The homothallic fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe undergoes sexual differentiation when starved, but sam (skips the requirement of starvation for mating) mutants such as those carrying ...mutations in adenylate cyclase (cyr1) or protein kinase A (pka1) mate without starvation. Here, we identified sam3, a dominant negative allele of rad24, encoding one of two 14-3-3 proteins. Genetic mapping and whole-genome sequencing showed that the sam3 mutation comprises a change in nucleotide at position 959 from guanine to adenine, which switches the amino acid at position 185 from glutamic acid to lysine (E185K). We generated the rad24-E185K integrated mutant and its phenotype was similar to that of the sam3 mutant, including calcium sensitivity and UV non-sensitivity, but the phenotype is different from that of the DELTArad24 strain. While the UV-sensitive phenotype was observed in the DELTArad24 mutant, it was not observed in the sam3 and rad24-E185K mutants. The expression of the rad24-E185K gene in wild type cells induced spore formation in the nutrient rich medium, confirming rad24-E185K is dominant. This dominant effect of rad24-E185K was also observed in DELTAras1 and DELTAbyr2 diploid mutants, indicating that rad24-E185K generate stronger phenotype than rad24 null mutants. Ste11, the key transcription factor for sexual differentiation was expressed in sam3 mutants without starvation and it predominantly localized to the nucleus. The Rad24-E185K mutant protein retained its interaction with Check point kinase1 (Chk1), whereas it reduced interaction with Ste11, an RNA binding protein Mei2, and a MAPKKK Byr2, freeing these proteins from negative regulation by Rad24, that account for the sam phenotype and UV non-sensitive phenotype. Glucose depletion in rad24-E185K or DELTApka1 DELTArad24 double mutation induced haploid meiosis, leading to the formation of spores in haploid. The position of glutamic acid 185 is conserved in all major 14-3-3s; hence, our finding of a dominant negative allele of 14-3-3 is useful for understanding 14-3-3s in other organisms.
Abstract
GW170817 is the first detected gravitational wave source from a neutron star merger. We present the Japanese collaboration for gravitational-wave electro-magnetic (J-GEM) follow-up ...observations of SSS17a, an electromagnetic counterpart of GW170817. SSS17a shows a 2.5 mag decline in the z band during the period between 1.7 and 7.7 d after the merger. Such a rapid decline is not comparable with supernovae light curves at any epoch. The color of SSS17a also evolves rapidly and becomes redder during later epochs: the z − H color has changed by approximately 2.5 mag during the period between 0.7 and 7.7 d. The rapid evolutions of both the color and the optical brightness are consistent with the expected properties of a kilonova that is powered by the radioactive decay of newly synthesized r-process nuclei. Kilonova models with Lanthanide elements can reproduce the aforementioned observed properties well, which suggests that r-process nucleosynthesis beyond the second peak takes place in SSS17a. However, the absolute magnitude of SSS17a is brighter than the expected brightness of the kilonova models with an ejecta mass of 0.01 M⊙, which suggests a more intense mass ejection (∼0.03 M⊙) or possibly an additional energy source.
Asteroid systems such as binaries and pairs are indicative of the physical properties and dynamical histories of small solar system bodies. Although numerous observational and theoretical studies ...have been carried out, the formation mechanism of asteroid pairs is still unclear, especially for near-Earth asteroid (NEA) pairs. We conducted a series of optical photometric and polarimetric observations of a small NEA 2010 XC15 in 2022 December to investigate its surface properties. The rotation period of 2010 XC15 is possibly a few to several dozen hours and the color indices of 2010 XC15 are derived as g − r = 0.435 ± 0.008, r − i = 0.158 ± 0.017, and r − z = 0.186 ± 0.009 in the Pan-STARRS system. The linear polarization degrees of 2010 XC15 are a few percent at the phase angle range of 58°–114°. We found that 2010 XC15 is a rare E-type NEA on the basis of its photometric and polarimetric properties. Taking the similarity of not only physical properties but also dynamical integrals and the rarity of E-type NEAs into account, we suppose that 2010 XC15 and 1998 WT24 are of common origin (i.e., an asteroid pair). These two NEAs are the sixth NEA pair and first E-type NEA pair ever confirmed, possibly formed by rotational fission. We conjecture that the parent body of 2010 XC15 and 1998 WT24 was transported from the main belt through the ν6 resonance or Hungaria region.
