LIGHT [the name of which is derived from 'homologous to lymphotoxins, exhibits inducible expression, competes with herpes simplex virus glycoprotein D for herpes simplex virus entry mediator (HVEM), and expressed by T lymphocytes'], is a member of the tumour necrosis factor superfamily that is involved in various inflammatory diseases. We ...

Treefall gaps in tropical forests have a profound effect on plants growing in the understory, primarily due to increased light availability. In higher light, mature leaves typically have increased anti-herbivore defenses. However, since the majority of herbivory occurs while leaves are expanding, it is important to determine whether defense expression ...

Color and motion information are thought to be channeled through separate neural pathways, but it remains unclear whether and how these pathways interact to improve motion perception. In insects, such as Drosophila, it has long been believed that motion information is fed exclusively by one spectral class of photoreceptor, so-called ...

In the fly's visual system, the morphology of cells and the number of synapses change during the day. In the present study we show, that in the first optic neuropil (lamina) of Drosophila melanogaster, a presynaptic active zone protein Bruchpilot (BRP) exhibits a circadian rhythm in abundance. In day/night (or ...

Buckwheat sprouts are considered an excellent dietary source of phenolic compounds. The time duration and amount of light for sprouting strongly affect the nutritional quality of sprouts. In this study, these 2 factors were investigated in 2 cultivars of tartary buckwheat sprouts: Hokkai T8 and T10. The transcriptional levels of ...

OBJECTIVE: Paradental tissues (alveolar bone, periodontal ligament (PDL), and gingiva) have the capacity to adapt to their functional environment. The principal cellular elements of the PDL play an important role in normal function, regeneration of periodontal tissue and in orthodontic treatment. Recently, several studies have shown that low-magnitude, high-frequency (LMHF) ...

The fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, is generally diurnal, but a few mutant strains, such as the circadian clock mutant Clk(Jrk), have been described as nocturnal. We report here that increased nighttime activity of Clk mutants is mediated by high levels of the circadian photoreceptor CRYPTOCHROME (CRY) in large ventral lateral ...

Phytochromes are photoreceptors with a bilin chromophore in which light triggers the conversion between the red light-absorbing form, Pr, and the far-red-light-absorbing form, Pfr. Here we performed in vitro and in vivo studies using locked phycocyanobilin derivatives, termed 15 Z anti phycocyanobilin (15ZaPCB) and 15 E anti PCB (15EaPCB). Recombinant ...

Light is one crucial environmental signal which can determine whether a fungus reproduces asexually or initiates sexual development. Mating in the ascomycete Hypocrea jecorina (anamorph Trichoderma reesei) occurs preferentially in light. We therefore investigated the relevance of the light response machinery for sexual development in H. jecorina.We found that the ...

To explore the relative development of the dorsal and ventral extrastriate processing streams, we studied the development of sensitivity to form and motion in macaque monkeys (Macaca nemestrina). We used Glass patterns and random dot kinematograms (RDK) to assay ventral and dorsal stream function, respectively. We tested 24 animals, longitudinally ...

Phytochromes (PHYs) are photoreceptors of the red (R ~660  nm) and far-red (FR ~730 nm) light, and they control a wide range of responses affecting crucial aspects of plant life. There are five genes PHYA-PHYE encoding for phytochromes of different but overlapping function. One of these, PHYA has the unique function ...

Most plants grow in dense vegetation with the risk of being out-competed by neighboring plants. These neighbors can be detected not only through the depletion in light quantity that they cause, but also through the change in light quality, which plants perceive using specific photoreceptors. Both the reduction of the ...

The stomatal pores are located on the plant leaf epidermis and regulate CO(2) uptake for photosynthesis and the loss of water by transpiration. Their stomatal aperture therefore affects photosynthesis, water use efficiency, and agricultural crop yields. Blue light, one of the environmental signals that regulates the plant stomatal aperture, is ...

A cyclometalated Ru dye bearing two triphenylamine groups to augment light absorption exhibits a power conversion efficiency (PCE) in excess of 7% in the dye-sensitized solar cell despite having a large molecular footprint on TiO(2).

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: The mammalian cochlea receives and analyzes sound at specific places along the cochlea coil, commonly referred to as the tonotopic map. Although much is known about the cell-level molecular defects responsible for severe hearing loss, the genetics responsible for less severe and frequency-specific hearing loss remains unclear. We ...

Photomorphogenesis is controlled by multiple signaling pathways, including the light and brassinosteroid (BR) pathways. BR signaling activates the BZR1 transcription factor, which is required for suppressing photomorphogenesis in the dark. We identified a suppressor of the BR hypersensitive mutant bzr1-1D and named it bzr1-1D suppressor1-Dominant (bzs1-D). The bzs1-D mutation was ...

Plants need to respond quickly and appropriately to various types of light signals from the environment to optimize growth and development. The immediate response to shading, reduced photon flux (low light), and changes in spectral quality involves changes in gene regulation. In the case of more persistent shade, the plant ...

