of William Bellasis, a prominent member of the Yorkshire gentry, provides suggestive anecdotal evidence of a romance being read as an anti-metropolitan and anti-Reformist narrative. Margaret Tyler's approach to translating Spanish chivalric romance is then considered for its conscious affiliation to a discourse of impoverished northern chivalry. Finally, a reconsideration of the drive to appropriate chivalric romance as a narrative form for the centralized, Protestant Tudor polity by writers like Spenser and Bateman suggests that these initiatives should be seen as reacting to a perception of romance as relying on the twin concepts of power delegation and intercession, both of which were anathema to the Tudor administration. [source]

Ancient Weapons for Attack and Defense: the Pore-forming Polypeptides of Pathogenic Enteric and Free-living Amoeboid Protozoa,

THE JOURNAL OF EUKARYOTIC MICROBIOLOGY, Issue 5 2004
MATTHIAS LEIPPE
ABSTRACT Pore-forming polypeptides have been purified from several amoeboid protozoans that are well-known human pathogens. Obligate enteric parasites, such as Entamoeba histolytica, and free-living but potentially highly pathogenic species, such as Naegleria fowleri, contain these cytolytic molecules inside cytoplasmic granules. Comprehensive functional and structural studies have been conducted that include isolation of the proteins from their natural sources, monitoring of their biological activity towards different targets, and molecular cloning of the genes of their precursors. In the case of the most prominent member of the protein family, with respect to protozoans, the three-dimensional structure of amoebapore A was solved recently. The amoebic pore-forming polypeptides can rapidly perforate human cells. The antibacterial activity of amoebapores and of related polypetides from free-living protozoa points to a more vital function of these molecules: inside the digestive vacuoles they combat growth of phagocytosed bacteria which are killed when their cytoplasmic membranes are permeabilized. The concommitant activity of these proteins towards host cells may be due to a coincidental selection for an efficient effector molecule. Nonetheless, several lines of evidence indicate that these factors are involved in pathogenesis of fatal diseases induced by amoeboid protozoa. [source]

1.8 Å structure of murine GITR ligand dimer expressed in Drosophila melanogaster S2 cells

ACTA CRYSTALLOGRAPHICA SECTION D, Issue 5 2009
Kausik Chattopadhyay
Glucocorticoid-induced TNF receptor ligand (GITRL), a prominent member of the TNF superfamily, activates its receptor on both effector and regulatory T cells to generate critical costimulatory signals that have been implicated in a wide range of T-cell immune functions. The crystal structures of murine and human orthologs of GITRL recombinantly expressed in Escherichia coli have previously been determined. In contrast to all classical TNF structures, including the human GITRL structure, murine GITRL demonstrated a unique `strand-exchanged' dimeric organization. Such a novel assembly behavior indicated a dramatic impact on receptor activation as well as on the signaling mechanism associated with the murine GITRL costimulatory system. In this present work, the 1.8,Å resolution crystal structure of murine GITRL expressed in Drosophila melanogaster S2 cells is reported. The eukaryotic protein-expression system allows transport of the recombinant protein into the extracellular culture medium, thus maximizing the possibility of obtaining correctly folded material devoid of any folding/assembly artifacts that are often suspected with E. coli -expressed proteins. The S2 cell-expressed murine GITRL adopts an identical `strand-exchanged' dimeric structure to that observed for the E. coli -expressed protein, thus conclusively demonstrating the novel quaternary structure assembly behavior of murine GITRL. [source]

On violence as the negativity of the Durkheimian: between anomie, sacrifice and effervescence

INTERNATIONAL SOCIAL SCIENCE JOURNAL, Issue 2006
S. Romi Mukherjee
In this introductory article I contextualise, historically and theoretically, the rapport between Durkheimianism and violence. Telescoping Durkheimian theories of anomie, sacrifice and effervescence, I demonstrate how both Durkheim and Mauss, arguably the most prominent members of the French School of Sociology, found themselves constantly reflecting on violence in all its forms while never outlining an explicit theory of violence. Violence was thus the dark spot of their enterprises, at once omnipresent but disavowed. I weave together the various fragments of their oeuvres that illuminate the ground of the Durkheimian theory of violence and also examine the precise reasons for its lack of clear theorisation. I conclude with some remarks on Durkheim and fascism. Therefore, this article serves to supplement and set the stage for the articles that appear in this volume, pieces that in their own ways grapple with similar problematics while also moving beyond them and charting new directions in Durkheimian studies. [source]