The ability of a cell to sense and respond to DNA damage is essential for genome stability. An important aspect of the response is arrest of the cell cycle, presumably to allow time for repair. Ataxia telangiectasia mutated (ATM) and ATR are essential for such cell-cycle control, but some observations suggest that they also play a direct role in DNA repair. The Drosophila ortholog of ATR, MEI-4...

Abbreviations: CPD: Cyclobutane Pyrimidine Diner; DLR: German Aerospace Center; ds-break: Double Strand Break; EST: Experiment Sequence Test; EVT: Experiment Verification Test; ISS: International Space Station; IWF: Institut für Weltraumforschung; LEO: Low Earth’s Orbit; OD: Optical density [log(I0/I)]; PCR: Polymerase Chain Reaction; PLC: Payload Computer; RGB: Research Group for Biophysics; s...

1.1 Induction and repair of double-strand breaks (DSBs) in the DNA DNA encodes and transmits genetic information into the progeny of cells and organisms. As a result, processes associated with DNA replication, repair and recombination are at the center of biological research. Although the double-stranded nature of the DNA molecule is not a requirement for its replication or transcription, it is...

The Mre11/Rad50/Xrs2 complex initiates IR repair by binding to the end of a double-strand break, resulting in 5' to 3' exonuclease degradation creating a single-stranded 3' overhang competent for strand invasion into the unbroken chromosome. The nuclease(s) involved are not well understood. Mre11 encodes a nuclease, but it has 3' to 5', rather than 5' to 3' activity. Furthermore, mutations that...

A Monte Carlo simulated annealing (MCSA) algorithm was used to generate the conformations of local regions in bovine pancreatic trypsin inhibitor (BPTI) starting from random initial conformations. In the approach explored, only the conformation of the segment is computed; the rest of the protein is fixed in the known native conformation. Rather than follow a single simulation exhaustively, comp...

With China's rapid economic development, the reduction in arable land has emerged as one of the most prominent problems in the nation. The long-term dynamic monitoring of arable land quality is important for protecting arable land resources. An efficient practice is to select optimal sample points while obtaining accurate predictions. To this end, the selection of effective points from a dense ...