Mitsubishi

About: Mitsubishi is a company organization based out in Tokyo, Japan. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Signal & Layer (electronics). The organization has 53115 authors who have published 54821 publications receiving 870150 citations. The organization is also known as: Mitsubishi Group of Companies & Mitsubishi Companies.

Mutations in the Novel Membrane Protein Spinster Interfere with Programmed Cell Death and Cause Neural Degeneration in Drosophila melanogaster

Abstract: Mutations in the spin gene are characterized by an extraordinarily strong rejection behavior of female flies in response to male courtship. They are also accompanied by decreases in the viability, adult life span, and oviposition rate of the flies. In spin mutants, some oocytes and adult neural cells undergo degeneration, which is preceded by reductions in programmed cell death of nurse cells in ovaries and of neurons in the pupal nervous system, respectively. The central nervous system (CNS) of spin mutant flies accumulates autofluorescent lipopigments with characteristics similar to those of lipofuscin. The spin locus generates at least five different transcripts, with only two of these being able to rescue the spin behavioral phenotype; each encodes a protein with multiple membrane-spanning domains that are expressed in both the surface glial cells in the CNS and the follicle cells in the ovaries. Orthologs of the spin gene have also been identified in a number of species from nematodes to humans. Analysis of the spin mutant will give us new insights into neurodegenerative diseases and aging.

Cognition device for battery residual capacity

Abstract: In a cognition device for battery residual capacity, battery voltage information and battery ambient temperature information are input to a microprocessor through an A/D converter. In the microprocessor, the voltage information is corrected with load information; the data conforming to the ambient temperature information are read out of the battery discharge characteristic data which are previously stored in memory, and the readout data are compared with the corrected voltage information so that the battery residual capacity can be computed from the result of the above comparison data. In this arrangement, it is therefore possible to accurately recognize battery residual capacity at an arbitrary point in time.

A novel peptidoglycan-associated lipoprotein found in the cell envelope of Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Escherichia coli.

Abstract: Protein H, one of the major outer membrane proteins Pseudomonas aeruginosa, shows an interesting interaction with the peptidoglycan layer of the cell. It is retained by peptidoglycan after extraction of the cell envelope with SDS solution at 35 degrees C. A protein of the same molecular weight (21,000) as protein H was found in the peptidoglycan-associated fraction of Escherichia coli K-12 prepared under the same conditions. This protein, designated here as protein 21K, was purified from the cell envelope of E. coli, and the properties of two proteins (protein H and protein 21K) were compared. By gas chromatographic analysis of purified protein 21K and protein H, it was found that both contained covalently linked fatty acid. In isotopic labeling experiments, [14C]palmitic acid and [2-3H]glycerol were incorported into both proteins H and 21K. These two proteins showed similar amino acid compositions, but no apparent correlation was found between protein 21K or protein H and Braun's lipoprotein. These results suggest that protein 21K of E. coli K-12 and protein H of P. aeruginosa PAO are a novel type of lipoprotein. All nine gram-negative bacteria tested, including enteric and non-enteric bacteria, contained a similar protein of apparent molecular weight 21,000 as a peptidoglycan-protein complex.

Metabolic engineering of carotenoid biosynthesis in Escherichia coli by ordered gene assembly in Bacillus subtilis

Abstract: We attempted to optimize the production of zeaxanthin in Escherichia coli by reordering five biosynthetic genes in the natural carotenoid cluster of Pantoea ananatis. Newly designed operons for zeaxanthin production were constructed by the ordered gene assembly in Bacillus subtilis (OGAB) method, which can assemble multiple genes in one step using an intrinsic B. subtilis plasmid transformation system. The highest level of production of zeaxanthin in E. coli (820 μg/g [dry weight]) was observed in the transformant with a plasmid in which the gene order corresponds to the order of the zeaxanthin metabolic pathway (crtE-crtB-crtI-crtY-crtZ), among a series of plasmids with circularly permuted gene orders. Although two of five operons using intrinsic zeaxanthin promoters failed to assemble in B. subtilis, the full set of operons was obtained by repressing operon expression during OGAB assembly with a pR promoter-cI repressor system. This result suggests that repressing the expression of foreign genes in B. subtilis is important for their assembly by the OGAB method. For all tested operons, the abundance of mRNA decreased monotonically with the increasing distance of the gene from the promoter in E. coli, and this may influence the yield of zeaxanthin. Our results suggest that rearrangement of biosynthetic genes in the order of the metabolic pathway by the OGAB method could be a useful approach for metabolic engineering.

Plastic-packaged semiconductor device including a plurality of chips

Abstract: There are described an improvement in the mass-productivity of a plastic-packaged semiconductor device which includes a plurality of chips that are connected to leads and assembled into one package while their main surfaces are positioned so as to oppose one another and which enables selection of one of the chips with a fewer number of leads. The semiconductor device includes a pair of identical chips including a plurality of electrode pads provided in a row in the center of the main surface of the chip, and the electrode pads provided in the corresponding positions form a pair of electrode pads. The plurality of electrode pads which permit input or output of a common signal in or from the chips are connected to the respective sides of the common lead by way of a pair of electrode bumps. Two pairs of electrode pads which permit input or output of individual signals to the respective chips and which are provided side by side to each other are electrically connected to respective sides of the common lead by way of an electrode bump formed on one of the pair of electrode pads as well as by way of another adjacent electrode bump formed on the electrode pad of the other pair of electrode pads.