Towards a proteome-scale map of the human protein-protein interaction network

Systematic mapping of protein-protein interactions, or 'interactome' mapping, was initiated in model organisms, starting with defined biological processes and then expanding to the scale of the proteome. Although far from complete, such maps have revealed global topological and dynamic features of interactome networks that relate to known biological properties, suggesting that a human interactome map will provide insight into development and disease mechanisms at a systems level. Here we describe an initial version of a proteome-scale map of human binary protein-protein interactions. Using a stringent, high-throughput yeast two-hybrid system, we tested pairwise interactions among the products of approximately 8,100 currently available Gateway-cloned open reading frames and detected approximately 2,800 interactions. This data set, called CCSB-HI1, has a verification rate of approximately 78% as revealed by an independent co-affinity purification assay, and correlates significantly with other biological attributes. The CCSB-HI1 data set increases by approximately 70% the set of available binary interactions within the tested space and reveals more than 300 new connections to over 100 disease-associated proteins. This work represents an important step towards a systematic and comprehensive human interactome project.     

A large dust/ice ratio in the nucleus of comet 9P/Tempel 1

Comets spend most of their life in a low-temperature environment far from the Sun. They are therefore relatively unprocessed and maintain information about the formation conditions of the planetary system, but the structure and composition of their nuclei are poorly understood. Although in situ and remote measurements have derived the global properties of some cometary nuclei, little is known about their interiors. The Deep Impact mission shot a projectile into comet 9P/Tempel 1 in order to investigate its interior. Here we report the water vapour content (1.5 10(32) water molecules or 4.5 10(6) kg) and the cross-section of the dust (330 km2 assuming an albedo of 0.1) created by the impact. The corresponding dust/ice mass ratio is probably larger than one, suggesting that comets are 'icy dirtballs' rather than 'dirty snowballs' as commonly believed. High dust velocities (between 110 m s(-1) and 300 m s(-1)) imply acceleration in the comet's coma, probably by water molecules sublimated by solar radiation. We did not find evidence of enhanced activity of 9P/Tempel 1 in the days after the impact, suggesting that in general impacts of meteoroids are not the cause of cometary outbursts.     

Breaking of Henry's law for noble gas and CO2 solubility in silicate melt under pressure

Degassing of the Earth is still poorly understood, as is the large scatter in He/Ar ratios observed in mid-ocean ridge basalts. A possible explanation for such observations is that vesiculation occurs at great depths with noble-gas solubilities different from those measured at 1 bar (ref. 1). Here we develop a hard-sphere model for noble-gas solubility and find that, owing to melt compaction, solubility may decrease by several orders of magnitude when pressure increases, an effect subtly overbalanced by the compression of the fluid phase. Our results satisfactorily explain recent experimental data on argon solubility in silicate melts, where argon concentration increases almost linearly with pressure, then levels off at pressures of 50-100 kbar (refs 2-5). We also model vesiculation during magma ascent at ridges and find that noble-gas partitioning between melt and CO2 vesicles at depth differs significantly from that at low pressure. Starting at 10 kbar (approximately 35 km depth), several stages of vesiculation occur followed by vesicle loss, which explains the broad variability of He-Ar concentration data in mid-ocean ridge basalts. 'Popping rocks', exceptional samples with high vesicularity, may represent fully vesiculated ridge magma, whereas common samples would simply have lost such vesicles.     

Fruit bats as reservoirs of Ebola virus

The first recorded human outbreak of Ebola virus was in 1976, but the wild reservoir of this virus is still unknown. Here we test for Ebola in more than a thousand small vertebrates that were collected during Ebola outbreaks in humans and great apes between 2001 and 2003 in Gabon and the Republic of the Congo. We find evidence of asymptomatic infection by Ebola virus in three species of fruit bat, indicating that these animals may be acting as a reservoir for this deadly virus.     

What are the memory sources of dreaming?

Investigators since Freud have appreciated that memories of the people, places, activities and emotions of daily life are reflected in dreams but are typically so fragmented that their predictability is nil. The mechanisms that translate such memories into dream images remain largely unknown. New research targeting relationships between dreaming, memory and the hippocampus is producing a new theory to explain how, why and when we dream of waking life events.     

一种新的植物枝条弯曲生成算法

枝条弯曲模拟对于形象地绘制模特图形很重要。从计算机图形学的角度出发,提出了一种计算枝条弯曲形状的简易力学模型,实现了基于“双尺度自动机模型”的枝条弯曲算法。该算法虽然所需参数少,但能有效地生成自然逼真的枝条弯曲形状,并且能反映植物在生长中枝条的动态弯曲过程。文中通过几个枝条弯曲的例子验证了算法的有效性。