We report X-ray, optical, and near-infrared monitoring of the new X-ray transient MAXI J1820+070 discovered with MAXI on 2018 March 11. Its X-ray intensity reached ∼2 crab at 2-20 keV at the end of ...March, and then gradually decreased until the middle of June. In this period, the X-ray spectrum was described by Comptonization of the disk emission, with a photon index of ∼1.5 and an electron temperature of ∼50 keV, which is consistent with a black hole X-ray binary in the low/hard state. The electron temperature was slightly decreased, and the photon index increased, with increasing flux. The source showed significant X-ray flux variation on a timescale of seconds. This short-term variation was found to be associated with changes in the spectral shape, and the photon index became slightly harder at higher fluxes. This suggests that the variation was produced by a change in the properties of the hot electron cloud responsible for the strong Comptonization. Modeling a multi-wavelength spectral energy distribution around the X-ray flux peak at the end of March, covering the near-infrared to X-ray bands, we found that the optical and near-infrared fluxes were likely contributed substantially by the jet emission. Before this outburst, the source was never detected in the X-ray band with MAXI (with a 3 upper limit of ∼0.2 mcrab at 4-10 keV, obtained from seven years of data from 2009 to 2016), whereas weak optical and infrared activity was found at flux levels ∼3 orders of magnitude lower than the peak fluxes in the outburst.
Continuing the project described by Kato et al. (2009, PASJ, 61, S395), we collected times of superhump maxima for 102 SU UMa-type dwarf novae, observed mainly during the 2014–2015 season, and ...characterized these objects. Our project has greatly improved the statistics of the distribution of orbital periods, which is a good approximation of the distribution of cataclysmic variables at the terminal evolutionary stage, and has confirmed the presence of a period minimum at a period of 0.053 d and a period spike just above this period. The number density monotonically decreased toward the longer period and there was no strong indication of a period gap. We detected possible negative superhumps in Z Cha. It is possible that normal outbursts are also suppressed by the presence of a disk tilt in this system. There was no indication of enhanced orbital humps just preceding the superoutburst, and this result favors the thermal–tidal disk instability as the origin of superoutbursts. We detected superhumps in three AM CVn-type dwarf novae. Our observations and recent other detections suggest that 8% of objects showing dwarf nova-type outbursts are AM CVn-type objects. AM CVn-type objects and EI Psc-type objects may be more abundant than previously recognized. OT J213806, a WZ Sge-type object, exhibited remarkably different features between the 2010 and 2014 superoutbursts. Although the 2014 superoutburst was much fainter, the plateau phase was shorter than the 2010 one, and the course of the rebrightening phase was similar. This object indicates that the O − C diagrams of superhumps can indeed be variable, at least in WZ Sge-type objects. Four deeply eclipsing SU UMa-type dwarf novae (ASASSN-13cx, ASASSN-14ag, ASASSN-15bu, and NSV 4618) were identified. We studied long-term trends in supercycles in MM Hya and CY UMa and found systematic variations of supercycles of ∼20%.
Continuing the project described by Kato et al. (2009, PASJ, 61, S395), we collected times of superhump maxima for 86 SU UMa-type dwarf novae, mainly observed during the 2011–2012 season. We ...confirmed general trends recorded in our previous studies, such as the relation between period derivatives and orbital periods. There are some systems showing positive period derivatives despite the long orbital period. We observed the 2011 outburst of the WZ Sge-type dwarf nova BW Scl, and recorded an
$ O$
$-$
$ C$
diagram similar to those of previously known WZ Sge-type dwarf novae. The WZ Sge-type dwarf nova OT J184228.1
$ +$
483742 showed an unusual pattern of double outbursts composed of an outburst with early superhumps and one with ordinary superhumps. We propose an interpretation that a very small growth rate of the 3:1 resonance due to an extremely low mass-ratio led to quenching the superoutburst before the ordinary superhump appeared. We systematically studied ER UMa-type dwarf novae, and found that V1159 Ori showed positive superhumps similar to ER UMa in the 1990s. The recently recognized ER UMa-type object BK Lyn dominantly showed negative superhumps, and its behavior was very similar to the present-day state of ER UMa. The pattern of period variations in AM CVn-type objects was very similar to that of short-period hydrogen-rich SU UMa-type dwarf novae, making them a helium analogue of hydrogen-rich SU UMa-type dwarf novae. SBS 1108
$ +$
574, a peculiar hydrogen-rich dwarf nova below the period minimum, showed a very similar pattern of period variations to those of short-period SU UMa-type dwarf novae. The mass-ratio derived from the detected orbital period suggests that this secondary is a somewhat evolved star whose hydrogen envelope was mostly stripped during the mass-exchange. CC Scl, MASTER OT J072948.66
$ +$
593824.4, and OT J173516.9
$ +$
154708 showed only low-amplitude superhumps with complex profiles. These superhumps are likely to be a combination of two closely separated periods.