Chitin, a polymer of N-acetylglucosamine (GlcNAc), is noted as the second most abundant biopolymer in nature. Chitin serves many functions for marine bacteria in the family Vibrionaceae ("vibrios"), in some instances providing a physical attachment site, inducing natural genetic competence, and serving as an attractant for chemotaxis. The marine luminous ...

Chromosomal loci jiggle in place between segregation events in prokaryotic cells and during interphase in eukaryotic nuclei. This motion seems random and is often attributed to Brownian motion. However, we show here that locus dynamics in live bacteria and yeast are sensitive to metabolic activity. When ATP synthesis is inhibited, ...

The stomatal pores of plant leaves, situated in the epidermis and surrounded by a pair of guard cells, allow CO(2) uptake for photosynthesis and water loss through transpiration. Blue light is one of the dominant environmental signals that control stomatal movements in leaves of plants in a natural environment. This ...

The bioluminescence emitted by the marine bacterium Vibrio fischeri is a particularly striking result of individual microbial cells coordinating a group behavior. The genes responsible for light production are principally regulated by the LuxR-LuxI quorum-sensing system. In addition to LuxR-LuxI, numerous other genetic elements and environmental conditions control bioluminescence production. ...

Bud burst is a decisive process in plant architecture that requires light in Rosa sp. This light effect was correlated with stimulation of sugar transport and metabolism in favor of buds outgrowth. We investigated whether sugars could act as signaling entities in the light- mediated regulation of vacuolar invertases and ...

• Premise of the study: The evolution and development of floral developmental patterns were investigated in three heterostylous and three homostylous species of Lithospermum to determine whether species that independently acquired the same floral form follow the same pattern of development or different patterns.• Methods: Using light and scanning electron ...

Phytochrome A (phyA) is the dominant photoreceptor of far-red light sensing in Arabidopsis thaliana. phyA accumulates at high levels in the cytoplasm of etiolated seedlings, and light-induced phyA signaling is mediated by a complex regulatory network. This includes light- and FHY1/FHL protein-dependent translocation of native phyA into the nucleus in ...

Visual transduction in the Drosophila compound eye functions through a pathway that couples rhodopsin to phospholipase C (PLC) and the opening of transient receptor potential (TRP) channels. This cascade differs from phototransduction in mammalian rods and cones, but is remarkably similar to signaling in mammalian intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells ...

The autotrophic communities in the lakes of the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica, have generated interest since the early 1960's owing to low light transmission through the permanent ice-covers, a strongly bimodal seasonal light cycle, constant cold water temperatures, and geographical isolation. Previous work has shown that autotrophic carbon fixation in ...

Purpose: In rods saturated by light, the G protein transducin undergoes translocation from the outer segment compartment, which results in the uncoupling of transducin from its innate receptor, rhodopsin. We measured the kinetics of recovery from this adaptive cellular response, while also investigating the role of phosducin, a phosphoprotein binding ...

The reversibly red (R)/far-red (FR)-light-responsive phytochrome (phy) photosensory system initiates both the deetiolation process in dark-germinated seedlings upon first exposure to light, and the shade-avoidance process in fully deetiolated seedlings upon exposure to vegetational shade. The intracellular signaling pathway from the light-activated photoreceptor conformer (Pfr) to the transcriptional network that ...

Aureochrome1, a signaling photoreceptor from a eukaryotic photosynthetic stramenopile, confers blue-light-regulated DNA binding on the organism. Its topology, in which a C-terminal LOV sensor domain is linked to an N-terminal DNA-binding bZIP effector domain, contrasts with the reverse sensor-effector topology in most other known LOV-photoreceptors. How, then, is signal transmitted in ...

Plants need to accurately adjust their development after germination in the underground darkness to ensure survival of the seedling, both in the dark and in the light upon reaching the soil surface. Recent studies have established that the photoreceptors phytochromes and the bHLH phytochrome interacting factors PIFs regulate seedling development ...

Most plants grow in dense vegetation with the risk of being out-competed by neighboring plants. These neighbors can be detected not only through the depletion in light quantity that they cause, but also through the change in light quality, which plants perceive using specific photoreceptors. Both the reduction of the ...

Understanding the response of leaf hydraulic conductance (K(leaf)) to light is a challenge in elucidating plant-water relationships. Recent data have shown that the effect of light on K(leaf) is not systematically related to aquaporin regulation, leading to conflicting conclusions. Here we investigated the relationship between light, K(leaf), and aquaporin transcript ...

Biosynthesis of phenolic compounds is known to be sensitive to light environments, which reflects the possible role of these compounds for photoprotection in plants. Herein, the effects of UV and visible light on biosynthesis of flavonoids was investigated, i.e., proanthocyanidins (PAs) and flavonols, in young berry skins of a red-wine ...

Photoreceptors carry out the first step in vision by capturing light and transducing it into electrical signals. Rod and cone photoreceptors efficiently translate photon capture into electrical signals by light activation of opsin-type photopigments. Until recently, the central dogma was that, for mammals, all phototransduction occurred in rods and cones. ...

