Methane production by intestinal methanogenic Archaea and their community structure were compared among phylogenetic lineages of millipedes. Tropical and temperate millipedes of 35 species and 17 families were investigated. Species that emitted methane were mostly in the juliform orders Julida, Spirobolida, and Spirostreptida. The irregular phylogenetic distribution of methane production correl...

Phylogenetic and stable-isotope analyses implicated two methanogen-like archaeal groups, ANME-1 and ANME-2, as key participants in the process of anaerobic methane oxidation. Although nothing is known about anaerobic methane oxidation at the molecular level, the evolutionary relationship between methane-oxidizing archaea (MOA) and methanogenic archaea raises the possibility that MOA have co-opt...

Methanogenic inhibitors are often used to study methanogenesis in complex microbial communities or inhibit methanogens in the gastrointestinal tract of livestock. However, the resulting structural and functional changes in archaeal and bacterial communities are poorly understood. We characterized microbial community structure and activity in mesocosms seeded with cow dung and municipal wastewat...

Recently described and characterized Bradyrhizobium japonicum glycine:[carrier protein] ligase 1 (Bj Gly:CP ligase 1), a homologue of methanogenic type seryl-tRNA synthetase (SerRS) is an intriguing enzyme whose physiological role is not yet known. While aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases supply ribosome with amino acids for protein biosynthesis, this homologue transfers the activated amino acid to a s...

The current knowledge regarding the effect of global climate change on rice-paddy methane (CH4) emissions is incomplete, partly because information is limited concerning the mechanism of the microbial response to elevated ground-level ozone (O3). A field experiment was conducted in the China Ozone Free-Air Concentration Enrichment facility in a rice-wheat rotation system to investigate the resp...

Complex actions often can be decomposed into sequences of individual movements. Primate medial motor areas (SMA and pre-SMA) have been shown to be key players in the concert of such sequential actions. In this issue of Neuron, Lu and Ashe show for the first time that neurons in primate M1-the ultimate output stage of cortex-have anticipatory activity related to specific movement sequences. Thes...

We examined mechanotranscriptional regulation of the contractile gene, alpha-smooth muscle actin (SMA), in osteoblastic cells. Tensile forces were applied through collagen-coated magnetite beads to ROS17/2.8 cells. These cells were desmin-, vimentin+ and expressed low levels of SMA. After force application (480 piconewton/cell), SMA protein and mRNA were increased but beta-actin was unchanged. ...