forma

‘We Roar’: Graduate alum Ali Nouri fights COVID-19 disinformation as Federation of American Scientists' president

Ali Nouri, a 2006 Princeton graduate alumnus and president of the Federation of American Scientists, is the latest guest on the "We Roar" podcast.




forma

NSF RAPID grant awarded for study of how anxiety affects the spread of COVID-19 information

Princeton researchers have been awarded a National Science Foundation RAPID grant to study how anxiety about COVID-19 influences how we learn and share information about the pandemic.




forma

Interview with Lawyer of Football Leaks Informant Rui Pinto

Rui Pinto is the whistleblower behind Football Leaks and has been in jail in Portugal for months. In an interview, his lawyer William Bourdon talks about how his client is doing and what he is doing to get Pinto out of prison.




forma

Team Players: How Social Skills Improve Group Performance -- by Ben Weidmann, David J. Deming

Most jobs require teamwork. Are some people good team players? In this paper we design and test a new method for identifying individual contributions to group performance. We randomly assign people to multiple teams and predict team performance based on previously assessed individual skills. Some people consistently cause their group to exceed its predicted performance. We call these individuals “team players”. Team players score significantly higher on a well-established measure of social intelligence, but do not differ across a variety of other dimensions, including IQ, personality, education and gender. Social skills – defined as a single latent factor that combines social intelligence scores with the team player effect – improve group performance about as much as IQ. We find suggestive evidence that team players increase effort among teammates.




forma

Pac-12 to move football media day to virtual format amid COVID-19 pandemic




forma

NYC students enjoy free performance of ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’ at Madison Square Garden

City middle and high school students streamed off buses and trains, buzzing with excitement for the afternoon’s entertainment. For some, it was the first chance to see a Broadway show.




forma

Clippers want to add consistency to dominant performances

Clippers stars Kawhi Leonard and Paul George know time is running out to develop consistency that matches their top-end potential.




forma

Markieff Morris used push-ups to get over his performance against Zion Williamson

Markieff Morris wasn't very pleased with how he played against Zion Williamson and the Pelicans on Sunday, so the new Laker did something about it.




forma

LeBron James' performances against Bucks and Clippers earn him 'MVP' accolades

In victories over the Bucks and Clippers — two of the NBA's finest teams — LeBron James showed how much of a difference-maker he is for the Lakers.




forma

Key informant is cooperating with NCAA's probe into college basketball corruption

Marty Blazer, an informant in the federal investigation into college basketball corruption that ensnared USC, is assisting the NCAA in its probe.




forma

Op-Ed: As coronavirus cases multiply, so does government disinformation

A graph of the spread of fake news -- conspiracy theories, propaganda and disinformation -- would likely run parallel to that of the coronavirus itself.




forma

Brian Dennehy's 'Driveways' Performance Is Gruff, Graceful — And A Goodbye

Dennehy, who died April 15, plays a suburban widower who befriends a mother and her son in one of his last films. It's the kind of deeply lived-in performance that Dennehy was known for.




forma

Brian Dennehy's 'Driveways' Performance Is Gruff, Graceful — And A Goodbye

Dennehy, who died April 15, plays a suburban widower who befriends a mother and her son in one of his last films. It's the kind of deeply lived-in performance that Dennehy was known for.




forma

UCLA's February performance puts it among best teams in country

Bruins rank 18th nationally for month in one metric that is important to gamblers. Team hoping NCAA Tournament selectors are paying attention.




forma

El Camino Real wins state Academic Decathlon, with altered format due to coronavirus

El Camino Real Charter High School has won this year's state Academic Decathlon, narrowly edging out its perennial rival, Granada Hills Charter High School.




forma

Column: The COVID-19 crisis shows how dangerous misinformation becomes contagious

Scientists are using the coronavirus to study the contagion of misinformation




forma

Huh? Hollywood's A-listers seem confused by Eminem's Oscars performance

From Martin Scorsese to Idina Menzel, the audience at Sunday's Academy Awards ceremony was perplexed by Eminem's performance of his 2002 hit "Lose Yourself."




forma

Billie Eilish to give ‘special performance’ at Oscars ceremony


Newly minted Grammy-winner Billie Eilish will perform live at the Oscars ceremony next month.




forma

The Ferrari 488 Pista brings racetrack performance to California freeways

Ferrari's 488 Pista, which replaces the 458 Speciale, is driven by the most powerful V8 engine Ferrari has ever put in a road car.




forma

Iran nuclear report: Regurgitating old stories as new information to justify sanctions?