Human rhinovirus (HRV) and other members of the enterovirus genus bind small-molecule antiviral compounds in a cavity buried within the viral capsid protein VP1. These compounds block the release of the viral protein VP4 and RNA from inside the capsid during the uncoating process. In addition, the antiviral compounds prevent ...

Abstract: In invertebrate photoreceptors, the photopigment exhibits a long-lived and physiologically active photoproduct, called metarhodopsin (M). The long life of invertebrate M implies that under physiological conditions, M and the original pigment state rhodopsin, R, are in photoequilibrium. In many invertebrates, the absorption spectra of R and M states are ...

In this paper complete photonic bandgap (PBG) and iso-frequency contours (IFCs) of two-dimensional modified annular photonic crystals (MAPC) for four different configurations are numerically studied and calculated by applying plane wave expansion method. The effects of opto-geometric parameters of the designed unit-cell structures are clearly demonstrated in terms of opening ...

Optogenetics is an emerging field that combines optical and genetic approaches to non-invasively interfere with cellular events with exquisite spatiotemporal control. Although it arose originally from neuroscience, optogenetics is widely applicable to the study of many different biological systems and the range of applications arising from this technology continues to ...

Sexual signals are considered costly to produce and maintain under the handicap paradigm, and the reliability of signals is in turn thought to be maintained by these costs. Although previous studies have investigated the costly nature of signal production, few have considered whether honesty might be maintained not by the ...

An extremely high-efficiency solution-processed white organic light-emitting diode (WOLED) is successfully developed by simultaneously using an ideal dendritic host material and a novel efficient orange phosphorescent iridium complex. The optimized device exhibits forward-viewing efficiencies of 70.6 cd A(-1) , 26.0%, and 47.6 lm W(-1) at a luminance of 100 cd ...

Wide-field motion-sensitive neurons in the lobula plate (lobula plate tangential cells, LPTCs) of the fly have been studied for decades. However, it has never been conclusively shown which cells constitute their major presynaptic elements. LPTCs are supposed to be rendered directionally selective by integrating excitatory as well as inhibitory input ...

Antireflective Si/oxide core-shell nanowire arrays (NWAs) were fabricated by galvanic etching and subsequent annealing process. The excellent light-harvesting characteristics of the core-shell NWAs, such as broadband working ranges, omnidirectionality, and polarization-insensitivity, ascribed to the smooth index transition from air to the substrates, have been demonstrated. By tuning core-shell volume ratios, ...

The pupillary light reflex (PLR) is regulated by the classical photoreceptors, rods and cones, and by intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells (ipRGCs) expressing the photopigment melanopsin. IpRGCs receive input from rods and cones and project to the olivary pretectal nucleus (OPN), which is the primary visual center involved in PLR. ...

In mammalian rods and cones, light activation of the visual pigments leads to release of the chromophore, which is then recycled through a multistep enzymatic pathway, referred to as the visual or retinoid cycle. In invertebrates such as Drosophila, a visual cycle was thought not to exist since the rhodopsins ...

The mechanism of light-triggered conformational change and signaling in light-oxygen-voltage (LOV) domains remains elusive in spite of extensive investigation and their use in optogenetic studies. The LOV2 domain of Avena Sativa phototropin1 (AsLOV2), a member of the Per-Arnt-Sim (PAS) family, contains an FMN chromophore that forms a covalent bond with ...

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Cnidocytes, the eponymous cell type of the Cnidaria, facilitate both sensory and secretory functions and are among the most complex animal cell types known. In addition to their structural complexity, cnidocytes display complex sensory attributes, integrating both chemical and mechanical cues from the environment into their discharge behavior. ...

Appropriate termination of the phototransduction cascade is critical for photoreceptors to achieve high temporal resolution and to prevent excessive Ca2+-induced cell toxicity. Using a genetic screen to identify defective photoresponse mutants in Drosophila, we isolated and identified a novel Gαq mutant allele, which has defects in both activation and deactivation. ...

The characteristic striped appearance of zebras has provoked much speculation about its function and why the pattern has evolved, but experimental evidence is scarce. Here, we demonstrate that a zebra-striped horse model attracts far fewer horseflies (tabanids) than either homogeneous black, brown, grey or white equivalents. Such biting flies are ...

In order to obtain an improved understanding of the assembly of the bacterial photosynthetic apparatus, we have conducted a proteomic analysis of pigment-protein complexes isolated from the purple bacterium Rhodobacter sphaeroides undergoing acclimation to reduced incident light intensity. Photoheterotrophically growing cells were shifted from 1,100 to 100 W/m(2) and intracytoplasmic membrane ...

Drosophila adults, when placed into a novel open-field arena, initially exhibit an elevated level of activity followed by a reduced stable level of spontaneous activity and spend a majority of time near the arena edge, executing motions along the walls. In order to determine the environmental features that are responsible ...