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Molecular comparison of species belonging to the genus Junonia collected from Myanmar was completed using mtDNA sequence data from 605-bp cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI). Six species were sequenced, aligned, and used to construct phylogenetic trees. The base composition of the COI sequences was 37.8% T, 15.4% C, 31.4% A, and 15.4% G, revealing strong AT bias (69.2%). The sequence distance of Junonia ranged from 1.5% to 9.0%. Nucleotide substitution primarily occurred through transition rather than transversion. Phylogenetic trees were constructed by the neighbor-joining (NJ) and maximum likelihood methods, using Hypolimnas misippus as the outgroup. Both trees had almost identical topologies. All COI sequences of each species fell in the same cluster as those of the same species obtained from the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI). Species in Junonia exhibited the following relationships: ((( J. orithya + J. hierta ) + J. lemonias lemonias ) + J. almana almana ) + ( J. atlites + J. iphita ). The clustering results were almost identical to current morphological classification.

Phosphodiesterases (PDEs) play key roles in cAMP compartmentalization, which is required for intracellular signaling processes, through specific subcellular targeting. Previously, we showed that the long and short forms of Aplysia PDE4 (ApPDE4), which are localized to the membranes of distinct subcellular organelles, play key roles in 5-hydroxytryptamine-induced synaptic facilitation in Aplysia sensory and motor synapses. However, the molecular mechanism of the isoform-specific distinct membrane targeting was not clear. In this study, we further investigated the molecular mechanism of the membrane targeting of the ApPDE4 long and short forms. We found that the membrane targeting of the long form was mediated by hydrophobic interactions, mainly via 16 amino acids at the N-terminal region, whereas the short form was targeted solely to the plasma membrane, mainly by nonspecific electrostatic interactions between their N termini and the negatively charged lipids such as the phosphatidylinositol polyphosphates PI4P and PI(4,5)P2, which are embedded in the inner leaflet of the plasma membrane. Moreover, oligomerization of the long or short form by interaction of their respective upstream conserved region domains, UCR1 and UCR2, enhanced their plasma membrane targeting. These results suggest that the long and short forms of ApPDE4 are distinctly targeted to intracellular membranes through their direct association with the membranes via hydrophobic and electrostatic interactions, respectively.

Purpose Stem cells hold great potential for regenerative medicine, but they have also been implicated in cancer and aging. How different kinds of ionizing radiation affect stem cell biology remains unexplored. This study was designed to compare the biological effects of X-rays and of high–linear energy transfer (LET) 56 Fe ions on human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSC). Methods and Materials A multi-functional comparison was carried out to investigate the differential effects of X-rays and 56 Fe ions on hMSC. The end points included modulation of key markers such as p53, cell cycle progression, osteogenic differentiation, and pathway and networks through transcriptomic profiling and bioinformatics analysis. Results X-rays and 56 Fe ions differentially inhibited the cell cycle progression of hMSC in a p53-dependent manner without impairing their in vitro osteogenic differentiation process. Pathway and network analyses revealed that cytoskeleton and receptor signaling were uniquely enriched for low-dose (0.1 Gy) X-rays. In contrast, DNA/RNA metabolism and cell cycle regulation were enriched for high-dose (1 Gy) X-rays and 56 Fe ions, with more significant effects from 56 Fe ions. Specifically, DNA replication, DNA strand elongation, and DNA binding/transferase activity were perturbed more severely by 1 Gy 56 Fe ions than by 1 Gy X-rays, consistent with the significant G2/M arrest for the former while not for the latter. Conclusions 56 Fe ions exert more significant effects on hMSC than X-rays. Since hMSC are the progenitors of osteoblasts in vivo, this study provides new mechanistic understandings of the relative health risks associated with low- and high-dose X-rays and high-LET space radiation.