Calponins and transgelins are members of a conserved family of actin-associated proteins widely expressed from yeast to humans. While a role for calponin in muscle cells has been described, the biochemical activities and ...

The technique of in vitro selection was used to learn more about the properties of RNA sequence space. In Chapter 1 I investigated how readily ribozymes with new catalytic activities and folds could arise from an existing ...

In birds, as in mammals, the chromosome complement determines sex. Male birds are designated ZZ, female ZW. Mammals have the opposite system; males are XY and females XX. Both the avian ZW and mammalian XY pair are believed ...

Wild-type animals that have been acutely food deprived slow their locomotory rate upon encountering bacteria more than do well-fed animals. This behavior, called the enhanced slowing response, is partly serotonin (5-HT) ...

As mammals age, osteoblast numbers decrease while osteoclast numbers increase, resulting in age-related or post-menopausal osteoporosis. SirT1, the mammalian orthologue of yeast Sir2, has been shown to be a negative regulator ...

Sox2 is a master regulator of two distinct cellular states, that of pluripotent embryonic stem cells (ESCs) and multipotent neural progenitor cells (NPCs), but what common or distinct roles Sox2 may play in these cell types ...