A recent IAEA report on Iran’s nuclear program was portrayed by most Western mainstream media and politicians as new proof Iran is close to building nuclear weapons. The US Senate passed sanctions on Iran targeting its central bank in response.

However, the report does not say what the mainstream media and politicians claim. It has been much more guarded and much of it is about the state of Iran’s program up to 2003. After that period, the report is much more uncertain. Furthermore, many experts contend that the speculations (not definitive proof) that are in the report are misguided, too, leaning on unreliable sources, for example.

This update to the page on Iran has more information about this. Although the page is long, look for the new section about half way down under the heading of Regurgitating old stories as new information to justify sanctions?

Read full article: Iran




forma

Tottenham compared to Stoke by Peter Crouch after ‘demoralising’ Chelsea performance



Tottenham have been compared to Stoke sides of the past after their loss to Chelsea.




forma

Inverness keeper Fon Williams hopes to have caught Coleman's eye with Celtic performance



OWAIN Fon Williams hopes Wales boss Chris Coleman caught a glimpse of his goalkeeping heroics against Celtic.




forma

Voting rights march kicks off month of Art & Soul performances

Art & Soul celebrates African-American art and artists in Indiana. The event coincides with Black History Month.

      




forma

Hayley Williams leads Paramore's electric performance at White River

       




forma

News24.com | Misinformation flood hampers fight for virus vaccine in Africa

The task of introducing a vaccine for the coronavirus faces an uphill struggle in Africa, where a flood of online misinformation is feeding on mistrust of Western medical research.




forma

Wearable technology started by tracking steps. Soon, it may allow your boss to track your performance.

A team of researchers from Dartmouth say they’ve created a mobile sensing system — consisting of fitness bracelets, sensors and a custom app — that can measure employee performance with about 80 percent accuracy.




forma

Facebook's fight against coronavirus misinformation could boost pressure on the company to get more aggressive in removing other falsehoods spreading across the social network (FB)

  • Facebook is taking a harder line on misinformation related to coronavirus than it has on other health topics in the past.
  • This decision may increase the pressure on the company to act more decisively against other forms of harmful falsehoods that spread on its social networks.
  • Facebook is banning events that promote flouting lockdown protests, and is removing the conspiracy theory video "Plandemic."
  • But false claims that vaccines are dangerous still proliferate on Facebook — even though they contribute to the deaths of children.

Amid the pandemic, Facebook is taking a harder line on misinformation than it has in the past. That decision may come back to haunt it.

As coronavirus has wreaked havoc across the globe, forcing lockdowns and disrupting economies, false information and hoaxes have spread like wildfire on social media. Miracle cures, intentional disinformation about government policies, and wild claims that Bill Gates orchestrated the entire health crisis abound.

In the past, Facebook has been heavily criticised for failing to take action to stop its platform being used to facilitate the spread of misinformation. To be sure, coronavirus falsehoods are still easily found on Facebook — but the company has taken more decisive action than in previous years:

But Facebook's actions to combat COVID-19 misinformation may backfire — in the sense that it has the potential to dramatically increase pressure on the company to take stronger action against other forms of misinformation.

The company has long struggled with how to handle fake news and hoaxes; historically, its approach is not to delete them, but to try to artificially stifle their reach via algorithmic tweaks. Despite this, pseudoscience, anti-government conspiracy theories, and other falsehoods still abound on the social network.

Facebook has now demonstrated that it is willing to take more decisive action on misinformation, when the stakes are high enough. Its critics may subsequently ask why it is so reticent to combat the issue when it causes harm in other areas — particularly around other medical misinformation.

One expected defence for Facebook? That it is focused on taking down content that causes "imminent harm," and while COVID-19 misinformation falls into that category, lots of other sorts of falsehoods don't.

However, using "imminence" as the barometer of acceptability is dubious: Vaccine denialism directly results in the deaths of babies and children. That this harm isn't "imminent" doesn't make it any less dangerous — but, for now, such material is freely posted on Facebook.

Far-right conspiracy theories like Pizzagate, and more recent, Qanon, have also spread on Facebook — stoking baseless fears of shadowy cabals secretly controlling the government. These theories don't intrinsically incite harm, but have been linked to multiple acts of violence, from a Pizzagate believer firing his weapon in a pizza parlour to the Qanon-linked killing of a Gambino crime boss. (Earlier this week, Facebook did take down some popular QAnon pages — but for breaking its rules on fake profiles, rather than disinformation.)

