Around the time of oocyte meiotic arrest, germ cell nest breakdown occurs, and primordial follicle (PF) formation is initiated at the perinatal stage. Recently, autophagy was implicated in this process. Autophagy is induced by nutrient starvation. This study was conducted to understand how starvation affects PF formation and autophagy induction during neonatal life. Suckling of neonatal female ...

Changes in membrane dynamics are known to occur in cells faced with starvation. However, the functions of the major lipid components of biological membranes, sphingolipids, during the starvation response remain unclear. In this study, we found that yeast cells lacking genes encoding mannosylinositol phosphorylceramide (MIPC) synthases (csg1Δ csh1Δ) underwent rapid cell death upon nitrogen starv...

It has been known for more than half a century that crystals can be made stronger by introducing defects into them, i.e., by strain-hardening. As the number of defects increases, their movement and multiplication is impeded, thus strengthening the material. In the present work we show hardening by dislocation starvation, a fundamentally different strengthening mechanism based on the elimination...

Due to exorbitant product variety, very limited space, and other factors, organizing efficient and timely deliveries of parts and subassemblies to final assembly within the factory is one of the most pressing problems of modern mixed-model assembly production. Many automobile producers have implemented the so-called “supermarket” concept to transfer material to the assembly line frequently and ...

In the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe, the onset of sexual development is controlled mainly by two external signals, nutrient starvation and mating pheromone availability. We have isolated a novel gene named rcd1+ as a key factor required for nitrogen starvation-induced sexual development. rcd1+ encodes a 283-amino-acid protein with no particular motifs. However, genes highly homologou...

Phosphorus is acquired by plant roots primarily via the high-affinity inorganic phosphate (Pi) transporters. The transcripts for Pi transporters are highly inducible upon Pi starvation, which also results in enhanced Pi uptake when Pi is resupplied. Using antibodies specific to one of the tomato Pi transporters (encoded by LePT1), we show that an increase in the LePT1 transcript under Pi starva...

Objective(s): Mitofilin contributes to the maintenance of mitochondrial structure and functions. This study was undertaken to determine the mechanisms underlying its regulation of apoptosis.  Materials and Methods: Mitofilin was knockdowned by specific short hairpin RNA (shRNA) and the stable HeLa cell clone was selected. The autophagy a...

Background: The human leukocyte antigen (HLA) matching between organ donor and recipient is an acceptable strategy in clinical transplantation since 1964. However, in bone marrow transplantation, finding matched donors is often problematic. Thus new method for down regulation of HLA can be an alternative strategy to solve this problem. Objective: To examine the effect of serum starvation on HLA...

The ability to withstand periods of scarce food resources is an important fitness trait. Starvation resistance is a quantitative trait controlled by multiple interacting genes and exhibits considerable genetic variation in natural populations. This genetic variation could be maintained in the face of strong selection due to a trade-off in resource allocation between reproductive activity and in...