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Biomedical subjects

Y Iwasa

Publications and source records attributed to Y Iwasa.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed2001

The evolution of X-linked genomic imprinting.

We develop a quantitative genetic model to investigate the evolution of X-imprinting. The model compares two forces that select for X-imprinting: genomic conflict caused by polygamy and sex-specific selection. Genomic conflict can only explain small reductions in maternal X gene expression and cannot explain silencing of the maternal X. In contrast, sex-specific selection can cause extreme differences in gene expression, in either direction (lowered maternal or paternal gene expression), even to the point of gene silencing of either the maternal or paternal copy. These conclusions assume that the Y chromosome lacks genetic activity. The presence of an active Y homologue makes imprinting resemble the autosomal pattern, with active paternal alleles (X- and Y-linked) and silenced maternal alleles. This outcome is likely to be restricted as Y-linked alleles are subject to the accumulation of deleterious mutations. Experimental evidence concerning X-imprinting in mouse and human is interpreted in the light of these predictions and is shown to be far more easily explained by sex-specific selection.

Alleles↗
PubMed2001

External Cl(-)-dependent formation of watery vacuoles by long-term hypotonic shock in 3T3-L1 cells.

Osmotic shock transiently induces a volume change in the cells, followed by a restoration of the cell volume due to intracellular water regulation. Effect of long-term osmotic shock on the water regulation is not completely understood. Vacuole formation by long-term osmotic shock was investigated to clarify the water exclusion mechanism from cytoplasm into intracellular vacuoles in 3T3-L1 cells. Incubation of cells in hypotonic solution reversibly induced the vacuole formation. Staining of vacuoles with fluorescent dyes revealed that vacuoles were derived from endoplasmic reticulum and Golgi apparatus but not lysosomes. Membrane-impermeable fluorescent dyes were taken up into some vacuoles from cytoplasm and extracellular solution, suggesting that some vacuoles exhibit the dynamic changes for the connection of plasma membrane, and that transporter for membrane-impermeable dyes might be active in some vacuole membranes. External Cl(-), but not Na(+), was required for vacuole formation. DPC suppressed the vacuole formation and increased cell height, and further incubation with DPC increased the number of dead cells. Bumetanide, dimethylamiloride, and HgCl(2) did not suppress the hypotonic stress-induced formation of water vacuoles. These findings suggest that 3T3-L1 cells regulate the intracellular water content through the DPC-sensitive external Cl(-)-dependent vacuole formation during long-term osmotic stress.

3T3 Cells↗
PubMed2001

Reproductive asynchrony increases with environmental disturbance.

While it is widely recognized that the manner in which organisms adjust their timing of reproduction reflects evolutionary strategies aimed at minimizing offspring mortality or maximizing reproductive output, the conditions under which the evolutionarily stable strategy involves synchronous or asynchronous reproduction is a matter of considerable discord. A recent theoretical model predicts that whether a population displays reproductive synchrony or asynchrony will depend on the relative scales of intrinsic regulation and environmental disturbance experienced by reproducing individuals. This model predicts that, under conditions of negligible competition and large-scale environmental perturbation, evolution of a single mixed strategy will result in asynchronous reproduction. We tested this prediction using empirical data on large-scale climatic fluctuation and the annual timing of reproduction by three species of flowering plants covering 1300-population-years and four degrees of latitude in Norway. In agreement with model predictions, within populations of all three species reproductive asynchrony increased with the magnitude of large-scale climatic perturbation, but bore no relation to the strength of local density dependence. These results suggest that mixed evolutionarily stable strategies can arise from the interplay of combinations of agents of selection and the scale at which they operate; hence it is fruitless to associate synchronous versus asynchronous timing with particular single factors like climate, competition, or predation.

Climate↗
PubMed2001

[A case of plasmacytoma involving adrenal gland].

We report a case of extramedullary plasmacytoma involving the right adrenal gland. A 52-year-old male was introduced under diagnosis of right adrenal tumor which was found incidentally by computerized tomography in a health check up. Laboratory data showed the presence of M protein and elevation of monoclonal lambda type IgG. It was a hormonally non-active tumor involving the adrenal area. Extramedullary plasmacytoma was confirmed by histological analysis of the resected specimen after laparoscopic right adrenalectomy. Extramedullary plasmacytoma is an uncommon neoplasm and occurs most frequently in the upper respiratory tract and is fairly rare in the adrenal area.