And Facebook is still full of groups rallying against 5G technology, making evidence-free claims about its health effects (and now, sometimes linking it to coronavirus in a messy web). These posts exist on a continuum, with believers at the extreme end attempting to burn down radio towers and assault technicians; Facebook does take down such incitements to violence, but the more general fearmongering that can act as a gateway to more extreme action remains.

This week, Facebook announced the first 20 members of its Oversight Board — a "Supreme Court"-style entity that will review reports from users make rulings as to what objectionable content is and isn't allowed on Facebook and Instagram, with — in theory — the power to overrule the company. It remains to be seen whether its decisions may affect the company's approach for misinformation, and it still needs to appoint the rest of its members and get up and running.

For now, limits remain in place as to what Facebook will countenance in its fight against coronavirus-specific misinformation.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the company would immediately take down posts advertising dangerous false cures to COVID-19, like drinking bleach. It is "obviously going to create imminent harm," he said in March. "That is just in a completely different class of content than the back-and-forth accusations a candidate might make in an election."

But in April, President Donald Trump suggested that people might try injecting a "disinfectant" as a cure, which both has the potential to be extremely harmful, and will not cure coronavirus.

Facebook is not taking down video of his comments.

Do you work at Facebook? Contact Business Insider reporter Rob Price via encrypted messaging app Signal (+1 650-636-6268), encrypted email (robaeprice@protonmail.com), standard email (rprice@businessinsider.com), Telegram/Wickr/WeChat (robaeprice), or Twitter DM (@robaeprice). We can keep sources anonymous. Use a non-work device to reach out. PR pitches by standard email only, please.

SEE ALSO: Facebook announced the first 20 members of its oversight board that will decide what controversial content is allowed on Facebook and Instagram

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: A cleaning expert reveals her 3-step method for cleaning your entire home quickly




forma

Goldman Sachs is going through a huge transformation under CEO David Solomon

  • The storied investment bank is seeing leadership shakeups under CEO David Solomon and a slew of partner departures. 
  • Goldman has been moving away from high-risk businesses like trading and is making pushes into more stable areas like consumer lending, wealth management, and transaction banking. 
  • There have been big cultural changes, too. Solomon is looking to create a more transparent workplace, while new tech execs are taking cues from Silicon Valley heavy-hitters. 
  • At Business Insider, we are closely tracking the latest developments at Goldman. You can read all of our Goldman coverage on BI Prime.

Storied Wall Street bank Goldman Sachs is going through some massive changes under CEO David Solomon.

It's taken big steps involving transparency and inclusion to change up its culture. It has seen a slew of partner departures — many in the securities division. And it's making big pushes into businesses like wealth management and transaction banking.  

The latest people moves

Culture and talent

Coronavirus response

Consumer push, transaction banking, wealth management

Technology

Trading

Alternatives

Deals

Investor day 2020

Careers 

 

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: A cleaning expert reveals her 3-step method for cleaning your entire home quickly




forma

John Lithgow, Annette Bening, Alfre Woodard and more come together for live performance of the Mueller report

Several Hollywood A-listers gave a reading of select parts of the report in New York.




forma

Human rights group asks Nicki Minaj to cancel performance in Saudi Arabia

The "Megatron" rapper is set to perform in the country next week despite calls to quit the gig over the government's alleged human rights violations.




forma

News24.com | International Covid-19 news: Congo needs $500 mln to recover, informal workers suffering

All the latest Covid-19 news from around the world.




forma

Channel24.co.za | LISTEN: Miriam Makeba’s joyful Pata Pata re-recorded to spread information and hope in the time of Covid-19

You can listen to this version of the 'world's most joyous song' here.




forma

AT#19 Rerun - Cruising - Barefoot or Formal

Rerun - Cruising - Barefoot or Formal




forma

AT#19 - Cruising - Formal or Barefoot?

