Proceedings of the Natural Academy of Sciences

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Resonance as a mechanism for elastic limb behavior [Physiology]

Tue, 10/27/2015 - 12:31
In terrestrial locomotion, there is a missing link between observed spring-like limb mechanics and the physiological systems driving their emergence. Previous modeling and experimental studies of bouncing gait (e.g., walking, running, hopping) identified muscle-tendon interactions that cycle large amounts of energy in series tendon as a source of elastic limb...
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Correction for Lee et al., Development of a histone deacetylase 6 inhibitor and its biological effects [Correction]

Tue, 10/27/2015 - 12:31
CHEMISTRY, BIOCHEMISTRY Correction for “Development of a histone deacetylase 6 inhibitor and its biological effects,” by Ju-Hee Lee, Yuanshan Yao, Adaickapillai Mahendran, Lang Ngo, Gisela Venta-Perez, Megan L. Choy, Ronald Breslow, and Paul A. Marks, which appeared in issue 39, September 29, 2015, of Proc Natl Acad Sci USA (112:12005–12010;...
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Correction for Lee et al., RNA design rules from a massive open laboratory [Correction]

Tue, 10/27/2015 - 12:31
BIOCHEMISTRY Correction for “RNA design rules from a massive open laboratory,” by Jeehyung Lee, Wipapat Kladwang, Minjae Lee, Daniel Cantu, Martin Azizyan, Hanjoo Kim, Alex Limpaecher, Sungroh Yoon, Adrien Treuille, Rhiju Das, and EteRNA Participants, which appeared in issue 6, February 11, 2014, of Proc Natl Acad Sci USA (111:2122–2127;...
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Correction for Lin et al., Induction of USP25 by viral infection promotes innate antiviral responses by mediating the stabilization of TRAF3 and TRAF6 [Correction]

Tue, 10/27/2015 - 12:31
IMMUNOLOGY AND INFLAMMATION Correction for “Induction of USP25 by viral infection promotes innate antiviral responses by mediating the stabilization of TRAF3 and TRAF6,” by Dandan Lin, Man Zhang, Meng-Xin Zhang, Yujie Ren, Quanyi Zhao, Jie Jin, Zishu Pan, Min Wu, Hong-Bing Shu, Chen Dong, and Bo Zhong, which appeared in...
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Correction for Lu et al., Label-free DNA imaging in vivo with stimulated Raman scattering microscopy [Correction]

Tue, 10/27/2015 - 12:31
MEDICAL SCIENCES, APPLIED PHYSICAL SCIENCES Correction for “Label-free DNA imaging in vivo with stimulated Raman scattering microscopy,” by Fa-Ke Lu, Srinjan Basu, Vivien Igras, Mai P. Hoang, Minbiao Ji, Dan Fu, Gary R. Holtom, Victor A. Neel, Christian W. Freudiger, David E. Fisher, and X. Sunney Xie, which appeared in...
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Bias toward large transisthmian divergences [Biological Sciences]

Tue, 10/27/2015 - 12:31
Bacon et al. (1) “reject a 3.5 Ma assumption” for the closure of the Central American Seaway, a conclusion that echoes earlier studies that established that the “bulk [of marine ‘geminate’ or ‘transisthmian’ species on opposite sides of the Isthmus] were split at some point during the long period of...
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Biased data in the claim of early Isthmus closure [Biological Sciences]

Tue, 10/27/2015 - 12:31
In their PNAS article “Biological evidence supports an early and complex emergence of the Isthmus of Panama,” Bacon et al. (1) use data from molecular comparisons of terrestrial and marine organisms taken from the literature to estimate dates of rate shifts in migration. One of their conclusions is that “events...
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Biotic interchange across the Isthmus of Panama [Biological Sciences]

Tue, 10/27/2015 - 12:31
The emergence of the Isthmus of Panama left a major imprint on the biodiversity of the Americas. The connection between South and North America facilitated dispersal of terrestrial and freshwater organisms, while separating marine species between the eastern Pacific and Caribbean seas. Recent geological data have questioned the long-standing view...
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One or the other from above [Cell Biology]

Tue, 10/27/2015 - 12:31
Adult cardiomyocytes—the contractile units of the heart—have little regenerative capacity, and their loss, following ischemic injury and other insults, leads to cardiac dysfunction and heart failure, a degenerative condition with a poorer prognosis than many cancers. Despite intense efforts, there are presently no effective treatments for heart failure besides heart...
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CD31 protects endothelium during immune responses [Immunology and Inflammation]

