Unconscious priming eliminates automatic binding of colour and alphanumeric form in synaesthesia

Synaesthesia is an unusual perceptual phenomenon in which events in one sensory modality induce vivid sensations in another. Individuals may 'taste' shapes, 'hear' colours, or 'feel' sounds. Synaesthesia was first described over a century ago, but little is known about its underlying causes or its effects on cognition. Most reports have been anecdotal or have focused on isolated unusual cases. Here we report an investigation of 15 individuals with colour-graphemic synaesthesia, each of whom experiences idiosyncratic but highly consistent colours for letters and digits. Using a colour-form interference paradigm, we show that induced synaesthetic experiences cannot be consciously suppressed even when detrimental to task performance. In contrast, if letters and digits are presented briefly and masked, so that they are processed but unavailable for overt report, the synaesthesia is eliminated. These results show that synaesthetic experiences can be prevented despite substantial processing of the sensory stimuli that otherwise trigger them. We conclude that automatic binding of colour and alphanumeric form in synaesthesia arises after initial processes of letter and digit recognition are complete.     

Drought-induced guard cell signal transduction involves sphingosine-1-phosphate

Stomata form pores on leaf surfaces that regulate the uptake of CO2 for photosynthesis and the loss of water vapour during transpiration. An increase in the cytosolic concentration of free calcium ions ([Ca2+]cyt) is a common intermediate in many of the pathways leading to either opening or closure of the stomatal pore. This observation has prompted investigations into how specificity is controlled in calcium-based signalling systems in plants. One possible explanation is that each stimulus generates a unique increase in [Ca2+]cyt, or 'calcium signature', that dictates the outcome of the final response. It has been suggested that the key to generating a calcium signature, and hence to understanding how specificity is controlled, is the ability to access differentially the cellular machinery controlling calcium influx and release from internal stores. Here we report that sphingosine-1-phosphate is a new calcium-mobilizing molecule in plants. We show that after drought treatment sphingosine-1-phosphate levels increase, and we present evidence that this molecule is involved in the signal-transduction pathway linking the perception of abscisic acid to reductions in guard cell turgor.     

Electrical spin injection and accumulation at room temperature in an all-metal mesoscopic spin valve

Finding a means to generate, control and use spin-polarized currents represents an important challenge for spin-based electronics, or 'spintronics'. Spin currents and the associated phenomenon of spin accumulation can be realized by driving a current from a ferromagnetic electrode into a non-magnetic metal or semiconductor. This was first demonstrated over 15 years ago in a spin injection experiment on a single crystal aluminium bar at temperatures below 77 K. Recent experiments have demonstrated successful optical detection of spin injection in semiconductors, using either optical injection by circularly polarized light or electrical injection from a magnetic semiconductor. However, it has not been possible to achieve fully electrical spin injection and detection at room temperature. Here we report room-temperature electrical injection and detection of spin currents and observe spin accumulation in an all-metal lateral mesoscopic spin valve, where ferromagnetic electrodes are used to drive a spin-polarized current into crossed copper strips. We anticipate that larger signals should be obtainable by optimizing the choice of materials and device geometry.     

Shear-induced molecular precession in a hexatic Langmuir monolayer

Liquid crystalline behaviour is generally limited to a select group of specially designed bulk substances. By contrast, it is a common feature of simple molecular monolayers and other quasi-two-dimensional systems, which often possess a type of in-plane ordering that results from unbinding of dislocations-a 'hexatic' liquid crystalline phase. The flow of monolayers is closely related to molecular transport in biological membranes, affects foam and emulsion stability and is relevant to microfluidics research. For liquid crystalline phases, it is important to understand the coupling of the molecular orientation to the flow. Orientationally ordered (nematic) phases in bulk liquid crystals exhibit 'shear aligning' or 'tumbling' behaviour under shear, and are described quantitatively by Leslie-Ericksen theory. For hexatic monolayers, the effects of flow have been inferred from textures of Langmuir-Blodgett films and directly observed at the macroscopic level. However, there is no accepted model of hexatic flow at the molecular level. Here we report observations of a hexatic Langmuir monolayer that reveal continuous, shear-induced molecular precession, interrupted by occasional jump discontinuities. Although superficially similar to tumbling in a bulk nematic phase, the kinematic details are quite different and provide a possible mechanism for domain coarsening and eventual molecular alignment in monolayers. We explain the precession and jumps within a quantitative framework that involves coupling of molecular orientation to the local molecular hexatic 'lattice', which is continuously deformed by shear.     