Adrenal Gland Neoplasms↗
PubMed2000

Antiferromagnetism and phase diagram in ammoniated alkali fulleride salts

Intercalation of neutral ammonia molecules into trivalent face-centered-cubic (fcc) fulleride superconductors induces a dramatic change in electronic states. Monoammoniated alkali fulleride salts (NH3)K3-xRbxC60, forming an isostructural orthorhombic series, undergo an antiferromagnetic transition, which was found by the electron spin resonance experiment. The Neel temperature first increases with the interfullerene spacing and then decreases for (NH3)Rb3C60, forming a maximum at 76 K. This feature is explained by the generalized phase diagram of Mott-Hubbard transition with an antiferromagnetic ground state.

Journal Article↗
PubMed2000

Comparing risk factors for population extinction.

Extinction risk of natural populations of animals and plants is enhanced by many different processes, including habitat size reduction and toxic chemical exposure. We develop a method to evaluate different risk factors in terms of the decrease in the mean extinction time. We choose a population model with logistic growth, environmental and demographic stochasticities with three parameters (intrinsic growth rate r, carrying capacity K, and environmental noise sigma(2)(e)). The reduction in the habitat size decreases carrying capacity K only, whilst toxic chemical exposure decreases survivorship (or fertility) and in effect reduces both r and K. We derived a formula for the reduction in habitat size that decrease the mean extinction time by the same magnitude as a given level of toxic chemical exposure. In a large population (large K) or in a slowly growing population (small r), a small decrease in survivorship can cause the extinction risk increase corresponding to a significant reduction in the habitat size. This conclusion depends also on the nonlinearity of dose-effect relationship. To illustrate the method, we analyse a freshwater fish, Japanese crucian carp (Carassius auratus subsp.) in Lake Biwa.

Animals↗
PubMed2000

Extinction risk of a density-dependent population estimated from a time series of population size.

Environmental threats, such as habitat size reduction or environmental pollution, may not cause immediate extinction of a population but shorten the expected time to extinction. We develop a method to estimate the mean time to extinction for a density-dependent population with environmental fluctuation. We first derive a formula for a stochastic differential equation model (canonical model) of a population with logistic growth with environmental and demographic stochasticities. We then study an approximate maximum likelihood (AML) estimate of three parameters (intrinsic growth rate r, carrying capacity K, and environmental stochasticity sigma(2)(e)) from a time series of population size. The AML estimate of r has a significant bias, but by adopting the Monte Carlo method, we can remove the bias very effectively (bias-corrected estimate). We can also determine the confidence interval of the parameter based on the Monte Carlo method. If the length of the time series is moderately long (with 40-50 data points), parameter estimation with the Monte Carlo sampling bias correction has a relatively small variance. However, if the time series is short (less than or equal to 10 data points), the estimate has a large variance and is not reliable. If we know the intrinsic growth rate r, however, the estimate of K and sigma(2)(e)and the mean extinction time T are reliable even if only a short time series is available. We illustrate the method using data for a freshwater fish, Japanese crucian carp (Carassius auratus subsp.) in Lake Biwa, in which the growth rate and environmental noise of crucian carp are estimated using fishery records.

Animals↗
PubMed2000

Pollen coupling of forest trees: forming synchronized and periodic reproduction out of chaos.

Many of the tree species in mature forests show masting; their reproductive activity has a large variance between years and is often synchronized between different individuals. In this paper, we analyse a globally coupled map model in which trees accumulate photosynthate every year, produce flowers when the energy reserve level exceeds a threshold, and set seeds and fruits at a rate limited by pollen availability. Without pollen limitation, the trees in the forest show independent chaotic fluctuation. Coupling of trees via pollen exchange results in reproduction being synchronized partially or completely over the forest. The whole forest shows diverse dynamical behaviors determined by the values of two essential parameters; the depletion coefficient k and the coupling strength beta. We find perfectly synchronized periodic reproduction, synchronized reproduction with a chaotic time series, clustering phenomena, and chaotic reproduction of trees without synchronization over individuals. There are many parameter windows in which synchronized reproduction of trees shows a stable periodic fluctuation. For perfectly synchronized forests, we can calculate all the Lyapunov exponents analytically. They show that synchronized reproduction of all the trees in the forest can only occur when trees flower at low (but positive) levels in a significant fraction of years, resulting in small fruit sets due to outcrossed pollen limitation. This is consistent with the observation that the distinction between mast years and non-mast years is often not clear cut.