We systematically surveyed period variations of superhumps in SU UMa-type dwarf novae based on newly obtained data and past publications. In many systems, the evolution of the superhump period is ...found to be composed of three distinct stages: an early evolutionary stage with a longer superhump period, a middle stage with systematically varying periods, and a final stage with a shorter, stable superhump period. During the middle stage, many systems with superhump periods of less than 0.08 d show positive period derivatives. We present observational characteristics of these stages and give greatly improved statistics. Contrary to an earlier claim, we found no clear evidence for a variation of period derivatives among different superoutbursts of the same object. We present an interpretation that the lengthening of the superhump period is a result of the outward propagation of an eccentricity wave, which is limited by the radius near the tidal truncation. We interpret that late-stage superhumps are rejuvenated excitation of a 3:1 resonance when superhumps in the outer disk are effectively quenched. The general behavior of the period variation, particularly in systems with short orbital periods, appears to follow a scenario proposed in Kato, Maehara, and Monard (2008, PASJ, 60, L23). We also present an observational summary of WZ Sge-type dwarf novae. Many of them have shown long-enduring superhumps during a post-superoutburst stage having longer periods than those during the main superoutburst. The period derivatives in WZ Sge-type dwarf novae are found to be strongly correlated with the fractional superhump excess, or consequently with the mass ratio. WZ Sge-type dwarf novae with a long-lasting rebrightening or with multiple rebrightenings tend to have smaller period derivatives, and are excellent candidates for those systems around or after the period minimum of evolution of cataclysmic variables.
Continuing the project described in Kato et al. (2009, PASJ, 61, S395), we collected times of superhump maxima for SU UMa-type dwarf novae mainly observed during the 2012–2013 season. We found three ...objects (V444 Peg, CSS J203937, and MASTER J212624) having strongly positive period derivatives despite the long orbital period (P
orb). By using the period of growing stage (stage A) superhumps, we obtained mass ratios for six objects. We characterized nine new WZ Sge-type dwarf novae. We made a pilot survey of the decline rate in the slowly fading parts of SU UMa-type and WZ Sge-type outbursts. The decline time scale was found to generally follow an expected $P_{\rm orb}^{1/4}$ dependence, and WZ Sge-type outbursts also generally follow this trend. There are some objects which show slower decline rates, and we consider these objects good candidates for period bouncers. We also studied unusual behavior in some objects, including BK Lyn which made a transition from an ER UMa-type state to a novalike (standstill) state in 2013, and unusually frequent occurrences of superoutbursts in NY Ser and CR Boo. We applied the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (Lasso) power spectral analysis, which has been proven to be very effective in analyzing the Kepler data, to the ground-based photometry of BK Lyn, and detected a dramatic disappearance of the signal of negative superhumps in 2013. We suggested that the mass-transfer rates did not strongly vary between the ER UMa-type state and novalike state in BK Lyn, and this transition was less likely caused by a systematic variation of the mass-transfer rate.
We propose a new method to reconstruct the structure of accretion disks in dwarf novae using multi-band light curves of early superhumps. Our model assumes that early superhumps are caused by the ...rotation effect of non-axisymmetrically flaring disks. We have developed a Bayesian model for this reconstruction, in which a smoother disk-structure tends to have a higher prior probability. We analyzed simultaneous optical and near-infrared photometric data of early superhumps of the dwarf nova, V455 And using this technique. The reconstructed disk has two flaring parts in the outermost region of the disk. These parts are responsible for the primary and secondary maxima of the light curves. The height-to-radius ratio is
$ h/r$
$ =$
0.20–0.25 in the outermost region. In addition to the outermost flaring structures, flaring arm-like patterns can be seen in an inner region of the reconstructed disk. The overall profile of the reconstructed disk is reminiscent of the disk structure that is deformed by the tidal effect. However, an inner arm-like pattern, which is responsible for the secondary minimum in the light curve, cannot be reproduced only by the tidal effect. It implies the presence of another mechanism that deforms the disk structure. Alternatively, the temperature distribution of the disk could be non-axisymmetric. We demonstrate that the disk structure with weaker arm-like patterns is optimal in the model including the irradiation effect. However, the strongly irradiated disk gives quite blue colors, which may conflict with the observation. Our results suggest that the amplitude of early superhumps depends mainly on the height of the outermost flaring regions of the disk. We predict that early superhumps can be detected with an amplitude of
$ \gt$
0.02 mag in about 90% of WZ Sge stars.
PDF
