On the Mechanism of the Locking of the El Nino Event Onset Phase to Boreal Spring

The mechanism of the locking of the E1 Nino event onset phase to boreal spring （from April to June） in an intermediate coupled ocean-atmosphere model is investigated. The results show that the seasonal variation of the zonal wind anomaly over the equatorial Pacific associated with the seasonal variation of the ITCZ is the mechanism of the locking in the model. From January to March of the E1 Nino year, the western wind anomaly over the western equatorial Pacific can excite the downwelling Kelvin wave that propagates eastward to the eastern and middle Pacific by April to June. From April to December of the year before the E1 Nifio year, the eastern wind anomaly over the equatorial Pacific forces the downwelling Rossby waves that modulate the ENSO cycle. The modulation and the reflection at the western boundary modulate the time of the transition from the cool to the warm phase to September of the year before the E1 Nifio year and cause the strongest downwelling Kelvin wave from the reflected Rossby waves at the western boundary to arrive in the middle and eastern equatorial Pacific by April to June of the E1 Nino year. The superposition of these two kinds of downwelling Kelvin waves causes the El Nino event to tend to occur from April to June.

The E3 ligase XBAT35 mediates thermoresponsive hypocotyl growth by targeting ELF3 for degradation in Arabidopsis

Plants are capable of coordination of their growth and development with ambient temperatures.EARLY FLOWERING3(ELF3), an essential component of the plant circadian clock, is also involved in ambient temperature sensing, as well as in inhibiting the expression and protein activity of the thermoresponsive regulator phytochrome interacting factor4(PIF4). The ELF3 activity is subjected to attenuation in response to warm temperature;however,how the protein level of ELF3 is regulated at warm temperature remains less understood. Here, we report that the E3 ligase XB3 ORTHOLOG 5 IN ARABIDOPSIS THALIANA, XBAT35, mediates ELF3 degradation. XBAT35 interacts with ELF3 and ubiquitinates ELF3. Loss-of-function mutation of XBAT35 increases the protein level of ELF3 and confers a short-hypocotyl phenotype under warm temperature conditions. Thus, our findings establish that XBAT35 mediates ELF3 degradation to lift the inhibition of ELF3 on PIF4 for promoting thermoresponsive hypocotyl growth in plants.

The E Protein Is a Multifunctional Membrane Protein of SARS-CoV

The E (envelope) protein is the smallest structural protein in all coronaviruses and is the only viral structural protein in which no variation has been detected. We conducted genome sequencing and phylogenetic analyses of SARS-CoV. Based on genome sequencing, we predicted the E protein is a transmembrane (TM) protein characterized by a TM region with strong hydrophobicity and α-helix conformation. We identified a segment (NH2-_L-Cys-A-Y-Cys-Cys-N_-COOH) in the carboxyl-terminal region of the E protein that appears to form three disulfide bonds with another segment of corresponding cysteines in the carboxyl-terminus of the S (spike) protein. These bonds point to a possible structural association between the E and S proteins. Our phylogenetic analyses of the E protein sequences in all published coronaviruses place SARS-CoV in an independent group in Coronaviridae and suggest a non-human animal origin.