Horses damp the spring in their step.

The muscular work of galloping in horses is halved by storing and returning elastic strain energy in spring-like muscle-tendon units.These make the legs act like a child's pogo stick that is tuned to stretch and recoil at 2.5 strides per second. This mechanism is optimized by unique musculoskeletal adaptations: the digital flexor muscles have extremely short fibres and significant passive properties, whereas the tendons are very long and span several joints. Length change occurs by a stretching of the spring-like digital flexor tendons rather than through energetically expensive length changes in the muscle. Despite being apparently redundant for such a mechanism, the muscle fibres in the digital flexors are well developed. Here we show that the mechanical arrangement of the elastic leg permits it to vibrate at a higher frequency of 30-40 Hz that could cause fatigue damage to tendon and bone. Furthermore, we show that the digital flexor muscles have minimal ability to contribute to or regulate significantly the 2.5-Hz cycle of movement, but are ideally arranged to damp these high-frequency oscillations in the limb.     

Chemistry of ion coordination and hydration revealed by a K+ channel-Fab complex at 2.0 A resolution.

Ion transport proteins must remove an ion's hydration shell to coordinate the ion selectively on the basis of its size and charge. To discover how the K+ channel solves this fundamental aspect of ion conduction, we solved the structure of the KcsA K+ channel in complex with a monoclonal Fab antibody fragment at 2.0 A resolution. Here we show how the K+ channel displaces water molecules around an ion at its extracellular entryway, and how it holds a K+ ion in a square antiprism of water molecules in a cavity near its intracellular entryway. Carbonyl oxygen atoms within the selectivity filter form a very similar square antiprism around each K+ binding site, as if to mimic the waters of hydration. The selectivity filter changes its ion coordination structure in low K+ solutions. This structural change is crucial to the operation of the selectivity filter in the cellular context, where the K+ ion concentration near the selectivity filter varies in response to channel gating.     

Mars' volatile and climate history.

There is substantial evidence that the martian volatile inventory and climate have changed markedly throughout the planet's history. Clues come from areas as disparate as the history and properties of the deep interior, the composition of the crust and regolith, the morphology of the surface, composition of the present-day atmosphere, and the nature of the interactions between the upper atmosphere and the solar wind. We piece together the relevant observations into a coherent view of the evolution of the martian climate, focusing in particular on the observations that provide the strongest constraints.     

Cyclin-dependent kinases prevent DNA re-replication through multiple mechanisms.

The stable propagation of genetic information requires that the entire genome of an organism be faithfully replicated once and only once each cell cycle. In eukaryotes, this replication is initiated at hundreds to thousands of replication origins distributed over the genome, each of which must be prohibited from re-initiating DNA replication within every cell cycle. How cells prevent re-initiation has been a long-standing question in cell biology. In several eukaryotes, cyclin-dependent kinases (CDKs) have been implicated in promoting the block to re-initiation, but exactly how they perform this function is unclear. Here we show that B-type CDKs in Saccharomyces cerevisiae prevent re-initiation through multiple overlapping mechanisms, including phosphorylation of the origin recognition complex (ORC), downregulation of Cdc6 activity, and nuclear exclusion of the Mcm2-7 complex. Only when all three inhibitory pathways are disrupted do origins re-initiate DNA replication in G2/M cells. These studies show that each of these three independent mechanisms of regulation is functionally important.     

Effects of the steel gene product on mouse primordial germ cells in culture.

Mutations at the steel (sl) and dominant white spotting (W) loci in the mouse affect primordial germ cells (PGC), melanoblasts and haemopoietic stem cells. The W gene encodes a cell-surface receptor of the tyrosine kinase family, the proto-oncogene c-kit. In situ analysis has shown c-kit messenger RNA expression in PGC in the early genital ridges. The Sl gene encodes the ligand for this receptor, a peptide growth factor, called here stem cell factor (SCF). SCF mRNA is expressed in many regions of the early mouse embryo, including the areas of migration of these cell types. It is important now to identify the role of the Sl-W interaction in the development of these migratory embryonic stem cell populations. Using an in vitro assay system, we show that SCF increases both the overall numbers and colony sizes of migratory PGC isolated from wild-type mouse embryos, and cultured on irradiated feeder layers of STO cells (a mouse embryonic fibroblast line). In the absence of feeder cells, SCF causes a large increase in the initial survival and apparent motility of PGC in culture. But labelling with bromodeoxyuridine shows that SCF is not, by itself, a mitogen for PGC. SCF does not exert a chemotropic effect on PGC in in vitro assays. These results suggest that SCF in vivo is an essential requirement for PGC survival. This demonstrates the control of the early germ-line population by a specific trophic factor.     

Altered chloride ion channel kinetics associated with the delta F508 cystic fibrosis mutation.

Cystic fibrosis is associated with a defect in epithelial chloride ion transport which is caused by mutations in a membrane protein called CFTR (cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator). Heterologous expression of CFTR produces cyclicAMP-sensitive Cl(-)-channel activity. Deletion of phenylalanine at amino-acid position 508 in CFTR (delta F508 CFTR) is the most common mutation in cystic fibrosis. It has been proposed that this mutation prevents glycoprotein maturation and its transport to its normal cellular location. We have expressed both CFTR and delta F508 CFTR in Vero cells using recombinant vaccinia virus. Although far less delta F508 CFTR reached the plasma membrane than normal CFTR, sufficient delta F508 CFTR was expressed at the plasma membrane to permit functional analysis. delta F508 CFTR expression induced a reduced activity of the cAMP-activated Cl- channel, with conductance, anion selectivity and open-time kinetics similar to those of CFTR, but with much greater closed times, resulting in a large decrease of open probability. The delta F508 mutation thus seems to have two major consequences, an abnormal translocation of the CFTR protein which limits membrane insertion, and an abnormal function in mediating Cl- transport.     

Mutations in the channel domain alter desensitization of a neuronal nicotinic receptor.

A variety of ligand-gated ion channels undergo a fast activation process after the rapid application of agonist and also a slower transition towards desensitized or inactivated closed channel states when exposure to agonist is prolonged. Desensitization involves at least two distinct closed states in the acetylcholine receptor, each with an affinity for agonists higher than those of the resting or active conformations. Here we investigate how structural elements could be involved in the desensitization of the acetylcholine-gated ion channel from the chick brain alpha-bungarotoxin sensitive homo-oligomeric alpha 7 receptor, using site-directed mutagenesis and expression in Xenopus oocytes. Mutations of the highly conserved leucine 247 residue from the uncharged MII segment of alpha 7 suppress inhibition by the open-channel blocker QX-222, indicating that this residue, like others from MII, faces the lumen of the channel. But, unexpectedly, the same mutations decrease the rate of desensitization of the response, increase the apparent affinity for acetylcholine and abolish current rectification. Moreover, unlike wild-type alpha 7, which has channels with a single conductance level, the leucine-to-threonine mutant has an additional conducting state active at low acetylcholine concentrations. It is possible that mutation of Leu 247 renders conductive one of the high-affinity desensitized states of the receptor.