Models, Biological↗
PubMed2000

Stiffness of single-walled carbon nanotubes under large strain

Large-scale molecular dynamic simulations of the axial deformations in single-walled carbon nanotubes have been performed using an O(N) tight-binding method. Our simulations indicate that under large strain, 0 K stress is remarkably sensitive to helicity, and that a zigzag nanotube and an armchair nanotube are the stiffest, respectively, under elongation and compression regimes. Furthermore, the elastic properties of a graphite sheet have been investigated using a simple harmonic potential and an analytic bond-order potential. The results suggest that the unique elastic properties of carbon nanotubes originate from those of a six-membered ring.

Journal Article↗
PubMed2000

Competition by allelopathy proceeds in traveling waves: colicin-immune strain aids colicin-sensitive strain.

Producing toxic chemicals to suppress both the growth and survivorship of local competitors is called allelopathy; some strains of the bacteria Escherichia coli produce a toxin (named colicin) which may kill colicin-sensitive neighbors while they themselves are immune. In a previous paper, the competitive outcome between colicin-producing and colicin-sensitive strains was shown to differ between a spatially structured and a completely mixed population. In this paper, we analyze the role of a third, "colicin-immune," strain, which does not produce colicin but is immune to it. Without spatial structure, the colicin-immune strain suppresses the colicin-producing strain and enables the colicin-sensitive strain to win. In a spatially structured population, modeled as a reaction-diffusion system, we examine the speed of boundaries between areas dominated by different strains in traveling waves and the events after the collision of two such boundaries. The colicin-immune strain passes through the area dominated by the colicin-sensitive strain and drives the colicin-producing strain to extinction. Subsequently the colicin-sensitive strain occupies the whole population.

Alleles↗
PubMed2000

Species coexistence by permanent spatial heterogeneity in a lottery model.

We studied the effect of permanent spatial heterogeneity in promoting species coexistence in a lottery model. The system consisted of multiple habitats, each composed of a number of sites occupied by adults of two species. Larvae produced from different habitats were mixed in a common pool. When an adult died, the vacant site became occupied by an individual randomly chosen from the larval pool. If there were n habitats, there could be up to n-1 internal equilibria with both species in addition to two single-species equilibria. These equilibria and their local stability can be calculated from a single function, indicating the difference among species in their average lifetime reproductive success. Our main result is that between-habitat variation in the ratio of mortalities of two species promotes coexistence, while that of reproductive rates does not. This conclusion is the opposite of the role of temporal variation in the standard lottery model, in which between-year variation in the reproductive rate, but not that in the mortalities, promotes coexistence.

Animals↗
PubMed2000

Identification of a new human DNA virus (TTV-like mini virus, TLMV) intermediately related to TT virus and chicken anemia virus.

TT virus (TTV) is the only known human virus with single-stranded circular DNA, with a possible but yet unclear relationship to chicken anemia virus (CAV) of the family Circoviridae. Here we report a new human virus resembling TTV and CAV, designated TTV-like mini virus (TLMV). This non-enveloped virus was smaller (< 30 nm) but had a similar density (1.31-1.34 g/ml in CsCl) to TTV, when a TLMV/TTV-coinfected plasma was analyzed. Full-length sequencing revealed that the TLMV genome was a circular DNA comprising 2860 nt (isolate CBD231); significantly shorter than TTV (TA278, 3852 nt) but longer than CAV (CAECUX1, 2319 nt). A strand-specific hybridization assay using oligonucleotide-coated beads suggested TLMV was negative-stranded, like TTV and CAV. In genomic organization, TLMV was similar to both TTV and CAV. The untranslated region of TLMV resembled CAV in that both had direct repeats, whereas the sequence homology was more evident between TLMV and TTV. The predicted ORF1 protein of TLMV was rich in R/W/F residues at its amino terminus; the richness in W was shared by TTV, F by CAV, and R by both. ORF2 proteins of the three viruses had a common motif, WX7HX3CXCX5H. Thus, TLMV is an intermediate between the remotely related TTV and CAV. Since CAV differs much from other circoviruses, it may better be classified together with TTV and TLMV under a new family: we would coin the Paracircoviridae.

Amino Acid Sequence↗