The Amateur Traveler compares two very different cruise options, a Royal Caribbean cruise with formal nights and midnight buffets and the Windjammer Barefoot Cruise. Which cruising option is right for you?




forma

‘The Voice’ Contestant Alexa Cappelli Treats Neighbors to Weekly Performance in Her Cul-de-Sac

It’s not good for people to be alone. Quarantining has been difficult for many people who have gotten used to socializing daily, and because of that, some have found ways to follow the rules but feel a little less isolated. Some neighborhoods have decided to be social while maintaining the suggested distance apart, whether that’s…

The post ‘The Voice’ Contestant Alexa Cappelli Treats Neighbors to Weekly Performance in Her Cul-de-Sac appeared first on The Western Journal.




forma

A comprehensive evaluation of a typical plant telomeric G-quadruplex (G4) DNA reveals the dynamics of G4 formation, rearrangement, and unfolding [Plant Biology]

Telomeres are specific nucleoprotein structures that are located at the ends of linear eukaryotic chromosomes and play crucial roles in genomic stability. Telomere DNA consists of simple repeats of a short G-rich sequence: TTAGGG in mammals and TTTAGGG in most plants. In recent years, the mammalian telomeric G-rich repeats have been shown to form G-quadruplex (G4) structures, which are crucial for modulating telomere functions. Surprisingly, even though plant telomeres are essential for plant growth, development, and environmental adaptions, only few reports exist on plant telomeric G4 DNA (pTG4). Here, using bulk and single-molecule assays, including CD spectroscopy, and single-molecule FRET approaches, we comprehensively characterized the structure and dynamics of a typical plant telomeric sequence, d[GGG(TTTAGGG)3]. We found that this sequence can fold into mixed G4s in potassium, including parallel and antiparallel structures. We also directly detected intermediate dynamic transitions, including G-hairpin, parallel G-triplex, and antiparallel G-triplex structures. Moreover, we observed that pTG4 is unfolded by the AtRecQ2 helicase but not by AtRecQ3. The results of our work shed light on our understanding about the existence, topological structures, stability, intermediates, unwinding, and functions of pTG4.




forma

By enabling formal trade, Nigeria can unleash its vast potential

3 December 2015

Nigeria’s booming informal trade is costly for society, business and government, yet a critical opportunity exists to formalize such trade and drive more sustainable and less volatile growth, argues a new report from Chatham House.

According to one estimate, informal activity accounts for up to 64 per cent of Nigeria’s GDP. Nigeria's Booming Borders: The Drivers and Consequences of Unrecorded Trade finds that this is a result of obstacles that impede trading through formal channels. These drivers include bureaucratic burdens and other factors, such as:

  • The need for Nigerian businesses to produce at least nine documents in order to send an export shipment and at least 13 in order to bring in an import consignment.
  • Rigid and dysfunctional foreign-exchange regulations that push most smaller traders into the incompletely regulated parallel exchange market.
  • Corruption and unofficial ‘taxation’, especially on major border highways, which delegitimize formal channels and encourage the use of smuggling routes.

As a result, the state loses direct tax revenues that would be generated by formal cross-border trade. This is not just siphoned into the informal economy; some is lost entirely. For example, many shippers opt to dock in neighbouring countries rather than deal with the expense and difficulty of using Nigeria’s ports.

Informal trade also undermines the social contract between the private sector and government. The state lacks tax revenues to pay its officials, improve infrastructure or implement reforms, while traders feel the government provides no services in return for any taxes they might pay.

‘Every day tens of thousands of unofficial payments are made, none destined for the government. Policy-makers need to create an environment that encourages trade to flow through formal channels and capture lost revenue’, says co-author Leena Koni Hoffmann.

‘Formalization would assist Nigeria to pursue more high-quality, high-tech economic activity at a time when rising labour costs in Asia are creating scope for Nigerian manufacturers to compete’, she adds.

The report makes a number of recommendations for how Nigeria could encourage more formal trade, including:

  • Strengthening the resources and capacity of the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment to coordinate action across key government ministries, departments and agencies, as well as public and private stakeholders.
  • Prioritizing engagement in the development of Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) trade policies and fully implementing the ECOWAS Protocol on Free Movement of Persons to reduce harassment at borders.
  • Allowing banks to operate simple services for small and medium-sized businesses to make trade payments directly from Nigerian naira to CFA francs and vice versa.
  • Improving basic facilities that support traders, including improving the efficiency of border posts, installing truck parks and all-weather surfacing on market access roads, and introducing online booking for trucks to enter ports.
  • Separating responsibilities for assessing duty and tariff liabilities from revenue collection in order to reduce opportunities for corruption, an approach already tested with success by the Lagos State Internal Revenue Service.
  • Increasing funding and technical support for the National Bureau of Statistics, which has a significant role to play in measuring and capturing more of Nigeria’s external trade.

Interviews conducted for the report reveal that business people would welcome the opportunity to pay taxes, but only if they received assurance that these payments would represent a contract with government guaranteeing that conditions for business would be improved.

