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This article discusses strategies used by Arab principals and teachers in Israel to cope with dilemmas involved in education for national identity stemming from conflict between two national narratives. While the Israeli Ministry of Education expects the Arab education system to educate students according to the Jewish State's values, Palestinian Arab society expects its schools to educate its children according to Palestinian Arab national-cultural values. A qualitative research employed a semi-structured interview to elicit views on this issue from 7 principals and 14 teachers in the Arab education system in Israel. The findings indicate a conflictual reality. Interviewees expressed fear, humiliation and affront when required to obey Ministry of Education instructions in contradiction to attitudes prevalent in their society. They therefore developed coping strategies to foster students' national identity without disrupting the necessary balance; primarily the construction of a covert learning program through manipulations in the official overt learning program. This study contributes to our understanding of minority education in a reality of conflict between the state and its national minority.

Small RNAs (sRNAs) associate with Argonaute (AGO) proteins in effector complexes, termed RNA-induced silencing complexes (RISCs), which regulate complementary transcripts by translation inhibition and/or RNA degradation. In the unicellular alga Chlamydomonas, several metazoans, and land plants, emerging evidence indicates that polyribosome-associated transcripts can be translationally repressed by RISCs without substantial messenger RNA (mRNA) destabilization. However, the mechanism of translation inhibition in a polyribosomal context is not understood. Here we show that Chlamydomonas VIG1, an ortholog of the Drosophila melanogaster Vasa intronic gene (VIG), is required for this process. VIG1 localizes predominantly in the cytosol and comigrates with monoribosomes and polyribosomes by sucrose density gradient sedimentation. A VIG1-deleted mutant shows hypersensitivity to the translation elongation inhibitor cycloheximide, suggesting that VIG1 may have a nonessential role in ribosome function/structure. Additionally, FLAG-tagged VIG1 copurifies with AGO3 and Dicer-like 3 (DCL3), consistent with it also being a component of the RISC. Indeed, VIG1 is necessary for the repression of sRNA-targeted transcripts at the translational level but is dispensable for cleavage-mediated RNA interference and for the association of the AGO3 effector with polyribosomes or target transcripts. Our results suggest that VIG1 is an ancillary ribosomal component and plays a role in sRNA-mediated translation repression of polyribosomal transcripts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extensive sponge-derived metagenomic libraries for diverse polyketide synthases (PKS) genes that are useful for identifying target PKS genes in other sponges are described. It indicates that the filamentous bacterial community of Discodermia dissoluta consists mainly of Entotheonella spp, an unculturable sponge-specific taxon implicated in the biosynthesis of bioactive peptides.

microRNAs (miRNAs) and small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) play important roles in gene regulation and defense responses against transposons and viruses in eukaryotes. These small RNAs generally trigger the silencing of cognate sequences through a variety of mechanisms, including RNA degradation, translational inhibition and transcriptional repression. In the past few years, the synthesis and the mode of action of miRNAs and siRNAs have attracted great attention. However, relatively little is known about mechanisms of quality control during small RNA biogenesis as well as those that regulate mature small RNA stability. Recent studies in Arabidopsis thaliana and Caenorhabditis elegans have implicated 3'-to-5' (SDNs) and 5'-to-3' (XRN-2) exoribonucleases in mature miRNA turnover and the modulation of small RNA levels and activity. In the green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, a nucleotidyltransferase (MUT68) and an exosome subunit (RRP6) are involved in the 3' untemplated uridylation and the degradation of miRNAs and siRNAs. The latter enzymes appear to function as a quality control mechanism to eliminate putative dysfunctional or damaged small RNA molecules. Several post-transcriptional modifications of miRNAs and siRNAs such as 3' terminal methylation and untemplated nucleotide additions have also been reported to affect small RNA stability. These collective findings are beginning to uncover a new layer of regulatory control in the pathways involving small RNAs. We anticipate that understanding the mechanisms of mature miRNA and siRNA turnover will have direct implications for fundamental biology as well as for applications of RNA interference technology.

microRNAs (miRNAs) and small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) play important roles in gene regulation and defense responses against transposons and viruses in eukaryotes. These small RNAs generally trigger the silencing of cognate sequences through a variety of mechanisms, including RNA degradation, translational inhibition and transcriptional repression. In the past few years, the synthesis and the mode of action of miRNAs and siRNAs have attracted great attention. However, relatively little is known about mechanisms of quality control during small RNA biogenesis as well as those that regulate mature small RNA stability. Recent studies in Arabidopsis thaliana and Caenorhabditis elegans have implicated 3'-to-5' (SDNs) and 5'-to-3' (XRN-2) exoribonucleases in mature miRNA turnover and the modulation of small RNA levels and activity. In the green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, a nucleotidyltransferase (MUT68) and an exosome subunit (RRP6) are involved in the 3' untemplated uridylation and the degradation of miRNAs and siRNAs. The latter enzymes appear to function as a quality control mechanism to eliminate putative dysfunctional or damaged small RNA molecules. Several post-transcriptional modifications of miRNAs and siRNAs such as 3' terminal methylation and untemplated nucleotide additions have also been reported to affect small RNA stability. These collective findings are beginning to uncover a new layer of regulatory control in the pathways involving small RNAs. We anticipate that understanding the mechanisms of mature miRNA and siRNA turnover will have direct implications for fundamental biology as well as for applications of RNA interference technology.