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The Aggressive Response Meter (ARM) has been validated for measuring emotional (psychotic) aggression triggered by mental irritation in mice. In the present article, we newly developed a device, pARM (PowerLab-compatible type ARM). We collected on the aggressive biting behavior (ABB) intensity and ABB frequency of 20 male and female mice of ddY strain studied over a period of 6 days by using pARM and the former ARM. We calculated Pearson's correlation between the values of pARM and those of ARM. The accumulated data can be referred as a basis for demonstrating the consistence of pARM and the former ARM, and used in future research to augment the understanding of stress-induced emotional aggression in mice.

John Bishara,1 Thomas G Keens,1,2 Iris A Perez1,2 1Division of Pediatric Pulmonology and Sleep Medicine, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA; 2Department of Pediatrics, Keck School of Medicine of USC, Los Angeles, CA, USA Abstract: Congenital central hypoventilation syndrome (CCHS) is a rare genetic disorder of the autonomic nervous system (ANS) and respiratory control. This disorder, formerly referred to as Ondine’s curse, is due to a mutation in the PHOX2B gene that affects the development of the neural crest cells. CCHS has an autosomal dominant pattern of inheritance. Majority of the patients have a polyalanine repeat mutation (PARM) of the PHOX2B, while a small group has non-PARM (NPARM). Knowledge of the patient’s PHOX2B gene mutation helps predict a patient’s clinical presentation and outcome and aids in anticipatory management of the respiratory and ANS dysfunction. Keywords: diaphragm pacing, noninvasive positive pressure ventilation, genetic counseling, genetic testing, CCHS, PHOX2B, congenital central hypoventilation syndrome

From yeast to man, an evolutionary distance of 1.3 billion years, the F-actin filament structure has been conserved largely in line with the 94% sequence identity. The situation is entirely different in bacteria. In comparison to eukaryotic actins, the bacterial actin-like proteins (ALPs) show medium to low levels of sequence identity. This is extreme in the case of the ParM family of proteins, which often display less than 20% identity. ParMs are plasmid segregation proteins that form the polymerizing motors that propel pairs of plasmids to the extremities of a cell prior to cell division, ensuring faithful inheritance of the plasmid. Recently, exotic ParM filament structures have been elucidated that show ParM filament geometries are not limited to the standard polar pair of strands typified by actin. Four-stranded non-polar ParM filaments existing as open or closed nanotubules are found in Clostridium tetani and Bacillus thuringiensis, respectively. These diverse architectures indicate that the actin fold is capable of forming a large variety of filament morphologies, and that the conception of the “actin” filament has been heavily influenced by its conservation in eukaryotes. Here, we review the history of the structure determination of the eukaryotic actin filament to give a sense of context for the discovery of the new ParM filament structures. We describe the novel ParM geometries and predict that even more complex actin-like filaments may exist in bacteria. Finally, we compare the architectures of filaments arising from the actin and tubulin folds and conclude that the basic units possess similar properties that can each form a range of structures. Thus, the use of the actin fold in microfilaments and the tubulin fold for microtubules likely arose from a wider range of filament possibilities, but became entrenched as those architectures in early eukaryotes.

Abstract Background Recently, contradictory results on foamy virus protease activity were published. While our own results indicated that protease activity is regulated by the viral RNA, others suggested that the integrase is involved in the regulation of the protease. Results To solve this discrepancy we performed additional experiments showing that the protease-reverse transcriptase (PR-RT) exhibits protease activity in vitro and in vivo, which is independent of the integrase domain. In contrast, Pol incorporation, and therefore PR activity in the viral context, is dependent on the integrase domain. To further analyse the regulation of the protease, we incorporated Pol in viruses by expressing a GagPol fusion protein, which supported near wild-type like infectivity. A GagPR-RT fusion, lacking the integrase domain, also resulted in wild-type like Gag processing, indicating that the integrase is dispensable for viral Gag maturation. Furthermore, we demonstrate with a trans-complementation assays that the PR in the context of the PR-RT protein supports in trans both, viral maturation and infectivity. Conclusion We provide evidence that the FV integrase is required for Pol encapsidation and that the FV PR activity is integrase independent. We show that an active PR can be encapsidated in trans as a GagPR-RT fusion protein.