Bodily and Embodied: Being Human in the Tradition of the Hebrew Bible

A depiction of the ancient Hebrew understanding of the human being must take into account the fact that the Bible does not contain a systematic anthropology, but unfolds the multiplicity of human existence inductively, aspectively, and in narrative fashion. In comparison to Greek body/soul dualism, but also in the context of body-(de-)construction and gender debates, this circumstance makes it a treasure trove of interesting, often contrasting recollections and insights with liberating potential. This assertion will be illustrated concretely in terms of the nexus points of the human body (throat, heart, and womb), the relationship of humans to animals and angels, and the questions of the power and value of a human being.

Clathrin heavy chain plays multiple roles in polarizing the Drosophila oocyte downstream of Bic-D

Bicaudal-D (Bic-D), Egalitarian (Egl), microtubules and their motors form a transport machinery that localizes a remarkable diversity of mRNAs to specific cellular regions during oogenesis and embryogenesis. Bic-D family proteins also promote dynein-dependent transport of Golgi vesicles, lipid droplets, synaptic vesicles and nuclei. However, the transport of these different cargoes is still poorly understood. We searched for novel proteins that either mediate Bic-Ddependent transport processes or are transported by them. Clathrin heavy chain (Chc) co-immunopurifies with Bic-D in embryos and ovaries, and a fraction of Chc colocalizes with Bic-D. Both proteins control posterior patterning of the Drosophila oocyte and endocytosis. Although the role of Chc in endocytosis is well established, our results show that Bic-D is also needed for the elevated endocytic activity at the posterior of the oocyte. Apart fromaffecting endocytosis indirectly by its role in osk mRNA localization, Bic-D is also required to transport Chc mRNA into the oocyte and for transport and proper localization of Chc protein to the oocyte cortex, pointing to an additional,more direct role of Bic-D in the endocytic pathway. Furthermore, similar to Bic-D, Chc also contributes to proper localization of osk mRNA and to oocyte growth. However, in contrast to other endocytic components and factors of the endocytic recycling pathway, such as Rabenosyn-5 (Rbsn-5) and Rab11, Chc is needed during early stages of oogenesis (from stage 6 onwards) to localize oskmRNA correctly.Moreover,we also uncovered a novel, presumably endocytosis-independent, role of Chc in the establishment of microtubule polarity in stage 6 oocytes.

FUS protein interacts with U7 snRNP and plays a role in replication-dependant histone genes expression

The U7 small nuclear ribonucleoprotein (U7 snRNP) is an essential factor mediating the unique 3’end processing of non-polyadenylated, replication-dependent histone mRNAs in metazoans. These histone genes expression and processing of their transcripts are cell cycle-regulated mechanisms that recruit a number of specific proteins as well as common factors required for expression and maturation of polyadenylated mRNAs. However, despite all the knowledge we have so far, there are still gaps in understanding of core histone RNA 3’ end processing, its coupling to transcription and regulation during cell cycle. To further elucidate this phenomena we used affinity chromatography based on tagged version of U7 snRNA molecule to identify proteins associated with U7 snRNP/U7 snRNA that could be potentially involved in core histone genes expression in human cells. Mass spectrometric analysis of affinity-purified fraction revealed, among others, multifunctional RNA/DNAbinding protein FUS/TLS (fused in sarcoma/translocated in liposarcoma) as a new factor interacting with U7 snRNA/RNP. Co-immunoprecipitation and RIP experiments confirmed the binding between FUS and the U7 RNA/snRNP. Interestingly, FUS:U7 snRNA interaction seems to be activated in S phase where the core histone genes are expressed. Moreover, FUS co-fractionates in 10-50% continuous glycerol gradient with other factors involved in histone premRNAs 3’end processing. However, this unique 3’end maturation was not disturbed upon FUS knockdown. Instead, we found that FUS depletion leads to a de-regulation of expression from selected histone promoters, suggesting that FUS is rather involved in regulation of core histone genes transcription. Thus, FUS bound to U7 snRNP can play a role in coupling between transcription and 3’end processing of replication dependant histone mRNAs.

The tail plays a major role in the differing manoeuvrability of two sibling species of mouse-eared bats (Myotis myotis and Myotis blythii)

Two sympatrically occurring bat species, the greater mouse-eared bat (Myotis myotis (Borkhausen, 1797)) and the lesser mouse-eared bat (Myotis blythii (Tomes, 1857)) (Chiroptera, Vespertillionidae), share numerous similarities in morphology, roosting behaviour, and echolocation and are often difficult to distinguish. However, despite these similarities, their foraging behaviour is noticeably different. Our aim was to examine the extent to which these different foraging strategies reflect morphological adaptation. We assessed whether the morphology of the wing, body, and tail differed between M. myotis and M. blythii. In addition, in a laboratory experiment involving an obstacle course, we compared differences in manoeuvrability by relating them to our morphological measurements. The two species differed in their overall size, wing-tip shape, and tail-to-body length ratio. The generally smaller sized M. blythii performed better in the obstacle course and was therefore considered to be more manoeuvrable. Although differences in wing-tip shape were observed, we found the most important characteristic affecting manoeuvrability in both species to be the tail-to-body length ratio. Additionally, when we compared two bats with injured wing membranes with unharmed bats of the same species, we found no difference in manoeuvrability, even when the wing shape was asymmetric. We therefore postulate that morphometric differences between the two species in their overall size and, more importantly, in their tail-to-body length ratio are the main physical characteristics providing proof of adaptation to different foraging and feeding strategies.

The transporter GAT1 plays an important role in GABA-mediated carbon-nitrogen interactions in Arabidopsis

Glutamate derived γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) is synthetized in the cytosol prior to delivery to the mitochondria where it is catabolized via the TCA cycle. GABA accumulates under various environmental conditions, but an increasing number of studies show its involvement at the crossroad between C and N metabolism. To assess the role of GABA in modulating cellular metabolism, we exposed seedlings of A. thaliana GABA transporter gat1 mutant to full nutrition medium and media deficient in C and N combined with feeding of different concentrations (0.5 and 1 mM) of exogenous GABA. GC-MS based metabolite profiling showed an expected effect of medium composition on the seedlings metabolism of mutant and wild type alike. That being said, a significant interaction between GAT1 deficiency and medium composition was determined with respect to magnitude of change in relative amino acid levels. The effect of exogenous GABA treatment on metabolism was contingent on both the medium and the genotype, leading for instance to a drop in asparagine under full nutrition and low C conditions and glucose under all tested media, but not to changes in GABA content. We additionally assessed the effect of GAT1 deficiency on the expression of glutamate metabolism related genes and genes involved in abiotic stress responses. These results suggest a role for GAT1 in GABA-mediated metabolic alterations in the context of the C-N equilibrium of plant cells.