Pericentrin contains five NESs and an NLS essential for its nucleocytoplasmic trafficking during the cell cycle

Pericentrin, a conserved centrosomal component, provides the structural scaffold to anchor numerous centrosomal proteins, and thus plays an essential role in the organization and function of the centrosome and the mitotic spindle. Although pericentrin was shown to localize in the cytoplasm and reported to be sensitive to leptomycin B （LMB）, a specific inhibitor of Crml, the regions within pericentrin that serve as signals for transporting in and out of the nucleus have not yet been identified. In this study, we identified five novel nuclear export signals （NESs） in pericentrin with diverse export activities. All of the five NESs could bind to Crml in a LMB-sensitive way when mediating the nuclear export of pericentrin. We also demonstrated that the region of amino acids 8-42 in pericentrin contains a tripartite nuclear localization signal （NLS） consisting of three clusters of basic amino acids. The NLS of pericentrin binds to importin β directly or via the adaptor importin α to form the import complex, which could be disrupted by RanQ69L, a dominant-negative Ran GTPase possessing high affinity for importin β. Furthermore, we found that mutation of the NESs in full-length pericentrin results in both nuclear and cytoplasmic localization, and mutation of the NLS abolishes the nuclear import of pericentrin. On the basis of these results, we suggest that the NESs and NLS of pericentrin are essential for its subcellular localization and nucleocytoplasmic trafficking during the cell cycle.

Despreader for Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum System and Its Performance Analysis

A new type of despreader for direct sequence spread spectrum signal is proposed. Compared with traditional despreaders, the new despreader does not contain hard decision ware or handle binary sequence any more, and the locally stored spread spectrum signals are pre-modulated baseband signals (such as Gaussian minimum shift keying (GMSK) signals), which are much more similar to the received spread spectrum signals. Moreover, the missed detection probability of the despreader is about one order of magnitude lower than that of traditional ones. Based on the maximum likelihood criterion and phase probability density function of demodulated signal, a new method of ana- lyzing the despreaders’ performance is put forward, which is proved to be more accurate than traditional methods according to the numerical results. Finally, an adaptive despreader under different signal-to-noise ratios is given.

Key Enabling Techniques and Deployment of 120Gb/s Long-Haul Optical Transmission in Backbone Networks

The explosive increase in data traffic requires networks to provide higher capacity and long-haul transmission capabilities.This paper introduces new results on high-order modulation and efficient Digital Signal Processing algorithms to reduce various transmission limitations in coherent receiving systems.Polarization Division Multiplexed Quadrature Phase Shift Keying(PDM-QPSK)is deployed to reach high bit rates,provides modified digital clock recovery,and allows BER-Aided Constant Modulus Algorithm(BA-CMA)equalising.A Soft Decision-Forward Error Correction(SD-FEC)algorithm and a joint scheme with timing recovery and adaptive equaliser are used to achieve better performance.A compact coherent transceiver is also developed.These techniques have been applied in the largest 100 G Optical Transport Network(OTN)deployment in the world,the backbone expansion project for Phase 3 of the China Education and Research Network(CERNET),with a total transmission length of 10 000 km.

Re-modulated technology of WDM-PON employing different DQPSK downstream signals

This paper proposes a kind of modulation architecture for wavelength-division-multiplexing passive optical network （WDM- PON） employing optical differentia/quadrature phase shift keying （DQPSK） downstream signals and two different modulation formats of re-modulated upstream signals. At the optical line terminal （OLT）, 10 Gbit/s signal is modulated with DQPSK. At the optical network unit （ONU）, part of the downstream signal is re-modulated with on-offkeying （0OK） or inverse-return-to-zero （IRZ）. Simulation results show the impact on the system employing NRZ, RZ and carrier-suppressed return-to-zero （CSRZ）. The analyses also reflect that the architecture can restrain chromatic dispersion and channel crosstalk, which makes it the best architecture of access network in the future.

A novel copper-sensing two-component system for inducing Dsb gene expression in bacteria

In nature, bacteria must sense copper and tightly regulate gene expression to evade copper toxicity. Here,we identify a new copper-responsive two-component system named DsbRS in the important human pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa;in this system, DsbS is a sensor histidine kinase, and DsbR, its cognate response regulator, directly induces the transcription of genes involved in protein disulfide bond formation(Dsb)(i.e., the dsbDEG operon and dsbB). In the absence of copper, DsbS acts as a phosphatase toward DsbR, thus blocking the transcription of Dsb genes. In the presence of copper, the metal ion directly binds to the sensor domain of DsbS, and the Cys82 residue plays a critical role in this process. The copperbinding behavior appears to inhibit the phosphatase activity of DsbS, leading to the activation of DsbR.The copper resistance of the dsbRS knock-out mutant is restored by the ectopic expression of the dsbDEG operon, which is a DsbRS major target. Strikingly, cognates of the dsbRS-dsbDEG pair are widely distributed across eubacteria. In addition, a DsbR-binding site, which contains the consensus sequence 5’-TTA-N8-TTAA-3’, is detected in the promoter region of dsbDEG homologs in these species. These findings suggest that the regulation of Dsb genes by DsbRS represents a novel mechanism by which bacterial cells cope with copper stress.

Photonic generation of BFSK RF signals based on optical pulse shaping

A novel method to generate binary frequency shift-keying(BFSK) radio frequency(RF) signals in optical domain is proposed.In the proposed system,an optical short pulse train is converted into super-Gaussian RF pulses with high frequency based on optical pulse shaping by two Mach-Zehnder fiber interferometers(MZIs).And the generated RF signals are coded using a fast electro-optic switch.By properly designing the MZIs,BFSK RF signals with desired code pattern and modulation index can be generated.A theoretical model for describing the system is developed,and the generation of BFSK RF signals in millimeter-wave regime is demonstrated via simulations.