A single population of olfactory sensory neurons mediates an innate avoidance behaviour in Drosophila

All animals exhibit innate behaviours in response to specific sensory stimuli that are likely to result from the activation of developmentally programmed neural circuits. Here we observe that Drosophila exhibit robust avoidance to odours released by stressed flies. Gas chromatography and mass spectrometry identifies one component of this 'Drosophila stress odorant (dSO)' as CO2. CO2 elicits avoidance behaviour, at levels as low as 0.1%. We used two-photon imaging with the Ca2+-sensitive fluorescent protein G-CaMP to map the primary sensory neurons governing avoidance to CO2. CO2 activates only a single glomerulus in the antennal lobe, the V glomerulus; moreover, this glomerulus is not activated by any of 26 other odorants tested. Inhibition of synaptic transmission in sensory neurons that innervate the V glomerulus, using a temperature-sensitive Shibire gene (Shi(ts)), blocks the avoidance response to CO2. Inhibition of synaptic release in the vast majority of other olfactory receptor neurons has no effect on this behaviour. These data demonstrate that the activation of a single population of sensory neurons innervating one glomerulus is responsible for an innate avoidance behaviour in Drosophila.     

Insights into assembly from structural analysis of bacteriophage PRD1

The structure of the membrane-containing bacteriophage PRD1 has been determined by X-ray crystallography at about 4 A resolution. Here we describe the structure and location of proteins P3, P16, P30 and P31. Different structural proteins seem to have specialist roles in controlling virus assembly. The linearly extended P30 appears to nucleate the formation of the icosahedral facets (composed of trimers of the major capsid protein, P3) and acts as a molecular tape-measure, defining the size of the virus and cementing the facets together. Pentamers of P31 form the vertex base, interlocking with subunits of P3 and interacting with the membrane protein P16. The architectural similarities with adenovirus and one of the largest known virus particles PBCV-1 support the notion that the mechanism of assembly of PRD1 is scaleable and applies across the major viral lineage formed by these viruses.     

Membrane structure and interactions with protein and DNA in bacteriophage PRD1

Membranes are essential for selectively controlling the passage of molecules in and out of cells and mediating the response of cells to their environment. Biological membranes and their associated proteins present considerable difficulties for structural analysis. Although enveloped viruses have been imaged at about 9 A resolution by cryo-electron microscopy and image reconstruction, no detailed crystallographic structure of a membrane system has been described. The structure of the bacteriophage PRD1 particle, determined by X-ray crystallography at about 4 A resolution, allows the first detailed analysis of a membrane-containing virus. The architecture of the viral capsid and its implications for virus assembly are presented in the accompanying paper. Here we show that the electron density also reveals the icosahedral lipid bilayer, beneath the protein capsid, enveloping the viral DNA. The viral membrane contains about 26,000 lipid molecules asymmetrically distributed between the membrane leaflets. The inner leaflet is composed predominantly of zwitterionic phosphatidylethanolamine molecules, facilitating a very close interaction with the viral DNA, which we estimate to be packaged to a pressure of about 45 atm, factors that are likely to be important during membrane-mediated DNA translocation into the host cell. In contrast, the outer leaflet is enriched in phosphatidylglycerol and cardiolipin, which show a marked lateral segregation within the icosahedral asymmetric unit. In addition, the lipid headgroups show a surprising degree of order.     

An amino-acid taste receptor

The sense of taste provides animals with valuable information about the nature and quality of food. Mammals can recognize and respond to a diverse repertoire of chemical entities, including sugars, salts, acids and a wide range of toxic substances. Several amino acids taste sweet or delicious (umami) to humans, and are attractive to rodents and other animals. This is noteworthy because L-amino acids function as the building blocks of proteins, as biosynthetic precursors of many biologically relevant small molecules, and as metabolic fuel. Thus, having a taste pathway dedicated to their detection probably had significant evolutionary implications. Here we identify and characterize a mammalian amino-acid taste receptor. This receptor, T1R1+3, is a heteromer of the taste-specific T1R1 and T1R3 G-protein-coupled receptors. We demonstrate that T1R1 and T1R3 combine to function as a broadly tuned L-amino-acid sensor responding to most of the 20 standard amino acids, but not to their D-enantiomers or other compounds. We also show that sequence differences in T1R receptors within and between species (human and mouse) can significantly influence the selectivity and specificity of taste responses.     

一种新型高效生物可降解ε-多聚赖氨酸修饰阳离子聚合物抗菌剂的合成与性能（英文）

目前临床上使用的大多数抗生素杀菌或抑菌的主要机制为:选择性的作用于细菌细胞核酸和蛋白合成系统的特定环节,妨碍细菌生命活动,导致细菌死亡.然而,细菌形态结构完整性仍然保持,导致细菌产生耐药性.最近研究发现大肠杆菌和金黄色葡萄球菌感染是一些慢性疾病发生的重要因素.纳米颗粒能够选择性的作用于微生物表面,破坏细菌结构完整性,抑制细菌耐药性的产生.本文设计并合成一种生物相容性好且生物可降解ε-多聚赖氨酸修饰阳离子聚合物(EPL-PCL).该多聚物能够自主装形成单分散的纳米颗粒,且对大肠杆菌、金黄色葡萄球菌和枯草芽孢杆菌具有广谱的抗菌活性.相比于ε-多聚赖氨酸,EPL-PCL纳米颗粒具有更强的抗菌活性.进一步研究发现,EPL-PCL纳米颗粒抗菌作用的主要机制为:(1)带正电的EPL-PCL纳米颗粒与带负电的细菌表面相互作用并穿透细胞壁和细胞膜,破坏细菌表面完整性,抑制细菌耐药性的生成;(2)EPL-PCL纳米颗粒暴露显著提高细菌内ROS水平;(3)ROS水平升高显著的破坏细菌细胞代谢,例如提高碱性磷酸酶活性破坏细菌磷的稳态平衡.因此,本文合成的可降解ε-多聚赖氨酸修饰阳离子纳米聚合物可以作为一种有效且广谱的抗菌剂,特别是用于病原菌感染的疾病.     

The diet of Australopithecus sediba

Specimens of Australopithecus sediba from the site of Malapa, South Africa (dating from approximately 2 million years (Myr) ago) present a mix of primitive and derived traits that align the taxon with other Australopithecus species and with early Homo. Although much of the available cranial and postcranial material of Au. sediba has been described, its feeding ecology has not been investigated. Here we present results from the first extraction of plant phytoliths from dental calculus of an early hominin. We also consider stable carbon isotope and dental microwear texture data for Au. sediba in light of new palaeoenvironmental evidence. The two individuals examined consumed an almost exclusive C(3) diet that probably included harder foods, and both dicotyledons (for example, tree leaves, fruits, wood and bark) and monocotyledons (for example, grasses and sedges). Like Ardipithecus ramidus (approximately 4.4 Myr ago) and modern savanna chimpanzees, Au. sediba consumed C(3) foods in preference to widely available C(4) resources. The inferred consumption of C(3) monocotyledons, and wood or bark, increases the known variety of early hominin foods. The overall dietary pattern of these two individuals contrasts with available data for other hominins in the region and elsewhere.