‘As Africa’s largest economy, formalizing external trade would allow Nigeria to fulfil its potential as the trading engine of the West and Central African economy and shape the business landscape across the region,’ says co-author Paul Melly.

Editor's notes

  • Read Nigeria's Booming Borders: the Drivers and Consequences of Unrecorded Trade (embargoed until 17:00 GMT on Monday 7 December).
  • To request an interview with the authors, contact the press office.
  • Nigeria’s recorded external trade for 2014 was $135.8 billion.
  • Estimate of informal activity as a percentage of GDP from Jonathan Emenike Ogbuabor and Victor A. Malaolu, ‘Size and Causes of the Informal Sector of the Nigerian Economy: Evidence from Error Correction Mimic Model’, Journal of Economics and Sustainable Development, Vol. 4, No. 1, 2013.

Contacts

Press Office

+44 (0)20 7957 5739




forma

A PP2A Phosphatase High Density Interaction Network Identifies a Novel Striatin-interacting Phosphatase and Kinase Complex Linked to the Cerebral Cavernous Malformation 3 (CCM3) Protein

Marilyn Goudreault
Jan 1, 2009; 8:157-171
Research




forma

Crystallographic and kinetic analyses of the FdsBG subcomplex of the cytosolic formate dehydrogenase FdsABG from Cupriavidus necator [Molecular Biophysics]

Formate oxidation to carbon dioxide is a key reaction in one-carbon compound metabolism, and its reverse reaction represents the first step in carbon assimilation in the acetogenic and methanogenic branches of many anaerobic organisms. The molybdenum-containing dehydrogenase FdsABG is a soluble NAD+-dependent formate dehydrogenase and a member of the NADH dehydrogenase superfamily. Here, we present the first structure of the FdsBG subcomplex of the cytosolic FdsABG formate dehydrogenase from the hydrogen-oxidizing bacterium Cupriavidus necator H16 both with and without bound NADH. The structures revealed that the two iron-sulfur clusters, Fe4S4 in FdsB and Fe2S2 in FdsG, are closer to the FMN than they are in other NADH dehydrogenases. Rapid kinetic studies and EPR measurements of rapid freeze-quenched samples of the NADH reduction of FdsBG identified a neutral flavin semiquinone, FMNH•, not previously observed to participate in NADH-mediated reduction of the FdsABG holoenzyme. We found that this semiquinone forms through the transfer of one electron from the fully reduced FMNH−, initially formed via NADH-mediated reduction, to the Fe2S2 cluster. This Fe2S2 cluster is not part of the on-path chain of iron-sulfur clusters connecting the FMN of FdsB with the active-site molybdenum center of FdsA. According to the NADH-bound structure, the nicotinamide ring stacks onto the re-face of the FMN. However, NADH binding significantly reduced the electron density for the isoalloxazine ring of FMN and induced a conformational change in residues of the FMN-binding pocket that display peptide-bond flipping upon NAD+ binding in proper NADH dehydrogenases.




forma

Soundscapes of war: the audio-visual performance of war by Shi'a militias in Iraq and Syria

7 May 2020 , Volume 96, Number 3

Helle Malmvig

This article sets out to bring sound and music to the field of visual studies in International Relations. It argues that IR largely has approached the visual field as if it was without sound; neglecting how audial landscapes frame and direct our interpretation of moving imagery. Sound and music contribute to making imagery intelligible to us, we ‘hear the pictures’ often without noticing. The audial can for instance articulate a visual absence, or blast visual signs, bring out certain emotional stages or subjects’ inner life. Audial frames steer us in distinct directions, they can mute the cries of the wounded in war, or amplify the sounds of joy of soldiers shooting in the air. To bring the audial and the visual analytically and empirically together, the article therefore proposes four key analytical themes: 1) the audial–visual frame, 2) point of view/point of audition, 3) modes of audio-visual synchronization and 4) aesthetics moods. These are applied to a study of ‘war music videos’ in Iraq and Syria made and circulated by Shi'a militias currently fighting there. Such war music videos, it is suggested, are not just artefacts of popular culture, but have become integral parts of how warfare is practiced today, and one that is shared by soldiers in the US and Europe. War music videos are performing war, just as they shape how war is known by spectators and participants alike.




forma

Webinar: Russian Disinformation's Golden Moment: Challenges and Responses in the COVID-19 Era

Invitation Only Research Event

7 May 2020 - 3:00pm to 4:30pm

Event participants

Anneli Ahonen, Head, StratCom East Task Force, European External Action Service
Keir Giles, Senior Consulting Fellow, Russia and Eurasia Programme, Chatham House
Thomas Kent, Adjunct Associate Professor, Harriman Institute, Columbia University; Senior Fellow, the Jamestown Foundation
Chairs:
James Nixey, Programme Director, Russia and Eurasia, Chatham House
Glen Howard, President, The Jamestown Foundation
The COVID-19 pandemic provides the ideal environment for malign influence to thrive as it feeds on fear and a vacuum of authoritative information. What are the current challenges posed by Russian disinformation, and how should Western nations be responding?
 
