At the onset of neurogenesis in the mammalian central nervous system, neuroepithelial cells switch from symmetric, proliferative to asymmetric, neurogenic divisions. In analogy to the asymmetric division of Drosophila neuroblasts, this switch of mammalian neuroepithelial cells is thought to involve a change in cleavage plane orientation from perpendicular (vertical cleavage) to parallel (horizo...

This review focuses on rapid and reversible noncovalent interactions for symmetric oligomers of signalling proteins. Symmetry mismatch, transient symmetry breaking and asymmetric perturbations via chemical (ligand binding) and physical (electric or mechanic) effects can initiate the signalling events. Advanced biophysical methods can reveal not only structural symmetries of stable membrane-boun...

o bjectives: headgears are among the effective orthodontic appliances to achieve treatment goals. unilateral molar distal movement is sometimes needed during an orthodontic treat- ment, which can be achieved by an asymmetric headgear. different unilateral headgears have been introduced. the main goal of this study was to analyze the force system of uni- lateral expanded outer bow asymmetric hea...

Abstract All-dielectric nanoarrays have strong electromagnetic resonances with various interesting applications and are tuned by adjusting their geometrical parameters. However, optical properties permanently encoded during fabrication. This study presents robust dynamically tunable all-dielectric nanoresonators for controllable, reversible, reproducible color filtering. Our design uses an arra...

We have previously proposed the hypothesis that asymmetric membranes behave like bilayer couples: the two layers of the bilayer membrane can respond differently to a particular perturbation. Such a perturbation, for example, can result in the expansion of one layer relative to the other, thereby producing a curvature of that membrane. In experiments with erythrocytes and lymphocytes, we now dem...

The establishment and maintenance of cell polarity is important to a wide range of biological processes ranging from chemotaxis to embryogenesis. An essential feature of cell polarity is the asymmetric organization of proteins and lipids in the plasma membrane. In this article, we discuss how polarity regulators such as small GTP-binding proteins and phospholipids spatially and kinetically cont...

Two AAA family ATPases, NSF and p97, have been implicated in membrane fusion during assembly and inheritance of organelles of the secretory pathway. We have now investigated the roles of AAA ATPases in membrane fusion during assembly of the peroxisome, an organelle outside the classical secretory system. Here, we show that peroxisomal membrane fusion in the yeast Yarrowia lipolytica requires tw...

A potentiometric immunosensor for the detection of human IgG has been developed using an asymmetric, ion-selective membrane with immobilized adenosine deaminase and IgG. A protein A-alkaline phosphatase conjugate binds to the immobilized IgG, creating a bienzymatic catalytic layer. In the presence of sample IgG, the conjugate does not bind to the membrane. Instead, the intermediate in the two-s...

Channel proteins, that selectively conduct molecules across cell membranes, often exhibit an asymmetric structure. By means of a stochastic model, we argue that channel asymmetry in the presence of non-equilibrium fluctuations, fueled by the cell’s metabolism as observed recently, can dramatically influence the transport through such channels by a ratchet-like mechanism. For an aquaglyceroporin...