4-methylimidazole (4-mei) is a simple nitrogen-containing heterocyclic compound, and recently classified as group 2b by international agency for research on cancer (iarc). caramel coloring is widely applied food coloring in many food products including coffee, carbonated beverages, beer and wine. in present study, ɣ-irradiation was applied to caramel color iii to reduce the level of 4-mei witho...

MEI-9 is the Drosophila homolog of the human structure-specific DNA endonuclease XPF. Like XPF, MEI-9 functions in nucleotide excision repair and interstrand crosslink repair. MEI-9 is also required to generate meiotic crossovers, in a function thought to be associated with resolution of Holliday junction intermediates. We report here the identification of MUS312, a protein that physically inte...

The microtubule-severing protein complex katanin is required for a variety of important microtubule-base morphological changes in both animals and plants. Caenorhabditis elegans katanin is encoded by the mei-1 and mei-2 genes and is required for oocyte meiotic spindle formation and must be inactivated before the first mitotic cleavage. We identified a mutation, sb26, in the tbb-2 beta-tubulin g...

MEI-1, the catalytic subunit of the Caenorhabditis elegans "katanin" microtubule-severing complex, is required for meiotic spindle formation. However, MEI-1 must be inactivated after the completion of meiosis to allow formation of the first mitotic spindle. Recent work demonstrated that post-meiotic MEI-1 undergoes ubiquitin-dependent degradation mediated by two independent pathways. Here we de...

4-Methylimidazole (4-MEI) is a simple nitrogen-containing heterocyclic compound, and recently classified as group 2B by International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). Caramel coloring is widely applied food coloring in many food products including coffee, carbonated beverages, beer and wine. In present study, ɣ-irradiation was applied to Caramel Color III to reduce the level of 4-MEI witho...

Genetic evidence suggests that the product of the mei-1 gene of Caenorhabditis elegans is specifically required for meiosis in the female germline. Loss-of-function mei-1 mutations block meiotic spindle formation while a gain-of-function allele instead results in spindle defects during the early mitotic cleavages. In this report, we use immunocytochemistry to examine the localization of the mei...

The Atwater energy equivalents of 16.7, 16.7 and 37.7 kJ/g of protein, carbohydrate and fat, respectively, are the standard values used to calculate the macronutrient intakes required to meet a person's metabolizable energy requirement. The aim of this study was to compare in older people the measured metabolizable energy intake (MEI(MEAS)) required to achieve and maintain stable body weights w...

After fertilization, rapid changes of the Caenorhabditis elegans cytoskeleton occur in the transition from meiosis to mitosis, requiring precise regulation. The MEI-1/MEI-2 katanin microtubule-severing complex is essential for meiotic spindle formation but must be quickly inactivated to allow for proper formation of the mitotic spindle. MEI-1/MEI-2 inactivation is dependent on multiple redundan...

To my grandparents. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank my adviser, Nicholas P. Carter, for his guidance and support all through my graduate study. Many thanks to my project team members, Hillery C. Hunter and Azmat Hussain, who have contributed to this work in many ways. Also thanks to Wen-Mei Hwu for his guidance in the Memory-Efficient EPIC Architecture project. Thanks to the Semicondu...