In this discussion, jointly hosted by the Jamestown Foundation and the Chatham House Russia and Eurasia Programme, the speakers will consider what best practice looks like in safeguarding Western societies against the pernicious effects of disinformation. 
 
This event will be held on the record.

Anna Morgan

Administrator, Ukraine Forum
+44 (0)20 7389 3274




forma

The First World War and the transformations of the state

13 March 2014 , Volume 90, Number 2

Pierre Purseigle




forma

Normal high density lipoprotein inhibits three steps in the formation of mildly oxidized low density lipoprotein: steps 2 and 3

Mohamad Navab
Sep 1, 2000; 41:1495-1508
Articles




forma

Normal high density lipoprotein inhibits three steps in the formation of mildly oxidized low density lipoprotein: step 1

Mohamad Navab
Sep 1, 2000; 41:1481-1494
Articles




forma

Regulation of hepatic secretion of apolipoprotein B-containing lipoproteins: information obtained from cultured liver cells

JL Dixon
Feb 1, 1993; 34:167-179
Reviews




forma

Bile salt biotransformations by human intestinal bacteria

Jason M. Ridlon
Feb 1, 2006; 47:241-259
Reviews




forma

Soundscapes of war: the audio-visual performance of war by Shi'a militias in Iraq and Syria

7 May 2020 , Volume 96, Number 3

Helle Malmvig

This article sets out to bring sound and music to the field of visual studies in International Relations. It argues that IR largely has approached the visual field as if it was without sound; neglecting how audial landscapes frame and direct our interpretation of moving imagery. Sound and music contribute to making imagery intelligible to us, we ‘hear the pictures’ often without noticing. The audial can for instance articulate a visual absence, or blast visual signs, bring out certain emotional stages or subjects’ inner life. Audial frames steer us in distinct directions, they can mute the cries of the wounded in war, or amplify the sounds of joy of soldiers shooting in the air. To bring the audial and the visual analytically and empirically together, the article therefore proposes four key analytical themes: 1) the audial–visual frame, 2) point of view/point of audition, 3) modes of audio-visual synchronization and 4) aesthetics moods. These are applied to a study of ‘war music videos’ in Iraq and Syria made and circulated by Shi'a militias currently fighting there. Such war music videos, it is suggested, are not just artefacts of popular culture, but have become integral parts of how warfare is practiced today, and one that is shared by soldiers in the US and Europe. War music videos are performing war, just as they shape how war is known by spectators and participants alike.




forma

How Nations Can Cope with Digital Transformation




forma

Preparing for Digital Transformation




forma

A comprehensive evaluation of a typical plant telomeric G-quadruplex (G4) DNA reveals the dynamics of G4 formation, rearrangement, and unfolding [Plant Biology]

Telomeres are specific nucleoprotein structures that are located at the ends of linear eukaryotic chromosomes and play crucial roles in genomic stability. Telomere DNA consists of simple repeats of a short G-rich sequence: TTAGGG in mammals and TTTAGGG in most plants. In recent years, the mammalian telomeric G-rich repeats have been shown to form G-quadruplex (G4) structures, which are crucial for modulating telomere functions. Surprisingly, even though plant telomeres are essential for plant growth, development, and environmental adaptions, only few reports exist on plant telomeric G4 DNA (pTG4). Here, using bulk and single-molecule assays, including CD spectroscopy, and single-molecule FRET approaches, we comprehensively characterized the structure and dynamics of a typical plant telomeric sequence, d[GGG(TTTAGGG)3]. We found that this sequence can fold into mixed G4s in potassium, including parallel and antiparallel structures. We also directly detected intermediate dynamic transitions, including G-hairpin, parallel G-triplex, and antiparallel G-triplex structures. Moreover, we observed that pTG4 is unfolded by the AtRecQ2 helicase but not by AtRecQ3. The results of our work shed light on our understanding about the existence, topological structures, stability, intermediates, unwinding, and functions of pTG4.