A genomic perspective on membrane compartment organization

Now that whole genome sequences are available for many eukaryotic organisms from yeast to man, we can form broad hypotheses on the basis of the relative expansion of protein families. To investigate the molecular mechanisms responsible for the organization of membrane compartments, we identified members of the SNARE, coat complex, Rab and Sec1 protein families in four eukaryotic genomes. Of these families only the Rab family expanded from the unicellular yeast to the multicellular fly and worm. All families were expanded in humans, where we find 35 SNAREs, 60 Rabs and 53 coat complex subunits. In addition, we were able to resolve the SNARE class of proteins into four distinct subfamilies.     

A high-resolution map of human chromosome 12

Our sequence-tagged site-content map of chromosome 12 is now integrated with the whole-genome fingerprinting effort. It provides accurate and nearly complete bacterial clone coverage of chromosome 12. We propose that this integrated mapping protocol serves as a model for constructing physical maps for entire genomes.     

Involvement of chemokine receptors in breast cancer metastasis

Breast cancer is characterized by a distinct metastatic pattern involving the regional lymph nodes, bone marrow, lung and liver. Tumour cell migration and metastasis share many similarities with leukocyte trafficking, which is critically regulated by chemokines and their receptors. Here we report that the chemokine receptors CXCR4 and CCR7 are highly expressed in human breast cancer cells, malignant breast tumours and metastases. Their respective ligands CXCL12/SDF-1alpha and CCL21/6Ckine exhibit peak levels of expression in organs representing the first destinations of breast cancer metastasis. In breast cancer cells, signalling through CXCR4 or CCR7 mediates actin polymerization and pseudopodia formation, and subsequently induces chemotactic and invasive responses. In vivo, neutralizing the interactions of CXCL12/CXCR4 significantly impairs metastasis of breast cancer cells to regional lymph nodes and lung. Malignant melanoma, which has a similar metastatic pattern as breast cancer but also a high incidence of skin metastases, shows high expression levels of CCR10 in addition to CXCR4 and CCR7. Our findings indicate that chemokines and their receptors have a critical role in determining the metastatic destination of tumour cells.     

High critical current density and enhanced irreversibility field in superconducting MgB2 thin films

The discovery of superconductivity at 39 K in magnesium diboride offers the possibility of a new class of low-cost, high-performance superconducting materials for magnets and electronic applications. This compound has twice the transition temperature of Nb3Sn and four times that of Nb-Ti alloy, and the vital prerequisite of strongly linked current flow has already been demonstrated. One possible drawback, however, is that the magnetic field at which superconductivity is destroyed is modest. Furthermore, the field which limits the range of practical applications-the irreversibility field H*(T)-is approximately 7 T at liquid helium temperature (4.2 K), significantly lower than about 10 T for Nb-Ti (ref. 6) and approximately 20 T for Nb3Sn (ref. 7). Here we show that MgB2 thin films that are alloyed with oxygen can exhibit a much steeper temperature dependence of H*(T) than is observed in bulk materials, yielding an H* value at 4.2 K greater than 14 T. In addition, very high critical current densities at 4.2 K are achieved: 1 MA cm-2 at 1 T and 105 A cm-2 at 10 T. These results demonstrate that MgB2 has potential for high-field superconducting applications.     

LDL-receptor-related protein 6 is a receptor for Dickkopf proteins

Wnt glycoproteins have been implicated in diverse processes during embryonic patterning in metazoa. They signal through frizzled-type seven-transmembrane-domain receptors to stabilize beta-catenin. Wnt signalling is antagonized by the extracellular Wnt inhibitor dickkopf1 (dkk1), which is a member of a multigene family. dkk1 was initially identified as a head inducer in Xenopus embryos but the mechanism by which it blocks Wnt signalling is unknown. LDL-receptor-related protein 6 (LRP6) is required during Wnt/beta-catenin signalling in Drosophila, Xenopus and mouse, possibly acting as a co-receptor for Wnt. Here we show that LRP6 (ref. 7) is a specific, high-affinity receptor for Dkk1 and Dkk2. Dkk1 blocks LRP6-mediated Wnt/beta-catenin signalling by interacting with domains that are distinct from those required for Wnt/Frizzled interaction. dkk1 and LRP6 interact antagonistically during embryonic head induction in Xenopus where LRP6 promotes the posteriorizing role of Wnt/beta-catenin signalling. Thus, DKKs inhibit Wnt co-receptor function, exemplifying the modulation of LRP signalling by antagonists.