Fox factors (winged-helix transcription factors) play important roles in early embryonic patterning. We show here that FoxD3 (Forkhead 6) regulates neural crest determination in Xenopus embryos. Expression of FoxD3 in the presumptive neural crest region starts at the late gastrula stage in a manner similar to that of Slug, and overlaps with that of Zic-r1. When overexpressed in the embryo and i...

Anti-slug control applied to two-phase flow provides a very challenging and important application for feedback control. It is important because it allows for operation that would otherwise be impossible, and challenging because of the presence of both RHP-poles and RHP-zeros. To conduct experiments on pipeline-riser anti-slug control, a small-scale slug-loop has been build. The loop has been mo...

To many people slugs are unattractive and unwanted garden pests. Their extended eyestalks and slimy bodies are distinguishing characteristics. Slugs may be described as “snails without shells” or “mucus machines.” I like to think of them as “slimy thugs.” Their unwarranted attacks on defenseless crops can be excessively brutal and their footprints (slime trails) are always left at the crime sce...

Based primarily on studies in the chick, it has been assumed that the zinc finger transcription factor Slug is required for neural crest migration. In the mouse, however, Slug is not expressed in the premigratory neural crest, which forms normally in Slug -/- animals. To study the role of Slug in Xenopus laevis, we used the injection of XSlug antisense RNA and tissue transplantation. Injection ...

The neural crest is a population of stem-cell-like precursors found only in vertebrates. Slug, a member of the Snail family of zincfinger transcriptional repressors, is a critical regulator of neural crest development and has also been implicated in the acquisition of invasive behavior during tumor progression. Despite its central role in these two important processes, little is known about the...

Loss of expression of the E-cadherin cell-cell adhesion molecule is important in carcinoma development and progression. Because previous data suggest that loss of E-cadherin expression in breast carcinoma may result from a dominant transcriptional repression pathway acting on the E-cadherin proximal promoter, we pursued studies of cis sequences and transcription factors regulating E-cadherin ex...

The overexpression of Twist and Slug and subsequent down-regulation of E-cadherin facilitate the acquirement of invasive growth properties in cancer cells. It is unclear which of these molecules are expressed in mesenchymal tumors in the central nervous system. Here, we investigated 10 cases each of hemangiopericytoma, solitary fibrous tumor, meningothelial, fibrous, angiomatous, and atypical m...

The effects of four concentrations (25, 50, 75, 100%) of spinach homogenate filtrate over a period of 96 hours on the body mass and transpiration rates of the pulmonate slug Milax rusticus, a crop pest found in Benghazi, Libya, are reported. A decrease in body mass and transpiration rate in filtrate treated slug over time was evident and the differences in these factors between control and trea...

There are cells scattered in the rear, prespore region of the Dictyostelium slug that share many of the properties of the prestalk cells and that are therefore called anterior-like cells (ALCs). By placing the gene encoding a cell surface protein under the control of an ALC-specific promoter and immunologically labeling the living cells, we analyze the movement of ALCs within the slug. There is...

Moraxella osloensis is a bacterium that is mutualistically associated with Phasmarhabditis hermaphrodita, a nematode that has potential for the biocontrol of mollusk pests, especially the slug Deroceras reticulatum. We discovered that purified M. osloensis lipopolysaccharide (LPS) possesses a lethal toxicity to D. reticulatum when administered by injection but no contact or oral toxicity to thi...