Tue, 10/27/2015 - 12:31
CD31 is a member of the Ig gene superfamily that is present on the surface of platelets and all leukocytes (1). CD31 is also highly expressed on endothelial cells, where it represents a major constituent of the intercellular junction (1). Based on this cellular distribution and similarities in the cDNA...
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Metabolic plasticity of mycobacteria [Microbiology]

Tue, 10/27/2015 - 12:31
Central carbon metabolism (CCM) that transforms carbon through glycolysis, gluconeogenesis, the pentose phosphate pathway, and the TCA pathway into energy is essential for the physiology of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb). In contrast to other pathogens, humans are the only known reservoir of Mtb, where it mainly resides in macrophages of the...
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Taking time to consider wildfires [Ecology]

Tue, 10/27/2015 - 12:31
Over the past several decades we have witnessed record-setting wildfires across nearly every continent (1), with recent months as no exception. Widespread burning across western North America includes some of the largest wildfires on record in Washington State, with 2015 total area burned on track to exceed observations of the...
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When sex makes you sick [Evolution]

Tue, 10/27/2015 - 12:31
Sex and parasites are two of the most important forces in evolution, shaping everything from the appearance of organisms (sex, by favoring the evolution of ornaments and weapons) to their physiological functioning (parasites, via selection for host defenses). They have been studied both separately and together, with parasite–sex interactions similarly...
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Discovery of the magnetic behavior of hemoglobin [Biochemistry]

Tue, 10/27/2015 - 12:31
Two articles published by Pauling and Coryell in PNAS nearly 80 years ago described in detail the magnetic properties of oxy- and deoxyhemoglobin, as well as those of closely related compounds containing hemes. Their measurements revealed a large difference in magnetism between oxygenated and deoxygenated forms of the protein and,...
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Genome sequencing of adzuki bean [Agricultural Sciences]

Tue, 10/27/2015 - 12:31
Adzuki bean (Vigna angularis), an important legume crop, is grown in more than 30 countries of the world. The seed of adzuki bean, as an important source of starch, digestible protein, mineral elements, and vitamins, is widely used foods for at least a billion people. Here, we generated a high-quality...
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pH homeostasis during coral calcification [Applied Biological Sciences]

Tue, 10/27/2015 - 12:31
Geochemical analyses (δ11B and Sr/Ca) are reported for the coral Porites cylindrica grown within a free ocean carbon enrichment (FOCE) experiment, conducted on the Heron Island reef flat (Great Barrier Reef) for a 6-mo period from June to early December 2010. The FOCE experiment was designed to simulate the effects...
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ErbB3 therapeutic inhibitory antibody [Biochemistry]

Tue, 10/27/2015 - 12:31
ErbB3 (HER3) is a member of the EGF receptor (EGFR) family of receptor tyrosine kinases, which, unlike the other three family members, contains a pseudo kinase in place of a tyrosine kinase domain. In cancer, ErbB3 activation is driven by a ligand-dependent mechanism through the formation of heterodimers with EGFR,...
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Structure of bacterial ATP synthase [Biochemistry]

Tue, 10/27/2015 - 12:31
The structure of the intact ATP synthase from the α-proteobacterium Paracoccus denitrificans, inhibited by its natural regulatory ζ-protein, has been solved by X-ray crystallography at 4.0 Å resolution. The ζ-protein is bound via its N-terminal α-helix in a catalytic interface in the F1 domain. The bacterial F1 domain is attached...
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Structures of a heterochiral coiled coil [Biophysics and Computational Biology]

Tue, 10/27/2015 - 12:31
Interactions between polypeptide chains containing amino acid residues with opposite absolute configurations have long been a source of interest and speculation, but there is very little structural information for such heterochiral associations. The need to address this lacuna has grown in recent years because of increasing interest in the use...
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Structure of the mouse ASC inflammasome [Biophysics and Computational Biology]

Tue, 10/27/2015 - 12:31
Inflammasomes are multiprotein complexes that control the innate immune response by activating caspase-1, thus promoting the secretion of cytokines in response to invading pathogens and endogenous triggers. Assembly of inflammasomes is induced by activation of a receptor protein. Many inflammasome receptors require the adapter protein ASC [apoptosis-associated speck-like protein containing...
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